Chapter 2
He walks around the booth to sit directly across from me. I am still smiling.He looks at me and grins his Cheshire cat smile, the one that makes me meltinside. He sits, silent, gazing at me. He sighs.
"So, you let your curiosity get the better of you, I see." he says sweetly
"Well, you know me. I love a good mystery. I have to admit,
you were the last person I suspected."
"Hoping for someone else?" he asks
"Well, no. Not exactly."
"Color me so surprised." he says happily. "So, what are we havingfor breakfast?"
"I haven't ordered yet. I was waiting for my mystery companion."
"Thanks for the courtesy." he said as he picked up the menu and ranhis eyes over it.
Inside, I was a bit shocked. I never thought of him as the romantic type,roses and all. I can see that he is still smiling behind his menu.I pick mine up and look at the selection. I lift my eyes, briefly,to see he is looking at me. I go back to the menu and make my selection,then lay the menu flat on the table. He closes his and motions for thewaitress. She comes and takes our orders and returns a minute later withcoffee for my companion.
"I was actually surprised to see you here." he confessed
"Why is that?" I asked
"Well, you had no idea who you were meeting." he explained
"Well, I'm here and so are you. So, lets enjoy ourselves, shall we?"
"I intend to." he says with a big grin
Minutes pass and the waitress returns with our meals. I ordered a fruitsalad and he ordered the same, to appease me, maybe. I watch as he picksthe grapes out of his dish and moves them to the side of his plate. I fishthe pineapple out of mine and place them similarly.
"Trade you. Pineapple for grapes." he offers
I tip my plate towards his and empty the pineapple onto his plate.
He tips his and dumps his grapes on mine. We eat in relative silence.When we finish our salad he picks up the menu again and looks at me.
"Wanna split a split?" he asks
"What kind of ice cream are you going to order?"
"Chocolate and strawberry, of course." he responds
"Deal."
He motions for the waitress again and orders the split. The waitress leaveswith the order and he looks at me. He looks so intently, I fear he will seethrough my cool exterior.
"Rough day, huh?" he asks
"Yeah. That scene was the pits. No real evidence to speak of. Then I hadGrissom asking me to stay late and help him with reports."
"I know, I heard. I must admit, I was glad to hear you tell him you alreadyhad plans for the morning." he said sweetly
"Well, to be honest, even if I didn't meet you, I still would not havehelped him. He's been acting a little weird lately. He's been grinningat me a lot lately and constantly brushing up against me. I think he mighthave some sort of twisted Grissom crush on me." I explained
The split came and we shared it. It was kind of surreal, me sitting in adiner sharing a split with Jim of all people. I secretly hoped it was him,my Guardian Angel. I was elated to find that it was. We finished our splitand he paid the bill, refusing to allow me to even leave a tip. We walkedoutside and pondered what to do next, as we both had the next 36 hours off.
"You going home?" he asked me
"I don't know yet. I feel like I should go for a walk to burn this split off."
"Well, why don't we?" he offered
As we walked the streets of Las Vegas, we stopped and looked in a fewwindows and got some iced coffee at one of the cafe's. As we passed theMonaco, Jim reached down and took my hand in his, lifting it to his lipsand planting a small peck on the back of my hand. I did not pull away,and I think he was glad for it. We stood at a crosswalk, waiting for thelight to change, when I looked over to my left and saw Grissom in his truck,staring at the two of us. I nudged Jim.
"Jim, don't look now, but Grissom is at the light, and he is staring at us."
Jim looked over at Grissom and gave a big smile and waved to him,but not before kissing my hand again. Jim turned to me and smiled.
"That should clear up any questions he might have about you." he said smiling
"It will confuse the hell out of him, is what it will do."
"He sees you with me, maybe he will stop creeping you out." Jim pointed out
"Good point. But then we will have to spend more time together and startgoing out. Him seeing us once will confuse him, seeing us more than once,will deliver the desired message." I corrected
"Well, I guess we will have to start seeing each other, then." he quipped.
I was a little ill at ease after seeing Grissom, and Jim picked up on this.He did his best to take my mind off of the encounter. We stopped in frontof Tangiers and he turned to me.
"You wanna come to my place, I have Stargate." he said with a smile
"Well, I do love my Stargate." I said
"I know you do. I saw the most recent season dvd on your front
seat last week." he smiled
"Deal. But I'm just coming for Jack, ok?" I asserted
"Yeah, and I only watch for Carter." Jim joked
We walked back to the diner and got into our vehicles. I followed Jim to hisplace and parked behind him in the driveway. We walked up the drive to thefront steps of his porch. He unlocked the door and pushed it open,motioning for me to go first. I walked in his house and noticed howspacious it was. He had a lot of open room. He directed me to sit on thecouch and he went upstairs to change into something more comfortable.
When he came down, he offered me some sweat pants and a New Jersey Devil'st-shirt.
"You want to change into something more comfy before the marathon starts?"he asked sweetly
"Yeah, actually, I would."
He showed me to the bathroom and left me to change. I emerged from thebathroom feeling very comfortable. The sweats were well worn and the shirtwas soft and smelled of him. I soaked in his essence. I settled on thecouch next to him and he hit the play button on the dvd player. We startedwith the original movie with Kurt Russell and James Spader. When the moviehad ended, I inadvertently yawned. Jim turned to me and smiled.
"Get up for a second." he said
I got up and he pulled two large cushions from the couch and laid them onthe floor. He grabbed a quilt from the back of the couch and laid it besidehim. He laid down on the floor and motioned for me to do the same. I lookedat his suspiciously and raised an eyebrow to him.
"Its really very comfy." he assured me, patting the cushion next to him.
I lay down next to him and found that it was, in fact quite comfy.
The cushions were fluffy and allowed for a head angle that was optimalfor viewing pleasure. I crossed my legs at the ankles and stretched myarms above my head. He put in the first dvd of the first season and wesettled in. Right about the same time as Teal'c helped O'Neill and therest of the prisoners escape the fortress, I yawned again. Jim turned tome and asked if I was tired.
"You tired?"
"A little, but I'm fine. Let's watch more." I said
"Ok, but if you get too tired you can go lay down in the bedroom." he offered
I turned to look at him and grinned.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" I said
"I am a gentleman. I think I can lay beside a beautiful woman and keep myhands to myself." he assured me.
We watched the next episode and half way through I stood up and lookeddown at him.
"You sure you can keep to yourself?" I asked
"Scout's honor." he said, crossing his heart with his fingers.
"Besides, I have a dvd in there, too."
I smiled and we took the dvd's to the bedroom and I climbed into bed.He put the dvd in the player and sat on the bed with the remote andpressed play. We settled in and resumed out mini marathon. Very quickly,I became sleepy, and yawned again. Jim turned his head and looked at me.
"I thought you were an insomniac." he joked
"Usually, I am. But for some reason, I am having trouble keeping myeyes open."
"Well, just go with it. Drift away." he said sweetly
And drift, I did. I slept for about an hour before opening my eyes.
I tilted my head to look up at him, he was still awake and smiled downat me. He stretched out his left arm and motioned for me to place my headon his chest. I looked at him and he reassured me that he was a gentleman.I placed my head on his chest and could hear his heartbeat;it was strong and steady. I draped my left arm around his mid-section anddrifted to sleep, again.
The next time I opened my eyes, I looked at the clock and it read 4:00pm.I could tell by his breathing, that Jim was asleep. His arm was drapedaround my shoulder and his hand rested on my upper arm. He wheezes whenhe sleeps, I thought to myself. I smiled. He was being very gentlemanly,offering his chest for me to rest my head on. His hands never came closeto wandering. I closed my eyes and fell back to sleep.
I woke to an empty bed and heard voices downstairs. Jim was talking withsomeone, and I recognized the voice. It was Grissom.
"Shit." I said quietly, but aloud
I thought to myself that he must have seen my truck in the drive and nowthere will be questions. I decided to get the inevitable over with.I climbed out of bed and tip-toed my way downstairs. While descending thestairs, I saw the two of them on the couch and made my best effort not tomake too much noise. As I neared the bottom of the stairs, one of the stepscreaked beneath my foot.
"Shit." I whispered
Jim turned his head to look at me and Grissom followed suit.
Jim looked at me, smiled and winked.
"Did we wake you?" he asked, feigning sincerity
"No, I just came down for some water." I said walking to the kitchen.
I felt Grissom's eyes on my back the whole way. When I reached the fridge,I turned to see him still looking at me. I grabbed a bottle of water andwalked to the couch. I sat beside Jim and Grissom just stared. I couldsense the wheels of his brain, and they were in overdrive. He looked at Jim.
"So, you two are seeing each other?" he asked Jim
Jim turned to look at me and smiled again. He turned to face Grissomagain and sighed.
"We were hoping to keep things quiet a little longer, but since
you ask, we're trying things out." he explained
Grissom looked at me. He had a defeated look on his face. I cleared mythroat and sighed.
"We would like to keep this on the down low, if you don't mind." I said
Grissom just stared, mouth open and said nothing. I kissed Jim on thecheek and walked back to the stairs. On my way up, I turned and looked downat Jim.
"Don't be too long, honey. The marathon is not over yet." I said with asmile and wink.
Jim came back upstairs about half an hour later. He stood in the doorway,smiling. He walked to the bed and sat back down. As he settled himself in,he turned to me and grinned.
"I think we accomplished our goal." he said
"You think?" I asked
"Yeah, and that kiss and comment about the marathon not being over yet,really threw him for a loop."
"That was the plan." I said smiling
" He just sat there staring at me. He had no clue what to say. Finally,after half an hour of near silence, he got up and left." Jim explained
Jim sat with his back against the headboard and motioned for me to movecloser. I laid my head in his lap as he pressed play again and began torun his fingers through my hair. His hands felt so good. I could feel theheat coming from him. I placed my hand on his knee and he twitched a little,then crossed his legs at his ankles. He looked down at me and spoke.
"I don't think you have to worry about him anymore." Jim said.
"With you here with me, I'm not worried at all." I said, looking up at him.
He looked down at me and pursed his lips. I instinctively licked mybottom lip, suddenly noticing that they were dry. Jim continued tolook at me as he bent his head down and placed a small, soft kiss onmy lips. I could feel his tongue against my lip and I opened my mouthslightly, enough for him to deepen the kiss and take things to thenext level.
TBC?