A/N: It's that time again… Yep, you guessed. We're long overdue for a Benamy fic!
Bathe
Benjamin Boykewich trudged through the front door, his head inclined and his shoulders slumped forward like an old man's. He was relieved that it was a Friday, that he had the entire weekend to rest and recuperate before he had to return to Boykewich Butcher's on Monday. This time of year – the holidays – really were his undoing.
It was well past midnight, cleaning up had taken three times as long since two employees had called in with the flu, so Ben crept up the stairs and past the children's rooms like a mouse. He didn't want to chance waking John, who would no doubt want exactly fifteen stories told to him again before he would go back to bed, or Sarah, who would simply wail for hours until she cried herself into exhaustion.
With an achy grip, he clutched the door handle to the room he shared with his beloved wife and pushed open the door, fully expecting to see her lying peacefully on their bed, as he found her nearly every night. But to his surprise, he saw no sleeping form in the dark, just an empty bed. His mind wandered. "Amy?"
A lone orange glow suddenly crackled to life, emanating from the bathroom like a heavenly sign. As Ben arched his head towards the light, a dark silhouette fill the entry way. It was long, curvaceous, and had her hands on her hips. "Ben," Amy's voice called, sweet as honey. "Come here…"
A numbing feeling washed itself along Ben's body, starting from the tips of the hairs on his head and moving steadily all the way down to his knees. Like a slave to his mistress's command, Ben moved towards the bathroom. As he neared, one of his wife's shadowy arms reached out and grabbed him by the scruff of his collar, pulling him quickly to her lips. He could feel the tip of her teeth nipping at his lips, almost painfully, before she quelled the pain with the slow, supply massage of her kiss. "Mmm…" he groaned instinctively.
The numbness was rapidly replacing itself with a smoldering fire as Ben pressed his arms to his wife's hips. Something soft, though not skin, was covering them. He moved his left hand lower, pressing it along her thigh until he came to a new feeling: roughness. Then skin. His mind quickly processed the materials. A teddy! Silk and lace.
Amy slid her fingertips around her husband's neck and pulled him into the bathroom, never once taking her lips away from his. "You're so tense," she frowned, now looking him in his tired – yet renewed – eyes. "I wanna help you…"
From his vantage point now inside the threshold of the bathroom, he could see that the oversized Jacuzzi was filled almost to the rim with frothy white bubbles, appearing almost like a giant bowl of freshly poured champagne. Scattered along the tops of the bubbles were skin soft blood colored petals. And scattered around the edge of the tub were candles in various shapes, colors, and sizes. Only three, however, were lit, prompting Ben to assume that must have been the light he saw after he came in.
Amy slipped her hands around Ben's waist, wound them up the length of his chest, and then slid them up to his shoulders, where she grasped the edges of his coat and yanked it down, tearing away the offending garment. With fervor, she tossed it into the corner of the bathroom and moved quickly to unlocking one by one the buttons on Ben's blue shirt.
"What about the kids?" he worried. One voice in his head was telling him to just shut up and enjoy the ride; the other was more practical, worrying that the kids might hear them.
Amy smirked. "John's with his dad and Sarah's with yours." She tilted her pretty brunette head back and the candle light flickered in her eyes as she stared at him. Her hands were still moving, unbuttoning without her supervision, as if psychic. In just a few seconds, she was finished, and quickly tore away Ben's dress shirt. She admired his chest, which was admittedly a little scrawny, but over the years of working at the butcher shop, had become toned in its own right.
Ben heaved a gasp as Amy treaded her fingers along his bare skin, making them dance like a prima ballerina. In the orange glow, he could now see that she was now just wearing a teddy, but his favorite teddy: a breathing teal silk number, with snow white lace trim both on the edges and just under Amy's bosom. It looked elegant, yet had the same appeal as an ultra mini dress, and better still, it dipped like a heart down her chest, appealing him and yet leaving just enough to the imagination to create anticipation.
As Amy bent her head down, gently unclasping the belt around his waist, he also realized that her hair was up, pinned into an antique bun with a glinting golden hairpin. He recognized the relic immediately; it was one of her favorites: something her grandmother had given her to wear on their wedding day. As she wormed the belt out of the last loop, he moved his hand to her cheek, brushing it tenderly with his fingers.
Amy stood to her full height again, also tossing the belt into the growing pile of clothing in the corner of the room. Her eyes danced with mischief as she pressed her chest to her husband's. "Come on, Ben," she crooned. "Play with me!"
Obliging, Ben slipped his arm around her neck and pulled at the clip holding Amy's bun in place. Her river of long, honey brown hair crashed around her shoulders like waves onto their favorite spot at the beach. He quickly deposited the clip on the edge of the tub and thrust his fingers into her hair, relishing the warmth that was tucked away from the strands while they'd been pinned to Amy's petite head.
"Play?" he grinned, finally allowing himself to unwind. With a suddenly burst of energy that he definitely did not have when he entered the house, he scooped her up and twirled her around, before suddenly depositing her into the bubble bath.
"Ben!" she shrieked, her eyes ballooning as she sank into the sudsy water. Her teddy soaked up the water immediately and molded itself to her body like a second skin. The thick layers of her brunette hair, too, sucked up the water – and rose petals – and clung awkwardly to her back and shoulders. Amy's eyes glittered. The splash had blown out two out of three of the candles, submerging the bathroom considerably. "Oh!" she hissed, her voice like the sexy primal growl of a mother cougar. "You're going to pay for that!"
She suddenly leaped up from the water like a rising goddess from the depths of the primordial ocean and lunged at him, sweeping her soaking arms around Ben's dry flesh and pulling him forward. The water in the Jacuzzi swelled as he was forced in, surging up and over the side of the tub in a tidal wave. He felt his wet, soapy lips crash against Amy's as the water reached the last burning candle, leaving only interspersed giggles and moans in the sloshing darkness.