A/N Sorry at yet ANOTHER delay, here we are though, almost at the end. Been a difficult chapter to tie down, hope you enjoy.

Chapter Sixty

Lizzie felt as though she was in a daze, watching Oscar and Nate rough-playing, splashing, wrestling and ducking each other under the water. It was exhausting just to watch, but it was the look of adoration on both their faces as they laughed that tugged at her heart strings. This was happiness felt like? She couldn't ever remember feeling so content. Since Janis died, and even before, her life seemed hectic, rather than happy, chaotic rather than content, and fraught rather than familial.

As she lounged in the hot tub, watching her family, she couldn't believe what her life had become, and she knew as she smiled at them laughing, that she didn't want this to end, didn't want to lose this closeness, this familiarity...everything she'd fought against...she wanted more than anything.

For a moment, doubt washed over her, did she long for that sense of belonging, the completeness more than she wanted Oscar?

She tried to imagine going home without him, just her and Nate, and the pain that hit her chest felt real, physical, stole her breath. This was love. Needing him, wanting him, fearing she couldn't breathe without him at her side. She wanted him for her. Not just for Nate.

And finally feeling that way was liberating.

She rolled onto her front, the jets of bubbles pummelling her body, and rested her chin on her folded forearms, watching the boys in the adjacent pool. But her eyes began to close, the water, the environment...the bliss was taking over.

"Penny for your thoughts!"

The voice cut through her serenity, but it was a voice that she was more than happy to hear. Turning to the side, she watched as he dropped down beside her with a splash.

"Not worth a penny, in fact, my mind feels pretty empty at the moment."

Oscar studied Lizzie, unable to believe that this was the same woman who had been devastated a few hours earlier, in all the time he'd known her, he'd never seen her so relaxed, so laidback...other than in the bedroom.

"Really?" He ran a hand over the curve in her spine, sliding down to the thick black fabric of her bikini bottoms, his thumb far along the edge, wanting nothing more than to slide beneath them, but he had to remember where they were, and who they were with. Nate.

She pushed her backside into his hand, under the water and he groaned, dropping his mouth to her ear, "now there's more than a pennyworth just there."

She chuckled, "that thought would bankrupt you, Mr Wicker."

He loved that - her sassy, sexy side, flirting, throwing herself into the sexual tension that sat between them like a thick fog. It was something she wouldn't have done before, he was sure of that, he just hoped that it wasn't some temporary reaction, her way of dealing with her trauma. Pretending.

He'd had enough of that.

"You, ok?"

She was watching Nate who was lying in the shallow water, rolling around quite safely, but at his words, rolled half on to her side to look at him, and he had to keep his eyes trained on her face as she breasts struggled to stay inside the fabric of her bikini bra, pressed together, bulging far too enticingly.

"I'm fine, you think I'm about to collapse?"

He ran his hand to the small of her back, safe zone, "anyone else would."

Lizzie shrugged, "I feel quite calm about it all, surprisingly. I mean I've paid a penance for a thousand people's guilt over the years. Don't you agree?"

He cocked his head to one side, "I do. But I can't quite believe that you have got there today...without copious amounts of wine...and my reassurances."

She gave him a sarcastically sad look, "feeling like you're redundant?"

Did he? He didn't get off on her torment, but he couldn't deny that he liked being her rock, her support...it was just something that he could give back to her, she had given him so much.

"I don't want to HAVE to be there for you, but I like being there for you."

Leaning forward, she planted her lips on his, "I love that about you, Oscar Wicker. You are too good to me."

He waggled his eyebrows, "I'm wearing you down, Miss Breen."

She gave him a nod, accompanied by a knowing look, "you are definitely trying!"

Pulling herself to her feet, she glanced down at him, "I'm hungry, and I know that munchkin will be too. Need dinner soon."

He watched her saunter along the pool edge, and the reaction of Nate to the suggestion of food. Within moments they were both wrapped in robes, and he was about to be left behind.

"You sure you want to go to the restaurant?"

Lizzie was drying her hair with the hotel hairdryer when Oscar emerged from the bathroom, a towel around his waist. His muscular chest gleaming with the sheen of water that he hadn't fully dried.

"I'm not drying my hair to order room service...plus it'll get Nate away from the TV."

Oscar leaned around the door to see his son flat out on the sofa watching the TV.

"He loves Tom and Jerry."

She chuckled, turning the hairdryer back on, "you're right. And I do police things."

Moving behind her, he whispered at her ear, "now I'm adding that to the hot list..." He pretended to write on an invisible pad, "get Lizzie dressed as a police woman."

She rolled her eyes and finished brushing out her hair, "you have a one track mind, Mr Wicker."

He chuckled, causing goose bumps to erupt all over her body, "around you, only you."

Lizzie had dressed deliberately in her tight jeans and a low cut top, she had a few tricks up her sleeve, and now that she knew what she wanted, she had a plan...and that was to tease him, make him realise how perfect they were for each other.

She bent over her bag in what she hoped was a provocative manner a few more times than was healthy, and brushed against him, each time far more elaborately than was necessary. But for each little tease, she was rewarded b y an ever growing tent in his towel as he struggled to deal with her.

When she deliberately brushed past him, he grabbed her and pulled her against his chest, "Miss Breen, just what do you think you are doing to me?"

She gave him an innocent flutter of the eyelashes, "I don't know what you mean!"

He pushed his hips into her, "think I need another shower, cold this time."

She gave a coquettish giggle, "such a lack of willpower."

Before he could respond she sauntered out of the room, talking to Nate. Leaving him to digest the woman who'd just left the room. Gone was the quiet, anxious and self doubting woman...he'd imagined that the day would have drained her, that he'd had to cajole her, build her up, support her, but that didn't seem to be the case. In fact, he was enjoying this sultry and sassy version of her.

The meal had been beautiful, Lizzie had feared that the a la carte menu and 'posh' surrounding s wouldn't work with a little man, but the waiter had been wonderfully accommodating, and now the two sat opposite him were sharing a huge chocolate brownie sundae. Nate's eyes had hazed over about ten minutes earlier, and as they lay down their spoons, he leaned into Lizzie and she adjusted so that he could crawl into her lap. Within moments his eyes were closed and he was curled up.

Lizzie reached for her wine glass with her spare hand, her eyes not leaving him, and he felt warmth wash over him. He'd been hard most of the day and now was no exception, two cold showers and far too many heat reducing thoughts - usually his parents having sex worked, nothing seemed to take the desire our of his veins.

"You're enjoying this."

He took his own glass and sipped, watching her with the same intensity that she used on him.

She sipped again before placing the glass down, then shrugged, "you keep saying these things, but I'm not doing anything."

Her smiled was contented cat-like and it drove him wild, it was almost as though the final piece of the puzzle had fallen into place, she wasn't scared of him, or how he felt any more, and it seemed that she was happier to show him that she felt the same desire, the same attraction as he did. It was a first, and it made him so happy.

"You, young lady are going to have it later."

She fluttered her eyelashes, "I don't know what you mean."

Draining his glass, he stood and lifted the now sleeping boy from her arms, "come on. Let's get him back." A day in school, the travel, the swimming and then a huge dinner had exhausted the young man.

She followed him, through the reception and then along the corridors.

Oscar rested Nate down on his bed, and Lizzie moved past him to change him into his pj's. When she emerged from his room, he was wrestling with the bottle of champagne that room service had just delivered.

"Champagne? Are we celebrating?"

He looked up to see her stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame, as he met her eyes, she kicked off her shoes. A bolt of heat almost stunned him, the little things were being delivered with such intent.

"I thought we'd be commiserating, but I think celebrating that fact that today hasn't killed you is reason enough."

She bit her lip, such a provocative action, that his body heated up another notch.

"I've spent enough time on them, Oscar. It's over."

As he filled the two crystal flutes he want convinced that it was that simple, "some fizz, m'lady?"

He handed her a glass and she crossed the room to him, taking the glass, she took a large mouthful, then placed the glass back down. He could see the intent in her eyes, and only just managed to place his glass beside hers, before she slid her arms around him, dragging his mouth down to hers.

He couldn't remember her ever initiating something between them, but this seemed natural after her flirting and teas gin all evening. He wanted to drag her to bed, to throw her down onto the mattress, but he didn't want to spoil the atmosphere, change things. He wanted to savour every minute, however torturing that may be.

Her tongue invaded his mouth, keen, eager, devouring ever inch of him. He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her into him, then teased her back, equally as calculatingly.

When she moaned against his lips it seemed to batter his last defence and he couldn't fight his need to hold her, to devour her any longer.

"Shit," he murmured against his lips. "You are unbelievable."

She tipped her head back offering her neck as she moaned, and he ran his tongue down her throat. All too much, so with both hands, he reached around her and lifted her, immediately her legs and arms wrapped around him, and he carried her into the bedroom.

Within moments they were naked, spread out on the bed, but as he was about to lower his head, taste her all over, she wriggled free from him, instead she moved over him and he watched propped on his elbows as she plucked kisses over his flat nipples, then down the trail of hair that ran along his body. Then it was his turn to drop his head back, closed eyes upturned to the ceiling as she took him in his mouth, it was greater than heaven.

Oscar fought her, but she was determined to do this for him, and there was nothing more powerful than having him writhe under her; lose control...then explode. It was empowering, and absolutely the most arousing thing, and by the time she lifted her eyes to meet his hot, smouldering gaze, she was squirming herself, desperate to rub her body against his.

"That was..." he shook his head as she moved to sit astride him. "I am rarely speechless."

Grinding her hips over him, she cocked an eyebrow at him, "really?"

It didn't take long for him to start to respond, and with just a little wriggling, she managed to get what she wanted, him...inside her. She gave a satisfied grunt, and Oscar, with wide eyes, lay back on the pillows and placed his hands behind his head.

"So as this is all about you..."

She grinned, "finally, you get it!"

Watching closely, she observed the changes in his face as he tried to not lose himself, to lose control. Every minute she thought he'd take control, flop her over, dominate her, drive into her, he bit his lip, or sighed and it warmed her heart.

"Speechless?" She breathed as he struggled to control his reactions. "Rarely?"

When he nodded, she dropped down, hands either side of his head and breathed, "you ain't seen nothing yet!"

She waited, watched until that telltale sign, the hint that he was about to explode again, then she leaned down to his ear, and whispered, "I love you Oscar Wicker, and I want to be your wife."