They sat there, neither of them speaking, not moving. The only sound inside the tiny compartment of the car was the steady staccato of their breathing and Patrick found it funny that somehow it was almost in sync. Kat's was just was just a touch faster, a beat more rapid. But there was hardly any difference between his breath and hers. It was comforting, in a strange, soothing way, listening to that rhythm and enjoying the feel of her hand still resting on his thigh. It was warm and relaxing.
Then suddenly she shifted and he let his eyes follow where she was looking as she sat up a little straighter and her breathing became faster. Randolph or Maurice, he didn't know or care which one, was walking towards their car with a determined step that carried his huge body in a deceptively grace way.
Patrick rolled how his window and let the man approach without saying anything.
" It's taken care of. You two should get home. Try to pretend like this whole night didn't happen." The goon said with a toothy smile that announced how very proud of himself he was.
" Tell Mr. Verona, I said thank you." Patrick nodded before rolling the window back up and turning to Kat.
He glanced at the clock on the dash before speaking. " We still have an hour. Want to get a bite to eat?"
He wasn't ready to be away from her yet. He felt like he'd never be ready to be away from her again in all honesty. Everything that had happened had taken a toil on him and he knew from the weariness in her eyes that it had done the same to her.
She nodded and tried to pull her hand from his leg, but he covered it with his own, holding her steady. " I am a bit hungry." She nodded. " Besides we need to find a place to get cleaned up. You can't take me home like this."
" Right." He smiled. " Now where can we go that serves things without faces ? Although, like I told you before, they cut that part off before they bring it to you."
She gave a quiet laugh and lowered her eyes. " I'm not such what's opened."
He started the car and began to back out. " There's a diner down the road. I know for a fact they have the best breakfast in town and they serve it all day long." He suggested. " Do eggs count as having a face ? They haven't had a chance to get one yet."
" Eggs are fine." She laughed, " Though now I'm beginning to reconsider that now."
" I'm sorry I didn't mean to turn you off eggs." He smiled back at her.
" Will Spock be okay while we eat ?" She asked glancing over her shoulder at the sleeping dog.
" Spock will be fine. Are you sure you're dad is going to be okay with him staying with you ?"
" Once he sees that there was no other choice." She assured him.
He glanced at her as he pulled her car into the parking lot of the diner. " If he's not okay with him being there, let me know. I'll find somewhere else for him."
She reached up and took his hand once they'd parked. " He'll be fine. But I'm worried about you. Please tell me you aren't going to try living in that cave, not after tonight. It's dangerous."
" I won't live in the cave." He smiled and squeezed her hand.
" My window is always opened." She repeated the offer she'd made earlier in the night.
" I intend to take you up on that offer, tonight at least." He answered, bringing her hand up to his lips and kissing the back of it softly.
The smile she gave him caused a ripple to go straight through his body. He was helpless to fight against pulling her into him and kissing the way he wanted, covering her lips with his. She leaned into him, covering the expanse between the seats, pulling him closer. Her hand tangled in his hair and he wrapped his arms around her trying to ignore how awkward their position was. It felt as if it had been hours since he last kissed her, hours since he had her in his arms and he didn't care whether it was awkward or uncomfortable. He just needed to feel her.
" Patrick," She gasped, trying to pull away. " Not here. We can wait until we get home."
He nodded against her throat, still not willing to let her go yet. Then he took a deep breath and loosened his arms to allow her to slip out of her grasp. " Maybe we can get it to go." He suggested once they were walking inside.
" Patience is a virtue." She grinned cheekily.
He didn't know what had gotten into him, but he reached out and pinched her ass playfully. " It ain't one of mine."
Her laughter in response was like music to his ears. It took over her entire body causing her breasts to shake and her eyes to sparkle. Her hair was down now, dancing around her shoulders like a chocolate waterfall that he wanted to dive into and stay forever. He hadn't been sure how she would react to him pinching her like that, but he was very glad it was like this. " Fine," He told her, pulling her back against his chest as they walked to an empty booth. " But God help you when I do get you to myself."
" God has nothing to do with what you're thinking about." She teased as she slid in and let him have some space beside her.
He took it, grateful she wasn't making him sit across from her instead. It was too far. This way at least their legs were touching. " You're right." He joked. " I am going to hell."
She rolled her eyes. " Oh please, if lusting after your girlfriend was enough to send you to hell, no one would be immune."
He hauled her into his arms against and she protested at first at the unexpected show of PDA, but when his lips caught her, she relented and sank into his kiss. " I love hearing you call yourself my girlfriend." He murmured into her hair. " You have no idea what it does to me."
He nearly jumped out of his seat when her hand fell down into his lap and grazed over his hardening erection. " Apparently I do." She sighed, giving him a soft squeeze through his pants.
" That isn't nice, Kat." He squirmed more firmly into her palm and felt his breath catch when she squeezed him harder in response. " Paybacks are a bitch."
Immediately her hand was gone and she turned away from him. Obviously she was more attuned to her surroundings than he was because she noticed the waitress standing beside her while he had been oblivious to anything beyond her.
" What can I get you to drink ?" The short, perky little girl with a name tag that read, Fred, asked as she handed them menus.
" Water." Kat answered.
Patrick agreed as he flipped open the menu and began to peruse the selections trying to ignore the pounding in his lower regions.
Kat hadn't forgotten about it. He watched her hand slide back under the table in his peripheral vision and almost reached out to grab it. He wasn't sure how much torture he could take before it was too much and he was forced to usher her to the bathrooms at the back of the building.
But he decided against it. It wasn't really like Kat to be playful and spontaneous. He wanted to let her do whatever she wanted to do to him, give her free rein to work off the tension of the night they'd experienced.
She found him again and now instead of partially at attention, he was throbbing. It was hard to concentrate on the menu in front of him as his eyes blurred when she brushed her hand against him again.
" Katherine." He hissed in her ear when she grasped him more firmly than she had previously, skirting the edge of what he could tolerate.
" What ?" She asked, turning to him and batting her eyes in feinted innocence.
He shifted trying to pull himself away from her hand, but she merely tightened her fingers, completely encircling him now and his heart stopped beating for a moment. His head was spinning as her fingers loosened and tightened around him in a slow easy rhythm. Then he realized it was because he forgot he needed to breath and he gasped drawing in a lungful of fresh clean oxygen. " What are you doing ?" He demanded, squirming under her touch.
" Teasing you." She answered and he remembered he'd told her the exact same thing two nights ago when he'd tortured her while she was on the phone with her father. " It's fun." She smiled.
He'd been right, paybacks were a bitch.
" Have you decided or do you need some more time ?" Fred was back, setting their drinks in front of them before taking a notepad from her apron pocket and holding a pen poised above it.
" We'll both have the breakfast platter." Kat announced and he was thankful that she was taking care of it because he was pretty sure his voice wouldn't work right, especially since she still had his erection in her hand.
" How would you like those eggs ?" Fred asked, completely oblivious to what was happening under the table.
" Poached for me and," Kat glanced in his direction to judge whether he was capable of speech. Then she smiled and turned back to Fred giving him a sharp squeeze at the same time. " He wants his over medium."
She was wearing the smuggest smirk when she turned back to him it almost made him want to bolt to the other side of the booth. It was hard to give her the satisfaction of knowing she had him right where she wanted him.
" I swear I'll make you play for this." He warned her in a low dangerous voice.
" Blah, blah blah." She waved her unoccupied hand in the air.
He took it as a dare. He took it as her egging him on. He took as her not taking him seriously and he just could not have that.
She watched him carefully as he settled back onto the cushion behind him and closed his eyes for a moment, just letting himself feel her hand stroking him under the table. He let her think she'd won, lulling her into a false sense of security. When she began to redouble her efforts and squeeze him harder, he pounced.
His body darted forward, catching her off guard and drawing her into his arms despite her wild eyed protests as she glanced around the nearly empty diner. He just ignored her, pushing his lips against hers, compelling her with his tongue to open her mouth to him. When she figured out she couldn't fight him any longer, she yielded, parting her lips and letting him delve inside the dark recesses of her mouth.
She tasted like honey and he had no idea why, maybe it was just how she tasted. But he loved it and let his tongue linger over hers, drinking in its sweetness and stealing her breath at the same time.
" Patrick !" She finally gasped as she shoved at his shoulders in order to catch her breath.
" What ?" He blinked in the same innocent way she had earlier. " I was teasing. It was fun."
She took a deep breath and his eyes strayed to her breast as they strained against the tight bodice of her dress. That certainly wasn't helping his condition so he averted his eyes back to her face.
" I'm sorry I teased you." She said, grabbing her glass and taking a long refreshing drink of ice water. Then she pushed his glass towards him. " Here, this will help."
He took it and drank, but when he sat it down, he leaned into her ear and again lowered his voice. "The only way that's going to help is if I pour it into my lap."
She cut her eyes towards the glass and her fingers twitched as if she were about to reach for it, but he snatched it away before she had a chance.
" I figured since I started all this, I would help fix it." She grinned cheekily.
" Oh, you're going to fix it alright. Just not here and not," He gestured towards the glass. " like that."
Her eyes widened in mock surprise. " Are you threatening me ?"
" No, I'm promising you. You have no idea what you just started." He smirked back at her.
" My father will be down the hall." She protested.
He shrugged his shoulder and picked up his glass again for another drink. " I can gag you if I need to."
Her elbow connected with his ribcage and he grunted in pain. " There she is. I was afraid I was no longer inspiring you." He laughed.
" Oh, you still inspire me. I've just found better uses for your body than inflicting pain on it recently." She laughed back.
Fred showed up with their plates and refills and they both sat back and dug in heartily.
She was taking forever in the ladies room and he really, honestly thought about going in to find her. It was ridiculous. Kat wasn't one of those girls. She didn't spend hours flouncing her hair in front of a mirror like some mindless idiot. So he had no idea what was taking so long.
He was pacing, both hands in his pockets and frown on his face when she finally emerged.
The frown was short lived. As soon as his gaze began to travel upward from her feet, it turned into something else entirely. Her dress looked just like it had when he picked her up. Her make up was no longer smeared or fading. It was perfect and she had even managed to hid her lip somehow. She left her hair down though she had brushed it and tamed it into looking as if she'd meant it that way all along. In short, if he hadn't been through the whole evening with her right at his side, he never would have suspected anything out of the ordinary had happen, other than the fact that she wasn't wearing shoes. She was perfect. Though to his taste, the slightly mussed, altogether more casual picture of her before she went into the tiny bathroom was more appealing.
" God, you are so beautiful." He told her, stepping up and putting his arms around her.
She pulled back to inspect him as he had done her and smiled. " You aren't so bad either. Dad will never know anything happened at all."
" So," She took his hand and started them towards her car. " You drop me off, take your bike somewhere..." she paused. " Where will you take it ?"
" The same place I always take it. Keith's and he'll give me a ride back." He pulled her against him and smiled. " This isn't the first time I've done this."
She nodded and did her best to stop talking. It lasted all of about three seconds. " Then Keith will give you a ride back and drop you off, down the street !" She stopped as if to punctuate her point.
" At the end of the block actually. Like I said, not my first time." He smiled again, but let her continue to lay out the plan like it was an intricately devised scheme they had carefully concocted.
" Okay, then walk to my house and come in the window. I'll be waiting. If I'm not there I'm in the shower." She needed to do this. He knew that. It was her way of feeling like she was in control again after being so lost for so long. Her 'take charge' nature had suffered a big blow throughout the evening and if planning their rendezvous was helping, he wasn't going to stop her. But he couldn't help teasing her.
" Can I come find you if you're in the shower ? I could use one myself."
She rolled her eyes and slapped at him. " Maybe I can figure something out for you. After dad goes to sleep." She shook her head. " I'm not sure."
" I wasn't serious." He told her taking his hand as he started the car. " If it makes you feel better, I'll catch a shower at Keith's before I come to your place. His mom loves me."
" Tomorrow is Sunday!" She exclaimed as if the idea had just occurred to her.
He cut his eyes towards her as he rounded a corner and gave her a smile since he had no idea what she was talking about. " And the next day is Monday ! Yay!"
" You ass," She huffed at his attempted joke. " No, my dad is leaving tomorrow."
" You and your sister have finally had enough of his shit and you're kicking him to the curb ?" He mocked. " It's a solid plan, at least until the bills start pouring in."
" It actually does have some merit. I think we could revolt and take him down." She nodded. " But no, this time he'll be back. But he will be gone for a week."
" A week ? Seriously ?" He rose his eyebrows at her. " And you're just now telling me this ? We should have been celebrating."
" Well it does mean you have a place to stay, at least for a while." She smiled.
" So the guest room is available ?" He continued to joke.
" No, we're renting that out to hookers by the hour. But my room is open for guests." She answered without missing a beat and he loved her for it and decided to tell her so.
" I love you, too. Now get me home so we can get to bed." She demanded, leaning over to kiss when.