My Lovlies! Sorry for the delay, but I have to write what comes to me and unfortunately I knew from the beginning of this one that it was going to be a slow go, so bare with me and we'll get there. Read on you beautiful people
Charlie stretched out her arms above her head, she hadn't fallen asleep so early in so long. Moving to roll on her back she finally noticed the warm arms wrapped around her middle, in her movement she was pulled backwards and she felt warm breath on the back of her neck.
She'd be lying if she said she wasn't surprised, but mildly thrilled at the idea of waking up with Bass Monroe wrapped around her. She couldn't move due to his arms being firmly twined around her middle, and the feel of his face being snuggled into her neck was sending shivers down her spine. She was wondering out to get out of his grasp when she heard him yawn.
"Morning sunshine." Charlie whispered with humour in her voice.
Bass snuggled into the warm body wrapped in his arms with a satisfied sigh before he realised he fell asleep with Charlie in his bed, his eyes snapped open and he sat up nearly tossing her on the floor.
Charlie rolled to the other side of the giant bed and started to laugh. "Well that's one way to wake up." She said sitting up.
"Sorry." He said rubbing his hand down his face. "I completely just molested you in my sleep." He said holding his hand over his eyes.
Charlie reached out and pulled his hand down. "Bass seriously? We're both completely clothed, we just fell asleep it's fine." She said grinning at his distress.
"But I wrapped you up like you were a teddy bear that's so not ok." He said his face completely washed in worry.
Charlie crossed her arms. "There are worse ways to wake up, and not once have I complained so how about you relax and just go with it ok."
Bass looked at her smiling face and did as told, he always felt so relaxed when she was around, but he also felt so tense, like if he said or did the wrong thing she would destroy him. "All right, I'll try."
"Good." She said beaming at him. "Now, I'm really hungry and I think the buffet is open. let's go see what kind of food they have going this morning."
"I can completely agree with that. But I'm going to get changed first." He said hopping off the bed.
"Want me to wait outside?" She asked moving to get up.
Bass moved around the bed clean clothes in hand. "No, you can stay, I'll get changed in the bathroom. If it's ok I think I'm going to take a quick shower actually." He said gently pushing her back down on the bed.
"For sure, I'll see what the english channel has to offer." She said looking up at him with a small smile.
"I'll be quick." He said smiling back at her, he turned and disappeared into the bathroom.
After the door clicked shut Charlie reached over the bed and grabbed the remote off Bass' night stand, she was just starting to flick through the channels when a knock came at the door, getting up Charlie padded over to the door and opened it.
"Bass." Miles said not looking up from the map in his hand, he pushed the door open and stepped through.
Charlie stood back and smiled at her uncle. "Not Bass." Charlie said leaning her back against the wall. "He's in the shower."
"Charlie? What are you doing in here? Isn't this Bass' room?" He asked holding the door open and looking at the number on it.
"Yes, it is. We were going to get breakfast, he told me to wait." She said, it wasn't a lie, but she wasn't about to make Miles worry by telling him she'd been there all night.
Miles looked at her dumbfounded. "Uh.. I guess I'll... Uh... See you downstairs then..." He said in a daze as he exited the room closing the door behind him.
Charlie laughed as she sat back down on the bed, she reached for the remote again when the door to the bathroom opened. "Who was that?" Bass asked towelling off his hair.
"Miles. He thought he came in the wrong room, I think he wanted to ask you something." She said laughing. "He got all confused though and left, said he'd see us downstairs." She leaned back on the bed as she watched him run his fingers through his now sticky-uppy hair. "So I think maybe, perhaps you should put a shirt on and we can go see what he wants." She said smirking at his once again bare chest.
"Yah, yah. Miles can wait two minutes." He said laughing. He rummaged around in his bag and pulled out a light green t-shirt. "How's this?" He asked pulling the shirt over his head and presenting it to her.
"Looks good to me." She got off the bed and followed him out of the room. The two made their way down the stairs bumping shoulders occasionally as they bounced their way down.
"Hey wait." Bass said stopping a step bellow her. "What did you tell him when he came in?"
Charlie cocked her head to the side and smiled. "I told him that we spent the whole night having wild crazy sex, that's why I was in your room." She almost didn't make it through her sentence without bursting into laughter at his horrified face. "I'm kidding Bass, I told him we were going to get some breakfast and you told me to wait, which is completely true."
Bass leaned into the railing as he sighed with relief. "You can't scare an old man like that!" He said grinning at her.
"But it's just to much fun." She said sweetly as she tried to look innocent. "And for the record, you're not an old man." She winked at him and hopped down the rest of the stairs.
Bass watched after her bobbing head as it disappeared around the corner, just as he was about to start down the stairs Charlie's head popped back around the corner. "You coming?"
He jumped down the last steps and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "You're as impatient as your uncle ." He said looking down at her as they walked. "Come on let's go see what he wants.
Charlie and Bass hadn't even settled into their seats when Miles pounced on Bass. "Hey, so there was this jet-ski thing down the beach that Danny wanted to do, you wanna come?" He asked sipping his morning mimosa. "You can come to obviously." He pointed at Charlie.
Charlie shook her head. "I was thinking about just hanging by the pool today, might do some drawing." She took a sip of Miles' drink as she continued. "You guys go ahead, I feel like a day in the sun." She smiled as Miles swiped his drink back.
"Alright, but don't say we didn't offer." Miles smiled at his niece.
Bass leaned back in his chair. "I can stay if you want, I think your mom said something about going into town for the day with your dad, so its just gonna be you."
She shook her head. "I'm really okay." She said smiling at Bass. "It'll be nice to have some quiet away from Danny and Miles, or as I've dubbed them The Destruction Duo."
Bass laughed as Miles scowled. "It's not my fault your brother is a giant pain in my ass."
"It kind of is your fault, where do you think he learned all the tricks and annoying habits he has?" Charlie asked crossing her arms and grinning at her uncle.
"Hardly, I'm a perfect Angel and you know it." He smirked back at her before sipping his drink.
"Ha!" Charlie laughed throwing her head back. "You Miles Matheson are anything but an angel, but if it helps you sleep at night you go right on believing what you want."
Bass threw a hand to his mouth trying to cover his laughter. "God Miles, she's got you pegged."
Miles shot Bass a glare. "Shut up."
"Are you guys going or not?" She asked amused.
"Yah I'll go." Bass said standing. "Let's go find the brat." He smiled down at Charlie. "See you later."
Miles and Bass vacated the restaurant and left Charlie sitting smiling after them, she waved when Miles looked back to wink at her.
Two hours later Charlie was sitting on one of the pool lounge chairs a drink sitting next to her chair balanced on a pile of sketch books. Her headphones were in listening to music as she sketched the world around her. She was humming along to a song completely immersed in her drawing that she didn't notice Bass had seated himself on the chair next to her.
He leaned over her shoulder watching her sketch out a little boy splashing his mother with a big grin on his face, he almost didn't want to take her out of the trance she seemed to be in, but he suddenly felt like he was intruding and needed to say something. Reaching a hand out he tapped her on the shoulder, he laughed as Charlie nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Jesus Bass! You scared the shit out of me." Charlie said ripping her headphones out. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be out on the water still?" She turned towards him clutching her sketchbook.
"Miles had an accident, we had to call it a day." He said observing her picture more closely.
Charlie looked at him stunned. "Is he okay?" Her voice filling with concern.
"Yah, he's fine. He just fell off and got pretty banged up, he's with Danny." He explained reassuring her. "I had to leave, listening to those two was getting to be tiring."
"I know the feeling, try growing up with that." Charlie laughed. "So you decided to come find me? Boring." She smiled at him.
"You said you were going to draw, I wanted to see what it was that makes you happy." He smiled back at her. "And from what I can see here you're really talented." He said nodding towards the pad in her hands.
Charlie blushed at the compliment. "Thanks. But this is just sketching, the finished product I hope will be a lot better then this."
"I'm sure it will be." He reached out a hand. "Can I see it?"
She nodded and handed over the pad. "Just don't judge to hard, the down fall to being an artist we tend to take criticism badly." She chuckled.
Bass huffed a small laugh and studied her drawing, the swirls in the water and the smile on the toddlers face he could almost hear the laughter coming off the page. He lifted the page to see if there was anything on the page bellow, and his breath hitched in his chest. "Charlie this is amazing." Bass said flipping the paper over fully.
Charlie's eyes snapped up from her iPod as Bass held out the paper, she snatched it away from him. "You... you weren't supposed to see that one..." She said quietly.
"Why not?" He asked confused. "Charlie it's really good." He emphasised taking the pad back, he looked down at a picture of himself, he was sitting on his horse from yesterday grinning and from what it appeared soaking wet.
Charlie's face had gone a darker shade of red. "Because it's weird to draw people you know without them knowing." She turned away from him.
"So? I'm flattered you wanted to draw me." Bass' eyes roamed the paper. "You made me younger I appreciate that." He laughed. "Was this before or after the falls?"
"Before, after you pulled me out of the river you had this huge grin on your face, all I thought about was how much I wanted to capture that happiness..." She trailed off at the end.
"Can I have it?" He asked handing the pad back to her. "When you finish it can I have it? I'd love to have a Matheson original." He smiled at her stunned face. "I know it's a picture of me, but it's really good."
She couldn't really form words so she nodded at him silently. Bass laughed and leaned back on the chair. "Cool, I'm looking forward to it. You can go back to what you were doing if you want, I'm beat so I might just take a nap in the sun." He closed his eyes and folded his hands over his stomach, he wasn't aware how ever that Charlie was still staring at him stunned.
She rested back in her chair glancing back at him now and again, she was finding him incredibly distracting being this close. Before she knew what she was doing she was turned towards him and sketching his sleeping form.
She worked from the bottom up, his crossed legs up to his slender folded fingers resting on his flat stomach up to his broad chest and shoulders, up his throat to his tilted chin. She drew the curve of his slightly smiling mouth, the slope of nose, his cheek bones, the curve of his strong jaw lightly dusted with stubble, when she reached his eyes she was surprised to see that he was watching her apparently not as asleep as she thought he was. He didn't move or speak though he just watched her as she resumed drawing his clear smiling eyes. She was so immersed in her work that she didn't think about the fact that he was intently watching her. She looped the pencil on the paper working on the soft curls she was trying to not imagine herself digging her fingers in.
When she finished she set her pad down on her knee and looked up at him, all embarrassment from earlier gone, she just smiled at him and tilted her head. He smiled back and sat up, his feet hit the pavement and he slid down his seat until his knees locked hers between them.
His hands moved until they were resting on her knees, she moved her paper off her knee onto the chair as she watched his face, she was so very aware of every move he made, but made none of her own. Moving closer to her he raised both hands off her knees and rested them gently on either side of her face, his blue eyes searched hers, looking for something, permission maybe, she didn't know but she didn't move, she just looked up at him her heart hammering in her chest.
One of his hands slid into her long blonde hair gently pulling her towards himself, when she made no move to pull away or protest he brought his face down to hers and ghosted a soft kiss across her lips, as if testing the waters he pulled away slightly to gauge her reaction, her eyes were wide but not in fear, in anticipation. He pressed his lips to hers again with more pressure, she responded in kind and kissed him back, he heard the clatter of her sketch pad hitting the pavement as her hands reached up and grasped at his forearms holding him tightly.
He pulled back and smiled at her. "Well...That's not really how I imagined our first kiss." He chuckled softly.
Charlie smirked at him as his hands dropped to rest at the base of her neck. "You imagined kissing me?" She replied.
Looking down at her he felt his heart going a million miles a minute. "Maybe a few times, but I never really had the courage to act on it, but when I watched to drawing me I couldn't think of anything else. I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life, you looked so content, so happy and I couldn't help myself."
"It's ok by me." She grinned. "I hope it was worth the wait though."
"More then worth it." He said drawing her close again.
Bass didn't get the chance to kiss her again as a cough interrupted them. Bass turned as Charlie's face drained of colour, behind him stood Danny, his arms crossed over his chest a smirk on his face. "Well, well what do we have here?" He asked tapping his foot.
Bass pulled his hands away from Charlie and fully turned towards him. "Uh..." Was all he could say though.
Charlie laughed and picked up her book. "Listen up, you saw nothing or I'm going to tell Miles what happened to his car last year when you came to visit, Kapishe?"
Danny raised his hands smirk still in place. "I'm not judging, you guys can do what ever the hell you want, your both adults. I'm just suggesting maybe if you don't want to get murdered in Mexico you don't make-out in public places."
"I'll take it under advisement." Charlie said staring at her brother. "Did you come over here for a reason?"
Danny crossed his arms again. "Yah, Mom and Dad are back. Said something about having gotten stuff for us, they want to meet us all for dinner in a couple hours, you think you two can rein it in by then?" Danny laughed and darted away as Charlie threw a pencil at him. "I'll see you guys at dinner." And with that he sprinted away from them.
"He's right you know." Bass said turning to Charlie a smile on his face. "Maybe the pool wasn't such a great place for that."
"I'm not scared of them. Besides a kiss doesn't mean were getting married." Charlie said diplomatically.
"True." He smiled at her. "But it's not exactly an activity I want to give up at this moment, so maybe... I'll see you later tonight after dinner? Walk on the beach?"
Charlie gathered up her supplies and shot him a smile. "Are you asking me on a date Mr. Monroe?"
"Maybe, maybe that will be decided tonight." He stood up next to her taking some of her teetering books from her hands. "Until then, let's make nice with the family and attempt to forget this for now."
Charlie reached out her hand and pulled on his shirt bringing his face down to her level. "I'll forget that you kissed me just as soon as the world ends." She smirked and kissed him again ever so lightly as she took her books back. "I'll see you at dinner." She leaned back and left a grinning Bass standing by the pool.
Later at dinner the group was sitting around the table waiting for Charlie and Danny. Charlie showed up first, her hair was down in loose curls tied loosely with a clip to one side, a long flowing white skirt, and a light blue tank top that complimented her eyes. Bass' breath nearly escaped him when he saw her walk through the arch towards them, she sat in the chair beside him leaving the empty chair next to Miles for Danny.
Dinner commenced pretty uneventfully, Rachel and Ben dispensed new clothes to Danny and Charlie that they had found in town and shared stories of where they should go if they want to go. Bass took the opportunity to lean across Charlie and grab the salt shaker to whisper in her ear. "You look beautiful."
Charlie smirked and tried not to let her glee show through as Miles looked their way and nodded at them smiling, completely unaware that Charlie had slipped a hand on Bass' knee. "Careful, or I'm going to kiss you right here." Bass Whispered behind his hand that he had just decided to lean on. Charlie just smiled and removed her hand.
As the other nights were an indication, Charlie and Bass were left at the end of the night sitting by the beach. It was Charlie who broke the silence. "So... You don't regret what happened earlier do you?" She asked quietly, she didn't know why but she was suddenly extremely self conscious.
Bass turned towards her and grabbed her hands. "Never." He whispered. "Not if you don't, I know it was a fast move but like I said, you were beautiful, and you still are." He tried to reassure her through his heart stopping smile.
"Good." Charlie moved off her chair into his lap. "Then kiss me again." Bass did as told and kissed her softly, before pulling away. "You interested in that walk on the beach?" He asked running his hand along her hair pulling the clip out.
"Most definitely." Charlie said smiling. Bass stood, lifting Charlie with him then setting her down.
"Let's go." He held out his hand for her to take, when she slid her fingers between his they set off down the beach, walking, and talking about their lives.
Later that night, Bass walked her up to her room and stopped outside. "I think tonight we should sleep alone." He said brushing the backs of his fingers along her cheek.
"Probably, I'll see you in the morning though?" She asked leaning her cheek into his touch as she looked up at him.
"Of course, I'll come get you for breakfast?" He asked leaning her against her door.
"Okay." She smiled softly at him. "I had a really nice time tonight, thank you. And thank you for letting me draw you earlier."
"I had a really nice time to. For the record, you can draw me any time." He grinned and leaned down to kiss her one last time. "Now go to bed before I change my mind."
"Night Bass." Charlie said opening her door and slipping behind it.
"Night Charlie." Bass said raising a hand in a half wave. He turned and walked down the hall a smile that wouldn't quit on his face.
Charlie mean while skipped to her bed and flopped down on it smiling fiercely, tonight was a good night and she was going to sleep like a baby knowing Bass was down the hall thinking about her the way she was thinking about him.
I hope you loved this and much as I loved writitng it!, this kissyness came a chapter sooner then I thought it would but I couldn't resist! So leave me a review/comment/Pm and I'll see you in a couple days with another update somewhere :)