1. Sundress (Big Days)

Robin traces the tips of her fingers across his back, from his broad, well-muscled shoulders to his tiny waist, right the way down to the taught, rounded buttocks. She feels him move inside her, the weight of his hips pinning her to the bed, and she moans aloud. She's missed this.

Maybe she should blame the sundress? But hey, it did get her that relapse sex after all. It just wasn't with Ted.

And Barney knows her body so well, far better than either Ted or Don ever would. He instinctively knows when she's on that climb, when all she wants to do is burst with it. He also knows when to hold back, when to tease her, when to murmur dirty words into her ear and mouth her nipples and leave her writhing and shaking beneath him.

Not having to think, not having to feel, just having to be – his hands lifting her ass, his lips pressed against her collarbone – this is bliss for her. She's wallowed in self-pity long enough.

"Thank you," she says, maybe. Maybe not out loud.

He goes to pull away but she captures him, smacking that perfect bum, and yanks him into her again. "Want you. Now," she growls.

For an instant he looks up at her and she sees his face in shadow, blue eyes almost luminescent in the darkness. There's a ghost of a smile on his lips as he murmurs, "So demanding," and thrusts forward, hard, both surprising and delighting her.

It's then she lets her head drop back as the pulse grows inside her, consumes her and rips everything else away – all the darkness, all the sorrow, all the frustration. It's happening to him to, she knows, as they fall into ecstasy together, perfectly synchronised.

2. Hiding from the past (Cleaning House)

It's easier this time. Barney doesn't freak out on her, doesn't go all weird and awkward. He's got other stuff on his mind, after all. Determined that this slip not become a "thing" that gets them into trouble with her friends, Robin continues to date other guys.

She doesn't need to ask Barney if he is too - dating other women, that is, for his definition of "dating". But his head just so not in the game and his strike-out rate is noticable. Robin understands that all too well. There's nothing like Daddy issues to knock the Yips right back into you.

Robin sees it as her duty to do something about that. After all, Barney did get her out of her cheetos phase.

Although having sex up against one of his motivational posters in his office wasn't how she'd planned it. For starters, the glass feels cold and fragile against her back and rump and she's a little conscious that they might crack it, no matter how inventive Barney is, nor how much stamina he has to hold her in place.

And actually, okay, the danger's kind of a turn-on, and when he grins at her it's like he knows what she's thinking.

Being able to see him clearly this time is also kind of a turn-on. They don't kiss – kissing leads to feelings and weirdness – but his grin pulls her own lips into a smile and she wonders what it would feel like to have his tongue in her mouth for a change.

But then he does that thing where he drops her a couple of inches, right down onto him, and he rams up hard against that sweet spot inside her, making her yelp loud enough to be heard right down to the elevator.

"Shh!" he hisses, and she laughs.

"You did that on- oh!- purpose!" She gasps.

"You know it…" He nods, but his words fade out as he speeds his thrusts.

3. Letting go (Unfinished)

The hurt Don caused, the sheer pain of it, it sneaks up on her. Just when Robin's sure that she's over him, something will happen that spins her right back down to the bottom of the pit. It's not like with Ted, not like with Barney. This time it feels like it'll never be over.

And it's not like she even wants Don back. She just wants to keep screaming in his face… or over his answering machine. The anger boils over inside her.

Barney looks up at her with something like respect in his expression. She's secured his wrists tightly to the headboard, using a couple of his silk ties, because she loves the way the muscles in his arms strain against the restraints.

This is the last time, she tells herself. They've done this three times now (well, not the bondage, just the sex) and it's becoming a pattern. But she needs to get laid so badly, and nobody in the bar seemed good enough – or it was too complicated, or she couldn't be bothered. Whatever answer makes her feel a little better about herself. But it would be a mistake to believe that Barney an easy option. Just look at how he wore Ted down recently, getting him to work for GNB again? Robin doesn't want to be on the end of that kind of tenacious obsession, she really doesn't.

Then again, at the same time she's got some serious aggression stored up and Barney seems more than willing to let her to take it out on him. Her fingers press into him, leave rose-petal marks over his skin that might be bruises by morning, and she rides him way too hard, like she can get back at Don somehow, through him.

Eventually Barney protests a little and he squeals like a girl when she pinches him. That's what finally gets her off and for a moment she thinks she'll leave him hanging but then he jerks inside her and it sends a second wave of blossoming warmth through her core.

When she finally floats back down to earth and opens her eyes, Robin sees him looking up at her, wide-eyed and sorrowful. Her stomach lurches in confusion at his reaction.

But then he grins, and she wonders if she's imagined that look, and she laughs along with him in a kind of joyful relief. Barney doesn't ask her if this was about Don. He would never do that. And she wonders how he always judges her so well in the bedroom when, out of it, he could never read her at all.

4. A win. (Subway wars)

This is why three times was a mistake. Robin knows that she's translated sex with Barney into a more intimate attachment and gets all twisted up inside when he fails to listen to her problems.

She gets twisted up and way more angry than she has the right to be. She's pissed at him, even after she's won the race across the city to Gregor's. What ever happened to Bros before ho's? What happened to him being her friend, even?

Well, she's done with that. Max is nice, charming, good looking, kind, sweet, successful, considerate and normal. Max isn't a dark path to something even more painful than she's got now.

And most importantly, Max seems happy to bitch with her about Becky. Stupid, empty-headed, way-too-pert, fame-hog Becky. Max is just delightful in the way he tears into Becky, the way he's totally on her side.

That's what Robin needs – somebody who's totally on her side, who'd make sure that she gets the win when she needs it. That, and sex, which she's pretty sure Max is going to be awesome at too.

She's more relieved than she'll ever tell when Ted and Barney leave the bar and she can suggest going back to Max's place.