Neighbors

He found her in the kitchen, sitting on the counter eating peanut butter cookies, a glass of milk poured beside her. He had pulled on sweat pants before coming down and now pulled up a chair to face her, propping his feet on the counter beside her, grabbing the cookie jar as he sat down. She handed him her glass of milk as he popped a whole cookie in his mouth and she hopped down from the counter to grab the milk carton from the frige. He looked up at the clock, it was only a little after 9:00.

"So Doc, it's still early, now what do you want to do?" She shot him a look and he smiled shaking his head, "Sorry sweetheart, I was serious when I said I'm not up for another round yet." She blushed, not having intended to insinuate that. She poured another glass of milk, grabbed another cookie and hopped back up onto the counter holding her robe tightly closed as she did so. She looked at him intently as he popped the fourth cookie into his mouth.

"Scrabble." she said, with a serious look on her face.

"What?" he asked dumbfounded.

"Scrabble, let's play scrabble, certainly you've played scrabble before."

"Well yes, but I don't own the game." he protested.

"I do, I'll go get it." she hopped off the counter.

"Wait a minute, you really don't think I'm going to play Scrabble with a professor, now do you?" He dropped his feet and sat up, squirming in his seat a bit.

"Why not? ... I don't have a degree in English." she answered him, smiling sweetly.

"Yeah, but English isn't even my first language... can I put down Hebrew words?"

"I don't have the Scrabble version with Hebrew letters." She teased him.

"I can spell them phonetically." He answered.

"If I say yes will you play?"

He looked at her suspiciously, "I suppose."

"Good!" she smiled. "I'll be right back." She left him sitting in the kitchen, as she headed for her place. She opened the door and stepped out onto the front step, the cool air hitting her skin. "Oh god, it's cold out here..." she shrieked, pulling the robe tight, not even pausing to put on her shoes. She heard him laugh from the dining room. She darted across the yard, her feet barely touching the ground and flipped on her hall light as she opened her door. She grabbed her scrabble game then ran upstairs quick. She grabbed some warm socks from her bedroom and pulled them on, then slipped on her Birkenstock sandals. She was about to head back over to his place, then turned and went back to her bedroom deciding to pull on underwear as well. 'He may be comfortable walking around mostly naked, but I'm not,' she thought. Finally she headed back over to his place. As she entered his door she saw him kneeling by the fireplace, trying to blow on a somewhat pathetic attempt at a fire. He turned when he heard her, smiling and then coughing as the smoke blew back in his face. She laughed setting the game down on the coffee table.

"Please allow me, all those years growing up in the great white north of Minnesota, I can build a mean fire." She grabbed the fire poker and some newspaper. He sat on the couch watching her as she built a teepee of crossed sticks. A few minutes later the fire roared to life and she turned, a satisfied smile on her face. Oded was sitting sideways, his legs up and ankles crossed as he watched her and now he dropped his feet onto the floor as she turned giving her space to sit down next to him on the couch. She shook her head, "Un uh, I'll sit over here... I won't have you cheating and looking at my letters." She dropped a floor pillow on the other side of the coffee table and sat down, again tightening the tie on the robe snuggly around her waist. He chuckled and shook his head, somehow knowing she would be a fierce competitor.

She opened the game and set it up on the table. "Now remind of the rules," he said, studying the board. He couldn't believe he had agreed to this, he finally had a whole night with her and they were playing scrabble.

She explained the basics to him but then added, "however I was thinking we could modify the game." She looked at him, a little mischievous look on her face.

"Oh... what did you have in mind?" he asked intrigued by her little smile.

"Let's play Abby and Oded Scrabble."

"And what is that exactly?"

"Every word you put down has to be something about us. Something we've done together, something about me you like. And you have to be able to use it in a sentence."

He got this wicked smile on his face. "Xatixa, I only know so many words for sex."

She blushed and interrupted him, "that's not what I mean."

But he wasn't listening to her. He continued his line of thought speaking over her, "Let's see, I know sex, intercourse, coitus, fuck..."

"Oded! Stop it!" she now really blushed. "I can't believe you would ..."

"What?" he smiled sexily at her, his accent tweaking his speech, knowing he had really embarrassed her.

"You only get seven letters at a time. Intercourse has 10 letters, so you couldn't make that one even if you wanted to," she replied with a straight face, trying to hide her blush.

"Ah... but fuck only has four letters," he continued, "so that would be fair game." A ridiculous smile now on his lips.

She couldn't even answer him. She just picked up the letter F in front of her and set it on his letter tray. "Here I'll help you get started." She smiled to herself, not making eye contact with him.

He guffawed at her. "You know Abby you are adorable," he offered.

She looked up at him, a little smile on her face. "And you take way too much enjoyment out of teasing me. You have now called me incorrigible and adorable today, which one is it?"

He laughed again, "Both, and I'm sure there are a lot of other adjectives I could use as well."

"Save them for the game smart ass," she clicked her tongue at the end of her sentence to enunciate her point, wrinkling her nose at him as well.

"So what do I get if I win?" Again, a wicked smile playing across his lips.

"Umm... I don't know... I'm making this up as I go along. What should the winner get?" she turned the question back at him, then immediately regretted the decision.

His devilish smile shifted as he scrunched up his nose, puckering his lips as he thought about it. "The winner gets to make one request of the other... anything you want."

She blushed. "Like what?"

"A special dinner, request a movie night..."

"You mean any movie?" her brain contemplating how she could get him to watch Deuce Bigalow with her.

"Not the Mummy movies again." He shot her a look.

"Okay, okay." That wasn't her intention anyway, she thought smiling to herself.

He continued, "maybe a back massage- with no tickling allowed!" again he shot her a warning look.

"Fine!" she answered, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Perhaps a particular maneuver in bed, maybe pick you're favorite position."

"Oded! See now that's what I was afraid of."

He laughed, "What? I think that's fair. Take the chance Xatixa, maybe you'll win." He winked at her. She didn't say anything. Actually inwardly excited at the possibilities... whether she won or lost. 'In the end, both would really win anyway' she thought, not saying it out loud.

"Alright Mr. Fehr, I'm up for the challenge. You go first." They both drew seven tiles and sat studying the letters.

Oded's first word- SWEET "That's 18 points."

"Use it in a sentence," she prodded him, writing down the points.

He debated for a second, knowing he could easily embarrass her again, and decided he would hold off a bit, "I found the ice cream you fed me too sweet for my taste." 'There', he thought 'that was innocuous enough to start.'

She smiled and turned to her letters using the E in Sweet to make SEXY going down. She didn't look at him. "Oh, there are so many sentences I could come up with," she grabbed three more letters for her tray, "how about, you looked incredibly sexy in those Medjai robes in the Mummy movie." She looked up at him a little smirk on her face. He just shook his head as he contemplated the board.

His next word- off the S in Sweet, was SCENT, "Every time I'm near you I'm intoxicated by the scent of flowers in your hair."

Her next word, using the E in Scent and the Y in Sexy was PEONY.

"What is that?" he asked her as soon as she put down the tiles.

"It's a flower," she said looking up at him, "I'll have to make a peony flower perfume for you, it's my favorite." She wrote down her score.

He made a mental note about peonies and looked back at his tiles, he smirked and chuckled. Grabbing the tiles to play them.

"What?" she asked seeing him laugh.

"Sorry sweetness, I just can't help myself." Using the N in Peony he worked down playing NUDE. He looked at her and sticking out his chest, raising his chin announced theatrically, "I love how easily you blush at the sight of me in the nude."

She giggled, "That is true" she nodded in agreement. Her next word off the D in Nude, she played DREAM, "Oh time for another confession I guess," she looked up at him, "I've had many an erotic dream about you Mr. Fehr, since I met you."

He smiled at her lowering his eyes a little, "Xatixa, you've haunted my dreams."

"Really," she giggled, a huge smile beaming on her face from his confession, "tell me..."

"Oh no, those fantasies will have to come out later." He dropped his head shaking it a little side to side, his hands hanging loosely inside his legs as he leaned his elbows on his thighs.

"Come on 'ded, just tell me one." She teased him.

He looked up at her and grinned wickedly, "Why? Are you willing to make it come true?"

She dropped her eyes, then looked up shyly, "That depends on what it is... Try me." She leaned forward to the coffee table, propping her elbows on it, resting her chin in her hands.

He studied her for a second. "This will end the Scrabble game."

"Why?" she asked. "Tell me now, and then if you win maybe I could make that little fantasy come true."

He thought about it, "Then I think I should wait until the end of the game to tell you." He leaned across the coffee table to kiss her. Then he tweaked her nose with his thumb and sat back to study his tiles. "It is my turn." She frowned a little, but didn't say anything, going back to studying her own tiles.

He played SMILE off the M in Dream. "You have a different smile for every emotion, and I love trying to figure out what they all mean." He said, looking at her sweetly. She gave him her shy smile and turned her eyes back down, figuring out his score. The scores were 47 Oded to 42 Abby.

Her turn and she played VOICE off the E in Smile. "I melt at the sound of the accent that tinges your voice so subtlely when you say my name." She said quietly, not making eye contact with him this time.

She heard him softly chuckle, "But I have so many names for you, would that be when I call you Xatixa? Or Sweetness? Or Doc? Or Abigail? Or Abby?" He let his accent get a little heavier with each one.

She still didn't look up at him, "All of them, but especially Abby." She answered. "It's your turn again."

"So it is," he went back to his tiles. The air in the room was becoming more and more charged, he doubted they would finish the game. He played off the E in Dream and put down the short word BED. She glanced at him catching her breath waiting to hear what this sentence would be. He grinned. "I make my bed every morning, just as my mother taught me."

She shook her head as she smiled, relieved that he was willing to lighten up the atmosphere a little. The board was getting tough and they needed to open up a new direction. She sacrificed some points to go back and play up off of his original Sweet to put down BIKE, moving the letters up. "I ride my bike to school almost every day." She reached for more tiles.

She watched him stare at the letters in front of him. He ran his hands through his hair, and she smiled now noticing for the second time that when he got nervous or frustrated he pulled on his ear lobes. "No good words 'ded?" she teased him.

"I'm trying, I'm trying...give me some time. " he tugged on his ear lobe again, shuffling his tiles on his tray with his other hand.

"You can have all the time you want," she stood up and stretched, stoking the fire with the poker. He looked over at her, crouched down in front of the fireplace holding the robe closed at her neck, the front falling open over her knees. The light from the fire making her skin look golden. She stood up and turned to see him looking at her. "You'll never figure out a word if you're not looking at the tiles." She teased him as he dropped his eyes and went back to running his hands through his hair. "I'm going to get something to drink, would you like anything?" She couldn't tell if she felt all warm inside because of the heat from the fire, or the look in his eyes when she had turned to find him gazing at her.

"There is still wine in the frige if you want some, you could bring me a glass." He didn't look up at her. When she returned two glasses in hand he was leaning back on the couch, his hands clasped behind his head looking rather proud of himself.

"What?" she asked him. Then realized he had played, "Okay, what word did you make, oh cocky one?" she asked handing him a glass.

"Quiet, for 30 points. My sentence; I like when we have sex, that you are not inhibited and don't feel the need to be quiet." He watched for her reaction. She pursed her lips and sat back down cross-legged on the pillow across from him, saying nothing. "Mmmmm... but you are awfully quiet now," he continued, "too shy Xatixa?"

She didn't answer him, then leaned over and played BLUSH off the B from Bike. "You Mr. Fehr take way to much enjoyment out of making me blush." Then she looked up at him, "But I love the way your ears turn red when I make you blush." She met his eyes and grinned when she saw those ears go red as soon as she finished her sentence, then laughed when he reached up and felt them with his hands.

He shot her an embarrassed look. "No making fun of my ears!" She couldn't help but laugh at him, and he pushed out his bottom lip pouting at her teasing.

He quickly played off the H in Blush and put down HAIR. "I almost didn't cut my hair because of the way my ears stick out." He stuck his tongue out at her defiantly.

Now she sat and studied the board it was getting harder to find a place to put down words, finally she played off the U in Quiet and put down JUICE. She debated about playing it safe with her sentence or making another confession. He was eyeing her suspiciously. "I almost broke our first date for dinner on Sunday, but then I saw you drinking orange juice out of the carton in your kitchen on Sunday morning wearing nothing but your boxer shorts and decided I'd have dinner with you after all."

He guffawed at her. "Abby, I knew you saw me."

"How? How did you know?" now it was her turn to blush again.

"I saw the tea cup rattle in the saucer when I turned toward the window. I waited hoping you would stand back up and I could bust you for it, but you didn't."

"You knew?" she gasped mortified.

"mmmm... and to think I almost came downstairs that morning wearing nothing at all." He winked at her. "Would you still have looked Xatixa?"

"NO! I would have run from the room." She looked at him horrified.

"That's what I thought," he chuckled at her, "how about now? Would you look now?"

"I don't know," she tilted her head curiously, "maybe." She grinned shyly.

He laughed then turned to look at his tiles, his turn yet again. Then he looked back up at her. "Abby why did you almost cancel our date?"

"What? Oh... I thought you were just being polite asking me to come. I figured you weren't really... it was just my own insecurity... oh... you know 'ded I didn't cancel, so let's not worry about it." She looked down at her tiles. He studied her for another few seconds before also looking down at the board.

He smiled to himself, he had to do it. "Ready sweetness?" he started as he played the letters off the C in Juice. He played them one at a time, starting backwards. K-C-U-F. He looked at her. "Do you really want a sentence?" he teased her.

"No, thank you, that will not be necessary." She put on her most angelic face as she reached for the tiles on her tray and played them on the board. Adding ING to his word. "Do you want one?" she asked, smiling innocently.

"Yes," he answered.

She sighed, knowing he would say it. "Fine..." She faced him, squaring her shoulders, her best professor lecture voice, "When we are fucking, you make my body respond in ways I didn't know it could.... Happy?" she asked, trying to hold eye contact with him as she felt her body start to respond just to the idea and the wetness started to pool between her legs.

"Mmmm... I like the sound of that word coming from your mouth." He challenged her, his eyes now blatantly showing his own level of desire.

She dropped her eyes, pressing her hands against her knees in response to the tension she now felt in her body. "Are we going to finish this game?" she asked.

"Do you want to?" he asked, more than willing to call it a night, his own arousal starting to make him uncomfortable.

She took a sip of wine as she contemplated her answer, her competitiveness winning out. "Yes, I do actually."

He sighed. It was his turn again. He closed his eyes for a minute trying to fight off the testosterone surge she had just created in him. Then he studied his letters. He played off the L in Blush and put down TWIRL. She looked at him curiously. "Yeah I know," he said, "This is getting hard and there aren't a lot of letters left... I find it endearing that when you are nervous you twirl the ends of your hair in your fingers."

"I do?"

"Yes, sweetness you do." He smiled at her.

She smiled back, consciously dropping her hands into her lap and turned back to her letters. After a couple of minutes she got frustrated and climbed up onto the pillow now kneeling, sitting back on her thighs studying the board. He climbed off the couch coming around to stoke the fire again and throw on more wood. He turned to watch her, she had gone back to twirling her hair and she was wiggling her toes in her socks as she sat on her knees. She was cute and he was so enamored with her he couldn't help but crawl over and kiss her. Kneeling behind her she felt his fingers circle her waist then she felt his lips on the back of her neck. She leaned forward, letting him graze the nape of her neck with his teeth and tongue, feeling his fingers working their way into the gap on her robe. She closed her eyes and sighed, letting her shoulders relax as his other hand now pulled on the neckline of her robe exposing more of her skin to his mouth. "Hey," she exclaimed sitting up straight again, "I know what you are doing," she twisted her waist to look at him, his mouth and nose still nuzzling her neck, "you're trying to peek at my letters."

"Abby, I could care less about your letters," he whispered into her ear then he dropped his mouth to hers kissing her strongly. She shifted off her thighs onto her hip as he pressed himself down on her, pulling her robe open. "Can we please be done with this game?" He supported her weight with his arm as she continued down, now lying on the pillow below him. She opened her mouth to speak and found her response stopped by his kiss, the feel of his hand now working up the bare skin of her ribs. He cupped her breast, breaking the kiss to look at her eyes. The gold flecks were definitely there and he smiled sexily at her.

"You're just trying to distract me because you're losing." She answered. She was fighting the electricity shooting through her, making her tingle every where he touched her.

He frowned, "I am?" He sat up to look at the score pad. "Damn."

"I'm not giving up the chance to make my undeniable request... concede the game if you want." She teased him, running her hands across his chest, hoping he would say yes. It had been torture sitting across from him all this time watching him.

He looked at her seriously. "Hmmm.. concede the game now and make love to you in front of the fire but risk the consequence of your undeniable request. Or continue ...try to win and make you risk the consequence of my undeniable request... that's a tough one... how much am I losing by?" The score was close at 123 for Oded and 128 for Abby. He looked again his wicked smile now crossing his face. "Oh sweetness..." he teased her grabbing her hand to help her sit back up as she pulled her robe closed, "what I have planned for you if I win is worth the wait."

She blushed crimson at the implication in those words and couldn't even make eye contact with him. He laughed at her response, "Don't worry Xatixa, you'll enjoy it I promise."

"That's only if you win..." she went back to looking at her tiles, tucking her hair behind her ears. He sighed and climbed over the coffee table, flopping down on the couch.

She finally played, playing off the T is Twirl, YTTRIUM, hitting a triple word score.

"That is not a word!" he started, sitting upright and looking at the board.

"Oh, but it is my sweet man, it's an atomic element." She winked at him, "and it's worth 39 points".

"But you have to use it in a sentence about us." He reminded her.

"Okay... The vegetables we ate in the lasagna I made contain important trace quantities of yttrium."

"You're making that up! " he protested.

"I am not, and I am insulted that you think I would." She raised her chin in mock defiance.

"Fine, keep it... I think you're just chicken to find out what I have in store for you, so you are padding your score!" He threw his hands up in the air, flopping back onto the couch again.

"Here..." he sat forward and played off the M in Yttrium, MOAN- "Now I could make some witty comment about our sexual escapades, but I won't Ms. Yttrium... excuse me, Dr. Yttrium, so instead I'll say I moan in protest at your use of that word."

She studied the board, deciding not to incite any more protest by arguing with him. She quietly put down LIP, using the I in hair. "There is nothing I would like to do better than kiss that bottom lip of yours," she paused smirking at him, "especially if it means you would stop berating me for the use of Yttrium."

He laughed and threw a pillow at her making her giggle. Then he sat and debated, totally stuck. He should have just conceded the game when he had the chance, now he would be blown away. Then he smiled, his devilish smile, barely glancing up at her as he decided that turn around was fair play. He put down the word YOZN using the Y in Yttrium.

"Oded, what kind of word is YOZN? There is no way that is a real word. You made that up to use the Z." she challenged him.

"Now my dear Professor, it's Hebrew. You said I could spell Hebrew words phonetically." He just sat back and smiled. He had caught her.

She blew a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. "Okay smarty pants, what does it mean? You have to use it in a sentence."

He couldn't look at her. He was lying through his teeth and knew if he made eye contact with her she would bust him. "It means 'smart ass'... only a Yozn would agree to play Scrabble with a professor."

She laughed. " 'ded, I don't believe that for one minute... But I'm going to give it to you because you let me have Yttrium, which I will remind you is at least a real word. But you are just too darn cute to argue with over this."

He debated about protesting his innocence then decided just to keep his mouth shut and take the freebie.

The tiles were getting to be fewer and fewer, and they both now concentrated trying to get the most points. The competition was getting fierce.

Abby played HEAVEN off of the N in Yozn. "Having you kiss me I imagine is like Heaven."

"You're just trying to butter me up." He teased her.

He played HEART off of her H. "But it is working, you stole my heart on our first date Sweetness." He looked up at her, his eyes warm and soft and she smiled in return.

Then ruthlessly she picked up her tiles playing FAN off the A in Heaven, still trying to smile sweetly at him. "I am quickly becoming your biggest fan."

He smiled back at her then started to laugh. He played GROAN off of the R in Heart and sat back on the couch studying her trying to decide the best way to embarrass and torture her as she watched him expectantly. "You'll groan like you have never before if I win this game." It worked and her face flushed crimson. She whipped the pillow back at him, which he caught in one hand, laughing wide eyed at her. "Oh Xatixa, behave or I'll make it even worse for you."

The game was drawing to a close, there were only a handful of tiles left and Abby checked the score. Oded had 174 and she had 205. She smiled to herself, for all of his threats she was pretty sure he couldn't catch her now. In a way she was disappointed, she was curious about what he wanted to do, and she admitted to herself that having no choice but to follow his orders was an incredibly erotic thought. 'Dang, I should have thrown this game,' she thought to herself then chuckled quietly. She played ART off the A in groan. "I think we have more in common than we thought," she glanced up at him. "performing in the classroom and performing in front of a camera really are both an art."

Oded played EGO off the second E in Heaven. "Ahh, but I imagine the actors I work with have a much bigger ego than the people you work with."

"Oh, don't be so sure about that." she informed him, "there are plenty of big egos in my line of work." She played ALE off the E in Heart. "I prefer wine over Ale."

Oded only had three letters left. An O and two Ds. He sat trying to find a place to put down his own name, if only he could find an open E. But to no avail. He settled for DAD off the A in Ale, leaving a single O on his letter tray. "My Dad has a PhD in Physics, but the science genes didn't rub off on me."

She looked at him curiously. "Really? I thought your dad was a business man. You haven't told me about your dad."

He smiled leaning back on the couch, propping his feet on the coffee table, linking his fingers, his hands behind his head. "Abby it's getting late. Finish the game." He knew she only had one letter left, and if she could find a place to play it the game would be over. He also knew he was losing and he hated to lose. But he was curious about what she would ask him to do, wondering if she would take advantage of the opportunity to spread her wings a little and take a risk or two. His plan for her would have to wait.

She studied the board and finally played an O off the N in Fucking to make NO. She looked at him intently. "I guess this means that you can't say No to anything I ask, since I just won the game."

"I know Xatixa, how badly did I lose?" He sat still, relaxed on the couch, waiting for her answer and her request. She finished the total and showed him the paper. Oded 186, Abby 218. "Well it appears you won fair and square, sort of... so sweetness what will it be? What must the loser now do for the winner?"

She sat quietly thinking. Now that the opportunity was really here she didn't know what best to ask for. She had planned to make him show her Deuce Bigalow, but now that seemed trivial. She could always watch that. What could she ask him for? She leaned forward and rested her chin on the back of her hands studying him, watching him watch her. He continued to sit, his bare feet crossed and propped on the table in front of her, his body leaning back against the couch. He had crossed his arms now and let them rest against his bare chest, his hands curled around each bicep. The smallest hint of a grin played at the corner of his mouth as he waited for her.

Her brain warped past a long list of options, pausing briefly to consider a few more seriously. She could force him now to tell her his fantasy. But based on his confessions in the shower earlier she didn't think she'd really have to twist his arm for that one anyway. That she could make happen with a little teasing and perhaps a sexy flash of skin. She thought about her own fantasies, no... again she didn't think he'd balk if she asked him to make those come true later. 'Like I could suggest something sexual that he wouldn't jump at?' she thought. No... her brain went in a different direction. She could ask that he take her to the set, teach her about filming. He seemed less likely to spontaneously invite her down for some reason, if she asked him now he would have to. She looked up at him again. He still looked calmly at her his eyes soft and warm. He looked a little sleepy, she had expected to see a challenge in his eyes.

"Come on Doc, what's it going to be?" he asked. He was getting tired and wanted to take her to bed. She continued to look at him, curious, her brain in overdrive. She didn't answer him. He stretched his arms over his head running his fingers roughly through his hair as he sat more upright on the couch, trying to prod her along. He mumbled in Hebrew about being tired and her trying his patience.

Then she smiled. She figured out what she wanted. "Ded, I want you to teach me Hebrew."

"What?" he looked at her incredulously. "We went through all of that," he pointed to the Scrabble board, "I passed on the chance to make love to you by the fire thinking... well I wasn't thinking you'd ask me to teach you Hebrew. I can't teach you Hebrew now... not in one night."

She laughed, "I know, you don't have to teach me now, just agree that you will. Just teach me a few words tonight... besides sweetheart even without winning the game I knew I could get you to make love to me by the fire." She winked at him.

He laughed, she was right. She had thought this through more than he had. He stood and stepping on, then over the coffee table, he settled himself next to her on the pillow. It was getting late and she looked as sleepy as he did. But just the touch of her skin renergized him. He ran his hands from her shoulders up her neck to cradle her face in his palms. His thumbs gently caressed her cheekbones, coming down across her lips, which she gently kissed. He studied her face, looking into her eyes.

When he had first met her and was learning to read her eyes he remembered seeing excitement, curiosity, more than a little nervousness and shyness. But in just the short time that he had known her he had learned how to stir the gold flecks in her eyes and he knew how to draw passion from her, and also could recognize her sated, content look. As he looked at her now he saw new things in her eyes. He saw warmth and calm. He saw wisdom mixed with the curiosity. He saw happiness. He saw his own reflection. He smiled at her as she looked as deeply into his eyes and she smiled back.

"So you want to learn Hebrew?" he asked, sighing a little. Leaning forward he kissed the tip of her nose.

"Yes, I want to know what you say about me when I drive you to exasperation." She teased him. She had sat silent and still as he held her face in his hands, looking so deeply into her eyes, now she reached up and pulled her chest more upright, hugging herself to him and wrapping her arms around him as she pressed her lips against his.

He immediately opened his mouth to her, one hand shifting to the nape of her neck to hold her close to him, the other dropped to the floor supporting his weight and also hers as they folded slowly to the pillow. She uncrossed her legs and stretched out beside him, reaching up to touch his face as he rose onto his elbow, tugging at the cotton belt that held the robe, his robe, closed keeping his hands from her body. He untied it and pushed it open letting his fingers graze her skin as he moved it. His mouth followed his fingers and he drew her breast into his mouth, teasing her with his tongue as he felt the peak harden and her back arch under him. He smiled at the sound of the whimper that escaped her lips. He ran his hand down her stomach, not expecting to find fabric at her hips. He laughed and looked up at her. "When did you put these on?" He hooked his finger under one edge about to remove them from her body then reconsidered. Instead he looked up at her and winked, now sliding farther down her body, his mouth even with her hips.

She had felt the anticipation for this building in her body for what seemed like hours. Her competitiveness had made her finish the silly game with him and she was exhausted from her day, but her hormones were raging and watching him sit across from her all of this time wearing nothing but faded comfortable sweat pants all evening had been torture. Now she watched him as he slid down her body. The color of the fire playing off his skin making him look bronzed and golden against her more fair skin under his hands and mouth. She hadn't answered his question about when she had decided to put back on panties but he hadn't waited for her answer anyway. She felt him twist the edge of the elastic in his finger then let it go, surprising her that he didn't take them off her legs. Then she watched him move lower, pressing her legs apart as he climbed between them. She felt the heat of his breath through the fabric that covered her skin. He pressed his lips to the fabric, letting his tongue tease her. She could feel only the pressure of his mouth against her but neither the softness of his lips or the wetness of his tongue nor the contrast of his beard both soft and rough, when he ran his cheek against her skin in one direction then the other. She grabbed the pillow in her fists, her hands on either side of her body and whimpered under him, unconsciously arching her hips towards his mouth. He continued his torture of her, 'if she wanted to wear panties all the time, he would show her the consequences' he thought to himself. But he knew how much he was missing, this way he couldn't feel the warmth of her skin under his tongue, he couldn't press deeper penetrating the folds that hid all of the wonderful flavors of her body from him. His hands on her hips he slid his fingers lower between her legs, dipping his index fingers under the edge of the cotton that separated them. He slid one finger inside of her. The other finding and pressing on the nerves that literally made her jump under the sensation of his touch. She groaned and reached for him trying to sit up, her hands in his hair. He looked up at her and smiled seeing the passion in her eyes.

" 'ded, your taking advantage of my inexperience," she started, "I can't take this."

He briefly pushed himself up to kneel, as he moved both hands back to the thin strip of cotton at her hips and pulled down, stripping her of the offensive material that separated the two of them. "What about this?" He dropped his mouth to her again, this time penetrating her with his tongue, fully tasting every drop of wetness that had pooled from his torture of her.

She jumped and groaned under the onslaught of his mouth, but he held her hips on the pillow. She was starting to realize what she had been missing all these years and now she watched him, propped on her elbows. His shoulders flexed as he held her knees apart, the muscles in his back taut. She looked at her own body, the contrast in the color of their skin, in the strength of his back compared to the soft curve of her breast. Then she arched her head back and dropped off her elbows landing on her back, arching her hips as she felt his teeth nip at the pearl that made her come completely unglued. She gasped and shuddered, all of her nerves firing at once. She suddenly felt the coolness of the air as his mouth left her and she looked up between her bent knees to see him sit back pushing his own pants now off his legs. Then he was back, covering her body with his own. Now his hips between hers, immediately filling her with the length of his arousal. His mouth on hers, she swooned under the taste of her own body on his tongue. He kissed her thoroughly, holding himself inside of her feeling the residual pulsing of the first orgasm he had given her make him grow even harder inside of her. He pulled his head back to look at her, loving the sight of the passion in her eyes and was rewarded with the deep pools of green and the gold flecks that made him smile.

"Ded, I want you deeper inside of me," she whispered. He pressed his hips down tighter against her and felt her hips arch, but she shook her head. "No." He looked at her questioningly then he felt her knees come up beside him and he smiled down at her seeing the little grin on the edge of her mouth. He sat up just a little, pressing up with his forearms helping her drape her knees over his shoulders then he pressed forward again with his hips. Abby whimpered and gasped and Oded groaned at the intensity of the penetration. She ran her hands along the backs of her thighs letting them rest behind her knees as she helped hold her legs in place as Oded began to slowly pull out and then push back into her, hissing with satisfaction every time he felt himself sink so deeply into her. She closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip, arching her back with each thrust. He knew she was close and he let his hips more forcefully crash against her making her catch her breath and look up at him. He smiled down at her and saw her smile in return just before she tensed her body giving into the waves of pleasure that swept over her, closing her eyes again and arching her back underneath him. He matched her, straining against her, his arms tensing, the tendons in his neck went taut, as he shuddered and moaned "Abby" then he let his chest rest against her legs under the intensity of his own orgasm. She turned her head from side to side unable to focus the heat and intensity that wracked her body and felt his hands on her face stopping her movement, then helping her drop her legs back down to the pillow underneath them.

"Oh my god Oded," she moaned.

"Ah, sweetness, I am no god," he whispered back to her, "just a man." He lay on top of her, his elbows on either side of her holding his weight from her chest as he looked down at her, still buried inside.

She laughed at his reply, "Then I never want to meet a god." She drew in a big breath, her chest rising to meet his briefly then blew it out, reaching up to brush tendrils of hair from her cheek. He laughed, leaning down to kiss her before pushing up with his forearms, separating their bodies. He sat back on his thighs looking up at the clock then back down at her as she scooted up sitting up on the pillow, pulling her knees up to wrap her arms around them.

"It's late my beauty we should go to bed." He reached forward for her hand. She let him help her up, still wearing the robe that he had pushed open underneath them, shrugging it back on to her shoulders. He grabbed his sweatpants and reached to turn off the lamp by the coffee table. She knocked down the fire with the poker and he followed her upstairs. They left the Scrabble game on the coffee table as they had finished it.

" 'ded, you didn't teach me even one word of Hebrew." She called back to him as he climbed the stairs behind her.

"What about Yozn?" he teased her as she dropped the robe from her shoulders and they climbed into bed.

"I don't believe that is a real word." She looked at him bemused.

"Alright" he paused. He got very quiet, then he pulled her close kissing her temple softly. "How about Ich hob dir lieb" he said, as they snuggled under the covers.

"She repeated it back to him. What does that mean?" she asked.

"I'll tell you tomorrow." He now kissed her forehead and pulled the covers up.

"It means, I'll tell you tomorrow?'" She asked.

"No, I'll tell you tomorrow what it means." He almost growled.

She repeated it back to him again, making him smile in the dark to hear the words come from her mouth, even if she didn't know what they meant. "Why won't you tell me know?"

"Abby... go to sleep."

"Ded, is this something I can say in front of other people? You didn't just teach me a swear word did you?"

"No, but I think you should say it only to me. Now go to sleep," he squeezed her against him, "No more talking, I'm exhausted."

She smiled as she felt his hand stroke her arm gently, thinking that this is what he done last night just before they both fell asleep. She lay beside him quietly, feeling his fingers stroke her skin, trying not to giggle as she thought about all that they had done together this evening.

She couldn't remember a more perfect evening in her life and she finally fell asleep beside him content and peaceful, her heart filling more with love for him everyday.

He listened to her breath as she drifted off, replaying the melodic sound of her voice speaking the Hebrew words back to him. He smiled at his little secret knowing what the words meant and hoping that he could hear them soon said from Abby's lips with the same true feelings as when he said them to her.

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Neighbors - Chapter 30