Chapter 9. Sooo busted

There was something wrong here. But it felt so very right. Finn looked down at the mess of copper hair on his chest. His fingers were stroking her hair seemingly by their own accord. This was the first time he had woken up with the girl he'd spent the night with still in his arms. Kiera moved a little and her green eyes opened. She looked up at him and smiled. It was her most beautiful smile yet; content, knowing and perfectly at ease with the situation.

"Good morning" she said and moved her body in kind of a cat-stretch without really losing touch with his body.

"Good morning." He replied. Kiera could see the insecure confusion in his eyes, even though he was smiling at her. "Are you wondering how the hell this happened?" she guessed. The smile had turned into a kind of smirk.

"Something like that. This is kind of a new experience. But so far a pleasant one. And I know why I'm still here, after all, this is my room. I'm just surprised that you hadn't sneaked off in the dead of night. We did sort of agree that this was a one time-thing."

"Sorry. Not my style to sneak away. Haven't had much practise with it. And besides, I was way to exhausted to move."

He chuckled. "Glad to hear it."

She put on a pretend pout and hit him over the head with a pillow. "You rat!"

He just laughed as he tried to fend of the attack with his own pillow. Their pillow fight was interrupted by a knock on the door. Finn jumped out of the bed and went for his pants.

"That's probably room-service. I thought you might want some breakfast."

"You're an angel." Kiera was suddenly aware of the fact that she was extremely hungry. Finn disappeared out of the room and Kiera snuggled down in the bed again.

Finn opened the door. It wasn't room-service, it was…

"Logan! And Jill! What are you guys doing here?" Finn was stunned. This wasn't good, not good at all.

"Hey man, you're up! I'm surprised. I kind of expected to have to break down the door." Logan said as he stepped past Finn and into the room.

"No, no, I'm up. And still wondering what you are doing here? Weren't you supposed to stay with Honor and Josh?"

"Yeah, but they decided to go shopping for antic furniture and as much as I love my sister…You've got to draw the line somewhere. So, how was last night? Laura?"

"Umm, actually…" Finn started but was interrupted as Kiera walked into the room. Fully dressed, thank the Lord.

"Hi Logan." She said and smiled a little sheepishly.

"Kiera! What? How?" He looked from one to the other and suddenly it dawned on him.

"Oh no. Tell me you two didn't… Finn, man, do you have a serious death-wish? 'cause Rory's going to kill you for this."

Finn looked like he was about to reply but Kiera was faster.

"Oh my god! Are we back to this again? Logan, the man didn't seduce me or force me or made me do anything I didn't want. We're adults for the love of… We wanted this and to be frank, it's none of your business."

"I'm sorry, hon, I didn't mean it like that. You know Rory's just worried about you. She doesn't want to see you hurt."

"And I won't be. I knew the playing field from the start, so did Finn. I'm not gonna hurt him and he can't hurt me. And if we decide that we want a no strings relationship it's our business and ours alone."

"Alright, alright. But what am I supposed to say to Rory?"

"Nothing. I'll talk to her tomorrow. Now if you all excuse me, I have like four hours of torture ahead of me. Baseball, I don't get it." She said at the quizzical looks her previous statement produced. She turned to the blond who stood behind Logan looking rather uncomfortable.

"Hi Jill, I'm Kiera. Nice to meet you. Please take care of Aussie and Jackass and make sure they don't get into a fight about all this. Bye."

She turned to Finn and gave him a kiss. "I'll talk to you later." And she was gone.

Logan just looked at Finn, his expression clearly saying he wanted a second explanation. Finn just pointed at the closed door and said: "What she said." He then kissed Jill on the cheek with a 'good to see you, love' and went into the bedroom to get a shirt. Logan followed him, obviously not pleased with the answer to his unspoken question.

"Which part?" he asked.

"All of it. She got it all right and put it much better then I would have been able to, mate. This was a one time thing. And even if we want to do it again, we'll know the rules. No harm, no foul."

"No strings attached?" Logan asked and smirked. "Doesn't the situation seem ridiculously familiar to you?"

Finn gave him a glance hard as steel in return. "I'm not you, mate. And she isn't Rory."

"No, you see that's exactly my point. You aren't me; you're far more of a player than I ever was. But Kiera is exactly like Rory. Don't you see that? This thing won't get the happy ending that Rory and I got. If she falls for you she will get hurt, and I don't think you want that."

"What makes you think that she will fall in love with me? I'm not the type that girls fall in love with. I'm the type they have some fun with, you are the one they fall in love with. Right, Jill?"

"Hey, leave me out of this. You heard the girl; I'm just here to make sure you guys don't rip each other's throats out." She lifted her hands in front of her and backed away a few steps to prove her point.

"However," she then said, "I agree with what Kiera said. She will have to work this out with Rory. Rory will have to accept what she's saying and what happens next between these two is up to them."

"Ahh, the voice of reason." Finn said and went to answer the door. "Now, who wants some breakfast?"

After the ballgame Kiera made plans to meet Rory at a café near Central Park the next day. She still hadn't worked out how to approach the Finn-situation and it was worrying her a bit, partly because she herself, despite how wonderful the night had been, wasn't so sure that it had been wise to act on their impulses. But she couldn't deny it now; she liked hanging out with Finn, she loved to be in his arms and she definitely would like to keep seeing him. No expectations, she just wanted to have fun for a while. Maybe it would just be best to grab the bull by the horns…But that had to wait 'til tomorrow, right now she had to visit a few friends of the family which she had ignored on her last trip to New York. It was good business-sense to keep friendly with these people, something her father never failed to remind her of.

She stepped out of the shower, put on her best heiress and business-woman look and prepared for an afternoon of smiling and small talk.

Kiera didn't come back from her "tour" until 8.30 in the evening. She came into the house and found the other girls relaxing after yet another day of high style shopping.

"Hey guys! I'm home." She said as she collapsed on the couch next to Kaddie.

"Hey baby. Rough day?"

"You have no idea. Some of these ladies…I swear, if I ever become a trophy-wife I will kill myself. I totally understand where 'Desperate Housewives' is coming from."

"Well, you're not going to be a housewife so just relax." Jessie said.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I think it would be great." Kaddie said. "No worries about how the business is going. You can fill your days with kids, working out and shopping. Being a trophy-wife is my goal in life!"

Kiera just looked at her. "You and me, Kaddie; very different people." Kaddie shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, but I'm not going to be the workaholic who has a melt-down at 35."

Jessie could feel an argument coming. They were all best friends, but this was a subject that was constantly a sore foot; it didn't hurt if you didn't put weight on it.

"What do y'all want to eat this evening?" she asked to change the subject. "How about take-out and a movie? You know, girls night in?"

"Sounds good to me." Kiera said and turned over on the couch. "I'm beat and I don't feel like making myself pretty again tonight."

"I concur." Lovisa said. "I want to hear more about last night."

"No, we are not going to talk anymore about my night. I still haven't figured it out so there is nothing more to say really. Except you could help me figure out what to say to Rory."

The rest of the night was spent with pizza, romantic movies and girl talk. In the end they all agreed that Kiera's usual grab the bull..-strategy was probably the best way to go.

"Hey you! " Rory jumped up from her seat and gave her friend a hug as she came into the café. "How are you? Having fun with your girls? I thought they were going to be here too?"

"Uhu…it's been great. No, Jessie and Kaddie took Lovisa on a sightseeing tour. You know, the Statue of Liberty, Empire and all that. We can meet up with them later. I wanted to see you alone first because I need to tell you something." Kiera said as she sat down and picked up the menu. "I don't really know how to start so I'm just going to say it. We ran into Finn when we were out partying the first night and umm… well, I spent the night with him." She braced herself for Rory's reaction but it wasn't what she had expected. Rory just looked at her for a few seconds and when she finally spoke she was very calm.

"I had a feeling this would happen sooner or later. It's been pretty obvious that things have been kinda tense between you two at times. I just don't want you to be hurt. You know he's a complete player."

"Yes, I know. That's just it. And we kind of agreed that this was a one time thing, you know: give in to attraction but parting as friends.No pressure, no expectations."

Rory smiled. "I hope you're better at that than I am. I thought I could do that, but it turns out I'm a commitment girl all the way."

Kiera reached across the table and took Rory's hand. "I appreciate that you care so much, but I promise I'm fine."

"I know you are. And Finn's a good guy, he's just a little…thoughtless."

"I know. But he's great in…"

"Do not finish that sentence!" Rory warned. "I don't want details. Ever."

Kiera laughed at her friend and soon Rory was laughing too.

A/N Ok. this chapter's been long in the making and still kind of sucks! I blame it all on writer's block and personal issues. Read! Review! and hang in there...