Chapter 8.

I apologize for posting later than promised, but life went a bit crazier than planned!

Hope you'll enjoy this chapter.

The sun had risen hours ago, its rays shining through the half-closed curtains and illuminating the whole room, but it was only now, at a little past 10:30 in the morning, that Betty's eyes fluttered open.

The first thing her brown eyes landed on was a little view of the ocean thanks to the small gap between the curtains. She stared at the beautiful view for a moment, a small smile crossing her lips. Realizing that there was some weight across her waist, she looked down to realize that it was because an arm was lazily draped over her waist. Betty stared at the arm for a moment, her eyes roaming down to the hand. Even without her glasses on, she could easily recognize that hand as it was one to which she had handed documents a countless number of times in the past four years.

Just one look at that hand and it was all it took for a series of memories of the previous night to rush back to her, in only a few seconds and in perfect clarity.

It turned out that she hadn't drunk enough for the memories of the night to be blurry and incomplete, and she didn't know how to feel about that, but she was a bit worried about how it was going to be for the man in her bed.

Her gaze slowly traveled up his arm, her head moving as well so that she could look at him…at Daniel.

Betty caught a glimpse of his peaceful sleeping face before she shut her eyes closed and turned her head to face away from him. She let out a long sigh as she opened her eyes. She looked over at the nightstand and found her unfolded red glasses. She reached for them but accidentally dropped them off the nightstand. She winced at the little noise they made when they hit the wooden floor.

She felt Daniel slightly stir in his sleep; his arm tightened around her waist and he drew her a little closer.

Betty's eyes went round and she stopped breathing as she bit her lips together, preventing herself from making any sound. She stayed still for a moment, trying to make sure that Daniel would fall right back to sleep if he was waking up now. When he didn't make any more movement, she slowly but surely pulled herself away from him until she reached the edge of her side of the bed.

She put her two hands on the floor, ready to slide out of the white sheet and off the bed, when her eyes spotted a ripped package of a condom laying on the floor.

"Wait…Do you have protection?" Betty asked after Daniel kissed her lips, allowing her to taste herself after he had just given her one of the best pleasurable moments of her life.

"There should be some in the nightstands' drawers," he huskily replied, his lips trailing wet kisses across her jaw and down her neck.

"Like com-complimentary condoms?" Betty managed to breathe out before biting on her bottom lip as Daniel sucked on a spot of her neck that she didn't even know was that sensitive.

"Mmh-hmm," he kept on kissing her while he reached for the drawer with one hand. "Gotcha," he announced as he grabbed one.

He pulled away from her neck, ready to sit back, between her legs, so that he could tear the package open but Betty quickly and effortlessly flipped them over so that she was straddling him.

She looked down at him, his gaze just as full of lust and wonder as hers, and then she took the package from his hand. She leaned down and kissed his lips. She then kissed her way down his neck, his chest, and his stomach. She smiled when she heard him gasp with anticipation. With a seductive smile, she looked up at him and ripped the package open with her fingers.

The memory popped away from Betty's mind when Daniel made a groaning noise that sounded like he was really waking up now. Panic gripped her and she spontaneously slid off the bed, ungraciously and loudly tumbling onto the floor. There was no way that Daniel wasn't awake by now, so Betty did the only thing that she could think of: she rolled under the bed to hide her naked self.

Once she was under the bed, she heard Daniel's hoarse morning voice say, "Uh… Betty?"

"Y-yeah?" Betty replied, slightly wincing.

There was a moment of silence.

"Are you, uh, under the bed?" He asked, his tone unmistakably confused as he sat up and looked around, his hand scratching the top of his head.

"Well…Um… Yeah."

There was another moment of silence, and Betty couldn't see the puzzled expression on his face but she knew him so well that she could easily picture it.

"O…kay," he said, dragging out the 'O' sound. "And, why are you under the bed?"

"I…I'm… I've got no clothes on."

"Right," he replied, sounding as though he couldn't disagree with her logic. After a short pause, he cleared his throat and asked in a slightly worried tone, "Betty, you do remember last night…right?"

"Yeah," she let out, slightly wincing. "I guess you do, too."

"Yeah…I do," he croaked out.

Although the young woman couldn't see his face, there was no doubt for her that his current facial expression wasn't too different from the one he had had when he had asked her whether they had kissed or not on the night she and his mother came to rescue him from the Community of the Phoenix.

Suddenly, the memory of that kiss came back to her in a flash.

"Daniel, let Molly go," Betty softly said, standing in front of her friend who was sitting on a chair.

"Why are you calling yourself 'Molly'? Stop! Okay?" He exclaimed, sounding utterly frustrated.

But Betty didn't stop. If he could hear her, then it meant that it wasn't too late. She could break the hallucination and save him.

"Let her go," Betty repeated, her voice soft yet firm.

"I can't," he declared, his breath catching and his blue eyes filling with tears. Betty felt a twinge in her heart for her friend. His voice broke when he continued, "I never got to say goodbye…"

"Then say it now," Betty almost whispered to him, reaching for his hand. She wrapped her hand around his and gently squeezed, hoping that it would help him come back to reality. She could feel Claire Meade's gaze on her now, but it didn't matter. All that matter right then was Daniel. Betty rubbed her thumbs against the back of his hand as she had the impression that he was looking at her as though she was telling him something that he was carefully listening to.

"Goodbye, Molly," Daniel eventually said and a sad smile crossed Betty's lips for a second before confusion filled her as Daniel leaned down towards her. She stayed still and silent as he rested a tender chaste kiss on her lips; and that kiss remained a secret between her and Claire Meade.

"I lied," Betty blurted out.

"W-what are you talking about?"

"The eyebrow-kiss; it wasn't really an eyebrow-kiss."

"The eyebrow—what?"

Betty took a deep breath and clarified, "Last month, when we were packing Molly's stuff before you gave the keys back to her family, you asked me if we…Well, if we kissed when you were under the influence of Bennett's drug. And I told you that you kissed me around the eyebrow. But the truth is that you didn't kiss me around the eyebrow." She took another deep breath, "That night when you thought you were kissing Molly goodbye, you actually kissed me… on the lips."

Betty went quiet, giving time for Daniel to respond. To say something. Anything. But he didn't. And that worried her. She regretted making such a revelation while hiding under a bed because she couldn't see his face to read his expression and figure out what he was thinking.

"I know I should've told you, Daniel, and I'm really sorry I didn't," she nervously rambled on, breaking the short silence as she began to freak out. "B-but you looked kinda apprehensive when you asked me that question and I-I didn't want things to get weird between us and for you to fire me—" She stopped when she heard him laugh. "Are you laughing?"

"Sorry, it's just… You're actually freaking out about that. Something which by the way happened a month ago," he said, sounding incredulous. "Does that mean our talk about last night is scheduled for next month?" Betty rolled her eyes at his teasing remark. "Okay. Listen, Betty. I understand why you didn't say anything. You're right. I was a little apprehensive of your answer but only because I didn't want things to get weird between us either. But, firing you, really? Betty, you gotta know that I would never do that. I could never fire you. Especially not over something as silly as a kiss. A kiss that, well, I have initiated—"

"You were drugged and unaware that you were kissing me," Betty interjected in a tone that indicated she was trying to reassure him that he didn't have to blame himself for that kiss.

"But last night, I wasn't," he simply stated in reply. Betty didn't say a word as she stared at her hands, resting flat on the wooden floor. He continued, "I know we had quite a few drinks, but I wasn't wasted to the point that I didn't know what I was doing or what I…wanted to do."

Betty remembered what she had told Daniel while leading him to her room. "I'm sure of what we're doing, and I'm okay with what we're doing, and I want what we're doing." And she remembered the way she had felt throughout their night together… Pretty, loved, safe, and happy in the arms of her best friend.

"Me neither," the young woman admitted almost shyly.

Yet again, there was another silence as they both registered what they had just told each other. Now it was clear for both of them that they both remembered the events of the previous night and they had both been perfectly consenting.

"Is your head pounding a little, too?" Daniel asked and a light chuckle escaped Betty's lips.

"I remember you used to need several bottles of alcohol to get hungover," Betty commented in response as she remembered the times when she went to his place to help him out when he was too hungover to do anything by himself (aside from calling her for rescue as though he was actually on the verge of dying).

"Yeah, but a month ago, I was still on the special all-natural, alcohol-free but drug-filled diet of the Community of the Phoenix," he remarked.

"Right."

"Well, at least, I could still hold my liquor pretty well last night, unlike someone," he teased, taking Betty aback as her mouth fell agape.

With eyes squinting into a glare, she banged above her head, at the base bed.

"Hey!"

Daniel laughed and then with a smile he said, "I'm only referring to the waterslide."

The simple mention of the waterslide was enough for both of them to remember what happened down the waterslide... The kiss in the pool... The kiss that had steered their friends' night into a whole other kind of night...

"So… Are you gonna come out of your hiding place?" Daniel inquired.

"What? Oh, yeah. I should probably get out of here. Um, do you mind giving me something to cover up?"

"Yeah, sure."

She heard some movements on the bed and the next second she saw his bare feet land on the wooden floor, on his side of the bed. She watched his bare legs make a few steps towards a direction and then she saw his hand reaching for her bikini bottom that was laying on the floor.

"No!" She exclaimed and he froze, his hand hanging in the air, just above the bikini bottom. "Not that. Um, there's a couple of robes on the bathroom door."

"Okay," he replied, and then she sighed as she watched his legs go in the other direction. When he came back to the bed, Betty saw him pause before taking a couple of steps back. "The robe is on the bed for you. I'm wearing the other one," he informed her before she saw his legs turn in the other direction. "And I'm now facing the door; for as long as you need me to."

Betty couldn't help the small smile of appreciation that appeared on her lips.

She then crawled out of under the bed. Now on her knees, she picked up her glasses that had fallen on the floor earlier and put them on before grabbing the white robe, quickly glancing over at Daniel across the bed. He was, as he had said, facing the door. She put on the robe and tied the belt before she looked up and stared at the back of Daniel's head.

She couldn't help but remember how he had been just as considerate when they walked out of the ocean and got dressed. She hadn't even been naked as she was wearing a swimsuit back then, and yet he had faced the other way, respecting her unspoken desire of intimacy.

And when she had been wearing her birthday suit with him during the rest of the night, he had been just as considerate, although in a completely different way since it was more about offering her a never-ending pleasurable time.

As Betty felt her cheeks warm up, she moved her gaze away from Daniel's back and looked at the room. She had never imagined seeing her clothes scattered on the floor along with his. For Betty, that view alone concretized the fact that they had crossed a line. A line that she was supposed to never cross. She couldn't help but wonder what the late Bradford Meade would have thought of that scene. She was pretty sure that he didn't mean 'have sex with my son' when, on his deathbed, he requested her to take care of Daniel.

She looked over at her friend, who had remained facing the wall, patiently waiting for her to give him the green light to turn around.

"You can turn around now," Betty gently declared and Daniel slowly obliged while she returned her gaze to the clothes on the floor.

Daniel had expected to meet her gaze, but her attention was focused on the floor. His eyes traveled from her head down to her toes, and a soft smile appeared on his lips as he noticed that the robe was so big on her; its sleeves were hiding her hands to the exception of her fingers. She looked incredibly adorable. He couldn't help but wonder how she did that…Look this adorable after a night during which she had unintentionally proven to him that she was the sexiest woman he had ever met.

"I feel like I betrayed your father's trust," Betty suddenly half-whispered, pulling Daniel out of his thoughts. His brow furrowed as his gaze focused on her profile. "He hired me because he was sure that you wouldn't sleep with me…"

"He didn't want me to sleep with my assistant, that's different," Daniel stated in a gentle tone. "In case you forgot, you haven't been my assistant for a while now."

"I'm still your employee," she pointed out.

"Unless I fire you," he remarked and she instantly turned her face to him. When her brown eyes met his blue eyes, he chuckled, "That's a joke."

Betty let out a small breathy chuckle and rolled her eyes at him as she went to sit down on the end of the bed.

Her gaze glued to the clothes on the floor, she sighed, "I really don't want last night to ruin everything…For things to get weird between us."

"Things don't need to get weird between us," Daniel stated. "Just so you know, you won't get any special favor at work because of what happened. I mean, you're already my favorite employee at MODE, and that's no secret for anyone." Betty slightly blushed, a tiny smile on her lips as she looked down at her lap. "But you're also my favorite person in the world," he added and Betty looked up, her brown eyes meeting his blue ones which were full of sincerity and tenderness. "I would never let things get weird between us. Even though, it's very common for close friends to sleep together."

"I've never slept with a friend before last night."

"Well, as a matter of fact, neither have I," Daniel replied with a wistful expression as he realized that all his previous partners in bed had mostly been conquests of a night.

"So, should we forget last night ever happened?" Betty inquired.

"What? Come on, you can't ask me to forget such a wild and sexy night."

"Daniel," she began in a warning tone.

"It's funny, you know, I always thought the saying was just that, a saying. But you proved it to be a real fact."

"What are you talking about? What 'saying'?"

"You know, 'lady in the street and a freak in the sheets," he smirked.

"Oh my God! Daniel!" She exclaimed in a half shocked half reprimanding tone, causing him to laugh. "Just forget everything that happened!"

"Look, even if I wanted to, I couldn't," he simply said. "Could you?"

He said those last two words in a voice so deep and husky that Betty felt the temperature rise inside of her.

"Alright, you know what?" Betty half-exclaimed, standing up and spinning around to look at him as he remained sitting. "What about pretending nothing happened, huh? We can do that, right?"

"I suppose, yeah," he replied, looking up at her.

"Good!"

"But… No regret, right?" He asked, searching her eyes.

The young woman stared at him, blinking a few times. She hadn't expected him to ask that kind of question. She knew that she had spent one of the best and most pleasuring nights of her life, but she couldn't exactly tell him that. She had no regret, of course, especially after he had put her mind at rest that he would never let their work relationship and friendship be ruined by what they had done.

"No regret," she replied with a soft reassuring smile. She noticed the faint expression of relief and happiness flash on his face. "I think we both needed to have a…crazy night," she continued and he nodded in agreement, a corner smile on his lips. She couldn't help but add, "Although, I have to say, for someone who claimed to have some technical problem below the belt, well, you turned out to be perfectly okay...more than once."

Daniel let out a burst of slightly embarrassed laughter as he looked away for a moment, one hand going to rub the back of his neck.

"What can I say? I had the right and most luscious motivation all night long," he joked in response.

"Stop it," Betty ordered, suppressing a giggle.

"That's not what you said last night," he smirked.

"Oh, my God!" She exclaimed, using her long sleeve to slap the top of his head.

"That's what you said!" He said, laughing and Betty shoved his head, but less gently than she had wanted to. "Ow! Remember, head pounding..."

"Oh, sorry," Betty quickly said as she spontaneously and protectively rested her hands on each side of his head. Daniel's blue gaze instantly looked up at her, his eyes roaming all over her face. "The only aspirin I brought is in my suitcase that went to Paris," she said as she gently rubbed his temples with her thumbs. Daniel never stopped looking at her face and Betty didn't even realize her gaze was on the room's phone settled on one of the nightstands. "But I'm sure if we call the hotel service, they can fix-"

Betty had started to take her hands off Daniel's head to call the hotel service when he grabbed her wrists, stopping her. She looked down at him, confusion painted on her face.

He cleared his throat and as he looked right into her eyes, he said, "Don't stop."

She stared at him for a second and then resumed the temples massage as Daniel closed his eyes.

With a smirk on her lips, Betty couldn't help but say, "That's exactly what you said last night."

I hope you liked this chapter!

Thank you for all the reviews, I truly appreciate that you take the time to leave them even though you don't have to. I'm just really happy that there still are some Ugly Betty (and Detty) fans out there after all these years. And I'm just happy and honored that you give my story a chance by reading it!

Take good care of yourself,

X.

PS: sorry if there were more mistakes than usual but I didn't have the time to proofread this chapter after typing it...