"Jr wanted to laugh, but he wisely refrained form doing so. He had stuck to his guns, and like he'd said he'd taken Thalia to bed. To sleep. She wasn't having it. But neither could she bring herself to outright tell him what she needed. She kept, squimring and shifting and sighing.She'd tried rubbing up on him, kissing him (somewhat chastely), she'd wrapped her arms around his waist, she'd even tried telling him without actually saying the words. 

And the whole time he'd simply pretended he didn't understand what she was asking for. Truth be told, he understood perfectly, but he also knew that if he gave in now, then they would go all the way. He was not about to go all the way with the children right next door, because he hadn't been lying, he had every intention of making her scream, and moan, and pant and gasp, and say his name in varying volumes and tones, and he didn't want the children hearing. So she was going to have to wait. 

He understood that yes, with children you never really had any private time, and so he'd have to make do with whatever short private time they got in the future. But not the first time. The first time they made love he was going to need a whole day and a whole night. So she was going to have to wait.

" Stop moving babe," he finally chastised. She'd flipped over so he was spooning her, and she had taken to persistently grinding her against his very prominent .

She ignored him and just kept grinding.

He smiled against her neck, she was persistent he'd give her that.

" Babe, go to sleep," he tried again, and nearly chuckled out loud when she growled in response, full on legitimately growled.

" You shouldn't started with me then, " she grouched , she was mumbling but he heard her, " I was fine until you decided to mess with me, now you want me to sleep," she continued mumbling.

He just smiled and placed a kiss on the back of her neck, and held her tighter. 

" Go to sleep babe."

She did, though not happily.

She was sulking when she woke up, because true to his word they had slept. The whole night. And the niext night they slept. And the night after that. And the one after that. And even the one after that. 

" You all lost," Thalia informed the girls the following weekend.

" What do you mean?" Lina asked.

" Six nights, five days and " she paused to look at he wrist watch, " seven hours, and I still haven't had ."

They were all at her place and Jr had offered to take the children out to the park, and the children had been anxious to go with him especially since their playmates ( Uncle Jackson, Uncle Yugyeom and Uncle Bambam) were all going to be there. Jb and Mark had figured what the heck they could all go too. And because Terry wanted to play with her boyfriend, ( Matt) Mark had brought the toddler along.

Soo demanded an explanation as to why Thalia and Jr were yet to do the bedroo tango.

" He just won't!!" Thalia all but wailed.

" But why?" Soo wailed with her. They both sounded so offended , so put off, so upset that it was quite amusing to watch them.

" He said he wanted to make me scream, so we had to wait," Thalia wailed again.

" Bastard!!" Soo replied.

" I mean come on, I haven't had in five years! Five years!! And I was fine really I was, but then he had to come into my life with his y self, and tease and flirt, and do things to me, and get me all hot and bothered, scratch that Im practically on fire, I'm in heat, and then he says wait. Just wait, no wait for this day or wait til the weekend , just wait. And who said we had to have , we can do other things. Dammit I'm in withdrawal , I can't look at the man without damn near jumping him!!" she wailed.

" Bastard!!" Soo reitarated with a little more vehemence this time, "we should hurt him"

" Violence Soo," Lina said at the same time Thalia replied that she didn't want to hurt him she just wanted to have with him.

" So we'll hurt him in other ways, come on we're going shopping." Soo replied.

They all stuffed themselves into one car and under directions from Soo drove to the mall and to the lingerie store.

" So tonight when you go to bed, you wear this. No reason for you to suffer alone." Soo reasoned.

" You're diabolical, you know that?" Tj said to Soo.

" Very diabolical," Mika agreed.

Soo curtsied at the compliment.

Lina just shook her head.

Jr was not unaffected, he was suffering, as much as Thalia was, he just had better control. But like her, everytime he saw her, especially in the morning just before she left for work,dressed in her "librarians uniform" as he thought of it, it took every ounce of self control he possesed not to just throw her on the bed and rip the starched white blouses and strict mid calf length skirts off of her. Every. Single. Ounce.

He'd looked at a calender seen a public holiday coming up in a week and had decided that, that was the weekend. So he made plans, and asked Jackson and Mika to watch the children, for those three days. 

Both Lina and Jb had agreed, but Jr had sworn them to secrecy, so Lina said nothing to Thalia.

So that night when they went to bed and Thalia emerged from the bathroom clothed not in her usual, modest long cotton night gown, but in a satin knee length white night gown, that dipped modestly in the front,and had cute little cap sleeves, he'd almost said to hell with it. And when he'd placed his hand on her hip to hold her close while they slept, he'd been met with the suspicious lack of a line and had growled in her ear. And this time it was Thalia's turn to smile into his neck.

" Minx" he growled at her.

" I refuse to suffer alone," she whispered back.

" How many did you buy?" he wanted to know.

" Seven, one for every night," she informed him seductively.

He groaned, " you're going to kill me,. "

She simply shrugged.

" Goodnight babe."

" Goodnight Jr."

The following Monday, ( and eight days before Soo lost the bet,) Jr had a talk with the children, started planning and plotting with the children.

" I need your help," he said to them. They were all sitting in the kitchen at the kitchen island, cups of hot chocolate for them and a cup of tea for him. Thalia was still at work and Jr had come home early, because he knew the children would be home but she wouldn't.

" I was wondering if you three would be ok spending two nights at uncle Jackson's without me or mama" Jr said.

The children squealed in delight, uncle Jackson being a most beloved playmate of theirs.

" And now I want to ask you very seriously, how you feel about me being your daddy," he continued once they had calmed down.

They were all obviously very agreeable with him being their daddy.

" Ok then I need you to do something for me, ok"

They were prepared to do whatever was required of them, if it would get mama to say yes to making uncle Jr their daddy. Smart children.

He swore them to secrecy, told them if mama found out what they were doing then it would ruin the magic, and she might not let them make Jr their daddy.

They swore to be discreet, ( Jr wondered how Theo even knew that word,).

"  I don't believe this,  I'm going to lose the bloody bet, by a day, by one friggin day," Soo complained to Youngjae, " I mean seriously, he can't just wait one more day, for me, "

She had found out from Jr that this weekend he would be sending the children away and he and Thalia would have the apartment to themselves. He'd only told her because he needed a little help with a project, also he intended that there would be no interruptions.

Youngjae just raised his eyebrow at her, as though to say, "seriously, you expect the man to hold off his impending ,for you, so you can win a bet" and even though no words actually left his lips, Soo responded with a harsh, " shut it."

" So what's my penalty?, may as well tell me now since we all know i'm going to lose," Soo said sighing at Youngjae, and he just smiled mysteriously. So mysteriously in fact Soo was almost afraid of what he would do to her, or make her do.

" I'll tell you later," he promised.

She almost didn't want to know.

Friday couldn't come soon enough for Jr.

Friday came way too soon for Soo.