Nick drove to the lab in a haze of unsurfaced emotions. He had never felt such a strong connection with someone before; she had infected his mind completely. Nothing he could do would give him relief from thinking about her. About the way she chewed on her bottom lip or tucked her hair behind her ear. He had somehow memorized ridiculously tiny details about her, like the line of freckles on her wrist or that unique sparkle in her eye. He couldn't stand the way she monopolized his thoughts, it seemed to be underlined by the fact that he couldn't have her.
Greg was in the break room pretending to read a newspaper when he came in, he knew he was pretending by the way he peered over the edge of the paper to watch him move around the room with a suspicion that made him feel uncomfortable.
"What is it Greg?"
"I'm trying to gauge whether you remember last night" he remarked quietly from behind his shield.
Nick sat down and regarded his friend, his loyal unassuming friend, seated across from him, his newspaper still hiding most of his face from view. He had done the right thing walking away from Caitlyn, Greg deserved to be happy.
"Well I'm not gonna marry if you if that's what you're asking man" he smiled.
Greg dropped the newspaper onto the table followed by his face. Nick couldn't help but laugh at his amateur dramatics, his over exaggerated humiliation was entertaining at least. Greg groaned into the newspaper and sat up again, his face smeared with print.
"I totally messed up with Caitlyn didn't I?"
His heart tied itself in knots knowing that he was about to encourage Greg to go for it with her. It seemed wrong for him to say those words when all he really wanted to do was warn him off.
"No, no you didn't. You'll be ok" he assured him quietly.
"I chased another girl and proposed to a man… how can that be ok?"
"Because it will be, ok? Just, trust me"
Greg wished he could believe him, that he had the same faith as his friend that everything would work out for the best. He had potentially thrown away a perfectly good relationship on the off chance that he could take her to his bed. There was every possibility that she would have been so scared off by his advances that she would never speak to him again.
A knot of nervous energy wound itself in his stomach as the shift came to an end and he faced the prospect of going home to an empty house. He wasn't sure what worried him most, the thought of her leaving or the thought of her staying. She had held a place in his heart for many years but he had always been able to suppress it, it had always been burning slowly in the background. For some reason this visit had been different, for some reason the flickering flame had become a raging inferno the second he laid eyes on her. He wasn't sure he could meet her eye again without having that reaction.
He swallowed the lump in his throat and took a moment to compose himself outside his door before he went inside. There was a lot riding on this moment.
He was immediately hit by the glorious scent of home cooking; the stove was filled with pots bubbling with all kinds of concoctions he couldn't identify. This was a surprising turn of events; she appeared from the bedroom with his novelty 'kiss the cook' apron wound around her. It had never looked that good on him.
"You're home! I'm cooking" she smiled, dancing over to the stove nervously avoiding his eye contact.
"You made …meat – my favorite!" he declared as he tried to identify the food bubbling and hissing on the stove. He took up position beside her and dutifully tasted the sauce she had whipped up. Her hand touching his face gently as she moved the spoon towards him.
"It's the filling for the pie Greg and it is your favorite" She met his eye then, as she brought the spoon to his lips with a coy smile and he felt a shiver of anticipation capture him.
Soon they were seated across from each other eating their meal, he had always loved her cooking ever since they were teenagers she had been a gifted cook. They used to sneak into her place at lunch time and she would create culinary masterpieces from whatever was in the fridge. It helped of course that her parents owned a restaurant; their fridge was never empty even if her home frequently was.
"Well…?" she ventured "is everything to your taste, Sir?"
He matched her wicked smile as he savored the flavors melting on his tongue.
"Isn't it always? I always told you to become a chef"
"And waste my life slaving over a hot stove in a tiny kitchen being berated by customers at ridiculous hours? No thanks, I cook for fun!" she grinned.
She should know, as soon as she was considered old enough her mother had put her to work in her restaurant. She was a firm favorite with the middle aged gentlemen who propped up the bar on a Friday night and Caitlyn's mom knew it.
"Well you do a good job" he raised his glass towards her, clinking them together to raise a toast. "To the best personal chef in Las Vegas"
"Flattery won't work on me Sandy, I know too much about you already" she teased.
"That should really make me even more irresistible Cait"
She rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair, twirling the wine around in her glass as she watched him. He couldn't be sure just yet but there was something telling him Caitlyn was coming round to the idea of progressing their relationship. The glint in her eye and the teasing tone of her voice gave him butterflies.
Being a gentleman, he gathered up the plates when they finished eating and filled the sink. It was only fair that he cleaned up since she had cooked, even if he was normally in the practice of leaving it until he had no plates left to use. He poured her another glass of wine, her fourth of the evening. Caitlyn hopped up beside him on the worktop watching his every move. He briefly wondered if women found rubber gloves sexy, especially the pink ones his mother had so kindly left for him. Next time he resolved he would buy his own, manly, gloves.
"Do you remember that weekend we went into LA?" she began with a soft smile as she studied his face.
"An hour on the 76A? Of course I remember!" he flicked some bubbles towards her, the memory of one of their many ill-fated adventures coming to the forefront of his mind.
"And your mom had to come pick us up after that guy scammed you of all your money?"
His mother had berated him for months afterwards, forbidding him from any contact with her since she was a bad influence on him. He had lasted less than a day before he was sneaking out his bedroom window and meeting her in the playground after dark for some more mischief.
"yeah well, two 13 year old kids alone in LA was never going to end well was it?" the smile had dropped from her face and she stared into the bubbles until his gaze burned into her and she was forced to meet his eye "what's that got to do with cleaning the plates?"
"Well nothing, really" she smiled nervously. "I've just been thinking a lot today. About us… about … you" she held his eye contact, the moment filled with hidden meaning.
His heart skipped a beat as he looked at her again, sitting there before him with her hands gripping the edge of the counter. He placed the last plate on the rack and pulled the towel from the hook behind her. He was sure she took a sharp intake of breath as he leaned towards her and dried his hands. She sought his eye contact, his body moving closer to her position until he was standing directly in front of her legs.
"You know, it's always dangerous when you start thinking. I usually end up getting in trouble!" he smiled, holding her loaded eye contact.
"Don't you dare mister!" She smirked after displaying her mock annoyance. "I'm not the only one who knows how to get in to trouble..."
He couldn't honestly remember a time where anything they had ever got into trouble for had been his idea. He had been a good kid, his rebellion didn't start till college and even then she was there, on the sidelines, egging him on.
"Well then...I guess we make a good pair..." He met her eye again, an undeniable smile playing on his lips.
"I guess we do..." She almost sighed before she forced herself to get back together.
His hands rested either side of hers, for a moment everything seemed to pause. The whole world seemed to still as he stood there, looking into her eyes with an expression he hoped would sum up everything he was feeling right now. The rush of emotions was overwhelming; he could barely breathe when he pushed his body closer to her in an attempt to clear the space between them.
"Greg…" she muttered, nerves making her voice tremble. Their breath seemed to loiter in the air, mixing together as he waited for her to do something, to give him permission to cross the boundary again "you're going to miss your moment…"
"What are you talking about?" he murmured under his breath.
His eyes quickly scanned her body and searched her eyes for reassurance; she held her breath and separated her legs, the last boundary between them gone.
"If this was a movie this would be the part where you kiss me…"
The air settled between them like the start of a rainstorm, heavy and filled with anticipation. A cloud of atmosphere was closing in all around them. He lingered close to her, feeling the heat of her body. His heart pounded in his chest as he closed the gap between them, her tongue moistened her lips in anticipation and her sigh filled the air as his hand gently stroked her hair away from her face.
He teased her lips apart gently, dancing his own across the sweetness of her soft, pink lips. In that instant she surrendered to him completely and the floodgates were opened making their passion come crashing through the boundaries in all its fiery glory.
His lips devoured her kisses hungrily, her hands moved from clutching the worktop to stroking the back of his neck, her legs wound around his waist pulling him closer to her body until he was pushed against her and the passion enveloped them in its embrace within seconds. His hands roamed her body, not daring to venture where he hadn't been invited. Their gasping breaths danced in the air adding to the heat of the moment.
Without a word she slipped his shirt over his shoulders and drew her hands over the contours of his back, their lips only breaking contact for the time it took to exchange a silent understanding and he cupped his hands under her body moving into the bedroom with her wound entirely around him.
He took one more look into her eyes as he laid her back on the bed, one last request for permission as he peeled back the straps of her dress, following the exposed skin with his lips. He had dreamed about this moment, created an elaborate fantasy to this effect. He had imagined what her skin would taste like or how it would feel to draw his hands across the smooth skin of her body, it didn't disappoint, in fact it made him hunger for more. He wanted to cover her body with the tracks of his kisses until there was no part of her untouched by his lips.
She murmured her approval as his fingers lightly danced along the edge of her lace panties, but her hands grasped his belt and brought his lips back to hers as she fumbled with the button on his trousers. He met her eye as his trembling hands removed her bra and gently caressed the taut skin of her breasts before dipping his head to lightly stroke his tongue over her nipples and gratefully receive the moan bubbling up from her abdomen in ecstasy.
He marveled at how he could melt her under his touch, how her body molded into his as he hovered over her ready to take his prize. She trembled under him, her breath tickling his neck as she clung to his back desperately waiting for him to make his move. He could feel her heart pounding in her chest as he pressed his body against her, the clamminess of their skin evaporating like drops of dew in the morning sun.
He loved the way her eyes darkened with lust when he pushed into her, the way her breath gasped and quivered and the way her hands gripped around his shoulders just a little tighter as she raised her hips to meet his movement.
The rush of emotions he had been feeling washed over him like waves beating against the shore, he couldn't seem to bring her close enough, and he couldn't get enough of her sighs and moans. He wanted it to last forever, wanted to stay there teetering on the edge. Relishing that feeling of being so close to the absolution yet holding back and savoring the warmth radiating over his body with ever intensifying power as she writhed under him was almost overwhelming.
She was pleading with him, to end it, to bring her with him as he crashed into oblivion. Her arched back and gasped cries of his name sent shivers down his spine until he couldn't fight it anymore. His passion flared like the flames burning inside him, suddenly rushing over him with unequivocal power and he surrendered to her. Every fiber of his body seemed to collapse into her and she pulled him close, clinging onto him so that he was pressed against her body as the shuddering power gripped him and lights danced in front of his eyes.
He wrapped her in his arms and settled back onto the soft pillows with a satisfied smile, the culmination of his suppressed emotion had been worth the wait. Their breathing slowly returned to normal and she twisted around to look at him from her position nestled in the crook of his arm.
"You know we owe James $100 now?"
Greg was momentarily confused, here they were basking in their post coital afterglow and she was thinking about their old friend James. His hand absentmindedly stroked her arm, pausing for a second to try and follow the conversation.
"Why on earth are you thinking of James right now?" he cried, staring down at her with a frown.
She propped herself up on her elbow and smiled sweetly at him. He was sure she was going somewhere with this, he and James had been good friends in school but their friendship hadn't survived college.
"Do you remember in the 9th grade when he asked me to freshman prom?"
"This keeps getting better and better…!" he teased. He knew that she didn't go with him; their friendship almost didn't survive that particular bout of jealousy on his part.
"Hear me out!" she laughed, brushing her lips on his for a second to silence his paranoia "you wouldn't let him take me and he bet us $100 that we would get together eventually because he thought you were jealous"
"He was right" he murmured under his breath before adding "what happened to him anyway?"
"He's a politician in North Carolina..." Caitlyn replied with a hint of surprise.
"In that case it would be totally immoral for him to accept any money from us" she rolled her eyes and settled back into his arms drawing gentle patterns across his chest with her fingers until sleep claimed them both.
Waking up with her still fully entangled around his body was a surreal experience. With a yawn he inhaled her soft scent, pulling her closer and smiling at the soft moan her sleepy form graced him with as she stretched out her legs.
"Good morning sunshine" he whispered in her direction with a kiss to the top of her head.
Her Dewey eyes reached out to him, reached right into his soul with their honesty and their emotion as she kissed him, her hand gently tracing circles on his bare chest.
"I'll make breakfast, pancakes right?" she smiled with an excited kiss to his lips.
She didn't wait for an answer, simply slipped out of bed and headed for the kitchen. He watched her leave; the light from the window's dancing off her curves as she slipped her dress over her body with a seductive wiggle. She already knew full well what his favorite breakfast was and that's what he loved about her. He didn't have to waste time explaining him to her or establish the foundations of a relationship because they were already there.
It rapidly turned into a serious committed relationship, although it was never anything they actively discussed. Caitlyn moved in and far from ships in the night like he had suspected they had found themselves on the same shift a lot more than they could have predicted. The easiness in which they created a loving home environment made him anticipate coming home to her embrace and positively ache for the feeling of her body tangled with his.
That one time Greg had took a leap of faith was the start of something that he had never imagined before. He had been in relationships, he had dated, but never had he been completely someone else's. And never had a girl trusted him with her heart in the way she trusted him. He couldn't resist the smile that tugged at his lips when he woke to find that morning light lingering over her body as they hid from the world under the sheets.
He couldn't help the rush of affection and emotion that flooded him every time their eyes met; never had he felt more comfortable with anyone. He would find her laying on his sofa reading with a longing smile awaiting his return. She'd wear his shirts as if they were her own. She'd cook for him almost every day and then they would curl up and watch endless streams of movies, the night fading from laughter to heavy sighs as they disappeared into the bedroom. That one decision had changed everything.
And Greg realized he wouldn't change it for the world.
Nick propped up the bar in the seediest part of town he could find. He had been here before, it was a favorite of the down and outs of Vegas. Anyone who had nothing to lose inevitably ended up frequenting this place, drowning their sorrows in whiskey and eyeing the other drinkers with pity and shame. He ordered another drink from the barmaid without looking up; his coaster was rapidly losing its picture as he picked at the edges.
"Not my usual clientele, what's your story cowboy?"
Nick tore his eyes from the bar to scrutinize the woman in front of him. She was small and buxom, a red corset squeezing in her middle and pushing up her breasts. She leaned over the bar, the smell of her own whiskey breath coating him like a second skin.
"Its ok kid, Dolly knows girl troubles when she sees it…"
Nick simply downed the liquid in his glass with a dark brooding look in her direction and slid his glass towards her. she moved on to the woman sitting beside him, she looked every bit as miserable as he did and Dolly discarded her in much the same way, moving on to flirt with the middle aged men at the other side of the bar.
"She's something else, huh?" he asked nodded towards her.
The woman looked at him in surprise. Her piercing blue eyes peering at him through her mess of red curls. About as far removed from Caitlyn as he could find, she was perfect.
"She's very insightful. Her diagnosis of a bad break up was spot on" she remarked bitterly downing her drink in one. It was clear from her demeanor she had been drinking for a while, the way she stared into her glass and swayed to the music only emphasizing that.
"Well, he's clearly the one missing out here." Nick smiled, making sure to lay on the accent thick. He knew it was one of his best traits when it came to women when he caught her eye as he necked his bottle he knew he wouldn't be going home alone tonight.
He may not have won the day with Caitlyn but that didn't mean he had to give up on women completely. There was an endless supply of beautiful and willing women in this town. He intended to start taking advantage of that.