Six

"Come in!" Robin called out at the knock on her office door. She spun her office chair around to see who she had just given permission to enter and she broke into a smile when she saw it was Patrick. She waved him in when he hesitated upon seeing her on the phone. "Non, c'est bien. Au revoir." She hung up the phone and got up to join Patrick where he had dropped onto the small plum colored sofa she had squeezed into the office.

"How was surgery?" she asked quietly as she studied his pale, drawn face.

"She didn't make it." He leaned his head on the back of the couch and entwined his fingers with Robin's when she took his hand.

Robin's heart ached for him. "Are you done for the day?" Robin asked, searching her mind for something she could do for him. He turned his head, still propped on the back of the couch, and uttered a mumbled yes. "We could have dinner and I could give you a massage. Unless you just want to crash or be alone."

Patrick's face lit up at the idea. "Well, that's an offer I definitely cannot turn down." He picked up their joined hands. "I can't wait to have these lovely, little fingers all over my body. In a purely therapeutic manner, of course." He bit his lip and winked at her.

Robin smiled and brushed the hair that was drooping on his forehead back. "Why don't you go change and meet me back here. I need to finish something up and I'll be ready to go."

Patrick dropped a kiss on her cheek before leaving her office and heading for the doctor's locker room.

He was standing under the spray of the shower, letting the water pound his sore shoulders when everything he'd been putting off thinking about crowded into his mind. Thoughts about the conversation he and Robin had at dinner the other night when she had gotten back to town. Stuff he still hadn't figured the heck out. Like what the hell did "dating" mean?

How was it different than no-strings sex? Words like exclusive and commitment were not uttered and he didn't think it was implicit in the practice; he wasn't sure what Robin expected. Frankly, "dating" was a suggestion made out of desperation. He knew what he hoped it meant. He hoped it meant he got to keep sleeping with Robin; he hoped it meant that if she planned to go out of town or decides to move that she'll talk about it with him first, though he's been reluctant to broach the subject of having overhearing her talking about moving to Rome. He definitely assumed it meant he can't sleep with anyone else, although he wasn't sure about that and would like to have the option available in case he meets someone that he really has to have and who is agreeable when he divulges that his lover is HIV+. Maybe that was negotiable?

He turned and let the water splash down his face and he began to lather his chest.

Lover?

Did he just think that?

His stomach jumped and his heart pounded. He'd had lovers before, woman he slept with on a regular basis for a period of time. But they weren't the people he looked for when he needed soothing, like he did tonight with Robin; like he had many times in the past with her. They weren't women that he thought about at inappropriate or unexpected times, like when in a staff meeting or talking with another woman. They weren't women who the very thought of made him hard every single time, like right then in the shower.

He slid his hand around his arousal with no intention of satiating it, knowing that it would get taken care of tonight in a much more satisfying way.

These lovers were definitely not women who had high expectations of him –personally or professionally. And it was those expectations that gave him pause and made him crave more, all at the same time. He didn't know what it was that Robin saw in him and he was fairly certain she was fooling herself and that at some point he would be just disappoint her, yet he craved the look in her eye when she was impressed with him. Or like tonight, when she cared enough to make things just a bit better for him.

It was the need that had him throw out "dating" to her and still he was no further along in figuring out what was expected of him. He hoped that he could fake it until he and Robin got tired of each other. He ran his hand over his arousal one more time before turning off the water.

"Not to complain or anything, but now I smell like you," Patrick said in reference to the massage oil that Robin had been using. His voice was low and gruff and sent shivers through Robin entire body, head to toe.

"I'm surprised you can even talk, never mind complain." Robin said in a low, seductive tone right into his ear. Patrick was lying naked underneath her, face down on her bed. His entire body was shiny with the lavender and vanilla massage oil she had been using and the only sounds she had heard from him for the last forty-five minutes were of the moaning and groaning variety.

"Me too. Especially since there can't be any blood left in my brain." He shifted meaningfully underneath her. "I think you missed a spot. A rather large one."

"Wow. How did I miss your ego?" Robin nipped his ear and then ran her tongue over the sore spot. She sighed when he moaned in response. "Do you know how wild having my scent on you is making me?" Robin slid off him and put her head down on the pillow next to Patrick's.

"How wild?" Patrick opened his eyes.

The lust in his eyes made Robin gasp. "I want you so badly right now," she admitted in a small pleading voice. She had wanted him from the moment he had stripped down and lay on her bed. Touching him, covering him with her oily scent only made her want him more. She was trembling with it.

"How badly?" Patrick licked his hips and turned onto his side. Robin's eyes dropped down to his arousal and then back up to his eyes. Her only answer was the quickening of her breath. She was beyond words. She just wanted him. Needed him. Now.

Just as needy, Patrick dug his fingers into her hair and slammed his mouth into hers as Robin frantically dug underneath the pillow and came up with the condom that she had hidden there earlier. With shaky fingers ripped open the packet and rolled it on him just in time for him to slam inside her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and arched into him, throwing her head back, so that he was deeper and deeper inside her with each thrust. Her hands slipped as she tried to hold on to his oily shoulders. He laughed at the trouble she was having and used his hands to support her back as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Laughter faded into gasps, into moans, into cries of passion as moonlight filled the bedroom around them.

"I'm sorry you lost your patient, Patrick." Robin was tracing her fingers up and down Patrick's chest. Her head was resting on his shoulder and his arm was wrapped around her.

"Me too. I really thought I could save her, but when we went in." He broke off and began tracing her hand. "Why is it that I never lost a patient before I came here?"

"Did you take the same risks or did you play it safe?" Robin asked, already knowing the answer. Patrick blew out a breath and leaned his head on top of hers. "You care more now. You're willing to try now. That's why."

"I don't know if this caring stuff is such a good idea for a surgeon."

"Your father cares."

"Look what happened to him." Patrick closed his eyes.

"He didn't fall apart because he lost a patient. And neither are you right now."

Patrick wrapped both his arms around Robin and kissed her forehead. "Well, if I have this at the end of it, then maybe it won't be so bad." His words were said softly into her hair.

"Are you hungry?" Robin asked a short time later. She rolled over and out of his arms.

"Starving. Do you want to go out?" He reached over to play with her hair.

"Not really. I can make something or we can order in." Robin propped herself up on her elbows and looked at him. She dipped her head down and sniffed him. "What do you feel like having?"

"I feel like having cookies. That's probably because I smell like one. Cookies and flowers."

"You do smell sexy, Dr. Drake." Robin grinned at him.

"I think we found your aphrodisiac, Dr. Scorpio." Patrick bit his lip and smiled back at her. He laughed out loud when she nodded. "I'm going to have to keep a supply of this all around the hospital."

"People might wonder why you smell like cookies and flowers, Dr. Drake." Robin sat up. "Come on. Let's get something to eat so we can keep our strength up."

"If this is what dating is like, I'm definitely all for it," Patrick said, getting up to follow her. "How hard do you think the kitchen floor is?"

TBC