Nine Gates of Hell (7/?)
Part 7
“How long have you been there?”
“Not long” He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand before stretching his entire body out on the tiny couch.
“Should I even ask what you’re doing there?” He looked at me quizzically and I supposed he had good reason, it was odd for somebody to be sitting in the living room watching her co-star sleep at three thirty in the morning.
“Couldn’t sleep”
“Oh?” I heard his unspoken question and knew I had to answer it.
“I heard”
“Oh... so you know why I’m sleeping out here?”
“Yeah” He didn’t try to explain himself and I didn’t ask, he’d had a stressful night already. He didn’t need me to add to it. But I also knew if I didn’t say something then I might never get the chance again, I might never find the courage to say anything. Even so, we were both silent for a long time. I wondered if he was contemplating his marriage and the woman whose name he hadn’t called out earlier, the woman whose name should have been on his lips. I knew he probably was, who wouldn’t be, his marriage might be in tatters, his whole life could be on the verge of collapsing. And yet, selfish as it was, I wished he was thinking of me.
“Great. Now I can’t sleep”
“Cards?”
“Always”
“Poker?”
“Of course” Playing poker with David Boreanaz was a ridiculous idea, but then again playing poker with me was a stupid idea too. We’d both perfected our poker faces , it came from years of acting, from years of pretending to be something we weren’t. And yet each of us had the ability to see the truth in the other’s eyes, because we could never truly hide who we were. Nobody can. No matter how hard we try a little of our true selves always shines through, it’s just a matter of being able to see it. And that only comes from careful observation.
“I’d say let’s play strip poker, but I’m not really dressed for it” He gestured to himself and I felt myself blush faintly, he wasn’t wearing anything except his boxers, and I couldn’t help but think about how good he looked.
“Yeah, I bet you’d enjoy it though”
“Are you kidding? It would be the best moment of my life. Truthfully” I wasn’t sure when we’d stopped joking and things had turned serious.
“David” I begged him to stop, begged him not to rip my heart apart anymore than it already had been.
“Truthfully. You have a fantastic body” For a man who knew me so well he was making things incredibly difficult.
“David” I pleaded again. He nodded, finally understanding that it wasn’t something we could or should talk about, especially not at that moment. After that he stayed silent while I shuffled and dealt the cards. We both slipped onto the ground so that we were opposite each other, David grabbed the bowl of smarties on his way, dishing half out to me and half to himself.
“For every five you have at the end you get to ask a question, if you don’t want o answer you can give up five of your smarties” I nodded the conditions seemed fair. In my mind I counted the smarties off, sixty in total so the most questions I would need to answer would be twelve, and that seemed unlikely. I hoped I wouldn’t need to answer any more than six, but at the same time it wouldn’t really bother me, I trusted David to keep the things that really mattered quiet.
I looked at my cards, nothing spectacular, but I was careful to keep it from showing. I looked up quickly, trying to gauge a sense of his hand.
“Three” He slipped three of his cards towards me and I slipped three towards him from the deck before dropping three of my own and getting three new ones. I guessed he didn’t have anything useful either, I didn’t look at my own cards until I’d seen him check his. I caught the almost imperceptible smile, he had something, how good that something was we were about to find out. I chanced a quick glance at my own hand, noting that I too had something in my hand that could be of use.
He slipped two smarties into the space between us, I slipped three. He upped it to four and then I to five. He folded. I won with three tens. He’d had all four queens.
“Wow... what was that about the Boreanaz poker face?” I teased.
“We’re not done yet”
“We’ll see... the Deschanel’s have got a pretty good poker face too”
“Ha, you think you can beat me?” It was always the same when we played poker, we were both insanely competitive especially with each other. I shut up and waited for him to deal the next hand. I won the second, he won the third, the fourth seemed to go on forever, neither of us willing to fold. Eventually it was me who folded, leaving David with most of the smarties. We opted for a fifth round, I was hoping to even things up a little, I don’t know why he agreed. The fifth round was over quickly leaving me with just a few more smarties than David.
“Story time?” he asked, his eyebrows quirking up a little.
“Yeah”
“Okay, count ‘em up” he gestured to the multicoloured pile at my feet. Thirty six. That meant David had twenty four.
“Hmm, maybe you Deschanel’s have got more going for you than I thought” I smacked his arm with the back of my hand.
“Idiot” The smile that lit up my face told him I was joking.
“Come on” he pulled me off the ground by the arm with so much force that I fell against his bare chest, sending a shiver through me.
“Where are we going?”
“Thought we’d sit outside” I smiled again, he knew me far too well. He didn’t bother getting any clothes, he’d never been particularly modest, but he did grab the thick blanket from the couch.
I followed him out to the beach breathing in the cool salty air, every breath was like new life. The spot he picked was only a few metres from the one I’d spent the last two nights sitting. If I turned around I would have been able to see James lying alone in our bed and Jaime alone in theirs, but I didn’t look behind me. I was glad I’d grabbed my jumper before we headed out, glad that I could allow David the entire blanket to himself, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep my fragile self control if I was under the same blanket. I was sorry to see his chiselled chest disappear underneath the blanket as he wrapped himself up and dropped happily to his stomach on the sand, resting on his elbows next to me.
“I suppose you’d better go first, you’ve got seven I’ve only got five”
“Yeah, okay” It was only then that I started thinking about what to ask him “When did you lose your virginity?” it was lame I knew, but it was the first thing that popped into my mind. I’d regret it soon enough, sex was not something I should talk about with David.
“Nineteen” he admitted dipping his head towards the sand and burying it in the blanket.
“A guy like you? And you didn’t lose your virginity until you were nineteen”
“I was waiting for the right girl”
“Was she?”
“Is that another question?”
“No. You can ask a question about an answer”
“Fine... I’ll allow it. I thought so at the time.”
“And now” I was curious, I’d always been fascinated about how guys seemed to believe that losing their virginity was a rite of passage and should be done as early as possible. Yet here was a man, a jock no less who’d chosen to wait. At least a while.
“Yeah, I still believe that. At the time I loved her and I think that’s the best you can hope for.”
“I guess you’re right about that”
“So what about you? How was your first time?” He wiggled his eyebrows and I laughed slightly as images of a time too long ago, yet still as vivid as ever entered my mind.
“I was fifteen, it was after school one day, it happened in a bathroom. It was over as fast as it began, we never talked after that”
“Em” I couldn’t look at him while I was talking, instead I let my eyes fall once again on the ocean, letting it calm me.
“Yeah, far from perfect”
“You deserved better. I would’ve given you better”
“David” I begged.
“Yeah, I know”
“Um, next question I guess... Best kiss you’ve ever had?” Another, real smart question I thought to myself.
“You” That was not what I’d been expecting and I couldn’t believe it.
“David”
“No, it’s true. I’m not going to pretend it’s not. I’ve kissed a lot of women, both on and off screen” A feeble attempt at a laugh escaped my lips before he continued “But not one of them compare to you”
“We’ve never kissed... not like that” In the year since our one and only onscreen kiss I’d managed to convince myself that it was not David and Emily who kissed but Booth and Brennan, if I hadn’t I probably would have gone mad.
“You don’t really believe that. Sure, it was Booth and Brennan kissing, but it was us too”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Emily doesn’t kiss like that” I was heading into dangerous waters because what I was doing could definitely be considered flirting, with a married man no less.
“Well, in that case I certainly look forward to finding out just how Emily Deschanel does kiss” I felt a rush of moisture between my thighs, the kind that was mysteriously absent under my boyfriend’s attentive touch yet was ignited by the mere thought of David’s.
Then it was his question again and he barely hesitated before asking it “What’s your favourite sex position?”
“I’m going to use some of my smarties on that one”
“Aaw, Em. You can’t leave a guy hanging like that” He whined pitifully.
“You know that face doesn’t work on me”
“Damn... at least tell me why you won’t tell me”
I considered for a minute before giving in “Okay. You only find out my favourite position once you’ve tried it out” Once again with the blatant flirting, I scolded myself internally. After all the truth was much different, I’d really only tried a few positions and I was sure that until I’d tried them with David I’d never know my true favourite.
“That’s a steep price to pay for an answer”
“Maybe... but it’s the only way you’ll find out”
“Okay then... come over here” I knew he was joking his eyebrows waggling suggestively again, yet it was tempting anyway.
I didn’t even wait for him to tell me it was my turn before blurting out the one question I really wanted the answer to “Why did you call out my name?” I was starting to wonder if I didn’t already know what his answer would be, even if a part of me wished it wasn’t.
“Because I was thinking about you”
“You were thinking about me while you were having sex with your wife?” It seemed ridiculous in my mind, what sort of man would think about me when he had her in his arms. He seemed to see my disbelief.
“Yes”
“Do you do that often? Think about other women while having sex with your wife” It sounded more sarcastic than I meant it to.
“No... Not other women. Just you.”
“Jeez David”
“I know, you don’t have to tell me” He at least had the sense to look guilty. “I can’t help it though”
“You’re married” I reminded him.
“Yeah. God Emily, look at you, you’re freezing” He was right, my skin had taken on a dimpled appearance and my teeth were on the verge of chattering, but he had also managed to distract me from the conversation. He opened his arms straight away inviting me under the blanket with him, I resisted for only a moment before a freezing wind lifted my hair of my shoulders and cooled my body even further. His arms were warm and inviting and kept me cocooned nicely from the cold.
“Is James a good lover?”
“David” I groaned, only a guy would ask such a ridiculous question.
“Seriously”
“He’s okay I guess” It was hard to muster up any defence for the man I was about to break up with, especially with David.
“Wow, that good. It’s just you sounded like you were really enjoying yourself, so I wondered”
“Really?” I knew I sounded surprised, not that he’d heard us, but that he’d thought I was having fun, it hadn’t felt that way to me.
“Yeah”
“Oh... I can’t believe you heard us”
“It’s cool... you heard us too” I nodded my eyes fixing once again on the ocean, waves rolling back and forth relentlessly as everything else changed they remained the same. The sky was lightening ever so slightly into a pinkish sunrise casting a gorgeous glow over the sand. I let the silence hang between us for a few more moments.
“I was thinking of you, you know... when James and I were you know...”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I was thinking how much better you would be as a lover”
“Hmm” We were silent after that as we watched the sky lighten. His hands traced my body lightly, probably unconsciously and every so often I’d sigh, too tired to try and stop him, besides the sensations he evoked were too nice to ignore. In the back of my mind I knew that not only should I stop him but we should get up, go back to the house and pretend that nothing had happened. My own hands rested on his bare chest, my head nestled against his shoulder, our toes danced with one another and I decided that a few more minutes couldn’t hurt anyone.