The Blackout

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Rachel struck another match and lit the last candle, adding it to the bar. An entire year’s supply of Monica’s paraffin candles filled Joey and Rachel’s apartment with an incandescent glow.

She heard the door open behind her and turned to see Joey coming in with a bag of supplies from Monica’s never ending store of extras in one hand and a bag of ice in the other.

"Got batteries for the radio and flashlight." He put the bag down on the bar and got out a huge Tupperware container, pouring the ice into it. It sounded like a hailstorm. "Might as well drink all the beer, huh?"

She smiled. "Might as well."

"Where’d you get the ice?"

"Gunther gave me his last bag, when he heard it was for you. We can use it to keep cool."

He brushed against her when he stepped behind her to get the beer out of the fridge, a charge of electricity hitting her and reminding her of their agreement.

They weren’t going to take things any further until they talked to Ross.

Ross, who was stranded at the Geller’s house on Long Island, along with Emma, Chandler, and Monica.

Ross, who wouldn’t be back in the city until the blackout was over.

It could be days.

"The ice cream is melting." Joey pulled two pint sized cartons from the freezer. "How’s your sweet tooth?"

"As active as ever." She finished putting batteries in the flashlight and flipped it on. "Got any cherries to go with the ice cream?"

Joey peered into the dark cavern of the refrigerator. "Cherries, this whipped cream in a can stuff, and some leftover pizza that we should probably throw away."

"Get out the whipped cream and cherries. We can make sundaes."

"We got pickles and olives, too." He looked up at Rachel doubtfully. "But if we want real food, we should probably do Monica a favor and eat that pan of lasagna in her fridge. She’d hate to know it went to waste."

Rachel opened a beer and turned up the bottle for a drink. She caught Joey watching her from the corner of his eye.

They’d only been back home one night and it was becoming more difficult by the minute not to give in to their feelings.

Tonight, Rachel thought, should be interesting.

~*~*~

"I still say mine is better." Rachel helped herself to another spoonful of ice cream, topped it with a maraschino cherry, and popped it into her mouth. "Mmmm…" She slid backwards on the floor from her seat in front of the couch. Their impromptu ice cream picnic on the floor was more fun than she’d expected.

"No, no, no. You’ve got it all wrong." Joey shook his head and demonstrated his method for her. "First, you gotta fill up your spoon." He took a giant scoop from his carton. "Then you put on the cherries. You gotta like…embed them." He took two cherries out of the jar and pushed them into his ice cream with the precision of an artist. "Then, and only then, you add some of this." He aimed the can of Reddi Whip at his spoon and shot out a pile of it on his mountain of ice cream.

"That’s never going to fit in your mouth." Rachel took another tiny bite of ice cream, smug in the knowledge that he would try to make it fit even if his jaw unhinged in the process.

"You have to lean back or it won’t work." He tilted his head back and shoved the entire concoction into his mouth at one time. "Mmmm…damn!" He fell back on the floor, clutching his head with one hand.

"Joey! What’s wrong? Did you choke?" She knelt over him, placing her hands on his chest.

He shook his head. "Ice cream headache."

She nudged him in the side with her knee and made a face of annoyance. "You scared me."

He laughed and raised up on his elbows. "You got some ice cream on your chin."

She wiped her chin with the back of her hand, realizing for the first time that her other hand was still on his chest. She could feel the warmth of his skin through his t-shirt, and it unnerved her with the memory of that first kiss that led to another, then another, before they were suddenly interrupted.

Damn Judy Geller for having a birthday tonight. She sat back on the floor and tried to force her body to stop responding to his.

"Almost gone." She looked up to see him scraping the bottom of his carton. "You gonna finish that?"

She shook her head and passed her carton to him, smiling when he dug in enthusiastically.

It wouldn’t be wrong to talk, she reasoned, watching him gorge on Mint Chocolate-Chip. I mean, our feelings are out in the open. Why shouldn’t we discuss them?

"Joey…"

"Hmmm?" He didn’t look up from his ice cream.

She curled her legs up under her and tried to get comfortable. "When did you first know…about us?" She picked an ice cube out of the nearby container and put it in her mouth while she waited for his answer.

His eyes shot up to hers. "You mean – when did I first know how I felt?"

"Yeah."

He put the carton down and placed his spoon inside it, turning his eyes to the window and the dense darkness of the night. "I think that night when we went out on the date…I don’t know, maybe right after that. I went out with that other girl, and all I could think about was you." He looked back at her and shrugged. "I haven’t stopped thinking about you since."

How am I not supposed to dissolve into mush over that? She lowered her eyes to the floor, feeling a blush creeping into her face.

"How about you? When –"

She twirled her hair around her finger, flipping through her memories like photos in an album. "You know, I don’t think there was one big moment when I knew. I think it was a gradual build up…and then I had this dream…" She laughed, remembering.

He leaned forward. "A dream? About me?"

She nodded. "Yeah…it was a pretty intense dream, too. It was the day I went to the set with you, and you did your first love scene with Olivia."

"Wow." He puffed out a long breath. "If I’d known it was that easy, I’d have taken you to the set a long time ago!"

She reached across, swatting him on the shoulder. "It wasn’t because we were on the set. It was because I was seeing this…this side of you that I’d never seen before. It made me think about how it could be…for us." Her eyes traveled over him, admiring the way he looked in the candle light. "I’d never thought about you that way before. You were stuck in the friend zone with me."

She helped herself to another cherry.

"So…what happened in the dream?" His voice dropped, a tone she’d begun to recognize coming through loud and clear.

She shook her head. "No. It’s too embarrassing."

"Come on. You know you can tell me anything."

She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. The air between them crackled with tension, and she knew what she was about to reveal would only intensify it.

"Ok. In the dream…I came home and you were studying your lines right there on the couch." She pointed up and over at the yellow couch behind their seats on the floor.

"And then?"

"You asked me to read Olivia’s lines back to you." Stop it, she told herself when the uncontrollable urge to throw her body on top of his struck again. "Which I did…and you were saying this really romantic, beautiful stuff…"

He nodded, his mouth curled into a smile. "Drake’s pretty smooth. Not as smooth as me, of course…"

"Of course. Anyway – when you stopped, all I could think about was how much I wanted to –" She broke off, nervous.

"To what?"

"To kiss you."

"Why didn’t you?" He looked at her as if he was in a trance.

Her voice was barely above a whisper. "Who says I didn’t?"

He pushed himself forward on the floor until his knees were touching hers. "Show me."

She sighed. "Joey…"

He pressed a finger against her lips, silencing her. "Show me." Never had any voice been more seductive, any words more honeyed and inviting than those two were to Rachel.

She pressed herself against him, wrapping her hands through his dark hair. "It was like…this." She pulled him closer with her hands until the smooth texture of his lips burned into hers.

Only she didn’t wake up. And he didn’t stop.

The flickering flame ignited into a towering blaze within seconds. She knew, beyond logic or reason, that they wouldn’t stop, couldn’t stop, not even if they tried. This felt like an emergency, a three alarm call to delve into feelings long denied, feelings which pushed their way to the surface now with the desperation of a drowning person seeking air.

If they stopped, the consequences would be dire. Rachel felt that the universe would collapse into itself unless she felt his bare skin with her hands, unless his body filled hers.

He pulled her shirt off, kissing her until she felt weightless, mindless, the tether that held her to earth threatening to break.

The need to be together was an unstoppable force.

Lips together, tongues exploring, they fell back to the floor together. Breathless sounds punctuated every kiss like exclamation points.

She pulled his t-shirt off and let her hands slide over his slick skin.

"Is this a mistake?" She caught her breath when she he unhooked her bra.

"No." His lips brushed over her chest, each touch ratcheting up the heat inside her.

"Are you sure?" She unfastened his shorts, nearly breaking the snap.

"Yes."

He slid her bra off. She closed her eyes, letting him take over. After a long pause, she opened her eyes to see him staring down at her.

"What’s wrong?"

"Nothing." He shook his head. "Nothing at all. It’s so much better than I imagined."

"You’ve thought about this a lot?"

He stopped and gave her his best ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’ look. "Yeah. You could say that."

She closed her eyes again, gasping when his hand found her breast. His touch was nothing like she’d expected. There was none of the aggressive sexual confidence associated with his reputation. Instead it was soft, exploring, hesitant. He waited for her reaction before continuing.

"Is that good?" His other hand pulled her shorts down.

"Mmm-hmm." She wiggled out of her shorts and watched him fling them across the room. Then nothing. He looked down in shock.

"You’re not wearing anything under your shorts."

She merely smiled.

"Damn." He began to breathe faster. "I love what you’ve done with the place…"

"It’s called a Brazilian wax." She took his hand and placed it on her.

"You are the best girlfriend ever." His fingers glided over her smooth skin.

"I know." She made a mental note to give the waxer at her salon an extra good tip next time.

"I’m going to lose my mind if I don’t kiss you again." He settled himself on top of her.

"And again…and again…" She melted beneath him when his bare chest rubbed against hers. When his tongue slipped inside her mouth, warmth gathered inside her like an active volcano. With every touch, her entire body awakened, screaming a reply to his.

Then he stopped, ending the kiss and leaving her weak with yearning. She heard the sound of ice cubes clinking against each other, and opened her eyes to see him with his hand in the container.

He removed a single ice cube and held it teasingly over her burning skin. She shuddered, writhing underneath him as she waited for a sample of this tempting new experience.

He lowered it down in what seemed like a slow motion replay, until at last the tip of the ice cube touched her chest. A hiss escaped her lips when the sensations of fire and frost collided.

He dragged the ice cube down her chest, leaving a wet trail behind it. By the time he traced it over the swell of her breast, she was shaking with need.

The torture didn’t end when he moved the ice over her breast. The moment of relief was instantly interrupted by a pang of relentless want. While he rolled the ice over the aching center of one breast, he tormented the other with his tongue. She wrapped her fingers around his head, holding his mouth in place, refusing to let him stop the stream of pleasure.

He trailed the ice underneath her breast, then slowly down her abdomen. The heat of her skin had melted it to a fragment. He dropped the tiny piece of ice just below her belly button and took his mouth from her breast. She held her breath when he moved down. She shivered when he used his tongue to remove the remaining sliver of ice from her quivering body.

Her head was foggy and dazed - the prisoner of a body run wild with desires she’d never gratified until tonight. She wanted to ask him what he was planning next. She wanted to tell him that she’d only imagined the existence of feelings like this. But instead she gasped out the only words her spinning mind could string together.

"What have you done to me?" Her chest rose and fell with each shallow breath. He moved away from her before he answered.

"Only about half of what I’m going to do." He reached out and took the can of whipped cream in his hand. "Need to use this anyway, since the power’s out."

"Are you thinking what I’m thinking?" She felt her heart pulsing in her ears.

"I’m thinking dessert." He threw her a teasing smile. "You know how we both like to have ice cream before dinner?"

She could barely squeak out a reply. "Yeah."

"Dessert before the main course sounds good tonight." His fingertips tracked over her raised knee then up her leg, leaving a map of sensations on her skin. She bit her bottom lip and twisted like a nervous cat when he aimed the nozzle of the can at her hip. A line of whipped cream shot forth from the can, hitting her like a cool mist. Without hesitation, he lowered his head, his tongue darting out to lick the sweet substance from her waiting body.

She was panting, almost hypnotized by what he was doing to her. Her legs moved apart with a will of their own. She fell flat on her back and shut her eyes when she felt him moving closer. The only thing to be heard was her excited breathing and the rattling sound of the can when he shook it. She inhaled sharp and fast when he began to cover her most forbidden area with Reddi Whip.

A jagged moan tore itself from deep within her. It had been so long since…

And even then it hadn’t been like this. No, it was never like this. His mouth sought her and savored her like a connoisseur. The few times she’d experienced this in the past, she hadn’t known if her partner secretly disliked it or actually wanted to do it. But with Joey, there was no doubt. His enjoyment of it was obvious, allowing her to relax and receive what he was giving her.

But then, that was Joey. He helped you to unwind and enjoy the simple things. Not that there was anything simple about what he was doing to her at the moment.

His tongue swirled around her, finding places of heightened sensation that she’d never realized she possessed. He lapped the whipped cream off and went back for more, the wet warmth of his mouth seeking out every centimeter of her slick folds, summoning a flood of arousal that promised to throw her off the cliff. Wild from the intensity of his adept attentions, she let out a cry that could’ve raised Mr. Heckles from the dead.

He stopped, throwing her to the mercies of unsatisfied desire. "Rachel…did you…?"

She shook her head and exhaled her reply. "Not yet, but I’m close."

"I want to feel you around me when you do." He slid away from her and rolled over on his back, pulling her on top of him.

"Not yet." She licked a speck of whipped cream from the corner of his mouth. "I need to give you something first."

Without a word, she kissed her way down his body, feeling the way he tensed up when she approached the hard evidence of his excitement.

She wrapped one hand around him and took him into her waiting mouth. She was driven by a determination to give him a taste of the staggering bliss he’d given her. And she wanted it. She wanted to shower love every part of him.

She rolled her tongue around him, using her hand to stimulate him at the same time. He tossed beneath her, wrapping her hair around his hands when she lowered her head and took him deeper into her mouth. She could taste the salty-sweet proof that he was ready to explode.

"If you don’t stop, this is going to be all over in about one more minute." She took her mouth from him and looked up, surprised.

"Are you sure? I don’t mind if we keep this up until you finish."

"I want to finish together. Did you know you’re very good at that?"

She grinned. "So are you. You could be dangerous with that ability of yours." She slithered back up to kiss him again, the candles on the end table catching her eye. "Ready to ruin our friendship completely?"

"So ready, I’m about to burst."

She moved lower, dragging her breasts down his body as she went. She felt his eyes on her when she placed a knee on either side of him and raised herself up.

He put his hands on her hips and watched with anticipation as she lowered herself onto him, taking him inside her inch by inch. Just when she felt as if she couldn’t hold anymore, she realized that she was resting on top of him. He was all the way in. She kept herself completely still, letting the pressure build between them. When she could no longer restrain herself, she began to move.

He held back, letting her go at her own pace. His hands wandered over her body, stroking her breasts, her hips, reaching between their bodies to rub the sensitive spot that begged to be touched. When his hands gripped her aching breasts, she leaned forward to increase the friction. The pull and slide of every motion propelled her closer to fulfillment.

Again the candles on the end table flickered just within her reach. She sank down on him and stopped.

His eyes were glazed, staring up at her with a wordless question. She reached over and took one of the small paraffin candles in her hand and held it over him.

He shifted below her, a shuddering moan sounding in the back of his throat. He tried to move and she stopped him by tipping the candle just enough for a drop of wax to hit his chest.

"Where’d you learn to do that?" he gasped, urgency for her to continue fighting with a desire to prolong this ecstasy.

"I don’t know…it seemed like a good idea, so I tried it."

"I like your ideas." He caressed her legs and forced himself to be still. "But you’re killing me here…"

She tipped the candle again, another drop of wax sprinkling his chest. As the sensation of the melting wax heated his skin, she tightened herself around him and squeezed her legs against the sides of his body.

"Oh my God." He rotated his hips beneath her. Before he could say anything else, she dribbled molten wax halfway down his body, clamping herself around his swollen length.

He took the candle from her hand and pulled her down to him, demanding her lips for a kiss of stunning intensity. The kiss caught her completely off guard and she didn’t realize that he was flipping her over until her back touched the floor.

He wasted no time. He was on top of her, moving inside her in a way that assured they’d both find release within minutes, if not sooner. He pushed deeper, burying himself in her, their open mouths joined, seeking, their bodies colliding in shared passion.

He put his hand under her bottom, positioning her so that his every stroke would brush against her in the most pleasurable way. She rose and fell with him, feeling the tension spreading, growing, insistent on relief.

"I love you."

She tried to pull her mind back to the present moment. "What?"

"I love you." He pressed his lips on hers and she realized that he meant it. He pulled back and stared into her eyes. "So much."

Too senseless for rational thought, she opened her mouth and the truth poured out.

"Oh…" She gasped. "And I love you."

There were things they wanted to say to each other, but it was all lost in their jumbled cries as she went over the threshold.

The sight of her reaching the summit and the knowledge that he’d taken her there…the feel of her body tensing around him was all it took for him to join her.

It was over. They were alone in the dark apartment.

Neither of them moved. They didn’t speak. The implications of the words they’d said in the heat of an illogical moment saturated the quiet.

And both were left wondering if the other one actually meant it.

THE END

© Something Unexpected
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