"One million dollars for your thoughts," she uttered, gently swinging their joined hands back and forth while they meandered through the arcade.

Haley offered a light chuckle. "It's a penny."

"I know, but I happen to believe that your thoughts are worth at least a seven figure amount." Those adorably deep dimples appeared as the fashion designer grinned. She raised the blue bucket with 'Goodies' stamped all over it and showed its contents to her friend. "If you don't want money, at least allow me to pay you with all of these-well some. There's something at the ticket redemption center I have my eye on to 'purchase'."

The shorter woman glanced into her own bucket, which contained much less than Brooke's and then smirked. "Showoff."

"Showoff? Me?"

"Yes, you."

"What makes me a showoff? Just because I beat your cute your little butt at just about every game we've been playing?" Perhaps it was a cocky declaration, yet unfortunately where Haley was concerned an accurate one. It all started with a rousing tenpin bowling competition.

The young women were still at the nightclub when a trio of Haley's co-workers approached them on the dance floor and invited them to play on teams. With the teams simply named Red and Blue since the group of women couldn't decide on more creative monikers, Haley ended up on Red and Brooke the Blue team. Although Brooke claimed that she had only bowled a handful of times in her life she played like someone who bowled at least a handful of times per month. With zero gutter balls and only a couple of open frames she definitely assisted the Blue team in wiping the floor with the Reds.

Eyebrows often raised, a bewildered Haley watched her friend's shiny deep purple ball continuously glide down the lane and slam into the pins with ease. By the fourth frame she suspected that Hummer Girl had hustled her. Swaggering back to her seat after securing her second strike in a row, Brooke made a show out of blowing on her nails and then buffing them on her top. She clapped hands with her teammates, which the Blues did so often during the competition their palms should have been flushed.

After the Reds begrudgingly congratulated the Blues on their stellar playing, the teams disbanded with Haley and Brooke choosing to check out the video arcade next door. Each exchanging a twenty-dollar bill for two rolls of quarters, whoever won the most games would be declared the shiznit (Brooke's term, which she promptly explained upon noticing Haley's perplexed countenance).

They agreed to visit the bank of skee-ball machines first where Haley managed to win one of the four games they played. She suspected that Brooke allowed her to win that one game, but she steadfastly denied it and Haley didn't have enough proof to convict. For the most part, no matter how much she tried she couldn't roll the baseball-sized hardwood spheres past the hole worth twenty points. Brooke's balls on the other hand appeared exceptionally attracted to the fifty and one hundred point pockets for which she received not only bragging rights but also ample tickets.

When the junior editor looked like someone about ready to start rapidly chucking balls at the machine Brooke thought it best for the both of them to move on. It simply wouldn't do for Goodies security guards to detain Haley for the remainder of the cruise just because she snapped on a skee-ball game. Her glare leveled at the brightly lit machine was interrupted when her friend suggested that she select the next game.

A bucket containing seven tickets within her grasp, she glanced around. Moments later she pointed toward Whac-A-Mole. Smacking a mallet against the craniums of that quintet of plastic moles might help her to relieve any leftover tension created by skee-ball. It did indeed help and the fact that she was the victor had Haley wondering what tension? A smile on her face, she counted the tickets in her bucket while waiting for her defeated Whac-A-Mole opponent to choose another game.

Not one team in the WNBA would contemplate drafting them for even half a second based on their play at the basketball arcade game. Both had trouble throwing their basketballs into the net, but out of the two Brooke managed to make the most baskets. The pair had better luck on the half a dozen games they played afterward, however only Brooke's bragging rights exponentially increased with the tickets in her bucket nearly reaching the brim as evidence of her arcade proficiency.

"You only beat me 'cause you cheated." An enticing tongue was wiggled in her direction. Brooke had to control herself from relinquishing her bucket, wrapping her arms around the shorter woman and nudging her into the nearby photo booth to take possession of that tongue. She cleared her throat in preparation for speech when Haley pointed toward the empty modern photo booth and asked if her if she cared to take a few pictures together to commemorate their evening spent on the yacht.

They paused next to a Jurassic Park themed pinball machine, which Brooke placed her bucket on top of. "Oh, you don't mind taking photos with a cheater? Not worried I'll try to pilfer your tickets while we're seated inside such a confined space?" With our bodies pressed so tightly together on that little bench, your soft addicting mouth tempting mine, your incredible curves tempting my hands? Once hazel eyes blinked several times, Brooke noticed Haley giving her a quizzical expression. Oh, damn it all to h-e-double hockey sticks. The junior editor must have replied and in her lustful haze she failed to catch a solitary word.

"I'm sorry baby. Would you repeat that?"

Leaning against the pinball machine, Haley lifted a curious brow. "Should I offer cash for your thoughts?" Whoa! The blush monster selected that moment to visit Brooke's cheeks for a change. With a delighted smile displayed, she placed her lips near a reddened ear. "Tell me," she whispered, allowing her body to brush against the taller woman, "on a scale of 1-10 how dirty are they?"

Brooke gulped loud enough for her smiling friend to hear. "My thoughts?"

"Mmhmm."

"Hmm…instead of just giving you a number, how about you join me in the photo booth where I'll show you how dirty they are Tiger?" And with that question posed the blush monster founds its way back home to Haley's face.

Reminding Brooke to grab her bucket, the crimson editor grasped her hand and began to lead her toward the photo booth where she slipped inside first. Seated on the padded bench, she placed her ticket bucket on the floor, Brooke following suit. Having left her clutch purse in their suite, she sifted through the many tickets to find her wallet, which rested at the bottom. Just as she was about to pull it out, Haley quickly produced her own wallet and waved it in her face.

"My idea, my treat."

"We could go Dutch."

"We could, but we won't. Now leave the wallet in your bucket, sit up and look pretty for the camera." Opening her own wallet, Haley pulled out a bill.

"Ooh, baby I love it when you take charge," Brooke crooned, unaware how she just switched the other woman's sex drive into high gear.

Those earlier tequila shots along with the bottle of beer she polished off during the bowling competition must have chosen that moment to loosen her inhibitions for the upcoming brazen inquiry. "Are you signifying that you're a bottom Brookie?" She tried not to blush; she really tried with all her might but was of course unsuccessful.

Once her surprise at the question dissipated somewhat, Brooke mulled over her reply. When she was prepared to speak, fascinated chocolate orbs watched one exposed leg cross over the other. Leaning back against the narrow wall of the photo booth, the fashion designer clasped her hands together in her lap. Managing to pull her eyes away from such a tantalizing pair of gams, Haley studied the expression on her friend's face, an amused smile beginning to tug at her lips. She was now aware of that particular look. Brooke was back in professor mode.

"Well Tiger," she started, glancing toward her attentive student, "a bottom isn't necessarily synonymous with being submissive."

"It isn't? I always thought a bottom was the person in submission and the top the one in charge?" Are we really holding this conversation in an arcade, inside a photo booth? There was a brief pause in her thoughts. Are we really holding this conversation? Certain parts of the lyrics to Van Halen's song Hot for Teacher beginning to play on Haley's cerebral jukebox, a tiny grin found her lips. I'm hot for teacher! I've got it bad, so bad…

Professor Davis nodded. "Can be, but it's not always that cut and dry. Submissives are never in control whereas a bottom sometimes is. Meaning a bottom may actually be a top and a top a bottom." She had to chuckle at the bemused stare her brief explanation was liable for.

"Wha-huh?"

"Let me try again. I'll give you an example. Let's say that… Sandy is the submissive partner and Danielle is the dominant one. During their sexual play one evening Danielle chooses to be the one on the bottom while remaining in control. How so? Despite the fact that Sandy is topping her, she is only doing so because Danielle allows and instructs her to. Sandy is still required to do what she's told and in this instance her partner would be called the dominant figure topping from the bottom. Is that any clearer?"

Haley nodded while attempting to dredge up the courage to seek the answer to the next question moving through her brain as if it were on a scrolling marquee. "Hummer Girl?"

"Yeah Tiger?"

"You mentioned that you briefly dated a bartender. Did you also ever um…date a dominatrix? Or er…moonlight as one?" She was somewhat relieved by the other woman's immediate laughter. She was fully relieved when Brooke paused laughing long enough to respond, offering her the answer she preferred.

"No and hell no!" The designer laughed again. "I have nothing against those who seriously practice BDSM-more power to 'em-but it isn't for me. I don't even recall where, I just read that before about tops and bottoms. Spend some more time with me and you'll discover that I have a few nuggets of peculiar knowledge."

Haley softly chuckled. "Okay, good. I was beginning to picture you in a black tight leather ensemble and wielding a whip." She cocked her head to the side while in obvious thought. "Hold up-the leather outfit can stay." A grin and a blush took possession of her face as Brooke's boisterous laughter filled the photo booth.

"I'll have to work on the ensemble. Just have a couple pair of black leather pants in my closet."

Haley gulped while picturing leather pants sheathing Brooke's shapely lower half. The blush from her last comment still in play, she glanced toward the other woman. "Brooke Davis dressed in all black leather," she murmured. "Certain I just swallowed my tongue."

Tugging the five-dollar bill from a loose grasp, Brooke fed it into the currency slot. She watched the screen before them activate, waiting for them to make their selections before they posed for the photographs. Leaning toward Haley, she deliberately rubbed her lips against the ridge of the junior editor's ear. She waited until she felt the smaller woman's shiver and then whispered, "After we take these pictures I promise I'll help you locate it. In fact, it would be my ultimate pleasure baby."

Because her tongue had gone astray, Haley merely moaned. Her mischievous counterpart displayed the broadest grin.

OUaTH

Back in their suite, Haley stretched out on the couch while trying to decide which of the strip of four wallet-sized pictures she would insert into her own. Loving them all, she might just have to circulate the quartet on a weekly basis. Smiling in response to her plan, she leaned over to drop the photo strip on the coffeetable. Linking her fingers together behind her head, she closed her eyes and waited for Brooke to come out of the bathroom. A groan rumbled from her throat when an all too welcome weight settled on her person, legs straddling her body.

Eyes still shut Haley spoke. "You don't really care about me finding my tongue do you?" She heard a snicker and chose to open her eyes after a couple faint tugs of her tie. She smirked toward the beauty contentedly using her as a seat. "Something I can do for you Hummer Girl?"

"Am I too heavy?"

I'd volunteer as your chair anytime. "Nope."

"Good." Brooke continued to play with her 'chair's' satin accessory. "I have a present for you."

"Has to be you 'cause I happen to believe that spending time with you is the best present a person could receive." Haley smiled when her cheek was gently pinched.

"You sweet talker. Thank you for the terrific compliment but your present isn't me." She shrugged. "It's nothing extraordinary. Just a small token of my liking of you." Reaching into the right side pocket of her shorts, Brooke pulled out a simple piece of jewelry that she redeemed all but three of her tickets for. Within her palm lay a braided black leather bracelet that had a petite sterling silver butterfly charm attached. "For you," Brooke shyly announced.

Softly gasping, Haley sat up to take a closer look. She grazed a finger along the carefully woven leather. "It's beautiful Brooke. I love it and to me it's definitely extraordinary." Beginning to smile, the fashion designer asked if she could put it on. With an eager nod, Haley raised her right arm and watched as the other woman placed the bracelet around her slim wrist. Her cheeks reddened as lips tenderly touched the inside of her wrist before Brooke released it.

"I chose the butterfly charm because it reminds me of you," Brooke started, her gaze remaining on the jewelry. "It's beautiful, unique, graceful and delicate yet strong. There are cultural myths that view the butterfly as a symbol of transformation. Much like humans it starts as an egg but then it changes into a caterpillar, followed by a cocoon and finally emerges as a magnificent butterfly. You Haley James are like a butterfly to me. You've been through several significant transitions in your life and you have emerged as a courageous, amazing and stunning young woman. I admire you more than I could ever put into words."

Brown eyes quickly blearing with tears, Haley sat upright and pulled her friend into a tight embrace. Burying her face against Brooke's neck, she felt arms encircle her and gently squeeze. "Brooke?" She faintly whispered yet it reached a nearby ear.

"Yes baby?"

"You're going to make me fall for you," Haley said, surprising her own person with the admission. When she called the other woman's name she hadn't been certain what she would say, but then the words just flowed from her mouth. She held her breath while waiting for a response. By the time she counted to five Brooke started to reply.

"I can beat that Tiger. I started falling for you the day I met you."

Although her face remained pressed against Brooke's neck, a tiny smile graced her mouth. "You live in California and I in North Carolina."

"This…whatever this is that is rapidly mounting between us can and will work," Brooke stated with such conviction Haley was on the threshold of believing her.

"How?"

"I haven't quite figured it out yet." Haley's body shook against hers as she erupted in chuckles. Brooke spent the next few seconds joining in and then pulled back to kiss Haley's forehead. Lifting a hand to stroke her hair, she gazed into her eyes. "Please don't give up on what we could build. Just…just give you and I a chance. I don't want this to end after tonight."

"Don't you have to go back home?"

Brooke shook her head. "Not until Wednesday."

"Oh! I thought you were just here on a quick trip for the cruise."

That was my original intention. The fashion designer grinned. "Hmm, seems you thought wrong."

While Brooke was in the bathroom minutes ago…

Perched on the edge of the tub, Brooke speed dialed #3 on her phone. After a couple of rings contact #3 answered.

"Hey boss!"

"Hey back at you Millie." She smiled into the phone. "I'm sorry to interrupt. I realize you're not on the clock." Millie attempted to speak but Brooke kept going. "You know what? It's nothing that won't keep overnight. I'll just call you tomorrow when you still won't be on the clock but if you don't mind I just need your help for a few min-"

"Boss!"

"Yeah?"

"I'm just watching Nick at Nite and munching on popcorn. I'd be delighted to help you with whatever right now. What's up?"

"You sure?"

"Positive. I've seen the episode of the sitcom that's on now so many times I could probably rewrite the script. I repeat-what's up?"

"Okay, um…" Brooke pressed the mute button long enough to clear her throat. "Is it possible for you to delay my flight?" She heard movement, envisioning Millie placing her frequently within the vicinity notebook computer onto her lap. The efficient young woman was never without some type of electronic device that could be used for communication.

The rapid clicking of keys reaching the speaker, Millie inquired how long she wanted her flight home delayed. When her boss didn't immediately respond, she began to chuckle. "Oh, I take it you're not just asking to change it from a morning to afternoon flight, hmm?" Millicent Huxtable rarely joked and never teased. Brooke had attempted to cajole her on many occasions throughout the few years she had been her assistant to loosen up and of all times she chose to do so then. Fan-flippin'-tastic.

"Gee boss whatever could have triggered your desire to stay in Tree Hill longer than the party cruise when you don't have any business there?" She dramatically paused and Brooke swore that she could hear her chewing more fluffed kernels. And they must have been buttery because she licked her fingers. Hopefully she was wearing her headset otherwise her recently upgraded phone would be covered in popcorn-scented smudges. "Or should I ask whomever? Perhaps…one Haley James?"

Hazel eyes widened. "Millicent!"

"Brooke!" She chuckled again. Perhaps she added more than the customary salt and butter to her snack. "Don't sound so thunderstruck. We both know why you decided to accept that invitation to a party over two thousand miles away. I take it things are going well considering that you want to extend your visit?"

"Yes." Brooke began to smile despite having just been so easily caught. "She…has me thoroughly enraptured."

"Aaw! Boss that's wonderful! So," Brooke could feel her switching back into assistant mode, Millie's clicking of the computer keys resuming, "how much longer do you want to stay?"

"How much longer can you give me?"

"Let's see…" Millie mumbled to herself as she perused the computer screen. "Your schedule doesn't require you to be back in L.A. until Thursday. That 11:00 a.m. meeting unfortunately can't be postponed."

"I'll take it."

Click-click-tap. "Done. Business Class. Your flight departs on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m."

"Millie you're incredible and quick!"

"That's why you made me your right hand woman boss!"

"Are you going to be busy while you're here?" Haley asked while lying back down on the couch with her head propped against the arm of it.

"Yep." Leaning down, the fashion designer touched their noses together. "With adorable you unless you're going to be otherwise engaged." Up close and personal to witness that blush, she grinned.

"My schedule happens to be wide open this week so I'm all yours."

"Ooh, baby. You're all mine? Whatever will I do with you?"

"Well um, for one thing you promised that you would er…help me track down my tongue," Haley suddenly whispered as though they were seated in a library.

"Oh yeah, I did, didn't I?" The junior editor wordlessly nodded; glad when Brooke moved back enough so that her eyes wouldn't cross while looking at her. "And I do endeavor not to break my promises. Especially those of such importance as this one." A feather light kiss found its way to Haley's forehead. "Hm, I don't see it there."

"I doubt it would be there since we know that I swallowed it."

Brooke snapped her fingers. "That's right! Then I should check the place that makes the most sense." She slowly crawled down Haley's body until her face was above her stomach and then tugged her shirt upward until a flat tummy was fully exposed. Tiny moans escaped Haley as dampened kisses trailed from her abdomen toward her navel, which Brooke's tongue proceeded to dart in and out of until her friend was writhing and moaning louder. She feigned disappointment when she glanced at the other woman. "Not in there either." Kissing the navel once more, she moved on, so thorough she barely left any section of Haley's stomach untouched, trailing gentle fingers along her sides as she 'searched'. Her lips had just reached the underside of a lacy navy blue bra when a breathless voice called her name.

"Yeah baby?" Brooke's husky tone sounded a bit breathless too.

"My mouth."

Hazel eyes zeroed in on parted soft lips. "Yeah?" She groaned when a pink tongue slipped out to glisten those inviting lips.

"Try there."

Seemingly puzzled, Brooke cocked her head to the side. "Nah Tiger. If it was swallowed, your tongue wouldn't be inside your mouth."

"Just come up here and humor me woman."

"Ooh, there you go taking charge again. Do you realize how much that stimulates me?"

"Tell me."

"Baby I'd rather show you." It took Brooke about three and a half seconds to climb back up and take possession of Haley's mouth. A pair of petite hands grabbed her bottom, giving each cheek an experimental squeeze. The fashion designer moaned into her friend's mouth, just beginning to explore. Abruptly pulling back, she grinned. "There it is! You were right. Found its way home."

Haley returned the grin. "Just because the case is now closed doesn't mean you can't come in for a visit."

"You read my mind. I had every intention of ringing your bell." Sitting up, she tugged on Haley's tie until the smaller woman got the hint to lift her upper body away from the couch until they were face to face, Brooke remaining settled upon her lap. Haley's hands moved to either side of her waist while her face was cupped, their lips hungrily crashing together. As Brooke's tongue swirled around her newly rediscovered one, she subconsciously decided that this woman would eventually be the death of her.

But what a marvelous way to go.

OUaTH

I know it's quite late, but thanks to everyone who commented on the last chapter. I'm so sorry that Chapter 7 took so long. Unless someone swipes my keyboard, I promise no more long waits between updates ;-)