Day 8: Turning Tables

Kate and Rick spent the rest of the day in each other's company, eating and talking and laughing and carefully skirting around anything sexual. Even a stranger would be able to tell that they were avoiding close proximity, let alone skin contact. When even a brush of Kate's finger alongside his, doing something as innocent as passing the salt, could send jolts of electricity down to Rick's groin, distance was probably a good idea.

Rick had planned on taking Kate out to a movie, providing not only entertainment but also safety, since they wouldn't dare to ravish each other in public.

Although that was a secret fantasy of his.

But when he came out of his study after finishing touches on chapter 7, she was laying on her stomach on the couch, dressed in her comfortable sweat pants, one of his novels under her nose, and suddenly he couldn't think of a reason to take her out.

He plopped down and stretched out beside her on the wide couch and she made room for him without looking up from the page.

"Which one is it?" he asked and twisted and bent to reach for the throw blanket and cover his and her feet.

"The first" she answered and scooted the book towards his side, so that he could read too.

"Chapter nine? Ooooh, you're getting close to the juicy parts!" he teased.

She smiled softly, not a teasing, but a genuine and comfortable smile.

"Read to me?" she asked him.

He smiled back at her. He could never deny her anything when she looked at him so openly, so unguardedly and beautiful like right now. He leaned forward to kiss her cheek.

"Of course."

And with his low, charming voice, he began reading.

"Nikki thought it over and said, 'It's personal. Maybe when we know each other better.'

'Personal. Is that code for 'because of a guy'?'

'Rook, we've been riding together for how many weeks? Knowing what you know about me, do you think I would make a choice like that for a guy?'

'The jury will disregard my question.'"

Rick stopped and angled his head to get a look at Kate's face. His own showed off pride, self-assuredness and something close to seriousness.

"I thought I was really clever when I wrote that. It characterizes you. You are always so independent, so strong. You never need anyone else, you don't care what others think. I always loved that about you. Even at the beginning, even when I wrote this, I think I already loved that about you."

The smile she gave him reminded him of that night in L.A. some years ago, where they'd been so close to crossing that line that eventually led them where they were today, but didn't. The words were similar, words of adoration, words of softly spoken wonderment. But unlike that night, he could now lean over and touch his lips to hers without startling her, and so he did.

"But I also hated that about you" Rick continued when they parted. "That independence, that urge to never trust and never rely. It kept us apart for so long."

Kate shifted her weight to one arm and lifted the other to run her hand through his hair. It had grown quite long recently and definitely needed a cut, but she liked it like this.

"Thank god you're persistent" she said and her eyes sparkled with emotion. She meant it. If it hadn't been for his persistence, and his patience, she would have never discovered what a wonderful thing they could be.

"I was thinking you were going to say 'stubborn'" he joked to lighten the mood of the situation. She grinned.

"That, too."

He turned back to the page and found the line he had finished on.

"'No, this is good, I want to know,' Nikki said, and scooted closer to him. 'Would you change what you do for a woman?'

'I can't answer that.'

'You have to, I'm interrogating your ass. Would you change what you do for a woman?'

'In a vacuum . . . I can't see it.'

'All right, then.'

'But," he said and paused to form his thought, 'for the right woman? . . . I'd like to think I'd do just about anything.'" Rick finished. "Wow, I didn't realize the first book was already that cheesy."

Kate wrinkled her nose. "I would never say 'I'm interrogating your ass'. I don't think you were doing your research well enough."

Rick bumped her shoulder with his. "It's just a book! She's a fictional character. You of all people should know that!"

"Oh yeah? And how about that shower scene in the fourth book? I don't think there was one word in that chapter that was actually fiction, except for our names!" she accused him, her face taking on a mild shade of red, partly from anger and partly from blushing. That scene was one of the best he had ever written, and knowing that the reality had been almost exactly like that only made it better each time she read it.

He caught her hand with his and laced their fingers together, shrugging his shoulders in an apologizing manner. "What can I say, that encounter was quite inspiring…"

He moved closer to her and nuzzled her nose with his, dropping a quick kiss to her lips. "Sex with you is always inspiring…" he added and wriggled his eyebrows.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Thank god we're not having any right now, at least that way it can't show up in your next book."

He shook his head. "You're thinking wrong. This way, the next book will be full of sex scenes, because that's all I'm apparently able to think about right now."

She moved their intertwined fingers to his chest and pressed them down on top of his heart. "Why don't you write with this…" she moved their hands to his head, "…and this…" she moved their hands down his body "…instead of with this?" And then she pressed their joined hands to his crotch and he fought to suppress a moan. She held his hand in a way that forced him to feel himself grow harder while she touched nothing of his body but his hand, thereby not really breaking their rules.

Her lips were slightly parted as she looked at him with a sexy gleam in her eyes. Her enchanting hazel orbs quickly got bigger when he forced their hands away from his body and instead advanced on hers, using his knee to nudge her legs apart. He knew exactly where to apply pressure, how to rub and how to guide her fingers to drive her mad even with her clothes and her hand between him and her heat.

When her mouth opened wider to draw in a deep breath, he pulled away. The book fell from the couch as he shuffled to stand up and free his legs from the throw blanket that had tangled around them.

To her shock, his face was entirely too pleased and smug for her liking and not nearly as strained as she had wished.

"I hope you know where the batteries are" he told her with a complacent smile, before he turned around and went back into his study.

Frozen to the spot, Kate stayed on the couch for a little while longer, trying to tame down her arousal and get herself back together. She was close to speculating about the batteries' whereabouts when she heard the familiar clicking of keys from the study. He was writing again.

"No" she said to strengthen herself. She would not let him win this round.

She knew that abiding by her own rules she had the right to pleasure herself, without ending the bet.

But if he could live through this without caving in, so could she.

A/N: This would have been up yesterday, but FF wouldn't let me load the chapter -.-

I know many of you wanted to see more 'action' in this one, but I struggled with my storyline and …well, this turned out surprisingly cheesy. I promise I have a plan for the next chapters and they will include lots of the suggestions some of you have given me. Keep them coming, I'm always open to dumb ideas ;)

The extracts that Rick reads out are literally taken from Hyperion's "Heat Wave". I claim no copyright.

I'm very thankful for all the reviews and alerts this story has received so far. Thank you very much, all of you.
The next updates should be faster (and even hotter)! :D