Author's Note: Small edit to previous chapter-I forgot to add the driver's name. Readers who got to Chapter 3 before 12/10/17, meet Jason.
Author's Note 2: Scheherazade is a real story that I definitely did not create and do not own.
Villa gasped when she realized where they were. Then she turned to Rosewood, "How? I just told you about the symphony last night, and tickets have been sold out for weeks."
Rosewood smiled, "Joo-Joo got them for us. I called him this afternoon and he made it happen."
Villa smiled, "That was sweet of him. He's getting closer and closer moving off of my most-annoying-people list."
"I used to be on that list too, didn't I?" Rosewood asked.
"Definitely," she laughed, "but you've been off of it for a while now." She slipped her arm into the crook at his elbow, and leaned against him as they walked toward the park gates.
From the entrance, an usher led them to their seats and handed them programs. "Scheherazade," Villa sighed.
"One Thousand and One Nights, right?" Rosewood asked.
Villa nodded, then tilted her head, "You mean to tell me Dr. Factoid doesn't already know?"
Rosewood smiled at the good-natured jab, "I don't. Care to enlighten me?"
Villa shifted in her seat to face Rosewood. "Scheherazade was chosen as a bride by a king who married a different virgin each night, and then beheaded them the morning after. On her first night with him, she started telling him a story that was too long to finish by morning. He kept her alive an extra day so that he could hear the end of the story, but on the second night she finished the first story and started another that was too long to finish by the second morning. He kept her alive again, she finished the second story, started a third, and on and on for 1,001 nights. By that time, the king had fallen in love with her, so he kept her alive to be his wife."
"Do you really think it took him almost three years to figure out he wanted to be with her?," Rosewood asked.
Villa narrowed her eyes at him, "Look who's talking." He grinned then and kissed her. She only pulled away when the audience erupted in applause as the conductor walked onto the stage.
An hour later, Villa squeezed Rosewood's hand as they walked out of the park. "That was amazing! Thank you!"
"You don't have to thank me, Annalise."
"I *want* to thank you, Rosie."
He kissed her again then, reveling in the knowledge that he no longer had to resist the urge. "Are you hungry?" he asked. "I made reservations." Villa nodded, laced her fingers through his, and they continued through the crowd. When the driver arrived, Rosewood whispered to him again, before climbing into the vehicle with Villa. "So I have to wait to find out where dinner is too?" she asked.
"Syèl, the new rooftop spot down the street."
Villa arched her eyebrows, "Very impressive."
When they reached the Pratt-Gibbons Hotel, they got out of the SUV and rode the elevator up to the restaurant. "Rosewood for two," he said as they reached the maître d', Henry. Rosewood placed a hand low on Villa's back as the other man led them to their table. Once there, Rosewood pulled out Annalise's chair while Henry waited patiently. When Rosewood took his seat, Henry spoke, "Your waiter is Stephen, and he'll be right with you."
As promised, Stephen arrived promptly to introduce himself and take their drink orders. They both ordered one of the restaurant's seasonal creole specials rather than entrees off the regular menu, and they enjoyed their meals with the same ease and comfort they had shared for nearly two years. Even after Stephen cleared their plates, they lingered over sips of champagne-Rosewood having a rare toast to celebrate-and new discoveries about one another.
"X-Men," Villa said.
"The Bodyguard." Rosewood replied.
"The Bodyguard," Villa laughed. "That's the first movie you saw on a date? How old were you?"
"Sixteen," Rosewood smiled, "but my date was a huge Whitney Houston fan. Plus, since it was rated R, we couldn't get tickets. I won extra points in her eyes because I bought tickets for Home Alone 2, and snuck us into The Bodyguard."
"You really have been a ladies' man from the beginning haven't you?" Villa asked.
"You say, 'ladies' man.' I say, 'charming,'" Rosewood laughed.
"Sure," Villa said, drawing out the word with a raised eyebrow.
An hour later they met the driver at the curb and climbed back into the SUV. When they stopped in front of Villa's house, Rosewood leaned forward to tap the driver's shoulder, "I'll be back in-
Villa pulled Rosewood's hand away from the other man, and handed a folded bill over his shoulder. "He won't be back out tonight."
Rosewood climbed out of the SUV silently, and curled his fingers around Villa's after she stepped out behind him. "Annalise, are you sure this is what you want? Now? There's no rush."
She pulled his face down to hers and kissed him slowly. "I'm sure. I didn't know it then, but I wanted this that night you made me a birthday milkshake at the lab. I thought I might want this when we were standing in that hallway in Coconut Beach. I knew I wanted this when I sat in the hospital after your transplant and prayed for you to wake up. Now that I know you want it too, I don't want to wait anymore. We've done enough waiting. I want to be with you, Rosie."
Rosewood grinned and leaned back down to Villa's lips. "Wait," he said. When she paused and looked up at him, he pointed to the SUV that still idled near them. He tapped the roof to get Jason's attention. When the other man looked over his shoulder, Rosewood signalled for him to leave and the SUV pulled away.
Villa smiled again before they walked together to the house. Once they were inside, she turned to face him fully, and he took the opportunity to tilt her face up and open his mouth over hers. At the same time, Villa wrapped her arms around Rosewood's neck and began walking them backwards down the hall toward her bedroom. Once they crossed the threshold, she pulled away from the kiss, dropped his hand, and reached for one of her shoulders, then another, to pull her dress down her arms.
As she pushed the garment all the way down her body to the floor, Rosewood's Adam's apple bobbed, "You are-"
"Amazing" she cut him off with a smirk and a call back to the night she had showed up on his doorstep in a cocktail dress to attend a charity event as part of an investigation. "Let's just go with amazing."
Rosewood watched her movements with rapt attention. Although he had appreciated what he saw poolside while they went undercover as a married couple in Coconut Beach, the strapless, black bra and thong that she wore now were much more dramatic than the bikini she had worn as "Mrs. Rosewood."
He continued to stare and she moved forward to push his jacket off his shoulders. She circled behind him slowly to slide the garment from his arms and chuckled as he craned his neck to continue watching her. When she moved back in front of him and reached for his belt buckle, he placed a hand over both of hers to still them and then dropped a kiss to her lips mumbling, "Nuh uh." He took a slight step back before unbuttoning his sleeve cuffs and then pulling his shirt over his head in a single, fluid movement. He reached for her again and smiled around her lips as she backed them toward the bed.
When the backs of her legs hit the mattress, she sat, curled her legs toward her chest to lift them over the edge, and began pushing herself back toward the pillows at the top of the bed. Rosewood watched her appreciatively, and then crawled over her. He kissed, nibbled, and sucked her neck until her back arched and then he reached around her to unhook her bra. His oral and manual ministrations continued as she smoothed a hand over the back of his head and the other grasped the wrist that raised him above her. "Besides the symphony, I think this is the longest I've ever heard you go without talking," she sighed.
"I'm speechless," he said against her collarbone.
He felt her shake with a low chuckle as he pulled the loosened fabric from her chest, "Two words I never thought I'd hear from you."
He straightened his arms to stare down at her with mock indignation. She laughed and stretched her neck to smack a kiss onto his lips. He lowered his lips back down to hers, and she grasped his face with both hands. The kiss was intensified when Rosewood's bare chest pressed against Villa's breasts. In response she lifted her leg, which rested between the two of his, and began to rub her thigh against the bulge pressing on the fly of his pants. "Pants. Off. Now." she said.
"Soon," Rosewood smiled. He placed kisses on each of her breasts, and then began trailing his lips down her ribcage and across her stomach. She tilted her head to watch as he hooked his fingers into the waistband of her panties and pulled them down her legs. When he reached her feet and pulled the garment away, he looked up and they locked eyes as he moved back towards her. He held her gaze as he slid his hands up her legs to rest on her thighs, and the connection only broke when he dropped his mouth to the apex of her thighs.
As soon as his tongue touched her, her hands sought grounding points to temper her pleasure—she wound one into the comforter beneath her and the other came to rest on the back of Rosewood's head. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she learned the pace of his mouth. She sighed his name as the pressure began to build in her pelvis. Rather than interrupting his work to speak, Rosewood acknowledged her breathy whisper by using his hand to squeeze her thigh. Seconds later, her body tensed as an orgasm passed through her, and he slowed his movements to guide her through the aftershocks.
He looked up when she spoke, "So you weren't kidding when you said you had the magic touch?"
"You doubted me?" he asked, smiling. Now his lips followed his earlier trail of kisses back up her body until he hovered above her on his hands and knees, his hands braced next to her biceps and his knees between her open legs.
"If I did, you just proved me wrong," she said, her hands stroking up and down his arms. The body confidence she wore everyday was only amplified in the afterglow of her pleasure.
"Anything else you need me to prove?" he asked.
"I do seem to remember hearing you say there is nothing little about Rosie," she said, her gaze dropping pointedly to the space between them.
Rosewood chuckled and backed off the bed. He watched Villa's eyes follow him as he stood, unbuckled his belt, and lowered his pants and boxers at the same time. He tracked her eyes as they swept up and down his body, and then she returned her gaze to his. She held out her hand, palm up, and he took it and laced their fingers together as he climbed back onto the bed. "Nothing little," Villa moaned.
He smiled and bowed down for another kiss. As he opened his mouth over hers, she felt him press uninhibited against her. She broke the kiss and angled her chin toward the edge of the bed. "Nightstand."
Rosewood opened the drawer without question and pulled out a foil-wrapped condom. Before he could turn to open it, Villa pulled the packet from his hand. He watched her open it, and then she locked her eyes on his as she reached between them. Rosewood inhaled sharply as she took him in hand, and rolled the condom down the length of him with a sly grin.
In just seconds he reached down to pull her hands away with one of his own, lifted them back over her body, and held them over her head. He used his other hand to brace his weight before sliding into her. When he pulled almost completely out of her, she moaned in protest, but he returned smoothly and began a slow rhythm. He released her hands then so that he could steady himself and hold some of his weight off of her body. Now unencumbered, she placed her hands on each side of his face and pulled it to hers. She kissed both corners of his lips and then pushed her tongue into his mouth. As if magnetized, one of her hands slid again to the back of his head while the other arm looped around his neck. Villa pulled her mouth away from Rosewood's to take in a deep breath and he buried his face in her neck while he continued slow strokes.
Like with his tongue before, she felt the pressure begin to build in her nerve endings. This time her release was accompanied by a mix of hums and moans as her internal muscles tightened and loosened around him. He came soon after, his back muscles rippling under her fingers while his breaths lapped against her neck. His breathing evened out quickly, but he kept his face buried next to her ear. "You ok there?" Villa chuckled, her own breathing steadying.
Rosewood lifted his head to smile at her, "Better than okay." He dropped a kiss on her lips and mumbled against them, "Much better than okay."
Author's Note 3: I did not intend for this much time to pass between posting chapters. If you're still reading, thank you for sticking around.