Chapter 6

Lost in You

Author's note: I hope you folks are still reading along – if you are, it'd be great if you dropped a note into the reviews. FanFiction appears to have stopped tracking reader stats so authors now have no way to know if people are still reading. Demoralizing to say the least!

This chapter is all about Mick and Beth - I know, I know, about time, right? They are working to get back to their version of normal after Mick's near death experience. The end song for this chapter is one of my favorites. I heard it first in the movie, Love Actually (a favorite of mine), and that's the best rendition of it, in my mind. I think it's a wonderfully sexy song and very fitting here. Hope you'll look it up!

Intro Song: Real Friends, Camila Cabello

"Soooo, Josef thinks he's going to crash our party."

Mick had heard most of the conversation Beth had had with Simone and she'd just finished filling him in on what he'd missed. Kostan was aware that tomorrow night, their Spector-imposed moratorium was at an end and they were free to do whatever they wanted again. He planned to be at Mick's penthouse, to, as Simone had put it, "spoil the mood." Mick didn't know whether to be amused or pissed off - or both.

"Yup. That's his plan, according to Simone."

"Hmph."

"Hmph?! That's it?! That's your response? What's the plan?

"Plan?" I may kill him... or stake him... or... "Maybe we could go to a hotel somewhere?" he suggested hopefully.

"Seriously, Mick!" Damn, do men ever think with any other head? "Have you forgotten that you are supposed to be a recovering invalid? All we'd need would be for one person to recognize you and take a picture of you strolling into a hotel under your own power. Besides, it's the principle of the thing - I am not letting Josef Kostan drive us away from our ho- I mean, your penthouse," Beth corrected hastily. This is not your home, she admonished herself. To cover up her slip, she tossed her phone back into her purse and sauntered up to the vampire wearing her best 'come-hither' look. "I have a better idea."

Mick cocked an eyebrow, crossing his arms across his chest. "I'm not sure what you have in mind, but I'm liking it already."

"I'm thinking," Beth said slowly, reaching out both hands to unfold his arms and tuck them around her waist, "what difference can a few hours make?"

Drawing his head back in astonished delight, the vampire regarded his lover with surprise. "Wait, the oh-so-adamant, 'we-have-to-follow-the-doctor's-orders-to-the-letter' Beth Turner is suggesting jumping the gun?!"

"What if I am?" Beth purred seductively, leaning against him. "Would you object?"

"You know the answer to that." Mick lowered his voice to a deep growl. He nuzzled into her hair, whispering in her ear, "I want you so badly, I can't stand it."

"Alright, then," Beth announced, putting both hands on his chest to push away from him. "It's settled. Sex tonight."

Mick burst out laughing. "Well, that was romantic, Miss Turner. Are we scheduling appointments?"

Beth smiled. "Sorry, I didn't mean it that way. But, if you think I'm climbing into bed with you after weeks apart without getting ready, you don't know women very well!"

"And, getting ready means...?"

"Well, for starters, I want a nice hot bath, fresh clothes, a glass of wine, and- "

"Me?" he broke in.

She laughed, her blue eyes crinkling at the corners. "I was thinking more along the lines of music for now. But, definitely you... later." She deposited a quick peck on his cheek and broke away, running up the stairs.

"I'll bring you up some wine, okay?" he called after her.

"Great- " Her voice was cut off by the sound of the bathroom door slamming shut behind her.

Mick grinned. Beth Turner was nothing if not quick to action once she had made up her mind.

Just how decisive she was became clear a few minutes later when he followed her up the stairs with a glass of pinot noir from Josef's vineyard in each hand. Nudging open the bathroom door with his foot, he was surprised to find her already immersed in the huge whirlpool bathtub, almost hidden by bubbles churned up from the steaming hot cascade of water still pouring into it. Her discarded clothing made small puddles of color on the slate gray tile floor.

"Well, that was fast!"

"Hey, I said I wanted to have sex with you tonight, not next week. Times a-wastin', stud." She grinned up at him impishly as he walked over to the tub.

Mick looked around. "Where are the oils and candles... you know, that stuff you ladies like so much?"

"Oh, I've got all that stuff too," Beth replied archly.

"And you haven't brought it here because…?"

Because I'm still a guest. Beth was surprised by how quickly that thought bubbled up. Where did that come from? She bit her lip to keep from saying what she was thinking. Instead, she said only, "Mick, you've been wonderful. I just don't want to overstep my boundaries."

Mick raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Boundaries? What boundaries? Beth, you know I love having you here. I gave you a key. You don't have boundaries here."

Sure I do. Beth opened her mouth to say what was on her mind, but in that moment, the overhead light caught Mick's face, the silver threads in his eyes glowing ominously. She was immediately, forcefully, hit with a reminder of all that she had almost lost. Now was not the time to argue over her status in the St. John penthouse.

Instead, she joked, "All right. The candle truck will be here to deliver tomorrow then." She reached up for the glass of wine Mick was holding out.

For a moment, Mick was disturbed by the undercurrents in their conversation. But, just as quickly, he shuffled it out of his mind. He'd reminded Beth she had a place here and, in his male mind, that had put the issue to rest. Again. Teasingly, he pulled his arm back slightly, holding the wine just out of her reach. "Oh, did you want this?"

Laughing, she lunged over the side of the tub, leaning on the plush white towel draped there as she grabbed for the stem of the wine glass. One pale breast emerged from the bubbles cloaking her as she moved.

Mick's grin broadened and he took a step back. "Do you think you should have this? I'm not sure it's safe to drink in a big tub like that. I'd feel terrible if you drowned..."

Beth rose to her knees, her fair skin already bright pink from the hot water, bubbles clinging to her wet body. It was all Mick could do to refrain from grabbing her at that moment; his hands itched to glide over her skin and brush the soap from her body, fondle her breasts... He could feel his erection pressing painfully against his pants.

"Mick St. John, if I don't get that wine, you are going to feel terrible, I guarantee you!" Her flushed face was framed by waves of blond hair, curling in the steam from the water and her blue eyes sparkled with mischief.

He caved in. "Well, since you asked so nicely..."

He stepped closer to deposit the wine glass in her hand and a kiss on her mouth. He couldn't resist reaching out with his thumb, gliding his finger over her upper lip to wipe away the moisture there. Once started, his hand seemed to have a mind of its own, sliding from her mouth down her neck to her breast, then down across her stomach, disappearing into the bubbles.

Beth gasped as his fingers found her, their initial coolness a startling contrast to the hot water. Her eyes closed involuntarily as he massaged her, gently but insistently. She leaned harder against him, her muscles responding instinctively...

Abruptly, his hand was gone.

"Hey!" she protested, opening her eyes to see him juggling the wine glass that had fallen from her nerveless fingers.

"You, ah, dropped this." Mick's hazel eyes shone with glee.

He's proud of himself! "Sorry." Beth's embarrassment turned her skin an even deeper a rueful laugh, she said, "I guess you're right - drinking wine in a tub can be dangerous."

"Maybe if I remove the... distractions... you can handle it," he teased.

"I think that's a good idea," Beth responded primly. "Hand over that wine and get your ass out of here until I'm good and ready!" She snatched the rescued glass out of his hand and flung herself back down in the water, covering her body with bubbles again. Grinning up at the vampire, she pointed a finger at the door and commanded, "Out!"

"Okay, okay, I'm going." Mick threw up his hands and backed slowly toward the door, never taking his eyes off her. "Do you suppose you could get up on your knees for one more min-"

"OUT!" Beth shouted, laughing - and he went. Settling back against the towel, she played with the water still rushing out from the jets recessed along the sides of the whirlpool bathtub with her toe and sipped the excellent pinot. Her body was still tingling from Mick's caress and she raised her hand to run her forefinger over her upper lip where he had touched her. This bath wouldn't last long. She wouldn't last long...

Beth opened her eyes to find a fresh glass of wine on the broad lip of the tub. Had she dozed off? Probably; it had been a long, difficult week. Her personal vamp valet had managed to come and go, leaving the wine without her ever having heard him. The thoughtfulness touched her, even as the skeptic in her asserted, he just wanted another peek at you…

Not Mick, she told herself as she sipped the dark red wine. He wasn't like that - at least not with her. When did you become such a cynic? She was every bit as excited as he was about their finally being able to have sex again.

"Baggage, Turner. You have baggage," she muttered. Josh Lindsey had been a wonderful guy, but the two men who had preceded him in the serious romance department had been less than stellar, leaving their mark, as bad relationships so often did.

As she stood, wrapping the thick white towel around herself, it suddenly occurred to her that Mick had probably been watching her when those jerks had been in her life. What must he have thought?! The idea made her blush again and shake her head. Having an immortal vampire protector came with its downsides too.

Groaning, Beth hit the lever to release the drain and carefully stepped out of the tub and walked over to the full-length mirror, leaning against one wall. She sighed as she caught sight of her hair, curling from the steam and water. This was going to take a while...

A half hour later, carrying the now-empty wine glass, she descended the stairs, feeling more like herself. She'd beaten her hair into submission, applied fresh makeup and dressed in tight jeans and the sexiest top she felt she could justify, given the fact that they weren't going out. Her major concession to the occasion had been to don the killer hot pink Stella McCartney pumps she'd last worn when they went to Babe & Ricky's the first time.

Her skin still glowed from the hot bath but the tingling she felt was more from the sight of Mick in the kitchen. He had shaved and changed clothes as well - and from the looks of his damp hair, he'd jumped in the shower before preparing what appeared, to Beth's eyes, to be a feast.

"Wow, Mick, when did you do all this?"

Without looking up from placing a plump salmon fillet on a plate, he smiled and said, "Remember, I've been stuck here all week while you've been off working."

Her delight at watching Mick in the kitchen was tempered by fear that he'd done something ill-advised. "How did you get all of this in here?! You didn't go out, did you?!"

He shook his head, touched by her concern. "Of course not, sweetheart. There's this thing called delivery - I assume you've heard of it?" He looked up from his cutting board in time to see her eyes widen and her mouth open for a comeback. Whoops! Better head her off… "I was good - I had my bandage on and moved slowly and everything. I swear!"

Beth's hands went to her hips as she began firing questions at the vampire. "Was this a trusted delivery person? How do you know it wasn't someone sent to hurt you?! Have you seen the guy before?"

Mick's dark eyebrows raised. "You've been spending way too much time around paranoid Josef - who, by the way, made all the arrangements for me."

Beth was still suspicious - but now her attention was focused on Kostan. "How considerate - probably a good-will gesture in advance of the mayhem he was planning to cause us."

The P.I. grimaced "Yeah, Josef's a mixed bag that way. Overall, he's a good person - really, he is. He's helped me in ways I can't begin to count. And he doesn't mean any harm, not really. It's just that, in some ways, he's never quite grown up." More like he doesn't want to be a grown-up, he corrected himself silently.

Four centuries was a long time to live, so Mick at least partially understood why Josef could act childish at times - it was a coping mechanism. Given the right circumstances and frame of mind, vampires, just like humans, could be playful and fun - a trait that certainly wasn't chronicled in the mythology about his kind.

"You're sure about that?" Beth asked archly.

"Well," he continued, dragging his thoughts back to the present, "at least he doesn't mean us any harm." He smiled again. "Embarrassment and frustration, maybe, but not harm. And speaking of that..." Mick looked her up and down as if he were seeing her for the first time, letting out a low whistle. "Now I wish I'd made plans to take you out somewhere. You look pretty spectacular."

She smiled. "Nice idea, but you can't go out yet! Besides, I'd rather be here. With you." It was true. There was something both endearing and sexy about a man preparing a fancy meal for a woman - especially when the man in question was a vampire who couldn't even eat the food.

Mick grabbed a towel to wipe his hands, tossing it over his shoulder as he sauntered around the island to give her a lingering kiss. "Yeah. Me too." He pulled back for a second to grin down at her. "Closer to the bedroom." He rubbed his hands slowly up and down her bare arms, sowing goose bumps in his wake..

Beth broke away first. "At this rate," she quipped, her voice a husky whisper, "all that hard work will go to waste."

"Not a chance." Mick twirled her around and swatted her gently on the rear. "Go sit down. Dinner is served."

Beth slid onto the indicated chair, looking questioningly at the vampire as she took in the two place settings at the table. "Are you... eating?"

"No," Setting a plate down in front of her, Mick confessed, "One place setting just looked lonely. I'll eat when you're through."

"Don't be silly," Beth retorted, eyeing the delicious-looking food in front of her. "Get your glass and bring it over." She had seen him hurriedly set his glass of blood down in the island's sink when she came down the stairs.

"I'm not going to ruin your dinner. I can wait." The vampire folded his arms across his chest and scowled down at her.

"Mick, that's ridiculous. After seeing you on that table in Temecula, there's nothing you could do - or show me - that would bother me! I've seen the worst. Now get your ass - and your drink - over here and eat with me." Beth's blue eyes flashed up at him. "Not negotiable, St. John."

He threw up his hands in surrender. "Okay, you win." Grabbing his glass out of the sink, he sat down at the table next to her, pausing to pour her a glass of pinot. "I'm here – and so's your wine. Now eat!"

"Gladly!" Beth picked up her fork and dug into the poached salmon, rolling her eyes in delight with the first mouthful. "This is wonderful, Mick. I don't know how you can figure out the spices - are you sure you can't taste food?"

"Pretty damn sure," the vampire responded, sipping blood from his tumbler. "Glad you like it. I enjoy cooking for you, you know." He leaned over to kiss her cheek.

"So," Beth started, laying down her fork and swiping at her mouth with her napkin. "We've hardly talked about this. Why can't vampires eat real food?"

"We could eat it, but we can't digest it - and it's completely tasteless, so what's the point?"

"No taste at all?"

"Nope, none. Ever try to eat cardboard?

Beth choked on the bite of fresh asparagus in her mouth. Sputtering, she grabbed for the water glass by her plate and gulped down the liquid. Finally catching her breath, she managed to gasp out, "No, I can't say that I have. I kinda prefer the salmon."

"Well, if you imagine what cardboard tastes like - and then take that taste away - that's what food is like for vampires. And we don't digest it, so eventually..."

"Okay, okay, I get the picture," Beth interrupted, laughing. "I'm sorry I asked!" There was silence for a moment as she cut another bite of the delicious fish and chewed thoughtfully. "That must have been hard. In the beginning, I mean."

"It was - but more out of habit than anything. Vampires don't get hungry for food, but the memory of food is harder to let go of. I think you miss that more than the actual food. For a while, I thought I'd go crazy if I didn't have something to gnaw on. I even tried chewing food and spitting it back out." He grimaced. "That was a particularly charming period in my life. All those teenagers who think vampires are sexy should get a load of that!"

"So it didn't work." Beth picked up her wine glass and drained it, her heart going out to him. She couldn't imagine how she would have survived what he had endured - alone. How had he put it? "I went to bed a happily-married man and woke up a monster..."

"No, to put it mildly, that did not work. I finally adjusted to the idea of no food - it took a while, though. But coffee..." He sighed theatrically. "I still miss coffee."

"Poor Mick," Beth said sympathetically, trying - and failing - to imagine life without coffee. "But you can drink alcohol. You taste it, right?! How is that possible?"

Mick shrugged and finished the blood in his glass. "Yeah, we taste it – and it's pretty much as I remember from when I was human. Maybe there's something in the chemical composition of alcohol? Or divine intervention to make up for all the things being a vampire takes away from you, perhaps. I really have no idea and I don't think anyone else does either."

"So I guess no one's ever studied that." Beth reached out and took Mick's hand, rubbing her thumb across his knuckles.

He laughed cynically. "Not exactly a lot of scientists studying vampire physiology." Mick took her hand in both of his and raised it to his lips, kissing her palm. "I guess it will have to be another of life's mysteries. I just thank my lucky stars for the alcohol, even if the effects don't last that long. Speaking of which, be right back."

He rose from the table to pour himself a glass of scotch, bringing the now-empty bottle and the remaining wine, back to the table.

"Remember this?" Mick showed her the label of the bottle of scotch.

Beth peered at the bottle, then up at him with a smile. "Is that- ?"

"Yep." It was the last of the scotch Beth had bought him as a 'thank you' for rescuing her from a psycho graduate student who'd been murdering young women - before she knew he was a vampire. "It was damn fine, so I've been nursing it along, but tonight seems like a fitting end to it." He sat back down across from her.

Beth immediately got up and moved around the table to slide onto his lap. "So," she whispered, "what are we drinking to?" She lifted the heavy glass from his hand and took a swallow, managing to cough only slightly.

Mick put one finger under her chin, tilting her head up to look into her face. "You're getting better at drinking this stuff all the time. I don't know if I should be glad about that... or worried."

"Be worried." Beth took another gulp and leaned over to seal her mouth on his and pass the potent alcohol over his lips.

"I like it when you share like that." Mick licked his lips appreciatively and grinned wolfishly.

"What are you going to share with me?" Beth teased.

"I could point out that you are holding what was my scotch to begin with..."

"Finders, keepers."

"I guess I'll just have to find something else to share with you." Mick kissed her, the taste of scotch still on her lips inciting him to suck them gently. His erection was immediate and painful. "Beth," he whispered, allowing his mouth to drift down to her throat, "I want you."

"You have me, Mick." The lump in her throat as she thought about how close they had come to losing each other made it hard for her to speak. She was both petrified and euphoric over how all-consuming her feelings for him were. God, she loved his lips. His eyes. His hair. His body…"What are you waiting for?" she whispered against his cheek.

Without another word, the vampire picked the small woman up, her slight body almost weightless in his arms. Carrying her to the couch, he deposited her carefully on the soft cushions. The fragility of her, the ease with which her human body could be injured or broken, frightened him. Since coming home from Temecula, he'd lain awake in his freezer for hours while she was at work, worrying and fretting, imagining the worst. A car running a red light, a particularly virulent virus, a mugging, a stray bullet, even another man, a human man... Anything - and everything - could take her from him.

How long do I have you?

Mick pushed the thought away. Josef was always telling him he needed to live in the moment, not fret so much about the future. Enjoy what you have while you have it, St. John...

He stripped off his shirt and lay down beside Beth, his hands exploring under her shirt, her skin like silk, her scent swirling around him, losing himself in her. I'll try, Josef. I'll try.

End Song: Too Lost in You, Sugarbabies (from Love Actually)