Patience Pt. 04

Author's Note: This will be a slow burn type of romance/drama with more emphasis on the love rather than sexy times. If you're looking for more of the sexy times this may not be your cup of tea.

End of Part III

I gave Joe some cash to pay for what he had bought as I walked him to the door. Right before I opened the door he turned and said, "I hope she's feeling better soon. And I hope you two figure out what's going on between you soon too."

I shook his hand and said, "Thanks Joe. I'll be in touch." Once Joe was gone, I returned to my bedside vigil with Belle.

Part IV

My bedside vigil with Belle ran into the night. I had the tv on low trying to pay attention to the shows but admittedly wasn't having much luck with it. Every few minutes or at least at every commercial break I was looking over to make sure Belle was still sleeping comfortably. I ended up grabbing a book I had been reading off my bedside table and picking up where I had left off before Belle came back into my life.

The book was doing better than the tv at keeping my attention and it was after reading a few chapters I heard Belle stir beside me. She moaned and tried to sit up before saying, "Oh my god what's happened? Where am I?"

I put the book down before telling her softly, "It's ok Belle, you're in bed. Don't try to move too much. I'll get you something to drink." I hopped off the bed and went to get one of the bottles of Gatorade out of the refrigerator. When I came back, she was sitting up with her head in her hands clearly still hungover and trying to massage the pain out of her head.

I held out the bottle of Gatorade to her and said, "Here drink this. It'll help." She uncapped the bottle and downed about half of it on one go before recapping it and putting the cold bottle up against her head.

"Robbie, what did I do? How much did I drink? It must have been a ton to feel like this." she asked in a strained voice.

Trying to be as gentle as I could knowing she was still in a lot of pain I told her, "Don't worry about that right now Love. Just drink the rest of that and try to rest. I'll be here if you need me." She nodded weakly before uncapping the bottle again and sipping some more of it. I knew she would remember soon enough, and it would be awkward enough when she felt good.

After she finished the bottle of Gatorade, she hopped off the bed saying she needed to pee and gingerly made her way into the bathroom. I waited outside but thankfully there was not another round of throwing up and she was back a couple of minutes later.

Once she was back in bed I asked her, "Are you hungry? I got Joe to bring us some subs from Jersey Mikes and there's one for you in the refrigerator if you want it."

She looked at me for a second before saying, "I don't know if I should chance that right now. Maybe later. Now I just think I need more rest. Will you stay with me?"

What kind of a question was that? "Of course." I said and re-took the position I had held for the last several hours. Then she gave me a funny look sitting on top of the covers while she was snuggled deep in them.

"Why don't you get under the covers? You'll be more comfortable." she asked simply. If she wasn't hungover, I would have thought she was teasing me. Then again if she wasn't hungover, I wouldn't be here with her in bed and agreeing to stay with her.

Before I could respond she said, "Come on tuck under here with me. You'll be more comfortable. And that'll make me feel better." Even hungover she managed to melt my resistance.

"Ok but let me change clothes first. I'll be right back." I grabbed a t-shirt and pair of running shorts from my dresser and ducked into the bathroom to change. She had already changed during her recent trip to the bathroom into her usual sleepwear of baggy t-shirt and shorts.

I came back into the bedroom to find her almost to the middle of the bed. Not having the heart to ask her to move though I pulled the covers back on the side I had been using and climbed in. In a surprising move I barely got the covers back over myself than she rolled over right up next to me.

Not entirely sure how to handle this I pointed right and said, "You know Belle there's a lot more room that way."

"Yeah, but I want to be near you. It makes me feel better, safer." she said. As I had moved my arm up to adjust my pillows, she had moved her head down into the grove of my shoulder and upper body using me as a pillow. As she snuggled in closer to me my resistance melted again, and I put my arm around her and pulled her tighter to me.

"Better?" I asked.

She nuzzled in more before saying, "Mm much better." before getting still.

Soon after she dozed off again. And again, I grabbed my book and tried to ignore the fact that the love of my life was sleeping on me. I don't know how long I read before falling asleep myself.

I don't know exactly when I fell asleep but when I woke up full daylight was streaming in the bedroom windows. I quick glance at my G-shock told me it was almost 11. This shocked me since the latest I had slept in in years had been about 7:30. The second thing I noticed was sadly that I was in bed alone. In the intervening time Belle had clearly woken up and detached herself from me.

After a quick leak and brushing me teeth I found Belle in the living room where I would normally be in the morning sipping on another bottle of Gatorade. She gave me a big smile when I came in.

"There you are sleepy head." she said still grinning.

"Yeah." I said returning the smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, much better thank you. These have really helped." she said holding up the Gatorade bottle she was sipping from.

"Hangovers are caused by the alcohol dehydrating your system. Therefore, the best cure is rehydration." I told her.

"I know you're probably tired of hearing this but you're a lifesaver. I don't know what I'd do without you." she said before getting up and again kissing me on the cheek. Now almost reflexively I pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head.

After holding each other for a couple of minutes we let go and she asked me, "Are you hungry? I'll make you something."

"I'll get something, you rest." I told you.

"Are you sure?" she asked with an endearing look on her face.

"Yeah, I got it. I'll be right with you." I told her. I grabbed the sub from the refrigerator and a Gatorade and a bag of chips from the pantry and joined Belle back in the living room.

I sat down next to her and spread everything out on the coffee table. "Help yourself." I told her as I dug into part of the sub. In spite of an initial refusal, it wasn't long before she was nibbling on chips and ate part of the sandwich. Once we finished eating, I gathered the trash and got rid of it. Once I came back, I saw Belle sitting there with her eyes wide as saucers and looking like she was in shock.

"What's wrong love?" I asked immediately even though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

"I remember what happened yesterday." she said in a weak voice and immediately burst into tears. I pulled her close again and let her cry against me. Once she cried her fill for the moment, she lifted her head from my chest and looked up at me and said,

"Oh, Robbie I'm so sorry. I'm so stupid I don't know what came over me. I'm so sorry you had to see me like that." and started sobbing again.

I held her some more and told her, "Shh Love it's ok don't worry about it. It's all over now."

Still slightly sobbing she said, "Oh Robbie I'm so embarrassed. I can't believe I came onto you like some kind of drunken prom date and then if it wasn't for you, I would have puked all over your house. I'm so ashamed. How can you even look at me?"

I pulled her close again and said, "It's ok Love. It's all over now."

Apparently, all cried out she looked up at me and said, "Why do you keep putting up with me?"

"Because that's what friends do for each other. Because loyalty transcends situations." I answered.

She gave me a weak smile and said, "You're too good to me. One day I hope I can repay you for all the kindness you've shown me."

Once I knew she wasn't going to start crying again I said to her, "I am curious to know what possessed you to get into my scotch and proceed to get hammered though. Did Wells piss you off?"

After an awkward glance away from me she said, "Well he was his usual moody self but I'm kind of used to it now so that didn't bother me that much. I got home after you said you'd catch a ride with Joe, and I cut the tv on and was thinking about what to make us for dinner when I thought a drink to help me unwind wouldn't be a bad idea. If I had stayed at one it probably wouldn't have been, but I was half bored, half weary from Wells, and half wanting you to get home, so I just kept going and you know the rest."

I picked up the nearly empty bottle of scotch from the table where I had set it last night after sharing some with Joe and said, "This is top shelf scotch given to me by the Admiral as a gift when I left the Navy. I'm not going to lie and say I'm not a bit pissed about this. Having to keep you from throwing up all over my house and nursing you through a hangover isn't my idea of a good night. We're not in college anymore. While I enjoyed those days, I had hoped that holding your hair while you puked would stay in the past with the rest of those times. If you were anyone else, I wouldn't be saying this so calmly but would have torn you a new one right off the bat. Stay out of my liquor."

Belle had the good sense to look embarrassed before saying, "I'm sorry Robbie. I know it was stupid and immature. I promise it won't happen again.

The hard conversation out of the way I said, "Well I guess I should see what I can accomplish today. Joe said he was going to send me some more data to look over. I guess I should see if he did."

***

I spent the next few hours holed up in my lab returning phone calls I had missed while still in bed and reading up on the material Joe hand sent me. I got the data compiled into a form where most could understand it and was about to dig into the next batch when I took a second to stretch and rub my eyes that were starting to ache from staring at screens for the past few hours. As I sat back down, I heard Belle.

"Robbie, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I just needed to stretch for a second. Been staring at screens too long. What's up?" I replied. I looked up and saw her standing there with a cup of coffee in her hand.

"I made this for you." she said and held out the cup for me. I took the cup from her and took a long pull on it. My senses immediately began to clear up.

"Oh, this hits the spot thanks Love." I told her and she grinned at me. I moved from my desk chair over to the sofa and motioned for her to join me. Once she sat down, I asked her, "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, pretty good just a little sore that's all. Thanks." As she said that I noticed her creak her neck and roll her shoulder.

I moved close to her and said, "Turn that way a little bit and then hold still." motioning for her to face away from me.

Eyeing my curiously she asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Trust me." I told her.

As she turned like I wanted her to she said, "I've never trusted anyone more than you."

Heart warmed a little bit I put my hands on the base of her neck and began to rub. She gave a soft moan as I massaged her neck slowly and worked my way down to her shoulders. I spent a few minutes using my thumbs to knead her shoulders and then moved to her upper back. She was clearly enjoying what I was doing because she kept softly moaning and had leaned closer to me as I continued to massage her.

"Better?" I asked as I worked between her shoulder blades.

She gave a louder moan before saying, "O my god yes! Where did you learn this? I've never been pampered like this before."

'You've clearly never been around the right people.' I thought to myself. "When I was in the Navy I used to travel to our bases in the far east. One of them wasn't too far from a very nice massage parlor which was nice since long ass plane rides are murder on my joints and back. Over about a two-year period I got to know one of the employees and she taught me what she does."

"Oh, is that all you two did?" she asked cheekily.

"Belle!" I said a bit surprised.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help myself!" she said as she started to laugh. "Even I know what usually happens at massage parlors."

I chuckled at little bit too before saying, "Well I'm sorry to have to tell you that no I did not have a torrid affair with a massage therapist in east Asia. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about it, but that's not my style."

"I know I was messing with you. I would have shocked if you had. You're one of the most moral people I've ever known. That's one of the things I've always admired about you." she said.

I gave myself another inner high five as I worked my way down from below her shoulder blades to her lower back. My hands seemed to be the perfect size to massage this portion of her body and she seemed to agree as she started to moan again. Her briefly messing with me then complimenting me temporarily blinded me to the fact that her moaning under my hands sounded incredibly sexy. I suddenly realized that I was getting turned on.

As I continued to work and listen to her moan under my touch, I found myself with an erection. And as I was working on her lower back, I had to suppress a desire move my hands under her shirt and massage her bare skin. My hormones were getting out of control, but thankfully I was almost done so I played it cool until I finished.

Once I finished, I lifted my hands off of her and asked, "How do you feel now?"

She turned to me all smiles and said, "Much better thank you." before leaning over and kissing me on the cheek. I was getting used to ignoring butterflies from that but what I wasn't used to was when she stood up and stretched. She lifted her arms up fully over her head and arched her back backwards. This in itself looked sexy as hell but was then accentuated by her shirt riding up and giving me a good view of her flat stomach and lower back that I was just working on. And if that wasn't enough to keep the blood flowing to my groin there was a good two or 3 centimeters of white lace and cotton of her panties showing on her backside from her jeans slipping down as she stretched.

She finished her stretch and obviously realized how much she had shown me because she quickly pulled her shirt down and hiked her jeans up and quickly said, "Oh sorry."

I didn't respond but simply got up myself and grabbed the coffee that she had made me and took a good pull on it. This did the job of keeping me from saying something stupid and distracting me from the state of arousal I was in. She gave me another big smile before saying, "Well I better go figure out what to make us for dinner." and quickly jetted out of my lab.

After she left the lab, I sat there sipping my coffee wondering what in the world had just happened. What in the world had possessed me to suddenly give Belle a massage? I hadn't thought about Suki and my times at her parlor in years, but all of a sudden Belle complains she achy and my first reaction is to massage it out of her.

I had hugged and held Belle plenty of times over the years, hell just last night she slept snuggled up to me using me as a pillow, but this was entirely different. And her reaction was entirely different. She was moaning in pleasure almost the whole time. I couldn't help but wonder if that was from sexual arousal or just simple relief from the pain she was in.

But that didn't explain the little show at the end. I've seen her in bikinis when we went to pool parties back during our college days (and had to resist the urge to stare), so I've seen much more of her body. This again was different though since she seemingly didn't show me on purpose. I say seemingly because part of me wondered again whether or not she was teasing me. If that were the case, I guess you could call it tit for tat if I had gotten her worked up by rubbing her back.

I knew two things right off the bat: one that none of this was going to be resolved right then and there and two if I continued to rack my brains about it my erection would never die down. I knew I probably needed a good jack off session to relieve the pent-up arousal, but just as in years past the thought of masturbating to Belle as sexy as she was to me just seemed wrong. I really needed to figure out where the two of us were going.

***

A few hours later after Belle and I had eaten dinner and watched a movie together I was back in my lab after Belle said she was going to bed debating whether or not I wanted to try and get some more work done or pick up my book again and try to read before laying down and trying to get some sleep. I had decided that I had stared a screens enough for one day, so I picked up my book again and kicked back on the sofa and began to read.

I was a few pages in when I heard Belle's voice. I looked up to see her standing in the doorway to my lab. She had replaced her usual baggy white night shirt with a pale pink one that while a bit longer than the white one, going down to about mid-thigh, was a bit snugger on her and more flattering to her curves. The snugness also did nothing to hide her nipples and told me she wasn't wearing a bra. I tried to look at her face and not her body.

"What's up?" I asked.

"You're sleeping in here again?" she asked shyly.

"Yeah, you're better now, so you should be good on your own." I replied plainly.

"Oh ok." she said. "Well, I'll see you in the morning then, good night." I told her good night and she turned and walked back to my bedroom. And maybe it was my imagination, or wishful thinking, but I swear I saw a look of disappointment flash across her face when I told her I'd be staying in here and a slight tone of disappointment in her voice.

As she turned, I saw clear panty line through the snug fitting shirt and felt my arousal start up again. She wasn't wearing shorts under that shirt either! Did this girl know what she was doing to me?! If she was trying to get back at me for getting her worked up earlier, it was definitely working. I was back to full arousal after finally calming down from what happened earlier.

I picked up my book again and tried to take my mind off of what I had just seen. Surprisingly, my volume on naval history of WWII did a halfway decent job of getting my mind off of Belle and her way too sexy body that she was flaunting at me. After reading for a couple of hours I was ready to go to sleep.

***

The next morning after eating breakfast Belle and I were working in the yard her saying she wanted to spend some time outside. My flower beds needed some weeding and the shrubs needed trimming, so I agreed to postpone my work, I was supposed to be on vacation anyway, and we spent the morning getting the flower beds looking respectable again.

By mid-day we had been out in the sun for several hours and it was getting a bit hotter. Belle was starting to tan from being in the sun and sweat glistened from her face and exposed arms and legs. She had on a pale green t-shirt and khaki shorts, and I had to force myself not to stare at her.

At one point a strand of her hair had escaped the band she had tied it back with and was framing her face partially covering her eye on that side of her face. She was rooting around the edge of one of the bushes trying to uproot a small sapling that had sprouted up. She had an intense look on her face as she pulled on the sapling and ignored the strand of hair getting in her eye.

I watched for a few seconds admiring the determination she was showing and found the look of concentration on her face quite endearing. After a few seconds of staring, I decided to be more useful and grabbed wrapped my hand around the lower part of the sapling under her hands and we pulled together, and it came up. Once we threw it aside, I noticed Belle's hands were coated in dirt from rooting around the sapling. So, I used my hand that was a bit cleaner and pushed the stray strand of hair back away from her face and tucked it behind her ear.