Red Ink

What Big Ears You Have

Ten: What Big Ears You Have

Red pulls her hair up into a messy bun to cool off the slick skin on the back of her neck. She dresses up quickly and quietly. Wolfe has his back turned to her. Are those scratches on his broad back? Did she cause those with her very own fingernails? She looks down on her fingers as she sits on a club chair facing her desk.

"Oh god." She whispers. She's just done it on her desk. How will she be able to work there again without thinking of what she just did? And with Wolfe, of all people. Every time she sits on her office chair, running the numbers on a spreadsheet, all she will think of is how she betrayed herself by giving in to him.

"You're over thinking it." Wolfe's hushed voice surprises her.

She refuses to glance his way. "I'm not..."

"Yes, you are." He saunters over to her, kneels in front of her. He takes her hands into his and waits until she glances his way. "Stop over thinking things. We still need to talk."

She doesn't trust herself to talk. She nods instead.

"I assume you have more clients tonight." She nods again. "I would like us to talk after. Is that fine?"

He looks up at her through those thick lashes. He seems sincere enough but the afterglow of coital bliss isn't as sweet. It blurs her vision. Red admits to herself that she is confused more than ever.

"Please say yes." Wolfe pleads.

Red nods again. "Yes."

He breathes out a relieved sigh, like he has been holding his breath in too long. When his eyes close, Red wonders about his reactions. She will need a clear mind to process everything. And in order to know go about doing exactly that, she'll need to know the entirety of what she needs to process. A talk will help. She hopes.

Wolfe leans forward, touching his forehead to hers. "Red. Red. Red." He says. He opens his eyes again directly trains it on her. His soft lips peck hers, then he places another kiss on her forehead. Wolfe helps her stand up and walks with her hand in his towards the door.

He turns to her before opening the door. "I'll see you at your place after you're done. It's thirty after the hour now. Eleven okay?"

"That's fine." Red stares at their joined hands.

"Good." Wolfe wraps her in an embrace. He smells of man. A real man. Musky, woodsy, strong, confident. Sexy. "I'll see you then." He opens the door and before disappearing into the hallway, he turns back around, flashes a smile at her. "Don't work too hard."

After the office door closes again, Red notices how quiet it is in her office without Wolfe in it. She leans her back against the door and finally releases a lung full of air.

Wolfe is uncharacteristically nervous once again. In his right arm are a bag of Chinese food from his favorite twenty-four hour restaurant, and a bottle of chilled wine from his own cellar. In his other hand, the hand he uses to knock on Red's door, is a bundle of flowers he has hand picked. He scoffs at himself. Wolfe Wainright has personally picked a bouquet of flowers for a woman.

"But not just any other woman." He tells himself. "Red." He says out loud when he opens the door in a white t-shirt and cropped yoga pants.

She has just gotten out of the shower, evident on the soaked ends of her hair, dripping water onto her white shirt, making it transparent. He can see a few of her tattoos through the wet shirt. He looks down at her hands, one holding a small towel. Wolfe tucks the flowers with the rest of the items he brought with him, then takes the towel from her. With just one free hand, he tries to wrap her wet hair with the towel.