The Dresden Files fic - "Dinner"
We are driving back to Chicago now. Neither of us says anything. It feels weird. It never felt like that before. But I guess is reasonable after what happened today. Now that we know what it could be like… If we were to fall in love.
My god, I remember the feel of my heart thumping wildly as he drew me into his arms and against his body; the touch of his lips on mine, passionate and yet gentle, tender; his arms and hands caressing my back as he held me, big and strong.
I hope he doesn’t notice I’m blushing as I think of this. But I shouldn’t worry so much, he hasn’t taken his eyes off the road, never glanced at me since we left the parking lot at the fair. Good. That’s good, I guess.
If I have to be completely honest, I’d have to say that I’ve always… liked him a little bit too much. I mean, he’s always been my friend Harry, who was a little crazy, and a little weird; but who was also loyal, intelligent, so kind… and very attractive.
I wonder what he’s thinking, if he’s pondering the same things I am. Should I ask him? Should we even talk about this? Maybe not, maybe it’s better to just leave it like that. He probably thinks the same, that’s why he has yet to speak one word to me.
It’s torture. We are never like this.
The roads are more familiar now and I realize we’re just minutes away from my place. It’s late in the night. Good, it’s almost over then, we’ll say good night and move on with our lives. In a couple of days, we’ll be joking and bantering as usual. Or at least I hope so.
But in the meantime it aches that we’re not talking. And it aches that he’s not looking at me anymore, the way he was doing just a couple of hours ago, with eyes so full of… love. I try to suppress the shiver that runs all over me as I remember.
The spell is gone but… there has always been this something between us, even after I said no, even when there have been other people in our lives, even when we have never acted on it.
And now… now we have had a taste, a really wonderful, delicious, fantastic taste of what it could be like if we were together. And I…
God, help me, I want more.
Maybe it’s just a remnant from the spell. Yeah, that’s it, a leftover from it, making me think all kinds of things I should not be thinking about. But, he said the spell was really broken. And I did felt it when it went away. I remember the pain.
And whom am I trying to kid anyway? I know it’s all me, just me.
“Karrin?” I hear him say, he’s finally talking. That’s good, I think.
“Yeah?”
“We’re here.”
I realize then that we’re parked in front of my house. I turn to him there’s something odd about his expression. “Oh.”
“Are you ok, Murph?” He asks, his tone gentle.
“Sure. I was just… umm… thinking about something.” His eyebrows shot up, interest written on his face.
“What about?”
“Umm… Nothing important, really.” I answer and try to stop the blush for forming on my cheeks. He would definitely notice now.
“Ok…” He says and nods. “Well… I guess I’ll get going then.”
And before I even realize what I’m doing, the words come flying out of my mouth.
“Don’t you wanna stay for dinner?”
Judging by how big his eyes went there for a second, he’s surprised by invitation. He looks away and down at his hands on his lap, frowns, thinking. What exactly is he thinking about? It’s just a normal friendly thing to do, eating dinner, why is he…?
And then it dawns on me. Earlier today under the spell I had promised him dinner and… a lot more, actually. Oh, my god, is he thinking that I’m asking him to…? Did I? Would it be so wrong if I were? Crap. Probably. And considering how long is taking him to come up with an answer, he must be thinking about a nice way to turn me down.
I open my mouth to say that it’s ok, no problem if he doesn’t want to, or something like that, so as to get us both out of this situation. But then he looks up at me and his eyes are serious, direct… and very intense.
“Yes… Why not?” He says in that gentle baritone of his and my breath catches in my throat. I bite my lips and shy away from his dark eyes. Suddenly, it feels like a million butterflies are dancing around in my stomach.
“Umm… ok. Let’s get inside then.” I say, trying not to sound too breathless.
We get out of the car and walk to my door. I walk a little faster ahead while he follows quietly behind. We reach the door and I put my keys in the lock, it takes me two tries. I open it finally and we get in. Is dark inside, I find the light switch and turn it on.
“So… you wanna order a pizza?” I ask him, trying to make some time. I’m still not sure what is exactly what we are doing.
When I turn to face him, he’s standing very, very close. He takes a step toward me and gets even closer. His chest fills my field of vision and then I feel his right hand under my chin. Very gently, he lifts up my face to look up at him.
And then he kisses me. His lips caress mine slowly, patiently. They are warm and tender and… even better than a couple of hours ago.
I let out a gasp and he uses that as an opportunity to open my mouth to his and touch his tongue to mine. The hand under my chin moves to the back of my head, threading trough my hair and I feel the other at my waist as he turns the kiss deeper. I clutch his shoulders, my heart is thundering in my chest and my knees have a hard time supporting my body.
Eventually, we have to breath and we break apart. But not so much, we still rest our foreheads together, panting.
“Harry…” I say; my voice is all breathy. “What…?”
“I needed to know, Karrin… if it was just me.” He says between hard breaths.
“It’s not.” I say and I reach up and kiss him again. We don’t talk anymore after that. And we forget all about dinner.
But we have breakfast together in the morning.
The End.