Chapter 13

After dinner, Lisa put a sleeping Jess in the playpen, then helped some of the others carry the leftovers into the kitchen where Allison was putting it in containers. The boys decided it was a good time to go back into the pool, since they really couldn't leave to go anywhere considering that Tara was still there. She was, after all, officially Tony's visitor, so the boys felt it would be ill-mannered to leave while she was still there with her parents. House remained on the patio and watched as Dee wandered from the edge of the pool where she began throwing her toys at the boys, back to him where he would hand her more of her floating ammunition from her toy box so she could take them back and aim at her brother and his friends. Ryan seemed to be the only one to take offense by her shenanigans.

"Hey, Sandra Dee! What are you throwing stuff at me for? I thought I was your shining knight–or at least your surfer dude prince."

"You're a toad!" Dee said to him as she flung another toy and watched him duck his head. "Dean's a prince."

"Ahh!" Dean stopped his horseplay with Tony and Ryan when he heard her and looked at the strong-willed little girl. "That's so sweet!"

"Don't get any ideas lover-boy," House commented from his chair. "She didn't say prince of what."

"Yeah! I didn't say prince of what!" Dee told him, then looked at her father, confused by his choice of words as she went back to him and climbed up onto his lap. "What is he, Daddy? Prince of what?"

"Isn't she sweet?" Amanda cooed as she sat close to House.

House and Dee both looked over at the woman, but there was just something that irritated Dee, and without another thought, she reached over and lifted the woman's swimming suit strap until she covered more of her breast.

"Your boob is almost out," Dee told her as she leaned back against her father and stared at her. "Why did you buy your swimming suit so small? Didn't they have them big enough in the store? My mommy always makes sure my swimming suit is big enough for me. Sometimes, she'll buy me two different swimming suits–and they both fit. My boobs never try to fall out like yours."

The woman looked at the girl as if she had grown another head. There were sounds of muffled laughter coming from the pool, and House merely smiled knowingly at the woman without commenting on it. Then, sitting a little straighter, Amanda looked from her hands back to the little girl.

"You're very fortunate that your mother buys you two swimming suits. Tara always has more than one each year."

Dee looked at her a moment, almost as if she were weighing the importance of the woman to her three-year-old existence, then finding it lacking, she turned her head into her father's chest and snuggled close, preparing to go to sleep.

"I don't want to talk to you anymore. I'm going to sleep. You can go home now."

House may have reprimanded his daughter, but in actuality, his mind was more on the woman in the kitchen as he watched her through the window and saw her putting food away. She smiled up at that over-muscled asshole a little more than she should have. He shifted Dee on his lap until she was in a more comfortable position and nestled in to go to sleep, but he continued watching Victor as he leaned close to where Allison stood. House watched as the man's eyes would drop from her face and look at her slender curves as he talked to her. The sensation that Amanda Fleming was repeating herself, turned his attention back to her briefly.

"I said, are you thinking about going to the conference in Baton Rouge?" Amanda asked again.

"Uh–no, I haven't been thinking about it. When did you say it was?"

"The end of July. It would be a nice getaway for a week or so. Of course, if you liked it there, you could always stay longer."

House looked at her, knowing what she was insinuating, but it wouldn't be the first time, that he's been compromised since he's been married. Most of the time he simply ignored it. Sometimes he had to blatantly point them in another direction if they became too persistent. He imagined that pretty soon he was going to have to be obvious and tell her to take a good look at herself–then look at what he's got at home in his bed–then do the math.

"Are you going away, Daddy?" Dee asked quietly as she put her thumb in her mouth and stared at the lady while she remained cuddled against his chest.

"No–Daddy's not going away," he said just as quietly, his attention already going back to the gorgeous doctor putting leftovers into containers. He kept wondering how she could stand in there with that oily mass of muscles without a bran and listen to his horseshit. He looked at Lisa who was in there also, and noted that she listened to him politely as well. He looked for Wilson but didn't see him. Damn, he was counting on him staying with the women while they were around that piece of crap.

Wilson finished helping Allison bring the food inside and after listening to Victor Becker's continuous boasting of all his endeavors during his lifetime, he eagerly excused himself to go to the bathroom. He paused on the way, stopping in the living room to see if he had left Jess' favorite doll there the night before, but when he couldn't find it, he resumed his journey to the bathroom. He went to the toilet, but as he was about to go to the sink to wash his hands, he heard something behind him. He looked quickly to see Tara standing directly behind him and he looked at the door, wondering if she just came in and he simply wasn't paying attention. The door was closed and he realized she had been in here the whole time, watching him.

"Tara!" Wilson moved back quickly, his backside bumping into the marble of the counter top. "What are you doing in here?"

"Don't worry, Dr. Wilson," she said softly as she approached him and placed her fingers on his still-bare chest. "No one has to know."

"Know what?" He asked quickly, his pulses racing as he looked around, praying for a means of escape without alerting the whole house.

"I saw you looking at me tonight at dinner, Dr. Wilson." She ran her fingernail over his nipple and smiled when it hardened.

"You were sitting directly across from me–I don't know how it could have been avoided," he told her as he grabbed her hand and pushed it away.

"I saw you looking at me, and you weren't staring at my face, doctor."

"I think you better go back out to the patio with your parents."

"And I think I should stay in here with you." She smiled seductively at him as she stepped on tip toe, put a hand on either side of his face and pulled him toward her to place her lips on his.

"Tara!" He put his hands on her forearms and pushed her away. "Stop this!"

"Stop what, Dr. Wilson? I've only begun." She came back to him and lowered herself onto her knees in front of him.

He couldn't believe what was happening as she pressed her mouth against the cloth of his swim trunks. He was thoroughly disgusted by her behavior and instead of getting hard as she was sure he would, he may have even shriveled a bit. He put his hand on her head, with the intention of pushing her away when the door opened.

"James, did you find Jessica's doll?" Lisa asked, then stopped immediately upon sight of the girl on her knees with her husband's hand on her head. "Oh, my, God!"

Lisa turned with a speed Wilson couldn't believe and closed the door behind her. This time Wilson didn't hesitate as she shoved the girl, landing her on her too-small bottom on the bathroom floor.

"If, you–little girl–ever touch me again, you won't be able to sit on that bony ass of yours for a week! You'll have a beating you'll never forget." He felt his stomach turn when she actually smiled up at him and started getting to her feet, but he didn't have time to put up with the antics of a spoiled rotten little tramp–he needed to find his wife. "Lisa!"

House watched as Lisa ran through the kitchen and out the back door. She reached into the playpen and pulled her sleeping child out, then ran past House and Amanda with a frantic expression on her face. He looked back to the kitchen and saw Wilson run in and saw the look of utter shock covering Allison's face as he asked her a question and she pointed toward the door. Wilson then hurried onto the patio just as the sound of a car starting could be heard. He immediately ran through the gate where he tried to grab onto the car's door as Lisa was backing out of the driveway.

"Lisa! I swear! It wasn't what you think!"

She didn't listen as she nearly knocked him into the lawn and backed into the street then squealed the tires as she sped off.