The Perfect Weapon: Chapter 2014: Part 3

[camillecarelli]

Chapter 2014: Part 3

Judy paced back and forth across her tiny room in the safe house in some unnamed town in Pakistan. Frustrated that she had so far seen little of the world outside the doors, she kicked at the bed. Too excited to sleep and too tired to recruit Dave on a nighttime adventure, she continued pacing.

One, two, three, four, five steps and then turn.

One, two, three, four steps and this room was too small.

Five and Dave’s room was no larger.

One, two, three steps and he was tall enough that he could easily cross the room in three steps.

Four and five and the stupid room was not much bigger than the caves Dave had been in all those years.

Dave. The caves. These tiny rooms. Uh-oh. He hadn't said anything when they'd been shown the rooms, but then again, would he? Judy stopped abruptly and listened. Hearing nothing, she tiptoed across the bare wooden floor avoiding the creaks she’d already memorized and put her ear to the wall and listened.

Dave put his hands on the frame of the narrow door leading to an even more skinny balcony. He was quite sure that the decrepit iron framework would not hold his weight or he would sleep out there. Damn it, damn it, what had Kendall been thinking to put them in this dark dollhouse of a building. He felt like...he felt like Alice after she’d eaten or drank something and it had turned her too big or Gulliver or...Take a breath, Caro, he told himself. The room is fine. You’re fine. It’s just too small for your taste. Taste is subjective, relative...survivable. It is not a matter of life or death. It’s just...taste. Yes, that was it. Good god, Caro, listen to yourself. You sound as bad as Jack explaining his ‘preference’ for open spaces over closed spaces. ‘Fess up, you have claustrophobia. Perfectly natural response to the stimuli. Deal with it. Why don’t you...distract yourself. Yes, that was the solution.

Dave leaned further out the doorway, peering into the darkness. Damn it, where were street lights when you needed them? It was so damn dark in this damn godforsaken middle of nowhere, they - no, he - he was alone again. Again. Where was everyone? Asleep already. What else was there to do in the dark in the middle of nowhere but sleep? So...Alone in the dark. Which was not closing in on him. No, it was not. But it was dark. Black. Heavy. The blackness was heavy, like a blanket over your face or... He might as well be in the pits of hell or in one of those damn caves, which were...

“Dave!” Judy’s sharp voice hissed across the balcony.

“Huh?” Dave said loudly as he blinked his eyes open and stared blearily in the direction of her voice. He wasn’t alone. Judy... Judy was standing on her little balcony, her hair lying straight in the humidity. Yes, the humidity. That was why it felt heavy, the air. That made sense. Logic. Logic was good. Making a fool of yourself was bad. No weaknesses.

“Shh...You were breathing awfully hard. I could hear you from my room. Are you okay?” Judy asked softly, knowing they had to be as nearly invisible and inaudible as possible.

“Of course...” Dave looked down at his balcony. Perhaps it wasn’t as fragile as it appeared.

“Dave.”

“No. Okay, I’m not okay. I think...” Dave looked up again.

“Are you having a panic attack?”

“I...might be. Starting to.” Dave gripped the door frame harder, until it hurt, while concentrating on the pale outline of Judy’s face and hair in the dim blur of light from her room. Focus, he told himself. No weaknesses are allowed on this op. Focus, focus, breathe, breathe, breathe...There. A normal breath. Now take another.

“Then remove yourself from the situation-“ Judy stopped as she watched Dave’s features begin to relax. He was forcing himself to calm down. She said patiently, “Come into my room. We can talk or something.”

“I’m not in need of therapy right now-“

“You can’t afford my fees, anyway, Caro. Get your stubborn ass over here. Now.” Judy pointed in the direction of her door and walked inside without waiting for his answer.

Dave surprised himself by smiling. “Okay.” She did qualify as a distraction, that Judy. He took a deep breath, then another. His heart rate was fast, but that could be due to the invitation from a beautiful woman. Of course it could.

"Dave! Do I have to come out there and--"

"I'm coming!" Dave hissed back. Bossy and blonde. What wasn't there to like? He gingerly climbed onto his balcony and onto hers and opened her door.

“What was it - the size of the room, the darkness, or being alone? Or the combination?” Judy asked as she watched Dave take a breath before stepping into her tiny room.

“Option D. The combination.” Dave took a step forward and then stopped as he saw Judy sitting on the bed. Her arms were bare. Bare arms. She was wearing a blue tank top and some dark blue loose lightweight pants - were they were supposed to be pajamas? Yeah, that would work, the changes in women’s nightwear, Caro. Yeah. She had bare arms and he was trying to distract himself by noting that her pajama bottoms were blue? Or that they were so loose he couldn’t see the shape of her butt? Which was all to the good. He didn’t need to see the shape of her butt. Seeing her bare arms and oh great, turn to the side, Judy. That’s just what I need. To see the shape of her breasts while alone in a room with her. She was blonde, damn it and-

“Dave? You appear...distracted,” Judy said softly, hiding her smile as she turned to the table near the bed and reached for a stack of cards. He appeared distracted, alright. So was she, by the bulge in his jeans.

“Uh, yeah. Which is what I needed,” Dave said casually, shifting from foot to foot. Damn it, get control.

“I know what I need...” Judy muttered to herself, looking up from under her lashes as she shuffled the cards in her hands.

“I beg your pardon?” Dave asked immediately, reading her lips. “What do you need?”

“You can read lips.” Judy sighed. “Of course. How many languages do you speak anyway?”

“I used to say that I speak enough languages to get into and out of serious trouble on every continent but Antartica.”

“Why? Because you don’t speak penguin?”

“Bad joke, I know.” Dave shoved his hand into his hair, then rubbed it on his leg nervously. He swore silently and shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned against the wall near the door.

Judy looked at up his stiff stance near an escape route. “I think you told me that one of the times you called me up and tried to persuade me to go out with you back in college. You were trying to impress me.”

“And failing miserably.”

“You were... I thought you were a jerk. A charming one, though. If you'd tried a little harder...” Judy looked at Dave, then added, "You might have succeeded." She smiled and patted the bed. “Come and sit here with me. We’ll play cards.” When he didn’t move, she patted the bed again and waited.

“That always works,” Dave admitted as he remembered Laura patting the chair next to her invitingly that day in his lab and Jack sitting down. What had Jack said once? A beautiful woman pats a seat next to her and...Oh yeah, he’d made a bitter comment about it after he’d learned the truth, about the KGB agents learning that technique in Baiting the Trap 101. But it was just the universal game between a man and a woman. The woman beckoned and the man went. Dave went.

Judy smiled as Dave sat down as far away from her on the bed as he possibly could. “Sorry, there are no chairs...” She said, unwilling to allow him to hide his discomfort. It would be far more effective and well, fun to confront it.

Dave grimaced. “I just...I’m not sure this is quite proper...” he began. What was improper were the thoughts careening through his head, or both his heads, at the notion of being on a bed with a beautiful woman. Would she be bossy here too? Judy shrugged, apparently in answer to his comment. Her shoulder - her nearly-bare shoulder - shifted and Dave caught a glimpse of a bra strap. Purple? He would have never expected Judy to wear purple, but... If there was lace on that bra would it also be purple?

“Dave? Are you fixating on my bra strap?”

“It’s purple.”

“So it is. Do you hate that color? I could take it off-“ Judy suggested slowly. She held up the cards. “We could play strip poker and if you were good, I’d end up having to take it off-“

“No! Yes, I mean...You’re mean. You’re teasing me,” Dave accused her as he saw the mischief in her eyes. He sighed. It had been so long since he’d flirted. He’d almost forgotten how. Almost. It was like riding a bike, he supposed, one never forgot, but it wasn’t a bike he’d like to ride and--

“Perhaps I am.” Judy looked down as she shuffled the cards with a loud thwapping sound, the cards slightly damp in the humidity that seemed to encase everything she touched with moistness. She looked over at Dave. He must be warm in that denim shirt. The base of his throat was damp. What would his chest--

Dave cleared his throat. The way Judy was looking at him made his throat go dry. He looked around for a glass. Water. He needed water. Water. What would she look like wet? He rubbed his hand across his damp forehead. Control, Caro, control. “Perhaps you should be aware that teasing me at this particular juncture in my life is somewhat dangerous.”

“Dangerous for me or for you?” Judy asked softly as Dave got up and walked over to the water bottle on the small, plain wooden bureau against the wall. “You should know that I’m not afraid of the darkness in you.”

“Why not?”

“Because you have smile lines. Gin rummy?” Judy patted the bed again and Dave walked over and sat a little closer this time. He waited while Judy began dealing out the cards.

“So, you’re not afraid of the darkness in me, but...I’ve been leaving a light on at night,” Dave admitted as he organized the cards in his hand.

Judy shrugged. “I would too if I’d lived through what you had. I can’t even go near the edge of the roof after a horrible plane ride and that lasted less than an hour, while you...” She put down a card and then asked, “So, why didn’t you have a light on in your room tonight?”

“I took a nap when we got in and it was light then.” Dave picked up her card.

“Ah. So you woke up in a close dark strange place and...” Judy rearranged the cards in her hand, looking at them and not Dave. “And you had a flashback?”

“Direct hit, as the Bristows would say. You can look at me. I won’t find it intimidating,” Dave told Judy. “That technique is unnecessary.”
“Then you are doing very well, aren’t you? So you won’t mind a few more questions.”

“Would it matter if I did?” Dave smiled. Jack had told him that persistence was one of Judy’s most basic characteristics.

“Not really. So. Being alone? Were the last few nights the first time you’ve been alone in a building since your rescue?”

“It would have been, but I wasn’t alone. Weiss came over.”

“So tonight would have been the first night?”

“Weiss...he didn’t stay the entire night. He was supposed to be my bodyguard, he said, but I think he may have known. Jack might have told him...” Dave rolled his eyes. “About poor Dave who shouldn’t be alone.”

“Weiss is a good boy,” Judy said blandly, more than willing to listen to Dave babble. He was always interesting. “He and Susan are going to have children who are holy terrors. And about ten dogs.”

“I miss the children,” Dave blurted out. “You know, the kids in the camp. And in the gulag. I liked teaching them, being with them. Actually, I loved it - irrespective of the circumstances. I learned that much from my unfortunate incarceration,” Dave smiled wryly. “That was my area of strength or...at least it was my joy, working with children. The other...” Dave flicked a finger at his knee. “I excelled at it, enjoyed it, but... Working with children, you truly can change the world. Does that sound ridiculously idealistic?”

Judy smiled at him. She was going to end up with smile lines herself if she spent time with him. How the man had retained any idealism was ridiculously astonishing to her. God, he was fascinating. “No. And certainly not after seeing what you’ve done with Sark in the time you’ve been back.I think you mentioned the possibility of going into private practice working with children.”

“That was my first thought when I came to in the cave,” Dave said abruptly, suddenly feeling the need to talk. To her. “About the kids.”

“Was it? And what was your second?” Judy gave up any pretense of playing cards and set her cards down on the bed to listen to Dave.

“I wondered who was groaning. I thought it was one of the kids, but...”

“It was you?” Judy touched Dave's right hand and gently ran her fingertip across the scar tissue where his finger had once been.

“It was me.” Dave touched the back of his head with his left hand, unconsciously squeezing Judy's hand with his right. “Luckily, I have an exceedingly hard head.” He looked at Judy’s door into the relieved blackness of the night sky. "Even when I have no idea what's going on."

Dave heard a groan. One of the kids must be sick- He automatically sat up to get out of bed and fell back as his body was hauled backward. He felt his head pound and closed his eyes at the pain, then opened them again. No difference. Utter blackness. What the hell? He blinked. Why was it so dark? Why couldn’t he hear the kids? Where were the kids? Why couldn’t he move? He groped around. Chains? He was...chained! He extended his arms to see how long the chains were. Not long. No more than three feet. Heavy, iron chains. Iron? Who the hell used iron these days? Where was he, the nineteenth century? Iron! Chained to what? He stayed calm; he’d been chained before, captured before. He ran his hands slowly over the nearby surface, as far as he could reach. Grit under his hands, sifting grit. Dirt? Dirt underneath. Dirt? He pushed his foot out and nothing there, then the other. Nothing. He moved back and slammed against a hard, unyielding surface. What...he turned carefully, conscious of how little space he could occupy with these short chains. Then again, they could have been shorter. He could have been chained with his wrists against a vertical surface, which always sucked. The blood ran out of your hands, making them nearly worthless as time went on. So why hadn’t they - whoever they were - done that? He would have done that? Unless... they weren’t worried about an escape attempt. Well, screw that, screw them! First step, ascertain where you are and the resources you have. He felt the surface behind him. Hard, uneven, damp. Dave hissed in a breath. Good god. A dungeon or a cave. Great. Rats. He froze, listening for the slightest sound. Waiting. Eventually, his muscles relaxed as he heard nothing. No creaking of wood, no shuffling of feet. No wind, no scrabbling. He heard nothing, saw nothing. Nothing. Nothing?

What was the point of this imprisonment? Why were the chains on his wrists so long? That made no sense, giving his arms room to move. It was dangerous. Did they think he was so helpless and passive that he wouldn’t use that resource? Unless they’d chained him here to leave him and...But no. If they’d - whoever they were - wanted to terminate him, it was far easier to just shoot someone or slit their throat and dump the body. Who would bother to take the time to starve someone to death in a dungeon? How inefficient. He did not approve. Perhaps they were amateurs?

“You were analyzing the situation as you lay there in chains with no apparent clues?” Judy asked intently. Dave’s face was tight from the stress of his memory.

“I’m...stubborn. Hard-headed...” Dave shrugged, then shifted his shoulders, forcing his muscles to relax after telling Judy that snippet of his story.

“Are you?” Judy smiled and rising to her knees, leaned toward Dave and slid her fingers into his hair and began massaging his scalp. Dave froze and then sighed and relaxed at her touch, closing his eyes. Gradually, however, as her fingers slowed and he heard her breathing slow and deepen, his slackened body tensed.
“Don’t...” Dave implored, even as he turned his head into her hands.

“You’re right, you do have an exceedingly hard head...” Judy noted. Dave’s eyes popped open at the husky tone of Judy’s voice and he followed her gaze down to the obvious bulge in his jeans. He groaned.

“Judy...you really need to stop.” Dave reached up and lightly touched Judy’s forearms, then dropped his hands as if burned. They were bare. Her skin was warm and soft and... her hands were like magic in his hair, both relaxing and exciting him. “You really need to stop."

“I don’t want to. Aren't you supposed to be asking me what I want, if I remember that manual correctly--” Judy grinned as Dave opened one eye to glare at her.

Dave sighed. “If that's not embarrassing enough, this is...Mmm..." Dave moaned as Judy's fingers touched the bare skin of his neck as they slid inside the collar of his shirt. "I’m afraid I'm going to embarrass myself.” he confessed.

“You’re not going to disappoint me by-“

“You need to understand, it’s been a very long time since I’ve...touched someone.”

“Or someone’s touched you?” Judy surmised, watching the deep pleasure on Dave’s face at her caresses of his scalp. Dear god, what would he look like when she touched him everywhere? She shivered in excited anticipation.

“Yes. And...”

“You’re afraid you’ll be overwhelmed?”

“Yes, but-“

“It’s...um, been a while for me too. Not as long as you, but...” Judy blushed slightly, cursing her pale skin. She watched Dave smile as he looked at her cheeks and she rolled her eyes. Then she watched his eyes drift down over her bare shoulders and arms. “Dave, why do you keep looking at my arms?”

“It’s, that’s the other...issue I have. Forget touching a woman. Do you know how long it was since I saw even a woman’s arm until I was rescued? Do you know...”

“Oh my.” What were they waiting for? He was hungry and she liked to watch a man eat. Judy dropped her hands from Dave’s head to his shirt and began unbuttoning it.

“What are you doing?!” Dave grabbed her wrists in his hands and held them still.
Judy shrugged and flexed her hands. As she expected, Dave released her immediately. Foolish man. She resumed unbuttoning his shirt. As the light from the one lamp in the room cast a soft glow on the damp skin of his chest, she sighed happily. ”Presenting you with your options. It seems to me that we have two.”

“This should be good. Give me Option A.” Dave held his breath as her fingers brushed against the skin of his chest and then withdrew. Thank god. He’d hate to have to throw her down on the bed, although...that look she was slanting up at him. She wouldn’t mind if he did. He recognized that look. She was the cat and he was the mouse, being led into a trap. One he would trip himself. Oh yeah. In fact... Wait, what the hell was she doing? Dave felt his mouth go dry.

Judy pulled down her shoulder straps, showing him her bare shoulder. “Okay, Option A would be to take it slow. I could reveal one part of my body at a time to you and when you’d...had your fill of that, we could move onto another part of my body.” She pulled down her other strap until the tank top was resting on the upper curves of her breast and the purple lace edge of her bra could be seen. She could also see Dave’s Adam’s apple move as he swallowed hard.

Dave looked at her arms, which now seemed infinitely safer than her shoulders or dear god, her upper chest, which would lead to... He reached out and tugged the straps back up on her shoulders. “I see certain advantages to that.”

“So do I,” Judy said, once again in a husky voice. She grabbed the open placket of his shirt and pulled him to her and kissed him firmly on his mouth, which opened immediately to lick at her bottom lip before he tipped his head slightly and took her mouth in a kiss that left her breathless from the hunger he displayed in just a few seconds. When he pulled back, she touched her bottom lip and looked at him in wonder. Wow. What would it be like when he unleashed that hunger and... Oh. He was talking. Really, talking was overrated.

“Oh? And what would they be?” Dave smiled smugly at the glazed look in Judy’s eyes. It wouldn’t last long, he knew, but for the now, he’d enjoy it. Maybe he could give her what she wanted before he embarrassed himself. Or...after.

“Numbers.” Judy winked. “Just imagine, if every time I reveal a part of my body to you, we...”

“Yes, we...” Dave teased as she hesitated.

“Well. I have ten toes, toe legs, two knees for that matter! Two thighs and two--“ She rubbed her hands on her legs and left them on her upper thighs.

Dave choked and blinked and then blinked again. “Speaking of two - Move on to Option B!”

“Ah. Option B.” Judy put her hand on Dave’s thigh and smiled when he immediately tensed. She rubbed her hand back and forth across the hard muscle in his leg and watched the sweat bead on his forehead. “We just rush hell bent for leather-“

“Ah, god, don’t talk about leather right now.” Why were they still talking anyway? Would the talking count as foreplay? Surely it would. Women liked to talk, after all and --

Judy chuckled. “And don’t try and distract me or yourself. It’s not going to work."

Dave picked up Judy’s hand. Yes, surely they'd done enough foreplay. Surely. Or then again, that might be his little head talking instead of his brain. “Or there might be an Option C-“

“Jack would be so proud.”

“At this moment, I could give a rat’s ass about Jack being proud.” Dave slid his hand from Judy’s to her hip and then lightly patted her butt. “I’m far more interested in your-“

“Really?” Judy stood up and began to shimmy her loose pants down her hips. “Let me show you-“

“Wait. I’m not done with the options!” Dave protested. He wasn’t ready yet. He needed to find some control and grabbed her hands. She held on, keeping them on her hips. “Um...Option C. Yes. Option C is that we could combine A and B. The first time, I could use Option B and...uh...just...rush myself and get...well...”

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Let’s use my shower.” Judy stood up and grabbed Dave’s hand, trying to pull him to his feet.

“What?” Dave’s mouth dropped open at the swiftness of her agreement and suggestion. Then he saw the faint hint of color on Judy’s face and grinned. She was shocking herself a little bit too, pushing herself a little beyond her comfort zones. Was she that interested in helping him or...was she just that interested in him? “The shower? Is...Wait. Is that suggestion due to when you called me the night we met and I was in the shower?”

“Dave...” Judy groaned as she felt her face flame red.

“Aha!” Dave tugged and Judy tumbled on top of him. Falling back onto the bed, he pulled her up against him. Nuzzling into her neck, he whispered, “Is that a little fantasy of yours?”

“I’m hoping it’s not particularly little...” Judy retorted, rubbing against Dave, careful not to bang his knee. Which meant that she just had to straddle him. Ah, the sacrifices one made to help out a man in distress. She rocked back and forth against him. “Ah, I see it’s not-“ She gasped slightly as Dave bit her ear lobe. “But yes, it is a fantasy of mine. A very good one, thanks to my excellent imagination and a vibrator with new batteries-“

“Judy!” Dave exclaimed, then began to laugh, his deep baritone rumbling around the room.

“Bloody hell!” Sark groaned. He vaulted out of bed and walked toward his own tiny balcony. Leaning over it, he whistled.

“Pop goes the weasel?” Judy asked, as Dave got up from the bed and walked toward the balcony.

“You’d better have a damn good reason for using the emergency signal-“ Dave growled as he leaned against the door jamb and scowled at Sark.

“Does the fact that the walls are exceedingly thin constitute a damn good reason?” Sark smirked. “Or should I wait to hear Dave’s suggestion for an alternative to new batteries before informing you of that fact?”

“Oh my GOD!” Judy groaned.

Dave choked on his laughter. “Oh...go to bed, Juli.”

“But...” Sark protested just for the hell of it. “My virgin ears!”

“Put a pillow over your head,” Dave ordered, pointing in the direction of Sark’s room.

“I might suffocate from the heat,” Sark whined, knowing the darkness hid his mocking expression. He couldn’t wait to tell Sydney about this little bit of fun.

“Surely a better option than how I might kill you if you’ve ruined...” Dave glared, squinting to see Sark in the dark.

“Ah. Brilliant point, just brilliant. I’ll go smother myself now.” Sark shrugged and walked back into his room. Yes, he really couldn’t wait to tell Sydney. Or Jack. He would probably enjoy this story too.

Dave turned around with a smile and faced Judy. She seemed unaware that one strap had fallen down as she sat on the crosslegged on the bed, her hands on her reddened cheeks. He walked forward and took her hand, tugging her up this time. “So. Weren’t we going into the shower?” he asked.

Judy nodded, forcing her embarrassment down. She had more important emotions to handle right now. Such as excitement. It was all about priorities. “Yes, I’ve been waiting to see you wet.”

“Good. I can’t wait to see you wet either.” Dave walked toward the bathroom. It was small. But he could do it. He had great incentive, he decided, looking down at Judy’s blonde head and bare arms.

“Am I getting into the shower with you?” Judy turned to face Dave as they stopped before the doorway. She bent her head to unbutton Dave’s shirt cuffs.

“Who said anything about you getting into the shower?” Dave hissed in a frantic breath as Judy pushed the shirt off of his shoulders.

“But-“ Judy curved her hands around his upper arms and giving into temptation, licked the dampness at the base of his throat.

“You don’t have to get into a shower to get wet with me, do you?” Dave grinned and pulled Judy into his arms.

Dave looked over Judy’s head into the bathroom behind her. “This bathroom is very tiny.”

“Yes, it is. Can you handle it?” Judy asked bluntly. Of course he could. Dave was clearly one of the most stubborn men on the planet and if he made up his mind to do it, he would. In less than five seconds he would step inside and--

“Can, as in capable? Let’s put it this way. I will.” Dave took a step inside and then stopped. Judy edged around him and stood in front of him and held out her hand. “This cannot be what you imagined,” Dave said through gritted teeth. “The stopping and starting like some nervous virgin in an arranged marriage on her wedding night. This cannot be what you-“

“Why do you say that?”

Dave smiled involuntarily. “Always the therapist with the questions. I know, I know. You became a therapist in part because you liked asking people questions, right?”

“Bingo. Also, questions work. If the person answers them instead of prevaricating.”

“Okay. I would think that this...situation is not what you imagined. It’s not what I imagined. I’m not...” Dave held out his hand and they watched it tremble slightly.

Judy picked up that hand and brought it to her mouth for a brief kiss. “You’re not what? A perfect romantic hero?” Judy shrugged. “I’m not looking for a knight on a white horse, Dave. I don’t need rescuing. I’m looking for a man with whom I share an emotional and intellectual connection and...” Judy smiled and hooked her fingers in Dave’s waistband. “We’ll see what else.”

“Well, I’m not trying for perfection. Unless you consider rescuing me from this problem to be perfection,” Dave said as the thought suddenly came to him. Perhaps Judy would like that role. “But this - my stalling here in the doorway - is hardly romantic or-“

“There’s where you’re wrong. It is a romantic situation to me. Because true romance is based on learning intimate, private details that the other person shares only with you. And so far, you’ve certainly passed that test.”

“Ah...” Dave nodded. Women often valued emotional openness above sexuality, whereas men equated sex with love. The key was to combine them all and make everyone happy. Dave took a step forward, then stopped. He was trapped, he thought, between the proverbial rock and the hard place. The rock being located below his waist and the hard place his fear. Fear of the small enclosed space and possibly, worse, his fear of embarrassing himself.

“Tell me, just how tiny was your cave?” Judy asked abruptly. She saw the chagrin on his face and knew that he couldn’t decide which fear was worse. She had a feeling the male ego was going to trump everything. Change course, she decided. “Or caves, since you moved around, didn’t you?”

“Oh. The caves...” Dave looked around the room, relieved that they weren’t talking about sex and his possible failures in that department. Far better to talk about claustrophobia. “Bigger than this. Usually. Although I didn’t know that about the first one until the guards finally came in with a lantern.”

“Was that better or worse?” Judy asked, her voice soft and light. Definitely nonthreatening, she knew. She took a step back into the bathroom, then another, turning to look in the mirror and smooth her brows. She did not look over as Dave stepped inside and stood near her, watching almost avidly.

“Good question.” Dave nodded approvingly. He leaned against the small square sink that had probably once been white and enjoyed the sight of a woman looking at herself in the mirror, doing whatever the hell it was they did when they rubbed their eyebrows. “Worse. Because until I saw with my little eye how small the space was I’d convinced myself in the darkness that it was larger.”

Judy nodded, then began to finger comb her hair, watching Dave’s gaze automatically fix on the movement of the blonde strands. “Jack and Irina both have mentioned avoiding counting the number of tiles or blocks in a cell as a technique to avoid knowing how small your space is.”

“Absolutely. And there were no tiles or blocks in the cave, so that was not the problem.” Dave touched Judy’s hair, then stretched out his arms and touched both walls with his fingertips and quickly dropped his hands. He took a breath and forced his arms up against and pressed first one palm and then the other against the walls, damp already from the humidity in the air.

“What was the problem?” Judy pressed. She reached out and took one of Dave’s hands and placed it on her shoulder.

Oh. Skin. Dave licked his lips to keep from licking her shoulder and answered her question. “When the two guards came in, I had to assess the situation. So I gauged from their body size how big the cave was and...later on, when I couldn’t escape and was trapped there, the smallness of it...I knew it and so...”

“The walls were that much closer when it started to feel like they were closing in on you?” Judy surmised, holding very still as Dave’s thumb began to rub against the ball of her shoulder.

“Yes and...” Dave shook his head.

“Am I asking too many questions?” Judy asked with concern. Dave was pale and...her ex-husband had wearied of her curiosity and questions, or at least the questions he hadn’t wanted to answer.

“God, no!” Dave gave a short laugh. “Do you know what was worse than the smallness, the blackness? The silence. The damn silence. Except for the rats and the bats and the bugs...”

“You don’t like silence. I understand. So I’ll talk.” Judy tugged Dave’s waistband and hauled him up against her. “Take off your clothes.”

“What?” Dave blinked in surprise. Her fingertips were hot where they were touching the skin of his abdomen. Burning. Really- Uh-oh, they had just unbuttoned his jeans and oh yes...he closed his eyes as he felt her fingers sliding further down his abdomen.

“Are you deaf or just frightened? Take off your clothes.” Judy pulled at the zipper of his jeans. His abdomen had been hard and hot and with just enough hair on it to make her want to touch more. More. That was the code word for tonight. More. Or was it, now? “Now, Dave. Now.”

Dave gaped at her in shock, the sudden change in topic had disoriented him. Well, his mind anyway. His body was screaming, ‘Yippee! Finally! Hot damn!’ Shut up you dickhead, he told himself. “But...but I told you I’ll embarrass myself and if I’m naked, I will really-“

“Typical man and male ego. As usual, making more of your penis than you should.” Judy smiled as she felt Dave’s hand cover hers on the zipper.

Dave burst into surprised laughter, then grinned, feeling more like himself. “I don’t have to make more of it-“

“I’m sure you don’t.” Judy reached out and palmed Dave through his pants.

Dave jumped and felt his pulse do the same. Everywhere. He gasped, “How are you so sure?”

“Your penis did not shrink from lack of food, like the rest of your body. Or so I’m assuming. Although it is dangerous to assume...” Judy slanted him a glance up from under her lashes.

Dave laughed again. God, he loved women and the game and... “You are...serious.”

“Dave...” Judy began unzipping Dave’s jeans. She heard his tiny gasp and felt the increased tension in his body as heat began to pour off of him. “I’ve thought about this ever since I called you and you were in the shower. And as tiny as this bathroom is, it does have a shower...” Judy reached out and flipped the shower on and with a clanging of pipes and a shudder, the lukewarm water began to pour slowly out of the shower head.

“So you want to watch me?” Dave asked huskily. He could do that. If she kept staring at him with that same hungry look in her eyes, he thought he’d do anything she wanted, asked, or demanded.

“Let’s put it this way. We’ll start by taking the edge off.” Judy shoved Dave’s jeans down and watched as he stepped out. She looked up at him. Yes, he was as hard everywhere as his abdomen had been.

Dave forced himself to watch Judy’s face. The last time he’d been with a woman he’d cared about, he’d been a much younger man. Twenty years younger. But judging by the look of satisfaction on Judy’s face, he didn’t seem to have disappointed her. “That will take about five seconds.”

“The first time.” Judy looked Dave up and down one last time and licked her lips. “The first time.”

“Oh.” Unbelievably, Dave felt himself blush. He ran his hand over his face and turned toward the shower and stepped in. He tilted his head back, then turned around and twisted the shower knob to the cold position. Anything that would help...

Judy rubbed her hands along her bare arms as she watched the cold water trickle down Dave’s body. Still too thin, but muscular enough and...yes, some muscles were just right. In fact...“Dave, why didn’t you take my advice...and it had to have been Jack’s too and just...take care of this problem on your own as soon as you could?”

“I...” Dave opened his eyes and looked at Judy. Were her nipples hard or was that wishful thinking? He looked back up into her face, amusement and desire both evident and then sighed and gasped as her right hand began touching his wet chest. She must surely feel the hard beat of his heart he thought as her finger grazed his nipple. She licked her lips and he sighed in relief. She really did want him. He relaxed inside even as his body tightened and told her in a soft voice, “I didn’t...I didn’t want to be alone. I...when you live the way I’ve almost lived for so long, the body becomes just another mechanism and its functions are just..well, mechanistic. And I, after so long, I didn’t want to just get it over with. I wanted it to mean more than that--”

“I understand.” Taking Dave by surprise, Judy stepped into the shower, clothes and all.

“What are you doing?” Dave asked, as Judy held onto his arms as her feet began to slide on the worn tile under their feet. He looked down as the blue of her tank top began to darken with spots of water. Thank god she hadn’t stripped or he would have probably come on the spot and...that was why she hadn’t done that, he realized before forgetting to think as her arms lifted around his neck and her soft warmth fell against him.

“Waiting for you to kiss me the way you did the first time,” Judy said softly, tilting her face up.

“That I can do.” Dave wrapped his arms around her, sliding one thigh between her legs, then wanted to curse as he felt the heat meeting his. Looking into her eyes he saw her desire, surely not as frantic as his, but still...What the hell was he waiting for? He kissed her hungrily, his mouth opening almost immediately on hers, sliding his tongue in possessively, taking her, waiting for her and yes, she took him too, her desire...oh god, he could taste it. He wished, wanted to taste her everywhere, yes, everywhere...what would she taste like? Sweet or tart or...Her mouth was so warm, no hot, and her hand, what was it doing? Oh god, focus, don’t lose it yet, no, don’t...He cupped the back of her head with one hand, pulling her head back, opening his eyes, seeing her mouth waiting for him, her tongue licking her bottom lip as her hands slid around his back pulling him close and then he kissed her again, losing himself in the wet heat of her mouth. That clever mouth with those clever words and yes, her clever hand that was holding him and not moving, not yet and...

“Do you want me to move my hand?” Judy asked softly, opening her eyes and seeing the tightness in Dave’s face. The rigidity of another muscle pulsed in her hand as it pushed forward, unconsciously seeking what it needed. She stroked it with her fingernails, wondering if that and...yes.

Dave pushed her back into the tiled wall of the shower surround, not even noticing the close confines, barely enough for two people, enjoying the feel of her pressed against him so tightly he could not move, except for the need to move...right there...in her hand. Wet, her hand. Or was it him? He gasped, then lost his breath in her mouth as she pulled him back against her, one hand on his butt, kneading it, the other stroking him, harder and firmer and oh yes.... He opened his eyes to stare down at her; his eyes grew wide as he realized how tiny the space enclosing him was, he should, he needed to get out, but no...he needed to...he was going to burst, her hand...her mouth on his, his eyes closed, he pressed against her once more, needing to feel her, more skin and she lifted her tank top and slid his hardness against her stomach. Oh god, so soft. Wet. And her hand and.... “No, not yet...” he begged himself, wishing he could stop and-

“Yes. Now. Come for me, Dave. Do it,” Judy ordered. “Now... Say yes.”

Dave opened his eyes, needing to see her in this moment, needing to connect and in the desire of her blue gaze, he saw the perfect combination of softness and strength. “Yesssss...” Dave groaned and surrendered to her, thrusting into her hand and the softness of her skin. “Yes!” he cried out as twenty years of loneliness and need vanished with the warmth of her touch and his own heated need flowed over both of their skin.

Judy panted as she watched Dave’s face, knowing that he had trusted her with this moment of fear that had turned to triumph. She held onto him, capturing his mouth with hers, surprised at the soft tenderness in his kiss. Her eyes grew moist until his mouth once again began heating hers. When he bit her lip, she laughed and turned him around to face the spray of the shower. He sighed and leaned against her as she encircled him with her arms and the water poured over them both. Judy reached for the minuscule bar of plain soap and began lathering her hands. “That was the single most exciting moment of my life,” Judy whispered. She licked the water droplets on Dave’s back and pressed against him, wondering if he could feel the hardness of her nipples and the heat from her own body.

“Really? Give me those five seconds you promised and we’ll see about that,” Dave groaned, watching Judy’s hands begin to soap him up. Up being the operative word.

“You intrigue me. This mix of bossiness and blushing...” Dave looked over at Judy as he tossed the towel in the direction of the bathroom door. He smiled as he saw the self-recognition in her eyes, then smiled again as his eyes drifted downward and noticed that her nipples had stayed hard throughout his quick dry off. Good. Women could get distracted easily in the earlier stages of arousal. “Yes, I noticed.”

“Of course you noticed, you would, but what is your point given the situation?“ Judy raised her hand and ran her fingers into his hair, touching the grey at his temples with her fingertips, then sliding her thumb down to touch the smile lines at the corners of his mouth. Those lines intrigued her. And for the moment, they were much safer to touch than the broad expanse of Dave’s tanned shoulders, which led down to tanned skin stretched tightly over muscles, giving evidence of his assiduous attention to the weight training portion of his physical therapy as well as his preference for being outdoors on the deck of Jack and Irina’s house, soon to be his and...Judy sighed as Dave turned his head and kissed the palm of her hand.

“So, I’m wondering...” Dave trailed a finger down her bare arm. Then lifting her hand to his mouth, he kissed the sensitive skin on the underside of her wrist, flicking his tongue back and forth until her eyes dilated. There. She was back with him, not distracting herself from the need he saw in her eyes. She was acting uncharacteristically, he would bet, and trying to get control. “Which fantasy is stronger? Being swept away or taking control?”

“I...well, I...” Judy gaped at Dave, then swallowed as he began licking his way up her forearm, then suckled a spot on the inside of her elbow. Who knew that...Wow. Wait, he’d just said something important...Oh. She should have known that he would zero in on truths she’d thought hidden. And his mouth.... What would his mouth be like on flesh more sensitive than her arm? She held her breath.

“Ah, I see. You’ve settled into stammering mode. Well, I have to tell you that as much progress as I’ve made with my knee, in all honesty - and we’re going for honesty, right?”

“Yes, but...” Judy felt her blush deepen. She wondered how she could possibly be embarrassed; it wasn’t as though they were in public, after all. More importantly, the man before her was Dave, who somehow seemed more familiar to her than people she’d known for decades. And the sharp, incisive intelligence in Dave’s eyes was ameliorated by the deep affection for her and her foibles she also saw there.

“In all honesty, my knee probably shouldn’t be exercised the way it would be if I took over. So it would be best if I were on the bottom.” Dave fell back onto the bed and held out his arms. “So, go ahead. Boss me around.”

“You...” Torn between laughing and jumping on top of him, Judy gaped at him, laying there so...naked. And waiting. And -- her eyes went down his body -- so obviously willing. “You...” she whispered. It hadn’t been a moan, no, it had not. Just a whisper.

Dave felt the heat in his body edge up again to match the heat in her eyes as she looked at him. Damn, why wasn’t she moving, why wasn’t she falling on top of him the way he expected? Didn’t she want to? Her hands were opening and closing as if they wanted to touch, but she was still frozen. Well, there were ways to get her moving, he had no doubt. “Were you going to just stand there and recite the alphabet? If so, the next letter is V. Or were you going to do something? If not, I could use the sleep,” Dave shrugged and began to turn over on the bed.

“You... jerk!” Judy hissed, trying to keep her voice down. In frustration, she slapped hard at Dave’s butt “You...” She glared at him as he rolled back over and grabbed her hand. She understood Irina’s need to push at Jack; that smug male expression was more than any woman should have to withstand.

“Did you have anything else to say or -“ Dave tugged on Judy’s hand until her knees were pressing against the side of the bed. He looked up at her bright blue eyes and the sharp gaze she was leveling on him and grinned. What was next?

“I know what you’re doing - you felt vulnerable in there and now you’re trying to reassert yourself,” Judy argued. She smiled smugly as she saw the click in his eyes and crossed her arms under her breasts, watching the way his eyes dropped down and then darted back up to her face. His chest moved quickly with his shortened breaths, not that she was noticing the way his chest was moving... Oh yes, she was. She wanted him. But first things first. “Yes, you’re trying to reassert yourself in some annoyingly passive aggressive manner in which you’re pretending to push me into bossing you around, but in fact you’re directing the entire-“

“The way you directed the entire scene in the bathroom, luring me in there-“

“You knew?” Judy asked as she turned away and going to her pack, rummaged through it.

“Of course I knew.” Dave craned his head. What was she pulling out? Something...damn. Something purple. He could really begin to like that color, especially when it was silky and...Where was she going?

Judy walked into the bathroom, holding her purple robe. She took off her tank top and dropped it outside the bathroom door, then followed with her bra. She heard a soft sound and peeked around the door frame. “You did not know-“

“Know what?” Dave asked absently, seeing her bare shoulder before she slowly moved back into the bathroom and beyond his sight. Her shirt and bra were on the floor, which meant...Whoa, down boy. But wait, the mirror over the bureau... No, that would be wrong. So wrong...He closed his eyes, then opened one, looking for the perfect angle.

Judy’s voice rose, even as she bent to pull off her lounge pants and underwear, dropping them one by one on the floor outside the bathroom. “You didn’t know that I was luring you in there, not at the time. Your fear and need were confusing you. Don’t try and tell me differently--” She broke off as the silence from the small bedroom continued and grabbed her robe. Why wasn’t he rising to the bait?

Dave cleared his throat and he looked away as she turned back toward the mirror. Really, you’re not a teenager, control yourself, Mr. Happy. The partial sight of a woman’s curves from the back really should not... Thank god, there she was, walking toward him. In a robe. Fully covered. Yes, tell yourself that. Fully covered. Naked under the robe, but...Focus!

He could see her feet and calves and a slice of skin at her ches and cleavage, but really, he could handle that. He'd seen more on the streets of LA every day and okay, these weren't the streets of LA, this was a bedroom with a beautiful woman who'd already given him tremendous pleasure and whom he owed some in return and wow, he had some to give her, he thought involuntarily stroking his hardness. Seeing the avid gaze she sent his way, Dave dropped his hand. What the hell was he doing? “Okay, not then, not fully. But I knew we were playing the man-woman game to get me in there. And I came and went. Or rather I went in and came.” Dave leaned up on an elbow and met her eyes, blue meeting blue. “So, now that we’ve established that we each know what the other is doing, what are we going to do next?”

Judy frowned, then began to smile slowly with that look of feline satisfaction that only women could achieve and which Dave knew, should make any man with a brain grow anxious and any man with a pulse grow hard. “Well, Dave, let’s start by talking about your fantasies. That’s not a request, it’s a demand. Tell me.”

“I take it you’ve made the choice to go with the Bossy Judy fantasy?” Dave asked rhetorically, pushing back on the bed as Judy began to walk toward him.

“Yes. At the moment, it seems more doable...just like you...” Judy licked her lips and watched Dave’s body respond, involuntarily arching upward as if to meet her mouth. “So, you’re going to tell me. When you were chained in the cave, did you ever allow yourself to fantasize that some woman found you and-“

“How the hell-“ Dave gulped. She had just surprised him. Before his body had fallen victim to malnutrition and his sex drive had vanished, he had had just that... That idea had returned to him full force after kissing Judy at the party and- “How did you know that?”

“It makes sense.” Judy shrugged. As this option made sense in the progression of their relationship. Due to his deep hunger, Dave was afraid of being overwhelmed with sensations, so preventing him from using his hands would help him gain control. Another time, they’d work on losing it, but for now... She looked up and down his body. He was going to be hers to do with as she wished. She couldn’t wait and moved forward again, bending over to place her hands on his thighs, watching his body shiver at her touch, feeling the heat from his skin as he looked up at her eagerly, sliding his own hands down his legs until they covered hers. “You had to have been bored and given the fact that you’re a man, which means you think about sex every few minutes or so-“ She stood up and shrugged again, watching Dave’s eyes go to her shoulder as her strap slid down her arm. Her nipples went hard under her damp bra and tank top from excitement and, she admitted, the feeling of power he gave her with his response. “So. Put your arms over your head and wait for me.”

"Wait for you to do what?"

“Over your head, Caro.”

“Yes. That’s what you want me to say, right? That’s what you said in the shower-“ Dave smiled. If she knew him, then he was also figuring her out from those little clues that comprised a person. He looked into her eyes, waiting until she started to fume with impatience. Angry Bossy Judy would be even more fun than Bossy Judy and would distract him from his own need to just throw her down on the bed and -- He slowly began to lift his ams over his head. "So, I'm waiting. Now what?"

TBC at Chapter 2014: Part 3 concluded and 4