CHAPTER 6

Wilson and Sam dropped House and Cuddy off at home, both just a bit happily drunk. The whole thing was over and the lifting of the stress itself was intoxicating, let alone the wine. They spent the early evening silly and playful with Rachel after the nanny left. House loved drunk Cuddy the same way he loved Cuddy in the throes of sex – She relaxed, let her guard down, and was far more open to suggestion. He opened another bottle of wine at home and made sure her glass stayed full.

House helped Cuddy put Rachel to bed, which he hadn't done before. The whole bonding of the stressful event had opened him just a crack more. He was that type – it was a gradual process.

When they walked out of Rachel's room, he scooped Cuddy over his shoulder and she had to stifle a scream. He carried her the few feet to the bedroom and flopped her on the bed, climbing on top of her. "So, Dr. Cuddy," he said, "I've been nervous about this all evening… How are you planning to reprimand me?"

Cuddy grinned mischievously. Of course she knew this theme was on its way, ever since she saw the glint in his eye when the committee member brought it up. It was too good for a horny guy like House to not capitalize on.

"Dr. House, I am very disappointed in your conduct," she said, with a mock frown on her face. "You really should have left your friend Wilson to fend for himself. That kind of loyalty and cleverness will not be tolerated," she lectured. House made mock serious face, showing his shame. "I need to make sure something like this won't happen again, so your punishment will be something you cannot ever forget." Her words had just the tiniest hint of a drunken slur to them – It was adorable.

"I understand," he said, unable to fight a smile, but also incredibly curious. He knew Cuddy and she surely had not thought of the dirty, dirty things he had thought of since this theme was presented. It would take him years to lure her into some of those fantasies. But she was a little drunk and had that sassy look about her right now, which meant she had something in mind.

"You need to learn restraint, Dr. House. You can't always act on your impulses," she told him. He nodded, seeing where this might be going and loving how much he would hate it. She pushed him into a sitting position and sat up to face him. "Starting right now, you are not allowed to touch me until I tell you that you can," she explained. She grinned at him. Her eyelids were slightly lower than usual and her smile was wide and free. She was silly and loving this game already.

"Now, I need to take a shower before bed to unwind a little," she told him, pulling her shirt over her head. He stared at her gorgeous breasts, her nipples visible through the white lace of her bra. She leaned forward, almost touching his lips, and said, "You can watch all you want – you just can't touch." She kissed him feather-light on his mouth. He opened his lips for more of her, but she was already gone, sliding off the bed. She stood at the side of the bed and unzipped her skirt, sliding it down her already bare legs. Then she turned and sashayed into the bathroom, wiggling her butt in the cutest, sexiest way. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. He, of course, followed her.

Cuddy turned on the shower, making a production of bending sharply at the waist to reach the faucet so that her ass stuck out. House had his usual impulse to grab it, to move up behind her and push against her, but she looked over her shoulder at him and reminded him, 'No touching, House." He nodded again, completely taken in by her little game. He sat on the bathroom counter and she came up to him and opened his legs to stand between them. She was so close to him now. She reached behind her and unclasped her bra, which fell with a soft whoosh on to his lap. Her round perfect breasts were right in front of him, begging to be touched. Cuddy leaned in so that they were almost against him. "Are you learning your lesson?" she whispered.

House gave her little grin, trying to fight back by appearing unaffected, though he knew she could tell from the bulge in his pants that that was an act. "I think I am," he told her, acting contrite, pouting.

"Good," Cuddy told him sternly, she stepped away from him and worked her panties down her legs like a stripper. She turned back toward the shower and put her hand in the water. "Not quite right," she said, bending again to adjust the faucet, her bare ass positioned between House's knees. Okay, this was difficult. Her ass was his weakness. He sat on his hands and tried to enjoy the sensation of being out of control. The problem was, as it always was with Cuddy, that the hottest part of her having control was his imagining how he was going to take it back from her again. He imagined pushing her against the tile wall of the bathroom right then and fucking her silly while the steam filled the bathroom. But he also imagined letting this drag out longer, letting her get lost in the game until she wanted nothing more than for him to overtake her. He sighed, loving how they worked their screwed up little relationship.

Cuddy stepped into the shower, closing the glass door behind her. He could see her blurry form as she soaped up and washed her hair. At moments she would press part of her skin right against the glass, pretending to bend to wash something or pick up a dropped bar of soap. House was incredibly turned on, but patient. He could watch her for days. She turned off the water and opened the shower door. A puff of steam flowed out, and then he saw her naked, perfectly sculpted body, with drops of water sliding down her skin and clinging to key parts of her. "Can you hand me my towel?" she asked him. He didn't take his eyes of her for a minute, moving them up and down her form, but leaned to the side and found her towel hanging on the wall. He held it open like he would wrap her in it, but she shook her head and tsked him, pulling it from his grip. She didn't even really dry off, merely squeezing her hair into it, then wrapping it around her body.

She walked back into the bedroom and he followed her again. She sat on the bed and reached for her bottle of body lotion on her nightstand and let her towel fall around her. She rubbed lotion into every inch of her skin as he watched her. This was highly erotic, but it was really only an exaggerated version of what he went through daily, watching her dress or undress at the beginning and end of her day, longing to pounce on her but knowing they had to get to work or they had to wait until Rachel was down for the night. But then she upped the ante.

Cuddy lay back into the pillows, stretching her naked body out long across the bed. She looked right into his eyes and she put her hand against her own throat, then began sliding it down her body. She ran her hand over her breasts, using her own fingers to circle around her nipples. She slid her hand slowly, slowly down her stomach, then veered a little and slid it down her thigh. House wanted to be her hand. He watched as she slid her hand inward and moved up to her sex, gently opening herself. He couldn't help it, and he moved closer to her. She met his blue eyes, still smiling her cute little devilish smile. Then she closed them suddenly and laid her head back in the pillow. House looked quickly down and saw her slide two of her fingers into her entrance, sighing and moving her hips.

"Jesus, Cuddy," he said involuntarily. He was painfully dying to touch her. Cuddy slid her fingers out, then back in slowly, again letting out a little moan. Her other hand slid slowly down her body, mimicking the first. It reached her heat and stroked lightly at her clit. House was so delirious, he'd catch himself almost closing his eyes with knowing the feeling of her, then realize he wasn't actually touching her and his vision was all he had in this.

"I want you, House," she told him, which she knew was all she ever needed to say – in the bedroom, in the living room, in the kitchen, in goddamn Grand Central Station. He sucked in his breath, not knowing if that meant the game was over. "But first you have to promise me…" she breathed, sliding her fingers into herself again, "that you will control your impulses from now on."

That was it. This was his cue and he knew it. He didn't know how they co-wrote these little scripts of theirs, but something allowed them to constantly communicate between the lines. He was against her in a moment, and he shoved her hands away to give him access to her. He kissed her hard and his other hand moved across her breasts, gently squeezing them, lifting them, stroking her nipples. "I don't think I can promise that, Cuddy," he told her, looking in her eyes. "Some things just arouse an instinct in me," he explained, licking up her neck back up to her mouth to continue kissing her. She was breathless already from his immediate assault on every part of her. Her hands were already fumbling with his belt and the fly of his pants.

"Then I'll have to think of a different punishment I guess," she gasped, sliding his pants over his ass and using her feet to push them down and off his legs.

"Okay. You do that," he mumbled into her hair. She pulled his shirt up over his head, with his help, and then he rolled her onto her stomach. "I think I'm getting better though," he reassured her mockingly. "In the bathroom, I believe you were in a position close to this," he said, pulling up on her hips so her ass was pressed against him. "And I knew I was not allowed to touch you," he continued as Cuddy heard him sliding his boxer briefs off behind her, "But my instinct was to do something like this," he said and he slid slowly into her, all the way, causing them both to moan. He started breathing incredibly hard, and between breaths said, "But I controlled myself." He bent over her, kissing the small of her back and running his hands through her hair and down her body, settling them on her hips.

"So we're making progress," she replied, in almost a whisper as he pulled slowly out of her then thrust again. He simply mumbled something like an agreement. He moved in and out of her now, at an excruciatingly slow pace, feeling every inch of himself enter her, then pulling out only to feel the sensation again. Cuddy's hands gripped the bars of the headboard and her wet hair clung to her shoulders and back, some strands even lying across her face. He felt her pushing back to meet his thrusts, urging him to go faster. Instead, he used every ounce of willpower he had to continue this slow teasing of her, and bent and propped himself on one arm, reaching his other hand around her hips to find her clit. He rubbed it and pushed on it, finding the exact angle and pressure that made her push up to her hands, throwing her head back, her wet hair sprinkling little dots of water on to him. "God, House. Oh my god, House," she cried out. He just maintained it. He could feel her climbing, hear it in her choice of words, the pitch of her moans. He knew this woman well by now. He kept urging her slowly towards her orgasm, feeling the muscles in her ass tense against his stomach, hearing her breathing occur in fits and starts. Finally she begged him, "Faster, please, House. God, please." He knew then that it was a matter of moments before she'd be in ecstasy.

He began thrusting wildly into her, finally giving in to his body's own impulses and doing exactly what she'd begged him to do. He felt her fall. She fell back onto her chest, her hands again grasping the headboard. Her body shuddered beneath him and he felt the wet hot tightness of her sex squeeze around him. As he continued to push into her, he couldn't even remember the game, the day, the week and he sat back up and moved one hand to her hip as he made his final moves into her before falling apart. His eyes closed, he bit his lip, and he felt every instant like it was an hour long. The pleasure was so intense, he didn't even know if he was saying words or sounds or nothing at all. He moved in her again and again until it was over, then he continued to move slowly and gently, already reminiscing about how it had felt. He lay down over her back, their thighs stuck together and his face cooling in the wetness of her back and hair. Their heavy breaths were in sync and he could feel her heart pounding through her back, as he was sure she could feel his. Sometimes he felt like they really had become one person.

As they returned to normal, he kissed her between her shoulder blades, then gently lifted her thighs to lay her down comfortably, sliding out of her as he did so. He lay next to her and met her steel blue eyes. "How are you going to describe that in your report to the ethics committee?" he asked her, eyes half closed, grinning at her. She laughed and thought about it.

"I'll tell them I temporarily suspended you from your usual role and responsibilities," she told him. House smiled at her. "And that through intense discussion you were able to see the position you had put me in." They both laughed a little. "And that you promised to make it up to me every day with your future conduct."