She never had a date planned before. Sure, it was expected  after a third or fourth date but she never actually planned a date specifically made for .

She settled for a dress with a floral print. Now who didn't want a little summer on a winter day?

And what she wore underneath was lethal.

Pleased with the results, she did a final turn in the mirror before giving the bedroom a close inspection. Candles for soft, romantic lights, lillies and roses for romantic scents. The CD player set on low with a quiet, romantic mix ready to play. Pillows plumped, shades drawn.

She decided it was a female den of seduction. And she was damn proud of it. Now all she needed was a man.

She walked downstairs to make sure everything was ready on that front. Wine, glasses, candles, flowers. Music once again, still low but more upbeat the mix waiting upstairs. She turned it on, adjusted the volume, then circled around lighting the candles.

They'd have some wine, she thought. Talk a little bit. Then a meal and a little more conversation. They'd never had problems with conversation. Even though they both knew where the evening was headed, they'd be able to talk, relax and enjoy each other's company before they --

She spun around, giddy with excitement and was disappointed when Maja walked in.  "Hey hon, can I get you to do a couple of little..." Maja lifted her eyebrows as she looked around at the decorated living room. "You have a date tonight." She gasped. "You have a date!"

"What? What's wrong with you," Kim put her hands on her hips. "Where do you come up with---"

"How long have I known you? This side of forever? You put out new candles. Your cleavage is practically begging to touched," Kim shifted uncomfortably. "And you have music on."

"I put out new candles every week. And as for the cleavage, it shows off my assets. And I happen to like this music." Kim defended.

Maja smiled, "Let me see your underwear."

Kim choked out a laugh. "You came here to ask me to make you a couple of what?"

"That can wait." Maja reached for Kim's bodice. "I have twenty bucks that says you have on ing underwear." She grabbed the wrap and began to pull. Kim slapped her hand away.

"Cut it out!"

"You took a bath in the tonight's-the-night bubbles." Maja sniffed. "I can smell it all over you. You have a date with Gerald."

Kim rolled her eyes and tried to push Maja out the door. "Can you stop it. You're freaking me out."

"When is he getting here? And what's the plan?"

"Soon," she answered. "And the plan doesn't involve you knowing or doing anything, so leave!"

Ignoring the order, Maja folded her arms. "Is it the white 'I'm a good girl but I can be bad' underwear or the black 'I'm only wearing this so you can rip it off me' underwear? I need to know."

Kim cast her eyes towards the heavens. "It's the red with the black roses."

Maja raised her hands as if she was praying. "We may need to call the paramedics!" And squealed. Kim opened her front door and sighed. "Okay, I wanted you to make three or four mini-arrangements for a dinner party. Matt's hosting a party for a new client, and they're coming over. We need one for each table on the main floor."

"Okay, done. Now leave!"

"I'm going, I'm going."

Kim turned around only to be interrupted by another knock on the door. Kim groaned and opened it. "I said I'd do it!"

"Do what?"

Kim looked up and smiled. "Nothing. Maj just stopped by."

"Yeah, I ran into her in the hallway. May I come in?" Kim opened her door wider to invite him inside.

He changed, she thought. Khakis instead of jeans, a crisp shirt instead of a chambris. And he was holding a bag of chinese take-out. Gerald set it on top of her counter and cupped the back of her neck, leaned in to kiss her. "Hi again."

"Hi, back at you." She smiled. "Can I get you some wine?"

"Thanks. I like your dress."

"Thank you." She passed him a glass half full of cabernet and sipped from her glass. "I guess we have things to talk about."

Gerald nodded, knowing she wanted to get to the nitty-gritty before anything else. That's what he liked, a woman who went straight to the point. "Where do you want to start?"

"I've been thinking about it a lot, and realized it comes down to two things. We're friends, Ge, right?"

"We're friends, Kim," he confirmed.

"So the first thing is I think friends should tell each other the truth. Be honest. If we realize after tonight, that it's just not what we expected - or if either of feel like that was nice, but we're finished, we should be able to say so. No hard feelings."

Reasonable, straightforwards and without any invisible strings. Perfect. "I can go with that."

Kim smiled, "The second thing is staying friends. That's the most important thing. Whatever happens, however it works out, we need to promise each other that we'll always be friends. Not just for you and me, but for everyone we're connected to. We can say it's just , but isn't just a just. We like each other. We care about each other. I don't want anything to change that."

Gerald ran a hand down her hair, and rested on the small of her back. "Blood oath or pinky swear?" He made her laugh. "I can promise you that. We'll always be friends, Kim." He eased over to kiss her, rubbing his lips over hers.

"Friends," Kim agreed, letting out a sigh of relief over his lips. "Ge? How did we ever keep from doing this all these years?"

"Hell if I know," he touched his lips to hers again, then took her hand.  "We was at the beach," he led her to the stairs.

"What?"

"It was after the day we met face to face at the dinner. We all decided to head to the beach. I was the first one here and then I saw you. For a minute - just for a second or two, really - I didn't realize it was you. You were wearing this long scarf thing tied aorund your waist, lots of wild colours and it blew between your legs. You had on a red bathing suit underneath it."

Kim remembered that day. She thought she was the first one and stood in the middle of the beach watching the waves crash to the shore. She needed to catch her breath. "You...you remember what I was wearing?"

"And I remember your hair was shorter than it is now. All those soft curls flying. Bare feet. All that porcelain skin, wild colour and curls. My heart just stopped. I thought: That is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And I wanted that woman, in a way I'd never wanted one before. Than I realized it was you."

 They were right outside her bedroom door. He turned to face her. He could see that her eyes were glistening. He framed her face and kissed her softly. "I wanted you. So much that I almost lost my mind," he whispered.

"If you'd walked down to me and looked at me the way you're looking at me now, you'd have had me." She said.

"Worth waiting for." He opened the bedroom door and was taken back by the effort she put into this. "A little presumptuous, don't you think," he walking in and shutting the door behind her.

Kim giggled and pulled on his belt. "You're the one talk." She pulled him to the centre of the bedroom, the foot of her bed.

He combed his fingers through her hair, drawing it back from her face, lowering his lips to hers softly.

She gave, her body soft in surrender to echo the kiss. When he swept her uo to carry her to the bed, those dark eyes went slumberous.

"I want to touch you everywhere. I've dreamed of touching you" Slowly, he slid his hands under her dress, along her thigh. "Everywhere."

He kissed her now, hints of greed now, of possession, while his fingers feathered over her skin, over the lace that barely covered her. She bowed up at his touch, offering more.

His lips trailed down in whispers as he slid the straps down her arms. His teeth grazed over her shoulder, as his fingers manipulated the zipped and it fell in a puddle to her waist. Kim pulled it down her body and let it fall to the floor.

She pulled his shirt up and over his head, crawling backwards to the centre of bed, and him over her waiting body.

"You're spectacular." He traced the edges of the red lace, the tiny back petals. "This may take awhile," he whispered along her skin.

"No rush," Kim sighed, running her hands up and down his bare chest feeling every fiber of his skin touch hers.

When he lowered his lips again, she let herself steep in the sensation of being explored.

Inch by inch, he promised, and he was a man of his word. He touched, he tasted, he lingered until her quivers became trembles and the scented air thickened.

Somewhere between all of that, they lost all their clothes, and Kim writhed beneath him offering much more than he anticipated. "Night stand," she murmured against his cheek.

He did as she not-so-subtlely asked and grabbed a from the drawer. He sheathed himself before ing deep within her body. Kim gasped at first before he set a comfortable rhythm. He started out slowly to draw out every drop of pleasure. He ached from the sight of her. Kim enclosed him compleyetely, feeling him all the way to her soul.

"Kim," he called out her name on a rough gasp, his pleasure evident in his tone.

She bent her knees higher, pulling him in further inside. He got the point. He pulled out slowly, and she moaned, her body skaing and trembling beneath him, squeezing him tighter in order to hold him inside. Kim lifted her hips to meet him for .

She held onto him, thinking nothing has ever felt this good before. Her loud moans letting him know. "Ge." She came apart in his arms and his name on her lips.

His body tensed and then complete pleasure washed over him in waves of desire he never wanted to end.

He collapsed beside her, his face in the side of her neck. Their breathing intermingled in satisfied silence.

Kim pulled the sheet over her body and propped herseld on one elbow looking down at Gerald smiling. "That was amazing," she murmured.

He chuckled, "No honey, you were amazing." He pulled her down to kiss her one more time. "And how do you feel about cold chinese?"

They ate at her kitchen counter, her in a silk robe and him wearing only his boxer shorts. "You got all my favourites," she smiled, feeding him off of a chop stick.

"Of course, baby. Only the best for you," he winked.

"I bet you say that to all your women," Kim said smiling. Her body language signalled that he had her attention. She leaned forward, keeping her gaze locked on him at all times. Despite all her talking about his previous relationships, she wanted to the only one on his mind right now.

Gerald laughed at that comment. "So who did you tell about this? Us?"

"The girls know. And some of the guys do too," Kim admitted.

"You told the others we were going to sleep together?" H e choked on the kung pao chicken.

"We're girls, Ge." As if that explained all the mysteries of the world.

"Right," he sighed.

"I've spoken to the guys briefly. I'm assuming they tormented you." She laughed, taking another sip from her wine.

Gerald shifted in his seat. "I'm not sure, we're not girls."

"You mean you haven't talked to Enchong about it? About us? He's your best friend."

"The others are okay with it. But, Enchong? My best friend is going to want to kick my for thinking about touching you, much less doing what we just did upstairs."

Kim smiled, trying to hold in a laugh. "He does know I have sometimes."

"I'm not sure that's true. He puts all of you guys in another dimension. The other dimension-Kim has . You, you're still a in his eyes."

This was a difficult situation for both of them. Enchong and Erich were the first ones married. Enchong was even around in junior high, all through high school. They've all been friends that long. Gerald and Enchong have been friends for twenty years, almost as long as all of them. If no one told Enchong, it wasn't just Gerald who he'd be angry with, it'd be her too. And they had to face, perfect innocent Kim would be easier to forgive. "If we're going to be together in bed, I'm not going to act like it's some illicit affair. He'll find out. And he needs to hear from you, Ge." She paused, "Because if he does find out before you tell, he WILL kick your ."

Gerald nodded, understanding every word that came out of . It's true, Enchong needed it to hear from Gerald. "I'll figure it out."

He his fingers and walked over to the faucet to really clean his hands. "There's one more thing, since we're on this, I'd like to know that we're not together with anyone else like this. Is that a problem?"

Did he really need to ask? "Blood oath, or pinky swear?" She chuckled, as did he. "If I'm with a man, I don't see anyone else. It's not only rude, but it goes against everything I believe in. And I think our situation is complicated enough to bring a third or fourth person in the mix."

"So it's you and me?"

"You and me," she repeated, sticking out her pinky finger.

He smiled, linking his around hers. His fingers were dinstinctly larger than hers, reminding him how beautiful and delicate she was. "I have to on-site and seven," he mentioned, grabbing the empty boxes and placing them in the trash.

Kim's smile faltered when his back was turned. Here it comes, she thought. Early day tomorrow, babe. It was great. Don't call me, I'll call you.

"You think I can stay, even though I need to get up at about five?"

She was taken back. Her lips curved and she walked in front of him, raised herself so she could link her arms around his neck and give him a big, loud, passionate kiss. "No objection.

He dropped the garbage into the can and wrapped his arm around her waist tightly so she hung onto him. He smiled as he dragged her up the stairs and back into the bedroom.

It was just past eleven, he saw. And now what could he do to her in six hours? He mischeviously thought.