Katherine threw her head back and dug her nails into JR's chest. He removed her hands for fear of her marking him, threading his fingers tightly through hers. She moaned rapturously causing him to laugh wickedly. She was certainly sticking to their bargain, he told himself as he flipped her onto her back and finished what he had started.

"That was great" he praised her, leaning on one elbow, gazing into her bright blue eyes, still panting, heart racing. She gazed back, her expression suddenly switching from elated to troubled. She sat up ensuring that the sheet covered her modesty, feeling strangely exposed now.

"Katherine?" he asked, touching her back lightly in an attempt to cajole her. He didn't need to leave for at least another hour which left plenty of time for him to enjoy her again, he schemed. She turned to face him. "Have you ever been in love, JR?" He looked at her quizzically. If she was looking for that sort of compliment she wasn't going to get it, at least not from him.

"Have you?" he questioned her, irritating her by the fact that, as ever, he had to be in control of the conversation. "I asked first" she countered, not caring that she risked his anger at her impertinence. "You do realise that I'm in charge here and I don't have to answer any of your questions, don't you, sugar?" he responded with a menace that both frightened and aroused her.

"Come on, JR, we're friends, aren't we?" she asked, attempting to appease him. "All I want is a little civilised conversation. You're pretty much the only person I come into contact with that I like here in Dallas. So, tell me, has the mighty JR Ewing ever experienced true love?"

He stared at her, curious as to what had prompted the topic. He had never made any promises to her other than to help her to take over her father's business interests and get rid of Cliff and Pam in the process and that was in return for the sort of favour she had just done for him. Why was she interested in his emotions all of a sudden, he wondered as he stroked her back once more, slipping the sheet down gently yet insistently so that his hands could wander further.

"You tell me first and then I will answer" he eventually responded, distracted by what he had just been doing. He leant over and passed her the glass of champagne that he had poured for her before things got heated between them. Conceding defeat, she took a sip and began. "You see, I don't think I ever have, not really. There have been a few romances, mostly at college, just childish stuff really that was never destined to go anywhere and there has been plenty of enjoyable sex but I don't believe that I have ever been in love. I don't even really understand how it's meant to feel."

"What about my little brother?" JR asked mischievously. He had always revelled in the fact that Katherine had wanted to take Bobby away from Pamela, a woman he hated almost as much as he did her idiot older brother. She shook her head. "I thought I did, for a time. Sure, he's good looking and charming and decent…" JR laughed loudly. His younger brother's innate decency would always be his weakness and was bound to lead to him losing the fight for Ewing Oil. "Why are you laughing?" Katherine asked, bemused. "Bobby has yet to learn that there is no place for decency in the oil business" he told her. "I'm sorry, I interrupted you, please?"

Katherine took another sip of her champagne, the alcohol on a nervous, empty stomach beginning to take effect, weakening her resolve, blunting her judgment and placing her at risk of revealing too much. "I was going to say that I never really loved him though. It was all about wanting something, someone, that I knew I couldn't have. You see, that's me. I always want what I can't get. Then, when I get it I lose interest and want to move on."

JR kissed her shoulder lightly, sending shivers down her spine. "Now it is your turn" she demanded. "Why do you want to know?" he asked. "Let's just say that I find you very interesting. I'd like to know what makes you tick, whether, behind that cold, hard-hearted façade, there is someone capable of feeling emotion" she replied bluntly.

"Well then, if you must know, yes I have loved somebody. I have known that heady, intoxicating feeling when all you want is that one person, when you'd do pretty much anything to make them feel the same, to have them, to possess them, to make them yours." Katherine stared at him. "Who?" she asked, intrigued.

He was tempted to end the conversation there and then, to resume where they had left off but, something in the way that she asked, something in the way that she looked at him, prevented him. "Sue Ellen, of course" he eventually responded. "Sue Ellen?" Katherine asked, shocked by his revelation. "She was like no other woman I have ever encountered" he told her, guard down as he wistfully recalled the early days of his relationship with the young woman who would become his wife.

"She was a beauty queen and I was one of the judges and she, well, she just devastated me." "What changed?" Katherine asked, confused and then conflicted. She knew that Sue Ellen would be at home waiting for him to return, oblivious to where he was, who he was with and what he was doing, all too accepting of the lies he would tell her. "I got bored and decided to seek a little excitement. It's easy when you are me. I'm the kind of person who can have it all." "Don't you still love her?" Katherine asked, conscious of the fact that when she had last seen him and his wife together, at the Oil Barons' Ball, they had appeared, at least on the face of it, to be a happy and devoted couple. "In my own way, I suppose I do. What Sue Ellen doesn't know can't hurt her" he replied matter-of-factly.

He pushed her down and began kissing her, turning her on, determined to get what he wanted. As she submitted to him, hungry with lust, guilt temporarily banished at the feel of his touch, she murmured softly. "I love you JR." "Hmmm?" he asked, concentrating on what he was doing, not hearing her.

The End