Our Stars Scattered Like Dust (2/11)
Title: Our Stars Scattered Like Dust (2/11)
Authors: icedteainthebag and wishflsinfl
Characters/pairings: Adama/Roslin, Kara/Lee, Gaius/Caprica, other assorted affairs, ensemble cast
Rating: MA (graphic sex)
Warnings: AU, Character death
Spoilers: through Daybreak
Summary: As the new bartender on the cruise ship Galactica Bill Adama is hoping for an uneventful first voyage, but his life is irrevocably changed when he meets cruise director Laura Roslin.
A/N: As AU as AU can get. Thank you to fragrantwoods and somadanne for their invaluable beta assistance. Also thanks to the folks at bsg_checkin for cheerleading.
Chapters: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven
*
DAY TWO: At Sea off the California Coast
Day two of Bill's first voyage dawned sunny and warm. Always an early riser, he'd found himself sleeping even less than usual these days. Dressed in khaki shorts and a tropical-print shirt, he blended in with the passengers as he walked the open deck.
How different the sea looked during the day--deep blue in the sun. His dismal thoughts of the night before were gone, replaced by his recollection of Laura, her hip brushing against his in the darkness. He sipped his coffee and watched a few athletic middle-aged guys straining to make their way up the climbing wall.
The things people did for fun these days.
His walk took him around the pools and past the driving range, and before he knew it he was standing on the Sunburst Deck, watching Laura lead a group of laughing families in a trivia game.
"Okay, next question, hands on your buzzers … who is known as The King of Pop?"
She was dressed in a white sundress covered in big bright flowers. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Bill liked the way her bare shoulders looked when her hair was up like that. It made him want to kiss the freckles that dotted her skin.
A cheer went up around the deck, startling him out of his thoughts.
"That puts the Clownfish ahead by two, but there's still time for the Seagulls to catch up! Because we're about to start the BONUS ROUND where everything is worth DOUBLE POINTS!"
One of her assistants played a quick burst of music and Laura shimmied her hips to the beat as the crowd whooped and hollered. It was hard to believe anyone could get so excited at 8:00 a.m.
Just as her dance was winding down, Laura caught sight of Bill and grinned like she'd been caught red-handed. Shaking her head almost imperceptibly, she winked at him before turning back to the crowd and continuing the game.
He watched for a few minutes more then left her to enjoy her moment in the spotlight. He had a bar to prep, after all.
*
Lee jogged down the narrow ship's corridors after Kara. "Hey, come on. Wait. Just-"
"No more excuses, Lee," she called back over her shoulder.
"Okay, fine, I'll do it."
She stopped and turned around, hands on her hips, panting a little. Gods he loved it when she was flushed like that.
"Good." She swept her hand out in front of her. "Lead the way."
He pouted. "Now?"
"No time like the present."
Groaning, he squeezed by her. "I don't see why you care about this so much." So much that she'd threatened to tell the captain about the off-log trips he'd been making in his speedboat at night.
"Because he's your dad and he seems like a nice guy. You can at least go say hi to him."
He shoved his hands in the pockets of his board shorts. She had no idea what kind of guy his father was.
"Don't expect him to be happy to see me." He paused at the door to the bar and took a deep breath before pulling it open and stepping inside.
Kara gave him a little push and he stumbled through the door.
"Careful there, Adama," said someone seated at a table just inside the door.
At the sound of his name, Bill's head shot up. He stared at Lee as the foamy head of the beer he'd been pouring flowed over the glass and coated his hand.
Kara took the lead, striding up to the bar with that swagger Lee loved so much. He followed sullenly. He'd always resented how she could connect with just about anyone and never more than now.
"Hey Old Man, whaddya hear?" she said sliding onto the barstool.
"Nothin' but the rain." Bill set a couple of napkins on the bar and then turned his gaze to Lee. "Hi, son."
"Dad."
"It's good to see you."
"You too."
The conversation died there. Lee struggled to come up with something to talk about that wouldn't start an argument. That ruled out his job, his speedboat racing, his brother, the Coast Guard, his mother, whatever the frak his father was doing bartending on the very cruise ship that he'd given Lee hell for signing on to …
"So, this is nice," Kara said.
"What can I get you two?" Bill asked, his tight smile failing to conceal how uncomfortable he was.
"I pulled third watch, so set me up with a couple of pints. Lee?"
She slapped Lee on his bare shoulder and he wished he'd had time to dress properly before coming down here. He felt childish in his tank top and Hurleys.
"Just a soda for me."
"You on duty?" Bill asked.
"Kind of."
Lee felt himself blushing. How could he tell his father that he pulled shifts as a lifeguard on days when they were at sea? Pegasus, his supercharged speedboat, only took passengers out when the ship was in port. The rest of the time, one of the Coast Guard's best rescue swimmers spent his days reminding little kids not to run near the pool and policing newlyweds looking for an underwater quickie.
Lee watched his father retrieve the drinks and wondered for the hundredth time what he was doing working behind a bar. He didn't exactly look like he enjoyed it. In fact, he was moving around behind the bar like every step was a chore.
Bill set the drinks down in front of them and rested his hands on the bar. "I was gonna come find you once things quieted down. We should talk, son."
Lee fidgeted with his straw, poking at an ice cube. Beneath the bar, Kara nudged him with her knee. He looked up and found Bill staring at him intently, like a man who needed some good news. "Yeah, okay, I'd like that."
"Good."
Someone down the bar called for the bartender and Bill glanced their way before turning back to Lee one last time. "I'm glad you came by."
When he was gone, Kara reached down and squeezed Lee's thigh. "See, that wasn't so bad."
Lee watched Bill joking with the crewman he was serving and bit his lip. Something wasn't right and he wasn't sure if he wanted to know what that was.
*
After each shift, Bill had to restock the bar. It was a bitch of a job, hauling cases of liquor up from stowage, but at least he had a hand truck and an elevator to ease the worst of it.
He was looking for a case of Bombay Sapphire when the door to the storage room opened.
"Been wondering how long it would be before we ran into each other," Saul said, greeting Bill with a leaning hug.
"Long time, huh?" Bill clapped Saul on the shoulder once before turning back to his work.
"I thought Ellen was shitting me when she said she'd taken you on as a bartender."
Bill cracked open the case and pulled out two tall blue bottles and set them on the hand truck. "I thought she was shitting me when she suggested it."
"And here you are." Saul was examining the bottles in Ellen's private stash, the one Bill had been instructed in no uncertain terms never to touch.
"You cleared to pull from that?" Bill asked, a little nervously. Saul and Ellen's fights were legendary. Bill didn't want the blame for letting Saul get on Ellen's last nerve, as she liked to put it.
"I won't tell if you won't." Saul winked, uncorking a sixty-year-old bottle of Lagavulin. "Bottoms up." After taking a long slug, he held out the bottle to Bill.
"Nah." Bill waved it off, biting the eraser on his pencil as he tried to remember how many bottles of chardonnay were left in the cooler upstairs. "Can't."
"Right, right. Sorry." Saul took another long pull off the bottle. "How's that going?"
"Fine. Okay." End of story. Thankfully, Saul got the hint.
"If you're up for some cards, we got a game going most nights."
"Thanks, yeah, Kara told me. Maybe some night this week."
"Okay, then I'll leave you to it." Saul stowed the bottle he'd been drinking from and threw a half-hearted salute before leaving.
Bill turned back to his list. He'd never quite understood exactly what his relationship with Saul was supposed to be. Buddy? Spouse of a colleague? Wary rival? Ellen sure as hell didn't make it easy on them either, with the way she liked to wind both of them up.
He sighed. Yet another thing he wasn't going to miss.
*
It was only one in the afternoon and Laura was frakking exhausted. If Gaius asked her one more question about the schedule for the Markham/Vaughn wedding, she was going to push her retirement forward six days and spend the rest of this voyage as a paying customer.
"Tory has the schedule, Gaius. How many times have we gone over this?"
"But she won't show it to me!"
"Because you're not part of the special event planning team." If it were possible to be having a more inane conversation, Laura didn't want to know what that would involve. She swore he hung around asking questions just so he could hear her voice. Or maybe his own. "How about this? You take the afternoon off and I'll let you lead Disco Karaoke Night tonight."
Gaius stopped pacing and perked up. "Really?"
She never let him lead karaoke nights. Not since that unfortunate incident with the Captain and Tenille look-alikes. But just this once wouldn't hurt. Plus, it would free her up to stop in the bar and see Bill at a reasonable hour.
The way he'd turned up at her trivia game this morning was a good sign. She needed to move on that before he got distracted by some hot young thing in a bikini.
"Yes, really, now go."
"And the whole afternoon off? Because there is this woman I've been wanting to get to know better …"
Distracted by thoughts of Bill, Laura forgot to remind Gaius of their no-frakking-the-passengers rule. Not like she followed it anyway.
*
There were a handful of people left in the bar finishing up their drinks when Laura slid onto what Bill already thought of as her stool and ordered a drink.
The second evening was much quieter than the first. Bill assumed that people were already pairing off. Why waste time drinking with your coworkers when you could be below decks frakking one of them?
Bill remembered those days, the urgency of the mission making him horny as hell. A milk run to Puerto Vallarta wasn't exactly a mission, but he figured it felt about the same for these kids.
"Penny for your thoughts," Laura said.
She'd taken the stirrer from her drink and was sucking on it absently, leading Bill's thoughts in a direction that wouldn't be prudent to share. Yet.
"Just thinking it's kind of quiet tonight," he offered.
"Always is on the second night."
Bill watched a couple leave, arm in arm. "The lucky ones have already paired off, haven't they?"
"And the desperate ones."
He smiled. "Where does that leave us?"
"Old." She rubbed her wrist like it was bothering her.
Bill wished he had a witty comeback to make her smile, but he couldn't help feeling like he was the oldest soul on this ship. "I'd rather think we're considering our options. Taking our time."
She sipped at the drink he'd put in front of her. "I'd like to hear about these options."
A few more people had filed out. Bill ignored the empty glasses and bits of trash they'd left behind. "Option one," he said, "is the hook-up. I think you know how that one goes. You meet someone, frak like rabbits for seven days and forget their name before you've got two feet on shore."
"Been there. Done that."
He nodded. "Same here. Option two-"
"Barkeep!"
Bill scowled at the deckhand who'd interrupted him. "Be right back," he said to Laura.
As he walked down the length of the bar, he could feel Laura's eyes on him. The deckhand wanted Bill to settle a bet with his buddy about which brand of tequila was the best. Bill didn't give a rat's ass, but they'd left him a big tip the night before so he chatted with them for a minute.
When he glanced back at Laura, she was leaning across the bar reaching for an olive or a cherry or he didn't know what. All he saw was the way the top of her sundress was gaping open to reveal the edge of her lacy dark pink bra.
Then, there was that ponytail …
Frak option two. He wanted to skip right to the option that involved taking her from behind, his hands on her incredible ass which was at this very moment perfectly positioned for a good hard frakking.
Laura finally retrieved what she'd been reaching for and sat back down on her barstool. Then she tilted her head back, dangled the cherry above her lips for a moment and sank her teeth into it.
Frak me.
"Closing time, boys," Bill said, slapping the bar for emphasis.
"We got ten more minutes-"
"Closing early for maintenance." Bill ignored their protests, eager to get back to Laura. Maybe she needed another cherry.
Not wanting to look too eager, he forced himself to stop halfway down the bar and deposit some of the empty glasses in the dirty dish bin. He washed his hands and dried them, slowly, like he was in no hurry.
When he rejoined Laura, she said, "So, about this option two."
He leaned both elbows on the bar, putting himself at eye level with her. "Option two is the slow burn. Romance. Seduction. Flowers. Dinner. Maybe a kiss at the end of the first date but nothing too fast."
"Hmmm." She stirred her drink and Bill swore he saw a look of sadness pass across her face before she replaced it with her professional smile. "I think I'd like to hear option three. Just so I can make an informed decision."
Bill glanced around the bar. It was empty now, the last of the crew gone for the night. Just him and Laura and option three.
"Option three is when you roll the hard six."
She raised an eyebrow. "The hard six? That sounds dirty."
You have no idea. "I doubt you could handle it," he said, drawing a finger through the droplets of liquid condensing on her forgotten drink glass.
"Try me."
He studied her for a minute, uncertain how far he could take this. It was crazy, the thought she might want him to frak her right here. The thought that she might want him at all.
But the way she was looking at him, the thing she'd done with the cherry-she had to know he was watching-the way her voice had dropped an octave when she'd said try me …
She made him feel young again, like he could have any woman he wanted. Right now he wanted her.
"You sure?"
"Mmmmm."
"Okay." He flipped the hinged part of the bar up and walked around to stand behind her. "Here's the thing about option three," he said, leaning in close to whisper against her hair as he placed his hands on her hips. "Once you choose it, you can't go back. It's irrevocable."
"Irrevocable, hmmm?" She leaned back against his chest and tipped her head to look at him. Turning farther, she touched her lips to his, just barely, just enough for him to feel their soft warmth, before she pulled away. "I'll take my chances."
Bill felt himself starting to harden and knew he had to go lock the door now or it would be an embarrassingly long walk back across the room.
"Go lock up," Laura whispered.
Authors: icedteainthebag and wishflsinfl
Characters/pairings: Adama/Roslin, Kara/Lee, Gaius/Caprica, other assorted affairs, ensemble cast
Rating: MA (graphic sex)
Warnings: AU, Character death
Spoilers: through Daybreak
Summary: As the new bartender on the cruise ship Galactica Bill Adama is hoping for an uneventful first voyage, but his life is irrevocably changed when he meets cruise director Laura Roslin.
A/N: As AU as AU can get. Thank you to fragrantwoods and somadanne for their invaluable beta assistance. Also thanks to the folks at bsg_checkin for cheerleading.
Chapters: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven
*
DAY TWO: At Sea off the California Coast
Day two of Bill's first voyage dawned sunny and warm. Always an early riser, he'd found himself sleeping even less than usual these days. Dressed in khaki shorts and a tropical-print shirt, he blended in with the passengers as he walked the open deck.
How different the sea looked during the day--deep blue in the sun. His dismal thoughts of the night before were gone, replaced by his recollection of Laura, her hip brushing against his in the darkness. He sipped his coffee and watched a few athletic middle-aged guys straining to make their way up the climbing wall.
The things people did for fun these days.
His walk took him around the pools and past the driving range, and before he knew it he was standing on the Sunburst Deck, watching Laura lead a group of laughing families in a trivia game.
"Okay, next question, hands on your buzzers … who is known as The King of Pop?"
She was dressed in a white sundress covered in big bright flowers. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Bill liked the way her bare shoulders looked when her hair was up like that. It made him want to kiss the freckles that dotted her skin.
A cheer went up around the deck, startling him out of his thoughts.
"That puts the Clownfish ahead by two, but there's still time for the Seagulls to catch up! Because we're about to start the BONUS ROUND where everything is worth DOUBLE POINTS!"
One of her assistants played a quick burst of music and Laura shimmied her hips to the beat as the crowd whooped and hollered. It was hard to believe anyone could get so excited at 8:00 a.m.
Just as her dance was winding down, Laura caught sight of Bill and grinned like she'd been caught red-handed. Shaking her head almost imperceptibly, she winked at him before turning back to the crowd and continuing the game.
He watched for a few minutes more then left her to enjoy her moment in the spotlight. He had a bar to prep, after all.
*
Lee jogged down the narrow ship's corridors after Kara. "Hey, come on. Wait. Just-"
"No more excuses, Lee," she called back over her shoulder.
"Okay, fine, I'll do it."
She stopped and turned around, hands on her hips, panting a little. Gods he loved it when she was flushed like that.
"Good." She swept her hand out in front of her. "Lead the way."
He pouted. "Now?"
"No time like the present."
Groaning, he squeezed by her. "I don't see why you care about this so much." So much that she'd threatened to tell the captain about the off-log trips he'd been making in his speedboat at night.
"Because he's your dad and he seems like a nice guy. You can at least go say hi to him."
He shoved his hands in the pockets of his board shorts. She had no idea what kind of guy his father was.
"Don't expect him to be happy to see me." He paused at the door to the bar and took a deep breath before pulling it open and stepping inside.
Kara gave him a little push and he stumbled through the door.
"Careful there, Adama," said someone seated at a table just inside the door.
At the sound of his name, Bill's head shot up. He stared at Lee as the foamy head of the beer he'd been pouring flowed over the glass and coated his hand.
Kara took the lead, striding up to the bar with that swagger Lee loved so much. He followed sullenly. He'd always resented how she could connect with just about anyone and never more than now.
"Hey Old Man, whaddya hear?" she said sliding onto the barstool.
"Nothin' but the rain." Bill set a couple of napkins on the bar and then turned his gaze to Lee. "Hi, son."
"Dad."
"It's good to see you."
"You too."
The conversation died there. Lee struggled to come up with something to talk about that wouldn't start an argument. That ruled out his job, his speedboat racing, his brother, the Coast Guard, his mother, whatever the frak his father was doing bartending on the very cruise ship that he'd given Lee hell for signing on to …
"So, this is nice," Kara said.
"What can I get you two?" Bill asked, his tight smile failing to conceal how uncomfortable he was.
"I pulled third watch, so set me up with a couple of pints. Lee?"
She slapped Lee on his bare shoulder and he wished he'd had time to dress properly before coming down here. He felt childish in his tank top and Hurleys.
"Just a soda for me."
"You on duty?" Bill asked.
"Kind of."
Lee felt himself blushing. How could he tell his father that he pulled shifts as a lifeguard on days when they were at sea? Pegasus, his supercharged speedboat, only took passengers out when the ship was in port. The rest of the time, one of the Coast Guard's best rescue swimmers spent his days reminding little kids not to run near the pool and policing newlyweds looking for an underwater quickie.
Lee watched his father retrieve the drinks and wondered for the hundredth time what he was doing working behind a bar. He didn't exactly look like he enjoyed it. In fact, he was moving around behind the bar like every step was a chore.
Bill set the drinks down in front of them and rested his hands on the bar. "I was gonna come find you once things quieted down. We should talk, son."
Lee fidgeted with his straw, poking at an ice cube. Beneath the bar, Kara nudged him with her knee. He looked up and found Bill staring at him intently, like a man who needed some good news. "Yeah, okay, I'd like that."
"Good."
Someone down the bar called for the bartender and Bill glanced their way before turning back to Lee one last time. "I'm glad you came by."
When he was gone, Kara reached down and squeezed Lee's thigh. "See, that wasn't so bad."
Lee watched Bill joking with the crewman he was serving and bit his lip. Something wasn't right and he wasn't sure if he wanted to know what that was.
*
After each shift, Bill had to restock the bar. It was a bitch of a job, hauling cases of liquor up from stowage, but at least he had a hand truck and an elevator to ease the worst of it.
He was looking for a case of Bombay Sapphire when the door to the storage room opened.
"Been wondering how long it would be before we ran into each other," Saul said, greeting Bill with a leaning hug.
"Long time, huh?" Bill clapped Saul on the shoulder once before turning back to his work.
"I thought Ellen was shitting me when she said she'd taken you on as a bartender."
Bill cracked open the case and pulled out two tall blue bottles and set them on the hand truck. "I thought she was shitting me when she suggested it."
"And here you are." Saul was examining the bottles in Ellen's private stash, the one Bill had been instructed in no uncertain terms never to touch.
"You cleared to pull from that?" Bill asked, a little nervously. Saul and Ellen's fights were legendary. Bill didn't want the blame for letting Saul get on Ellen's last nerve, as she liked to put it.
"I won't tell if you won't." Saul winked, uncorking a sixty-year-old bottle of Lagavulin. "Bottoms up." After taking a long slug, he held out the bottle to Bill.
"Nah." Bill waved it off, biting the eraser on his pencil as he tried to remember how many bottles of chardonnay were left in the cooler upstairs. "Can't."
"Right, right. Sorry." Saul took another long pull off the bottle. "How's that going?"
"Fine. Okay." End of story. Thankfully, Saul got the hint.
"If you're up for some cards, we got a game going most nights."
"Thanks, yeah, Kara told me. Maybe some night this week."
"Okay, then I'll leave you to it." Saul stowed the bottle he'd been drinking from and threw a half-hearted salute before leaving.
Bill turned back to his list. He'd never quite understood exactly what his relationship with Saul was supposed to be. Buddy? Spouse of a colleague? Wary rival? Ellen sure as hell didn't make it easy on them either, with the way she liked to wind both of them up.
He sighed. Yet another thing he wasn't going to miss.
*
It was only one in the afternoon and Laura was frakking exhausted. If Gaius asked her one more question about the schedule for the Markham/Vaughn wedding, she was going to push her retirement forward six days and spend the rest of this voyage as a paying customer.
"Tory has the schedule, Gaius. How many times have we gone over this?"
"But she won't show it to me!"
"Because you're not part of the special event planning team." If it were possible to be having a more inane conversation, Laura didn't want to know what that would involve. She swore he hung around asking questions just so he could hear her voice. Or maybe his own. "How about this? You take the afternoon off and I'll let you lead Disco Karaoke Night tonight."
Gaius stopped pacing and perked up. "Really?"
She never let him lead karaoke nights. Not since that unfortunate incident with the Captain and Tenille look-alikes. But just this once wouldn't hurt. Plus, it would free her up to stop in the bar and see Bill at a reasonable hour.
The way he'd turned up at her trivia game this morning was a good sign. She needed to move on that before he got distracted by some hot young thing in a bikini.
"Yes, really, now go."
"And the whole afternoon off? Because there is this woman I've been wanting to get to know better …"
Distracted by thoughts of Bill, Laura forgot to remind Gaius of their no-frakking-the-passengers rule. Not like she followed it anyway.
*
There were a handful of people left in the bar finishing up their drinks when Laura slid onto what Bill already thought of as her stool and ordered a drink.
The second evening was much quieter than the first. Bill assumed that people were already pairing off. Why waste time drinking with your coworkers when you could be below decks frakking one of them?
Bill remembered those days, the urgency of the mission making him horny as hell. A milk run to Puerto Vallarta wasn't exactly a mission, but he figured it felt about the same for these kids.
"Penny for your thoughts," Laura said.
She'd taken the stirrer from her drink and was sucking on it absently, leading Bill's thoughts in a direction that wouldn't be prudent to share. Yet.
"Just thinking it's kind of quiet tonight," he offered.
"Always is on the second night."
Bill watched a couple leave, arm in arm. "The lucky ones have already paired off, haven't they?"
"And the desperate ones."
He smiled. "Where does that leave us?"
"Old." She rubbed her wrist like it was bothering her.
Bill wished he had a witty comeback to make her smile, but he couldn't help feeling like he was the oldest soul on this ship. "I'd rather think we're considering our options. Taking our time."
She sipped at the drink he'd put in front of her. "I'd like to hear about these options."
A few more people had filed out. Bill ignored the empty glasses and bits of trash they'd left behind. "Option one," he said, "is the hook-up. I think you know how that one goes. You meet someone, frak like rabbits for seven days and forget their name before you've got two feet on shore."
"Been there. Done that."
He nodded. "Same here. Option two-"
"Barkeep!"
Bill scowled at the deckhand who'd interrupted him. "Be right back," he said to Laura.
As he walked down the length of the bar, he could feel Laura's eyes on him. The deckhand wanted Bill to settle a bet with his buddy about which brand of tequila was the best. Bill didn't give a rat's ass, but they'd left him a big tip the night before so he chatted with them for a minute.
When he glanced back at Laura, she was leaning across the bar reaching for an olive or a cherry or he didn't know what. All he saw was the way the top of her sundress was gaping open to reveal the edge of her lacy dark pink bra.
Then, there was that ponytail …
Frak option two. He wanted to skip right to the option that involved taking her from behind, his hands on her incredible ass which was at this very moment perfectly positioned for a good hard frakking.
Laura finally retrieved what she'd been reaching for and sat back down on her barstool. Then she tilted her head back, dangled the cherry above her lips for a moment and sank her teeth into it.
Frak me.
"Closing time, boys," Bill said, slapping the bar for emphasis.
"We got ten more minutes-"
"Closing early for maintenance." Bill ignored their protests, eager to get back to Laura. Maybe she needed another cherry.
Not wanting to look too eager, he forced himself to stop halfway down the bar and deposit some of the empty glasses in the dirty dish bin. He washed his hands and dried them, slowly, like he was in no hurry.
When he rejoined Laura, she said, "So, about this option two."
He leaned both elbows on the bar, putting himself at eye level with her. "Option two is the slow burn. Romance. Seduction. Flowers. Dinner. Maybe a kiss at the end of the first date but nothing too fast."
"Hmmm." She stirred her drink and Bill swore he saw a look of sadness pass across her face before she replaced it with her professional smile. "I think I'd like to hear option three. Just so I can make an informed decision."
Bill glanced around the bar. It was empty now, the last of the crew gone for the night. Just him and Laura and option three.
"Option three is when you roll the hard six."
She raised an eyebrow. "The hard six? That sounds dirty."
You have no idea. "I doubt you could handle it," he said, drawing a finger through the droplets of liquid condensing on her forgotten drink glass.
"Try me."
He studied her for a minute, uncertain how far he could take this. It was crazy, the thought she might want him to frak her right here. The thought that she might want him at all.
But the way she was looking at him, the thing she'd done with the cherry-she had to know he was watching-the way her voice had dropped an octave when she'd said try me …
She made him feel young again, like he could have any woman he wanted. Right now he wanted her.
"You sure?"
"Mmmmm."
"Okay." He flipped the hinged part of the bar up and walked around to stand behind her. "Here's the thing about option three," he said, leaning in close to whisper against her hair as he placed his hands on her hips. "Once you choose it, you can't go back. It's irrevocable."
"Irrevocable, hmmm?" She leaned back against his chest and tipped her head to look at him. Turning farther, she touched her lips to his, just barely, just enough for him to feel their soft warmth, before she pulled away. "I'll take my chances."
Bill felt himself starting to harden and knew he had to go lock the door now or it would be an embarrassingly long walk back across the room.
"Go lock up," Laura whispered.