And there I was, trying to write a nice fic for the July challenge, when the idea of a chocolate cake made my mind go a little crazy with this last chapter...I hope you'll like it anyway!
It was almost 8 o'clock pm when Nikola arrived at the Sanctuary. He knocked hesitantly at the door, still not knowing if he had done the right thing by coming. Of course he wanted to see her, but he was still wondering why she had invited him.
"Happy birthday, Nikola." She said, gently opening the door. "Come in."
He silently listened to her, stepping inside. "My God, Helen, you are simply breath-taking." He said. And he was absolutely right. She was wearing a blue dress which matched her eyes perfectly. A dress that was short enough to show off her tantalizing long legs. Her hair was raised up in a loop, except for two curls that fell down her porcelain face and ended right above her chin.
"If I hadn't known you better, I would say you dressed up like that for me." he said with a smirk that made her knees tremble. He had always been devilishly handsome, but seeing him as he stood there, one hand on his hip, his hair ruffled as usually, made her crazy. Nikola had always had a special effect on her, but in the last two years, she found out with surprise that it was getting harder and harder to focus and to stop herself from doing something stupid when he was around.
"Don't be silly." She said, biting her lip to stop herself from blushing. There was absolutely no need for him to know that she had spent inexplicably long time trying to decide what to wear.
She went to her office, with Nikola following her closely, none of them daring to open the conversation.
"How are you feeling, Nikola?" she asked in a soft tone when they arrived. She didn't dare to think how he felt now that he was mortal and he practically had no reason to be happy that it was his birthday.
He let himself fall on the couch and sighed. "Miserable."
"Listen, Nikola, I know that you are mortal now and you think that every birthday means one more year of your life lost, but it's not exactly like that. You have to learn to take joy of the small things in life. "
"Helen, I am not sad because it's my birthday, I'm sad because this means one more year of my life in which I didn't do anything to get what I really want. This is what kills me."
"Well, you were pretty close of world domination last time. You just didn't take all the variables into account, but you sure know how to be a thorn in my side." She joked, trying to make him feel better.
As sad as he was, he couldn't help smiling. "Well, I am doing my best."
"I would expect nothing less of you, Mr. Tesla." She teased him, happy that she found something to bring the sparkle she loved so much back in his eyes.
"The only problem is that I didn't mean world domination. That's not what I want the most."
"What is it, then?"
"The proper question, Helen, would be who I want."
The Big Guy arrived, bringing them a chocolate cake and a bottle of wine, giving her the opportunity to pretend she hadn't heard his last words.
"Enough talking, Nikola. It's time to blow the candles and make a wish."
He scoffed silently when he heard her. He wasn't the type that believed in superstitions, but having her so close to him, dressed like that, had made him picture some very creative images. So he blew the candles, giving her a look that told her his wish was clearly involving her somehow.
"For the record, I don't believe in this kind of things." He muttered.
"Ever the optimist I see. Join me in a toast." She said, and when he raised his glass, she continued "To the small things that make our life worth living."
"To the things we want so much that we don't realize they are right in front of us." He added.
"And last but not the least, to mortality. Because it teaches us... it teaches us how much we need someone." She was almost crying when she finished.
"Amen." Nikola couldn't help wondering if the last part of her toast wasn't somehow related to him.
"Now, let me show you your birthday present." She said and handed him a small box. He opened it with a surprised look and discovered that inside there was a key.
"The key to your heart, perhaps?" he asked on a cheeky tone.
"You'd wish." She said harshly. "No. It is the key to your laboratory."
"My laboratory?"
"Yes. Here, at the Sanctuary. I want you to stay and work with me."
"For how long?"
"As long as you want, Nikola. I wanted to show you another way of handling life. I am offering you the chance to work with people that understand you and that wish to help you. People that are your friends."
"Friends…" he said smiling sadly. "And I'm guessing that includes you too right?"
"Yes."
"So you basically decided to give me the chance to work here because you finally realized that you are madly in love with me and that you want me so badly you can't possibly imagine another day of your life without having me around?" It was a question he just had to ask her before accepting her offer. He made it sound like a cheeky joke, because he didn't want her to know how much he cared about her reply, but there was absolutely nothing that could have prepared him for what followed. Before she could stop them, her lips split, letting go of a single word that freed her from all the feelings she had kept hidden for so many years:"Yes."
He didn't answer, so she let her eyes feast with his incredibly sexy sight. They explored his face, from those steel blue eyes that seemed to be able to read the deepest layers of her soul to those smirking lips she wanted to taste. (Dear God, how much she wanted to taste them!)
"What did you say, Helen?" he asked, unable to believe his ears.
"You have a little chocolate cream on your lower lip." She said, hoping that her moment of weakness hadn't been noticed.
His mischievous smile was nothing if not suggestive. "Would you mind helping me with this?"
She covered the distance between them, and before she could know it, her lips began dancing on his mouth. Their lips started a dangerous game of teasing, as she sensually licked the chocolate off his lower lip. For God's sake, what was she doing? Their kiss seemed so forbidden, so strange, but it felt incredibly right, her mind registered during a pause she had made in order to breathe. A pause that Nikola didn't appreciate too much. Because now, after he had tasted her in a way that he hadn't even dared to dream it was possible, he wasn't going to let her stop too soon…
He tilted her face up, forcing her mouth to come dangerously close to his and soon after, his luscious lips sensually coaxed a response from hers. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop opening her mouth and letting his tongue explore it on the inside. Helen moaned in delight as she relished his touch, his smell and his taste of chocolate and wine. It was a combination that not even she could resist…The perfect definition of the term "guilty pleasure"…
He let her lips go as his own descended down her neck and gave her a kiss right on her pulse point. She gasped as his mouth explored her exposed neck and his teeth touched her soft skin. (Some things never change, she thought.) His lips went up, kissing their way on her chin, until they conquered her mouth once more.
A long time after, their lips parted with a muffled protest from his part as the two made a pause to get some air. She took a deep breath as she gazed at the man whose expert lips had rendered her speechless.
"You know, I only wanted you to give me a napkin or something." He said with a devilish smirk.
She couldn't help smiling. That man was incorrigible. "Was that a complaint?" she asked on an offended tone.
"No, by all means no."
"So, are you going to stay here?"
"I think so. You can be incredibly convincing sometimes."
"Good. I had prepared you a guest room if you want to get some sleep."
"Helen, I forgot to ask you something. Where are the children?"
"They are not here. Will is at some psychological convention and Henry took Kate to some stupid Comic Con."
"Well, Helen, in that case, my plans for tonight won't be involving too much sleep. It would be a waste of ti-"
"Nikola?" she called his name, deliberately avoiding his gaze while she playfully dipped her finger into the chocolate cream on her slice of cake and then licked it suggestively.
"Yeah?"
"Shut up and kiss me."
His smirk couldn't have been sexier. "That, I can do." Their lips met once more, making him sure of the fact that this was one birthday he wasn't going to forget too soon…