DATE: January 2008
TITLE:
Glimpse Beyond the Curtain
AUTHOR: losingntrnslatn (LosingInTranslation,
Jennifer)
DISCLAIMER: Don’t own anything associated with the show… I just like
playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!
RATING: M/NC-17 - For VERY mature, adult, SMUT content
SPOILERS: Season 8, sort of. I'm still refusing to admit the existence
of those 2 crackhead episodes
PAIRINGS: Yo!Bling
SUMMARY: After an out-of-town case has drained all of her energy,
Catherine finally peeks out from the curtain and sees what's been there all
along.
A/N: Remember that Meme, where I owed someone a little Yo!Bling Smut? Yeah, I finally got
around to writing/finishing it. Took forever, I blame the crackhead
episodes for robbing my desire to finish it. Also, there was another fic that sort of took over my brain. Not to mention the
holiday madness, a pregnant sister-in-law, visitors, numerous runs to the
airport, and being the cool aunt are very time consuming. :p
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This is largely my own twisted machination, but I was
able to get a little help from SmutBeta, and some
fantastic “Hack & Slash” beta work from the wonderful GuerillaBeta.
Any leftover mishaps belong to me, but the input from these remarkable ladies
is, as always, priceless to me. (Wrote this one for the last Yo!Bling, and it still applies,
ten-fold)
REVIEWS: Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or
not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a
little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.
Glimpse Beyond the Curtain
If there
was one case she hated more than any other, it was an out of town case. They
were always in some remote, backwater, Barney Fife Hicksville, and she just
could not stand the half-assed law enforcement personnel in those places. It
had taken them two days to finally get through the whole big mess. The only
thing that saved her sanity on the case was the fact that she was out with the
boys. With her own personal version of the Three Stooges along for the ride, at
the very least, she was well entertained.
Nick and
Greg were the first ones to head back to town, so they left her and Warrick to
finish the paperwork and tie up the last of the loose ends on the case.
Thankfully, Warrick had talked the guys into hauling all of the evidence back
to Vegas, which meant the two of them could just go straight home. Catherine
never slept well in these Podunk towns, and after a couple days of tripping
over the local sheriff, cleaning up after bungling deputies and laughing until
her sides hurt over the faces and comments being made by her co-workers, she
was just plain exhausted.
The only
thought on her mind as she and Warrick finished putting their bags into the
Tahoe was that she desperately wanted to sleep in her own bed for the next
twenty-four hours.
Without
even asking, Warrick slipped into the driver’s seat, affected a sly smile and
held out his hand for the keys. The cockeyed smile that appeared on her face
when she reached into her purse to find the keys came unbidden. As she walked
around to the passenger side, Catherine realized just how much she had missed
seeing his playful smile, and the familiar level of easy comfort that once
existed between them.
They had
nearly three hundred miles before getting back to the city, and Catherine hoped
to reclaim some of their friendship before they reached the halfway point.
However, by the time Warrick pulled away from the gas station at the other end
of the town she was already fast asleep.
Her dreams
were filled with warm thoughts, bright smiles, freckled cheeks marked with
adorable dimples and framed by long blonde hair, and glimpses of a future she
had only ever dreamt about. Catherine often imagined the future for her
daughter, be it as a scholar, a dancer in the New York Ballet, a scientist, a mother,
or a lawyer, but no matter what, it was always a brighter future than she had
ever envisioned for herself. Having lived much of her adult life in service to
the idea that her daughter would never have such low expectations for her own
life, Catherine was fairly certain the girl truly believed she could accomplish
whatever she set her mind to. Knowing that in her heart as she drifted through
her wonderful dream world, Catherine curled up in the warmth it gave her.
Tucked in
amongst those dreams of the future was this ever present image of a sly smile
waiting in the shadows. Those dreams had been hidden away for a long time, but
for some reason they seemed to be coming back into the light again lately. They
had been the cause of a great deal of sadness for a long while, but they once
were a source of wistful happiness in her life. She banished those dreams two
years ago, after learning that they would never be possible. Or, so she thought
at the time.
As that
final thought drifted up into her conscious mind, Catherine stirred in the
passenger seat. Her first impression was that she was waking up, but when a
cover of warm, soft darkness fell over her, she drifted back down under the
haze of slumber, and snuggled into the toasty blanket of comfort.
When her
mind slowly began to float back up into consciousness, Catherine felt more
relaxed and rested than she had in weeks. Certain that sleep still had some
hold on her body she enjoyed the softness it seemed to create around her. She
knew the dreams were still flitting through her mind, because she simply could
not fathom that the front seat of a department issue Tahoe could be that
comfortable.
Convinced
that she was going to have to stretch for an hour to get all the kinks out of
her exhaustion induced coma on the car ride back to town, Catherine finally
allowed herself to begin rising up out of her semi-conscious state. The first
thing that got her attention was that she was covered in a blanket, and she was
pretty damn sure there was nothing that soft in any CSI vehicle she had ever
been in. The next thing to filter into her mind was that they were not moving.
Once that
thought pierced its way into her brain, she sat straight up in a flash, only to
find she was no longer inside the Tahoe at all, but on a large fluffy suede
sofa in someone’s living room. Catherine immediately went into fight or flight
mode and all of her survivor instincts hit high alert.
Scanning
the room for any indication of where she might be, she looked for pictures,
certificates, or anything that would give her a clue. Unfortunately, the only
thing of distinction in the entire room was an old, beat to hell, upright
piano. As she tried to reach back into her mind to see if that struck a
familiar chord, her eyes caught a hint of movement from the pile of material
sitting in the huge chair across from her and she froze.
A muffled
cough was heard from under what she could see was another blanket, as the
person beneath it stirred in their sleep. The deep tone of the sound, and the
length of the form gave her some clue as to the identity of the person beneath
the covers, but she had to be sure. Looking down to make sure she was all
together, Catherine saw that she was still in her work clothes and her CSI
vest. The only things missing from her wardrobe were her shoes, and when she
glanced down at the floor, she found them sitting neatly beside the sofa.
Ever so
slowly she rose from the couch and carefully tip-toed over to the chair. Just
as she was about to reach out for the edge of the blanket to reveal the person
breathing beneath it, a familiar face emerged from the covers and smiled.
“Morning…” His green eyed gaze sparkled as Warrick came back to consciousness.
“Feeling better?”
She tried
to speak, but between the sight of his relaxed and comfortable smile, and the
smoky sound of his smooth voice, even first thing after waking up, Catherine
was having trouble doing more than gaping and sputtering. “Right… You need
coffee before speech is possible. Comin’ right up.” He quickly jumped to his feet and headed for
the kitchen. “I put it on to brew before I crashed. You still like French
Roast, right?”
Catherine
was still staring at the chair when he called out from the kitchen again, “Cath…French Roast is okay, isn’t it?”
It suddenly
dawned on her that he required a response and she awkwardly stumbled over the
only thing that would come out of her mouth. “Yeah…good.”
Warrick
seemed to be completely unaware of her dilemma, as he continued to bang around
the kitchen. Slowly, she managed to get her feet to move, one in front of the
other, until she was standing on the opposite side of the kitchen island. As
she tried to get her bearings, Catherine took a peek at her watch and nearly
fell over at the first sign of what must have happened. “Shit!”
Warrick
looked over his shoulder at the sound of her exclamation and asked, “What?”
Shaking her
head, Catherine answered, “Well, considering how much light there is out there,
I can’t imagine that it’s after one in the morning…” She looked up at him with
the shock showing plainly on her face. “What the hell happened?”
“Oh, well…
You fell asleep on the way back.” Warrick simply shrugged off her concern and
went back to his tasks.
“No shit!”
He laughed at her snide comment and waited for more. “But we left Warm Springs
at nine, and…” Her voice rose with the realization of the sheer volume of hours
since that moment, “I haven’t been asleep for SIXTEEN HOURS, HAVE I?!”
“No, we left
the sheriff’s office at nine. So it’s probably closer to fifteen, since we
didn’t leave the town until a little after ten.” Warrick was being far too calm
for her tastes and it had begun to get on her nerves.
“Don’t get
technical. Why the hell didn’t you…” her next tirade was interrupted when he
handed her a mug of steaming coffee, with just the right amount of milk in it.
Bringing her volume back under control, she spoke with strained patience, “Why
didn’t you wake me up when we got back?”
Warrick
chuckled as he blew over the top of his mug and then stated, “Believe me…I
tried. But you were dead to the world.”
“And you
brought me here because…”
“Nobody was
home, and I don’t have the code to your security system.” He nodded his head at
her cup in a gesture meant to get her drinking the coffee. “What else was I gonna do? Have David haul you out on a gurney or
something?”
Catherine
could not help herself, she laughed at the idea of their timid, ultra-shy
coroner lifting her onto a gurney. “Okay, good point.” She took the first
tentative sip from her mug and enjoyed the feel of the smooth, rich liquid
filling her mouth and vanishing down her throat. A delighted purr found its way
out of her, and she heard Warrick’s chuckle again.
“I take it
that means you approve of the coffee?”
Nodding her
head, she smiled and said, “Oh yeah… Almost as good as that stuff Greg is
always hording.”
“Yeah, I
don’t hold with spending forty bucks a pound on any coffee, so this is the best
you’re gonna get here.” Warrick’s
smile was bright and welcoming, despite his protestation.
“It’s
perfect just like this.” She smiled back at him and continued to drink her
coffee.
After a few
minutes of quiet enjoyment, Warrick set his mug down and turned toward the
fridge. “So, fifteen hours is a long time without food…what are you in the mood
for?”
Seeing him bent down in front of the fridge, the first words to pop
into her mind were completely inappropriate under almost any circumstances. She
quickly took a big drink of the coffee and attempted to fight back the comments
begging to be said. “I should probably get home before Lindsey thinks I’ve
disappeared off the face of the earth, and she starts the next week long kegger.”
“Don’t
worry about that. I left Lily a message and told her we got hung up on the
case. When she called back she said that she’d just keep Linds
over at her place tonight, and not to worry about it.” Warrick kept his back to
her as he stood in front of the fridge contemplating the contents, and he
missed her panic stricken face.
“You what?!”
Warrick
spun at the shrieking tone of her voice. “What’s the matter?”
“You called
my mother?! What did she say?” The sheer terror on her face was enough to make
Warrick question what he had done.
He searched
his mind for something in the exchange with Lily that would have caused
Catherine any concern. “She said that you’re working too hard, and she thanked
me for letting you get some sleep…and said to have you call her when you got done
and back to the house. No big deal, Cath.”
“Easy for you to say! You don’t have to deal with my mother.” Catherine seemed to
turn in on herself with her exclamation, as she whipped around and wrapped her
arms around her middle.
Confused by
her worry, Warrick abandoned the fridge, walked around the island to stand in
front of her and said, “Catherine, she’s just worried about you. So’s Lindsey,
for that matter.”
Catherine
looked up into his eyes and he was shocked by the fear he saw there. “What do
you mean, Lindsey’s worried? How would you know that?”
Regret fell
heavy on him, as Warrick realized that he had betrayed the confidence placed in
him. “I-… Oh man.” He struggled to figure out a way
out of his dilemma, but he knew the only thing that would work was the truth.
“Because we have lunch every weekend, and she told me so.”
“You what?”
There was a timid quality to her voice he rarely found.
“We’ve been
having lunch every weekend since I found her at the Pike crying into a cobb salad…not long after Sam
died.” He reached out to take her hands. “The kid just needed someone to talk
to, Cath, and she didn’t know how to ask.” When she
turned her gaze to the floor, he took a deep breath and laid a hand alongside
her neck as he said, “She’s okay, Cath… She had a
tough time with it at first, and she just didn’t want to worry you or Lily
about it.” He shook his head as he tried to put words to the strange but
comfortable relationship he had developed with Catherine’s daughter. “Most of
the time we don’t talk about anything more than the latest gossip around town,
and other times…she’ll talk about Sam, or how much she worries about you and
Lily, or about the little stuff bugging
her in school. She needed an outlet, somebody not in the family, but who
understood her life.”
“Thank
you.” Catherine leaned up and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. She sighed as
she came back down to her feet, “I guess I wasn’t paying enough atten-”
“No, Cath…” Warrick stopped her from trying to take the blame
this time. “She didn’t want you to know, and she asked me not say anything.
More than anything, Lindsey didn’t want you to worry. She’s really grown up a
lot, Catherine. She’s got a strong will, and she wanted to handle this on her
own terms.” He smiled with that last thought. “Kinda
reminds me of her mother.”
“Nah…”
Catherine finally found something to smile about again. “She’s much smarter
than that.” Once again, she met his gaze. “She knew to trust you.”
Though he started
to shrug his shoulders at the implication of her words, she saw the faint blush
in his cheeks. “We’ve been buddies for a long time, is all.”
Catherine
shook her head and the words fell from her lips with a longing she never
realized was still there. “That’s because she’s got better taste in men than
her Mom.”
Without
thinking, Warrick’s thumb began to stroke the edge of
her jaw when he said, “Maybe she can be smart enough for the both of us.”
As though
all existence seemed to slow to a crawl, they both moved almost imperceptibly
to close the scant distance between them. By the time their breaths began to
integrate in the fraction of an inch between their lips, Catherine felt her
entire being tense under the anticipation of his kiss.
For years
she had envisioned this moment, her dreams tormented her with the illusion of
his lips on hers, and now that it had finally arrived, she feared it was all
just a figment of her imagination. Unable to deal with the reality crashing
down on her, Catherine closed her eyes in the hopes of keeping the fantasy
going just a little while longer.
Moving his
other hand to her face, Warrick touched the flushed skin of her cheek to verify
that she was really there. It was too easy to lose the moment to a dream, a
dream he had experienced many times before. As he watched her eyelids flutter
and close, he knew she was feeling the same apprehension. Instead of meeting
her lips with his, he ducked his head to the side and brought his lips to the
space beside her ear to breathily whisper, “The dreams are never this real.”
When he
felt her breath catch, he knew that his suspicions were true. Coming back to
gaze upon her face, he found her eyes had opened, and he smiled. Never losing
her eyes, he made that last leap of faith and touched his lips to hers. Softly,
tenderly, he kissed the woman who had inhabited his dreams, both waking and
sleeping, for longer than he wanted to truly calculate.
Holding his
lips to hers, the most gentle of kisses she could have ever imagined was exchanged
between them. It was sweet and tender, and it shattered all of her preconceived
notions about their first kiss. Catherine had always believed that if they were
ever to kiss it would be steaming hot and ferocious, not the loving embrace of
his lips on hers that she was feeling in that moment. It felt almost as though
Warrick was offering her his solemn prayer with the reverent caress of his
mouth moving over hers.
He held her
face between his hands with a gentle touch, and she felt safe within their
grasp; safe and loved. These were two things that were a rare commodity in her
life, and to feel them in the hands of another as he poured such heartfelt
emotion into his eyes and his kisses was a completely unknown experience for
Catherine. When his lips moved up to her forehead, she released a sigh so deep
that her entire being seemed to relax with the expiration.
With
another heavy sigh, she fell into his embrace and rested her head in his chest
as his arms wrapped comfortably around her. Catherine felt his own body relax
into hers when his arms held her to him, and it warmed more than her skin to be
so close to him.
The comfort
of his embrace soon imbued her with a courage she had not felt in a very long
time. She moved her hands up over his chest and snaked them around his neck
before lifting her head up to meet his gaze. With the slightest of guidance,
she brought him back down to her with her arms and this time it was Catherine’s
turn to make her feelings known with a kiss.
The moment
their lips met, she found it difficult to not get lost in the sensations his
mouth created in her body. It was still a gentle exchange, but the intensity of
their emotions began to reach the surface.
They were deeper and more prolonged, and with each one she felt so much
more of the powerful passion that existed between them.
When her
lungs began to scream out to her she was forced to finally release his mouth
and gasp for that precious air. Warrick seemed to have been feeling the same
urgency because their gasping breaths mingled in the faint space between them.
However, their arms began to work of their own volition, and he pulled her up
against him, lifting her feet from the floor in the process.
Between the
lack of oxygen in her brain, the fiery lust raging in her blood, and the wanton
gaze of desire boring into her soul from two shining green eyes, it took
Catherine a few moments to realize she was dangling in the air. But once the
realization hit, she took the initiative to resolve the problem by bringing her
legs up along his sides to wrap tightly around his middle.
At the same
time Catherine was securing her grip around his waist, Warrick was beginning to
move his worshipping kisses to her neck. When his searing lips began leaving a blistering
trail down the length of her neck, he abandoned himself to the act of
demonstrating his adoration of her body, and the rest of the world ceased to
exist. His entire universe became focused into a single point of light, which
could only be given the name Catherine.
If he was
capable of rational thought, instead of the instinctually primal surges
coursing through his cerebral cortex, he would have stopped himself from the
beginning. But with Catherine so near, and her heart laid open in vulnerability,
he was unable to resist the temptation offered by her lips and the bare skin of
her neck. He wanted to caress every spare inch with his mouth, and hold her
firmly in his arms until all the worry and fear left her body. More than
anything, in that moment, Warrick only wanted her.
Leaning in
to nudge his way further into her shirt and expose more of Catherine’s finely
freckled, porcelain skin to lay kisses down along her collar bone, Warrick
discovered they had run out of space. Deciding that his breakfast bar was not
the ideal place for what was transpiring he lifted her more securely into his
grasp and turned them away from the kitchen. He was rewarded for his initiative
when Catherine held onto his head and captured his mouth with hers, pouring all
of her desire into the passionate embrace.
Unfortunately,
that was the extent of his plan. Once out of the kitchen, Warrick was lost in
the sensation of Catherine’s tongue tracing the outer shell of his ear. He
fought to maintain enough control that his grip around her bottom would not
fail, and had no idea where he was or where he was going. The first indication
of this fact came when his knees ran right into the back of the sofa and his
balance vanished as they began to tumble over the furniture.
Scrambling
to keep his weight from bearing down with its full force onto Catherine, he
practically launched himself onto floor, leaving her prostrate on the couch. He
sat up on his hands to make sure she was okay, but she looked like she was
about to explode.
Realizing
what a strange picture they must have made, they both collapsed into a fit of
laughter at their comical predicament. Catherine was the first to speak, “Not
even close!”
Warrick
shook his head in embarrassment and said, “Yeah, definitely not one of my finer
moments.”
Catherine
rolled over onto her side and propped her head up with her bent arm. She smiled
at his answer and shook her head a little. “No, that’s not what I meant.” The
confusion on his face as he sat up the rest of the way was almost funny, but
she knew that he deserved a straight answer.
Instead of
making a joke, she looked down into the cushion and tried to regain control of
her speech. “You…this…the kissing… They were never that good or…this real in
the dreams.”
Understanding
seemed to dawn as she finally looked back up from the sofa. He moved over to
sit upright beside the sofa in front of her and reached out to brush the hair
away from her face. Leaning in, Warrick pressed his forehead to hers and softly
spoke. “Glad to know there’s at least one woman I haven’t disappointed lately.”
Catherine
pulled away from him to look into his eyes. She could see the pain and the
uncertainty hiding there and it weighed heavy on her heart. Taking her free
hand, she stroked the side of his face and gazed deeply into his striking green
eyes. “Warrick, I-…” The words stuck in her throat as
he moved into her touch and closed his eyes at the sound of her pleading voice.
He chewed
back his first response, but then he sighed and said, “Don’t… I know I’ve
messed up, but I’m trying to fix it.”
Suddenly
filled with a bravery she was not entirely sure belonged to her anymore,
Catherine leaned forward and gently kissed his nearly trembling mouth.
Releasing only to leave a whisper between their lips, she asked, “Can you do
that from way down there?”
A light
went on in his eyes as the corner of his mouth turned up. Her words had given
him the courage to break the spell of his regret, and that courage showed in
the impish expression on his face as he tenderly took her hand and placed it in
the center of his chest. “There’s a lot of things I
can do from way down here.” His words were still lingering in her ears when he
gently tugged and brought her down from the couch and into his arms.
Before she
could do more than yelp, his mouth found hers again, but this time there was
the added power of his suddenly confident passion creating a fire in her soul.
Their movements became soothingly fluid, and within moments she was lying on
her back, Warrick leaning over her as he lay on his side and continued to kiss
away any doubt with his soft warm lips.
Conscious
thought seemed to evaporate in the heat his mouth was eliciting from her body,
and Catherine seemed only to be concerned with increasing her contact with his searing
hot skin. Her hands roamed over his back, eventually finding their way beneath
his shirt to explore the solid lines of his frame. She desperately wanted to
learn every dip, every valley, every line and her hands were the only thing she
had at the moment.
When the
air began to fill her lungs again in ragged gasps she realized that Warrick had
moved beyond her mouth to lay burning kisses along her neck. Catherine seized
upon the opportunity to lift herself up with her grip around his shoulder
blades to sneak in a quick taste of his neck, just below his ear, with her
tongue. However, her exploration was short-lived when Warrick rolled carefully
over her to switch sides on her neck and she was once again a willing victim to
the assault of his mouth on her body.
Effectively
pinning her to the floor, Warrick felt a wash of excitement flow through his
body. It was no easy feat to reduce a strong and fiercely independent woman
like Catherine into a pliant and passive instrument of pleasure. But there she
was beneath him, relishing in the experience and silently urging him on with
only the touch of her hands and the stuttering breaths he felt escaping her
lungs. That knowledge quickly became too much of a temptation, and he had to
bring his head up to gaze upon the effects of his adoration.
Catherine
felt him pull away, and she was filled with fear and a deep-seated hunger to
return to his encompassing warmth. Her eyes shot open, and she was struck with
the intense desire she found in his gaze. It took a great effort to speak, but
her desperation made the words practically leap from her lips, “What’s wrong?”
His shy
soft smile fell over her like a warm blanket as he whispered, “Nothing… I just-…” Warrick gently brushed the hair from her face and
held her cheek with his wide palm.
She brought
her hand up to rest over his as she closed her eyes and struggled to call on
the very last ounce of pride she had left. With a faint trace of her remaining
strength, Catherine offered him one last chance. “If you’re having second
thou-”
His heart
panicked the instant he realized his failure with words had given Catherine a
reason to doubt his commitment to what he fervently hoped was happening between
them. Without wasting another moment, Warrick abandoned the words, and instead
he silenced her with his mouth on hers.
His kiss was infused with every bit of his passion for her.
When he
felt her rigid posture relax and her arms fall away from him, he knew that he
had made the right choice. Emboldened with that knowledge, he sought to deepen
the kiss again by pushing forward until their tongues took up the dance his
soul was desperate to complete.
Before
long, white spots began to form over his eyes, and though he never wanted to
let go of her again, he had to pay respects to the pleading demands of his
lungs. As he tucked his face into the side of her neck and gasped from the need
for air, Warrick could feel Catherine’s fingers digging into his shoulders and
neck while she too struggled for breath and to maintain their physical
connection.
As she
shifted beneath him, Warrick was suddenly reminded where they were and it
brought a low chuckle from his throat. While the heat of the moment often
allows for some things to be forgotten, the last thing he wanted was for their
first memories to be about rug burn and the hard floor. He pushed up to rest
back on his haunches. When Catherine sat up on her elbows, he held out his hand
and asked, “Follow me?”
The words
were innocent enough, but the emotion saturating each syllable made it hard for
Catherine to respond. She swallowed back her fear and simply nodded as she took
his hand.
He stood
and pulled her into his arms. Ducking in, he placed another soft kiss upon her
lips before finally taking a step back, keeping his grip on her hand. Walking
backwards, he coyly led her toward the bedroom.
Nervously
biting her lower lip, Catherine strove to keep her courage up. The only thing
at her disposal were her words, and when they reached the threshold of his
bedroom she asked, “You sure you know what you’re doing?”
Warrick
stopped, brought her hand to his chest, stroked her hair and smiled. “I sure
hope so…otherwise this was a lot of waiting for nothing.” As the last word left
his lips, he brought them down to the skin below her ear. “
With each
touch sending her further over the edge, Catherine finally abandoned herself to
the moment, and fell headlong into the waves of desire she had been fighting
for so long.
Upon
entering the bedroom, Warrick immediately removed his shirt before once again
pulling Catherine into his embrace. She was entranced by the amount of burning
hot skin she had at her fingertips and failed to recognize that they were still
moving as her hands and lips explored his bare torso. Not until her actions
were impeded by his thick arms did she understand what was happening. Finally
opening her eyes to look down, she found Warrick’s
hands skillfully pulling each delicate button through the holes in her shirt,
and the all too familiar butterflies rose in her middle.
As though
he sensed her apprehension, Warrick looked up and caught her eyes with his
gaze. A grin pulled at the side of his mouth and he brushed the hair from her
shoulder before whispering, “Let me show you what I see.”
Slowly, he
turned her around, quietly humming into her ear, until she realized that she
was standing before a full-length mirror. Warrick slipped open the last two
buttons on her blouse and pulled the sides back to expose her front. Running
his long fingers up her sides, she could see and feel each dip and rise as he
skirted over every curve until he reached her shoulders.
Pulling the
shirt from her shoulders and down her arms, he moved at an agonizing pace. Once
the garment had dropped to the floor, his talented fingers danced up the length
of her arms as his warm breath teased at her neck. With his hands gently
massaging her shoulders, he practically sang the words into her ear,
“Beautiful… Absolutely beautiful.”
Catherine
felt the intensity of his words and the power of his gaze as she watched his
hands wander over her exposed flesh. Her chest heaved with each breath as his
fingers skimmed over her shoulder blades, and then tickled down her spine. When
the catch on her bra was released she was overcome with anxiety, but it was
quickly dispelled by his smooth resonating voice in her ear. “Perfectly
beautiful.”
Flipping
the straps off of her shoulders and watching as each new inch of skin was
exposed, Warrick bent down to pepper tender kisses over her smooth skin as his
fingers skittered over her sides to follow the line of her ribs to the front.
They swept along the bottom edges of her breasts, teasing the flesh and raising
tiny bumps with each delicate brush of his fingertips.
Gently, he
turned her around to face him so that he could once again tenderly kiss her,
punctuating each word with the touch of his lips to hers. “More. Beautiful. Every. Single. Day.”
No longer
tethered to the world Catherine felt like she was floating as he moved them
closer to the bed. His quiet whispers of adoration giving her the only
connection to reality and she never wanted any of it to end. Her body pulsed
with the rhythm of his touch, of his words, of her desire. As he tenderly laid
her back onto the soft bed, she felt as though they were resting upon a cloud,
because she had become weightless under his loving care and attention.
Her hands
instinctively found the sides of Warrick’s head as he
began to trail feather-light kisses down her bared chest. When his lips made
first contact with her breast she pulled him in closer, forcing him to draw
more of the flesh into the fiery embrace of his mouth. The sensation of his
mouth closed over her breast made her arch into him as she gripped his hair for
some semblance of balance. When he pulled his head up to look on her face, he
could see the blazing passion in her flushed cheeks and chest, and it brought a
dangerous smile to his face.
Sensing his
pause, Catherine looked down to find him staring up at her with that devilish
grin. Before she had time to react to the expression, she watched the light
sparkle in his eyes and his tongue snaked out to flick at her nipple, sending a
cascade of pleasure through her core. She was unable to stop the moan that
erupted from her throat, or the desperate clench of her fingers in his hair.
Warrick
slid his lips and tongue lovingly over every centimeter of her breasts, their
pale peach skin glowing in the dim light of the room. Soon, his need to discover all of her, her
flavor, her scent, forced him to begin exploring other areas of her beautiful
body. Raining soft kisses over the curve of each breast, he stopped only to
gaze up at her once again, reveling in the affect of his touch on the one woman
long exiled to exist only in his dreams. The power of that image set off a new
spark of desire deep within his center and he felt it spreading like wildfire
throughout his entire body.
Each touch
of his fingers over her body was accompanied by the warm moist press of his
mouth. Warrick wanted it all, to taste every morsel of skin available to him.
When he reached the waistband on her pants he was overcome with a frightening
thought.
There is a
point in any situation where once a line is crossed there is simply no going
back. Up to this point, he knew they could have easily chalked it up to getting
carried away in the heat of the moment, but that was about to change. He just
had to know, he had to be absolutely certain that she wanted this as much as he
did.
As though
she could sense his trepidation, Catherine reached out to him, causing him to
look up. When their eyes met, all of his questions were answered. She stroked
the side of his head and gave him the words he would take with him to grave.
“Never doubt that I want you. I just never…” The words caught in her throat and
she struggled to make sure he understood what had kept them apart.
Warrick finally
put the pieces together. The confident, brassy, self-assured, intelligent and
capable woman he never dreamed he could impress, let alone have, was not as
confident and self-assured as he imagined. Life has not been kind to Catherine
over the years, but he always assumed that she conquered all of those demons.
Yet, here she was, vulnerable, exposed, opened and frightened. He realized in
that very moment, as he leaned into her trembling touch, that Catherine was
entrusting him with her heart, and that it was quite possibly the most precious
gift he had ever been given.
Taking her
hand, he turned it to bring the palm face up and then pressed his soft lips
into the center. He wanted to tell her that she had nothing to worry about. He
wanted to tell her with words too few and too weak that he loved her body, mind
and soul. Instead, with one hand he held onto hers, placing sweet kisses into
her palm to symbolize the words which failed to rise in his throat. His other hand slid slowly and sensually over
her abdomen and worked to open the waistband of her pants.
As the last
button slid free, he let go of her hand and returned his lips to her belly,
evenly distributing their caresses over her warm and inviting skin. When he
reached the pants with his lips, he dipped his head down and nuzzled into the
opening, pushing aside the fabric. Catherine moaned as his hot breath was blown
over the silky fabric beneath.
His hands
found the sides of her pants, and as he continued to tease the sensitive skin
below her belly button, Warrick tugged the pants down over her hips. His reward
for such an action came as Catherine writhed and wriggled under his
ministrations, both from pleasure and from the need for release of the confines
of her clothing.
As he slid
her slacks down her legs, he finally lifted up his gaze to see his handiwork.
Seeing the flush to her skin, and feeling the slickness forming over both their
bodies, he knew that there was no turning back for either of them anymore. They
wanted this. They needed this. They needed each other. And more than he could
have ever dreamed, he needed her.
Tugging the
last of her garment from her legs, Warrick quickly returned to the warmth of
her waiting body. He ran his hand up the entire length of her supple legs,
relishing in the feel of the luxurious flesh he found along the way. Finally
having the freedom to touch her in such an intimate display of adoration made
his heart swell.
With his
hand resting on the ridge of her hip, he leaned in to place a gentle kiss on the
nest of curls barely visible through her sheer panties. When his lips touched
the silken material, he drew in a sharp breath. His deep intake of air reminded
him of the power contained in his sense of smell, as he was filled with the
hypnotizing scent of Catherine’s arousal.
Dragging
down one side of her panties, he tenderly smoothed his lips over the delicate
flesh in the crease between her torso and the top of her thigh. He drew in a
slow and controlled breath, preparing himself for the next leap. Moving to the
other side, he repeated the same steps, making Catherine squirm with
anticipation of his next caress.
With
finesse he never realized he possessed, the undergarment was quickly removed
and he was struck again by the beauty of the woman before him. Her flesh was
practically blazing with the heat of her passion, her lids half closed from the
intensity of the sensations he was causing in her body, and her breathing
shortened and haggard with the fires of desire raging through her. He would
have known this without even looking at her, because his own body was reacting
much the same way, but it did not stop him from needing to bear witness to it
as well.
Again
bringing his hand up along the inside of her legs, cherishing the feel of each
curve he found, Warrick did not stop until his fingers found their way to her
cleft. When his fingers first breeched the warm moist center, he was rewarded
with the hiss of air that was sucked in between Catherine’s lips at the
sensation.
However, he
was unable to resist the temptation her body presented and he forged ahead by
lifting her left leg to bend at the knee and dipping down to explore the scent
filling his nostrils more closely. As his tongue darted out to join the fingers
of his hand all sense of time vanished in the blinding power of his rapacious
need to know her more than any other man could have ever prayed for in this
lifetime.
Catherine
felt the electric explosion throughout her entire body in the exact moment that
she felt his wet and hungry mouth close over her sex. She had never known what
it was like to be so completely and totally adored and desired in the way that
Warrick was making her feel in that moment. She knew without a doubt that this
was never just about sex. Sex was something she knew very well, and this was so
much more than she had ever experienced before. She felt truly and passionately
loved. Loved by a man she had always assumed could never be more than a friend.
As her body
writhed under the sensual assault of Warrick’s
tongue, she sensed the building tension in her body. She knew it would not be
long before she would become caught up in the intense orgasm that was
threatening to claim her entire being. With great effort and even greater
reluctance, she reached down to push on his shoulders in an attempt to divert
his attention from her core. Finally, she clutched her hands in his hair and
pulled him away from her.
At first,
he seemed to have trouble understanding what she was saying, but then she
realized it was because the words were simply not there. Instead, she
desperately pulled him up along her body, until he was hovered over her with a
worried look on his face. Once she found enough breath to make her vocal chords
work, she tugged his head down to gasp into his ear, “Now.”
She felt
the smile forming on his face while she held tight to the side of his head. As
he moved away from her body, he paused to kiss along her jaw until he reached
her raw, swollen lips and pressed into her for another deep, promise filled
kiss.
The pop
from the release of their lips echoed in her ears as he moved off of her body.
It took a few moments before she was able to lift her head from the bed to find
where he had gone, but when she did it was not an unwelcome site. Warrick had
already removed his jeans and was quickly slipping out of his underwear as he
held a wrapped condom between the teeth of his slyly smiling mouth. Her eyes
closed as she dropped her head back into the mattress with a sigh. Safety
completely escaped her mind, and this simple act was only further proof of his
abiding devotion to her well-being.
When she
felt the mattress dip under his weight she looked up just in time to find his
mouth descending upon hers once again. Capturing her tongue with his, she felt
like the very air in her lungs was being pulled out by the passion of his kiss.
Each of his kisses managed to steal more than the breath from her chest, they were also so incredibly distracting that she
failed to notice that he was positioning her for the final movement in the
symphony being created by their sexual and emotional union.
Not until
he brought himself to bear against the last breech did she recognize what was
happening. And though she was caught off-guard by the adeptness in which he had
reached the point of their inevitable union, she was more than ready to
complete this final act. She lustfully brought her leg up to rest the knee on
his hip as she entwined it along his thigh and pulled him into her center.
With the
intrusion of his shaft she felt every muscle stretch and strain to withstand
the mass, as well as draw it in further. When she finally felt their bodies
meet, a gasp of complete fulfillment escaped her lungs and she clung to his
shoulders as though she was holding her entire world.
Slowly, and
with a gentleness she had never experienced, he began to move within her. Each
gentle thrust continued to build the unbelievable tension growing in the very
core of her being. Catherine begged, pleaded and prayed for him to put an end
to the torturous anticipation, but Warrick only kept his convoluted rhythm
plodding along. Down and out, up and in, over and over, until she was sure the
entire universe was about to explode behind her eyes, the pressure continued to
build on top of itself.
When her
walls began to contract uncontrollably, her breathing stuttered and there were
tiny white lights dancing beneath her fluttering eyelids, Warrick finally
picked up his pace. And before she knew what was going on, it happened; the
universe did explode. If she died right then and there, she knew it would be
okay, because she had finally experienced perfection.
Through the
fog of absolute satisfaction, Catherine slowly returned to consciousness, and
just in case she had forgotten how she arrived at this state of satiated bliss,
the smoldering warmth of the body gently wrapped around her was the perfect
reminder.
She felt
the effects of their union in the sore muscles of her thighs and buttocks, the
flush in her cheeks, and the continued heat pouring out of her body. She also
felt it in to the fullness of her heart, and the all encompassing sense of
safety and contentment she found in his tender embrace. The sigh that she
breathed into his neck was born from years of wasted time, but it was also a
direct product of his honest and heartfelt expression of love.
The words
had finally returned, and Catherine knew that she had to share them before it
was too late. “Thank you.”
His face
scrunched up into a question mark and he asked, “What’s that for?”
Her first
response was to lay her lips over his carotid artery until she could kiss in
time with his pulse. Warrick growled a little, lost in the sensation her lips
created in his body. It felt good for her to give back a little of the pleasure
he had given her, but more than that Catherine wanted to tell him how much all
of this had meant to her.
“For everything.” She kissed the hollow of his throat and then settled onto his shoulder.
“I don’t know how else to say it. Just…thank you.”
Warrick
brought his hand up to stroke her hair as he leaned his face into the side of
her head. “Yeah, I’ve been trying to figure that one out, too.” He released a
deep sigh and rolled onto his back. She was still resting on his shoulder and
his arm continued to trace imaginary patterns on her back, but Catherine felt
his absence.
Her breath
hitched as she realized that he was working something out in his mind. She
worried that he be having second thoughts again. Her life had taught her over
and over again not to pin her hopes on anyone, but it never seemed to stop her
from reaching out for that hope. Without even knowing it, her body began to
tremble. Warrick came back to his side and pulled her back into his arms.
With her
body tucked into his chest, her head lying on his shoulder, and her hair splayed
out behind her, Warrick reached in to push back her bangs. Laying a gentle kiss
upon her forehead, he drew her even tighter into his chest. As he sighed, he
was finally able to whisper exactly what he felt for the first time.
“First,
second, last…doesn’t matter.” She stiffened a little at his first words, but he
needed her to know the truth. He kissed the top of her head and then reached in
to take her quivering hand. Bringing her hand up to rest between them, directly
over his heart, Warrick waited for her to look up at him.
When their
eyes finally met he confessed that truth, “You’ve been a part of every thought
I’ve had for a very long time. And they all end with exactly the same thing,
‘God, I love this woman.’”
Catherine’s
eyes filled with unshed tears and her lip trembled slightly. “Yeah?”
Warrick
smiled at the smallness of her voice. “Oh yeah… And I’m not going anywhere now
that I’ve finally gotten to see behind the curtain. You’re stuck with me.”
She pressed
her hand into his chest to feel the beat of his heart. A smile began to lift
the corners of her mouth and she asked, “Can I get that in writing?”
His
laughter reverberated in his chest and she could feel the vibrations through
her whole body. And it was through his laughter that she finally felt secure.
Life, love and laughter, those were the things she had always wished for her
daughter, because she secretly wanted them for herself. There, in the arms of a
wonderful man, his laughter ringing in her ears, she finally had them all.