A/N: 100% Vauseman bonus chapter :-)
Alex helped Piper up the steps to her apartment before carrying the tree inside and leaning it against the wall. They took off their hats and coats as Piper tried to remember where she had packed the decorations away. There wasn't a whole lot of them since she'd been on her own and spent Christmas day with her family recently anyway. Alex followed her into her bedroom to help carry the box and she reluctantly agreed to Piper playing Christmas songs on MTV in the background as they set to work unwrapping the tree to set it up in the corner of the lounger.
They stood the tree up and watered it before adding the baubles and fairly lights from Piper's decorations box. There was only a broken star in the box for the top of the tree, but it was better than nothing at the moment. Alex reached up to add the star and Pier clapped her hands together as she switched the lights on.
"Yay! Mmmm it even smells more Christmassy in here now. I love the smell of a real tree and it looks so lovely with all the twinkly lights…" Piper was grinning now and watching the lights sparkle as she sat back on the sofa.
"Good. We just have to remember to keep it watered now. That can be your job to remind me I guess. I'm not sure you're supposed to be crawling around with a watering can just yet…..Oh God, this has to be like the seventh time they played this Mariah Carey track today! You'd think there weren't any other Christmas songs so play…"
"Oh Alex, I love this song though! It's so happy and all about people in love being together at Christmas…"
"Yeah, well I don't have a sick bucket handy. So maybe change the channel and put a film on or something? What do you fancy for dinner?" Alex walked towards the cupboards to see what ingredients they had in.
"There's some steaks in the fridge if you want to do those with some peppercorn sauce?" Piper was flicking through the TV channels to change the music station. There was a 90's rock channel that she thought Alex would prefer, so she left that on.
Alex made them the steaks with some sweet potato fries on the side and some peppercorn sauce and she opened a bottle of red wine to drink with it. Piper drank water and took her new tablets with the meal before they washed up together.
They settled down in front of the TV and Alex topped up her wine as Piper searched through the movies that were playing. Piper sat at one side of the sofa and Alex sat at the opposite side, quickly checking her emails as Piper talked through what was playing. They settled on The Lost Boys as Piper conceded to Alex insisting there had been quite enough Christmassy stuff happening today.
The movie started and they were watching the scene in the comic store when Piper noticed Alex rolling her head from side to side and rubbing her shoulder.
"Are you OK? Have you knotted your shoulder muscles lifting that tree?"
"I'm fine, just need to work it loose I think. Just a bit stiff."
"Come sit here and I'll see if I can help."
"It's OK, I'll work it loose."
"Alex, come sit in front of me on the floor and I can see if I can free it up a bit while we watch the movie."
Alex stood and knelt in front of Piper as Piper opened her legs a little for Alex to sit between them. She turned around and leaned her back against the sofa between Piper's legs.
"OK. Where abouts is it hurting?" Piper gathered her long brunette hair, brushing her neck gently as she swept it to the side and over her shoulder.
"Just here really, I think there's a knot around there." Alex felt the back of her neck, showing Piper where to work.
Piper put both of her hands on Alex's shoulders and moved her fingers and thumbs together to warm up the muscles in both shoulders before digging in a little deeper to work the muscles around the knots. She felt Alex start to relax beneath her touch as she leaned back into her legs a little more. Although she winced a little when Piper was working the knot, she could feel it dissipating and moaned a little as Piper worked her magic.
"You enjoying that Al?"
"Mmmmm, so, sooo good. Don't stop." Her head dropped to the side a little, revealing the pale skin all along her neck and Piper swallowed hard at the thought of leaning down to kiss along the length of that neck and down to Alex's collarbone. Instead, she moved her hand from Alex's shoulder and put the back of her fingers at her jawline, slowly trailing them softly down her neck. She could feel her fingers trembling slightly at the sheer pleasure of feeling Alex's warm skin against her own. The electricity between them was almost audible as Piper could sense her own heart beating that much faster at the touch. As she reached Alex's collarbone slightly beneath her white shirt, she turned to use the tips of her fingers to run along the collarbone to her shoulder and slowly moved her fingers to brush her skin all the way back across to the base of her throat.
As Piper moved her fingers so softly along her neck and pushed them slightly beneath her shirt, Alex's breath hitched. She daren't open her eyes for fear of the feeling stopping and her skin was on fire everywhere that Piper had moved her soft fingers. It was as though her skin was mapping every cell that Piper was caressing softly. And Alex was pretty sure that this was a caress and not part of the massage to relieve the tension in her shoulder anymore. As she felt Piper's fingers move back over her collarbone and towards the base of her throat, she was sure that Piper would be able to see her pulse beating fiercely from her neck as she gently moved her fingertips up and over her voice box.
Piper wasn't sure if Alex could sense her fingers were trembling as she touched her skin, or if she realised that her breathing was shallow and uneven as she focused on the feeling of Alex's skin beneath her fingers. She continued her path to Alex's chin, where she gently lifted her jaw with her thumb, causing Alex to open her eyes and look at her for the first time.
They looked into each other's eyes for a long time and Alex lifted her hand to hold Piper's fingers against her cheek as they maintained eye contact.
Piper leaned down and tucked Alex's hair behind her ear before stroking her other cheek with the hand that Alex wasn't holding.
"I've missed you Alex… If only you knew how much."
Alex turned her face to kiss Piper's hand as it rested against her cheek.
"Then tell me." Alex whispered, not wanting to break the spell. They looked at each other for a long time, searching for something in each other's eyes.
Piper took her hands away from Alex and leaned back into the sofa. Alex was kicking herself for saying the wrong thing. It was impossible to judge what to say when she was treading on eggshells.
"You're gonna have to come back onto the sofa. My ribs are screaming from leaning over like that." She chuckled as she saw Alex relax and smile back at her. Alex got up and topped her wine up a little. "Can I get you anything to drink while I'm up? Maybe a snack or something? I think I saw a pack of popcorn earlier. Shall I put that in the microwave?"
"Yeah popcorn would be good and some fresh water please, since you're going to tease me with that bottle of wine. I hope you're going to finish it now you started it."
Alex was thinking exactly the same thing, but it had nothing to do with the wine.
Polly sent a text through to Alex as she waited for the popcorn in the microwave.
'Not even out of the door to get to the shops yet, sorry. Are you still good to stay later tonight?'
'Yes, we're just chilling in front of the TV. To be honest I'm a good way down a bottle of your red wine, so I'm not good for driving anyway at this point. If you want to stay over at Pete's I can just stay here on the sofa if you want a night off?'
The popcorn pinged and she poured it into a large bowl before bringing it over to Piper with the water. She put it down in the cushion between them and was about to sit on the end of the sofa again when Piper picked up the bowl and patted the cushion next to her.
"Come sit here and you can monitor my popcorn intake."
Alex moved to sit next to her when her phone buzzed with a reply from Polly.
'God, that would be awesome if you don't mind?'
'Nope, but you will owe me big time for giving you an opportunity to get laid obviously ;-)'
'Deal. Thanks.'
"Since I have to finish this bottle of wine, I've given Polly the night off for Pete time and I'll stay here on the sofa. You OK with that?"
"I am fine with that. Very generous of you to be thinking about Polly's sex life. Who knew you cared so much about a libido other than your own?" Piper smirked at her.
"Hey, I'd dig you in the ribs for that but I guess that could get me fired. Look, they're on the bridge now, I like this bit." Alex took a handful of popcorn and lay back against the sofa. Piper laughed and rested her hand on Alex's thigh as they sat together to watch the movie.
Alex put her arm over the back of the sofa to lean towards Piper a little more and held her glass of wine with the other on her lap. She was stealing glances at Piper as she watched the movie, seeing the reflections of the screen in her eyes.
When the credit started to roll, Piper put the part-eaten bowl of popcorn on the floor and stretched her legs out in front of her.
"Hey Al, if Polly isn't coming back tonight, do you think you could help me get a bath? I should really do it now before it gets too late and I can watch another film in my PJs. I just need you to help me in really…"
"Sure. Do you want me to run it for you while you get ready?"
"Yes please, if you don't mind?"
"I'll start it now."
They got up and Piper went to her room to get undressed while Alex turned on the taps and found some bath foam. When Piper came back to the bathroom, Alex had filled the bath with hot water and bubbles and lit tea lights all around the room. She had set her iPhone down and put a relaxing playlist on speaker in the corner of the room. As she heard Piper pushing the door open, she stood up and held her hand out.
"Ready Ms Chapman?"
"Oh Al, this is lovely. Thank you."
Piper walked further into the bathroom and stood by the bath, wearing only her robe. Her hair was tied up in a loose bun and she faced away from Alex as she untied the robe and let it slide slowly from her shoulders and down her back. It fell past her hips and revealed her toned butt cheeks as it slid past her thighs and the robe pooled at her feet now.
Alex's mouth was dry as she saw Piper's naked body for the first time after she left her in Paris all those years ago. She was in fantastic shape, maybe better than ever from a muscle tone perspective. There was some evidence of her bruised ribs on her back, but her skin looked so smooth and firm that it took an awful lot of willpower for Alex to maintain enough distance to not press her own body up against her.
Piper turned her head and held her hand out for Alex to support her as she climbed in. Alex averted her eyes as Piper turned around, feeling more than a little self-conscious that was staring at the naked body of her ex-girlfriend and it was beyond weird. Piper held onto her until she was sat in the bath fully before letting go of her hand.
"OK. Right. Well, I'll be outside if you need anything so, just shout." The brunette turned to leave before Piper stopped her.
"Al?"
"Yeah?" Alex turned to look at her for the first time since she got naked in front of her.
"Why don't you get your wine and keep me company a while?" Piper sank back into the suds.
"Um, OK. I thought you might want to relax a while though."
"I've done nothing but relax for the last 10 days, believe me it won't be any hardship."
Alex went into the lounge to get her wine, stopping to try and make sense of everything for a second. Piper didn't seem to be uncomfortable by Alex being here at all now. In fact, she seemed more relaxed about it than Alex was now. She needed to just chill and stop over analysing everything. Trying to second guess Piper normally resulted in her being wrong anyway, so there was no point. She should just go with the flow.
Piper was lying back and soaping up a sponge to wash her arms when Alex came back in.
"You sure I'm not interrupting your mojo here?"
"Nope. Mojo is just fine"
"OK…."
There was a silence that Alex felt she had to fill for the sake of feeling awkward. She was basically invited here to watch her hot ex-girlfriend bathe right in front of her and it was pure awkward torture quite frankly. Piper was completely naked beneath those bubbles and they'd had a LOT of hot sex in baths just like this, with the candles and the music. Alex wasn't used to being sat on the lid of the toilet fully clothed in these circumstances and she felt like she was pressed against the glass of a very enticing scene indeed.
"So….um…the Doctor said you're healing well. So that's good isn't it?"
"Yeah, I'm feeling better everyday."
"And your bruises are starting to fade a bit… I mean that's what the Doctor was saying wasn't he. I don't know if they are."
"You weren't looking when I took my robe off earlier?"
"What? No!" Alex tried to protest by Piper saw straight through it.
"Alex Vause I'm terribly disappointed. You are one of the best liars I ever met and you have NEVER passed an opportunity to ogle my naked body. So either you got really bad at lying or you gave up your lesbian gold star and turned to dick when we broke up. Now which is it?" Piper wasn't even looking at her as she spoke as Alex was sitting behind her on the toilet seat. Alex inwardly cringed at the fact she had even attempted to deny it.
"OK, maybe I did glance a little."
"Only a little? Did you like what you saw?" Piper's tone was more than a little flirty and Alex was struggling to control her libido at this point.
"Yes…I liked it very much." Alex moved towards the bath and knelt down so she was right behind Piper now. "Too much… Too much for me to keep sitting in this room and watching you run your hands over that silky smooth skin." She whispered to the back of Piper's neck. She saw goosebumps rise on her skin as Alex's breath hit her neck as she spoke. Alex blew lightly across Piper's damp skin, raising the bumps yet further.
She leaned closer still, next to Piper's ear now. "I was watching from the moment you let that robe start to fall away from that long kissable neck right here….. I saw your beautifully toned back revealed to me inch by delicious inch as you lowered the robe…I think you were doing it deliberately…." She leaned forward and kissed Piper's neck so softly that Piper wasn't sure if it was real. Piper's breath hitched and Alex heard it. She kissed her again, lower.
"I saw you tease me by letting the material hug your ass cheeks as you lowered the material past them…My mouth went dry as I watched that robe drop to the floor and have you standing in front of me so tantalisingly naked…" She pressed her lips to the shell of Piper's ear now as she breathed the last words slowly. "And right now…all I can think about is how that skin would feel beneath my fingers…."
Piper closed her eyes, gripping the sides of the bath now with white knuckles.
Alex continued placing soft kisses on Piper's neck, moving from her jaw to her shoulder. On the way back up, her kisses became more forceful and open mouthed as she lightly sucked Piper's skin each time. Piper couldn't stop a low moan from leaving her lips as they parted with the arousal that Alex was creating. Alex smiled at the reaction she was getting and made her way up to Piper's ear again.
"Are you enjoying yourself Ms Chapman?" She breathed into Piper's ear before softly biting her earlobe and pulling at it with her teeth.
The sexual energy pumping between their bodies was deafening as Piper's breathing got a little more laboured from Alex's proximity to her ear. She opened her eyes and turned to Alex, meeting her eyes.
"I am and you are here to care for me after all." Piper moved closer to Alex's lips, where she could feel Alex's breathing was also a little uneven by this point.
"You're absolutely right." Alex licked her lips slowly. "Customer satisfaction is my number one priority... So...How can I be of service to you right now?" Alex dropped her eyes to Piper's lips, willing them to come closer, but not making the first move.
"Kiss me."