Wine Not Coffee
Chapter 17
Kate had her hair pulled tight behind her head and she was just finishing her makeup. Back into her bedroom her thong was on the bed so into the closet she went. She only had one more dress worthy of this date. They were going back to the casino to have some fun. Rick hadn't said anything about bringing a swimsuit so she didn't plan on taking one to change into.
Her dress, the floor-length, black-spotted, white chiffon coat that went with it, and some black high heeled shoes. The shoes were little more than something to walk on with black straps. She was sure they were going to kill her feet but she wanted to look good for him.
All that went on the bed and she went looking for her one and only strapless bra that she owned. Thankfully it was black so it should work.
Thong first followed by the bra, then the dress and back into the bathroom she went to look. She didn't want any bra lines but was betting she had them anyway. "AW CRAP!" Kate tried adjusting her breasts in the bra. Adjusting how the bra fit. Nothing worked. The dress either cut too low of the bra was too big. Either way they didn't go well together.
"It's the only strapless bra I have." She needed to think. Then she heard a knock on her door. DAMN IT! Rick was already ready. "TWO MINUTES!" She was thinking more like five but she could do it in two.
The spaghetti straps came off her shoulders and the dress fell to the floor. Off came the bra and she tossed it toward the bed. She didn't have anything else. "Braless it is." Kate put the dress back on and slipped on the unlined chiffon coat. It had light padding at the top of the long sleeves and stayed in place on her shoulders. She stepped into the closet and picked up her little black purse that had a long strap so she could carrying it off one shoulder and maybe hold onto it with one hand if need be.
Then back into the bathroom to start putting stuff in it. She hurried back into the closet to get her diamond bracelet and the same earrings as before. She sat on the bed, careful not to rip her chiffon coat off her shoulders, then put on her shoes, picked up her purse, and opened the door.
Rick was leaning up against the far wall and she almost spontaneously combusted. My GOD she'd thought he was handsome last time. This time he had a three piece suit that was all, well, wine burgundy red was the best color she could come up with. He sported a jet black shirt and jet black but satin tie. The same cuff links and the same silver ring and a black pocket square in his breast pocket.
And he stood there, gaping at her with an open mouth. It didn't make him look more handsome but it did make her grin. He still thought she was sexy and she really wanted to be for him.
He was perhaps a little too quiet for too long. "You take my breath away. How do you do that?" OH-MY-GOD! He could swear he saw nipples straining against the black dress she was wearing.
She wore a long black dress that reached the floor. The front slit reached past her knee. Spaghetti straps and a low U cut neck line. And an almost sheer coat!? It was white with a touch of silver. Little black dots and it had sleeves down to her wrists. Oh my God, she was amazing.
Rick snapped out of it and offered her his arm. "Ready?" Kate took his arm and they began walking, her coat billowing behind her. He couldn't help but steal a peek, hoping to look down her dress. He just knew she wasn't wearing a bra.
Instead as she walked he saw her breasts bouncing and straining against the material of her dress. Oh my God, he was going to die. The most beautiful woman and certainly the sexiest one was on his arm.
Jo was waiting for them yet again. This time she let her mouth fall open. She wasn't a big fan of the last dress, thinking maybe Katie had overdone the breast exposure. But this time she wasn't beautiful. She was elegant. And just where did Rick get that suit?
"You two are going to cause accidents. …And I'm not paying for them," Jo told them and saw Kate smile which only enhanced her beauty. Now Jo knew why she had given her her middle name. She fit that name perfectly.
"Say goodbye to Daddy." Jo twisted Alexis around so she could see and made her wave. "Say bye Daddy." Then a sound actually came from Alexis.
Rick rushed right over. "Say that again. Say Da Da. Say anything." Rick looked at Jo who simply shrugged. All he got was a smile.
"We'll work on that while you two are gone. And Katie," Jo got her attention, "no more free cars that aren't free," she teased her.
"I promise, Mom. Just blackjack. Rick can play craps or something." Kate smiled as she teased him.
Kate was standing at the drivers side of the Ferrari while Rick was standing at the drivers side of the BMW. "Keys," they said at the same time.
"Are we going to do this again?" Kate questioned him.
"Three hours versus ten minutes. I'm driving your car," Rick informed her, waiting.
It sounded like a fair trade to Kate. Three hours in his car was worth ten minutes in hers. She fished out her keys, tossed them to him, and watched him smile. Maybe that smile was worth it.
Kate had to be very careful getting in lest she ripped her coat right off her arms and shoulders and ruined it. She'd never actually worn this outfit and had been worried that she was never going to get the chance to wear it.
Yet here she was in her little red car, being driven to a casino in Switzerland. She hadn't ever dreamed of this happening.
"Buckle up," Rick reminded her as he started the car. It was only a little farther to the Casino than it had been to the castle so this was another short ride.
Rick spun it, rocketed for the road, and turned right again. "Valet parking." He spotted it and went that way.
"Why? You wouldn't let them have your keys but you'll let them have mine?" She was hurt.
"Can you get out wearing that if I park like last time?" Rick asked her as he pulled up.
"Probably not." Not dressed in this certainly. She would rip something. The dress or the coat, something. "Fine." The valet opened the door wide for her and offered her a hand that she accepted and got out very carefully and slowly. Rick was right, she never would have managed. Rick handed over the keys and offered her his arm that she gladly accepted and in they walked.
Once again they were greeted by the sounds of slot machines making all kinds of noise.
Kate kind of liked this place. Besides having won a car here. That was now right outside.
"Chips, dollars, or a drink?" Rick inquired.
Kate considered her choices. If she got tipsy she couldn't count cards. She had promised her mother no more cars. "Chips, please." And walked with Rick over to the cashier station where she got 100CFH in chips and walked to the blackjack table.
While the dealer might not recognize her dressed like this she certainly recognized the dealer so she was going to have to be careful. Maybe lose a little more often. "Go play craps or something." Kate shooed him away.
Last time Rick had been right next to her so if he wasn't with her this time maybe that would help and the dealer wouldn't recognize her. Besides Rick was handsome. She might remember him.
"But I'm your good luck charm," Rick pouted.
"Craps, babe, go play craps. Or go win your own BMW." She saw the very same car as last time sitting there. Taunting her to come win me.
He had a Ferrari and her BMW. What did he need another one for? "Craps it is. I'll be the guy over there yelling," Rick told her.
"Good boy, go have fun." Kate kissed his cheek and walked to the blackjack table.
Kate swept her coat aside, sat down, and waited for her cards. Just like last time she never said a word and swept the table with her card if she wanted another one. Or put her bet on top of them to show no more cards.
Rick knew the basic rules to this game even if he had never actually played it before. He watched for a couple of minutes before placing his first bet.
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Kate had noticed the pit boss had joined the floorman for this table. So she gathered up her chips and left before they got the idea of what she was doing and was cheating them out of their winnings.
The house always wins was the saying and it was almost always right.
With chips in both hands she headed to the craps table and she did hear a fair amount of commotion taking place. Rick in his suit certainly stood out and she watched him shoot his arms up in the air. Apparently he was winning. And then, just like that, he had scooped up all his chips and was putting them in his pockets and was headed her way.
What he saw was a goddess headed his way. Very regal, sensual, and definitely sexy. He was going to combust on the spot as he watched her breasts bounce in that little black dress. Suddenly he wanted her. He wanted to explore every single inch of her body.
They met halfway, more or less. "You were winning." Kate smiled at him since he had clearly been watching her as she came toward him.
"Yup! Then I quit while the quitting was good. I didn't come here to get rich. Just have fun and I've had my fun." Quit while you're winning, not while you're losing. Or are throwing good money after bad.
"So how much did you win?" Kate asked him.
"You never count your money when you are winning. You just quit before you start losing it," Rick countered.
"My mistake," Kate nodded. "I quit when the pit boss showed up and started watching like the floorman was doing. So I left. I don't want to get thrown out. You have my keys." He was her only way home. Unless she called her parents to get a ride.
"Shall we cash in our chips? We can go back to that Asian restaurant again. The food was good. You can try and win another car after we eat," Rick teased her.
"Will you stop. I don't need another car. I'm still trying to pay off this one. Maybe that Fondu Plate this time. That looked good," Kate said and began to make her way to the cashier.
"Then I want to walk with you." What she wanted to do was show him off to all the other women in this place. This man is mine and you can't have him.
"Sounds fair." Rick walked with her to the cashier, let them count their combined chips, and turned that into Swiss Francs.
"If I had your winnings and mine I could pay off the loan for my car to Mom and Dad. I just need to figure out how to pay for the insurance and the gas. …Fuel," Kate corrected herself. She was still thinking like an American.
Rick took it out of his chest pocked and handed it to her. "Seriously?" She had been kidding. Not really asking. It all went in her purse then she stopped him and since she was wearing 6-inch heels she didn't need to lift up on her toes to do this.
She kissed him and kept on kissing him right in the middle of the Casino with everyone watching. Not to mention the guys in the security room. It reminded her of their little make-out session in her bedroom. The kiss was passionate and she meant it.
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Kate changed her mind about the Fondu. She didn't want it. Then she answered the look Rick was giving her. "I'm a woman and it's my right to change my mind."
"Choose what you want to eat then." Rick would let her. Now he just needed to figure out what he was going to eat. He'd had duck last time. So what to eat this time?
"Fried Chicken Teriyaki, please," Kate told her. "Just water, no gas."
"I'll have Thai Shrimp Soup and Steamed Sea Bass and just water for me also, no gas." Rick handed over his menu as did Kate.
"Two spoons for the soup, please," Kate added before she left. "I like Thai. Wish I had seen it."
"We can always come back. Besides we still have to use their pool somehow," Rick reminded her.
Kate's smile was wide. "Yes, please. …Rick, you know you didn't have to give me your winnings. I would have paid it off somehow." It was still very kind of him.
"Who else am I going to give it to? Alexis? She doesn't even know what money is yet. Besides her first allowance is going to be really small," Rick grinned.
"She really is growing up fast." Even Kate had noticed a change in her lately.
"Tell me about it. I have all these onesies I bought for her and now none of them fit her. I need to find a clothing store and get bigger ones. Followed by a garage sale," Rick joked and Kate giggling.
"Not sure they do that here." This wasn't America. "And we can stop and look on the way home later," Kate offered.
"Little overdressed, aren't we?" Rick queried, wondering if they should change clothes first.
"You don't like my dress?" Kate looked down and for the first time saw what being braless really meant.
"Oh, I like your dress. What gave you the idea for the coat?" Rick was curious. It wasn't a look he had seen before.
"Every woman has a little black dress. It's a staple of any wardrobe. I wanted to be different and I came across this thing." Kate played with the sleeves a little. "It cost me more than the dress," Kate whispered.
"And the bracelet?" Rick nodded his head at it.
Kate showed it off and played with it a bit. "Sweet Sixteen present from my parents. The only real piece of jewelry I own. Everything else is fake. Not cheap necessarily, but fake. Though some of the stuff I still have from when I was a kid playing dress up is pretty cheap." Kate kept playing with it.
She guessed she wasn't doing so bad. She was in Switzerland and dating Richard Castle. Whose book she still hadn't read.
"How's the new book coming along? I know someone who wants to read it really badly." Her mother was dying to know.
"Still working on it. Maybe a couple more months then it goes into the publisher who will make comments and send it back for editing and changes. Then eventually it will get published.
"If it does well they'll give me an advance for another book." He could use the money. This remodel was costing him a fortune.
"What's it called? Inquiring minds want to know these things," Kate asked him.
"In a Hail of Bullets," Rick replied.
"Flowers for your Grave. In a Hail of Bullets. I'm detecting a theme here," Kate chided him a little.
"I've got an idea for a new character. He's all up here at the moment." Rick tapped his head. "All action. Has to keep saving the world over and over again. Someone is always trying to either destroy it or rule all of it. It's his job to stop that. Still needs a lot of work."
"Sounds rather stormy. This head of yours," Kate teased him.
"That's it!" Rick dug through his pockets and came up empty. "MISS!" He stopped a random waitress. "Pen and any piece of paper, please," he asked her and watched her leave.
"What did I say?" All she said was that his head was full of stuff.
"His name and it's genius." Rick tried to retain the name till finally she came back with a pen and a piece of paper. "Derrick Storm." Rick wrote it down and stuffed the paper into a pocket where he could find it later.
"He'll be great and all because of you." Rick would get up and kiss her but their waitress chose that moment to deliver their food and Kate's extra spoon.
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Now they were outside walking along the lake again, hand in hand. They were full and still enjoyed the food and now each other's company.
"And here I thought moving to such a place was going to end up really lonely. I mean who ever heard of Caux, Switzerland? I hadn't," Rick commented and stole another look at Kate.
"Yeah, I'm supposed to learn all about wine. I still don't know if I want to go back to Stanford after coming here or find a local university and learn pre-law. This move has changed everything." Kate leaned into Rick for a moment and kept walking.
"Switzerland is very pretty." Rick said it while looking at Kate.
Kate saw that and felt a blush moving up to her face. It was a little busy here and she needed some place a little more private so she went back to walking.
"We need to ask about the pool before we leave. I don't have one and unless you're hiding one, you don't either," Rick mentioned.
"No, no pool and I would like to come." Private or not she needed to tell him. "I'm sorry, Rick."
Rick felt his heart land in his stomach and begin boring to some place a lot deeper.
"I'm sorry I made you wait. I really did need to think this through. It means a lot. Maybe a whole lot." She was still a little scared and it wasn't just Alexis. She was only nineteen years old. She was afraid she was moving too fast.
"Rick, can we? I mean, I'd like…" She blushed again and looked down for a moment then raised her eyes to look at him. "Can we have sex later tonight? I want you. I want to…" Kate had to stop talking when Rick kissed her and continued kissing her.
They were another elegant young couple kissing by the shores of Lake Geneva.