Sara couldn't keep Nick's words from playing over and over in her mind. He apparently thought she was sexy, or at least her bikini was and he was just laying there with a smile on his face, his eyes closed as the sun dried him off from the last swim they'd taken. Finally, she couldn't take it any more. "What did you mean by that?"
"Mean by what, Sara?" He knew exactly what she was talking about, but he wanted to her to say it.
"What you fantasize about...I mean, that comment about my swim suit." Sara wasn't sure how far she wanted to push this, but she had shared quite a bit with him and he'd only offered her a rather cheeky comment in return.
Nick's lips twitched as his smile grew into a grin. He opened his eyes as he rolled onto his side and propped himself up with his elbow. "First of all, that is not just a swim suit." He took a long slow glance at her from head to toe to emphasize his point.
Sara's lips pursed together to try and stifle a smile as she felt a blush coming on.
Nick was pleased with the effect he was having on her and he couldn't resist admiring her openly. "Secondly, you are sexy as hell and you don't even realize it." He really didn't see how that was possible, but he knew she didn't and that just made her all that much more appealing to him. "And third, you..." His voice was almost a whisper as he shook his head, unconsciously licking his lips. "I fantasize about you. A lot."
Sara felt as if she'd been undressed with his eyes, and surprisingly, it didn't make her nearly as uncomfortable as she thought it should. She found it more erotic than anything; even in all of her encounters with Grissom it hadn't been like that. "Oh?"
Nick just stared at her as he talked. "I think about how I'd love to kiss the rain off your lips after a downpour." They'd worked in one only last week, so that thought was fresh in his mind. "I think about the way you sing when you think that no one's listening and how beautiful your voice is, although you would deny it." Nick was smiling at her softly. "And I think about how your hips do this little shimmy when you walk and that just about kills me."
Sara was facing him as she lay on her towel. "What else do you fantasize about?" She knew there was a lot about Nick she didn't know and at the moment she was taking Mr. LaRourke's words to heart by seeing if these feelings stirring inside of her towards Nick were something she needed to explore too.
"You mean besides you?" Nick was grinning at her, wondering what she would do if he acted on his impulse and kissed her.
She nodded. "Yes, besides me." She sounded almost uncomfortable with the idea that he thought about her that much and in that way.
"Respect." Nick answered simply. "I want people to respect me the way they respect Grissom. I want people to see that I do a good job and that I work hard. Most of all I want my dad to respect what I do." There was a hint of sadness in his voice, as if he felt like he was trying to outlive the reputation that had become larger than life.
"You do have respect, Nick. I can't think of anyone on this team that doesn't have a great deal of respect for you." Sara looked at him earnestly. She wanted him to understand that what he was longing for he really already had; he just needed to recognize that it was there.
"Then how come when Grissom talks about his bugs, everyone thinks he's brilliant, but when I talk about birds they assume it's because I saw it on the Discovery Channel?" He looked at her with a longing that showed that he really didn't feel the respect that she claimed he already had. "Or why is it that despite working my ass of here in Vegas to make a name for myself in a career that I love, my dad is still hoping that I'll go to law school?"
"People see what they want to see, Nick, it's human nature." She had a serious expression on her face. "But for the record, I know you're smart. Maybe people assume that you learned what you know about birds from the Discovery Channel because you know so much about so many things. You don't exactly fit the stereotype of nerdy scientist." She was studying him openly now, noticing the definition in his chest and the strong line of his jaw, no he definitely did not fit that stereotype. "And I really wish I could tell you why your dad can't see how amazing you are."
"Thanks." Nick found himself reaching out and covering her hand with his, giving it a squeeze. A thought occurred to him and he tilted his head slightly. "You know, you never did tell me what you fantasize about; you just told me that my assumption was wrong about it being Grissom."
Sara blushed. "What if I told you that I fantasized about you?" She felt even more self conscious as Nick grinned at her. "I have, I do...I mean, I never thought you thought of me as anything but your friend and I have to admit that I've thought of a variety of scenarios while we've been working crime scenes."
"Really?" Nick was clearly pleased with this particular turn of events and by his tone he implied that he wanted to know more.
"The difference between fantasy and reality is that I would never do anything that would compromise a crime scene or contaminate evidence." Sara was nervous, part of her wondered if she was imagining all of this and another part was wondering why she was telling him this so easily in the first place.
Nick chuckled. "So which layout table were you thinking of?" He'd imagined pretty much every horizontal surface in the lab and a few walls too, but then again, he was a guy and sex was never far from his mind; neither was Sara.
"I was thinking more along the lines of something with a little more cushion and some privacy." She couldn't believe that she was having this conversation with him like this or what she was implying.
"Well then that would leave Grissom's couch or the backseat of one of the Denalis." Nick offered as a logical choice given the reference to work.
"I'm not going to have sex in the backseat of a Denali, and as for Grissom's couch...let's just say it's not as comfortable as it looks." Sara felt that blush creeping back up her cheeks.
Nick grinned in admiration. "You're a lot more adventuresome than I would have given you credit for." The idea that she'd had sex on Grissom's couch with the Bugman himself without any of them finding out was amazing in and of itself.
"There's a lot about me you don't know." Sara couldn't have spoken truer words, to many she was an enigma.
"I'd like to know more, a lot more." Nick was brushing his thumb across the back of her hand in soft gentle strokes as he studied her face.
Sara glanced down where there hands were touching and smiled. "This can't be just about sex, Nick. I've already gone down that road with Grissom and I can't just sleep with you just hoping that something wonderful is going to come out of it." She took a deep breath and continued. "Part of this fantasy of mine is that love and sex can coexist in the same relationship." Her voice was full of doubt that this would ever happen.
"Why do you think that has to be just a fantasy?" Nick was incredulous that she had so little faith in romance that she would think that the two couldn't go hand in hand.
"Why do you think it isn't?" The sensation of Nick's thumb was crumbling Sara's resolve to just cruise through the week without going any deeper than she needed to.
"I think that a lot of people think that a fantasy has no basis in reality, but I think that the best fantasies are the ones firmly grounded in reality. If there isn't something behind it to fuel it in the first place, then it can't ever really be the best kind of fantasy." Nick studied her facial expressions carefully.
Sara licked her lips, her throat felt dry and her heart was beating wildly in her chest. "So what you're saying is that no real fantasy is a fantasy at all, it's just an action that hasn't been taken yet."
"I supposed you could put it that way." Nick could see her eyes dilating and the way she kept licking her lips made him want to lean over and taste them just to satisfy his curiosity.
"So you think about me a lot, huh?" Sara tilted her head slightly, flashing him a flirty smile.
"You know I do." Nick's voice was thick and husky as he wondered why the hell he had waited this long to tell her how often he thought about her.
She quirked a single eyebrow at him and her flirty smile turned into a sultry grin. "So what am I, Nick, fantasy or reality?"
He knew what he wanted, but he didn't want her to have any doubts about it later. His warm breath fanned out across her cheek as he leaned towards her and whispered in her ear. "What do you want to be?"