Physio is hard; I now have more sympathy for sports players who end up on the bench for a term due to an injury. Before I just assumed they were being dramatic but now, after having my leg stretched and worked for the past two hours, I know that it's hard to recover from something that has damaged your muscle.
The nurse left fifteen minutes ago and I'm still sweating my ass off. It was a gruelling session, not made any easier by the Catherine making sure the nurse knew that she was mine and I was hers. She didn't say it outright, it was those little touches that she made last just that bit too long. Or the way she kept looking at me, like I was her possession. Not that I mind being hers, in fact I've wanted to be hers for a very long time it's just taken her almost losing me for her to realise she wants the same. I think I like this side of Catherine. She seemed to be jealous even though she knows the nurse is more interested in the joys of the female body, not that I can blame her, Catherine has got one hell of a body. And it's all mine. Well, mine in the sense that I get to hold it, kiss it, look at it when I want and make love to it. Not that Catherine is an it, she's so much more and beyond.
After a quick shower to rid myself of the stench left behind from the intense workout my battered body has just endured all I want to do is sit in front of TV and watch the game. Catherine isn't that much into sports, I discovered during a case we worked a while back. Some hotshot why died on the field with no obvious cause as to why? Turned out the coach was pumping them with steroids using the steam room after each game. The vic had a bad reaction to the drug and his body had overworked itself trying to rid the toxic substance ending in his collapse and seizure during a game. It wasn't until after we had locked the coach up and were heading back to the lab to finish up on some paperwork that Catherine had expressed her dislike of the game in the form of "I don't get why fully grown men want to spend hours chasing a ball around on a field. They do have cute butts though."
Thinking back on those days, back when we were nothing more than friends teasing each other about silly stuff always makes me smile. Don't get me wrong, I love what we have now but maybe we can bring back a little of that joking, fun stuff now we are being more open with each other. It's hard to believe that in the space of a year we've gone from being good friends to being friends with benefits to never speaking then back to friends and now lovers. What's in store for us next? Marriage? Kids?
I settle in the chair, the first piece of furniture I ever brought when I first moved here to Vegas, and slowly raise the footrest. The pain radiating from my thigh reminds me yet again of that horrible day in the warehouse. From the second we walked into that damn building it had been trouble, the Kip had discovered the explosives and it went from trouble to downright horrifying. Knowing those could have been my last few minutes alive scared me. Knowing they could have been the last few minutes I ever had Catherine scared me more. If it had been her walking on those rigged panels, taking the bullet, I couldn't have handled that as well as she did. The bullet would have torn straight through her small thigh, she doesn't have as much muscle mass as I do and there would have been more chance of her bleeding out. I was lucky enough that Catherine knew what to do, if it hadn't been for her acting as quickly as she did and slowing the flow of blood I wouldn't be here right now.
"You okay?" Her sweet voice and hand on my shoulder pull me out of my morbid thoughts. I look up into those crystal blue eyes and see the worry in them. She's worried about me and better yet, she isn't trying to hide her emotions from me anymore.
I pull her to sit on my good leg and muster up a smile.
"Just thinking about us and how much we've been through."
She manages a small smile in return and her soft fingers brush my rugged cheek. Her voice is low and soft, the kind of voice that sends me heart thudding. "Yet, despite all we've been through we're still here. Together."
Before I can reply she kisses my cheek and moves to the sofa and picks up one of the many fashion magazines she reads. Before she disappears behind its glossy pages she look at me again and smiles. I smile back and settle into the chair, ready to spend the evening watching the game.
The days following pass in a blur of physio, sleep and Catherine's presence. I've noticed little changes around my house since her arrival. There's a green plant of some variety sitting on the window ledge in my bathroom. I know it wasn't there before, I kept magazines there for when I was going to be a while and needed reading material, now they're in a pine rack beside the toilet all filed away neatly. And that's not the only thing different in my bathroom, now there's another toothbrush sitting beside mine, fruity smelling shower gel, some fancy looking shampoo and a purple sponge in the shower. Candles around the bath and a bowl of shells! Shells! Why do I need a bowl of shells in my bathroom?
That wasn't the biggest shock in there. That came when I opened my bathroom cabinet to get some dental floss and tampons tumbled out into the sink. Now I'm not the kind of guy that goes running at the sight of a tampon, or ten, but I just hadn't even thought about her needing them. It has never been an issue before.
Then there was the rest of the house. The plug in things that admittedly did make the house smell nice. The way everything seemed to be neater. The silk nightdress tucked under the pillow next to mine and the way everything had a touch of Catherine to it.
With sudden clarity I realise that I'm living with Catherine. Really living with her not just sharing a place while I need the help. I've wanted to live with Catherine for so long but she always refused before. Now though, she's slowly integrated herself into my home.
I make my way back through the house to the small office right at the back. Catherine has been holed up in there all morning working on some paperwork Greg sent over. Entering the room I smile at the sight of her leaning back in my leather chair with her feet propped up on the desk, heels kicked off to the side. Her skirt hand loosely around her legs, she's got her hair pinned up in a twist and her glasses perched on her nose. She looks beautiful.
"Catherine?" My voice reaches her and she raises her head with a smile, removes her glasses and places them on the desk while lowering the paper in her other hand.
"Hi." Just one word. One simple word and I feel like she has given me the sun.
Without much thought I move over to her and slide her feet from the table, I gently part them and moves to stand between her legs. I can only describe her eyes as intrigued. I have been careful not to act too intimately since my failed attempt the first day we woke up together. I'd been quiet happy to tease and arouse her but the soldier wouldn't stand to attention. I'd been quite worried so one day when Catherine dropped me off at the surgery and went to do the grocery shopping I'd asked the doctor about my inability to get an erection. Trauma, he'd said. No lasting damage. Well that was good news but I was still having no luck, even when Catherine had been doing yoga on the garden with those tight pants and ass in the air.
But here I was with her legs wrapped around my waist and my hands running up the silky smooth skin of her legs, up under her skirt and higher. Her breath hitches and her hips lift off the chair a little; she's missed this as much as I have.
But sex isn't why I came in here, at least it hadn't been my intention, but seeing her there looking so gorgeous and knowing that she has moved herself into my house, that she is willing to share all of herself with me now...what a turn on. I just hope he rises to the occasion.