Chapter 6

There were times when Kate wanted nothing more than dessert, and that was an itch Rick had never objected to scratching.

But there was a time for yielding to such a craving, a fitting mood for it, an urgency born of collective mind and body circumstance, and as she stood there, naked and warm, with the fabric of plum-colored lace in her hand, following her shower of supreme indulgence and all that'd led to its necessity, she knew that definitely wasn't the time for it.

She'd banished Rick to the other room to postpone their meal's delivery, and to heighten even more the already elevated anticipation that'd been hanging over them for days. He'd been with her at the shop when she'd chosen the piece-the color ultimately more to his desire than hers, though there was no denying its beauty or its elegance-but he hadn't seen the way it fit her body, how it kept secrets and let others slip. That pleasure she'd saved.

Clearing a section of the mirror fogged with steam, she combed through her wet hair and then ruffled it wild, droplets from its tips left snaking down the skin of her back absent intervention. Rick liked it when it was loose. She liked that his preference harmonized with her own. It wasn't the only one.

Scented freshly with a fusion of rosemary and mint-the kindred lotion to her shampoo-she stepped into the bodysuit, surprisingly the first of its kind in her extensive collection of intimates.

It suited the curves and angles of her form as though it'd been crafted for her alone, its plunging décolleté laying bare the contour of her muscle as its scalloped edges united at a point with the satin band stitched around the waist, her lean arms accentuated by its benevolent cap sleeves. Of greatest enthrallment, she predicted, would surely be the cut of its thigh. Immodest was a word most apt.

Between the only two buttons sewn in to secure it, one behind her neck and one at her lower back, a cutout had her skin like exposed, and as she worked to fasten the pair, in the reflection of the bit of mirror she'd cleared, she caught her eyes smiling as she imagined the sensation of Rick's fingertips trailing the unconcealed fields of both in exploration.

No man had ever touched her as he did. Not her mind, not her body, not her heart.

Kate suddenly heard his voice pass through the door. Not what was said, muffled as it was, but she felt its effect, nonetheless. That's what he did to her. Even unseen, he had the power to pluck her string.

Moments later, she came out of the bathroom and peeked around the corner, found Rick sitting on the bed with his legs kicked up and his head buried in his phone. She gave her hair a final tousle as she watched him mumble to himself about some vexing thing or other, but whatever it was that had him knitting his brow, it titillated her to know that, by her hand, he'd soon forget all about it.

"Hey, hotshot," she said and caused him to flinch with the startle. "What's with the scrunched face? Wait, let me guess. How many times has mega-dick called you, so far?"

"A-hole," Rick hissed. "About forty-se…" He finally picked his head up, lost the rest of the world completely when his eyes landed.

Neither moved a muscle for what felt like a silent eternity, until he tossed the phone aside, spun and dropped his legs over the edge of the bed. "Have you ever seen something you know is real, but because of how real it is, your brain can't wrap itself around it? That's what it feels like, seeing you right now."

Kate flipped a switch on the wall and the overhead light in the room went dark, leaving just that of the bedside lamp. It seemed he'd also flipped a switch while she was in cleaning herself up.

"I put on this thing for you and you mock me in return?" She slid a glance toward the gas fireplace as it roared away in the corner, and then came back to him. "For that I should get my forty-five minutes of work back plus no complaints when I get up early tomorrow morning to go for a run."

Rick snickered.

"What're you going to do, Counselor? Are you planning on wearing that down to the gym? Your bluffing skills are what need work. You didn't pack anything in that bag for any run, and I'm damn sure not letting you get out of this bed early. I paid for a late checkout, and we're not leaving it a minute before for any reason."

He reached an arm back over his shoulder and pulled off his tee. She already had him revved up and on his way to hard, and he hadn't even touched her yet.

"Kate, the purple is… May I see the rest?"

His voice was sweet, patient, but Kate heard beyond it.

She rotated for him, paused deliberately at just the right point, which was truly what he'd asked for, after all.

"You have good taste, Mr. Billboard. I'll give you that."

Rick stood just long enough to unbutton his jeans, step free of them and what was beneath, and they eyed one another like delicious prey as he did. Like the heat of his stare had started up a faucet in her to a drip, Kate could feel her want of him begin to pool between her legs. The heat felt like fire.

There were volumes of words flying across the distance between them, yet none of them aloud. And then Rick's lips slowly curled, and he spoke.

"Would you take it off now, please?" he asked and then tipped back on his hands in wait.

Kate collected her hair in hand, drew it all over one shoulder in grant of access, and felt the faucet drip once more.

"You don't want to do it?" she answered coyly.

"I do, very much. But this time you wanted me to ask you to do it."

And that was exactly why she hadn't wanted to skip straight to dessert. That night she wanted the full meal of him-every course, every bite. It ruined her how profoundly he understood her. It was the most overwhelming, the most rewarding, and the sexiest goddamn intimacy of her life.

In silent compliance of what he'd astutely recognized as her own requisition, she made quick work of the two buttons and peeled off the bodysuit where she stood. And peeled she did, because the lace had lustily clung to her body like there was no greater place on Earth to be. From the expression on Rick's face, he believed likewise.

"Now what?" he said. "Before you tell me, let me tell you that I could sit here and look at you over there like that all night and be the happiest and luckiest naked man alive."

"Is that so?" she replied skeptically, nipping her lip. "Mockery and lies from you, tonight. You sure know how to sweep a gal off her feet."

"I know how to do a lot of things to a gal-one gal in particular. If she'd ever get that spectacular behind of hers over here, I'd be glad to remind her… with my tongue."

Kate took four cat-like steps toward the bed, hitched her leg up and slid onto his lap, leaving her mark as she inched in close. Before another word left her mouth, she used it to capture his, the arrest deep and long.

"Now that I'm over here…" She angled for his neck, inhaled his scent and snuck a nibble. "Still feel happy and lucky?"

Rick held a hand secure at her back, stroked her slick center with the other-a sample, a tease. "I'd rather tell you how you feel," he whispered when her pleading sigh faded into a hush. "You feel warm, and soft, and so wet." Her fingers clutched at the skin at the back his neck with the ache of it, when he buried one of his inside her. "You feel ready for me, Counselor."

It took just seconds before Kate's hips began to roll into his touch, almost like a switch-Pavlovian, and when one became two, her pace hastened and her rocking deepened.

"Just... Stay… Just like that," she breathed, barely audible though everything else about her was screaming because she could feel the orgasm climbing its way to the surface.

It was the caress of his thumb that finally did her in, his grin tickling her lips because he knew it would.

"Come on," he spurred, hungry for the sensation of her freefall from the peak. "Let it go. Let me feel it with you."

She did let go, with muscles that burned and a moan muffled by the skin of his shoulder.

"Are you glad you came?" Rick dropped in her ear with a smirk when she curled her arms around him and gave him her weight.

"If you're able to do that from across a room, you should've told me. I would've stayed over there and read some notes at the desk at the same time, killed two birds." She loosened her embrace, pulled back. "But I wonder if that's what you meant."

She didn't wonder, at all.

Purposefully, Rick fell back onto the bed, carried Kate along with him. "Yeah, I'm a mystery like that." He kissed her sweetly. "Have I told you how much I love your body?"

"Have I told you how much I love you?" she answered back.

"You may proceed, and, please, feel free to approach the witness to demonstrate."

Using his chest as leverage, Kate pushed herself up, began a backward crawl down across his waist. "Oh, I plan on it," she said and took him in her hand.

xxxx

Johanna gave her daughter a nudge with her elbow, directed her eyes across the room toward her friend, who was bopping along the Becketts' wall of books like a band was playing on stage behind her. The following Saturday night's gathering had brought Kate to her parents' house alone, Rick otherwise work-engaged and unavailable to join her for the evening.

"I'm pretty sure Hillary's already tipsy. Your father turned the music off when everyone else got here. That was twenty minutes ago and she's still dancing."

Kate popped a couple of olives and washed them down with a sip of chardonnay. "Don't look at me. She's your friend, Mom."

"Excuse me, I'm not sure exactly what it is you're implying, but I am looking at you, daughter of mine, because you said Rick was going to be here and he isn't. She cancelled Bridge with the ladies from the club for him. She's probably going to be drowning her sorrows in booze all night, end up passed out on the couch."

"Better her than you," Kate retorted. "We all know how you get."

"Got that right," Jim seconded, sneaking up behind the two. He kissed Kate on the top of her head. "I'm happy to see you, Katie, and in one piece. These things are always more fun when you're here."

"You too, Dad. So, have you decided, yet, when you're going up to the cabin?" she asked returning to his offhand remark. "You'll have to let me know, so I can come by beforehand and give you a last hug, just in case."

Johanna took Jim's glass from his hand and filled it to half with his favorite red. "Our daughter's being a smart aleck, tonight."

Without turning, Kate lifted her glass up over her shoulder, and her mother topped it off, too. "Look, I don't know what the heck I ever did to you, but your house almost killed me last weekend."

"You mean besides the nineteen hours of labor?" her mother gibed and Jim blew out a laugh.

"Okay, mothers should only get to use that, like, four times. Besides, you weren't there. I'm definitely entitled to a few jabs here. You're just lucky Rick couldn't be here tonight. With that mouth of his, he wouldn't have shut up about it."

The mere mention of it sparked the image of his mouth in Kate's mind, and the whole host of things it regularly did to her, including on the floor of her closet before she'd left the house earlier. Definitely things she shouldn't be thinking about in the company of her parents.

"I'm really sorry, kid," Jim said, sincere in it despite the amusement that still lingered from his wife's quip. "I'll get up there soon, and I'll take care of everything. After I do, you two can try your weekend again." He and Johanna fixed eyes on one another, a gaze impossible for Kate to miss. "Your mom and I even have a new bed all picked out."

He grabbed his wine and walked off, left the ladies alone and Kate curious.

"What was that? What was that look about?"

Johanna leaned in, and with that same glowing pride in her voice Kate had not long ago been horrified to hear said, "We broke that bed once, too."

XX