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On Tuesday she texted him several times from work, which wasn’t unusual. What was unusual was the depressing tone of her texts. She was having a rough day. Their food shipment had been late, which meant the kitchen had started off the day behind on their prep-work and weren’t quite ready when the restaurant opened, which messed things up for the servers. Then, during the shift, they’d had several problem customers. On top of that, one of her long-term servers had been caught basically stealing, under-reporting his cash tips so he didn’t have to give as much in tip-out to the busboys and food runners, and he was late without calling in for the third shift in a row, so she’d had to fire him.
By the time he got the text about the server she’d had to fire, he was already elbow deep in making dinner for her, hoping to give her an end-of-the-day pick-up. He’d even had Justin give him some ideas.
Filets wrapped in bacon with oven roasted asparagus and tomatoes and homemade macaroni and cheese with crumbled bacon on top. Rick had noticed how much she liked bacon when he’d made her breakfast Saturday morning; she’d eaten nearly as much as he had. The mac’n’cheese recipe was one of Justin’s specialties, definitely not Kraft. Made out of gruyere and cheddar cheeses, cream, a bit of mustard for extra flavoring, put it all in a little individual baking dish and sprinkle panko bread crumbs and bacon on top. Healthy it was not, but it was mouthwateringly good, with the added benefit of being comfort food.
Come to my place when you get off work... I’ve got a surprise for you.
After a few minutes, his phone buzzed.
I should be out of here in twenty... I hope the surprise is a hug. =(
Aw. Cute. He’d hug her. Then he’d feed her and take care of her. And then he’d crawl on top of her and see if he couldn’t find another way to ease her tension.
Sure, he’d wanted to take a step back after their scene and the misunderstandings, especially because she still seemed like she was finding her footing with the whole submission thing. He hadn’t wanted her to think everything was about sex, but he could tell she was getting just as sexually frustrated as he was. So tonight was about TLC and then, if the mood was right, taking a small step forward.
The mac’n’cheese and tomatoes were in the oven and the steaks and asparagus were sitting on the counter, waiting for their turn, when Maria knocked on his door. Rick bounded over, swung the door open, and pulled her into his arms for a hug before she could even say hello.
Ooohhh... I needed this.
It was the perfect way to be greeted at the end of a long, hard day of work. Maria melted into Rick’s body, clutching at him like he was a life raft, and he secured her in the circle of his arms and filled her back up with warmth. Today had sucked beyond all measure, but all of that seemed to float away while he was holding her.
“Hey sweetheart,” he said, kissing the top of her head. He did that a lot, she noticed, kissing her forehead or cheek or the top of her head. At first she’d thought it was a little weird, like something a father or brother would do, but it also made her feel cared about. She was quickly learning to like those tender little kisses. “I made you dinner.”
As if in response, Maria’s stomach growled. She smiled a real smile for the first time in what felt like hours as she lifted her head and sniffed the air. “Oh my God, it smells amazing.”
“Good, come on in and I can finish up.”
Rick swept her into his apartment, dropping her purse on the table by the door and getting her seated in the breakfast nook with a glass of wine, while he finished up making her dinner. The filets with bacon sizzled while he talked, telling her about his own day and slowly lightening her mood as he described the custom-furniture pieces he’d helped Andrew with that morning and how he’d been fascinated by watching Andrew actually burn patterns into the pieces.
Even though it wasn’t exactly fascinating conversational material, it helped her to relax as his easy tone soothed her. She sipped at the wine, because she didn’t want more than one glass for the evening and she definitely wanted some of it with dinner. The conglomeration of amazing smells had her mouth watering.
“Oh... heaven...” Maria said after she’d swallowed her first mouthful of macaroni and cheese. It was creamy, tangy, and just a bit smoky, plus the little crunchy bits, all contributed to making it the best mac’n’cheese she’d ever had.
“Unfortunately not something I can take the real credit for,” Rick said, smiling as he watched her eat. The pale blue t-shirt he was wearing matched his glowing eyes exactly, giving him kind of a surfer-boy look. Scruffy surfer boy, since he hadn’t shaved today. Being blond, he didn’t really need to, but sitting across the table from him she could see the scruff on his chin and cheeks. It was pretty hot. “I got the recipe from Justin.”
“Mmmm... I should get the recipe from Justin and take it to Murphy’s. We’d make a killing.” Maria licked her spoon without thinking about it. Then she caught Rick’s eye, saw the heat suddenly kindled there, and felt her insides clench.
He’d been making her crazy for the past few days, kissing and caressing her but never going beyond that. At first it had been reassuring that he wasn’t just going to jump on her, that he obviously wanted to build a real relationship and not just one based on their compatibility in bed, but she was also starting to go a little stir crazy. Since they hadn’t really talked about it, and even though she knew he wanted to control her orgasms, she’d gone ahead and taken care of her own needs when the itch became too much. But she would really, really like for it to be him.
Because he was way better than any vibrator.
“Glad you like it,” he said, giving her a slow sexy smile.
“Love it,” Maria replied, flicking her tongue along the underside of the spoon. The entire atmosphere around the table changed, tensed, and then Rick deliberately leaned back, breaking it.
His eyes sparkled. “More eating, less flirting.”
“I can multi-task.”
“Good to know,” he said cheerfully, but the heat had already dwindled from his eyes and she knew he wasn’t going to flirt back until he was satisfied she’d had enough to eat. Sometimes she thought he didn’t realize exactly how dominant he was outside of the bedroom, but since he never actually ordered her around and he was usually just doing something to take care of her, it wasn’t like she could complain.
It wasn’t overwhelming, which was the important thing to her. Their interactions really hadn’t changed much, except that now they touched and kissed a lot more than before. And she felt more and more comfortable around him as he became a more integral part of her life.
Sitting like this, eating the dinner he’d so thoughtfully made for her, made all sorts of warm fuzzies go off in her chest.
They talked and teased and then she insisted on helping with the dishes. It felt domestic and natural, even more comforting emotionally than the mac’n’cheese had been.
“Alright, beautiful,” Rick said, turning her around and pressing her against the counter, trapping her between the hard surface and his hard body. His hands came down on either side of her, as if he didn’t already have her immobilized just by the way he was leaning on her. “Now what do you want to do?”
