7. February 10th

FEbrUARY 10TH

Kai

Fingers of sunlightstreamed through the slats of the wooden shutters, and the air seemed to sparkle inside the rays created.

Waters, shirtless, tan camo pants up around his waist but undone, stood with his back to the window, arms crossed over his pecs, aviators on, and no expression on his face.

She stood at the foot of the bed, facing him.

Her insides twisted with want, and she squirmed.

"Take off your boots," he ordered.

She leaned down and unzipped her left boot, pulled it clear, and dropped it off further to her left.

She repeated the same process with the right.

"Now, the leggings."

Her thumbs hooked into the waist of her pants, and she slid them down her legs, stepping out of them as they pooled at her ankles.

"Unbutton your shirt," he ordered.

Her hands went to the placket, shakily slipping buttons through holes.

"Don't take it off," he ordered.

All of the buttons were undone, and she had no idea what to do with her hands, so she let them drop to her sides.

Her eyes felt trapped under his stare even though she couldn't see his eyes behind the aviators.

"Sit down on the edge of the bed."

That order came softer, but it held no less demand.

"Lie back."

"I can't—"

"Don't refuse me."

She felt herself slowly descend back to the mattress, her legs still bent over the edge of the bed.

"Good girl."

"Waters… please."

"‘Please,' what?"

"I… I don't know."

He smiled.

It was a devilish smile.

"You can have whatever you want, Kubrick, but you're going to have to ask me for it."

She whimpered.

"Ask," he softly commanded.

"Touch me."

"That's not a question, sweetheart."

"Will you touch me?"

The devilish smile deepened as he responded, "Oh, I will most definitely touch you."

The three steps he took to her were the slowest steps ever taken.

He knelt at her feet, placing his palms on her knees, his thumbs softly caressing the inside of the joints.

She moaned.

"You like my hands on you."

It wasn't a question.

His hands slid up the tops of her thighs and reached under the tails of her shirt.

"You want me to kiss you."

"Yes," she breathed.

Feather-light touches of his lips began at one knee and worked up to her pelvic bone.

He retreated and repeated the process up the other leg.

She watched as his face, aviators still on, turned up to her as he placed his final kiss.

He rose between her thighs like an ocean god from the surface of the water.

His hands reached for the shirt and pulled the panels away from her skin to fully view her beneath him in a bright red lace bra and matching panties.

One of his fingers reached out, touched her lips, then dragged itself down to her chin, the hollow of her throat, the valley of her breasts, her navel, and finally stopped at the small bow at the top of her panties.

His sunglasses returned from following the journey of his finger to her gaze.

"So beautiful."

Taking in air became difficult, as if the atmosphere in the room were slowly squeezing her lungs.

"I want you, Kubrick."

"Then have me, Waters."

The smile disappeared.

His gaze returned to the bow.

Both hands slid to the thread of material at her hips, holding the lacy material in place.

His index fingers curled under the threads, and she felt every moment the material dragged down her thighs, past her knees, down her calves, around her ankles, and over her feet.

She didn't see what he did with them because her eyes were paralyzed at the expression on his face.

Even though she couldn't see his eyes, he appeared dazed.

Mesmerized by the sight of what he had uncovered.

His lips pursed, and as she felt cool air blow onto her center, she closed her eyes, she arched her back—

Suddenly, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland burst into her world.

With a groan, Kai groped blindly for her phone to stop the blaring music. Not for the last time, she vowed to change her alarm to something much more soothing. She pulled the pillow from under her head to cover it instead and drifted almost immediately back to sleep.

Moments later, the ringtone began again. Her brain muzzily connected that it wasn't the alarm but instead the phone ringing. With a groan, she fumbled for the phone, bringing it under the pillow to her ear as she answered.

"That was a really good dream you woke me up from, so whoever this is, there better be a good reason for waking me up."

"Why is your voice so muffled?"

"Because my head"s under my pillow, where any normal human being's should be at this ungodly hour of the day."

"Somebody's cranky." There was a pause. "A really good dream, huh?" The voice turned curious and suggestive. "Care to share?"

Underneath the pillow, her eyes flew open to register that just under its edge, she could see the bright sunlight coming in through the slats of her shutters. Kai jackknifed into a sitting position, the pillow flying across the room, knocking several photo frames and who knew what else from the dresser onto the floor.

Holy fuck, it's him! That ringtone was a warning so you could act cool and collected when he called. Obviously, that didn't work. Fuck, fuck, mother-mother-fuck.

"Wa-Waters?"

"No sharing? Damn. Can't have been that good then." He paused again. "Or maybe it was so—"

"What do you want, Waters?" she interrupted him. "And it better be good or, although you could probably kill me six hundred ways with a napkin, I'll go Angry Birds on your ass the next time I see you."

"Well, ‘chirp chirp' to you, too, Mama Bird. I'm not sure what constitutes ‘good,' but you were the one who told me that you'd be in by eight, so I thought—"

"Oh my god, what time is it?!" Kai struggled to untangle herself from the bedding, nearly falling out of bed trying to exit it.

"Kubrick, relax! It's six o'clock."

Her hand to her heart, her breath soughing in and out in panic strokes, she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. "What the hell, Waters?"

She heard him chuckle on the other end of the line. "Well, if I can tear you away from your really good dream, I thought we could have breakfast."

"Breakfast."

"Breakfast," he confirmed. "You know, the first meal of the day. Usually involves coffee, orange juice, eggs, cereal, pancakes, and bacon. Some combination of those items."

"You want to have breakfast."

"Yep."

"With me?"

"Yep."

"I won't be tearing you away from anyone you'd rather be doing? AnyTHING!" she corrected quickly. "AnyTHING you'd rather be doing."

Just kill me now. Maybe I can blame that slip of the lip on the fact that he woke me up? He doesn't need to know he was the central star of the best sex dream of all time. Or that it was a sex dream. Yeah. Best he doesn't know that either. In fact, forget about it yourself.

"Mmm… nope. Only pussy out here is Zoe, and she's probably not looking for the same type of breakfast I had in mind."

"Excuse me?!"

"Zoe. That's what her tag says. Real friendly calico cat that is currently weaving in between my legs."

Kai's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Where the hell are you?" A sudden realization made Kai's eyes open wide, her mouth drop open, and her feet carry her over to her bedroom window. Opening the slats on one of the shutters of her turret bedroom window, she saw Waters" truck parked at the curb of her house below in the street. He was standing in front of the passenger door of his truck, in his normal feet shoulder-width apart stance, and sure as shit, the neighbor's calico cat, Zoe, was weaving figure eights with her sinewy body around his gorgeous legs.

Lucky fucking cat. I hate her.

His face tipped up, signature aviators reflecting the early morning sun, and unerringly found her peeking at him through the slats. "Mornin'. You gonna come down and go to breakfast with me, or are you gonna hide up there in your ivory tower?"

"Umm… breakfast… yeah. Gimme fifteen minutes."

"Make it ten, and I'll buy."