It was New Year's Eve. Jake had to work part of the day as the museum was open, though closing early. The library was closed but Cassandra was putting on a program for the local park district. The parks district employed her and a local kindergarten teacher to put on a few programs a year, one of which was the Noon Year's Eve party. The twins usually spent the day with their grandmother or Eve before having an early celebration with their father (last year he let them stay up until 9 but they'd barely made it past 8).

This year, Jake's mother had insisted that he and Cassandra have their own celebration and was taking them in the evening. So instead, the kids were coming with Cassandra to the Noon Year's Eve event and then they'd have dinner when Jake came home before going to their granny's.

Maggie had insisted on wearing her party dress, though Cassandra had noted with dismay that it was almost too short now. It still worked but probably would need to be replaced before the next event she needed it for. The twins getting bigger always seemed to unsettle Jake, but Cassandra supposed she'd feel that way too in due time. Maggie had sequined flats that matched Cassandra's. They'd spent a fun afternoon during Christmas break gluing sequins to a couple of pairs of old shoes to transform them for the occasion.

Cassandra was wearing a silver sequined sweater and a skirt with a pattern of moons and stars on it. It had turned chilly so she'd worn navy leggings under her skirt and had Maggie wear leggings too.

The turnout was quite good, Cassandra recognizing most of the children either from the library or from the summer play dates at Jake's house. She told a couple of stories, there was a craft and then a dance party.

At noon they had a countdown, complete with noise makers, confetti and streamers. The twins hugged Cassandra excitedly at "Happy New Year" before blowing their noise makers.

Jake and Cassandra's neighbor Jessica offered to take the twins with her kids for lunch while Cassandra and the rest of the staff cleaned up the party. That took a load off Cassandra's mind as she actually hadn't thought about child care while she cleaned up. Because Jessica would drop the kids off at home, that left Cassandra with a few spare minutes for a last minute shopping trip for her evening plans.

When Jake got home, the children excitedly told him all about their day and how much fun they had. Cassandra had let Maggie wear her party dress after the event, figuring it was a special day. After the twins had finally let their father go to say hello to Cassandra in the kitchen, he pressed a kiss against her cheek before sighing.

"The dress?" Cassandra asked knowingly. "That's why I just let her wear it, that's gonna be the last time she'll fit into it."

Jake shook his head. "We bought that before her birthday. I guess I should be happy it lasted this long. They were just babies a little while ago and now they're nearly seven."

"Hey, now, none of that. This is a happy day."

"Right, right, it's just sometimes time passing . . . ." Jake shook his head. "Never mind. How are you? Kids not wear you out too much?"

"Not too much." Cassandra winked at him.

Matt and Maggie chose that moment to come into the kitchen so the flirty remark that Jake had prepared to make was lost.

After dinner, Jake sent the kids to make sure they had everything they wanted to take to their grandmother's.

"Did you want to come with us?" he asked Cassandra as he helped her clean up the kitchen.

"No, I have a few things I want to do here." She smirked at him. "Don't stay too long at your mama's, okay?"

Jake sucked in a deep breath. "Oh, I won't."

Jake returned about an hour later, which was about 20 minutes later than he'd planned on. But a combination of traffic and talking to his mother had delayed him.

"Sweetheart?" he called, coming into a dimly light house. The downstairs lights were either off or on their dimmer settings. The only full light was the one over the stairs. Figuring Cassandra was upstairs, he hung up his coat and headed for the stairs.

That's when he saw the trail of rose petals leading up the stairs, the effect marred in a couple of places where Sparky had obviously had a bit of fun. He chuckled, it was still romantic.

The trail of petals lead to their bedroom door, which had been closed. He could hear soft music coming from inside and he gently opened the door.

The trail of petals lead to the bed. The room was lit only by candle light and by the new electric fireplace they'd purchased right after Christmas. He didn't see Cassandra and was about to call for her when the bathroom door opened.

The bathroom was also lit by candles and she lingered in the doorway, enjoying his eyes on her. She was wearing a red corset trimmed in gold and matching panties. The lingerie she'd bought for Christmas but didn't have a chance to use.

When Jake managed to close his opened mouth and stop staring, he quirked a finger at her to get her to come closer to him.

"I wanna see you better."

She giggled and walked closer to the fire where there was more light. There he could see that the corset was just as gorgeous as it was sexy, beautifully embroidered. Her red hair in the candle and firelight made her look like a goddess and he knew he was less than worthy.

"You look . . ." Jake just stared at her. "I can't . . .wow. . .I'm speechless. You look beyond amazing."

"Thank you," Cassandra said gently, putting her arms around his neck. "Happy New Year."

"Happy New Year indeed." Then he put his hands at her waist, pulling her into him for a kiss.

The kiss quickly grew heated, but suddenly, Jake was backing them out of it.

"What's wrong?" Cassandra asked, her face looking worried.

"Nothing, nothing at all." He paused to give her a gentle kiss. "Just slowin' it down. We've got all night. And it's gonna take all night for me to do everything I want to do to you."

"Oh really?" Cassandra lifted an eyebrow but then purred, "and what exactly do you want to do to me, cowboy?"

Jake gaped at her. He wasn't used to this side of Cassandra but he liked it. But she took his silence for disapproval and he could see her confidence begin to falter.

"I just . . .Jake. . . ."

"No, no, darlin', hey," he gently cupped her face in his palm. "You caught me off guard, that's all. That purring thing . . .oh wow, hot. And um, feel free to call me cowboy again cuz I did not know I liked that but from you? So so hot."

Her smile started a little shy but she whispered, "cowboy."

Then he kissed her until they were both short of breath.

She panted in his ear, "you were going to tell me what you wanted to do to me."

He didn't answer at first, just kissed his way up her neck to her ear. He nipped her ear lobe and then whispered in her ear. To her credit, she managed not to blush too much. And she noticed as he pulled away from her ear though that he'd not managed to get through without blushing himself.

"So," he asked as she started undoing buttons on his shirt, "where did you want to start?"

She didn't answer, just continued unbuttoning. When she finally got to the bottom button, she kissed her way from his stomach to his chest, pushing the shirt off when she got to his neck. Jake, with a growl, pulled her into a kiss and backed her toward the bed. But even then she got the upper hand, moving so that he ended up landing on the bed on his back.

"You asked me, Red," Jake said as she straddled him. "But you seem to have all the ideas."

Cassandra bit her lip, suddenly shy. Jake pushed up into a seated position on hand on her hip, the other moving up to caress her cheek.

"Sweetheart, stop it. I told you, I really like this side of you. Relax okay? We have all night. Let yourself do what feels good."

She nodded and moved his hand from her cheek to the tie in the front of her corset, encouraging him to undo it. Once it was loosened, he slid his hand in to caress her briefly before stopping on her look. She was in charge.

She leaned forward to kiss him and then softly asked, "so can I?"

"Be in charge? Oh hell yes."

"Alright . . ." she said softly. Then a wicked grin spread across her face. "Call me Red again."

He smirked back at her. "Red."

She chuckled. "Just remember, you asked for this, cowboy."

Then she pushed him backwards on the bed.

Sometime later, they emerged from the bedroom briefly to grab champagne and the assortment of snacks Cassandra had prepared earlier.

Cassandra giggled as she sipped at her champagne. "I feel positively decadent. Lying here eating in bed."

"Naked," Jake added, his eyes raking over her.

"Naked," she agreed with an impish smile.

She picked up an orange slice from the platter and offered it to him. He ate it out of her fingers, sucking her fingertips into his mouth briefly. After he swallowed, he kissed her, slightly sticky and orange flavored. He returned the favor, dipping a strawberry in his glass of champagne before holding it up to her lips.

This continued for a while, feeding each other pieces of fruit followed by sweet sticky kisses that increased in passion with each piece of fruit.

Cassandra giggled as Jake took the last strawberry and placed it in his mouth and moved forward to share it with her. In the enthusiasm of the kiss that followed, some of the champagne in the glass she'd been holding splashed out onto her breasts.

Cassandra gasped, not expecting it.

"Are you okay?"

"It's just . . .everything is sticky now." She looked over on the nightstand but remembered she'd moved the tissue box to make room for candles. "Plus it's cold."

"I've got an idea," Jake said with a wink. He moved the platter from the bed to his nightstand and removed the flute from her hands.

"Okay . . . ." Cassandra said, noticing he hadn't gotten up to get her a washcloth or tissues.

Jake moved forward, starting to kiss her neck, then his mouth moved lower, licking her skin clean.

She sighed, this time in pleasure. After a few moments, she murmured, "Jake?"

"What?" his reply was muffled.

"This is a very good idea."

"I'm glad you approve." His hand reached over to the nightstand and Cassandra giggled as another drizzle of champagne hit her chest. When that had been licked clean, Cassandra grabbed the flute.

"I have similar ideas."

"Did I ever tell you that you are brilliant?"

"Yes," Cassandra moved in closer. "But you can tell me again any time you like. Better yet, show me."

Jake's delighted laugh was cut off by Cassandra's kiss.

Midnight and they rang in the new year with a kiss. This kiss was tender and loving, even a little lazy, they were both a little tired from the festivities of the evening. Not long before, they'd both taken a quick shower and changed into pajamas, it being a little too chilly to stay naked all night.

Jake got up to shut off the fireplace and blow out the candles on the dresser. Cassandra clicked on one of the lamps and blew out the candles on the nightstand, they had already blown out the ones in the bathroom.

Jake came back into bed and pulled Cassandra into his arms.

"Ready to sleep?" he asked her, kissing the side of her head.

"Not quite yet, but this is really nice. Tonight was amazing." She smiled. "Every once in a while, I like having you completely to myself."

Jake was a quiet for a long moment and Cassandra turned in his arms to look at him. "Honey?"

"It's . . .nothing really. I just sometimes feel like I'm cheating you a little. You deserve to have my full attention and I just can't most of the time."

"Jake . . . ."

"I know what you're gonna say, Cassie. You knew about the kids going into this. And May. And work and everything else. I just . . .I adore you, you know? And you deserve everything."

"It's okay, Jake. It's not like I don't have things too. And the kids. Eventually we'll have more kids. That's how life is. And I know most couples get some time before the kids, but it is what it is. You just give me a night like this every once in a while . . ." She grinned. "We don't even need to spend it this way either. Just a night where I'm your sole focus and you're mine. That's all I ask. Just every once and a while."

His smile was tender. "You got it. I love you, Cassandra."

"I love you too."

They fell silent after that, just holding each other, an occasional kiss or caress. Cassandra was actually sure Jake had fallen asleep when his voice broke into the silence.

"Cassie?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you upset that I didn't propose?"

"Whoa, where did that come from?" she asked, pushing herself into a seated position. He did the same facing her.

"I've been thinkin' about it off and on since Christmas. You had a strange look on your face when you pulled that ring out of your stocking. I was . . .I thought about it, about proposin', but I didn't think we were there yet."

"We're not," Cassandra shook her head. "I was startled when I felt that ring because I didn't think we were there quite yet. But I would have said yes. You know that, I want to marry you."

"And I want to marry you. It's just . . . ."

"Marriage is for keeps. We found out there's lots of stuff we still have to learn about each other. There's no hurry, sweetheart, we do have time. I know . . . ."

Jake sighed. "I didn't have that time with May. But that was just a twist of fate. I know in my heart that we do have time, I just . . .I get scared sometimes. Scared that I'll lose you like I did her and I . . . . It sounds so stupid, I know."

"No, no it doesn't! Don't think that." Cassandra moved closer to him to put her arms around him. "I can't relate with what you went through, but I imagine that having that fear is normal. It doesn't consume you or make you paranoid, that would be cause for worry. But you're like me and you have some self doubt already, so . . . . But we do have time, honestly, we do Jake. We probably have moved too fast already. Let's just get this right, okay? I'm not going anywhere."

"I ain't going anywhere either. You're right. I want to make sure it's right. I've just been worried over nothing." Jake chuckled. "See, we're doing it again. We're on the same page but I've been worried we weren't."

Cassandra laughed too. "See, this is why we need to talk about it. And this is a step in the right direction as far as this goes, okay? Now we know we're in agreement, about waiting a little while to get engaged."

"And about making sure we spend some one on one time now and then too. Not just our date nights, but this too. Although maybe not making love all night long, lordy woman, you're gonna wear me out!"

Cassandra giggled. "You loved it."

He dropped a kiss on her nose. "I did. But seriously. . ."

"Yeah and you had to work today, so sleep sounds good. What time are we picking up the kids?"

"Not until late morning, so wanna go out for breakfast?"

"Perfect."

He kissed her once more. "You know last year was pretty damn good. I think this year will be even better."

"Yes, it will be. Happy new year, cowboy."

"Happy new year, Red."

Cassandra turned off the light and they snuggled together as usual. Drifting off into sweet dreams about a new year and an even brighter future.

And so this chapter brings this story to an end. I have not yet revisited this verse, but I hope to someday with more adventures with Jake, Cassandra and the twins. Hope you enjoyed it!