AN: another update! A guest complained about my slowness to update this story, I apologize again but it's not easy when you have other things to do. Anyway, I tried my best to give you another chapter, also, have patience with Marcus, he's part of the story for now but he'll leave soon, if it's this what you want to hear. Thank you for the lovely reviews as always, enjoy!
Patrick Jane stood up from the couch, admiring the unexpected scene in front of him; his daughter had fallen asleep with her little curly head on Lisbon's shoulder. The thing even more incredible was that Teresa was asleep too, her cheek against Charlotte's hair. The kid had insisted to watch a movie together and that had been the funny result. He smiled, looking at them, trying to ignore a different emotion that was starting to warm his chest. He couldn't allow this, he knew he would have fallen for her the second their eyes had met for the first time, especially because he had found in them the same desperation that he usually saw every time he looked at himself in the mirror. Besides, she was incredibly beautiful. Not that classic beauty that was evident to everyone, that was a boring type of beauty, at least to his eyes; Teresa was different, she had a magic beauty, not for everybody, but who could have the privilege of understand her complexity, ended up lost in it for a long time. Like she kept weaving accidentally an invisible web day after day.
He went to the kitchen to distract himself, he opened a beer just to have something else to focus on, when he heard light steps approaching him.
"I'm so sorry, I guess I fell asleep." Teresa said to him, lowering her voice not to wake Charlotte.
He turned around to look at her; hair a little messy, her right cheek, previously kept against the kid's head, lightly red, her tongue touching briefly her upper lip to underline her nervousness.
She was lovely.
"That's ok, don't worry." He replied softly. "You're finally free to go home, we kept you here long enough." He saw a hint of disappointment on her face and he wondered if he had mistaken something.
"Yes, I should go." She said, walking toward the door.
"You know this is the moment when I try to find an excuse to see you again, right?" He said, putting a smile on her face.
"The question is if that's a good idea." She replied, leaning against the open door.
"It seems great to me, actually." He said, putting a stubborn lock of hair that kept falling on her forehead, behind her ear. She lowered her eyes, made shy by the contact.
"See you soon, then." She said, fearing that her feelings would have betrayed her.
He didn't say anything back, his mind invested by several different thoughts. He didn't miss her turning to look at him for a last time before entering in the elevator though; he smiled to her in response, unable to contain his reaction. He was falling in love and he didn't want to.
That night she went home, finding Marcus who had surprised her with an homemade dinner and twelve red roses; she cried when she saw him, tears made by guilt and sorrow. He justified those tears with her fresh suspension, she didn't correct him. She couldn't stand his naivety that had made him completely silent about where she had been all afternoon until then; she couldn't stand that he hadn't said a word about her poor appetite because of the pizza she had eaten before. Then she had made sex with him, feeling like she owed him at least this, like a secret reward. The problem was that every time he had touched her, she had imagined different hands, everywhere, twined in her hair, caressing her skin; every time he had whispered sweet nothing and sexy innuendos in her ear, she had heard a different voice speaking about sunsets and golden hours. Her orgasm had been made by the train of images and whispers in her mind and nothing else.
She found a text from Jane on her phone the day after, "Have a nice day, sleeping beauty!" She stared at it for a minute or two, her heartbeats accompanying the moment, but she didn't reply at the end. When Marcus left her home and went to work, she was finally alone in her apartment, thing that she loved, especially in those turbulent moments. She spent the day, and the two after, between cleaning her house, a very therapeutic activity, pretending that with Marcus everything was alright, ignoring every single text from Jane and watching TV, enjoying suddenly the small privileges of being without a job. One morning, making zapping between the channels, she found a face that she was hoping to never see again in her life. Thomas Volker, spotted on a street, in all his charm, was talking to a journalist woman about his last charity project in Amazon. She stared at him, hoping to find something strange, even if difficult during a professional interview and she was so focused on the creepy man at the center of the scene that she had almost missed the girl behind him who was patiently waiting for him and the end of his speech. Liz, the model from the party. She looked carefully at the screen to be sure that her mind wasn't playing funny games with her, but the girl was the same and Lisbon felt a little bit of hope starting to rise somewhere. The problem was that she had promised to Virgil to stay out of this story, at least her suspension had made abundantly clear that she had to stay out of it, but that was an irresistible connection. She needed to find that girl again and only one person could help her in that. The man she was trying to avoid in the last three days, Jane. She still didn't know though, that she wouldn't have been able to avoid him for long.
That night Marcus took her in a pub-restaurant near the river, one of her favorites; it was quite expensive but the music, the food and the atmosphere were amazing; besides, she didn't go out often with him, so it was nice, for a night, to enjoy the novelty. She didn't expect though, that ten minutes later Patrick Jane would have entered with a lovely skinny girl, probably a model, in the same restaurant. When their eyes met, she knew that the evening had just started.
"Teresa, lovely to see you here." Jane said, approaching her table, his eyes twinkling.
"Marcus, this is Patrick Jane, I.. I collaborated with him during a case." She explained, hoping to sound convincing and trying to hide that nervousness that made every word said, strange even to her own ears.
"Oh God, you're that photographer, right? Well, it's a pleasure, I love your early works." Marcus said, shaking his hand and genuinely excited.
"Nice to meet you, Marcus!" He said, never leaving Lisbon's eyes. "And by the way, this is my lovely company for the evening, Naomi."
"Of course." Lisbon muttered to herself. "Have a nice dinner, then." She said eventually, to cut the conversation as soon as possible.
"Wait!" Marcus intervened. "Why don't we eat all together? It would be fun."
"I don't think it's a great idea, Marcus, leave them in peace." Lisbon said, trying to stop the inevitable.
"Oh why? I think it's a very good idea at the contrary, let's eat all together." Jane said excited, winking at her.
She smiled forcedly and prepared herself for the charade that was coming.
"The famous Marcus, Teresa talked to me about you so much." Said Jane ironically, an irony that reached only her ears thankfully.
"She's a sweetheart." Marcus said proudly, kissing her temple; Lisbon was embarrassed by the contact, especially because Jane kept staring at her the whole time.
"How long have you been together?" Naomi said out of the blue, gaining a not too friendly gaze from Lisbon.
"Almost an year, right honey?" Marcus said, looking at Lisbon. She nodded, forcing a smile. Jane gulped down his glass of wine and took Naomi's hand in his , the girl almost squirmed in her chair in response.
"What about you and Patrick?" Lisbon said, looking at the model and choosing deliberately to call him Patrick. Jane looked challengingly at her, toying with Naomi's fingers.
"Well, actually it's the second time we go out together, I was so surprised when he asked me out the first time, I mean, he's a real legend between us, you know." Naomi explained amused.
"Oh hush." Jane said, flattered. "Besides, have you looked at yourself, girl?" He said, kissing her temple, mocking Marcus' previous gesture. Lisbon shook her head imperceptibly.
"Well, behind a second time, there's always a success." Marcus said, raising his glass toward them. "Besides, I don't find it strange, looking at you." He finished, looking at Naomi.
Great, now his boyfriend was complimenting Naomi in front of her, it was her turn to gulp down the glass of wine.
"She's incredibly beautiful, isn't she?" Jane said referring to Naomi, but looking at Lisbon the whole time.
"Without doubt, Patrick, you're lucky,! I'd like to have the privilege to go out with a woman who dresses like a real woman sometimes, you know." Marcus said jokingly, making fun of Lisbon.
"What's wrong with my outfit?" Lisbon said, not sounding really amused.
"Well, you could wear dresses and heels sometimes, you know." Marcus answered.
"I'm ok like this." Teresa replied.
"Honey, I was kidding." He said, taking her hand. She smiled briefly and intercepted Jane's eyes that were staring deeply at her again.
The dinner went on between jokes and funny anecdotes. The only one who didn't seem to have fun was Lisbon. She had forgotten how much Patrick Jane had the power to irritate her; she felt returned to their first meeting in his studio, when she had basically slapped him in the face instead of shaking his hand, just met. Even back there though, she had felt totally caught by his eyes, or better by the intensity of them. The same intensity that kept hunting her now; every minute she could feel his presence, like he was the only man in the room, and she would have been able to lose herself in his gaze and to disappear completely.
"What about a game of pool?" Marcus suddenly said, pointing at the pool table at the end of the local.
"Why not?" Jane said, approving the choose.
Lisbon, who was just waiting the end of the evening, didn't say anything, hoping that after the game, they could finally go home and forget that dinner soon. She entered in her competitive nature soon though, showing her ability, shot after shot and trying to release a little bit of accumulated tension.
"She's a little tornado, isn't she?" Jane said to Marcus, looking admiringly at her. She didn't wear dresses or heels but she was at least the queen of the pool table.
"Oh yes, and you should see her when she loses, she becomes a little Hulk." Marcus replied, laughing. "Be feminine is not really her thing, let's say." He winked playfully toward her.
Lisbon gripped tightly the cue in her hands, she looked at the floor then, trying to compose herself and tired of the umpteenth bad joke about her poor femininity. Jane was the only one noticing her discomfort, looking at her from the opposite corner of the table; he just wanted to gather her in his arms and tell her how feminine and sensual she was to his eyes. Especially now, for the way she moved in those tight jeans around the table, trapping her lower lip between her lips, to focus on her next shot.
Lisbon was proud of herself anyway, she had managed to play cool until that moment even if the situation was quite absurd; she hadn't lost control even when Jane had deliberately brushed against her to reach his spot around the table for his next shot; she had felt the sparks born by that brief contact though.
When she thought the worst was over, the following scene happened under her eyes. Naomi after her first pocket in all the evening, launched herself in Jane's arms, kissing him soundly on the mouth. Lisbon tried to ignore the pang of jealousy she felt in that moment, but finding it quite impossible, she excused herself to go in the ladies room.
She splashed some water on her face just arrived, she couldn't believe a kiss like that could affect her in that way, especially because she shouldn't have been jealous of Jane, not with her boyfriend next to her who was caressing her back during the exact moment. She was angry with herself. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, contemplating her outfit once again. She had chosen a dark green blouse that emphasized her forms without being too adherent, she smiled sadly to her small and ridiculous attempt to be attractive. She exited from the bathroom, finding the last man he wanted to see walking toward her, Jane. She tried to ignore him and kept walking through the corridor but he blocked her path, making her flinch, until her back touched the wall behind her.
"Let me go." She said, but he trapped her on the spot, putting his hands against the same wall.
"Why you ignored me all week?" He asked, looking at her in the eyes.
"Because I didn't want to answer you." She said, pressing her hands against his chest, trying to pull him away.
"Liar." He said, searching her eyes.
"Sorry, my boyfriend is waiting for me." She tried without success, he chuckled in response.
"I can't stop thinking of you." He whispered in her ear, invading dangerously her personal space. She pretended to keep pushing him away but her fingers gripped his shirt instead, to keep him right there.
"Oh, I guess I'm not the only one in your mind, though." She replied sassy, lowering her gaze, not able to meet his eyes.
"Are you jealous?" He asked, amused. She tightened her grip on his shirt in response.
His right hand left the wall behind her and found her hipbone, pressing against it. "Just to be clear.." He whispered in her ear while his thumb started to dance slowly on her covered stomach, "You are the hottest woman in the whole restaurant, every single dress, compared to those sinful tight jeans on you, disappears completely." Said that, he kissed her hair, he looked at her for a last time and then he left the corridor, coming back into the restaurant.
She came back in the bathroom and splashed some cold water against her face, again. This time for a different reason.
Liked it? Next chapter will come back on the case, I promise, anyway, ten points for who guesses the movie that has inspired me for the restaurant/pool scene.