Chapter Eleven - Pictures of You

"Why don't you just admit that you had fun tonight?" Patrick asked with a laugh. "It won't kill you to admit that you had a good time on a date."

"It might." Robin said with a grin, taking another sip of her coffee. "I have to say, though, that I am pleasantly surprised to see that you were not half as arrogant tonight as I thought you would be. Although for a moment there when the waiter screwed up our order and then dropped one of those little potatoes in your lap, I thought you were going to lose it."

"Do you know how much these pants cost?" He asked, looking down at the stain on his upper thigh. "They were not meant to have a hot, buttered potato dropped on them." Robin laughed at the look on his face and he had to crack a smile, even though he was not happy about his new pants. "Besides, I was trying to impress you with my good behavior. Are you impressed?"

Robin looked at him coyly and said, "Maybe."

"Come on!" Patrick protested, "I have tried really hard here...dinner at the best restaurant in town, tickets to the exclusive performance of Chris Rock doing his comedy live...which were very hard to get, by the way...and now coffee and dessert at Kelley's. You can't give me any credit here?"

"Where we go doesn't impress me." Robin said with a smile and then said quietly, "You impress me."

"Well, my surgical skills are..." Patrick began, puffing up at her compliment.

"This has nothing to do with your surgical skills." Robin laughed. She played with her coffee cup and Patrick waited patiently for her finish. "Whenever most people find out that I am HIV, they treat me like I'm made of glass. Like something that they could possibly do or say is going to make me break. For as far as we've come with this disease, sometimes I feel like we haven't come that far at all in some respects. But you never did that. You never backed off or treated me like you were afraid. Even when I didn't give you the benefit of the doubt."

"You're not that scary." Patrick teased, seemingly uncomfortable with her words of flattery.

"I am to some people."

"Some people are idiots." He said quietly and when Robin looked into his eyes, she believed he meant it.

Quickly changing the subject, Robin said, "So, you're into photography? That's interesting."

Patrick chuckled at her sudden change in mood and said, "Yes, it is. I needed something to occupy my time that wouldn't damage my hands."

"Something besides chasing women, you mean?" Robin teased, smiling up at Mike as he poured her another cup of coffee. Before walking away, he winked and Robin grinned as she took a sip of her newly warmed coffee.

"What can I say?" He replied with a smirk. "I appreciate beauty. In all it's forms."

"Well I would love to see your work sometime." Robin said, meaning it.

"How about right now?" He asked and Robin looked at him in confusion. "My portfolio is upstairs."

Robin almost choked on her sip of coffee. "You're renting a room at Kelley's?" She asked with a laugh.

"It's only temporary. Until I find a place that I like." He said. "Do you want to see my pictures or not?"

"OK. Go get them." Robin said.

Patrick shook his head. "You have to come up."

"What?" She asked and he smirked.

"Calm down." He said with a laugh. "This is the digital age. My prints are still in the dark room at my place in New York, but I brought my computerized pictures with me. They're on my computer and I am not lugging that thing down those stairs."

"Then I don't want to see them."

Patrick cocked his head and grinned at her. "What's the matter, Robin? Afraid you won't be able to control yourself when you're alone in a small room with me?"

"On the contrary," Robin returned, "it's you and your precious hands that I'm worried about. If I remember correctly, you're the only one who has been making any moves in this relationship."

"And," Patrick countered, "if I remember correctly, you have enjoyed every one of my moves." Robin blushed and looked down at the table. Patrick tried a new tactic. "What if I promised to be a perfect gentleman while you look at my pictures? Then would you come?"

"I don't trust you."

"Well, there's a shocker." He said wryly. "I swear." He promised. "I swear on my reputation as a surgeon that I will keep my hands to myself while we are in my room."

Robin regarded him for a moment and then decided to let her guard down. "I'm holding you to that. Mike is Sonny's father and if I scream, he will have Sonny's men here so fast that you..."

"I swear, you can take the fun out of any conversation!" Patrick said emphatically and rolled his eyes. Then, with a sexy grin he added, "But just for the record, some women enjoy it when I make them scream."

Now it was Robin's turn to roll her eyes as she stood up. "Let's go." she said, heading for the stairs. Noticing Mike's interested grin as they walked by, Robin said, "It's not what you think. We will be right back." When Mike laughed, she said, "Seriously."

Patrick's room looked just like the rest of them at Kelley's Boarding House, simple and unassuming, and Patrick had adding nothing to make it his own. A book lay open on a bed, revealing a multitude of pictures. "This is what you couldn't lug downstairs?" She asked him pointedly.

"That isn't my portfolio. That's just family stuff." He said, moving over to his computer. But Robin was interested in the photo album on the bed. She knew that it's presence on the bed meant that Patrick must have been looking at it recently and that intrigued her. She carefully looked through the makeshift book. Each picture had a title and a description written underneath in Patrick's familiar handwriting, showing a lifetime of moments captured forever, many faces and emotions displayed.

Patrick looked over at her while his computer booted up. She smiled brightly, her face glowing in the dim lamp light. The carefree look in her eyes and complete ease of her expression made him pause. He had never seen her like this. She was simply beautiful.

Robin, sensing Patrick's gaze, turned her head upward to meet his eyes with her own. "Smile." Patrick said, capturing her beauty with his camera and a bittersweet smile flirting on his lips.

Robin's hands immediately covered her face as she giggled. "Don't." She said. "I don't like having my picture taken."

"Why not?" He asked, aiming his camera and snapping another picture of her. He lowered his camera and asked quietly, "You don't know how stunningly beautiful you are, do you?"

Robin could feel the blush creep into her cheeks as she said, "It's not that. I just..." Unable to find the words to explain, Robin looked back down at his photo album. "These are beautiful pictures..."

Robin stopped talking when she felt Patrick come and sit on the bed next to her. "Look at me." He said quietly, studying her with different eyes. An artist's eyes. He put his hand under her chin and lifted her face toward his. She could feel the shivers go down her spine when he brushed her hair off her shoulder and re-positioned her shoulders in an artist's pose. Lifting the camera back up to his eye, Patrick stood up again and brought her into focus with his lens. "Trust me." He said, clicking away with his camera. With every click, Robin started to lose her inhibitions and started to play for his camera. He loved the way she smiled seductively at him and casually shook her hair back free of her face, her femininity a perfect contrast to the masculine surroundings of his room. Posing for him made her feel more like a woman than she had in a long time. "You, my dear, are a natural." He said, continuing to take her picture. "Simply beautiful."

It was those words that seemed to snap her back into reality. She sat up and the look on her face became serious. "Stop," she stated in a soft, dangerous tone, "saying things like that to me. Stop always meeting my gaze when I look up. Stop defending me to Jason and Carly and offering me companionship when I have a hard day." Her words were almost bitter as she spit them out. " Stop seeking me out just to tease and annoy me. Just leave me be. And," she turned to level another glare at him, "stop watching me with…such intense fire and tenderness in your eyes. No man has dared to look at me that way in a long time and I hate you when you do that. And," she paused before saying, "yet I love you when you do that."

He watched in fascination as her eyes widened in horror, realizing what she had just said. She blushed, then turned pale, looking like a deer cornered by a hunter. A second later she stood up and rushed to the door. But Patrick blocked her path.

"Why does this scare you so much?" He wanted to know, placing himself between her and the door. "Why are you so afraid to let your guard down and try living life instead of watching it go by."

"You don't know what you are talking about." She snapped, annoyed that he had trapped her in this room.

"Oh no?" He asked, raising his eyebrow at her.

"Ten years ago, I had to say goodbye to Stone. When he was sick, I spent hours watching him sleep. I sat there trying to memorize every last detail from the shape of his face to the way his hands felt in mine. I knew those memories would soon be all that I had left. After months of pain, he took his final breath right before my eyes." The tears began to well up in Robin's eyes as she said, "Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that it's really been ten years. Probably because I remember every moment as if it were yesterday. Sitting by Stone's side, watching him slowly slip away. I felt completely powerless." Robin turned away from Patrick and looked out the small window of his room as she continued, "I've always heard that it's better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all. I guess in a way that makes me one of the lucky ones. I know how it feels to be loved by someone so completely, that it shatters you when they're gone. I've had two great loves in my life and ultimately lost them both. First, Stone was taken away by AIDS and then a moment of truth cost me Jason. Even though I tried to deny it, I've spent years hiding in my work so I would never have to experience that kind of loss again." She let out a heartless little laugh and said, "Then you come along with your arrogant flirting and your sexy kisses, and you expect me just to jump when you say so. I don't work like that."

"You could work like that." He said quietly, moving behind her. "If you just let go of the past. I know you want to."

"You have no idea what I want!" She said, turning around to face him again. Again she tried to move past him, but he remained where he was and refused to move out of the way.

"So tell me." He said quietly. "Or better yet, show me." He looked down at her and caressed her lovely face with his hand. His thumb traced a path from her jawline to the fullness of her lips. He was crazy about this woman. But he was treading in dangerous waters. "The next move is yours." He whispered.

He expected her to pull away and run out of the room, but instead she simply looked up at him with frightened eyes and a trembling look. Patrick closed his eyes and felt her silky, moist lips on his and time stood still. She took his waiting lips in a gentle, needful kiss, running her fingers through his hair. He reached around and wrapped her small body in his embrace and she deepened the kiss. Their kiss seemed to last forever which sent electrifying sensation throughout their bodies. There was so much passion building up in just that single moment, it felt like eternity. After a long minute, he pulled away from her reluctantly, gasping for air.

Grinning, Patrick whispered, "You know, if I start to scream, Mike will have Sonny's goons up here in..."

Robin laughed and silenced him by capturing his lips in another sweet kiss.