Blair always slept like the dead after a good round of sex. Todd lay on his back looking up at the ceiling as he held Blair in his arms. Every now and then she'd let loose a loud snore and, being the sentimental fool that he was, he just loved every minute of it.
Actually, he'd always taken Blair's post-coital sleeping habits as something of a challenge. How could he wake her up? How far could he get with her before she did wake up?
He ran his hand from her shoulder to her fingers, picking up her hand and bringing it to his mouth. He kissed each fingertip then the palm of her hand then slid each finger separately into his mouth and sucked on them. He had a lot to reacquaint himself with. Blair hummed lightly in her sleep as he touched her. He was certain he was in heaven.
Except heaven didn't have lawyer wives in hospitals waiting for him to come back and congratulate her on her masterful play. Todd had gone to the hospital to see Tea after meeting Blair in the park. During his first visit he'd been contrite and sad that he'd gotten her mixed up with his wildcat of an ex-wife. When he went back he was trying to figure out how best to extricate himself from his sham marriage and make things right again.
Tea had been pretty doped up on painkillers and she looked exactly how a person who had gone through a plate glass window and dropped two stories ought to look. Which was to say, pretty gnarly, but there was a look in her eye that unsettled him. He kept telling her that she didn't have to go through with this and he meant it. He didn't know what it meant that she was willing to go to such lengths for his sake and the fact that he cared so very little about her made it worse.
Was she trying to prove something to him? Was she trying to show him the lengths of her devotion? Todd didn't know. He'd said numerous times that their relationship was a business relationship and she seemed to agree but she seemed to want to up the stakes as well. As she drifted off to sleep before he left her she mumbled to him: "Starr will be ours, Todd."
Meeting Blair at the hotel room and hearing what Tea had said to her at the party had thrown him again. Tea was going down a dangerous road. If he didn't know better he'd swear that she was steering them down a course to possibly make their marriage real. And that was something he simply had no intention of doing.
Especially now.
Maybe he could talk to Viki. He'd have to talk to her when he went to pick up Starr. But there was something else he needed to do. Something that would start him down the road that would lead him back to the Promised Land.
Or at least his and Blair's version of it.
The contract was the key. It was his downfall as far as the custody case went but if he played his cards rights that wouldn't be a problem. If he and Blair were together then he didn't need to get custody of Starr because they wouldn't be fighting over it. There was the little matter of fraud but Todd shook his head.
Fraud was hardly the worst thing he'd ever done. He'd do his best and try to live with himself.
While he was trying to live with himself, maybe he'd better wake Blair up for another roll. In the morning, they'd have to go back to hissing at each other from across rooms. He slid one hand down to the small of her back and let his fingers brush against her teasingly. She squirmed against him and he bit his lip. He loved the way her body moved against him.
"Come on, baby," he whispered into her ear. "Open your eyes." He shifted them around so that she was lying on top of him. He kissed her shoulder, letting his tongue have a taste of her sweet smelling skin, and ran his hands up and down her back. "Wake up, Blair."
She sighed deeply and stirred under his touch. "Todd..." she whispered. "Don't leave me..."
The words felt like a kick in the gut. Was she dreaming of Ireland or something? Or maybe the park where they were just a few short hours ago. He wondered if he would have heard those words before? Probably not, he was so twisted up inside with anger. Anger at everything. Anger at having been suckered into a good deed gone wrong. Anger at losing months of his life for someone he didn't even know. Anger at coming home to Patrick and Blair on the floor of his house. Anger at life going on without him. Anger at his own inability to move on and own up.
Well, he could move on and he could own up and he was going to do it because not doing it sucked. He was still going to be angry, that was fine. He loved anger but he wasn't going to let it own him. Wasn't that what Ray talked to him about all those years ago in prison?
Todd knew he was doing the right thing this time. He felt it in his guts. He didn't have that sick feeling that went along with bad decisions made for what he thought were the right reasons. For the first time in a long time, he felt strong enough for the fight he was facing.
"Blair... wake up, babe."
She stirred again and opened her eyes. She looked up at him with a bleary expression and smiled. "Hello handsome."
"Hey."
She stretched on top of him, inciting a groan from him, and touched his lips. "I like the way you feel next to me."
"I like the way I feel in you."
Blair chuckled. "You do have a way with words, Todd. You always did."
Todd stroked her back, craning his neck forward to kiss her. She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled his mouth tight against hers, slipping her tongue between his lips to taste him. They lay like that for several minutes, kissing and touching and just taking the time to reintroduce their bodies to each other. Their quick and desperate joining before had merely served to quench their immediate desire but this was just as necessary. Maybe more so. They had to know each other again.
"Listen," Todd rested his head against the pillows. "I gotta ask... are you sleeping with anyone right now?"
Blair blinked at him. Was he kidding? She'd spent the last few months reeling from one life altering thing to another. She didn't have time to pick up a man in the meantime.
"Never mind," he said quickly. "Maybe it's better if I don't know."
Blair blinked again. "What?!"
"Like I've got room to talk right?" He shrugged. "I went and got married. For all anyone knows I'm getting it on all the time with Tea."
"Nice image," Blair said dryly.
"Hey, I'm not," Todd met her eyes. "I told you before but I'll say it however many times you want. I'm not sleeping with her. Never have. Never will. I sure as hell wouldn't do anything to fuck things up with you now."
She smiled at him.
"You don't have to tell me, Blair," he said, the effort of being mature about this was making his back hurt. "Just, you know, if you are sleeping with someone... well, you've got to stop, okay?"
"I'm not."
He glanced at her.
"I've been a little busy, Todd," Blair gave him a long-suffering look. "I've been learning how to walk again, I've been trying to rebuild my life, trying to make sure people know that I can take care of my daughter. Doing all of that leaves me with little time to go trolling for men."
"I haven't really let myself think about that," Todd admitted. "If I did, then I'd just want to help you instead of going after what I wanted."
"I thought I was a part of what you wanted."
"I didn't think I had a chance with you," he cocked his head at her. "I wasn't sure if I wanted another chance or not but I didn't think I had one so I didn't think about it."
"We have a lot to settle between us, Todd," Blair kissed him over and over. "But we'll deal with that when we can actually do something about it. Right now, we need to keep our eyes on the prize."
"Eyes on the prize, huh?" Todd slipped one hand between her legs from behind, teasing the folds of her sex with his fingertips. "I know what my prize is, Wildcat."
Blair snickered, letting her eyes roll back as she felt him begin to probe her. "You've always been a man of simple tastes, Todd. You prefer beer to wine, fried chicken to filet mignon, and a good fuck to a long talk."
"You always were a good fuck, baby."
"I should be insulted by that, I think," it was hard to think when he had his fingers inside of her like that. It was hard to think when his cock throbbed against her belly promising all sorts of damp pleasure.
"Like I don't talk to you, Blair?" Todd licked her neck. "We've been talking like crazy since we made up in the park. I talk to you. I just think, for us, sex is a good way of saying what you can't say with words. Come on... you know that, don't you?"
"Mmmm," Blair sat up and positioned herself over him. Grabbing a hold of his length she lowered herself onto it with a deliciously slow pace. "Keep talking, honey. You do have quite the gift of gab."
Todd grinned as he began to bounce her up and down on him. "Whatever you say, Blair. Whatever you say."