(no subject)
Title: Better Man (2/2)
Rating: NC-17
Summary: "You’re the person I didn’t know I was looking for."
Lexie practically skipped across the street from the hospital, she was so happy. She’d been let go early and was off tomorrow, and was thrilled at the prospect of spending an evening alone with Mark. Her happiness dissipated, however, when she opened the door and found Callie asleep on the couch, her head in Mark’s lap.
“Shhh,” he whispered to Lexie. “She just nodded off.”
Fuming, Lexie set her bag down with a thud. “What is she doing here?” she asked angrily, her voice louder than a whisper.
“She’s had a rough day.”
“So have I, and yet I come home to find you with another woman asleep on our couch!”
Mark jerked his head back, clearly taken aback by Lexie’s words. “First of all, this is my couch that I paid for and second, it’s not just another woman, it’s Callie.”
Lexie rolled her eyes. “I’d almost rather it be some random woman.”
“Excuse me?”
“She is always here, Mark…or you are always over there. We are never alone, Mark! Never! When I get home you’re with her, when I wake up to go to work, you’re with her. At the hospital you eat lunch with her and not me!” Lexie’s voice was becoming shrill.
“Keep your voice down,” he said.
“I will not keep my voice down!” she practically shouted, and Callie sat up, startled. She looked from Lexie to Mark and back again, and quickly got up.
“Sorry,” she replied sheepishly. “Mark was just being a good friend. I gotta go, though…early surgery.” Callie stood and grabbed her keys, ruffling Mark’s hair on her way out the door.
Lexie watched her go, and when she heard Callie’s door shut across the hall, she turned to Mark. “This can’t go on, Mark. I…I am sick and tired of…sharing you with her, like you’re some sort of co-op boyfriend that I get to live with but she gets to spend all her time with. I just, I’m done with it. So done.”
“What does that mean?”
Lexie took a deep breath. “I don’t want you hanging out with her anymore.”
Mark laughed. “You can’t be serious. You really expect me to choose between you and her?”
She looked at him defiantly. “Yes.”
Mark shook his head, laughing sadly. “If that’s what you want.”
“It is.”
Sighing, he stood up. “I’ll be back in the morning to get my key.”
Her eyes widened, clearly shocked. “What?
“You can sleep here tonight, I’ll crash on Callie’s couch. I’ll come back in the morning to get my key from you.”
“Wh-what?” Lexie was incredulous. “You…you are choosing her? You are seriously choosing her over me?”
“Yeah,” he said nonchalantly, grabbing his keys off the table. “I am. You know why?”
“Why?” she retorted sarcastically, crossing her arms.
“Because she never would have asked me to choose.” And with that, he was gone.
Callie was just getting ready to get into bed when she heard a soft knock on her door.
“Mark?”
He sighed. “Can I crash here tonight?”
She opened the door and let him in. “Did she kick you out?”
“No, but she wishes she had.” He toed off his shoes and sprawled on the couch.. “She wanted me to choose.”
“Choose? Choose what?”
“Between you and her.”
“What?”
“That’s what I said,” he sighed.
“So…?”
“So I told her I’d be back in the morning to get my key back from her.”
“Wait,” Callie said, rubbing her forehead. “So she wanted you to choose, and you broke up with her?”
Mark shrugged. “I guess.”
Callie sighed. “Come on, you can sleep in the bed. That couch isn’t comfortable.”
Silently, they settled into the bed, and even in the dark and silence each knew the other was not asleep.
“Mark?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks. For choosing me. Not that it was cool of her to make you choose, because it wasn’t, it was really immature, but…thanks.”
“Not a hard decision,” Mark replied, shifting in the bed so he was facing her. “Bros before hos, right?”
He laughed as Callie flung a pillow at him. “I hate you.”
“You love me.”
Groggily, Mark opened the door to his apartment and was surprised to find Lexie sitting on the couch, eyes puffy and bloodshot. Before he could say a word she held up a hand.
“I have some things to say before I go.”
Mark sighed. “Okay.”
Lexie took a deep, shaky breath. “I’m sorry I made you choose. It wasn’t fair of me to do that. But…I think you choosing her over me speaks volumes about how you really feel.”
“She’s my friend, Lexie.”
“She’s not just your friend, Mark. You two used to have sex! Lots of sex! In every on-call room in the hospital!” She sniffled. “Instead of going from friends to lovers, you went the other way and it’s weird and I’m not comfortable with it and I don’t really believe she’s really one-hundred percent gay and…you spend all your time with her, Mark. Every free moment was spent with Callie. I don’t know how Dr. Robbins was okay with that unless she didn’t know about you and Callie and all your sex but she seemed to be but I’m not like that. I am sick of playing second fiddle to her, and it’s not fair to me.”
“Fair?” he asked. “This isn’t about fair, Lexie. It’s about me wanting to be a better man-which I was for you. I never once cheated on you, never even thought about it, but you always made it seem like my friendship with Callie was cheating on you.” Mark sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I was a better man for you than I have ever been for another woman, but you don’t seem to appreciate that.”
Clearly stunned, Lexie sputtered but couldn’t get any words out.
“At first, I thought that this would be really great,” Mark continued. “You’re a great girl, a smart girl...but you’re a girl. You’re young and foolhardy and naïve and in a couple of years you’ll make someone a great wife. But right here, right now, we are not right for each other no matter how much we want to be.”
Wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, Lexie nodded sadly. “I know.”
“And none of this has to do with Callie.”
“It kind of does.” She shrugged. “I mean, you and Callie? You get each other in ways that other people just can’t. I can’t explain it…there’s this part of you that belongs to her, it’s like you’re this exclusive little club sometimes, with all your inside jokes and secret looks, it’s like you are two parts of the same thing and it really, really bothers me because I never had a chance to be that person for you, Mark. I wanted to be, I tried to be, but even when I came close it was nowhere near like what you and Callie have, and I just…I wasn’t given the opportunity.” Lexie sighed. “I just wish you had given me the chance.”
Mark genuinely felt bad. “I’m sorry, Lexie.”
“Me too,” she replied, standing up and grabbing the bar of her suitcase. “I’ll be at Meredith’s if anyone is looking for me.”
She laid her key on the coffee table and walked out, not looking back.
Callie and Mark sat on the floor, the coffee table between them. “You doing okay?” she asked, drawing a card from the deck and frowning at the cards in her hand. She discarded it and looked up at him.
“Yeah.” Mark took the card Callie had discarded and placed it in his hand. “It’s been what, a month?” Sorting his cards, he discarded a seven of clubs.
“Yep.” She drew from the deck again and made a face, discarding the card she had just picked. “I suck at this game.”
“You won’t get any better at it by bitching about it, Torres.” Mark played his turn and then looked up at her. “You just hate to lose.”
“I grew up with four brothers, Mark. Of course I hate to lose!” She drew again and gave a small smile, putting the card into her hand and discarding a three of hearts. “But this was one game we never played.”
Mark picked up her three and discarded a two of diamonds. “We’re pathetic.”
“Horribly pathetic.”
“Why are we not out doing something?” he asked.
“We can’t go to Joe’s because Lexie is probably there,” she replied, putting down an ace of clubs. “And it’s raining cats and dogs, and we didn’t feel like slogging to another bar in the rain.”
Mark picked up her ace and grinned, laying his cards down. “Gin.”
“Bastard!” Callie threw her cards at him playfully. “Next time, I choose the game.”
“Strip poker?” he asked, raising one eyebrow suggestively.
“You wish.” She nudged him with her foot before she stood up and plopped herself on the couch. “So, now what?”
Mark tossed her the remote before joining her. “Your turn to choose the movie.”
“No, because you always bitch about what I choose,” Callie replied. “And no offense, I don’t want to listen to it tonight.”
“Fine.” Grabbing the remote, Mark randomly punched in a number. “Whatever this is, we watch it. Deal?”
“Deal.”
The TV sprang to life, and Callie laughed when it turned out to be a Little People, Big World marathon on TLC. Before Mark’s irrational fear of little people kicked in, she grabbed the remote and hid it in the back of her pants.
“Turn it off!” he said, trying to wrestle the remote away from her.
“You made a deal!” she cried, swatting him away. “We made a deal! We’re watching this!”
“The hell we are!” Mark reached around to grab the remote, and his hand grabbed her ass. She squealed and wriggled and the next thing she knew, he was on top of her, one hand on the remote tucked in the back of her jeans, both of them breathing heavy.
His blue eyes locked onto her brown ones, and her eyes slipped shut as his mouth made contact with hers. It was hesitant at first, but when she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss, the hesitation was replaced by desire.
Their tongues dueled as she threaded her fingers through his short hair, touching his face, his neck, his broad shoulders. Gently, she pinched his earlobe and he moaned, breaking their kiss and resting his forehead on hers. “We shouldn’t do this.”
“I know.” The stubble on his face tickled her palm. “What are we doing, Mark?”
“Dancing around the issue.” He sat up and took her hand, pulling her up as well. “Lexie said something interesting to me when we broke up.”
“Okay.”
“She said there was a part of me that belongs to you, that we were two parts of the same whole.”
Callie swallowed hard. “Mark.”
“And I think that’s why we have denied this for so long,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Because we know that if we cross this line, we can’t ever go back.”
“No,” she replied, her lower lip trembling. “We can’t, and if you broke my heart, it would probably kill me because you’re my best friend.”
Gently, he reached out and touched her bottom lip with his thumb. “I can’t promise I’ll never hurt you, but you make me a better man, Callie. When I’m around you, I’m not filled with self-loathing.”
Despite her tears, Callie laughed. “That’s a sparkling recommendation right there.”
Mark laughed as he wiped her tears away. “Hey, for someone who has made a hobby of his intense self-loathing, that’s pretty good.” He leaned in and kissed her gently. “I love you, Callie. You’re the person I didn’t know I was looking for.”
“I’m scared, Mark,” she said.
“We can be scared together then, because I’m terrified.” Mark laughed at her obvious surprise. “We both have a lot to lose in this, but…I’d rather do this than wonder for the rest of my life.”
Callie nodded. “Me too.”
In one swift motion Mark was standing, swooping Callie up into his arms and carrying her back to her bedroom. He gently lay her down on the bed and settled on top of her, caressing her cheek before kissing her.
Their breathing and the sound of the rain pounding on the windows were the only sounds as Mark peeled Callie’s shirt off and tossed it aside, bending down to kiss the sweet spot where her neck and shoulder met. She shivered, tangling her hands in his hair.
He reached behind her and unhooked her bra, sliding the silky garment down her arms and off, tossing it on top of her discarded shirt. Callie pulled his black t-shirt over his head and ran her fingers down his chest before reaching for his belt buckle.
Smiling, Mark sucked one taut nipple into his mouth, nipping and sucking gently before moving to the other one, lavishing it with the same attention. When Callie managed to get his jeans undone and her hand grasped him through his boxers, he moaned, biting her nipple a little harder until she too moaned with pleasure.
Standing up, he shed his jeans and boxers and pulled Callie’s pants and underwear off, taking a moment to look at her, naked and beautiful in the dim light. Crawling back onto the bed, he reached for her, hands touching every place they could reach-her hips, her ass, her thighs-as he placed hot, open-mouthed kisses on her stomach.
His tongue left a warm, wet trail down her abdomen as he made his way to her center, gently nudging her thighs apart until he could kiss her most intimate place. Mark paused a moment, reveling in the warm, familiar musky smell of her before he leaned in and licked her.
Callie let out a sigh, urging him on with her hands.
His tongue delved in and out of her, and Mark relished the wetness he got as a response. He moved up to circle her clit, sucking on the tender nub gently before inserting a finger into her hot, wet core. Crooking his finger, he moved it in and out as he continued to lick her clit, until Callie was on the verge of orgasm.
He moved his hand to tease her clit while he kissed his way up her body to her mouth. She was ready, meeting him with a breathless smile before crushing her mouth to his. She shifted, pulling him into the cradle of her hips, and with a single, swift move he was inside of her.
They moved as one, clinging to each other as their bodies sought pleasure in each other. Mark entwined his fingers with Callie’s, pressing his forehead to hers, whispering declarations of love against her mouth as their bodies moved in sync, building up to orgasm. They came at the same time, waves of pleasure crashing over them, fingers and bodies entwined.
It took Mark a moment to gather his thoughts, his eyes closed against Callie’s shoulder. When he was finally able to think he looked at her, only to find she was crying.
“Are you…?”
She laughed through her tears. “I’m…happy. I’m crying because I’m happy.” Mark reached to wipe away her tears, and she laughed again. “I just…” she sort of shrugged, “I feel like this was the first time I was ever made love to, like it wasn’t just sex.” She sniffled. “It’s going to be hard to top this.”
Mark kissed her softly. “We’ll have fun trying.” He disentangled himself from her and lay down, pulling her close and drawing the sheets of the bed up around them. They lay quietly for what felt like hours when finally Callie whispered, “I love you, Mark.”
“I know.” He gave her a cocky grin.
“Ass,” she replied with a laugh. “I hate you.”
“You love me. You just said so.”
“Keep it up and you’ll never hear it again. Jerk.”
Mark laughed and leaned down to kiss her. “It’s okay. I love you, too.”
“You’re still an ass.”
Eighteen Months Later
“Keep your eyes closed,” Mark said, guiding a blindfolded Callie through what felt like a maze. “No peeking!”
“Where-ow!-are we?” she asked, limping slightly after stubbing her toe on something.
“You’ll see.”
Callie heard the rattling of keys, and the opening of a door. She felt Mark’s hand on her arm, guiding her through the door. “Step up. Okay…a little to the left…we’re going up some steps….twelve steps.”
Callie felt blindly for something to hold on to, and found a railing. “Mark, this had better be good.”
“Oh, it is.” She could hear the cocky smile in his voice.
“Why won’t you tell me where we are?” she whined as he led her on to a second set of stairs.
“That would ruin the surprise. More stairs.”
Callie muttered under her breath as she carefully climbed the stairs. She did a double take when her feet hit carpet. “Mark?”
“Don’t move-and don’t take the blindfold off!” Mark’s voice echoed in…wherever they were. Callie stood there, trying to figure out what was going on when suddenly the blindfold was removed and she found herself in what appeared to be a circular bedroom with an amazing view of Seattle and Puget Sound.
“What’s going on?” She looked around, and noticed that the lights were off and the room was lit entirely with candles. “Mark?”
“What do you think?” he asked casually, leaning against the door frame, hands in the pockets of his jeans.
“About what? The room? It’s gorgeous.”
“Think you could live here?” he asked, just as casually.
Callie looked at him, puzzled. “What?”
“Can you see yourself living here?” His smile was enigmatic.
“Like by myself? With you? In just this room? What? Mark, you need to be more specif-“
Mark cut her off with a kiss. “Yes or no.”
“Yes. Why?”
He took her hand and led her towards the stairs. “Why don’t we take a look at the rest of the place.” Mark led her by the hand down to the first level to a beautiful flagstone terrace that was awash in white twinkle lights and candles. On a table sat a bucket with a bottle of champagne, flanked by two champagne glasses.
“Okay, now I’m getting all weirded out,” Callie said. “Tell me what is going on because I’m beginning to suspect that you’re a pod person.”
Mark laughed. “You make it hard to romantic, you know that?” He pulled a key ring out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Here. It’s the front door key.”
“To…to this house? To the front door of this house?”
“Yes.”
“You…bought me a house?”
“No, I bought us a house, which you would have picked up on had you looked more closely at that key ring.”
“At the-ohmygod.” Callie finally got a good look at the key ring, only to realize that it was indeed a ring-a diamond ring. “Is this-? I mean, are you-?”
“Obviously that’s not the real thing,” he said, pulling a small box from his pocket. “But yes, it is, and yes, I am. If you’ll have me.”
She took the box and opened it, gasping as she got a good look at the beautiful antique ring. Disbelieving, she looked up at him. “Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack.” He took the box from her, extracting the ring and slipping it on her finger. “Marry me.”
“I hate you!” she said, laughing as she began to cry. “You always do this to me.”
Mark grinned. “I’m that good.”
“Ass.” Callie laughed as she wiped her cheeks.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Yes, you ass.”
With one move, Mark picked Callie up in his arms and carried her into the house. “Where are you taking me now?” she asked, resting her head in the crook of his neck.
“Upstairs, to have dirty, hot, engaged sex in our new bed.”
Rating: NC-17
Summary: "You’re the person I didn’t know I was looking for."
Lexie practically skipped across the street from the hospital, she was so happy. She’d been let go early and was off tomorrow, and was thrilled at the prospect of spending an evening alone with Mark. Her happiness dissipated, however, when she opened the door and found Callie asleep on the couch, her head in Mark’s lap.
“Shhh,” he whispered to Lexie. “She just nodded off.”
Fuming, Lexie set her bag down with a thud. “What is she doing here?” she asked angrily, her voice louder than a whisper.
“She’s had a rough day.”
“So have I, and yet I come home to find you with another woman asleep on our couch!”
Mark jerked his head back, clearly taken aback by Lexie’s words. “First of all, this is my couch that I paid for and second, it’s not just another woman, it’s Callie.”
Lexie rolled her eyes. “I’d almost rather it be some random woman.”
“Excuse me?”
“She is always here, Mark…or you are always over there. We are never alone, Mark! Never! When I get home you’re with her, when I wake up to go to work, you’re with her. At the hospital you eat lunch with her and not me!” Lexie’s voice was becoming shrill.
“Keep your voice down,” he said.
“I will not keep my voice down!” she practically shouted, and Callie sat up, startled. She looked from Lexie to Mark and back again, and quickly got up.
“Sorry,” she replied sheepishly. “Mark was just being a good friend. I gotta go, though…early surgery.” Callie stood and grabbed her keys, ruffling Mark’s hair on her way out the door.
Lexie watched her go, and when she heard Callie’s door shut across the hall, she turned to Mark. “This can’t go on, Mark. I…I am sick and tired of…sharing you with her, like you’re some sort of co-op boyfriend that I get to live with but she gets to spend all her time with. I just, I’m done with it. So done.”
“What does that mean?”
Lexie took a deep breath. “I don’t want you hanging out with her anymore.”
Mark laughed. “You can’t be serious. You really expect me to choose between you and her?”
She looked at him defiantly. “Yes.”
Mark shook his head, laughing sadly. “If that’s what you want.”
“It is.”
Sighing, he stood up. “I’ll be back in the morning to get my key.”
Her eyes widened, clearly shocked. “What?
“You can sleep here tonight, I’ll crash on Callie’s couch. I’ll come back in the morning to get my key from you.”
“Wh-what?” Lexie was incredulous. “You…you are choosing her? You are seriously choosing her over me?”
“Yeah,” he said nonchalantly, grabbing his keys off the table. “I am. You know why?”
“Why?” she retorted sarcastically, crossing her arms.
“Because she never would have asked me to choose.” And with that, he was gone.
Callie was just getting ready to get into bed when she heard a soft knock on her door.
“Mark?”
He sighed. “Can I crash here tonight?”
She opened the door and let him in. “Did she kick you out?”
“No, but she wishes she had.” He toed off his shoes and sprawled on the couch.. “She wanted me to choose.”
“Choose? Choose what?”
“Between you and her.”
“What?”
“That’s what I said,” he sighed.
“So…?”
“So I told her I’d be back in the morning to get my key back from her.”
“Wait,” Callie said, rubbing her forehead. “So she wanted you to choose, and you broke up with her?”
Mark shrugged. “I guess.”
Callie sighed. “Come on, you can sleep in the bed. That couch isn’t comfortable.”
Silently, they settled into the bed, and even in the dark and silence each knew the other was not asleep.
“Mark?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks. For choosing me. Not that it was cool of her to make you choose, because it wasn’t, it was really immature, but…thanks.”
“Not a hard decision,” Mark replied, shifting in the bed so he was facing her. “Bros before hos, right?”
He laughed as Callie flung a pillow at him. “I hate you.”
“You love me.”
Groggily, Mark opened the door to his apartment and was surprised to find Lexie sitting on the couch, eyes puffy and bloodshot. Before he could say a word she held up a hand.
“I have some things to say before I go.”
Mark sighed. “Okay.”
Lexie took a deep, shaky breath. “I’m sorry I made you choose. It wasn’t fair of me to do that. But…I think you choosing her over me speaks volumes about how you really feel.”
“She’s my friend, Lexie.”
“She’s not just your friend, Mark. You two used to have sex! Lots of sex! In every on-call room in the hospital!” She sniffled. “Instead of going from friends to lovers, you went the other way and it’s weird and I’m not comfortable with it and I don’t really believe she’s really one-hundred percent gay and…you spend all your time with her, Mark. Every free moment was spent with Callie. I don’t know how Dr. Robbins was okay with that unless she didn’t know about you and Callie and all your sex but she seemed to be but I’m not like that. I am sick of playing second fiddle to her, and it’s not fair to me.”
“Fair?” he asked. “This isn’t about fair, Lexie. It’s about me wanting to be a better man-which I was for you. I never once cheated on you, never even thought about it, but you always made it seem like my friendship with Callie was cheating on you.” Mark sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I was a better man for you than I have ever been for another woman, but you don’t seem to appreciate that.”
Clearly stunned, Lexie sputtered but couldn’t get any words out.
“At first, I thought that this would be really great,” Mark continued. “You’re a great girl, a smart girl...but you’re a girl. You’re young and foolhardy and naïve and in a couple of years you’ll make someone a great wife. But right here, right now, we are not right for each other no matter how much we want to be.”
Wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, Lexie nodded sadly. “I know.”
“And none of this has to do with Callie.”
“It kind of does.” She shrugged. “I mean, you and Callie? You get each other in ways that other people just can’t. I can’t explain it…there’s this part of you that belongs to her, it’s like you’re this exclusive little club sometimes, with all your inside jokes and secret looks, it’s like you are two parts of the same thing and it really, really bothers me because I never had a chance to be that person for you, Mark. I wanted to be, I tried to be, but even when I came close it was nowhere near like what you and Callie have, and I just…I wasn’t given the opportunity.” Lexie sighed. “I just wish you had given me the chance.”
Mark genuinely felt bad. “I’m sorry, Lexie.”
“Me too,” she replied, standing up and grabbing the bar of her suitcase. “I’ll be at Meredith’s if anyone is looking for me.”
She laid her key on the coffee table and walked out, not looking back.
Callie and Mark sat on the floor, the coffee table between them. “You doing okay?” she asked, drawing a card from the deck and frowning at the cards in her hand. She discarded it and looked up at him.
“Yeah.” Mark took the card Callie had discarded and placed it in his hand. “It’s been what, a month?” Sorting his cards, he discarded a seven of clubs.
“Yep.” She drew from the deck again and made a face, discarding the card she had just picked. “I suck at this game.”
“You won’t get any better at it by bitching about it, Torres.” Mark played his turn and then looked up at her. “You just hate to lose.”
“I grew up with four brothers, Mark. Of course I hate to lose!” She drew again and gave a small smile, putting the card into her hand and discarding a three of hearts. “But this was one game we never played.”
Mark picked up her three and discarded a two of diamonds. “We’re pathetic.”
“Horribly pathetic.”
“Why are we not out doing something?” he asked.
“We can’t go to Joe’s because Lexie is probably there,” she replied, putting down an ace of clubs. “And it’s raining cats and dogs, and we didn’t feel like slogging to another bar in the rain.”
Mark picked up her ace and grinned, laying his cards down. “Gin.”
“Bastard!” Callie threw her cards at him playfully. “Next time, I choose the game.”
“Strip poker?” he asked, raising one eyebrow suggestively.
“You wish.” She nudged him with her foot before she stood up and plopped herself on the couch. “So, now what?”
Mark tossed her the remote before joining her. “Your turn to choose the movie.”
“No, because you always bitch about what I choose,” Callie replied. “And no offense, I don’t want to listen to it tonight.”
“Fine.” Grabbing the remote, Mark randomly punched in a number. “Whatever this is, we watch it. Deal?”
“Deal.”
The TV sprang to life, and Callie laughed when it turned out to be a Little People, Big World marathon on TLC. Before Mark’s irrational fear of little people kicked in, she grabbed the remote and hid it in the back of her pants.
“Turn it off!” he said, trying to wrestle the remote away from her.
“You made a deal!” she cried, swatting him away. “We made a deal! We’re watching this!”
“The hell we are!” Mark reached around to grab the remote, and his hand grabbed her ass. She squealed and wriggled and the next thing she knew, he was on top of her, one hand on the remote tucked in the back of her jeans, both of them breathing heavy.
His blue eyes locked onto her brown ones, and her eyes slipped shut as his mouth made contact with hers. It was hesitant at first, but when she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss, the hesitation was replaced by desire.
Their tongues dueled as she threaded her fingers through his short hair, touching his face, his neck, his broad shoulders. Gently, she pinched his earlobe and he moaned, breaking their kiss and resting his forehead on hers. “We shouldn’t do this.”
“I know.” The stubble on his face tickled her palm. “What are we doing, Mark?”
“Dancing around the issue.” He sat up and took her hand, pulling her up as well. “Lexie said something interesting to me when we broke up.”
“Okay.”
“She said there was a part of me that belongs to you, that we were two parts of the same whole.”
Callie swallowed hard. “Mark.”
“And I think that’s why we have denied this for so long,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Because we know that if we cross this line, we can’t ever go back.”
“No,” she replied, her lower lip trembling. “We can’t, and if you broke my heart, it would probably kill me because you’re my best friend.”
Gently, he reached out and touched her bottom lip with his thumb. “I can’t promise I’ll never hurt you, but you make me a better man, Callie. When I’m around you, I’m not filled with self-loathing.”
Despite her tears, Callie laughed. “That’s a sparkling recommendation right there.”
Mark laughed as he wiped her tears away. “Hey, for someone who has made a hobby of his intense self-loathing, that’s pretty good.” He leaned in and kissed her gently. “I love you, Callie. You’re the person I didn’t know I was looking for.”
“I’m scared, Mark,” she said.
“We can be scared together then, because I’m terrified.” Mark laughed at her obvious surprise. “We both have a lot to lose in this, but…I’d rather do this than wonder for the rest of my life.”
Callie nodded. “Me too.”
In one swift motion Mark was standing, swooping Callie up into his arms and carrying her back to her bedroom. He gently lay her down on the bed and settled on top of her, caressing her cheek before kissing her.
Their breathing and the sound of the rain pounding on the windows were the only sounds as Mark peeled Callie’s shirt off and tossed it aside, bending down to kiss the sweet spot where her neck and shoulder met. She shivered, tangling her hands in his hair.
He reached behind her and unhooked her bra, sliding the silky garment down her arms and off, tossing it on top of her discarded shirt. Callie pulled his black t-shirt over his head and ran her fingers down his chest before reaching for his belt buckle.
Smiling, Mark sucked one taut nipple into his mouth, nipping and sucking gently before moving to the other one, lavishing it with the same attention. When Callie managed to get his jeans undone and her hand grasped him through his boxers, he moaned, biting her nipple a little harder until she too moaned with pleasure.
Standing up, he shed his jeans and boxers and pulled Callie’s pants and underwear off, taking a moment to look at her, naked and beautiful in the dim light. Crawling back onto the bed, he reached for her, hands touching every place they could reach-her hips, her ass, her thighs-as he placed hot, open-mouthed kisses on her stomach.
His tongue left a warm, wet trail down her abdomen as he made his way to her center, gently nudging her thighs apart until he could kiss her most intimate place. Mark paused a moment, reveling in the warm, familiar musky smell of her before he leaned in and licked her.
Callie let out a sigh, urging him on with her hands.
His tongue delved in and out of her, and Mark relished the wetness he got as a response. He moved up to circle her clit, sucking on the tender nub gently before inserting a finger into her hot, wet core. Crooking his finger, he moved it in and out as he continued to lick her clit, until Callie was on the verge of orgasm.
He moved his hand to tease her clit while he kissed his way up her body to her mouth. She was ready, meeting him with a breathless smile before crushing her mouth to his. She shifted, pulling him into the cradle of her hips, and with a single, swift move he was inside of her.
They moved as one, clinging to each other as their bodies sought pleasure in each other. Mark entwined his fingers with Callie’s, pressing his forehead to hers, whispering declarations of love against her mouth as their bodies moved in sync, building up to orgasm. They came at the same time, waves of pleasure crashing over them, fingers and bodies entwined.
It took Mark a moment to gather his thoughts, his eyes closed against Callie’s shoulder. When he was finally able to think he looked at her, only to find she was crying.
“Are you…?”
She laughed through her tears. “I’m…happy. I’m crying because I’m happy.” Mark reached to wipe away her tears, and she laughed again. “I just…” she sort of shrugged, “I feel like this was the first time I was ever made love to, like it wasn’t just sex.” She sniffled. “It’s going to be hard to top this.”
Mark kissed her softly. “We’ll have fun trying.” He disentangled himself from her and lay down, pulling her close and drawing the sheets of the bed up around them. They lay quietly for what felt like hours when finally Callie whispered, “I love you, Mark.”
“I know.” He gave her a cocky grin.
“Ass,” she replied with a laugh. “I hate you.”
“You love me. You just said so.”
“Keep it up and you’ll never hear it again. Jerk.”
Mark laughed and leaned down to kiss her. “It’s okay. I love you, too.”
“You’re still an ass.”
Eighteen Months Later
“Keep your eyes closed,” Mark said, guiding a blindfolded Callie through what felt like a maze. “No peeking!”
“Where-ow!-are we?” she asked, limping slightly after stubbing her toe on something.
“You’ll see.”
Callie heard the rattling of keys, and the opening of a door. She felt Mark’s hand on her arm, guiding her through the door. “Step up. Okay…a little to the left…we’re going up some steps….twelve steps.”
Callie felt blindly for something to hold on to, and found a railing. “Mark, this had better be good.”
“Oh, it is.” She could hear the cocky smile in his voice.
“Why won’t you tell me where we are?” she whined as he led her on to a second set of stairs.
“That would ruin the surprise. More stairs.”
Callie muttered under her breath as she carefully climbed the stairs. She did a double take when her feet hit carpet. “Mark?”
“Don’t move-and don’t take the blindfold off!” Mark’s voice echoed in…wherever they were. Callie stood there, trying to figure out what was going on when suddenly the blindfold was removed and she found herself in what appeared to be a circular bedroom with an amazing view of Seattle and Puget Sound.
“What’s going on?” She looked around, and noticed that the lights were off and the room was lit entirely with candles. “Mark?”
“What do you think?” he asked casually, leaning against the door frame, hands in the pockets of his jeans.
“About what? The room? It’s gorgeous.”
“Think you could live here?” he asked, just as casually.
Callie looked at him, puzzled. “What?”
“Can you see yourself living here?” His smile was enigmatic.
“Like by myself? With you? In just this room? What? Mark, you need to be more specif-“
Mark cut her off with a kiss. “Yes or no.”
“Yes. Why?”
He took her hand and led her towards the stairs. “Why don’t we take a look at the rest of the place.” Mark led her by the hand down to the first level to a beautiful flagstone terrace that was awash in white twinkle lights and candles. On a table sat a bucket with a bottle of champagne, flanked by two champagne glasses.
“Okay, now I’m getting all weirded out,” Callie said. “Tell me what is going on because I’m beginning to suspect that you’re a pod person.”
Mark laughed. “You make it hard to romantic, you know that?” He pulled a key ring out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Here. It’s the front door key.”
“To…to this house? To the front door of this house?”
“Yes.”
“You…bought me a house?”
“No, I bought us a house, which you would have picked up on had you looked more closely at that key ring.”
“At the-ohmygod.” Callie finally got a good look at the key ring, only to realize that it was indeed a ring-a diamond ring. “Is this-? I mean, are you-?”
“Obviously that’s not the real thing,” he said, pulling a small box from his pocket. “But yes, it is, and yes, I am. If you’ll have me.”
She took the box and opened it, gasping as she got a good look at the beautiful antique ring. Disbelieving, she looked up at him. “Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack.” He took the box from her, extracting the ring and slipping it on her finger. “Marry me.”
“I hate you!” she said, laughing as she began to cry. “You always do this to me.”
Mark grinned. “I’m that good.”
“Ass.” Callie laughed as she wiped her cheeks.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Yes, you ass.”
With one move, Mark picked Callie up in his arms and carried her into the house. “Where are you taking me now?” she asked, resting her head in the crook of his neck.
“Upstairs, to have dirty, hot, engaged sex in our new bed.”