Hi there!

I´m sorry it took me so long to finally post something to this story again, but I´m pretty busy right now. This is the first half of the eighth chapter, chapter eight is rather long and takes me like forever to translate it, but because I promised you an update, I decided to at least give you the first half of it.

THANKS so much to RougeButterly who took the time to beta it in such a hurry. You´re great!

Chapter 8: Confrontation; Part one
Thursday morning

"Can I talk to you for a moment, my heart?" Smiling, her hands behind her back Cuddy stood in House´s office doorway.

A bit confused, but keen to keep a straight face, House turned to face her. "Sure." he mumbled.

Foreman, Chase and Cameron, who had been talking to House about their last patient prior to Cuddy´s somewhat surprising choice in words, stared at her in utter bewilderment.

"Great." Ignoring all the irritated faces, Cuddy smiled satisfied and strode over the floor to his smaller office.

"My heart?" House asked quietly, arching a brow, as soon as he closed the glass door to the reference room behind him.

"Wanted to give those nick names another try..." Cuddy grinned some more. "Was it good for you?"

"Would´ve been better, if you had been naked..."

She laughed and pulled her hands from behind her back, so the small box, she held in her right hand, became visible. "Here. For you." Smiling she handed him the box. "Congrats to surviving two month of marriage...", she repeated the words from his note.

"Let me guess: An emergency med-kit?" Suspicious House took the little box and shook it slightly. "Hm, it´s to light for a med-kit... band-aids, maybe?"

"Open it up and find out..." Provoking, she arched a brow. "If you dare to..."

"Why do I suddenly feel the strong urge to throw it in the garbage, hide behind my desk and scream: 'BOMB!'?" His eyes fixated on her face, he opened the box without hesitating. "A tie?"

"You can wear it to the charity-dinner..." She shrugged her shoulders relaxed.

"Charity-dinner?" Frowning House eyed her warily. "But I just saved a life... Wasn´t that charitably enough?" He leaned his cane against the wall to cross his arms in front of his chest fending.

"House, that wasn´t charitably , that was your job."

"The dinner isn´t charitably too... It´s a torture!" With his right hand he hold the tie up. "Piece of evidence A!"

She arched a brow. "The tie?"

"Pfft, Cuddy. Don´t act so naïve." He rolled his eyes. "That´s not only a tie. It´s the leash, you want to lead me around like a performing dog on Saturday..."

Cuddy giggled. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Forman, Chase and Cameron staring at them through the glass walls with obvious curiosity... Time for some fun. She stepped closer to House and looked up to him under her long eyelashes. "This torture is nothing compared to what I do to you, if you don´t go."

"What do you want to do bout it?" House asked interested. "Spank me, maybe?"

"Not a bad idea..." She wrapped her arms around his neck, tiptoed and kissed his throat.

House drew in a gulp of air, which proved to be a bad idea as her scent tickled his air ways and infiltrated his brain. "Cuddy... what?" Against his skin, her lips curled into a smile. Déjà-vu. What was wrong with this woman, damn it? This was the second time within two days that she'd ravished him...

"Your team is watching us..." Cuddy mumbled against his throat. "I don´t want them to notice that we´re arguing..."

"We're…uh..arguing?" He glanced at his team, before Cuddy drew his attention back to the task at hand. The tie fell to the floor as both hands made their way to her hips.

"Of course..." She snuggled against him. Her hands embraced his face, gently stroking his cheekbones with her thumbs. "Because of that fundraiser, remember?"

"No..." He cleared his throat. "Just that you suddenly started to make out with me, so I assumed we made up and I won."

"Nope." She started to trace tiny tender kisses on his chin. "We´re" Kiss. "Still" Kiss. "Arguing." Kiss. "Making out." Kiss. "Is just a camouflage..." Her sweet breath grazed his mouth. "Is that a problem for you?"

"No prob..." His hands wandered to the swell of her buttocks.

"So we agree, you'll go with me to the fundraiser?"

Before he could answer her, her lips were above his and sealed his mouth in a breathtaking kiss. It took him a few minutes till he could bring himself to part from her. "I thought, we were still discussing this?" he asked panting against her lips.

"No. "No. I won." she stated, lingering on his lower lip.

House leaned back and arched a brow above hazed eyes. "When?"

Smirking cheekily Cuddy looked at him. "I won since you laid your hands on my ass..." She moved her hips against his. "You´re much more interested into making out with me than in making up, so you don´t really have a chance of winning this argument..."

His other brow joined the first. "So we're only making out now?" he assured himself. "No longer arguing and making up just kissing and making out?"

"No need to make out any longer either." Cuddy said. "I got what I wanted..." Grinning she let go of him and attempted to take a step backwards but his hands on her ass prevented her from doing so.

He bent down to her. "We could discuss..." he whispered before he nibbled on her ear lope. This game could be played by two. " ...the ten clinic-duty-hours I still owing you for the last week"

Snorting, she tilted her head, searching for his mouth, while her arms embraced his neck again. "Ten hours?" Her lips brushed his. "I should make them fifteen..."

"Ok..." He kissed her passionately.

"Ok?" Cuddy broke the kiss and smiled against his mouth. "Wow, that was easy... I should kiss you more often..."

"But later please!" Wilson's grinning voice cut through the oblivious wall they'd built up. "Here are children reside..." Smirking broadly he leaned against the door frame and nodded slightly to the bigger office, wherein House´s team was still standing and watching the scene in the smaller office. In his hands Wilson held a massive package with a big red bow on it.

House´s face darkened. "I hope this is for us." he growled and gestured at the package, while Cuddy stepped away from him. "Because a gift would be the only excuse for an interruption."

"Of course it's for you..." Wilson explained, carrying the heavy package to House's desk and placing it down. "The two months are over."

"The espresso-machine!" House´s eyes brightened up. With surprising tempo, he grabbed his cane and limped to the desk, opening it quickly.

Shaking her head Cuddy watched him. "Did you really need to give him that thing during work?" Cuddy asked Wilson. "Now he only will play with it for the rest of the day..."

"Why not?" Relaxed Wilson shrugged his shoulders. "He solved his new case ten minutes ago... And that thing will keep him from annoying us because he feels bored."

Cuddy snorted before she turned around and strode to the door. "I need to go... Have serious work to do..." With those words she left Wilson and House alone with the espresso-machine.

"Seems to work out fine between you two..." Wilson recommended as soon as Cuddy was gone.

"Hm..." House growled without looking up from the espresso-machine. "Cameron is already over-excited from all this loving harmony."

"Sure, Cameron." Wilson nodded knowingly. "You´re totally unaffected from that, of course... Did you notice that you smile like four times more often since your marriage with Cuddy than you did before?"

"Four times more often?" Now he looked at him.

"Fore times more often." Wilson repeated.

"You´re talking such bullshit, Wilson..."

"Just keep telling yourself that, dude. Just keep telling yourself that..."

Feedback is much appreciated as always!