Just finished GWTW. Amazing read! I've been lurking on the sight, and have read some great stories. My idea is to highlight some of the interactions that might have occurred between our two favorite characters. Most of them occur, in the form of pillow talk, I think most will center on the honeymoon period. Be kind. I love reviews.Stolen Moments

1-IN THE RAW

"Scarlett" he asked as they were laying in the moonlight. "Have you ever…er…seen a man?"

"Why! What sort of question is that?" she rolled out of his arms and onto her side, pulling the sheets up close and tucking them under her chin.

"My dear," he laughed, "I didn't intend to upset you so, I was merely inquiring because…"

"Because you are nothing but a cad," she finished "an ill-mannered cad." How she wished, this conversation had occurred before they…well before, when she had been clothed and still had the opportunity to storm out of the room.

He rolled to his side and rested his head on his arm. "Despite your belief that I was asking simply to cause you discomfort and shame, my question was actually aimed in another direction entirely."

She said nothing but pulled the sheet up higher, hiding from his view the lovely curve of her shoulder bathed in the moonlight.

"Well," he continued, "we are newly wed and I…" He stopped suddenly and sat up reaching for her nightdress. "Darling," he drawled as he handed the garment over, "would you feel more comfortable if you were clothed."

"Yes, I would." She answered stiffly. "Please turn around Rhett and let me have a moment's privacy."

He smiled as he draped the garment over her form, and turned his back to her. "You would think," he continued, a lazy casualness in his voice, "That after, well after having shared …. Intimacies as we so recently have that you wouldn't feel so modest about…"

"Rhett!" she nearly shouted, slapping him on the shoulder.

Rhett Butler smiled. It had been four days, four exact days of wedded bliss. And just as he had promised to her and to himself prior to their wedding, he was going out of his way to ensure that marriage to him would be fun. And so far it had been. Why four days of travel, and shopping and eating and drinking and dancing. That was enough to make any young woman's head spin. Especially one as precious and spoiled as Scarlett O'Hara had once been. And well, he intended to restore her to that exact position. Under his care she would return to what she was always meant to be, a spoiled precious darling, HIS spoiled, precious darling.

But marriage to him would be more than balls, and food and flattery. There was also the discomforting affair of the "marital relations", and just how she would "endure" those. For he could bend to any of her whims and desires, but, he chuckled softly to himself, chastity was not one of them. And though she had handled these first four days well enough, he had ridden himself with tight reins. Very tight indeed.

"I'm finished." Her chilled voice broke his reverie. "You may lie back down if you wish." She said quietly, laying once again with her back to him.

"Thank you my pet," he said as he laid on his back, this time his head resting on his muscled arms. "You see my dear that was a perfect example of what prompted such an inappropriate question to begin with."

"Oh," she sighed, knowing that he would not stop until he got to the heart of the matter. "Pray tell then, what is the exact reason for your vulgarity."

"Well," he continued, ignoring her sarcasm, his voice growing thoughtful, "We have only been wed for four days, and there is so much to learn about one another. Especially in matters of sharing our quarters…and well, to be frank…sharing a bed. I guess that I could have worded the question in a more appropriate manner, but then again a yes or no answer would have brought me closer to the point."

"What is the point?" She yawned, thinking to herself that one of the many things she would definitely have to grow accustomed to was his manner of constantly conversing while in bed. Why to her, the notion of sharing a bed with a man was still a tad shameful, so though she knew it was the standard occurrence in a modern marriage, and she had of course shared a bed with her two previous husbands, she did not want to draw homage to the situation by making the bed a place for anything other than sleep, and well performing her duties

Rhett on the other hand, the bed was like a playground to him; to laugh and play, and eat, and have endless conversations. Why the minute he was in the bed he would turn on his side, and rest his head in his hand and the discourse would begin. And the marital duties, she blushed thankful for the cover of the dark, she wasn't even going to being thinking about getting used to that. She only hoped that he was attacking her with an enhanced ardor due to the fact that it was after all, their honeymoon.

"The point my dear, is that I wasn't really wondering if you had ever seen a nude man, but rather if the sight of one made you…uncomfortable. You may have noticed," he continued rolling to his side and facing her back, "that for the past four mornings when you have awakened I have already been gone, usually returning to the room with a tray of breakfast for you. And though by nature I am an early riser, this is our honeymoon and well, I could think of nothing finer to do then wake with you."

She had been thankful, to say the least, to find him gone in the mornings. Especially the first morning, the morning after their "wedding night". Why she wasn't sure if she would have even been able to face him the next morning. If it hadn't been for the fact that he had risen early and left the room, she would have simply died from shame and embarrassment, of the previous night's events. Once he had risen, she had quickly found her nightgown and wrap, and by the time he had returned, smiling and jovial with a loaded breakfast tray in hand, she had been dressed and poised upon the bed in a fashion she thought suited a lady like herself.

But now, now he was suggesting a different start to the day. And though, she had to admit she did enjoy lying nestled in his strong arms, or draped across his fiercely broad chest in the evenings….she did not think that she could ever behave so boldly in daylight. Surely, he wasn't suggesting nudity as an acceptable…

"You see," he continued as he reached out a hand and began softly stroking her hair. "I like to sleep…as nature intended so to speak, and in the mornings, why I find no shame in walking about and sorting my business in the nude until I am clothed." Here he paused, particularly because he felt her stiffen under his touch. "But my dear, if this state of disrobement were to say…make you feel uncomfortable …, why I would consider an alternative."

There was a moment of silence while Scarlett contemplated the state of the situation she had gotten herself into. To have a wed a man who was so brazen as to suggest that he should sleep in the nude, and even dare to walk around in such a state why it was simply mortifying.

"Why," she turned to face him, "you are just as ill-mannered as I suspected! How could you even dare to suggest such a thing?"

His laughter filled the dark room, and his strong heavy hand rested on her hip, "It wasn't a suggestion dear, it was an inquiry. And now that I know that you wouldn't appreciate seeing me …in my masculine glory, why of course I'll amend that."

"I think a nightshirt would be more suited." She said quietly.

"A nightshirt?" He roared incredulous, "why I'm no old man Scarlett, I'm sure you intend me to wear a stocking cap as well?No, a nightshirt won't do, but, I will wear my drawers if that pleases you."

"Rhett, your drawers? Why those are private as well, and besides, they will leave most of you uncovered….they would be just as offensive as nothing at all."

"Scarlett," he laughed, " I hope you aren't suggesting that your newly wed husband is offensive to behold, why I always thought my physique was quite pleasing to the eye, at the very least I never considered my form to be well….offensive."

"Stop," she giggled, "you know what I mean, your drawers, why they are just as revealing as nothing at all, especially the kind you wear…" she stopped, suddenly aware of her mistake, her face burned furiously in the darkened room, and she could see his white teeth smiling from across the bed.

"Why how scandalous Mrs. Butler," he smiled giving her hip a gentle shake, "why you've been peeking haven't you?"

"No Rhett," she answered quickly, "dear God, I would never…"

"You would and you have my dear," he laughed, "and what's more you've been caught."

"Oh stop it Rhett,"

"Did you like what you saw Mrs. Butler or was it…offensive?" He continued unable to keep the pleasure from his voice.

"I didn't see ANYTHING ! Oh Rhett stop, you're truly horrible for mocking me so on our honeymoon, and I mean, you did say marriage would be fun didn't you? And I certainly don't find this conversation to be any fun at all!"

"Well, I on the contrary am having a great deal of fun," he laughed flopping onto his back, "and I think you are too! Why in just 4 days I've turned you from a proper southern belle to a….peeping tom."

"A peeping Tom! Oh you are positively wretched! I did no such thing…I may have simply caught a glimpse of….something, why with you parading around here like a cock in the hen house, I could barely avoid…"

"So, you've been feigning sleep in the mornings have you?" He asked with a mischievous grin. "I'll have to check more carefully….to think of all the fun I've missed, slipping out of the room early, just to be cordial."

"Oh, stop it Rhett, you know I've been sound asleep, especially with you keeping me up every night with all this endless…. talking."

"Too much talking between the sheets my dear?" he asked laughing "is there something else you'd rather be doing?"

"God's nightgown!" she hollered rolling onto her back, "I'd rather be sleeping!"

In one swift move he was on top of her, his weight resting on his elbows, his dark handsome face, so close she could make out the gentle fire that glowed in his eyes. "Are you sure," he whispered as he placed a soft chaste kiss on her lips, "that there's nothing else that could interest you this evening?"

Under his gaze, inside his arms with his warm soft kisses, and his arms holding her firmly beneath him, she looked up and she was caught speechless, breathless….

"I…I…," she faltered.

"Don't worry my pet," he whispered, as he ran his lips down the side of her neck, "I can help you think of something."