a/n: No, I haven't given up on No Uncertain Terms! Initially, it had started with a different premise, a one-off bit in Borderline that wasn't in the series, then would be all post-Finale. All of that text was just sitting around in the middle of my manuscript and I kept bumping into it. So I've split it out and will be posting chapters for both pieces. Fear not! (This one will be shorter, though.)
Chapter 1 - Moving In
After a long day, hell, a long year, Kate moved into her first apartment of her own, ever. She'd gotten a great deal on the mortgage, a great deal on the apartment's price, and it was all hers. Even though she didn't have a car, she had her own parking space in the garage, they'd said. She moved all her stuff, what little she had, into the living room, not even enough to line the floor of any room except the bathroom.
After she'd hung Justin's housewarming gift of angel wings on the wall, Kate poured a glass of wine, opened her French doors, and stepped out onto her small but glorious terrace.
Kate took in the view for not even a second before she heard a familiar voice.
"Hey."
She turned her head slowly in shock before she saw him. He wasn't recognizeable at first in a grey shirt the color of her French doors. unbuttoned two buttons, no tie, no suit jacket. Just dark blue jeans, nice and tight.
"Neighbor."
The fullness of who it was and what it meant sunk in as her mouth opened wide in shock.
"B-b-b-ben!" She finally managed. "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?"
"Justin here?"
"Wait. What?" Kate tried to process that question on top of all the other ones that writhed around in her head like snakes. Like she'd just turned to Medusa from the inside out. "No, and he's not coming here, either. This is my place."
"Congratulations," Ben said.
"I bought the place 'your guy,'" she gestured with air quotes, "had for sale. Surely you knew it was next door."
"I did."
"And you thought giving me a heart attack was better than, oh, I don't know, warning me?"
"May I come over?"
"What? No!"
"Would you come over to my place then? I have dinner on if you'd like some."
She was about to refuse when her stomach growled loudly enough that he smiled. "I heard that." Defeated, she accepted his offer, if only out of curiosity.
Kate knocked on Ben's door.
"Well, hello there," he said, opening the door wide for her to enter. She looked into his eyes, then caught herself looking at his unbuttoned shirt, where a couple of curls of chest hair peeked out, taunting her.
She stepped inside. Massive amounts of art hung on the walls. A pearlescent white leather sofa and armchair sat on top of a deep purple shag rug. Italian modern chandeliers hung over the coffee table and dining table, the latter made of some drop-dead gorgeous stripy wood she couldn't name offhand, set for two. The kitchen was well-stocked with hanging pots, mostly copper.
The focal point of the entire place, though, was the denim blue Venetian plaster walls with speckles of gold and silver. It was breathtaking. Silk dupioni draperies matching the wall framed the windows.
"Wow. This is really nice."
"I-"
"-like nice things," they said at the same time. He smiled.
His proximity was doing something to her brain, and the smells from the kitchen were doing something to her stomach.
"There's a bathroom around the corner," he said, and she went to look. It was covered in a pale pink marble with inset purple glass tiles every now and again, with a relatively small shower in the back of the room. She'd noticed that he liked purple a lot. He often wore purple ties and even occasionally pale purple-toned shirts, and he also wore pink more than the average straight San Francisco male.
She nodded, impressed. It was more understated than she expected, with no flashy gold sink. The room felt like it belonged in the house.
"And the rest?" Kate prodded. He led her into his fairly small home office, which had nice built-ins and a small desk, but it was a small room.
Last, he opened the door to his bedroom and let her walk in.
Kate wasn't aware she had expectations about Ben's bedroom until she realized that it wasn't at all what she expected. The rear wall was white like he'd just moved in, the furniture masculine and dark brown, and a taupe-and-white geometric comforter covered the bed. That much didn't surprise her.
Stepping in was the surprising part. The wall facing the living room was also Venetian plaster in a rich violet, the backdrop for three large pieces of tasteful erotic art: curves and lines of a male and female body joined, no naughty bits exposed, just comfort, love, and skin-against-skin nudity. Three very different artists, but similar sensibilities.
The bathroom was a larger version of the powder room, decor-wise, complete with an oversize vintage tub and a separate shower.
"How did you get a bathroom this large?"
He shrugged. "It had three bedrooms and two small full bathrooms. I transformed it into a larger bedroom, a smaller office, and one large full bathroom. I made the kitchen slightly smaller so I could have a shower in what used to be the powder room, too."
"It's very you," she said, "but more understated than I expected." Well, except maybe for the Venetian plaster walls, but she liked those. "What is it you're cooking? It smells divine." Anything to get out of his bedroom.
"Beef bourguignon, potatoes au gratin, and some fresh organic vegetables from the farmer's market," he said. "Plus your choice of wine. Ready for dinner?"
Kate walked calmly out of Ben's bedroom into the dining room, but noticed that he didn't close the door like it had been before. "I trust you on the wine."
Ben pulled her chair out for her, seated her, unfolded her linen napkin and draped it across her lap, then went to plate the dinner for the both of them, bringing Kate her dinner first, then his own, each with an accompanying glass of wine. She didn't start eating until he sat down and they toasted. "To neighbors."
After her stomach was full enough that she could think again, she broached the subject.
"Why, Ben?"
"Why what?"
"Why did you rig things so that I'd be your neighbor? Me, of all people."
"Well, first of all, I didn't know you'd buy it. I didn't know you'd buy it without Justin, though I'd certainly hoped that would be the case. On the rest, you really don't know?"
"Know what?"
He took her hands in his own, soft and warm. "Remember Tahoe?"
"I froze," she said guiltily. Then she'd knocked on his door. He'd answered, dressed only in robe and boxers, and she hadn't said anything. She'd just taken his hand, brought him to the living room, fire crackling in the background, pushed him down onto one part of the sofa set, put a blanket over him, then curled up with him as her pillow, lying perpendicularly on the other part of the L-shaped sofa. Then she'd pulled a blanket onto herself and let him run his fingers through her hair until she fell asleep. That was the last good sleep she'd gotten, and that was weeks ago.
"And then you didn't. That's not what I meant, though. What do you think I meant by what I said?"
"That you care about me."
"That I love you, Katie."
Part of her had known that, but until this very moment, part of her had been refusing to believe it.
He continued, "I keep falling for you, and I don't know where it ends. I've always felt a sense of boundaries before, and now I don't."
She felt profoundly uncomfortable, not because of what he'd said, but because of what she'd done. "I lied to Justin when I broke up with him. He accused me of running away. I said I wasn't, I was running toward something. He said it was someone, and he was right, too. But I told him he wasn't. Truth is, I've been running away from him ever since I met him, I just didn't have perspective to understand that. Lately, though, I've just wanted to understand why it didn't work so I'd know not to do it again with you."
Ben stood up, blew out the candles, and crossed to her side of the table, holding out his hand. She grabbed it and stood up, catching his intense gaze. He ran a finger along her jaw, encouraging her to look up at him.
He leaned over and brushed his lips against hers, and she teased his lips back. He placed his arms at her waist, holding her with the gentlest pressure. She ran her arms up his, resting her hands on his shoulders, feeling the muscles underneath his shirt and sighing softly. He wasn't as ripped as Justin was, but Justin was built too much like a cylon. Ben's muscles felt more real, with a tidge of softness. "Such nice shoulders," she said, then kissed his lips with more pressure than the gentle teasing he'd been offering her.
"Do what with me?" He teased, catching his breath before kissing her more.
"Huh?" was all she was able to manage, answered by his throaty chuckle. She gave up trying to use her brain and surrendered to his lips, which opened to hers, his tongue tracing the contours of her lips.
Fire spread through her as their tongues explored each other's for minutes on end, her hands running through his hair and his roaming down to her hips, pulling her closer. She lifted her left leg and wrapped it around his hip. Ben lifted her, and she wrapped the other leg around him, moaning with pleasure. Ben rocked her gently as they continued kissing.
She was so warm that she was beginning to sweat, so she broke away momentarily to peel her purple sweatshirt off, leaving only the tank beneath. She threw the sweatshirt at the sofa, but didn't bother to see where it landed. She started to wrap her arms around his neck again, then impishly unbuttoned his shirt, massaging his chest with one hand as she hung on with the other around his neck, kissing him all the while.
Ben started walking toward away from the dining room table, and Kate felt a knot form in her stomach. He pushed a button to light the fire on the way by, then reached the edge of the sofa and turned. She unhooked her legs, allowing him to sit down. He put a pillow behind his back, positioned her so her legs straddled his own, then pulled her into his slightly reclining body.
"Comfortable?" he asked.
"Mmmm," she said, leaning back in to continue their kiss.
Some time later, she pulled back.
"Ben?"
"Mmmm?"
"How long have we been kissing?"
He did a double-take, raising an eyebrow in surprise, staring at her the way he did sometimes. "No idea. Not long enough?"
"Point," she said, pulling her hair down. She wasn't tired, she didn't have any place else she needed to be, might as well enjoy herself. She rearranged herself sitting across Ben's lap rather than straddling it, getting support from the sofa back.
"Hmm," she said, then reached over to pull her shoes off. "Not quite enough support for my back." She slid toward the center of the sofa, lying along the sofa's back, beckoning him with a finger. Ben pulled his shoes off, showing off more of his mostly-bare chest, and scooted alongside her.
"Comfy now?"
"Mmmhmm." She buried her face in his chest, and he sighed happily, arms wrapped gently around her.
#
Much later, Ben woke up, still holding Kate in his arms. He looked at his watch: almost midnight.
"Katie?" He said gently.
"Mmmr?"
"It's almost midnight. I'm sorry, we both fell asleep." Despite his apology, he was smiling.
She chuckled. "So much for a big date night, huh?"
"I was comfortable and happy. Were you?"
"Yes."
"Then that's all that matters. You can sleep here on the couch if you like, or I can sleep on the couch and you could take my bed."
"Or I could go home and sleep in my own place. First night and all."
His smile fell just a bit, but he knew it was the right thing for her to do. "Of course." He helped gather her things and escorted her to her door, making sure she had her keys.
She entered her place and turned around without turning on a light. "Thanks for tonight. You're a great cook."
"Any time," he said, then clarified. "And I really do mean any time." He stroked her cheek, then kissed her lips gently. Before he was tempted to do anything further, he headed back to his place.
#
Kate closed the door on Ben, then leaned on it so she wouldn't be tempted to do anything stupid. She'd not had any plans for the night other than unpacking and scrounging for dinner, but Kate hadn't intended the evening to go the way it did. Her plans had included no Ben whatsoever - and then they did.
So typical with Ben.
In the almost year he'd been at the firm, they truly had begun to rely on each other for cases, and she'd been relying on him in other ways, apart from the complications of Justin, who was no longer a complication.
Kate gathered her bedding onto the hard floor, lit the fire, and tried to fall asleep, but all she could think about was tbe man on the other side of the wall. Why did he have to be so close?
After the thirty-fifth time she'd tossed and turned, Katie finally got some much-needed sleep.
#
After he'd gotten ready the next morning, he called Kate. "Good morning sunshine!"
"Enough with the cheerfulness at this hour," she said.
"I'll be over in ten. Want coffee? Breakfast?"
"Yes and yes. See you then."
Ten minutes later, he knocked on her door, two cups of coffee in one hand and a plate in the other.
She opened the door, towel still wrapped around her hair, all dressed in a purple v-neck satin blouse and black slacks.
"Oh, you angel," she said, taking her coffee.
Ben chuckled.
"What?"
"I have been called many things, Katie, but angel isn't generally one of them." He looked around for a place to put her breakfast plate, then settled on the kitchen counter.
"Love the minimalist furnishings," he said.
"Shut it. Justin got the furniture in our divorce, then I had the boat with built-ins, then I was living at Lauren's."
"Where did you sleep last night?" he asked, peering into her bedroom and seeing no bed.
She gestured to the bedding on the living room floor near the fireplace.
"Katie, if you wanted to sleep on a hard surface, I could have made you a far better offer."
Kate rolled her eyes at him.