RP Log with halfway2heaven | A Helping Hand
Rick had had booty calls before. He'd arranged meets with various women over the years, and he honestly couldn't remember feeling so nervous or awkward about one before. It had been his idea. He'd talked her into it, he'd charmed Bella into agreeing. And now he was forgetting how it was supposed to work. They were at her place, and he wondered if that was part of what was throwing him off. It wasn't his home turf. Even at Chris' he had to wonder if he'd feel at home enough to be smooth and sexy.
Funny how he felt more at ease on a hospital bed with her examining him. He looked at her sitting on the edge of the sofa and got up from his seat in one of her armchairs to sit next to her. Rick was still quiet as he took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I'm not gonna bite, Doc. Promise. I'm not exactly feeling up to that right now. Been taking your advice about the rest and building up my strength. Been trying to store a little extra so I'm not a disappointment. Can't be doing the Deleo name any harm."
Bella's house was like her haven. It was all hers, bought with her hard-earned cash and was a gorgeous little beach house that she could literally step out of her bedroom and onto the sand from. It was modern and tastefully decorated, and although she often had visitors -friends and family, or even random lovers - this was the first time she had ever invited a patient into her world. It felt odd, and she knew on some level she could be making a big mistake here. But there was also another level that felt right in doing it. She didn't feel like she was doing anything dirty, and she didn't feel like she was putting Rick in any danger doing this. Morally, it probably had a big question mark, but it wasn't like she was doing this at work. It was her day off, and it was her home. If there was any hint in the wake it that Rick's care and health would be compromised, she would step back and assign him a new physician. Time would tell though.
She took a sip of her glass of ice water and then placed the glass on the table with a smile in his direction. She gave his hand a soft squeeze. "You know, I think you might be more nervous than I am, and I'm wondering where the infamous playboy is hiding in there. Your brother warned me about you, you know. Only, it wasn't technically a direct warning. Just a random 'He screws with women just like he screws with me... only different'. Care to decipher that?" she asked with a smirk.
Rick reached up with his free hand to rub the back of his neck as he let out a low chuckle. When he dropped his hand, he rest it on her knee. "I guess I don't really tend to take the money off them. It's more just about the sex. Although I'm sure I really don't know what he's talking about," Rick added as he tried to look a little innocent. He met her gaze again, his lips twitching with another smile. "This feels different. And not just because of the obvious."
"Different?" Bella asked, raising her eyebrows a little as she kicked her sandles off and pushed them under the coffee table with her bare toes. Her toenails had little flowers painted on them, an indulgence her friend had talked her into a few days ago. Bella generally just rolled with things like that. It gave them a good laugh, if nothing else. "I promise, I'm not hiding a penis and testicles under the skirt, despite some of the rumours," she joked.
He moved his hand up to her thigh and rubbed it affectionately, not missing the flowers on her toes. It just seemed to let him into another little part of her personality even if she wouldn't realise it. His own shoes were toed off, but no flowers adorned his toenails. "Good, because that could be awkward. And maybe a little more than I was expecting. Part of me is kinda wondering if I just would've rolled with it now I'm here." He leaned over to brush his lips against her cheek and then kissed at her throat. "I meant more different because I think you're the first woman in a long while I've felt something for. Even if it's just the start of something. I know it's dangerous, I know you'll tell me to stop, but I don't know if I want to, Bella. I've missed feeling like this."
"Rick..." Bella murmured softly. She didn't push him away, listening closely as he talked with her hand resting on his thigh. "You're ill. You're going to feel things and have emotions you're not used to or are familiar with. I'm just in your line of sight and I'm helping you. It's not uncommon for you to think you have feelings for me. That doesn't mean it's the real deal. It can't be. You don't know me. You watch, you'll get well, have new lease on life, the world at your fingertips... I'll be the least of your worries when that time comes."
Rick pressed his lips together as he listened, wanting to argue the point with her, but even Rick wasn't that naive. It probably was just the illness. Everything was because of the cancer. There was just a part of him that was sure that this wasn't. He wanted to believe it wasn't. "And what if you're not?"
"I'm not, Rick. You don't know me. I can't not be 'not'," Bella returned and looked at him to hold his gaze. She gave him a smile and then laughed, but it was fond. She wasn't pulling the piss or anything, it was just a relief for her to know he was at least optimistic. "Honestly, what do you know about me beyond my name, and now my address? My career and job title go without saying because I did give you my card."
"I know you have a good beside manner which means you're a nice person. You love what you do, and I think you care about each and every patient. You said you understood more than I realised which means you have personal experience with cancer. I just can't work out if it's as a patient, or watching someone go through it." He pointed down at her feet. "And I know you have a sense of humour. You're not bogged down with the loss you see everyday. You're not jaded, you're not negative. You cherish life." He winked at her. "How am I doing?"
Bella gave him a small smile and shrugged a shoulder. "Well, we only get one, don't we? What's not to cherish? But, um..." She nodded and looked down at her feet. If she knew they would give so much about her away, she might have fought the little coloured bottles of polish off a little harder. "You're observant, I'll give you that. But... and you knew I was going to have a but... I'm your doctor. It's my job to care about you without giving you cause to think I'm hiding stuff from you. Which I'm not. You just don't ask a whole lot of questions," she added in amusement.
Rick gave a short chuckle. "Questions were never my thing. I figure you'd give me any information I needed. I guess I also don't know exactly what questions to ask. And you know, I doubt you could give such great bedside mannerism to someone you truly disliked. It's hard to be completely objective."
"You'd be surprised. Your tumour isn't anymore a tumour than on the bastard down the hall who beats his wife. Some might think he deserves to die. I don't," Bella stated simply. "I truly dislike him, but he's still my patient and he still doesn't deserve to lose his life. It's just horrible that it took him facing death head on to make him realise how much he was hurting her. Cancer makes you stop and see the world you thought you were pretty familiar with in a completely different light. Like you're looking at it through someone else's eyes and realising that you only get one bite of the apple."
Rick was still watching her intently before he reached out to tuck some of her hair behind her ear. "You had cancer. You've got that different look at life..." His fingers trailed softly along her jaw before he drew her in closer and kissed her slowly and deeply, feeling no need to rush because they could get caught at any moment. They weren't at the hospital. They were at Bella's place with no one else but each other. "Just like Dave. And maybe like me if I get through this."
"It's not the same," Bella murmured, their lips still close together and her eyes lowered. "I was young. Too young to have had any familiarity with the world. Nearly losing that chance is what made me see things different. I shouldn't have lived to my twelfth birthday. I just try to get people to see it before it's too late. More often than not, it's too late. The sad part is, some people who have never been touched with cancer or anything like it won't ever see that. They'll go through life thinking things like small boobs or a lost sale on eBay are life's tragedies. They'll never want to see anything else, either."
"Some would call them the lucky ones, but I guess I'm starting to wonder why. I was one of those people. I never realised... I know I fucked up with Chris, and I always had an inkling there was more to life, but I think I got to the point I just assumed it was too late. I wouldn't be able to fix it. That day with Eva when I found out... I got scared. What was I supposed to do when I did get a chance to try and fix it?" Rick leaned in to kiss her softly. "Then when he tore up the check and said he'd be back... I was even more scared. I didn't want Chris to have to look after me. Even now I'm still kinda worried about it, but I'm trying."
Bella looked over his face as she listened to him speak. "What made the about turn? I mean, the way he says it, you've taken a lot of his money, he's gotten you out of a lot of tight spots, cleaned you up when you were drunk. Was that not him taking care of you in your mind? Or was it just easy for you to take his charity and hand outs, save your butt, and then piss off so you didn't need to see the affect it had on him?" She held her hand up and then placed it back on his leg, rubbing his thigh softly. "I'm not judging, I'm just curious, that's all. I mean, I see everything he has done as a lifetime of taking care of you. Why do you want him to stop now?"
Rick gave a slight nod. "Yeah, it was easier to piss off. To run away. To just... ignore what it did to him. I think I had my head stuck up my ass enough to think that that was how it was supposed to be. The turn about really was that conversation with Dave. The more I did talk about Chris, about the cancer, it just made it real. I mean, I fucked up. I fucked up monumentally and now I get this tumour and Chris still wanted to be there. This is me being the big brother. Finally."
"Do you think if, at some point, the shoe is on the other foot and he needs you to take care of him, you'll know how to do it?" Bella asked him curiously. "Like, I'm not talking cancer. I'm talking even something on a lesser scale. Hell, even something like food poisoning or, say, a surfing accident. Bumps his head on his board. What would you do, or would you just fob him off onto Serena?" she asked him with an amused laugh.
Rick gave her a look and pulled away slightly. "You really find it that amusing, do you? I take it back. You're not nice at all." He smiled eventually though, even if his blue eyes dropped to her hand on his leg. "I'd like to think I could at least try. I might just need Serena to nudge me in the right directions. I doubt she'd leave his side completely."
Bella gave a shrug. "Yeah, I do. Can't help it, sorry," she said, shooting him a smirk that told him she was anything but sorry for it. "Don't take it personally. You would be surprised how many guys just don't know how to take care of someone. Women, too, for sure, but guys just seem to miss the mojo more. Weren't you ever around when he was ill or hurt when you were younger? Sounds like you just need to be dumped in the situation. You'll flounder, but you'll find it. He's your baby brother, it'll be in there instinctively somewhere. You're not a complete pile of bellybutton lint. You love him, and you do care about him. I think you would pull it off, and you wouldn't necessarily need girlfriend intervention."
"A little, sure. It wasn't like our Dad was gonna be there for us. Our Mom cared for us mostly. She did okay, but it's hard to do great when you got an alcoholic for a husband. No support, you know? No one to pick up the slack." Rick started to laugh again, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes before he turned his head to lean in and kiss her. "Good to know you're not just doing this because I'm good looking bellybutton lint."
"No bellybutton lint is good looking," Bella threw back before she started to kiss him back. That uncertan anxiety was niggling in her gut again, and her conscience wasn't going to let her away with this completely. In fact, she paused in the kiss and bit down on her lower lip in a moment of cautious hesitation. "We should probably go to the bedroom. I've still got to make sure you're okay, even if I'm probably flirting with breaking the Hippocratic Oath here," she murmured as she stood up.
Rick stood up next to her and slipped his arm around her waist as his thumb rubbed against her hip. "You take care of me, I take care of you. That's how it works, right? Give and take. And I don't see any giant hippos around to spy on us, so that Oath is safe." He brushed a kiss against her brow. "If you really don't want to do this, I'd understand."
Bella laughed and waved her hand. "You really, really don't want to be giving me loops holes to pull out here," she warned, her fingers curling around the base of his shirt. It was strange to see that he had already lost weight in the short time he had known him, and although she was used to seeing this sort of thing, for some reason it all felt different with Rick.
Rick grinned before he pulled her tighter against him and just trusted her to steer him as he started to walk them backwards to where he assumed the bedroom was. He caught her lips in another kiss, this one starting to burn with the same intensity as the ones they'd shared at the hospital. "I was only saying that to be polite. No way am I giving you wriggle room on this. At least not that sort of wriggle room."
Bella gave a snort of a laugh against his lips. It was far from elegant, but it was just her. She led him in the direction of the bedroom, which just happened to be her favourite room in the house, and at this time of the afternoon, it got some amazing sunlight. "Don't go expecting any damn bedroom acrobatics, now. I've had a long week and you're not supposed to be exerting yourself. I'm on top. Like it or lump it, matey," she murmured and felt along the wall blindly to grab her doorknob and shove the door open behind her.
Rick didn't mind the snort. He didn't mind a lot of things Bella did. He knew that it really could just be a case of projection, but right now he wasn't going to spend time even considering that option. He was about to get into with a beautiful and intelligent woman, and his lower half was very much already coming to the party. He used his other hand to tug at the hem of her shirt before pushing his fingers up under it. "I'm sure I'll find the energy to make do... I'll just suffer through it all, watching you on top of me..."
Bella's bed was a king-sized, huge and standing in the middle of the room as the main feature. It was another indulgence. Her bed was the one place she relaxed without question and it's where she could hide when things got too hard some days. They were standing beside it now, and she got her own hands carefully up under his t-shirt to begin to relieve him of it. It was cautious, though. She didn't want to bump or scratch his side where the operation had been, and she was wondering if he would even tell her if he was in pain at this juncture anyway. He was taller than her and she looked up at him, starting to become just a little breathless with anticipation and this time, it was her who started the kiss, slowly and a little hesitantly.
Rick didn't take over the kiss, just responding to her rhythm and her pace. He wasn't about to try and rush her into anything when Bella was clearly still coming to terms with tonight. It didn't make him feel so bad about being nervous before. Although his nerves was maybe down to just a little of feeling like he was trying to compete about his league. Bella could have anyone she wanted, and she was getting asked to spend a night with cancer guy. One of her patients. Rick nearly pulled out of the kiss, but he didn't. His hands moved to her buttons to start opening her shirt and peel it away from her body. "You really are something, Bella," he whispered against her lips when there was a break in the kiss for them to catch their breaths.
Bella did know the reason Rick was probably feeling close to her was because he was scared from the illness. She wasn't stupid enough to think any feelings he had for her were based on anything more. But what she couldn't deny was that she had become to be fond of him; with the conversations they had over the time, he had shared a lot about himself, she knew that. Things she was sure he probably hadn't confided in anyone else about. He was confident, he was arrogant, and he was a smooth-talking flirt, but she knew now that literally the only person he had in his life was his younger brother, Chris. He probably had friends and acquaintances, but she hadn't seen any come to visit him, so they didn't mean enough to him for him to probably even tell them he was in hospital, let alone anything else. It was sad, and Bella felt an empathy for him, like maybe she wanted to be one of those friends he did want to visit him in the hospital... and not because she was his doctor, either. She still didn't completely know why she had agreed to sleeping with him, there was just somewhere deep down in her gut that told her this was something she wanted and needed to do. For some reason. The kiss intensified and she carefully eased the shirt up his body, her thumbs brushing over the plains of his toned chest. He might have lost weight, but he was still buff. The kiss broke again only long enough for her to get the shirt over his head and tossed to the floor. Jeans next, and when her hands went to his fly to start undoing it, she could feel how aroused he was, and it seemed to suddenly get a little easier to push the nerves and uncertainty away.
Funny how he felt more at ease on a hospital bed with her examining him. He looked at her sitting on the edge of the sofa and got up from his seat in one of her armchairs to sit next to her. Rick was still quiet as he took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I'm not gonna bite, Doc. Promise. I'm not exactly feeling up to that right now. Been taking your advice about the rest and building up my strength. Been trying to store a little extra so I'm not a disappointment. Can't be doing the Deleo name any harm."
Bella's house was like her haven. It was all hers, bought with her hard-earned cash and was a gorgeous little beach house that she could literally step out of her bedroom and onto the sand from. It was modern and tastefully decorated, and although she often had visitors -friends and family, or even random lovers - this was the first time she had ever invited a patient into her world. It felt odd, and she knew on some level she could be making a big mistake here. But there was also another level that felt right in doing it. She didn't feel like she was doing anything dirty, and she didn't feel like she was putting Rick in any danger doing this. Morally, it probably had a big question mark, but it wasn't like she was doing this at work. It was her day off, and it was her home. If there was any hint in the wake it that Rick's care and health would be compromised, she would step back and assign him a new physician. Time would tell though.
She took a sip of her glass of ice water and then placed the glass on the table with a smile in his direction. She gave his hand a soft squeeze. "You know, I think you might be more nervous than I am, and I'm wondering where the infamous playboy is hiding in there. Your brother warned me about you, you know. Only, it wasn't technically a direct warning. Just a random 'He screws with women just like he screws with me... only different'. Care to decipher that?" she asked with a smirk.
Rick reached up with his free hand to rub the back of his neck as he let out a low chuckle. When he dropped his hand, he rest it on her knee. "I guess I don't really tend to take the money off them. It's more just about the sex. Although I'm sure I really don't know what he's talking about," Rick added as he tried to look a little innocent. He met her gaze again, his lips twitching with another smile. "This feels different. And not just because of the obvious."
"Different?" Bella asked, raising her eyebrows a little as she kicked her sandles off and pushed them under the coffee table with her bare toes. Her toenails had little flowers painted on them, an indulgence her friend had talked her into a few days ago. Bella generally just rolled with things like that. It gave them a good laugh, if nothing else. "I promise, I'm not hiding a penis and testicles under the skirt, despite some of the rumours," she joked.
He moved his hand up to her thigh and rubbed it affectionately, not missing the flowers on her toes. It just seemed to let him into another little part of her personality even if she wouldn't realise it. His own shoes were toed off, but no flowers adorned his toenails. "Good, because that could be awkward. And maybe a little more than I was expecting. Part of me is kinda wondering if I just would've rolled with it now I'm here." He leaned over to brush his lips against her cheek and then kissed at her throat. "I meant more different because I think you're the first woman in a long while I've felt something for. Even if it's just the start of something. I know it's dangerous, I know you'll tell me to stop, but I don't know if I want to, Bella. I've missed feeling like this."
"Rick..." Bella murmured softly. She didn't push him away, listening closely as he talked with her hand resting on his thigh. "You're ill. You're going to feel things and have emotions you're not used to or are familiar with. I'm just in your line of sight and I'm helping you. It's not uncommon for you to think you have feelings for me. That doesn't mean it's the real deal. It can't be. You don't know me. You watch, you'll get well, have new lease on life, the world at your fingertips... I'll be the least of your worries when that time comes."
Rick pressed his lips together as he listened, wanting to argue the point with her, but even Rick wasn't that naive. It probably was just the illness. Everything was because of the cancer. There was just a part of him that was sure that this wasn't. He wanted to believe it wasn't. "And what if you're not?"
"I'm not, Rick. You don't know me. I can't not be 'not'," Bella returned and looked at him to hold his gaze. She gave him a smile and then laughed, but it was fond. She wasn't pulling the piss or anything, it was just a relief for her to know he was at least optimistic. "Honestly, what do you know about me beyond my name, and now my address? My career and job title go without saying because I did give you my card."
"I know you have a good beside manner which means you're a nice person. You love what you do, and I think you care about each and every patient. You said you understood more than I realised which means you have personal experience with cancer. I just can't work out if it's as a patient, or watching someone go through it." He pointed down at her feet. "And I know you have a sense of humour. You're not bogged down with the loss you see everyday. You're not jaded, you're not negative. You cherish life." He winked at her. "How am I doing?"
Bella gave him a small smile and shrugged a shoulder. "Well, we only get one, don't we? What's not to cherish? But, um..." She nodded and looked down at her feet. If she knew they would give so much about her away, she might have fought the little coloured bottles of polish off a little harder. "You're observant, I'll give you that. But... and you knew I was going to have a but... I'm your doctor. It's my job to care about you without giving you cause to think I'm hiding stuff from you. Which I'm not. You just don't ask a whole lot of questions," she added in amusement.
Rick gave a short chuckle. "Questions were never my thing. I figure you'd give me any information I needed. I guess I also don't know exactly what questions to ask. And you know, I doubt you could give such great bedside mannerism to someone you truly disliked. It's hard to be completely objective."
"You'd be surprised. Your tumour isn't anymore a tumour than on the bastard down the hall who beats his wife. Some might think he deserves to die. I don't," Bella stated simply. "I truly dislike him, but he's still my patient and he still doesn't deserve to lose his life. It's just horrible that it took him facing death head on to make him realise how much he was hurting her. Cancer makes you stop and see the world you thought you were pretty familiar with in a completely different light. Like you're looking at it through someone else's eyes and realising that you only get one bite of the apple."
Rick was still watching her intently before he reached out to tuck some of her hair behind her ear. "You had cancer. You've got that different look at life..." His fingers trailed softly along her jaw before he drew her in closer and kissed her slowly and deeply, feeling no need to rush because they could get caught at any moment. They weren't at the hospital. They were at Bella's place with no one else but each other. "Just like Dave. And maybe like me if I get through this."
"It's not the same," Bella murmured, their lips still close together and her eyes lowered. "I was young. Too young to have had any familiarity with the world. Nearly losing that chance is what made me see things different. I shouldn't have lived to my twelfth birthday. I just try to get people to see it before it's too late. More often than not, it's too late. The sad part is, some people who have never been touched with cancer or anything like it won't ever see that. They'll go through life thinking things like small boobs or a lost sale on eBay are life's tragedies. They'll never want to see anything else, either."
"Some would call them the lucky ones, but I guess I'm starting to wonder why. I was one of those people. I never realised... I know I fucked up with Chris, and I always had an inkling there was more to life, but I think I got to the point I just assumed it was too late. I wouldn't be able to fix it. That day with Eva when I found out... I got scared. What was I supposed to do when I did get a chance to try and fix it?" Rick leaned in to kiss her softly. "Then when he tore up the check and said he'd be back... I was even more scared. I didn't want Chris to have to look after me. Even now I'm still kinda worried about it, but I'm trying."
Bella looked over his face as she listened to him speak. "What made the about turn? I mean, the way he says it, you've taken a lot of his money, he's gotten you out of a lot of tight spots, cleaned you up when you were drunk. Was that not him taking care of you in your mind? Or was it just easy for you to take his charity and hand outs, save your butt, and then piss off so you didn't need to see the affect it had on him?" She held her hand up and then placed it back on his leg, rubbing his thigh softly. "I'm not judging, I'm just curious, that's all. I mean, I see everything he has done as a lifetime of taking care of you. Why do you want him to stop now?"
Rick gave a slight nod. "Yeah, it was easier to piss off. To run away. To just... ignore what it did to him. I think I had my head stuck up my ass enough to think that that was how it was supposed to be. The turn about really was that conversation with Dave. The more I did talk about Chris, about the cancer, it just made it real. I mean, I fucked up. I fucked up monumentally and now I get this tumour and Chris still wanted to be there. This is me being the big brother. Finally."
"Do you think if, at some point, the shoe is on the other foot and he needs you to take care of him, you'll know how to do it?" Bella asked him curiously. "Like, I'm not talking cancer. I'm talking even something on a lesser scale. Hell, even something like food poisoning or, say, a surfing accident. Bumps his head on his board. What would you do, or would you just fob him off onto Serena?" she asked him with an amused laugh.
Rick gave her a look and pulled away slightly. "You really find it that amusing, do you? I take it back. You're not nice at all." He smiled eventually though, even if his blue eyes dropped to her hand on his leg. "I'd like to think I could at least try. I might just need Serena to nudge me in the right directions. I doubt she'd leave his side completely."
Bella gave a shrug. "Yeah, I do. Can't help it, sorry," she said, shooting him a smirk that told him she was anything but sorry for it. "Don't take it personally. You would be surprised how many guys just don't know how to take care of someone. Women, too, for sure, but guys just seem to miss the mojo more. Weren't you ever around when he was ill or hurt when you were younger? Sounds like you just need to be dumped in the situation. You'll flounder, but you'll find it. He's your baby brother, it'll be in there instinctively somewhere. You're not a complete pile of bellybutton lint. You love him, and you do care about him. I think you would pull it off, and you wouldn't necessarily need girlfriend intervention."
"A little, sure. It wasn't like our Dad was gonna be there for us. Our Mom cared for us mostly. She did okay, but it's hard to do great when you got an alcoholic for a husband. No support, you know? No one to pick up the slack." Rick started to laugh again, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes before he turned his head to lean in and kiss her. "Good to know you're not just doing this because I'm good looking bellybutton lint."
"No bellybutton lint is good looking," Bella threw back before she started to kiss him back. That uncertan anxiety was niggling in her gut again, and her conscience wasn't going to let her away with this completely. In fact, she paused in the kiss and bit down on her lower lip in a moment of cautious hesitation. "We should probably go to the bedroom. I've still got to make sure you're okay, even if I'm probably flirting with breaking the Hippocratic Oath here," she murmured as she stood up.
Rick stood up next to her and slipped his arm around her waist as his thumb rubbed against her hip. "You take care of me, I take care of you. That's how it works, right? Give and take. And I don't see any giant hippos around to spy on us, so that Oath is safe." He brushed a kiss against her brow. "If you really don't want to do this, I'd understand."
Bella laughed and waved her hand. "You really, really don't want to be giving me loops holes to pull out here," she warned, her fingers curling around the base of his shirt. It was strange to see that he had already lost weight in the short time he had known him, and although she was used to seeing this sort of thing, for some reason it all felt different with Rick.
Rick grinned before he pulled her tighter against him and just trusted her to steer him as he started to walk them backwards to where he assumed the bedroom was. He caught her lips in another kiss, this one starting to burn with the same intensity as the ones they'd shared at the hospital. "I was only saying that to be polite. No way am I giving you wriggle room on this. At least not that sort of wriggle room."
Bella gave a snort of a laugh against his lips. It was far from elegant, but it was just her. She led him in the direction of the bedroom, which just happened to be her favourite room in the house, and at this time of the afternoon, it got some amazing sunlight. "Don't go expecting any damn bedroom acrobatics, now. I've had a long week and you're not supposed to be exerting yourself. I'm on top. Like it or lump it, matey," she murmured and felt along the wall blindly to grab her doorknob and shove the door open behind her.
Rick didn't mind the snort. He didn't mind a lot of things Bella did. He knew that it really could just be a case of projection, but right now he wasn't going to spend time even considering that option. He was about to get into with a beautiful and intelligent woman, and his lower half was very much already coming to the party. He used his other hand to tug at the hem of her shirt before pushing his fingers up under it. "I'm sure I'll find the energy to make do... I'll just suffer through it all, watching you on top of me..."
Bella's bed was a king-sized, huge and standing in the middle of the room as the main feature. It was another indulgence. Her bed was the one place she relaxed without question and it's where she could hide when things got too hard some days. They were standing beside it now, and she got her own hands carefully up under his t-shirt to begin to relieve him of it. It was cautious, though. She didn't want to bump or scratch his side where the operation had been, and she was wondering if he would even tell her if he was in pain at this juncture anyway. He was taller than her and she looked up at him, starting to become just a little breathless with anticipation and this time, it was her who started the kiss, slowly and a little hesitantly.
Rick didn't take over the kiss, just responding to her rhythm and her pace. He wasn't about to try and rush her into anything when Bella was clearly still coming to terms with tonight. It didn't make him feel so bad about being nervous before. Although his nerves was maybe down to just a little of feeling like he was trying to compete about his league. Bella could have anyone she wanted, and she was getting asked to spend a night with cancer guy. One of her patients. Rick nearly pulled out of the kiss, but he didn't. His hands moved to her buttons to start opening her shirt and peel it away from her body. "You really are something, Bella," he whispered against her lips when there was a break in the kiss for them to catch their breaths.
Bella did know the reason Rick was probably feeling close to her was because he was scared from the illness. She wasn't stupid enough to think any feelings he had for her were based on anything more. But what she couldn't deny was that she had become to be fond of him; with the conversations they had over the time, he had shared a lot about himself, she knew that. Things she was sure he probably hadn't confided in anyone else about. He was confident, he was arrogant, and he was a smooth-talking flirt, but she knew now that literally the only person he had in his life was his younger brother, Chris. He probably had friends and acquaintances, but she hadn't seen any come to visit him, so they didn't mean enough to him for him to probably even tell them he was in hospital, let alone anything else. It was sad, and Bella felt an empathy for him, like maybe she wanted to be one of those friends he did want to visit him in the hospital... and not because she was his doctor, either. She still didn't completely know why she had agreed to sleeping with him, there was just somewhere deep down in her gut that told her this was something she wanted and needed to do. For some reason. The kiss intensified and she carefully eased the shirt up his body, her thumbs brushing over the plains of his toned chest. He might have lost weight, but he was still buff. The kiss broke again only long enough for her to get the shirt over his head and tossed to the floor. Jeans next, and when her hands went to his fly to start undoing it, she could feel how aroused he was, and it seemed to suddenly get a little easier to push the nerves and uncertainty away.