Chapter 6

"What's taking him so long?" Stephanie asked herself out loud as she sat on the bed. Chris had told her that he would be there in two minutes, and that he would bring Ash with him. "Well, it's been five minutes," she said with a sigh. She stood up and began pacing the room. "Five long minutes..." Normally she wasn't so impatient, but now she was eager to get out of the guest house and away from Rich...

Chris walked over to the guest house alone. He had planned to take Ash with him, but on his way there, his wife had spotted them and had decided to take Ash in the house with her instead. I guess it's better this way, he thought as he reached the guest house. Steph and I can have some alone time to talk, and then I can find out what her argument with Rich was all about...

Rich sat in front room of the guest house looking off into space, thinking about the previous night. Did I really kiss her? he asked himself for what seemed to be the hundredth time in a row. And did I really sleep with her, even though I'm married? He sighed and ran a shaky hand through his hair. He didn't even like Stephanie. Sure, he didn't hate her, but the point was that he didn't like her. They'd never really gotten along... He didn't know what had gotten into him the night before. Guess I'm just used to getting some every night, he thought with a little smile, but his smile disappeared when the front door opened and Chris stepped inside.

"Hey, man, what are you doing over here?" Rich asked nervously as he stood up and looked at his best friend.

"I came to help Steph move her stuff out of here," Chris said shortly, shrugging a little.

"Is she leaving? Is she going home?" Rich asked hopefully.

"Not exactly. See, she wants to come sleep over in the main house until you leave," Chris said, suddenly feeling uncomfortable discussing Stephanie with Rich. This feeling was new to him, because he had always been able to discuss anything and anyone with Rich, including Stephanie. What made things change all of a sudden? He had no idea...

"Oh," Rich said. He sat back down and closed his eyes. "Did she say why?"

"She just told me that she didn't want to stay here while you were here," Chris said, starting to leave the room. "You two really have to start getting along someday."

"I doubt that'll ever happen," Rich said with a scoff. Especially after last night...

Chris walked down the hall to the bedroom at the end, knowing that Stephanie would've claimed the biggest bedroom in the guest house for her own. He was right. He tried to open the door, but it was locked, so he knocked. "Steph, it's me," he called softly. "I'm here to take your luggage over to the main house."

Stephanie flung the door open and pulled him inside, then shut the door. "Thanks for coming," she whispered, just before she launched herself into his arms like a rocket, making him fall back against the door. "I'm so glad you're here."

"Wow, Steph, I was only right next door," he said with a grin, hugging her back. When he heard her sniffling, however, his grin faded away. He pulled away and held her out at arms' length. Observing the unshed tears in her eyes, a look of concern appeared on his face. "What's wrong?" he asked worriedly.

"I did something stupid, Chris," she whispered, looking away. "I did something so amazingly stupid, and I'm just so disappointed in myself... I'm so stupid!"

"Shhh, you're not stupid, Steph," he said in a comforting voice. "Everyone does something crazy once in a while. Nobody's perfect, and I don't expect for you to be."

"But I did something horrible last night," she said, still looking away. "It's like a nightmare come true... You're going to be so disappointed in me, Chris, and I don't want you to be."

"I could never be disappointed in you, Steph. You're my best friend, so whatever you did, I'm sure it's not that bad," he said, pulling her to him and hugging her again. "I'm not going to judge you... And honestly, I can't imagine what could be so bad that you're freaking out like this."

"You're going to have this reaction, too," she said, leaning against him. "You're going to be pissed at me, and you're going to be disappointed, too. I just don't know if I should tell you."

"You can tell me anything, you know that." he said. He pulled away, then grabbed her hand and led her over to the bed. He sat down and patted the spot next to him. "Sit down and tell me what's wrong."

"You're not going to like it," she said, sitting down next to him and looking at the floor. "You're really not going to like this..."

"Just tell me, Steph, and we'll figure out what to do next," he said in a persuasive voice. "You know I'm here for you, Baby Girl. You don't have to keep this inside..."

She spoke without looking at him. "I slept with Rich."

He looked at her for a minute, then decided that it was a joke and started laughing. "Great joke, Steph," he laughed. "But now why don't you tell me what's really wrong with you?"

She looked at him, and a few tears escaped from her eyes. "I slept with Rich," she repeated in a voice that barely qualified as a whisper.

He looked at her with a look of disbelief on his face. "You're kidding, right?"

"No," she whispered, shaking her head. "I'm serious."

"B-b-but he's married!" he stammered.

"I know," she said, looking into his eyes. He didn't just look mad, he looked confused. Hurt. She could see the pain in his eyes already, and the disappointment, too. And she hated it.

"And you hate him!" he pointed out. "You've told me so many times how much you just don't like him."

"I know," she repeated.

"So you hate him, and yet you sleep with him? I don't get it..." His voice trailed off, and he shook his head at her as he looked into her eyes. "Damn it, Steph!" he exclaimed after a few moments. He grabbed the luggage he had volunteered to help her move to the main house, then left the room without another word.

"Chris!" she called after him, but he didn't answer her and didn't stop walking to look back. "Well this is just great," she muttered to herself, getting up. "Just great." She hurried after him, but then decided to go back and get her cell phone. She'd give him a few minutes to let the anger dissipate a little. "He can't stay at me for that long," she said aloud, and she wondered if it was true or if she was just trying to comfort herself...

"Chris, man, what's wrong?" Rich asked as Chris came out into the front room with Stephanie's luggage. "You look pissed, dude. You ok?"

"No, I'm not ok," Chris snapped. "I'm the farthest from ok right now that I've ever been. And what's ok, really? What the hell does 'ok' mean?"

"Calm down," Rich said, standing up and walking over to him. "Just calm down and tell me what's wrong with you."

"You know what's wrong with me," Chris said, eyes glittering dangerously. "I can't believe what you did, and you didn't even tell me!"

"What are you talking about?" Rich asked nervously.

"You slept with Stephanie! How could you?" Chris asked angrily. "You're married, and she's vulnerable! And you don't even like her! I could understand if you liked her and it happened. Yeah, I'd still be a little mad at you since you're married to Julie and all, but you don't like her and you never have... I don't know how you could do it."

"It just happened, man. It's not like I planned it," Rich said, running a hand through his hair. "One minute we were standing there and she was telling me why she sort of wanted you to kiss her, and the next minute we were-"

"Don't give me the details," Chris interrupted, holding one hand up. He looked away from Rich. "I'm going to go put Stephanie's luggage into one of the guest rooms in the main house, and then I'm going to go somewhere and be alone... Because right now things couldn't be more screwed up, seriously."

Rich knew that Chris needed some time to cool down, so he didn't say anything else. Trying to defend his actions of the night before would do nothing except make the situation worse, so instead of doing that, he walked out of the front room and headed for the bedroom he should have slept in the night before.

He stopped short of the room door, though, because he heard a muffled noise. It seemed to be coming from the bedroom Stephanie was currently occupying. He took a few steps closer, glancing back a few times just to make sure that Chris wasn't watching him. If Chris saw me right now, he'd be even more pissed, he thought. Maybe I should just go in my room like I had intended to...

His curiosity got the best of him, however, and he found himself pressing an ear to the door of the bedroom Stephanie was in a minute later. Now the sounds were clear to him. It was Stephanie, and she was sobbing loudly. He pushed the door open and gingerly stepped into the room.

"Steph?" he asked in a soft voice. She looked up at him, anger flashing in her tear-filled eyes at the mere sight of him, and he held his hands up defensively. "I come in peace," he joked, pretending to wave an invisible white flag in the air.

"I have not time for your jokes right now, Ward!" she spat, looking at him like the very sight of his disgusted her. She wiped her tears away and went on. "Chris is pissed right now, and he's disappointed in me, not to mention hurt... And it's all your fault!"

"My fault? I don't think so!" he said, getting angry at her accusations. "If I recall correctly, and I do, you're the one who mentioned what we did. You told him."

"But you're the one who initiated our little hookup in the first place," she pointed out. "So technically, the blame lies on you, Rich."

"I'm not the bitch who told!" he exclaimed angrily. "If you hadn't opened your big mouth, he wouldn't know, and you wouldn't be in here crying like it's the end of the fucking world! Damn it, don't you know how to keep your mouth closed?"

She got up off the bed and walked over to him. The look on her face was so intense that he backed up a little, but it made no difference to her. She stopped in front of him and poked him in the chest. "Now I might be a lot of things, Rich, and I admit that. I put up with a lot of name-calling and shit from other people. because that's just a part of life. I get that." She narrowed her eyes and poked him in the chest again, this time with a little force. "But I am not a bitch, and you will not call me one. Got it?"

He was absolutely speechless. He looked down at her hand, at the finger she was poking him in the chest with, then back into her angry eyes. He couldn't think of anything to say to her, because all he could feel was this spark between them, this unbearable heat as she touched him.

"Got it?" she repeated, poking him again until he backed into the wall.

He was still speechless. Julie never stood up to him this way, but surprisingly, he liked the way Stephanie was standing up to him. He liked it a lot, and he knew that she had no idea what she was doing to him. He was positive that if she did know, she wouldn't poke him again.

"Damn it, Rich, do you understand?" she practically screamed in his face. She knew that Chris was upset with her, disappointed, even, and she hated the feeling. Now, instead of crying, she could let her own disappointment in herself out through another emotion: anger. And she could direct that anger at Rich, the man who had caused her newest problems in the first place, as if she hadn't already had enough problems to deal with...

He looked at her for a minute, then grabbed her hand and switched their positions, pushing her against the wall and pressing himself against her.

"What the hell are you doing?" she exclaimed, eyes wide.

"You're just so fucking hot when you're angry like this," he growled in a low voice. "I'm so turned on right now, Steph..." He didn't wait for her to say anything. He just kissed her without even thinking twice.

It was instinctive for her to kiss him back. He was actually a pretty good kisser... But then she realized what she was doing, and she pulled away and glared at him. "I swear to you, if you ever do that again, I will slap the taste out of your mouth!" she promised. She pushed him away, walked over to grab her cell phone off the bed, then headed out of the room so she could go over to the main house...

"She's such a firecracker!" he said with a laugh. And one hell of a good kisser... He shook his head and walked slowly out of the room, heading over to the main house...

Chris put Stephanie's luggage in the room right next to Ash's room, then sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall. "What the hell was she thinking?" he wondered aloud. "Or better yet, what the hell was he thinking?"

He closed his eyes and remembered the look on Stephanie's face when she'd told him what she'd done. He would never forget that look on her face. It had seemed like she was so ashamed, and so afraid of disappointing him... He was disappointed in her. He wouldn't lie about that. The part he was unsure of was why he was so disappointed in her. Sure, she'd slept with Rich, but deep down inside, he knew that wasn't the entire reason he was upset about it...

He thought back to his conversation with Rich in the guest house, and suddenly, something Rich had said during their conversation popped into his head. "Maybe I heard him wrong, but I think he said they were talking about why she wanted to kiss me..." His voice trailed off as he tried to analyze that particular thought. Did Stephanie want him to kiss her? Really? Or was Rich just kidding with him?

Just then, his phone started playing a little tune. He picked it up and found that he had a text message from Stephanie: I'm downstairs in the kitchen w/ Jess & Ash. Can we talk please? -Steph.

He flipped his screen up to reply. Yeah. Come upstairs. I'm in the room next to Ash's...your room now. -Chris. He sent the message, then stood up and went over to the mirror, checking to make sure he looked ok. This was unusual for him. "Stephanie's my friend... Why am I trying to look perfect for her?" he asked his reflection as he made sure his hair was ok.

"Hopefully because you've forgiven me and you love me," Stephanie said, walking into the room. She shut the door quietly and locked it, then walked over to the foot of the bed and sat down on it. "Have you calmed down enough to be able to sit next to me?" she asked hopefully.

"I was never truly mad at you," he admitted, walking over to the bed. He sat next to her. "Why'd you lock the door?"

"I wanted to clear things up with you, without any interruptions," she explained, setting her phone on the bed. "And don't worry. Jess knows that I came up here to talk to you, so she won't suspect a thing."

"Is there anything to...suspect?" he asked carefully.

"I don't know..." Her voice trailed off, and she quickly changed the subject. "Now, back to what we were talking about earlier. You know, about last night and what happened between me and Rich."

"I so don't want to talk about that," he said with a frown. "I just want to forget that it happened. Maybe if I can forget, then I can pretend it really never happened..." He looked at her. "Can we do that? Can we pretend that it didn't happen?"

"If that'll make you less disappointed in me," she said. "Because I hate knowing that you're disappointed in me."

"I am disappointed, but only because I'm so confused," he said. He went on in a rushed voice. "I'm confused because I keep wondering why you would choose to make love to Rich when I've been right here the whole time."

"You're my best friend, and you're married," she emphasized. "How was I supposed to know?"

"Isn't it obvious enough?" he asked, his eyes meeting hers. "I didn't really get to know you until after I got married, and this whole time we've been friends, I..." His voice trailed off as he tried to think of someway to get his point across effectively. "Think of it this way. I just want to know why you would sleep with a man you dislike instead of turning to the one who loves you."

"I guess that explains why you kissed me last night," she said, looking into his piercing blue eyes.

"I didn't know what I was doing," he confessed. "But this morning, Rich told me that you'd wanted me to kiss you. Is that...true?"

"It had been a really long time since I kissed anyone," she said softly, looking away. "So, yeah, I wanted it. It was surprising, but nice..."

He studied her for a full minute before speaking again. "Hey, Steph," he said in a low voice. She turned to look at him, and he leaned over and kissed her softly. It was similar to the kiss of the night before, and he pulled back to look into her eyes, searching. Her eyes answered the silent question his eyes were asking, and he reached up to touch her cheek lightly before kissing her again.

She kissed him back wholeheartedly, and what seemed like seconds later, she found herself on her back with him on top of her, trailing hot kisses from her lips to her neck. "Chris," she whispered, tangling her fingers in his hair and making him look into her eyes. She didn't know what had come over her, but she only had one thing on her mind. "Chris, I want you..."

"I want you, too," he whispered back, moving up to kiss her lips again. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that this was wrong, but nothing could stop him. He was like a man possessed. He wouldn't be able to stop until he was done...until they were both done.

A few minutes later, he pulled back and sat up as he pulled his shirt off. She looked up at him in wonder as his muscular chest came into view, and she reached up to touch him. She hadn't realized just how much she'd wanted him, but now she knew the truth.. She'd been wanting him for so long that she couldn't even remember when it had started. She pulled him down so she could kiss him again, and just before their lips met, his phone rang.

"Damn it!" he exclaimed, frustrated. He reached over and grabbed his phone to see who was calling, then stood up quickly, looking guilty. "It's Jess."

"Answer it," she said, sitting straight up and beginning to fix her hair.

He answered it, turning the speaker phone on. "Yeah, babe? What's up?"

"Breakfast is ready," Jess said. "Are you and Steph on better terms now?"

"Steph, you want to answer that?" Chris asked, holding the phone out in her direction.

"We're on much better terms now," Stephanie said into the phone. She looked over at him, her eyes taking in his awesome body before meeting his eyes again. "Chris was just showing me what room I'll be staying in until Rich leaves..."

"Ok, well come on down to breakfast when you're done," Jess said. "And I'm glad that you two aren't upset with each other anymore."

"Me, too, Jess," Chris said. "Me, too." He pushed the end button and made sure his wife was off the phone before he looked at Stephanie. "I should've known that we would be interrupted. Nothing this perfect goes interrupted."

"Too bad, huh?" she asked, handing him his shirt.

His fingers brushed against hers as he took his shirt. "We still have tonight," he said, catching her eye before pulling his shirt over his head and smoothing out the wrinkles. "That is, if you still want to."

She grabbed her phone off the bed and stood up. "How could I not?" she asked, touching his cheek. She kissed him again, unable to believe that she was kissing her best friend, then pulled back. "Let's go have breakfast."

"Right. Breakfast," he said, following her over to the door. Breakfast, however, was the last thing on his mind...

A/N: Long chap, huh? Well, you guys wanted Chris and Steph together, and so did I! So... I hope you guys are happy now. I am! LOL! Another update is coming sometime this week...