Hi everyone!

You know those moments during the first part of season 7 when House and Cuddy were together, supposedly blissfully happy but we never really had a chance to see how it looked like?

It made me want to collect some of those moments, based upon the subtle allusions that were made to attest them, and explore what could have happened then….

I've chosen 10 situations, unraveling the season chronologically, and I'll use them as pretexts to imagine 10 different ways for House to say "I love you" to Cuddy, in his own House-ian way of course!

These are snapshots, like short stolen moments that we never saw in between – or during - episodes… They're told with Cuddy's voice, in the first person.

I hope you'll like them…

So on with the first part – between "Now What" and "Selfish"…

** TELL ME YOU LOVE ME **

Part one - During sex.

It's been merely three days since House and I got together and I'm not quite sure I can think about anything else at the moment. I should go to HR tomorrow and make this official. I know I've made the right choice and I don't regret it but people in the hospital are going to gossip and it's probably better to make the first move and defuse the upcoming sarcasms.

And yet, I don't care what they say. God, if only they knew how much I don't care! Right now, all that matters to me is him, and me, and the way he holds me in his arms, the way he makes me feel: complete, fulfilled and elated.

We're making love all the time. It's a bit crazy considering that we're not supposed to be as horny as two hormonally driven teenagers, but our desire is like an insatiable need and yielding to it feels inescapable and absolutely right.

We just can't get enough of each other.

House is the most incredible lover I've had in my entire life. I've been with a few men - some would say many - most of whom knew how to satisfy me, but nothing compares to the kind of bliss House elicits in me. He's thoughtful and tender while at the same time there's an irresistible force emanating from him when he claims his rewards that just leaves me breathless every time. House doesn't make love. Not really. He's a roaring torrent, impatient and demanding and he knows exactly where to take me, and how. His hunger, possessive and self confident, carries me away to places I've never thought I could go.

And his smiles, when he can see on my face the proof that he took me there. Oh, his smiles…

So now it's my turn. I want to have that power. I want to give him that pleasure. Twenty five years ago, we made love once, we had sex, whatever it was, but it was rushed, uninvolved and mindless. I only understood the inescapability of the consequences once he was gone. He'd turned my life upside down but I only realized it when it was too late. I've obsessed over that missed opportunity for years, wondering how it would have been, what would have changed if he'd stayed. And sometimes at nights, when the loneliness was particularly burdensome, I used to think about him, his odor, his skin, his strapping body hovering over mine and his eyes, piercing through my soul.

Yes, twenty five years ago, we didn't take our time because we didn't know we wouldn't have more of it and the thing is I never tasted him. It's ironic, but at the same time, I can't help but think it's a boon, somehow, because with everything we know about each other, every weakness we've allowed ourselves to display, every boundary we've pushed, we still have a first time to seize. And I can still surprise him with something. I can still sweep him off his feet. It's been three days, during which we've made love almost a dozen of times already, and I haven't gone down on him yet. I know he's wondering, but doesn't ask. I can feel it and it makes me want to smile.

Oh House, how can that even be a question? You think I don't want this? You think I'm a shy lover?

We're lying naked in my bed. We've spent the entire day there doing nothing other than learning how to tame our unquenchable craving for each other. All day. Rachel is at my mom's for the week end and we have no reason to get up. No reason and clearly no desire to either. I'm cuddled up in his arms and he's caressing my shoulder softly. I feel another wave of desire rising inside me. I'm stretching a little into his embrace and he relaxes his grab to free me. We're looking at each other. I smile.

"Again?" he exclaims with a fake shocked look but I can see he's smiling too.

I pout, and it's only part of the game.

"I want you," I simply answer while I punctuate that evidence with a sensual kiss in the hollow of his collarbone.

Instantly, his arms envelop my waist and he pulls me into him. I push him away. I look up and he looks puzzled.

"Don't move," I say with poise and I draw the sheets out, uncovering our naked bodies.

I barely need to slide down a little lower alongside his body and he knows. He doesn't say a word but his amazed gaze speaks for him. His face is incredible. I can't hold back a quiet, but mischievous laugh as I'm slowly tracing a line of kisses on his abdomen. I feel his muscles contract under my touch. I lick his belly button with the tip of my tongue and his hips jolt upward. I trail my hand on his thigh, leisurely, and I stop at his groin to assess his erection. His cock is undeniably getting hard. I can feel it throb against my fingers. His breath hitches when I run my thumb on the tip of his shaft and wipe the warm drip of pre-cum. Then I adjust my position beside him and straighten up just for a second, standing on my knees and looking him in the eyes as I lick the bead off my finger slowly. He stares back at me, with his mouth agape and I lean down on him.

The taste of him in my mouth feels amazing. It's warm and sweet and sour. I suck his hard length between my lips and I keep him there, deep down the moist of my mouth before pulling out languorously, licking the line of his vein with my tongue. After a few strokes, he's already starting to lose it. The sound of his throaty groans is lustful and it makes me feel unreservedly powerful. I press the pulp of my swollen lips on different spots of his cock, tightening and relaxing my hold on him and I can feel him on the verge of surrendering. His hands reach out for me and he clutches my shoulders with his fingers. I wrap my hand around the base of his sex and slowly massage his hardness up and down while my tongue focuses all its attention on the head of his cock.

"Oh fuck!" he hisses.

He's close. The pulsating sensation in my mouth becomes unmistakable and I can almost feel the rush of his semen before it spurts out inside my throat. All his muscles contract and he lets go of my shoulders. With one of his hands, he grabs a strand of hair in the back of my neck and I know he struggles to stop himself from thrusting harder inside me until the jolts of his orgasm subside and his hips fall down on the mattress again.

I swallow and I lick him one last time, before pulling him out of my mouth.

I slide back up to his face, positioning my body on top of his, and I nibble his lips. With his eyes closed and his head slightly tilted backwards onto the pillow, he takes a deep breath and wraps his arms around me, holding me tightly against him.

"Fuck, I love you!" he groans, a blissful smile stretching on his face.

"Oh, really? So now, I don't need to beg you to say it, uh?"

I'm feeling so good right now. I have no doubt that he does love me, and I don't really care when or why he says it to me, but I just want to play. I want to tease him.

His eyes pop open and he looks at me, intrigued.

"Huh?"

"Yeah," I say. "What kind of value does this have?"

He narrows his eyes at me and I can see he's trying to decide whether he should take me seriously or not.

"I just went down on you and you came into my mouth," I carry on, holding back my smile. "So of course you love me now! I can't think of any man who wouldn't say that to anyone in that situation!"

"Are you serious?" he asks cautiously.

I'm still lying on top of him, my nakedness against his nakedness. His hands slide from the small of my back to my butt and he gropes my ass cheeks possessively, pressing me closer to him. I wriggle to set myself free and roll to the side next to him.

"Yes!" I lie. "We just had sex. You're naked, and I'm naked. All the 'I love you' you say to me now don't mean a thing."

His eyes widen and he studies my face for a while, searching through my gaze. But I resist, I hold my chin up and I stare back at him challengingly. It lasts for some long seconds, and suddenly, completely out of the blue, he sits up and gets out of the bed. Before I have time to even comprehend what's happening, he's bent down to the floor to take his clothes and he slips on his jeans, then his tee-shirt. I start panicking a little.

"Wh… What are you doing?" I say, feeling a lump tightening my throat.

"Please, tell me I don't need to put my socks and shoes on."

"What? House… Of course you don't. You don't have to put your shoes or anything else on. What the hell are-"

"Fine," he interrupts me. "Can we consider that I'm dressed then?" he asks, tilting his head to the side with that typical roguish look of his on his face.

That look. It stopped the sudden, uncontrollable fear I felt growing inside me instantly.

"Yes," I whisper, my voice trembling a little.

And I wait.

With a smile, he leans down towards me and he takes my face inside his hand, pulling it up delicately so it forces me to sit up on the bed. I hold my breath as he comes closer and stares into my eyes, his blue gaze undecipherable and full of gravity.

"Are we having sex now?" he asks with a husky voice.

We're face to face, our chins almost touching.

"No."

"Am I naked?"

I gulp.

"No."

"Good," he says.

He cradles my face inside his hands again, and the tips of his thumbs caress my temples gently. He leans down and rubs his nose against mine and, with a feather touch, he brushes his lips on my lips and kisses me.

"I love you," he says, almost in a murmur.

I bite my lips and I look at him, speechless. I'm trapped at my own game. But God, how sweet is the taste of that defeat…

A/N

I'll try to post a new snapshot every two or three days. My list of moments is already chosen, but if you have suggestions, don't hesitate: I haven't written everything yet, so I can make some changes, or even add some more parts if you like reading them…

Thank you for reading!

Have a nice day ~ maya