Chapter 7
Stephanie sat on the couch in Chris's hotel suite looking lost and forlorn, and also pissed. Her hair was now pulled into a tight bun and her face was set and rigid. She had not spoken another word since she had asked Chris if she could stay in his room. She did not trust herself to speak or to look at Chris.
Chris sat on the smaller couch across from the one Stephanie was sitting on and looked at her. She wasn't looking at him and she hadn't opened her mouth to say one word to him since her question in the hallway. He was burning inside, doing all he could to bite his tongue, because the question was there, bouncing around in his mind. He needed to know what they had been doing when she had gone into the room.
She could feel him looking at her, but she didn't turn around. "Go ahead and ask," she said in a flat tone.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, wondering how she could possibly have known that he wanted to ask her something. Was he that obvious, or was she that perceptive?
"You want to know what they were doing in there together," she said, once again in that flat tone.
"I was kind of curious about that," he said, pausing to take his shirt off. "But I don't want to rush you into telling me if you're-"
"They were sitting next to each other on the couch. Close," she interrupted him. "They were talking in low voices, looking at a paper. I guess it was the script. I guess they really were just going over the script."
"Then why did you get so mad?" he asked curiously. "If they were just going over the script like you said they were then what's the big deal?"
He knew he had said the wrong thing when she turned to look at him. "What's the big deal?" she repeated, her eyes taking in his bare chest before looking up into his eyes. "Is that really what you just asked me?"
"Well, um, yeah," he said. He couldn't very well deny it. She had heard him say it; she was right there only a few feet away on the other couch.
"I just... They were sitting so close, Chris!" she exclaimed. "And he had his shirt off, and he was sitting closer to her than he has sat next to me in months! Months!"
"I see." He didn't know what else to say. He had obviously hit a nerve.
"You date Trish. What's so great about her? What does she have that I don't?" she asked seriously. "Help me understand! Is she better in bed than I am?"
His mouth dropped. "Wow, Stephanie, I really wouldn't know how to answer that," he said truthfully. "I've never slept with you, so how am I supposed to know?"
"I can show you," she said. "We could sleep together, and then you can tell me if I'm better than her or not."
"That's not a good idea," he said, standing up. "Just because they're cheating doesn't mean that we should, too."
"I need to know if that's why he cheated with her," she said, standing up. She walked over to him and stood in front him. "And if that means sleeping with you then why not?"
"I'm sorry, but there's no way that I'm going to sleep with you," he said, crossing his arms across his chest. "I'm not the type to cheat."
"I must really be repulsive," she said, turning away from him. "If you won't even... God, I'm desperate, pathetic, and repulsive." She walked back over to where she had been sitting before and sat down on the couch again, putting her head in her hands.
"How many times must I tell you? You aren't repulsive," he said, coming over to sit next to her. "You're not pathetic, either. A little desperate, maybe, but nowhere near pathetic."
"I'm sorry," she said, not looking at him. "I don't exactly know what came over me. It's just so frustrating, not knowing what made him cheat with her."
"I wonder sometimes why she cheated on me," he said. "And sometimes I wonder if I'm not great in bed, too. But then I think about it. I'm a living legend. I'm Y2J! Of course I'm good in bed." He smiled at her, even though she didn't see it. "I guess what I'm trying to say is it doesn't matter how great...or not so great...we are in bed, it's still not our faults that they cheated on us."
"But wouldn't you like to know for sure?" she asked, looking at him. She licked her lips slowly and waited for an answer.
He watched her lick her lips, then looked up into her smoldering eyes. When had her eyes gotten so dark? He swallowed hard. "No." He stood up. "I'm going to go take a shower. You can sleep in the bed, ok? I'll take the couch."
"Ok," she agreed, sounding rejected.
"Hey, cheer up," he said, heading for the bathroom. "Things will get better."
"Yeah right," she said. "Don't use all the hot water, ok? Because I need to take a shower, too."
"Yeah, ok," he called back. He went in the bathroom and soon he was standing under the hot spray from the shower. He couldn't believe what she had suggested. She wanted him to sleep with her just so she could find out if Trish was better than her in the bed. He wasn't going to lie to himself. He had thought about it, if only for a brief moment. But she obviously wasn't in her right mind after walking in and finding her husband and his girlfriend together, even if they had been just going over the script... There was just no way that he would sleep with her. No way.
"Mind if I join you?" Stephanie asked, pulling the shower curtain back and successfully surprising the hell out of him. She was totally naked.
"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, trying to cover himself up. He tried not to look at her but couldn't resist a little peek. She had the perfect body.
"I'm just trying to get in here while the water's still hot. Do you mind?" she asked.
"Yes, I mind!" he snapped.
"Too damn bad, Chris," she said, stepping into the shower. "I haven't been with Hunter in months. I need somebody. You're here."
"You are so going to regret this when you wake up in the morning," he said, trying to cover himself up. "You're going to be pissed at yourself for acting this way."
"You don't need to cover yourself up," she said, stepping up to him and pressing herself against him. She touched his chest, feeling his soft skin beneath her fingers and sighing. "And believe me, I'm totally not going to be pissed at myself in the morning."
"You really need to get some sleep," he said, gulping. He was trying his hardest to resist her, but she was making it difficult by touching him. How had they even got into this whole situation? I should've left her asleep in her office, he thought. I should've told her she couldn't sleep in my room tonight.
"We'll sleep later," she said, kissing him on his neck and putting her arms around him. "Now please... I haven't been with anyone for months..."
"No, we can't," he said, shaking his head, but he could feel his resolve crumbling as she kissed her way from his neck all the way up to his chin, then near the corner of his mouth.
She bit his bottom lip and smiled up at him. "Didn't you say that if he wouldn't take care of me, some other man would?"
"Well, yeah," he said. "But I never said that man would be me..."
"You never said it wouldn't be..." She kissed him softly, then more urgently.
He didn't kiss her back. Instead, he pushed her away. "Two wrongs don't make a right. You ever heard that saying?"
"This doesn't feel wrong to me," she said, kissing him again. She tangled her fingers in his wet hair and backed him into the wall. "You see," she said, pulling back to look at him. "He hasn't kissed me in so long. He hasn't touched me in forever..." She ran her tongue over whatever skin was closest, which just happened to be his neck. "He doesn't want me anymore."
He felt himself giving in as soon as her tongue touched him. "That jackass doesn't know what he's missing," he said finally, before tilting her face up and kissing her back...
A/N: I totally didn't plan on this story turning this way...yet. It's like, once my fingers were on the keyboard, they typed what they wanted to type. Whatever. Isn't it weird how stories tend to take on lives of their own?
