A/N: Ten chapters have gone by? Already? And my leading couple has yet to get some? Oh, okay. Even "I" am not THAT cruel. On with the smut… err… romance…
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
After talking to Warrick, Nick had gone looking for Sara and Catherine. The first one was dismissive at first, but after understanding that this was important, really important, to Nick, she accepted his apology. She even managed a joke about his "cooling off shower" and he took it in good jest, which meant to her ever more than his heartfelt act of contrition. Talking to Cath, however, had been a totally different matter.
She was understanding, but not forgiving, at least, not initially. She made him sweat in his explanation, and accepted the fact that, if he had changed, they ought to change the way they treated him as well. She made no promises, and he made no excuses.
"What I don't understand, Nick, is why you said you had raped Sofia…"
"Cause I wanted to…" Cath's eyes nearly bulged out of their orbits, and he was quick to add: "Not rape. I mean, I want her Catherine, I just don't know if I'm ready to love someone again… of if I'll ever be ready to do it…"
"So keeping everything to a "just sex" level is easier to handle?" she asked, with what he hoped was understanding.
"I… I guess so."
"Have I ever told you that for a smart man you're an idiot sometimes?"
"Why, thanks, Cath, I love you too…" he answered sarcastically
She just shook her head, feeling more like his mother than his friend. As she'd grown older she'd come to the conclusion that most women did grow up, whereas most men didn't. Why would a sharp guy like Nick be so lost when it came to accepting simple facts? He could solve the most twisted puzzles, keep on going when everyone else had already given up, and barge ahead with his heart on the sleeve, not caring if it got trashed in the process… and everything he did without giving it a second thought because it was in the line of work. But ask him to do the same when it had to do with his life and the idiot didn't know left from right. She just hoped Sofia had her head better screwed up on top of her shoulders or they'll never hear the end of it…
"Go talk to her, Nick. Tell her what you've told me. Apologize if you feel you need to… personally, I think it'd be a great idea, but I'm not her. Ask her how she feels about the whole mess and find a way to work things out between you two…"
And that's what Nick had been hoping to do. As he drove, he had rehearsed in his head over and over again all the things he was going to tell her as soon as he saw her… given that she gave him the chance. He was aware that there was a good possibility she might refuse to open the door, or that she might shut it close in his face. She might also open it bearing her gun… he decided not to pursue that line of thought and concentrated better on how to make sense of the things he was feeling and how to explain them to her in a more less clear fashion.
By the time he was ringing on her doorbell, he had the whole speech set up and running inside his head. But the moment he saw her, his mind went blank. Good thing was, hers did as well.
"June, I told you not to bo…" Sofia stood standing partially hidden behind the door, mouth open, but no sound coming out of it.
"Am I interrupting?" Nick asked quietly. He had never considered that she might not be alone.
Sofia shook her head. She didn't trust what would come out of her mouth if she opened it again. It had been difficult enough as it was closing it the fist time around.
"May I come in?" Nick asked, all southern gentleman.
For all response, Sofia took a step back and opened the door wider. Nick thanked her and step into the house, taking in its layout. Open kitchen, separated only by a half wall that gave into the dinning/living room. To the right a very small hallway that ended with 3 closed doors at the end. He assumed they were bathroom and bedrooms respectively. He walked to the breakfast bar and looked at the contents there. He made a mental note that she liked her fried rice plain and her chow mein loaded with veggies. He picked up the hot sauce.
"I grew up on this stuff. Ma had to buy it by the box, since we all loved it and would put it on everything. I'd put it on my rice pudding if she had let me…"
He was rambling, and they both knew it. He was just too nervous to actually bring up the motive of his visit and she was too painfully aware of how close her domestic fantasy had been to the truth and her heart ached with longing and her lower belly ached with need.
Nick placed the bottle back where he had picked it up and continued looking around her place, adding pointless remarks as he went by. "That power juicer is something else, too bad I have rarely a chance to use it…" when he saw the appliance sitting by the window. "I hate built-in grills in these tiny stoves… BBQ huge ones are more my style…" as he checked out the cooking range. "Don Chava's market… great place… I stopped asking my sister to send me stuff from home once I bumped into that place. It's like a hidden gold mine…" as he spied the familiar fridge magnet holding a grocery list in place.
He moved out of the kitchen and into the living room area. He still refused to look at her, still buying time until the nervousness in his stomach settled, which he suspected was not going to happen any time soon. This whole place smelled like her, spoke of her, reflected her, and he could almost "see" himself here: sprawled on the well-worn leather sofa with the Santa Fe blankets covering them… taking care of the tiny potted cactus collection she had sprinkled all over the place… remembering to feed the goldfish in the aquarium on the hallway on his way out to work every day…
Nick reached the single book case dividing both dining and living room areas and studied the contents intently. Her CD collection ("She likes Metallica???), her books (Michael Crichton and Kathy Reichs, mostly) and an impressive DVD collection, mostly black and white classics (""To Have and Have Not", "The Big Sleep", "I'm No Angel", "She Done Him Wrong") lay there and he inspected them for as long as he could, before running out of things to inspect without actually taking them out of their place.
Sofia felt completely exposed and the feeling both elated and frightened her. Here he was, learning everything there was to know about her, the kind of things that never came up in everyday conversation, the kind of things only someone with an INTIMATE knowledge of your persona would have… and Nick was taking his sweet time exploring all of them. She felt overdressed on the outside as compared to how she was feeling on the inside. Then she remembered the half-dozen movies she had stashed away on the lowest shelf of the case, and she was praying to God Nick wouldn't go as far as crouch to continue perusing the contents of her bookcase…
Nick decided that he'd stalled longer than intended. Sofia had yet to utter a word and he wasn't sure if she was being polite, she was holding back murderous rage or if she was simply stumped by his audacity. Whatever it was, it couldn't last much longer, so he better state his case soon or he'd loose his chance to do so.
"I'm sure you're wondering what I'm doing here…" he started, his back still to her. He wasn't being rude, he just knew he wouldn't be able to tell her half the things he had to if he had to look into her face… not because he was ashamed of what he'd done (okay, he WAS ashamed) but because if he looked at her and he looked at her mouth and she did as much as wet her lips… why had God cursed men, and him specially, with such healthy libidos? Would it really be asking for too much that just this once, the head on his shoulder had the upper hand?
"I came to explain myself. I came to apologize. I came to ask for a second chance. I came to try and tell you how I feel about you. It's taken me a while to realize and then admit it, but the truth is I'm crazy about you, and I don't mean just the physi…"
Nick had turned around to finally face Sofia, and he took a good look at her, for the first time since he had arrived to her place. And what he saw quite simply took his breath away.
Tousled hair, as if she had been rolling around in bed. Eyes shiny, almost wet. Lower lip being worried away. His eyes wandered down her body, despite his better intentions. He had no idea what he thought she'd wear to bed, but tank top and boxer shorts? Was she really wearing that? ("No way she's wearing anything underneath those!" gleefully screamed his libido inside his mind). He tried to shake those ideas off his mind, and concentrated on her arms and legs, long and lean limbs, and he longed to find himself wrapped up in them…
He stared at her for so long, unfinished sentence hanging mid air between them, that Sofia began to feel self-conscious about her state of undress. Mumbling an apology that wasn't really necessary, she left the refuge she had sought behind the sofa and headed towards her bedroom, intend of changing into something long sleeved or something equally covering.
Nick took two steps towards her, standing behind her, stilling her movements with his hand on her wrist. That simple touch stopped her ability to breathe, her ability to think, her ability to move…
"Please… don't… I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable… it's just that… fuck Fi, how am I supposed to make you believe me when I say that I care for you when all I've managed to prove so far is that I'm lusting after you like some bloody animal in heat?"
Sofia's breath hitched when she heard him. What was it about Nick Stokes that was hard to resist him when he behaved like a gentleman and impossible to deny him when he behaved like a cad? It took all her will power not to turn around and jump him. No foreplay, no tenderness, just go for the fly in his jeans, pump him into readiness and impale herself on him, riding him into the sunset… She could feel herself grow wet, and she cursed her attire… there was no way in hell a man like Nick wouldn't notice the damp spot on her white, cotton-covered, crotch. Damnit… she reeked of sex!
Nick was standing behind her, his hands on her elbows, the only place he trusted himself with touch, least he turned into a sex-driven maniac. If sex was the only language he was able to speak just then, so be it, but he was going to show her that he loved her, all of her, not just her body. If everything went well, there would be plenty of time later for impromptu ravishing atop the able…
"Fi… do you trust me?" he asked softly, his breath caressing the back part of her ears, sending shivers down her spine. Unable to speak, she nodded.
"Are you afraid of me?"
She shook her head no, and he thought he saw something dark flash between her blond tresses. Slowly, gently, he pushed her hair away. There, nestled happily between her neck and back, was a small tattoo, maybe inch by inch. At first glance, it looked like a letter Kay, but with two additional strokes, one next to it, the other above, like an apostrophe, and he realized it was some sort of oriental symbol. Unable to stop himself, Nick lowered his head and kissed it, softly.
Sofia felt her legs weaken and her self control slip. She wanted to pinch herself. Was this actually happening? All she knew was that, unless they got paged or a hurricane hit Vegas unannounced, she was going to make love to Nick Stokes in less than an hour; here, somewhere in her house. The table looked awfully good to her, the leather couch better be quiet, the kitchen counter, her shower stall… her bed. Thinking of them rolling all over her bed made her moan in need, and Nick took it as a sign that he was doing things right.
Slowly, he traced the contour of the tattoo with the tip of his tongue, sending shivers down her spine, hardening her nipples, spreading the warm wetness between her legs. Nick's hand began to slowly travel from her neck, where it had been holding her hair, to her shoulder, where it lifted the spaghetti strap of her tank in between two fingers, before taking it with him on his way down her shoulder to her arm. The strap went willingly, the cloth it held in place folding accordingly, and when Nick looked over her shoulder, he was greeted by the sight of her naked breast and a puckered up nipple begging for his touch.
Nick willed himself to not touch it. Instead, he began nuzzling the back of her neck with his mouth, slowly making his way towards the other shoulder, nibbling, kissing, sucking... When he came across the other strap, he caught it in between his teeth, pulling it down as slowly as his altered state of mind allowed him to. His hands shot up to her shoulders, running down the length of both arms, taking the straps down with them. Soon enough, Sofia's tank top was bunched around her waist, and Nick's hands were splayed over her belly, as he continued to kiss her shoulders and neck. The soft sighs and barely there moans that were escaping her mouth were all the encouragement he needed.
When he couldn't stand the torture anymore, he spun her around and continued kissing her shoulders. Nick forced himself to close his eyes and keep his hands anchored to her hips, or else this was going to end faster than he intended it to. His mouth reached her neck, and he began to make his way up to her face. He was intent on kissing every single inch of her face before he even moved to her lips, but Sofia had other ideas. Now that her hands were freed from the restraint of her tank straps, she moved them to get a hold of Nick's face, lifting his head to her own, quickly capturing his mouth with hers.
Nick forwent any attempt of even pretending to put up a fight. He had been longing to feel her mouth underneath his for hours, and he was not going to deny either one of them of that. Kissing her just as hungrily as she was, holding her hips firmly, he began to walk her backwards, until they reached the couch.
Sofia, in the meantime, had managed to unbuckle his belt and unbutton his jeans, tugging out the Henley he was wearing, running her hand on the naked skin of his abs, running her fingers along the elastic of his boxers, moaning in frustration inside his mouth for not being able to reach further down as he kept on walking. The moment he separated momentarily to scoop her up to sit her on the couch's backrest, she began pulling his tee off, impatiently, throwing in the to floor with utter carelessness as her hands began to discover every plane and ridge of his torso, her thumbs grazing his nipples until they were as hard as hers, scratching them, then soothing them with her tongue.
Nick thought he had died and gone to heaven the moment his mouth touched her skin. Now he was certain this WAS heaven, this was where he was supposed to be, Sofia was whom he was supposed to be with. This felt right, he felt at home and this is where he wanted to stay the rest of his life. Now if he could only convince her to give him that chance… he had told himself that if he ever had the chance to touch her again, he was going to be slow and gentle, the perfect lover, tuned to her every desire, learning every nuance of her body, attentive to her every pleasure point. In his mind, he was going to worship every inch of her body, from her head to her toes and then back, with just his lips and his fingertips…
He was going to make her come at least twice this way, before entering her. And then he was going to start moving slowly, very slowly, until her hips began begging for more, until her hands tried to make him go faster, until her mouth began asking for more, seeking release yet again. And once he'd managed to make her come one third time, then he'd start pumping in earnest, seeking his own release, bringing her down with him when he finally did.
His fantasy lovemaking, however, had not included the kind of raw sexual maneuvers that Sofia was subjecting him to just then. Fuck, the woman could kiss… and she was slowly but surely kissing him to a frenzy… Snaking his arms around her body, he crushed her to his chest, kissing her fervently, passionately, as he pushed her hips into his, rubbing the bulge of his erection against the damp spot in her shorts, feeling a crazed sense of satisfaction knowing that it was there because of him…
Sofia tried to loosen his grip on her just enough to allow her to lower his jeans and her shorts. She wanted him inside of her, five minutes ago. She couldn't remember wanting to feel a man inside of her so badly… hell, she'd even resort to begging if she had to, anything, really… but she needed him now.
"Stop… undress… now…" she mumbled in between scorching hot kisses and sloppy licks and gnawing bites that were leaving her lips and skin all raw and tender… and loving every second of it. Their hands went instinctively to each other's waists, pulling down, hips shimming in order to get rid of the unwanted clothes.
"Fi... I wanted… this… to… go slower…" he panted, as their naked bodies continued to rub and grind against each other, desperate to find the right angle.
"Fuck… slow…" she growled, frustrated for being so close and yet so far. "Fuck me… now… please"
Having heard her say such words inflamed him. Fuck restraint then, he'd do wild and savage now; tender and gentle would have to wait for round two… or maybe three. Or maybe sometime in the next two weeks, until his body had found a way to resist her grinding hips, her nipping mouth, her demanding hands…
With a triumphant growl he managed to enter her in one motion. Sofia moaned hard, throwing her head back, arching her back in such fashion that the first hard thrust Nick gave send them hurtling backwards into the couch. The fact that his jeans and boxers were tangled around his ankles didn't help much, and they came crashing down. His hand reached out, hoping to grasp anything that would help him avoid them rolling all the way to the floor, but all he managed was to hit the remote control. The speakers boomed to life, windows literally shaking with the vibrations.
"Perfect" Nick thought, as they lay in a heap on the floor, "Just what I needed: Ozzy telling me he doesn't want to stop…" he thought, as he fumbled with the darn gadget from hell until he managed to turn the sound system off.
He was a bit startled to find out that, despite their Cirque du Soleil stumble, he was still inside of her. Underneath him, Sofia was shaking, and he tried to move away, but her hand on his backside stilled him, allowing him to just raise his torso.
"Fi?"
Laughter prevented the blonde from talking. "Oh…. Oh god… that was… that was… oh god it hurts…"
She opened her eyes, and saw Nick's expression. His head was tilted to the side, like a dog's when not sure as to how to proceed, and that sent her into another laughing fit, her whole body convulsing. Her mirth was infectious, and Nick's deep guffaws soon joined hers, his body rocking against hers as they both giggled, and snorted and chortled.
Sofia was making an effort to stop the laughing fit. "Oh god… oh god… that was… hysterical…." her breath suddenly hitched in a lower tone, and her eyes widened. "Oh god… oh… oh… OH!"
Nick felt her whole body stiffen, and he cradled her in his arms, gently thrusting into her, aiding her ride her orgasm out until he felt her relax completely and become utterly still.
"Did you die on me?" Nick asked, half joking, half serious.
"No… but what a way to go…"
"I can almost hear Doc pronouncing you…" Nick made his best imitation of the coroner; "She died of a laugh-induced orgasm combined with a concussion sustained mid-coitus, which she got after tumbling backwards after a particularly ill-timed ram-like thrust…"
Sofia lost it again. "Stop it, Nick!" she cried, batting him away. "Ram-like, my ass…"
"Oh, really?" Nick asked, raising an eyebrow, thrusting a bit harder and deeper his time, making her gasp. "If you want my ram up your ass all you have to do is ask…" he growled in her ear, and she gasped again.
Damn man… he was going to make her come again just by merely staying inside of her and growling dirty delightful wicked ideas in her ear…
"Fi?"
"Yes, Nick?"
"I don't know about you, babe, but I'd really, REALLY like to get rid of the rest of my clothes…"
Sofia looked down and realized that, for all purposes, Nick was fully dressed from his toes to his ankles. Still giggling, she managed to slide from under him and helped him up to a sitting position. Between the two of them they quickly rid him of the boots, socks, jeans and boxers. They looked at each other: completely naked, sitting on the floor in the middle of her living room, still chuckling from what had to be one of the most bizarre, albeit fun, sexual escapades of their lives. And it felt great.
Nick got up to his feet and he helped her up. Most of the times, he was a bit awkward about parading his nudity around a woman's house, but, somehow, this felt like the most natural thing in the world. When he was usually reaching for his clothes to put them back on, he had reached for them to remove them for good, and now he was following Sofia… his Fi… naked, into the kitchen, as if it were a normal, every day occurrence. And he liked that. So much, in fact, that he wished he could do this on an everyday basis.
Sofia turned around to ask him if he wanted reheated Chinese, when she noticed his half-erect cock bobbing up and down as he walked. He noticed her gaze and blushed a bit, losing his recently found bravado.
"I'll just… put on my boxers…" he mumbled and turned back into the living room.
"Wait" he heard her say, and stopped.
"Keep walking. All the way to the last door straight ahead. Make yourself comfortable, but not too comfortable, in my bed. And keep that thought" she said motioning to his erection, "up. I'll be right there."
And with a pat on his ass, she sent him on his way. She smiled. She was a Bacall gal, through and through, although she had to admit she'd been more Mae West just then… she knew Nick had a gun… but this time around he simply was happy… very happy… to see her.
Nick shook his head, amused. Who knew the proper Detective Curtis was, in reality, this fun, sexually liberated and stimulating, vixen? He thanked whoever deity was responsible for keeping her safe until he'd bumped into her, and for giving him a chance to step into her life and have her step into his. He dived into her king sized bed, not wanting to think why a single gal would have such a big bed to begin with. While trying to get comfortable, he felt something digging in his back, and he searched in between the covers to see what it was…
Back in the kitchen, Sofia was trying to find something she could take with her into the bedroom. She had found two cans of soda (good, they needed they sugar levels high) and some roasted peanuts (proteins were also good). But, alas, no whipped cream, no chocolate sauce, not even a lousy jar of maraschino cherries. She REALLY needed to start remembering doing the chores she kept putting aside for a later time, like doing the grocery or…
The soda cans fell to the floor when realization hit her. She now remembered what else she'd left for "later" and she ran to her bedroom, hoping it wasn't too late. All her hopes, died, however, when a familiar buzzing sound greeted her before she had even opened the door…
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
A/N: Sorry, I can't help it. Even my smut scenes need a cliffhanger or else the muse isn't happy. But look at it on the bright side. Cliffie means another chapter. Another chapter means more sex. More sex means… you know what it means.
This is for the Wenches. They all requested a specific something-something for this scene… hope you're all pleased with the results!