Tom's eyes flew open and his first instinct was to go for his gun; he could hear breathing in his ear. He went to move his hand but stopped himself just in time as he realised who the breathing was coming from and the events of the night before came flooding back to him. Not only that but the hand that he thought was lying on a pillow was in fact doing no such thing. It was lying on more of a fleshy pillow, Stephie's behind! He chuckled to himself. Even in his drunken sleep his instincts weren't off! He was itching to move his hand and feel more of the soft fleshy curves but he was afraid of waking her up and much to his regret he hadn't even really appreciated the fact that she had been lying against him in only her underwear before he had fallen asleep. The problem now was how to lift the bedclothes to make the most of the opportunity and take a peek when either he'd have to move his hand from her behind or roll over to free his second hand? The decision was a tough one so he dipped his head and tried to nose the covers up rather than having to relinquish his hand or risk waking her by turning over.
"What are you doing?"
Tom jumped guiltily and his head shot up. "Morning Stephie," he grinned.
She lifted her head slightly and her eyes moved slowly down the sheet to where his hand was lying underneath it before returning to his face.
"Would you mind removing your hand Tom?"
"Well, actually it's quite happy where it is," he grinned.
"Hmm, I bet it is," she said, rolling away onto her side and tucking the sheet around her.
"Feeling jittery Stephie?" he asked, watching her.
She closed her eyes, trying to block out the pain in her head not to mention the embarrassment of the night before.
"Do you remember much of last night?" he asked.
She groaned. "Unfortunately yes. It's all coming back to me in startling clarity!"
He laughed. "So you don't need me to recap for you then?"
"No thank you Tom but you could get me a glass of water. A large one," she stressed.
He stared at her, contemplating her request. "Sure but first I have to make good on a promise I made to you last night." If he left the room now she'd jump out of bed and would be changed before he came back.
"Promise?"
"Yeah, I was pretty gutted having to play the gentleman, especially considering how enthusiastic you were..." She groaned again and pulled the sheet over her face. He laughed. "...so I promised to at least try to get you naked this morning."
His hand began to move towards her under the sheet. She panicked and sat up suddenly, causing a pain to shoot through her head. She held the sheet against her with one hand whilst holding her throbbing head with the other.
"I'm sure I can trust you to be a gentleman this morning can't I Tom?" she asked, closing her eyes to try to stop the spinning.
"Err, no I don't think so. I was enough of a gentleman last night to last a lifetime," he said, sitting up and tugging at the sheet that she was holding.
Her eyes flew open and she held on tightly, edging backwards. He shuffled towards her and she wriggled further down the bed. He stopped and narrowed his eyes at her, considering his next move. He tugged on the sheet again, gathering the slack in his hands. Her eyes widened, how far was he going to go? Slowly the sheet began to stretch between them and she could feel a whoosh of air underneath it.
"Tom?" There was a note of warning in her voice.
He smiled, not at all put off. "Yes."
"You can't be serious."
"After the way you teased me last night I'm very serious!"
Her heart thudded nervously as the sheet tightened and the only thing she could do was to edge back towards him or lose her grip on the sheet.
"Ooh, this is working well," he observed, watching her moving closer.
"Come on Tom, be reasonable," she said anxiously.
He stopped and thought about it. "Nah, a promise is a promise," he said, continuing to gather up the sheet.
She looked around the room quickly, searching for anything which could cover her up if she made a run for it. Then, without stopping to think, she let go of the sheet and dived off the bed, grabbing one of his shirts which was lying on a chair and backing up against the wall with it held up against her.
Hmm, so that's what her behind looks like in a skimpy pair of lacy knickers. The question is, what does it look like without them?
He jumped off the bed and blocked her before she had a chance to edge herself around the room and out of the door.
She gave a nervous laugh. "Come on Tom, this is ridiculous. Just let me get a shower so we can get to work on time. God knows what time it is by now."
He swiftly closed the gap between them and placed his hands flat on the wall on either side of her, trapping her there. She stared at him in shock.
"Sorry, you were saying. Oh yes, you need to get a shower. Well then let me help you out of these," he said, reaching behind her and beginning with her bra, unclipping it with one quick movement. She whipped her hand behind her back and caught the loose ends but at the same time he was slipping the straps from off her shoulders.
"C'mon Stephie let me fulfil my promise or we'll be late for work," he warned.
"I'm not letting you strip me naked!" she said in disbelief.
He grinned at her. "Oooh you are jittery this morning!"
She pulled a face at him. "Oh shut up! And move out of my way or Brick is going to blow a fuse."
"Yep, he certainly will if you don't hurry up and let me make good on my promise," he said stubbornly.
"Oh for god sake, you can't keep me here against my will!"
He thought for a second. "Well okay then, I'll do you a deal. Either I let you walk out of here and you hand me back my shirt now, or you let me fulfil my promise and you can keep the shirt," he finished with a smug smile.
She thought about it. It wasn't much of a deal.
She shook her head to clear it. "Okay, hold on, so what exactly did you promise again?"
He looked amused at the fact that she was considering backing down. "That I would get you out of the rest of your clothes."
She looked down at the shirt she was holding against her. "But this isn't mine right?"
"Right."
"So I can keep this," she reconfirmed.
"Exactly."
He looked extremely smug. There had to be a catch somewhere. "And you didn't mention any..."
His grin grew. "Any what Stephie?"
She was feeling jittery again. "Any...touching."
He sighed and looked forlorn. "Alas, I didn't."
She couldn't believe she was going to say this. "Okay, get on with it so we can get to work."
His face lit up with boyish excitement as she let go of the back of her bra and grasped the shirt for all she was worth.
He watched her and laughed. "You're going to have to let go, at least one arm at a time."
She reluctantly let go of one side of the shirt, moving her other arm across her chest to keep the shirt against her whilst he slipped one of her bra straps off her arm. Then she swapped arms and the process was repeated until the bra fell and Tom swooped to catch it.
She rolled her eyes at him but wasn't in the position to wrestle it off him again. He held up the lacy black bra and whistled.
"Not bad. And now that's one down, one more to go."
She backed away from him again, suddenly nervous. "I've changed my mind. The deal's off!"
"Well okay but now you have less on to leave the room in than before, after you have given me back my shirt that is," he added.
She scowled at him as he held out his hand for the shirt. "Oooh you... get on with it then."
He grinned and reached behind the shirt, hooking his fingers under the lace sides of her briefs as she held the bottom of the shirt against her lower half. He paused for a moment, staring straight into her eyes and making her feel more jittery than ever.
"Will you please hurry up Tom?"
He'd fantasised about doing this for forever, he was going to take his time.
"Any last thing you want to say before I strip you naked?" he asked, prolonging her agony.
She squeezed her eyes shut. "Just do it!"
"Well okay then, if you insist," he grinned, easing her briefs slowly downwards. He kept his thumbs hooked into the lace but stretched out his fingers so that his hands ran slowly all the way down the whole length of her legs. As his hands moved downwards her eyes suddenly flew open when she realised that he wasn't going to let go until he had reached the floor. She lowered the shirt as far as it would go without revealing her breasts and made sure there was no gap which he could see up between the shirt and her dignity! It was a very precarious position to be in and she was acutely aware of the fact. His face was now directly opposite her bare thighs that were open to his gaze just underneath the shirt.
"Wow, the view from here is very…stimulating," he chuckled.
Her nervousness made her giggle. "Get on with it!"
He grinned. "Sorry, getting a bit distracted."
When he eventually reached the floor she stepped out of her briefs and he caught hold of them, standing up in triumph and holding them up. She whipped them out of his hands and quickly darted around him so that her back was now to the door across the room. She slowly backed towards it, now naked from behind.
"Ah, that's not fair. Hand them over," he said advancing towards her.
"Nobody said anything about you keeping my underwear as a bloody trophy!" She reached the door and grasped the handle.
"Well, okay then. I'll race you to the bathroom," he said, striding towards her.
She panicked and opened the door, backing around it and rushing down the corridor backwards. He jumped from behind the door, calling after her,
"Ready or not, here I come!"
She began to accelerate, stumbling slightly just before reaching the bathroom.
"Stay there you horror!" she laughed, finally reaching the sanctuary of the bathroom and slamming the door behind her.
He chuckled and strolled up to the door, knocking on it.
"Stephie," he called, "Just thought you'd like to know that I spoke to Brick last night and he said that we didn't need to go into the office till tomorrow. I persuaded him to let us work on the new story from home today!"
He heard a loud growl come from within the room.