Dec 13th 2013
Who: Katherine Graves and Reed Jensen What: Hanging out (this belongs in “airquotes”) When: Friday night, December 13, 2013 Where: What was previously Colin Redding’s apartment in the city and is now Reed’s. Rating: Planned to be mild. Turned out VERY NSFW. NC17. Status: Closed/Complete
It took longer than Reed would have hoped for Colin to get the apartment furnished, but it probably had less to do with Colin, and more to do with Emma. She was getting an equal say in the decor. Coordinating that couldn’t have been easy, what with all the secrecy involved. And then, even after it was ready to be inhabited, Colin and Emma obviously had dibs… until they didn’t. They crazy love birds decided to run off together the day before. No forwarding address, no contact information at all. Not only that, but Colin had left the apartment in Reed’s name with strict instructions to put it to good use and not give up on Kat. Reed wondered if Emma knew about Kat? Should Reed tell Kat about Emma? He’d been vague so far. But at some point this evening, he’d have to tell her about Colin taking off and leaving the apartment to Reed.
Regardless of all that, Reed and Kat were finally given clearance to get together, so they had plans to meet up this evening for movies, Mario Kart, and pizza. Good times! Except they would probably fight about what kind of pizza to get. Reed was midwestern through and through, and he preferred Chicago deep dish. It wasn’t easy to find a good, authentic Chicago style pizza in New York, but he’d finally tracked down a place. He held off ordering it and just worked on getting to the apartment a little early so he could make sure they had everything they needed for the night. Colin said they would, but Reed was thorough.
He was messing with the TV, having hooked up his Wii, when the knock came at the door. “Hang on!” Reed called out. They were in the city, not at Willowbrook, so the door was locked as soon as Reed shut it. He jogged over and quickly unbolted everything and smiled as he opened it for Kat. “Hey.” ---
A little more apprehensive about this plan than she had been the week beforehand after time spent with her sisters and fellow agents, Kat was nonetheless looking forward to some down time with one of her oldest friends. The first and last time she’d been to Colin’s place, she’d been a tipsy hot mess in too little clothing. This time, she was almost too warm as soon as she’d stepped into the lobby and past the doorman. Sneakered feet tapped up the stairs, a box of chocolates and a bottle of red wine tucked under an arm protected by a heavy wool peacoat; a small housewarming present to leave in the fridge for Colin and his mystery woman.
She knocked. What she saw after the door opened did not look like the apartment she’d last seen at all. “Hey. Wow! It’s just been a week, right?” Hard to believe it had changed so quickly. Kat stepped through the door and locked it behind her, then gave Reed a swift, happy hug before tugging off her coat and pushing her shoes off by the door. “Place looks nice … no pizza smell?” She cocked a brow at him. “I hope you didn’t wait for me.” Kat was of the mind that pizza was pizza. As long as it wasn’t that super thin crust Sicilian stuff, it was hard not to enjoy. Besides, Reed liked his Chicago style, if she remembered correctly, and that just meant more of the good stuff and less bread for filler. All good things. “I’ll just leave these in the fridge - they’re for the love-shackers. I’d have gotten something a little less kitsch, but everything else expires too quickly.” If Colin and his lady didn’t stop by in a week, anything else may have rotted in their new place. Then she’d be a pain in the ass, not considerate. No fun.
Kat closed the refrigerator door and finally stopped to breathe. She was a waify blonde whirlwind in jeans and an ancient, comfy baseball tee. Kat smiled then leaned against the kitchen island. “So Pizza. What’re you in the mood for?” If any awkwardness from her drunken weekend remained, there was no sign of it.
---
Reed had been wearing sneakers when he arrived, but out of respect for the new homeowner, he’d kicked them off before entering the apartment. Now he was padding around in his white socks, relaxed jeans, and a Weezer t-shirt. He returned Kat’s hug eagerly, raising an eyebrow as he pulled away and checked out the goodies tucked under her arm. She quickly explained, and Reed made the decision to hold off telling her about Colin and Emma for the time being. “Uh, the lovebirds can have them only if I don’t eat them at some point tonight. You can’t stay awake forever!”
“You know me. Chicago deepdish is how I roll. New Yorkers and their thin, slimy pizza…” Reed made a face of disgust. “I was thinking… loaded veggies?” He wasn’t in the mood for meat tonight. Maybe because he frequently loaded up on protein and wanted a break from the stuff. ---
Kat grinned and shook her head. “Uh-uh. I came over to hang out, not to give you diabetes,” she cautioned, over-exaggerating the southern drawl she’d more or less lost since moving to New York for humor’s sake. Diabetes was a deep-fried southern side dish. “I will sleep in front of the fridge by myself if I have too.” Of course she wouldn’t. One night’s sleep on the floor and/or bathtub on the 8th had left her feeling like a too-tightly wound coil. That was not happening again any time soon.
She took a moment to appreciate that Reed was, at long last, seemingly relaxed. This was what she’d wanted out of the trip back to Indy for Thanksgiving; some time to just be them as they had been for over twelve years. She breathed a discreet sigh of relief. “Slimy?” Kat made a face, wrinkling her nose. “Only if there are a lot of green peppers. I’m in.” Kat rounded the island and wandered further into the modestly sized studio. “Colin and the lovebird put this place together in record time.” Kat eyed the couch, the Wii already set, the bed in the corner where they’d made a blanket nest. So much better. ---
“Diabetes? Sounds delicious. Give me some chocolate!” he teased. “You can drink the wine yourself, because without Colin here, it won’t do a thing to me.” Reed didn’t see the point in drinking alcohol if he couldn’t get drunk or even buzzed. But when he was out with friends, he sometimes had a glass of beer just to look ‘normal’ and avoid questions from strangers. More often than not, his best excuse was that he was a designated driver. It went over a lot better than saying he was a recovering alcoholic. Either way, those lies usually convinced non-mutants that they shouldn’t pressure him into drinking.
Reed pulled his cell phone out as he followed Kat over to the couch and plopped down. He pulled up one leg and wedged his back into a corner of the couch. Reed dialed the pizza company he’d discovered last year and placed an order for their pizza. It would be thirty minutes, which was fine. He and Kat could play until then.
“So, your sister kicked my ass at Mario Kart the other day, but I’m convinced you will not best me. Because.” He didn’t say why, just the ‘because.’ Reed was really fucking good at video games generally, but he was at times easily distracted. Kat could be distracting, and having Theo TALK about Kat had been distracting.
---
“Oooh no.” Kat shook her head earnestly. “I’m not touching the wine.” Joke or not, she had no interest in alcohol, at least not for another few weeks. The memories of her last overindulgence and the subsequent idiocy she’d been guilty of were still too fresh. Kat grabbed one of the Wii controllers from the coffee table. Dropping onto the other side of the couch, she primed the game while Reed called in the pizza order. “She’s kind of a genius with utterly useless but awesome talents,” Kat said with a smile while flipping her way through the entry menu.
“I got a text that morning, asking whether or not she should be worried about you poisoning her grilled cheese.” Kat made a ‘hmph’ noise and shrugged. “Death by grilled cheese. I can think of worse things. How’d that go?” She didn’t want to poke at things he’d rather not discuss tonight, but Kat couldn’t pretend she wasn’t curious about why he’d seen Theo, twice now.
“Can we do Rainbow Road?” It was undoubtedly the most infuriating (and hilarious) track in the game, guaranteed to start things off right. Kat picked Toad for her avatar then put her controller down to shoot him her best ‘how dare you’ look. “Because? I’m a heck of a lot better than ‘because.’ I got skills.” She reached out with her socked foot and nudged his calf firmly. “Lets see if you can back that up.”
---
“Still feeling sick from your last drinking binge?” Reed asked. He wasn’t giving her a hard time. He actually didn’t know how long such things lingered. He’d only been drunk that one time, and Reed sobered up within minutes of Colin ceasing his negation of Reed’s powers. The same could not be said for most people who overindulged. Reed did pity Kat for the hangover she’d suffered.
Talking about Theo wasn’t high on Reed’s list of priorities, but he wouldn’t avoid Kat’s questioning about it. “It went alright. We got to know each other a little better through a rapid fire twenty questions type conversation. Not so bad.” Except for Theo picking at his feelings for Kat. That had made him bristle slightly, though Theo wasn’t a bitch about it. She seemed sympathetic. “Did...uh...did she mention anything about old t-shirts to you?” he asked cautiously.
Reed flipped through the menu screen and picked Rainbow Road at Kat’s request. “I get Yoshi,” he insisted upon selecting their characters, while nudging her back with a scrunched nose. “Brat.”
---
Kat laughed quietly and shook her head; “nah, I think you can even recover from alcohol poisoning in under a week. I’m just not in a hurry to repeat the performance.” She made a face to cement her distaste for the whole experience, then refocused her attention on the game.
She paused in the racetrack selection screen and gave him a quizzical sideways glance. He’d invited her over for grilled cheese and… “you gave her an old t-shirt? That must have been one hell of a game of twenty questions. I’m sure she asked … interesting ones.” Honestly, they were probably great questions and it very likely was a fun exchange. Theo wouldn’t have wasted her time with favorite colors or Xbox vs PS3.
Kat waited for the Koopa with the traffic light to ready the race and nibbled on her lip, hoping she remembered the timing for slamming on the gas correctly; too soon and you spun, too late and you missed the starting boost. “Ooo, scathing. Kat, minus 10 charisma.” She laughed aloud as the traffic light turned yellow, then green. “I’m such a nerd,” she apologized despite her utter lack of real embarrassment. Toad pulled out in front of Yoshi around the first turn. Kat grinned. ---
Reed breathed a sigh of relief. Theo said she was going to tell Kat that Reed called her a ‘ratty t-shirt’. Apparently that didn’t happen. “No, I didn’t give her an old t-shirt. I…” he groaned and rubbed his face. If he didn’t tell Kat now, she’d just drag the information out of him or Theo later, so he might as well spill. “I was talking to her about you, and I said you’re sorta like a comfortable old t-shirt. But it came out all wrong.” Even now it didn’t sound right. “It was a compliment. A really good compliment. I just can’t seem to put it into words properly.”
They played and talked at the same time, which made it difficult for Reed to focus. He was the sort who really needed to concentrate on JUST ONE THING. Flying a jet. Playing a video game. Not all that different. It required total focus. Talking was distracting. “Shut up,” he hissed before biting his lip and wiggling his body in the same way his character was moving on the screen, as though Reed’s body was the controller.
---
His explanation was weird. Kat’s brows lifted incredulously. “That’s … sorta flattering and totally unsexy. Thanks? Maybe?” She wasn’t going to think about it too much. Or say anything about it, apparently, because Reed had taken to hissing at her and wiggling around on the couch like a little boy with a bug in his pants. Kat stopped breathing to keep from laughing and losing her focus. It took Herculean effort. That was obnoxiously cute.
Kat drifted Toad in front of Yoshi on a turn and dropped a banana in his grill. The sound the little green racer made as he threatened to spin out of control was the icing on the cake. If Reed thought fast he could keep Yoshi from spinning to a halt in the middle of the track, but Toad went flying past … right into a ? Bomb one of the NPCs had left between two holes in the transparent rainbow track. “You goddamn dirty swamp-smelling sumbitch!” Kat bounced in her seat and wrinkled her nose at the screen, willing Toad to right himself in the aftermath of the explosion just a little bit faster.
All of the light in the room with the exception of the television’s display seemed to leak out under doors, through windows and back into the electrical fixtures, which appeared to turn themselves off immediately afterward. Kat hadn’t really noticed that she’d done it, but she needed focus. Tunnel vision. No way to see Reed leaning around with Yoshi’s movement at her side. ---
“It’s not unsexy!” he argued with a grumpy, snippy tone. “You’re taking it all wrong just like Theo did. You’re like a comfortable old t-shirt in the sense that… that… you’re perfect. And you make me feel better after a shitty day. And being with you feels right.” The words sort of spilled out of his mouth while playing. Apparently, being forthcoming with such information was easier while playing Mario Kart.
Then he unleashed a bunch of obscenities of his own, since Reed was not fast enough to avoid the banana peel. “FUCKING FUCK!” he shouted. Kat may not have noticed what she was doing to the room, but Reed noticed how the room suddenly went dark and quiet aside from the two of them and the TV. “Hey, yo, what’s with the mood lighting?”
---
Her initial response was to point out that - “if one person calls you a horse’s ass, shrug it off. If two people call you one, you may want to consider buying a saddle. You know, minus the ass part. Misconceptions get more cred in numbers.” Hillbilly logic 101. “Well …” Kat’s voice had sombered despite her well-placed banana sabotage. “Thanks. That was -” A little too kind in a non-friend-zone way. “a good compliment then.”
Yoshi spun by Toad’s smoking kart. Kat glared at the screen as the little ‘shroom struggled to get up and moving again. “FINALLY.” Still too late on the rebound. She just missed catching up with Yoshi at the finish line. “Nice one.” She wasn’t a graceless loser, at least. Kat sighed and dropped her controller into her lap while the next course loaded for the Special Cup. “You want to eat my chocolates, I’m perfect and you’re calling this mood lighting?” Kat reset the light in the small studio; maybe it would expose the elephant in the room and chase the damned thing off for a night. “There. Sorry about that.” ---
Reed put his controller down then shot his fists up in the air, feeling victorious. “FINALLY IS RIGHT!” he declared with a beaming smile. “I have reclaimed my manhood, which your sister stole from me in an unfair fight.”
But now there were more serious things to discuss. Apparently. He looked over at Kat. “Why’d you and Jamie break up?” he asked bluntly. It had been bothering him for a long time. Just as it had bothered him when they were dating. Two great friends of his both left to join the Syndicate and then hooked up. It really crushed Reed, but he’d tried to be supportive because they were both good people, and ultimately, he wanted them to be happy.
---
“If you never say that my sister stole your manhood again, I will die happy. Please. Just, no.” Kat was chuckling silently but still shook her head, her forehead in an open palm. She let him have his moment of victory. He had earned it, after all. And then the bomb. Kat really didn’t want to talk about serious things. She’d made the chocolate comment purely in jest.
“Ok, first of all, I didn’t know he was that Jamie when we started dating. I was not, and never would have, targeted your friends or … anything like that. He was an eighth year when I enrolled.” Kat turned to face Reed from her corner of the couch, lifted and dropped her hands on her crossed legs before answering. “You know Jamie. He’s wonderful. And I wasn’t being fair to him. After what he’d been through, he didn’t deserve…” Kat analyzed Reed’s face for a long moment, mentally picking apart her options here. She knew exactly why she’d ended it. Reed had pulled a similar stunt with Olivia and just look at what the knowledge of that had done for them. They could hardly breathe in the same room together anymore, the awkward choked out the oxygen. But he’d asked, and Kat didn’t lie to her friends.
“It wouldn’t have been fair to him if I stayed while I was-” fuck, how to phrase this without sounding moronic or overdramatic. “thinking about someone else,” she blurted out, tired of mental wordsmithing. Kat gave Reed a pointed look, fidgeting. “We already agreed that doesn’t change any of this shit. So-” She shrugged and reached for her controller again. “I couldn’t be with Jamie and still be hung up on you. I’m not cruel.” Possibly an idiot, she thought, but not cruel.
---
Jamie was wonderful. Absolutely. Reed had always thought so. And he knew Jamie would take care of Kat and give her anything and everything she ever needed. It was why he had begrudgingly supported their relationship. It ate away at his insides, but he wouldn’t tell either of them that. Jamie could tell. At least Reed thought he could. Shit, Reed was so transparent. He was a terrible liar and he wore his heart on his sleeve nearly all the time. He probably looked like a kicked puppy the few times a year he and Jamie met up. But Reed wasn’t mad at his friend for dating Kat. How could he blame the guy? She was amazing.
Listening carefully to Kat, Reed felt his heart beat speed up. She’d ended things with Jamie because of him? He wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Kinda shitty because Jamie was a cool guy who deserved better than being second fiddle, but also excited because it meant Kat’s feelings for him had been around all these years. Still around. She kissed him the other night. It hadn’t been the alcohol, or at least not JUST the alcohol.
Reed grabbed the controller out of her hand and set it down while scooting closer to her. “Colin and his Syndicate woman are making it work.” Even more so than Kat knew. “Maybe we could too.”
---
She’d been white-knuckling the Wii controller like a talisman warding against something. Getting gut-punched by sweeping this under the rug a thousandth time, or possibly worse, actually addressing it under a microscope. And then suddenly her talisman was gone and Reed was sitting in front of her. Kat ran the pad of her thumb over her pursed lips and listened, barely moving.
“Just because we’re both confirmed morons now, and other people are too doesn’t make it any safer. For either of us.” Kat’s interest wandered from Reed’s eyes to the angle of his cheekbone to his lips, his jaw, the hem of his shirt around his neck and back again. He shouldn’t be so close. It irritated her in a way that felt like little fingers brushing up her spine, teasing - both pleasant and uncomfortable in turns.
“I don’t know …” She dropped her head for a moment, plagued by the thought of what might happen if they were caught. But would it be any worse than what they’d already committed too? Was Theo right, or totally batshit crazy? Did Blair have eyes and ears everywhere, or was that just scare tactics? “What do you want?” She asked finally, her finger seeking his on the couch. This felt a bit like cliff-jumping into a dark body of water several meters below. Kat could jump and try, but she wouldn’t make the decision alone. ‘Maybe’ wasn’t enough. ---
It was extremely uncomfortable, but also a little exciting. That tiny flicker of hope inside of Reed had been fanned to life by her kiss and now the news that she’d left Jamie because of him. Reed wasn’t alone in feeling something. While the situation was still as shitty as ever, he didn’t feel so fucking wounded by rejection. It wasn’t him that Kat was pushing away, it was the complications that came with him.
He was looking at her carefully, even when her eyes dropped to the cushions. Kat cautiously touched his hand, and he slid his palm under hers before squeezing her hand. “I want the same thing I’ve always wanted. Maybe I can’t have everything, but I’m tired of giving up the few things I can have.” Okay, so marrying a Syndicate agent and popping out kids probably wasn’t going to happen. There’d be no white picket fence or dog for them. But could they have what Colin and Emma had attempted before running off together? Could Reed and Kat come here from time to time and just stop with all the awkward conversations and enjoy being together? “I told my mom I hadn’t found the right girl...because I had. I just didn’t think you felt the same. You left Willowbrook, and then you started seeing Jamie. I just assumed…” he said with a shake of his head and a small half shrug.
---
Kat waited … but the apartment didn’t flood with tear gas. Nothing blew up. The earth beneath them didn’t open up to swallow them whole. Everything felt terrifyingly quiet. Even peaceful. It was unnerving and wonderful at the same time. Kat had never meant to push him away, she only felt she was protecting herself from the inevitable fallout that always followed after she found something good, something to love and trust.
A smile threatened, tweaking the corner of her mouth when he spoke of his conversation with Mari. Then it was Kat’s turn to shake her head. “Would you please, PLEASE, PLEASE stop talking about Jamie,” she begged him, removing the last few inches of couch that separated them. “The Doc is not in,” Kat said, “and I’ve wanted this … since I was nineteen,” to say so made it sound absurd and she broke out in a wide smile.
The drunk fuck-up counted for little more than a lot of grief over the last week. Kat placed a soft kiss on the corner of his lips without letting go of the hand he’d slid beneath hers. It was a tentative touch at first, as if it took her a moment to override years of conditioning to make herself comfortable with the notion of wanting no more than friendship from him. But there was so much more to notice without her senses clouded by alcohol. She touched his cheek with her fingertips, breathed the scent of his skin and felt his breath. Kat’s kiss grew hungry, anxious to taste his mouth.
---
Reed made a little face of apology at her chastising him for saying Jamie’s name again. He wasn’t trying to bring the guy up over and over again, it felt really rude to do so now that they were getting a lot of this shit off their chests. How long had they been holding back their thoughts and feelings? Well, Kat had apparently been keeping everything bottled up since she was nineteen. Reed had started to feel a stirring for her a little before that. But he’d ignored it. Over and over again. Then when he could no longer ignore it, he forced himself to live with it.
Thumping that was so hard, Reed could have sworn his heart might punch its way out of his rib cage, probably could be heard by Kat as she caressed his face and graced his skin with her lips. It was so teasing. Reed didn’t dare breathe. The lightness of her kiss might be blown away if he did! Best to capture it. Reed didn’t want to let the opportunity pass him by again. He’d responded to her drunken kiss, but this was different. While Reed was probably every bit as hesitant and nervous as Kat, he turned his head to meet her lips with his own. Soon after, Reed cupped the back of her neck with his fingers. It was every bit as good as he’d ever dreamed it could be. Reed dreamed about this a lot. Sometimes in a very NC-17 kind of way. But this wasn’t pornographic. It was romantic. Well, could probably be more romantic without the lame music from the video game blaring. But still.
---
Her hesitance gave way like an ice cube on a Florida sidewalk in summer. Reed’s fingers on the back of her neck teased a bundle of nerves in her stomach she could only ignore by meeting his lips when he turned his head. Involuntarily, Kat made a happy little noise and smiled before catching his lower lip with a gentle nip of her teeth. She smoothed it over with a moment’s worth of less aggressive attention before she slid her arm around the back of his neck and shoulders and pulled her body flush against his. Now that it was allowed and invited, the desire to be close to him overwhelmed her. The strength of his heartbeat almost took her aback. That she had anything to do with that pleased her more than she could say. She picked her entwined hand up off the cushion and moved it between them, settling her open palm above his heart.
One of the racing characters made a horrible yelping noise. Kat moved her head and noticed the bouncy race montage for the first time. Toad had just been blasted off the track by an NPC; the second race was almost over. “Oops.” This was definitely not how she’d pictured this -in all the ways that she’d pictured it over the years- but it seemed appropriate. Kat nuzzled her face into Reed’s neck, shaking from a mild bout of laughter. “I don’t know how to turn that off, but it’s making this otherwise awesome moment feel like … two teenagers making out in their parents’ basement.”
---
Reed felt goosebumps on her neck, and it made him smile the same time she did. He liked the way she nipped at his lip too. Reed liked everything she did. It was all so cute, so awesome, so fucking perfect. In a moment like this, it was easy to forget the world around them. He didn’t think for even a fraction of a second about the fact that their bosses would probably want them to murder each other. Reed just thought about how good it felt when Kat pressed her hand to his chest. His heart was beating that way just for her.
He was about to make ‘his move’ when Kat started laughing over the video game. Fucking Mario Kart! But Reed had to chuckle as well. He kissed the side of her head as she buried her face and laughter into his neck. “Where the fuck did I put the remote…” he grumbled in a joking tone. “Fuck it.” Reed eyed the outlet that the TV was plugged into and used his powers to pull it. Silence. Almost. His heart really was making noise. Wait, no, the banging wasn’t coming from his chest. It was the door.
Reed slouched enough to meet her lips again in a quick kiss. “Hold that thought.” Fucking pizza boy had TERRIBLE timing! But Reed popped up from the couch and jogged over to the door. Opening it, he probably looked a mess. His face was all flushed. Damn his pale skin that made blushing so insanely obvious! Reed stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He gave the kid way more money than necessary, but didn’t care. Reed practically pushed the guy back out the door before locking it and dropping the pizza box off in the kitchen. He jogged back to the couch and plopped down with Kat. “Okay...time in,” he informed her before moving in for another kiss.
---
Difficult as life sometimes was, there were definite pros to being a mutant. Not having to get up from the couch to turn off the TV was high on her list of desirable perks at the moment. “Oh you can’t be serious,” Kat groaned and flopped back on the couch when one distracting noise was immediately replaced by another.
Out of sight of the pizza delivery boy from where she lay on the couch, Kat passed the time by toying with the ‘mood lighting’ Reed had mentioned earlier, testing for the optimum level of light. The delivery guy would just assume Reed had unseen company playing with a dimmer switch. “Almost done? I miss your mouth already,” she called out, her voice intentionally breathless but loud enough to be heard clearly; just explicit enough to leave the pizza guy with something to wonder about as he was jostled out the door. Damnit, she really wished she could have seen both their faces.
She could hear Reed jog back and was probably as red as he was from stifling amusement. She held up her hands in a playful plea for mercy. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, don’t tickle me! I had too, people are mean to them all the time, now he has a story to laugh about for the rest of the night. And you look like a Mac. You can’t be mad.”
That he’d forgone immediate pizza consumption was not at all lost on her. Kat sat up and dropped a leg over his, then slid into his lap facing him. “Besides,” she began, rubbing his shoulders both in apology and to distract them enough to calm their blushes; “I wasn’t lying.” Kat pressed a series of brief kisses inward along his jaw until she could meet his eyes. Her lips brushed his when she spoke, quietly now. “Time in,” she agreed. “Forgive me?”
---
Reed flashed a smile at the delivery guy that was both guilty and smug at the same time. It was satisfying, and he didn't mind one bit that Kat teased both men with her pleas for attention. "I'm not mad," he said smoothly as his hands claimed her, Kat now straddling him. How could he possibly be upset about that? It was everything he'd ever dreamed of!
His palms smoothed over her lower back as Kat massaged Reed's shoulders. Kisses were peppered along his facial features in a playful and adoring fashion that had Reed positively beaming. "There's nothing to forgive. If anything, I owe you an apology for not responding with more enthusiasm when you kissed me the other night." Had she been sober at the time, Reed felt things would have progressed as they were tonight.
"I can't remember being this happy." Because he wasn't overthinking it. Reed blocked out everything else, all the reasons they shouldn't enjoy one another, and focused entirely on Kat and how she made him feel. He cupped her cheeks and looked at her carefully in silence for a moment, just taking it all in, before Reed leaned forward to firmly press his lips to hers. The kiss morphed from loving and tender to passionate and needy in a matter of seconds. His hands slid greedily along Kat's torso and found her hips just as he licked along the entrance between her lips.
---
Kat was tired of walking on eggshells. It struck her then, as it had earlier that week, the extent to which she hadn’t been herself around Reed for weeks now. It had bled into the rest of her life and while that was by no means a first, it frustrated her. Having been so focused on tiptoeing, Kat had forgotten to laugh, to play, to enjoy herself. It wasn’t like her. It was an odd thing, to feel like she could breathe again, and yet have to fight to do so around the butterflies that danced in the pit of her stomach. “It’s better that you didn’t. That was a mess.” Kat smiled thoughtfully. “I woke up hungover in a bathtub. Really. This is better.”
Kat pinched her thigh through the thick denim of her jeans and grinned. “Just checking,” she murmured. Shifting closer, Kat wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and shoulders when she felt the need in his kiss. She responded, her lips and tongue articulating all the lust and affection she was too awkward to articulate after pretending it didn’t exist for so long. Kat’s hands left his neck and floated over his shoulders, down his abdomen to the hem of his shirt. Her fingertips tugged at the fabric gently then moved to brush his skin beneath. Kat broke from his kiss long enough to breathe a hushed request and meet his eyes.
“Can we take some of this off…?” She felt a little sheepish for a moment due to the odd nuance of the situation. She was hungry and her heart felt like a small, nervous animal in her chest, but she cared for none of that. “Immediately. Yesterday, if you’ve found Doc Brown” she added, a smile curling her lips. This felt good, but wasn’t enough when the prospect of doing things she’d only teased herself with in daydreams was so tantalizingly close. ---
“Wearing pale blue underwear. I remember,” he teased. What? That momentary glimpse of underclothes was something he’d taken home with him that afternoon. And enjoyed. Thoroughly.
The way she pinched herself to check if she was dreaming was so very adorable. He chuckled a little but was silenced immediately by her lips and tongue toying with his own. Reed’s laughter was replaced by a soft groan. It expressed the ache he felt. That ache was old and repressed. So it shouldn’t have come as any surprise that he outright pouted when Kat pulled away from him. More kissing was needed. Immediately. Especially with the way she was fondling his torso. However, the reason for her replacing kissing with talking was entirely acceptable. “If that’s what you want,” he said softly, immediately pulling off his shirt and tossing it to the side. A fraction of a second later, he wrapped his arms around her once more, pulling her tight to his chest so he could attack her mouth some more.
Reed wasn’t in a hurry. Yes, he was eager, but it was a bit like eating a dessert slowly, very slowly, knowing it needed to be savored until the very last bite. He wanted to devour Kat, but he could take his time in doing so. Leaving her lips, Reed kissed a trail down her throat and licked at the little dip between her collarbone. He’d thought about this a lot over the years. It was painful to want something so badly but assume it was out of reach. Now she was not only close enough to touch, but close enough to lick, smell, and grab.
---
“So you were looking.” She was hardly offended.
To say that Kat was in a hurry wasn’t quite right, but his shirt was keeping her from the warmth of his body and the feel of his skin beneath her fingertips. It didn’t so much feel like an issue of patience rather than one of justice; she’d been measured, kind and self-sacrificing for years, and she’d craved this through it all. At least she’d be sated for a while longer.
She hummed a thankful noise while Reed ditched his shirt, then came willingly when pulled back a second time. Languidly, she stretched against him to settle herself and was momentarily distressed when he deprived her of his kiss. Angling her head to expose her neck, Kat’s fingers tunneled back through his hair from his temple, her nails lightly grazing his scalp.
Her open palm at rest at the back of his neck, she briefly caught the shell of his ear with her lips before the attention he paid the groove of her neck coaxed a soft moan from her and she abandoned the pursuit to nuzzle his neck affectionately. A shudder of approval ebbed through her body.
---
"Ever so briefly," he admitted. Reed wasn't a jerk, but he also wasn't a total prude. He caught a glimpse, by accident, and then averted his eyes immediately out of respect for her. The situation was entirely different that day. Now their feelings were out in the open, and they were making out. It was a good change!
Few things felt better than a woman toying with a man's hair and scratching at his scalp. It was a sinfully delicious sensation. Nerve endings sparked and made all their bodily companions stand up and take notice. He felt electric and nipped appreciatively at her collar before kissing back up the side of her neck, his lips dragging at times between hot breaths.
This wasn't how Reed expected the night to go, but he had zero complaints. It was a dream come true to have Kat in such a position. She was his to touch and taste as he pleased. He could never go back. Repressing his feelings had been painful before, but to try and do so again would be impossible. The dam had been destroyed, and there was no way to push the water back up stream. Moving forward was their only option.
"I wanna look again," he whispered as his hands slid up and under her shirt just above her hips. While he'd seen her in a bikini plenty of times (always a painful experience), seeing her in a bra was entirely different.
---
The wine and chocolate she’d brought for Colin and his anonymous miss now seemed like an ironic choice, but Kat had never planned for this. On the contrary, she’d been determined to have a normal night, entirely sans flirtation. The universe was not without a sense of humor; one she was appreciating greatly at the moment.
Nerve endings came alive under the touch of his lips, the heat of his breath. Kat’s neck had always been especially sensitive. She’d always assumed that the nerves in her spine and neck were much more dense because of her wings, but she didn’t pay much mind to the reason. The brush of his lips was ambrosial.
Reed hadn’t really specified what he’d seen last weekend, nor what he was requesting to see again. Making the decision for herself gave her the excuse to stand, mercifully relieving the crunch of her jeans behind her bent knees. Taking a step back from the couch, Kat slipped her fingers between her skin and the band of denim around her hips. Unfastened, she leisurely pushed the fabric down her thighs to the knee, then stepped out of them and nudged them aside atop his discarded shirt. Her rather long raglan tee left much to the imagination until she took hold of the hem and pulled the garment up over her head.
She ran her fingers back through her hair, instinctively grooming it of any mussing the collar had caused. If there had been any doubt that all this had Kat as surprised as it did Reed, it would be gone then. She stood, a faint blush coloring her cheeks from amusement rather than embarrassment or any lack of confidence, in an unembellished, minimal and well-loved pale yellow bra and plain heathered grey panties accented by a few small tattoos that dotted her frame few typically saw. Kat lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug, a playful glint in her eyes. “Well …” There. She hadn’t moved, watching his face was, for the moment, far too engrossing.
---
Apparently, there were some major perks to being vague. Not telling Kat exactly what he'd seen the week before, resulted in her peeling off a lot more clothing than expected. His eyes went wide. Not only because of all the freshly revealed skin, but the way she went about exposing it. Kat didn't do so like a professional stripper, all show and no emotion, but she also didn't hurry to remove her jeans and shirt. There was something sweet, delicate, and somewhat shy yet purposeful about her actions. The shrug and smile topped it all off. He was beaming. "You are so damn adorable," he remarked with a little chuckle.
Reed outstretched his hand until she gave him her own. Then he pulled her back onto his lap. "Just so we're clear. You are not allowed to sleep in the tub again. Not the couch either." She was sharing the bed with him. Sex wasn't a necessity, but sleeping together was. Reed wished he could sleep with her every night from this point on. How could he possibly have a restful night alone? Not again. Not after this.
He smoothed his hands over her shoulders and arms, relishing the feel of her flesh. His fingers traveled along her neck next, then down her back, teasing her spine. He knew it was sensitive. Reed took the opportunity to kiss her again, and when he did, he felt her bare abdomen press against his own.
---
Her smile spread as he sat there, grinning at her until finally he spoke and she covered her laugh, fingers pressed her lips. “Yeah, well, lots of practice…”
She took the offered hand and slid back onto his lap, close to share warmth. The clarification was appreciated, but not needed. As often as they could safely manage it, Kat had no intention of sleeping without him unless it was necessary. Tonight certainly didn’t qualify. “Unless you’re planning on sleeping in the tub,” she squinted and tilted her head left, then right, as if weighing the pros and cons. Kat smiled, then shook her head. “Falling asleep with you … it felt like the safest, most comfortable place in the world. Even on the floor. I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
“And just to be clear, this doesn’t need to be anything … right now,” she wrinkled her nose, digging for the right phrasing. “We went from friends playing Mario Kart to third date in fifteen minutes.” Traditionally speaking, at least. Kat chuckled softly. If they couldn’t appreciate the humor in the whole thing, then they were taking themselves far too seriously.
She might have said more, but the trail of his fingertips down her back voided her thoughts. She felt only the sudden hitch in her breath, the electric response to his touch and the warmth of his lips when they returned. All of it made her head spin pleasantly. Her back arched subtly beneath his teasing. Kat pressed herself closer to Reed, almost as if intent to move away from the path of his fingertips. Lips slanted across his and parted slightly, craving the touch of his tongue. ---
Reed couldn't agree more. Despite the floor, he'd never felt better than he had the other night sleeping with her. "I don't wanna be anywhere else either. But while we're doing the whole clarification thing, you and I know we haven't been just friends for awhile now." Sure, they hadn't really crossed a firm line until her kiss the other night, but they still were more than friends and had been for years. "You might argue that we've been dating very slowly for years now. Courting?" An old fashioned term but it seemed to fit.
Although, there was nothing old fashioned about the position they were in now. His jeans were starting to feel uncomfortable, and it had nothing to do with the pleasant weight placed upon them. The strain came from within, not above. Kissing her, tasting her, only made it worse. Reed let his hands slide up her back once more, pausing over the hooks of her bra, considering his options, but behaving for the time being and bypassing the obstacle that separated them still. He tangled his fingers in her hair instead, holding Kat to him as their mouths wrestled. She made him dizzy in that good sort of way, like a tilt-a-whirl. He was nervous, excited, and off balance.
---
What he said was true, of course. Reed had come back from Indiana more than four years ago. Regardless of the fact that they’d never addressed it, regardless of the fact that she’d been dating Jamie for half of that time, there had always been a little more than simple, uncomplicated friendship. But still; “can we just go with my version? It sounds much more fun. In yours, your parents would have wrapped me in an 18th century bundling bag just to sleep in your house.” Kat found the mental image fantastic, but not worthy enough interfere with her single-minded interest in kissing him for more than a second or so.
The fabric of his jeans was rough on the tender flesh of the inside of her thighs, but enjoyable. She skimmed her nails across the top of his denim-clad legs, calling attention to it. Kat didn’t want to rush any of this, despite her willingness to shed her clothes that might have suggested otherwise. The taste of his mouth and the gentle roaming of his hands consumed her, but despite her great contentment, a deep ache was beginning to stir. Kat felt Reed linger, then bypass the clasp on her back. She returned the subsequent favor, propping her forearms against his chest to scritch her fingers up into his hair from the nape of his neck. Their mouths anchored to one another, she lifted herself up a few inches without breaking away to shift some mild discomfort (which she fully intended to ignore) from her legs. Kat resettled with her hips flush against Reed’s. When she felt a little strain that had not been there minutes before, she rocked against him, teasing for no more than a second or two before she stopped and pressed a happy sigh into the impassioned tangle of their kisses.
---
"More fun," he echoed with a grin. Yes, this was definitely more fun. Probably the most 'fun' Reed had ever experienced. "History wasn't my best subject, so I'll take your word for it about the bag, but we both know my mom would have been totally fine with you NOT using it." She would be downright giddy if she knew what they were up to right now, and it brought an Archer quote to mind, but Reed didn't share it. He couldn't. His mouth was otherwise occupied.
His hands were as well. Kat's too. When she brought attention to his jeans, both by touching them with her hands and then by rocking against his increasingly uncomfortable groin, Reed couldn't stay silent. Or still.
He grabbed hold of her torso and lifted her with ease. He didn't need his power of gravitational manipulation. Reed was strong, and Kat was light. He set her down on a cushion and quickly unfastened his jeans, pushing them down and kicking them off.
They were well on their way to getting naked. Reed didn't have any expectations. But things were starting to head in that direction. Reed wasn't sure how he felt about it. Obviously, he desired Kat and had wanted her for many years. But wasn't there some saying about the dangers of finally getting what you want? What if this fucked up everything? What if he wasn't very good? It had been so long that he couldn't remember how long. His nerves were starting to get the best of him, making his touches and kisses hesitant. Realizing she could probably tell, because Kat had always been able to read him, he confessed, "I'm afraid of fucking things up between us."
---
Kat was aware of the mounting awkwardness before he spoke, because she felt it just as strongly. Lifted away so that he had room to shed his jeans, she pinched her lower lip between her teeth, a spike of discomfort gnawing at her core. It felt a bit detached then, like they were two teenagers playing ‘show me yours and I’ll show you mine’ without having any idea what they were doing or where their impulse would take them. Thoughtful, she stayed on the cushion instead of moving back to the comfort of his arms. Her eyes raked over the body she’d seen many times before, then cast downward to combat a pang of want that seemed inappropriate as his touch grew reluctant.
This was not at all what Kat was used too; shy and a bit reserved in other areas of life, sex and intimacy with someone she cared for and had decided to be free with had never been one of them. But she adored Reed and this situation was all so new, so novel. There was no precedent. No guideline.
Kat nodded and smiled empathetically when he confessed his reservations. “Yeah, this is… kind of strange,” she confessed in kind, lifting her eyes from the floor to find his. Strange, but wonderful. “I could be happy, with just that,” her brows knit together, eyes plainly confused and working to make sense of this. “I mean, I don’t want to mess things up either, you’re too important -you’re one of my favorite people, ever- I just, I can’t--- Reed, I don’t want to lose you over…”
Jesus this shit stank something awful. Were they making a mistake? Should they stop, go back to playing Mario Kart? Could they? The thought made her feel ill. She snuck forward and brushed a kiss over his cheekbone. Pressing her open palm against his abdomen, Kat gently pushed Reed to lay back with her, shifting lengthwise on the couch. She curled against his side, settling her head on his chest and wrapping an arm around his torso. “If you really think we’ll fuck this up … we shouldn’t.” Kat’s eyes stung, but she meant it. It wasn’t worth losing him over.
---
Exactly. That was exactly the issue. Reed’s biggest fear over all this. Losing her would be unbearable. He wanted more of her, not less. Less would destroy him. Reed had tried, they both had, to cut communications. It had lasted all of, what, three days? Yeah, not gonna work. They couldn’t give up their friendship. And now Reed didn’t want to give up what was clearly much more than a friendship. What was the word Theo used? Twitterpated. Reed was that. Definitely.
Kat pushed him back to lie on his side, then quickly joined him. The couch wasn’t all that deep, so they were sandwiched together tightly. Fine by Reed. He wanted her as close as possible. Reed touched her cheek then gingerly brushed his fingers back through her hair just over her earlobe. “We don’t have to rush into anything. Maybe we ease up a little,” it pained him to say that, because he really did want her. ALL of her. “We haven’t exactly been dating….” he started and then sighed. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, Kat. I can’t just be your friend. Not now. But I can wait for the rest. I want to do this right. I want to...to make it perfect.” While there was some romance in being alone in the apartment, Reed could do better. Maybe a weekend away, out of the city, out of the state. They could be free to be seen in public. They could act like a normal couple.
---
Kat was frustrated. Ready-to-break something frustrated. To make matters worse, they were talking circles around something they’d covered less than ten minutes prior. “I said we’d jumped the dating process. You said we’d been courting, Lord Byron.” Kat chuckled, bracing her tongue between her teeth. It occurred to her that she might want to see Jamie to talk about the importance she placed on sex, how she needed it when others didn’t seem too. She wrinkled her nose. No, on second thought, she’d call Jamie. Much safer.
Reed spoke, Kat listened and turned her attention inward to his neck, collecting soft kisses and the salt of his skin on her lips. She agreed, she couldn’t imagine a world where being his friend alone wouldn’t drive her mad. But there was virtue in patience, not procrastination. “Nothing’s ever right, nothing’s ever perfect,” she countered, lifting herself onto her elbows. “You wouldn’t mean more to me in the Waldorf or a weekend place out of the city than you do right now, Reed.” Kat smiled and leaned against him to leave an affectionate, but careful kiss on his lips as a seal of her sincerity. “And I don’t want perfect. I just want you.” Kat slipped away and rolled off of the couch. She stood and stretched. “No, no rush. But don’t overthink it,” she urged, then shot him a playful wink to lighten to heavy blanket of awkward. SO fucking awkward.
“Well, I want pizza then. Hungry?” Kat ached, body and soul. But she didn’t want this to be ‘wrong’ for him, or less than he’d pictured. Twitterpated was a good word for it. Regardless of anything she felt at the moment, Kat loved Reed as a friend, as a person. What he wanted was important to her. She bent to retrieve her discarded shirt, then pulled it back over her head. Stepping back to the couch, she held her hand out in invitation. “Food and Fight Club then?”
---
God, this was all going wrong. His efforts to keep such a thing from happening appeared to be backfiring. Why? “I know nothing’s ever really perfect, but I can do better than this. You deserve better.” But hearing that Kat just wanted him filled Reed with a warmth he couldn’t describe. “You’re all I want too,” he whispered before she pulled away.
Kat’s tone was light. She was letting him off the hook. Problem was, Reed didn’t want to be let off. The reason this was going wrong was because he was overthinking it, just as she’d told him not to. Just as his mother had as well. “You sound like my mom.” Overthinking was sorta what Reed did best. He needed to stop.
When Kat reached out for his hand, he gave it to her, but rather than allowing her to help him get up, Reed pulled her back down onto the couch. Onto him. “Neither. The only thing I’m hungry for is you.” He tugged at the hem of her shirt until she moved to allow him to pull it off again. Reed’s hands went to her back as before, though he didn’t bypass the bra this time. He unhooked it with haste. “I wasn’t planning for a third date,” he warned. Reed’s way of asking for her forgiveness if he wasn’t up to snuff.
---
Kat scoffed, amused. “Well, in this case your Mom’s like the wise woman in every Hero’s Journey Story, ever.” She was fairly certain that was the only instance in which she’d ever be okay with being compared to a man’s mother just minutes after fighting, tooth and nail, against the urge to tear at his boxer briefs. Tugged forward rather than helping him up, Kat caught herself, her hands on his shoulders to prevent landing atop him too roughly. Hungry for her, not pizza? It was hard not to laugh; Reed was such an adorable nerd. But this sudden shift concerned her. Fuck it - she didn’t care. Kat lifted herself away from him long enough to wiggle free of her shirt, but braced an arm across her chest to keep her bra in place with he freed the clasp. Was that a joke, or an apology…?
“Hey, hey whoa. Wait.” Kat kept support on her elbow, her free hand lifted to the side of his face. The pad of her thumb stroked from his cheekbone to temple, and back. “Not that I don’t love the directness, but what’s going on?” Reed was all over the place. Something was clearly bothering him, and it was starting to confuse her. Kat frowned faintly in the dim light, concerned. She could only assume he might have been worried about repercussions but had then changed his mind - no other concern he might have came to mind. “Did I miss something?’ Honestly, she didn’t want to ask for fear of the answer, and because he’d just turned a corner she wholeheartedly supported, but Kat couldn’t ignore it.
---
Reed sighed out his frustration, not with her, but with himself. He rubbed his face and put all further efforts to get her naked on hold for the moment. What was going on? He was close to having a panic attack from the confusion he felt.
"I want you. I always have. But I can't help thinking this is a trick. How often do people get exactly what they want without facing dire consequences? You want me to stop overthinking it. I want that too, but we both know, shit, even my mom knows, that overthinking is what I'm good at."
He paused a second, rubbing his hand over Kat's shoulder, his thumb gently caressing her neck. "I can't even remember how long it's been for me." Unlike Kat, he hadn't had a real relationship since his return to Willowbrook. "I haven't dated anyone. I haven't wanted to. And you were with Jamie," who was tall, handsome, hilarious, and treated her wonderfully. "I'm afraid I'll disappoint you."
---
Kat wanted to point out that letting something pass you by because it could turn out badly was probably the subject of every 1 in 10 angsty poems ever written, but she didn’t want to diminish what he thought about it.
His last few comments taken together, the hesitance made sense. “I’m sorry. About Jamie.” Not the whole issue, but she acknowledged that she had a pool of experience that might make him uncomfortable. She didn’t reiterate that she’d never expected him to come back after Purdue. She didn’t mention that if he hadn’t come back, she’d probably still be with Jamie. It would have hurt like hell, but she’d have found a way to let Reed go. One truth had been said too many times. The other didn’t need to be said at all. “I was trying to move on. I really, really tried.” Kat rolled her eyes, but there was sadness in them. She’d fucked that up royally.
“You’ve never disappointed me,” she insisted, her voice softened. “...You’re the one person who never has,” Kat acknowledged after thinking about it for a moment. Her throat closed around the words, like it frightened her to say in some quiet way. “I don’t have anyone to compare you too.” In all ways that were most important to her, it was true.
After a moment’s consideration, Kat shifted upright and swept her hair back over her shoulders, slipping her bra straps down her arms and discarding the unwanted thing on the floor. She was all clear, milky skin and nervous blushes; Reed wasn’t the only one dealing with a bit of lingering apprehension. She bent to kiss the memorial tattoo and the ridges of muscle twined over his ribs. “Tell me to stop,” she whispered against his skin, the tip of her tongue tracing a groove she’d teased with her lips, fingers dancing beneath the band of his boxers but refraining from any further wandering. It wasn’t a request, but a nod to her willingness to do so. Otherwise, she had nothing to hide and insufficient worry to keep her from wanting him. Languid as her namesake, Kat stretched upward and removed the space between them, resuming the hungry assault on his mouth she’d reluctantly abandoned.
---
Hearing about how 'hard' she'd 'tried' did NOT make Reed feel better. It made him picture all of her attempts. The images were nearly enough to make him storm out of the apartment. He didn't like thinking about her and Jamie. He'd been thinking about them for years now. It sucked. A lot.
But Kat soothed him with her next words. That lame song 'Nothing Compares 2U' popped in his head, and he smiled ever so slightly. She was the only woman for him. Reed had known that for a long time now. Kat made it sound like she felt the same way, something he'd never even stopped to consider until now. That she'd wanted him just as badly.
When she let her bra fall away, revealing skin he'd never seen before, Reed's breath caught in his chest. His fingers trembled a little as he reached out to touch her, gently caressing the swell of her left breast. Speaking was hard right now, everything was hard right now. "I don't want you to stop." He didn't want any of this to stop. Ever. If they could stay in this apartment for the rest of their days, Reed would happily do so. As it was, they could visit whenever they wanted. It was his now, and he planned to share it with Kat as often as possible.
Her lips on his ribs, followed by her tongue, and then that teasing touch of her fingers at the waistband of his boxer briefs, made Reed shiver. Definitively did NOT want her to stop.
---
He said nothing. She had the distinct feeling that it was a very good thing that she wasn’t a telepath just then.
Men were so odd about breasts - some Freudian thing, she’d forgotten the term. His touch made her tremble. The sensation cleared her mind of anything even vaguely intellectual. His confirmation was all she needed to lose herself in the taste of his mouth, the careful touches of bare skin in the cool apartment air, the rougher texture of his hands on her skin. The desire to explore to rest of him gnawed at her like dull teeth, but she wanted to savor this just a little while longer.
Her fingers left the band of his briefs, venturing between their bodies to massage the hardened outline of him through the fabric of his last, holdout garment.
---
Yes, men were obsessed with tits. And, yes, there were plenty of psychological and societal reasons for it. Reed didn’t care about the deeper meaning for why he loved boobs. He just did. And Kat’s were amazing. Not that he’d never noticed before, because he had, he just hadn’t seen them bare or touched them. Tonight, finally getting to do both, Reed felt as though he was having some sort of out of body experience. It didn’t seem real. It hadn’t even seemed possible a few weeks ago.
He definitely didn’t think the day would come when Kat would cup his junk through his boxer briefs. Their mouths still in a tangled mess, he sucked on her bottom lip and bit it a little when she grabbed hold of him and began to rub him. Reed had no control over the jerk of his hips. They rose involuntarily to meet her hand and create more friction.
---
Most men had had so much ‘me, myself and I’ time that Kat didn’t waste much time handling the goods. No woman was even going to be better at that then a man was himself, but sometimes it was just too tempting not to transgress. The buck of his hips only rewarded her bad behavior. Kat chuckled into their kiss, replaced by a quiet moan drawn from her by the sharp contrast of his teeth on her lip.
She let go of him and lifted off of the couch to climb up onto the bed behind it. Situated in front of a massive skyscape panorama, the whole thing suddenly felt a tad bit exhibitionist. She tugged the drapes closed a few extra inches (she’d known a flier with invisibility as a secondary in her graduating year - it was scarring). “Get up here,” she insisted, her voice shallow but still playful. “No clothes on the bed. House rules.” At least for tonight. A teasing smile curled kiss bruised lips. Shins crossed in front of her so that he couldn’t quite see what she was doing, Kat slipped off the last of her undergarments on the far side of the bed, out of reach from the couch.
---
Reed couldn’t help the whimper of disappointment that spilled from his lips when she released them and his undercarriage. “Tease,” he called after her as she climbed over the back of the couch and onto the bed.
“Uh..you’re still wearing your underwear, so I think you’re in violation. The penalty is stripping.” He sat up on his knees on the couch, resting his elbows upon the back of it so he could watch her. She did as she was told, and Reed stared. He was transfixed. “Do you have any idea how insanely hot you are? I’m talking.. centerfold, only better, because you’re real.” Not airbrushed. Anyone could be made to look sexy in a magazine. Photoshop made models obsolete in Reed’s opinion. Why waste money on an attractive woman when you could pay for a good graphic artist and software instead? But Kat didn’t need any ‘touching up’. She was flawless just as she was.
---
“It’s only a tease if there’s no follow through,” she countered. Kat had no intention of that, but she by no mean intended on passing up some of the fun to be had beforehand. Kat was confused for a moment. She hadn’t been stripping, or attempting to be sexy. If anything it had been a momentary bout of shyness that caused her to undress in the manner she had, and he’d requested she do so almost mid-motion. “I was photoshopped on the way over, there’s a great place on Madison…” she said, deflecting. Kat watched him, watching her. The look on his face made her nervous, excited, breathless, perhaps a bit awed … she didn’t have a word for it. “Will you please come up here?” she asked again, less play and more of a plea.
When he stayed put, Kat shifted and crawled the three or four feet, took his hands and pulled him upright from his lean against the back of the couch. “You are such a pain in the ass. A really sexy pain in the ass,” she tempered her mock insult with kisses, curling a hand around his neck and pulling the band of his briefs away from his hips with the other. Kat glanced downward, then raised her eyebrows at him and hummed a note of approval. “But if you take any longer, I’ll ask for a strip. And I’ll deserve it.”