Unsurprisingly, it was quite late when most of the guests had left, finally allowing Lily and James to go up to bed.

They didn't even make a pretence of going to the own separate rooms, James's parents were too tired themselves to notice and Sirius was indisposed himself, so with no fear of being seen, James simply followed Lily into her room.

As soon as the door had closed with a snap, the couple fell back onto the bed in fatigue both still fully dressed.

Lily stared at the ceiling and listened as James told her how well the evening had gone and how many people had commented on how beautiful and kind she seemed to be.

"Yes, love, that's very flattering, but, in all fairness, I doubt anyone would turn around and tell you to your face that your girlfriend was horrible and ugly," she reminded him with an indulgent smile.

"Of course not," he replied cheerily. "But they didn't really need to say anything at all if that was the way they felt, plus nobody can lie that well." He then turned his head to look at her and grinned "and I, for one, completely agree with them."

"I should hope so," she smiled back, rolling her eyes. "I think there would be a serious problem if you thought I was horrible."

His face then turned serious. "You were charming and beautiful tonight, Lily. I wouldn't have cared if you were neither, but you can't imagine how happy I am that were both."

He leaned over the small space between them then and kissed her languidly before heaving a sigh and dragging himself off the bed, standing to get changed for bed. He merely dropped his clothes where he stood before climbing back in and underneath the bed clothes, Lily, who had watched quietly for a while, followed suit.

Once they were both settled there had been an initial spoon and a bit of a grope, but when his lack of enthusiasm was announced by soft snore, Lily found she didn't have the heart to wake him and, instead, put her arms around him and snuggled against his chest.

During the silence it occurred to her then that that was the first time, since they had gotten together, that they had slept in the same bed and not had sex. Of course they had already had sex twice that evening before the ball so she realised it was unreasonably greedy of her to want him again, especially since it was just to make her feel better.

For as much as she didn't like to admit it she was unsettled by the two gossiping hags and the rude giggling twins. Both groups had given her the impression that they had had first hand knowledge of James talents and even though Lily couldn't imagine James cavorting with such vulgar pieces of work she couldn't help but wonder.

She knew that given him being a little older and very good looking it was possible, even probable, he had been with other women. Yet it was easier for her to ignore such an idea at Hogwarts because she knew most of the gossip and goings on there and could feel fairly sure that he hadn't been with half the school populous but there, at his home and social circle, it was an entirely different matter. She didn't know those people and she had no idea of their history with the Potter family.

He was eligible young man here, and suddenly every female face under thirty that she had greeted that night visited her. Suddenly, they weren't just amiable guests they were all former lovers.

"He has an impressive hold on his broom!"

That was what the woman had said; yes, Lily thought, he does have an impressive handle of it.

Conveniently, just as Lily started to panic, James chose that moment to draw her closer and say, quite clearly, "I love you, Lily"

Even in his sleep he knew what she needed from him and, at that particular moment, no amount of sex could have helped her fall into so peaceful of a sleep.

--

In their tiredness the couple had forgotten to close the curtains before falling asleep the night before and so the morning sun woke James much earlier than he would have liked.

But as he was a man basking in the glow of a magnificently successful evening he suffered the abuse of nature without much resentment. Especially as that intrusion was mitigated by a single slash of sunlight that cast a milky glow on his girlfriend's bare back.

He propped himself up on one elbow and just gazed at her for a while.

Hours spent asleep had not undone James's self-satisfaction with the success of the ball or Lily's part in that success. Both had been triumphs. It was clear that most of the guest had fallen under Lily's spell. He disregarded the event with Aunt Mary completely; he had never really cared much for her or her ideals, she was the only one in the family who even cared a little about blood, birth and rank, and the only reason his family bore her opinions was out of familial obligation.

And the others who dared to fault him for his choice of girlfriend had been silenced unequivocally.

He felt happiness bubble up in him again, threatening to overwhelm him.

He wanted to share his happiness.

Drawing his fingers lightly down her spine, he tried to tempt Lily awake.

She responded to that intrusion by James, by pulling the covers over her shoulders.

Undaunted, he loosened the sheet and trailed his hand down her back again.

She turned over blinking in the bright morning light and noticing him looking down at her she smiled sleepily.

At the sight of her, so completely and beautifully naked, his morning pride flowered into outright arousal and a thought occurred to him. He realised that he had seen her, of course, during many of their bedroom activities, but he had never really inspected her.

He wasn't curious as to the actual configuration, he had on a few past occasions inspected a woman's most private parts, but he wanted to memorise Lily. When he closed his eyes he wanted to be about to bring every pore of her skin to mind, let her scent invade his nostrils, he wanted to know her so well he would never be able to forget.

So, ever so slowly, as not to worry her, he crawled down her body leaving delicate kisses and the odd nipping bite as he went. She allowed his investigation a bit self-consciously and when he reached his goal he stroked her thighs tenderly with the backs of his fingers encouraging her to relax and eventually she lay back and trusted him to do as he pleased.

That presented him with a problem; although he had kissed that part of her many times it had only been fleeting and now he wanted, not only to fill his nostrils with her scent, but he wanted to saturate his mouth with her taste, knowing that that would probably bring her to an orgasm of the type she hadn't experienced yet.

In the afterglow of such as successful party he believed it was the time to try. He placed his hand under her buttocks and raised her up a little to his waiting mouth.

She may have been a bit startled but the breathless gasp that escaped her showed him she didn't mind what he was doing to her.

Quickly she started to moan and James may have relished in the sound if he could have heard it, as it was she had entwined her fingers into his hair so fiercely he could not.

Nevertheless, when the arching of her back announced to him that she was about to come, he quickly decided that he did not want her to experience it alone. So he sat up and entered her quickly, and completed their union with such vigour's it was a wonder the bed did not crash right through the wall.

Quiet exhausted by passion they lay in a sweating heap, Lily still clutching his hair James didn't mind though because her tenacious hold was proof that that success exceeded that of the ball by some measure

James's satisfaction was exquisite.

That was until a few minutes later, when Lily breathlessly asked "Where did you learn to do that so well?"

--

A/N

I'm sorry I know I haven't replied to your reviews but it's been so long since there's been an update that I decided to just post straight away.

I hope there was enough L/J action in this chap to make up for the lack of contact in the last!

p.s. I'm writing a new story and should be posting it soon – when I come's out I would love it if you would give it a try!