The Missing Years - Redacted Scenes

Again

A/N: The honeymoon chapter, featuring a flashback to the wedding night. Damn! It just got really hot in here... like, turn the aircon on now kind of hot. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Noah

"I know what you're doing, you know?" Elle's voice interrupts my afternoon musings.

"What do you mean?' I ask innocently.

"Trying to convince yourself it's real, that it wasn't just a dream."

We're lying together on the daybed next to the plunge pool, Elle's back to my stomach and her head resting against my chest. The fingers of our left hands are intertwined, and I had been twisting them slightly, enjoying the play of the light reflected off the diamonds in Elle's rings.

I grin. "Oh, I know it was real. I remember it vividly."

"Do you now?" Elle's voice is teasing.

"Yep." I drop my voice and whisper in her ear, "You know what else I remember vividly?"

Elle's head lolls back against my arm as she looks up at me. "What?" she breathes.

"What we did in the limo on the way back to the hotel that night."

A sly look comes across Elle's face. "Really? I'm not sure I recall anything particularly memorable happening..."

I smirk. "I guess I'll just have to refresh your memory then."

"Well, if you insist."

That didn't require much encouragement, I note with some satisfaction.

Elle gets up, presumably thinking I mean to head back inside our villa, but I grab her hand and pull her back towards me.

"No. Here."

"Here? Really?"

"Elle, we're facing a very secluded stretch of beach, I think the chances of someone walking past right now are pretty low." I raise an eyebrow and tug on her short sarong. "Besides, this can stay. These, however," I pull the strings on the sides of her bikini bottoms. "These have to go."

Elle rolls her eyes at me as the offending fabric falls to the ground at her feet.

____

Let's just say, that as sweet and wonderful and heartfelt as our wedding day was, I had been dying to get Elle out of her dress since I'd first seen her in it. Love and lust coexisted between the two of us in perfect harmony, and I'd fully enjoyed the celebration of love that was our wedding day. But as day turned into night, after dinner and the speeches and the dancing was done and we were finally able to escape, I was more than ready to fully enjoy my wedding night with my wife. And I let her know that as soon as possible - in the limo on the way to our hotel.

We were staying in LA overnight, before heading to the airport in the morning for our actual honeymoon, but I wasn't able to keep my hands off her long enough to reach our room. Maybe it was the look we shared the moment we settled on the back seat, or maybe it was just standard practice for newlyweds, but the driver closed the privacy screen that separated him from us before he even pulled away from the curb. I raised an eyebrow at Elle and she giggled over the rim of her champagne flute and bit her bottom lip, which was about as much encouragement as I needed to down the rest of my drink and pull her face to mine. Our kiss was searing, the culmination of all the kisses we'd shared already that day, the product of having to restrain ourselves in front of all our friends and family, when all we really wanted was to be alone with one another.

When I pulled back and pressed my forehead to Elle's, we were both breathless, and my eyes drifted down to where her chest heaved distractingly. All that flushed skin stood in stark contrast to the pale, filmy lace that only partially obscured my view. For the hundredth time that day, I marveled at how beautiful my wife was. Meeting her eyes again, I traced my thumbs along Elle's cheekbones while we breathed each other's air.