A/N I was trapped in a beautiful beach shack for three weeks. It was great, but technology did not exist there. So I owe you guys one big time!!

And the return of dirty scrabble…

Chapter Fourteen: Come Out Anyway

With perfect posture and confident strides, Burke crossed the room and took his scrabble board off the shelf. He had all the appearance of a fine doctor; an outside observer could never guess what was going through his head at that moment, but it was anything but medical.

Of course, one would also never guess he'd deceive his colleagues and patients for months also, but Cristina pushed that thought to the back of her mind. They were trying to have fun here, and she was determined that it would be.

Burke sat opposite Cristina, and placed the scrabble board on the coffee table between them. He took the lid off, then went to work turning the letters over.

"I have a new rule," Burke announced as he lay the board out flat.

Cristina raised her eyebrows. "A new rule? But we're only played once before. And this is my game."

"Correction: it's our game, unless there's other people you've been playing with. Do you have something to share, Cristina?"

Cristina stared incredulously at Burke for a moment. After the heartache, the deception and the anguish of the last few months, this is what he wanted to talk about? He was teasing her. She gave a small smile. She sure as hell wasn't going to fight it, this was a Burke she could recognize.

Plus, she hadn't been laid in ages.

"No, nothing to share. What's this new rule of yours?"

"No curse words are permitted."

"You didn't use any last time."

"No, but you did. What, are you scared you can't beat me without them? Though you didn't actually beat me last time…"

She took the bait. "Oh, you are going down. Fine. No curse words."

They drew their letters, and began.

"So, just out of curiosity," Burke began when it was his turn. "When exactly did this game originate?"

Cristina grinned. "During college. My friends and I were really drunk one night, and the party we'd been at was finished. We were in one of my friends dorm rooms, looking through the karma sutra."

"As you do," Burke said wryly.

"We had a friend who had just lost her virginity, and was looking for inspiration. Anyway, my friend Heather thought it would be an inspired idea to spell out all the positions in a game of scrabble. Gradually, it just evolved into 'dirty scrabble.'"

The corners of Burke's mouth twitched as he fingered his letters. "The brilliance that Stanford turns out is astounding." In a swift move, he lay out 'dominate' on the board, and rose. "I think this occasion calls for some wine."

Cristina narrowed her eyes at his retreating back. How did he do that? It seemed he used up all his letters at once every second go. Nobody would have guessed Preston Burke's mind was so far in the gutter it was down the drain?

Upon his return, he handed her a glass of wine, and examined her latest move. "Whipped? Is that to accompany you're earlier entry of 'chains?' Not so imaginative, Cristina." He grinned.

"Fine, you get cocky because you're twenty points ahead. It won't last long."

"Whatever you say."

He was infuriating that night. Cristina wished he'd stopped smirking. How dare he try to beat her at her own game? Again? She couldn't stand the humiliation.

As the number of letters left to draw became increasingly lower, Burke commented, "we haven't set the stakes tonight."

Cristina thought for a moment. She wasn't sure at the outset what Burke's mood would be, but at that moment, it was like the last few months hadn't happened, hadn't wounded them. She was happy for them to be suspended that night, before the healing had to begin. So she decided to push as far as she could.

"If I lose, you get to achieve your magic number tonight. If you lose, you're dressing up in the outfit I bought for you, and you've never worn."

Burke considered this. He had an ideal number of times that he liked to have a woman in a night, that Cristina had only acquiesced to once before, right when she'd first moved in. That was a tempting offer. But at the same time, he really didn't want to wear the outfit. He was still incredulous from the day she'd walked through the door and shown him. He couldn't believe that particular outfit was her fantasy.

Glancing at the score sheet, he slowly nodded. "Deal."

Cristina's score was inching closer as the game drew to a close, but he thought he had her. That was until her wicked smile crossed her face. "I'm going to use the trick that pulled you ahead last time." His smile faded from the moment she lay the letter 'q' down on a triple letter score square. She lined the rest of her letters out, to reveal 'quivering.'

She leant back with a satisfied sigh. "The outfits in my underwear draw. Time for you to go change."

Burke looked at the board in disbelief, and glowered as he stood up. "I'd hardly call it an outfit. They're more embarrassing accessories than anything else."

Cristina laughed out loud, and both of them noticed how welcome the sound was. The apartment had been hollow for months.

She crossed to Burke and lay her hands on his waist, standing on her tiptoes so her lips hovered near his. "Go and get your embarrassing accessories on then, Preston."

He leant down to kiss her, but she stepped away. "Off you go."

With one more glare at her, he stalked into the bedroom.

She decided to give him a few minutes, then she walked into the bedroom. He wasn't in their, and the bathroom door was closed.

Suppressing a smile, she called, "Burke?"

"This isn't fair," his muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

"As if it isn't! Don't be a sore loser."

"I only made you wear a negligee. This is just cruel."

"Come out now, or you have to wear it tomorrow night too."

A moment later, the bathroom door opened. Cristina burst out laughing.