****
Two weeks later...
Jake groaned as he pulled up into the driveway. All the lights were off in the house. Looking at the clock, he frowned. It was way too early for Frankie to be in bed. Maybe she was over with Deidre. Ever since he'd convinced her to at least go talk to her, Frankie and Deidre hit it off and got closer. So close that often he wondered what they were up to. Deidre had rearranged her schedule to allow an addition three weeks here in Chicago to spend with Frankie. That itself left Jake with a smile of pride, he'd done good by making Frankie go see Deidre.
Even as he closed the front door, he didn't notice anything except the silence of the house. "Frankie?" More silence greeted him. Jake frowned softly and dropped his leather jacket onto a nearby chair. First he checked the den and the living room. No Frankie, no Jessie. She wasn't in the kitchen, she wasn't in the guest bedroom. "Frankie? Come on, this isn't funny if you're hiding!!" When he didn't get an answer, he stomped up the stairs, muttering loudly.
In the hotly contested fourth bedroom, Frankie stifled a giggle and waited in silence as she heard him stomping up the stairs in a pique of irritation.
Jake came around the landing and headed into their bedroom. Still no Frankie. By now he was beginning to be more than angry, he was beginning to get scared. "Frankie? Baby... are you here?" Jake hurried across the hallway towards Jessie's room. The room was dark and eerily quiet. "Jessie? Frankie?" Jake flipped on the light and was greeted by an empty crib. Jake frowned and growled before noticing the note pinned to the blanket. Carefully he picked it up and read it. 'Dear Daddy. Gammy Dee has me for the night. Mama has something special planned for you. Follow the red petals. J.' "Follow the red petals..." Jake looked down at the floor finally and noticed the liberal sprinkling of red rose petals. "Follow the red petals. Jessie, what on earth have you and your mother cooked up..." he whispered as he slowly walked back out of his daughter's room.
Looking up the hallway towards the stairs, he saw the red dots of color on the cream colored carpet. Some of them even sprinkled the stairs. Jake smiled and looked across the hallway into his and Frankie's bedroom where still more of the red petals littered the carpeting. The red petals trailed up the hallway into the debated fourth bedroom right down the hallway from them. Was that music he heard?
The note drifted to the floor out of his fingers as he carefully stalked down the hallway, a hunter seeking his prey. As he drew closer, he could see the dark of the hallway illuminated with the soft glow of candles. "Frankie?" he whispered as he poked his head into the door.
What greeted him was a completely different room than he remembered. When he last saw this room it was white with dark green and light green splatters of paint. Now the walls were a darker shade of green that looked like it was sponged with an even lighter shade of pearl green. White trim bordered the walls and wrought iron brackets held up white shelves. Books and photos were placed on these shelves in certain places. One wall held three bookcases that held even more books, photos and special momentos. Under his feet was a rich emerald green carpet so deep that it looked black in places. Right in front of the door was a white wood table that looked like an antique and an oversized white leather executive chair. A laptop sat on the desk. There was a fax machine next to the desk on it's own stand, along with the printer, a small stereo and the telephone base. The entire room glowed with the light of almost a hundred candles throughout the room.
An Irish accent greeted him as he stepped into the office completely. "Hello M'Lover."
"F-Frankie?" Jake stuttered as he turned towards the sound of her voice. What he saw caused him to drop his jaw in utter shock.
Frankie smiled felinely. She sat in a large black leather executive chair with her feet propped up on the corner of an equally large white painted wood executive desk. She wore black pumps with heels that were sky high along with a black silk necktie tied loosely around her neck - And nothing else. She'd done her hair the way Jake loved it, big and shaggy like the morning after in Florida over a year ago. Her lips were painted up red and so were her fingernails.
"Whoa..."
"Yes baby?"
"Frankie... I..." He looked around the room. "What is all this?"
"This... is our office." She dropped her hands to brace her elbows on the arms of the chair she was sitting in. As she did, her breasts were exposed for Jake's wide eyes as he turned around to look at her.
"Our office?" He turned and looked around again before looking back at her. "OUR office?" He started to laugh.
"Yes baby. OUR office." Frankie grinned brightly. "I've been working on it since the morning we moved in. That morning, when Shay and I went shopping, we were shopping for the furniture to go in here."
Jake smiled. "She was in on it?"
"Frank too. The day Shay got in the accident, Frank had to come up with some way to get you out of the house so we could get the furniture delivered here. It was supposed to be a surprise for you."
"Frank was in on it. And I suppose that Burkholtz is too?"
"Only since she and I started talking. That's why Jessie is with her tonight. You and I have the entire house to ourselves."
"We do?" Jake grinned as he slowly stalked over to the desk she sat behind. His eyes drank in the purely exotic sight of his nude wife sitting behind the desk. "Who's desk is that behind me?" He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the desk roughly five feet behind him.
Frankie stood up and sauntered around the desk. "That. That is my desk."
"It is, is it?" Jake chuckled huskily as he curled his fingers around her tie and pulled her closer. Frankie lifted her rear end onto the edge of the desk as Jake inched closer to her. "And this desk here?"
"It's your desk." she whispered softly as Jake's lips brushed against hers.
"My desk..." he growled out as he claimed her lips roughly, his tongue pushing past her lips to stroke hers. Frankie's arms wound around his neck and returned his kiss with equal fervor.
When he finally came up for air, Jake whispered softly, "You know what..?"
"What.." she whispered right back, her ankles crossing behind Jake's waist.
Jake smiled as he traced the outline of her lips slowly with the tip of his tongue. "I've always wanted to make love to a beautiful woman on my desk…" he whispered as he eased her back onto the desktop.
****
~finis~ (for now...a new Frank/Shay Jake/Frankie adventure coming soon!)
A/N from Gypsy - Yeah, you got it Ladies and Gents... Burkholtz is Frankie's Mom. We've been setting this up since the last FIC. If you'll recall the shadowed figure that Caroline called after Frankie called her? Diedre ~S~ it also explains to everyone now why Frank and his team were sent in to arrest Morhoff for his arms dealing and such... and the only one who could testify was Frankie.. It also explains why Diedre was so concerned when Frankie went into labor and why she flew down to oversee the hostage negotiations.. ~giggle~ Nothing... NOTHING beats a mother's love.
I hope you all enjoyed reading Quito's Gamble. I had a blast writing it with Shelley!