Chapter 9: Would You Prefer Red Or White?

Scully and Mulder reached the end of Brian's driveway at the same time as several of the other neighbors. Nodding greetings to each other they all made their way to the door.

Scully recognized them all from the pool party and wished that she had Mulder's memory for she wasn't sure of all of their names.

Sensing this, Mulder called out his greetings

"Hi there, Stan. It is nice to see you and Brenda again."

Stan and Brenda both looked like runway models with glaring white teeth, blonde hair and absolutely perfect tans.

"Good evening Jacob" Stan said returning his greeting. "It looks like we and the Petersons have perfect timing."

The Petersons, Scully remembered, were the other couple. John was short and athletic in build and Cindy was even shorter than Scully and looked as frail as a rose petal.

Brian opened the door and welcomed them all into the house. The living room, dining room and family room were already brimming with people. Brian led the group to a small table that housed several different bottles of wine.

"Red or white?" Brian said pointing to the bottles. "We have quite a variety here so take your time and try them all. Just make sure to take a bit of cheese or one of these biscuits Wendy made to cleanse your taste buds before switching types."

Scully and Mulder approached the table and Mulder raised his eyebrow at Scully. "I think I will start with the white and work myself over to the red" she replied to his gesture.

Mulder, himself, started immediately with the red.

Glasses in hand, they slowly worked their way around the room making sure to have said hello and be seen by everyone in the room.

Only then did they take a seat on a loveseat in the living room where they could easily observe what was going on around them.

Brian's living room was quite large and hosted a huge fireplace. The furniture had been rearranged so it all lined the outside walls of the room leaving a large empty space in the middle of the room directly in front of the fireplace.

Mulder assumed it was a dance floor and wondered to himself how this sedate group of adults quietly sipping wine and nibbling on cheese while chatting with each other would be induced to dance.

His thoughts were broken when the hostess of the evening, Wendy, slowly made the rounds around the living room offering her wine biscuits and a sample of a 'very light red' that Brian had picked out specially with her in mind.

Mulder and Scully accepted both the biscuits and the wine. They both nibbled on the biscuits which did their job perfectly. They were bland enough to totally remove all taste from the previous glass of wine and dry enough to make the person who had eaten it want to take a sip of wine immediately.

They both sipped the new wine and agreed that it was indeed a nice little red wine. Seeing as they both enjoyed it, they put up no resistance when Wendy came around to top off their glasses.

"I told you it was good" Wendy said smiling as she filled up their glasses "I think it really grows on you."

Wendy started off with her wine bottle poised in the air and Mulder caught himself looking at her. Not just looking at her but looking in a way that made him advert his eyes. He had suddenly seemed to be fixated on the way she looked in her tight pants as she walked around the room.

Slightly embarrassed he turned his attention back to his wine and sipped at it again.

Scully sipped her wine savoring its taste in her mouth. For some reason, she seemed to be able to pick out the different tastes within the wine more while drinking the second glass than she did while drinking the first.

Her sense of taste didn't seem to be the only one of her senses that seemed to be getting more sensitive as time passed. She could swear that she could smell the soft scent of Mulder's aftershave more now then she could when they first sat down.

Not only that, but she became keenly aware of Mulder's arm as it lay casually across the back of the loveseat. He had placed it there when they had first sat down, but she didn't seem to notice until now when Mulder had started to draw circles with his finger on her arm.

Slow, sensual circles that made Scully start to feel sensations she hadn't felt in a long, long time. She looked up at Mulder as if to ask him what exactly he thought he was doing when she caught him looking down at his own leg.

There, her hand was doing the same thing, making slow sensual circles.

Mulder looked briefly down at his partner and saw her puzzled expression. He was a bit puzzled himself but was more concerned about his partner's attentions causing him to be in an embarrassing situation than figuring out exactly what was happening to them.

He placed the hand not occupied with Scully's arm firmly on hers and managed to stop the circular motions. He sighed a bit then feeling that he had adverted the disaster, at least for now.

Mulder was just about to whisper a theory about what was happening to them into Scully's ear when the music began to play. Brian had an impressive stereo system and within seconds all thoughts of conversation were drowned out by the sensual beats of Brian's music.

Mulder had doubted the necessity of a dance floor only moments before saw the dance floor immediately fill with people as the formerly sedate couples began to bump and grind and spin their way across the room.

Scully watched the couples dancing and was surprised to find herself longing to join them. Usually Scully shied away from any such activities not thinking herself capable of such public displays. But tonight was different. She couldn't think of anything else she would rather do.

Apparently Mulder had the same thought as he removed his arm from her shoulders and rose to face her. Smiling down at her he offered her his hand.

Scully smiled back and let Mulder lead her out to the dance floor. He pulled her into his arms and they slowly made their way around the room. Neither one exactly sure how they had gotten to that point, but both very happy to have gotten there together.

Scully and Mulder fit together perfectly and the swaying movements of their bodies only added to their aroused state. Mulder was sure that Scully would have little doubt about his feelings for her as he pulled her just a little bit closer.

Scully felt Mulder's presence and fought, for only a moment, the urge to look up at him. She knew that when she did that her simple gesture would result in their first TRUE kiss. She paused a minute trying to think through what she was doing. She tried to call upon logic but the desires of her body won out.

Scully looked up at Mulder with her blue eyes wide and full of desire. Mulder looked down at her with a similar look in his eyes. His intent was perfectly clear. He was going to kiss her - now.

Mulder bent down closer, closer, closer until their lips just touched.

"Sorry folks" a loud voice boomed making Mulder and Scully spring apart and look at each other with a mix of excitement and horror at what had almost happened.

Mulder blinked once, then twice noticing for the first time that the music had disappeared and that the lights had all been turned on again.

"One of the neighbors thought things were getting a bit loud here" Brian said. The group gathered in front of him groaned collectively. "So the police have come and asked us to shut things down for the night."

Everyone groaned louder. "I know you were all just starting to have fun, but with a bit of luck, you will all be able to take up where you left off when you get home."

With that, everyone started to pick up their things and head out the door. If not for the police sitting out on the street, Mulder thought that a lot of the couples would have thrown themselves into the bushes and finished off what they had started in Brian's living room.

He shamefully admitted to having the same thoughts about Scully as he escorted her back to their house - practically dragging her back he was so impatient to get inside.

Scully followed Mulder's lead without comment. She was too confused by her own actions to question any of his. She knew what had almost happened while they were dancing and assumed that it would happen again once they got behind closed doors. She wasn't exactly sure what she thought of the idea.

Mulder leaned against the door after shutting it.

"Thank God we made it out of there" he said "it must have been something in the wine or those biscuits".

Mulder started pulling off clothes and Scully began to think she was right about starting up where they had left off even though she thought Mulder was perhaps rushing things just a bit.

"Forgive me Scully, but I don't get myself upstairs and into a very cold shower very fast and get some relief, I think I will have no choice but to ravish you right where you stand and we both know what a mistake that would be."

He stared at her a moment longer and was bout to run up the stairs when she placed her hand on his arm sending shivers down his and hers spine.

Scully slowly climbed the stairs and walked into the bedroom dragging Mulder along too. She stood in front him. She closed her eyes and leaned her head towards Mulder, then stopped, waiting for him.

He pressed his lips against hers, a friendly kiss, unsure of how far she would let this go. But he wanted to feel so much more of her, to know how she tasted, so he tentatively let his tongue glide across her lips, a wordless way of asking her where she wanted to go.

The sensation of his kiss made her heart race and every nerve ending in her body tingle. At the touch of his tongue, she parted her lips, letting him explore her mouth while she slid her tongue against his. She broke the kiss for a second to catch her breath, then closed her mouth over his lower lip, gently suckling it. When he responded with the same action, a surge of warmth spread over her body like hot water.

Mulder broke the kiss completely this time, wanting to see Scully's face. He stared at her, still inches from him, feeling her warm and ragged breath against his face He was amazed at how aroused he was from just kissing her--their hands hadn't even moved the entire time. He tried speaking. "Well, that was, uh. . ." When had he lost his vocabulary?

"Certainly was," she breathed.

Mulder brought his hand to her face and ran his thumb across her soft cheek.

Scully sighed. I suppose that's it, she thought.

But, with his other hand, Mulder undid his shirt buttons, and then hers, never moving his hand from her face. He smiled, then lowered his face to her neck, nuzzling it and leaving trails of soft kisses there.

Oh God! Scully raised her hands in the air, surprised at Mulder's actions. Then, she dropped them to his waist, letting them rest there. "Mulder," she whispered. Oh God! his warm, wet kisses were dangerously close to that spot on her neck that left her completely vulnerable to. . ."Mulder, oh God!" He'd found it. And when he did, her fingers gripped the bottom of his shirt so tightly, she'd pulled it from the waist of his pants. Uh oh.

"Scully," he whispered in her ear. But, somehow that didn't seem right. "Dana. . ."

Her fingertips grazed the soft skin of his sides, tickling him.

He slid his hands down her spine to the small of her back and pulled her closer against his body. He could feel her trembling. "Dana, are we. . ." He looked in her eyes, loving the spark he saw there.

She knew what he was asking and wanted to be the voice of reason, but at that moment the sexual center of her brain seemed to have taken over that function. The only thing on her mind was his breath on her face and his hands holding her firmly against his chest. "We really shouldn't." Not exactly a 'no,' but. . .

He grinned at the way she averted a complete 'yes' or 'no.' "In some cultures we already have." He slowly, methodically slid his hands under her shirt. Using his hips, he pushed down on her until she was underneath him on the bed.

"Have we?" she breathed.

"Besides," he said, "its properly safe to say we both want this." He closed his mouth over hers and pushed his knee between her legs.

She let out a soft groan. Running her hands up his back, she pushed his shirt over his head, then helped him remove her own. She threw her arms around his back, her body jerking at the electricity when their bare skin met. It was difficult to keep her eyes open, but she wanted to see him, watch his body move with her own, take in the heat in his eyes. He bit at the skin near her shoulder.

She whimpered.

She ran her fingers through his hair and he was pushing her skirt up with the back of his hand. Her skin was smooth and he had seen her in less, she had seen him in less, but she could clearly feel each beat of her heart and Mulder's fingers were curving around the edge of her panties.

"God," she gasped when he pulled back, her eyelashes fluttering. His lips were swelled from her kiss when he hooked his fingers under the hem of them and tugged.

He closed the distance in the space of a heartbeat and she put her arms around his neck. She felt slight against him. The hard lean muscle of his chest, the expression in his heavily lashed eyes. This kiss was lazy and slow and she traced her fingers down his cheek, letting them linger there when he pulled back again.

"Scully..."

She slipped her thumb over his lower lip and he raised his eyes to gaze into hers. He tilted his face again, leaning in so close, and she was the one to bridge the distance, as she had longed to do that one afternoon in his hallway. She was kissing him.

She closed her eyes and he buried his hand in her hair, renewing the kiss as she slumped against the headboard. He unbuttoned her skirt and she pulled back to struggle out of it, her breasts brushing against his chest, color staining her cheeks.

He shook his head, then. She could almost feel his gaze as it caught the slight fabric stretched over her hips and breasts, and she could feel the scarred raised skin marking the snake at the small of her back. He was her partner and if she shrugged out of her bra, if she acted on the attraction it was now clear they shared.

The night went by in a haze of kissing passion each afraid of going on to the next level.

R&R