Disclaimer: No. Just no.
"Chuck, you know it won't work."
"What?"
He tore his pensive gaze from the glass doors of the Buymore and fixed it on the blonde who'd appeared beside him. He frowned at her when she gave him a somewhat exasperated look, gesturing to the door – or more accurately, the figure of the woman who'd just left through it.
"That," she said simply, as if it explained everything. "Dating a new woman. It's never worked for you before."
He gave her a deadpanning expression and turned his eyes away again, watching Morgan try to sell a rather large man a blender.
"Thanks for that reminder," he replied dryly. Sarah frowned. "Doesn't matter anyway, I wasn't thinking about it."
"Of course you weren't," she sighed out, rolling her eyes. She leant over the Nerd Herd counter directly opposite him to catch his attention, in such a way that they were only inches apart. He quirked an eyebrow at her, but didn't attempt to look away.
"I really wasn't. The thought stopped crossing my mind after you gave me the same speech for the third time," he said. "All that 'you're an important piece of intelligence, and any woman who showed interest would need both her background and her motives checked' stuff. Kind of made all thoughts of romance lose their appeal."
Sarah pursed her lips.
"It's not my fault," she defended simply, shrugging ever so slightly. "And I really am sorry. But it's true – you're an important asset, and there's a large possibility that any potential suitor has opposing motives."
He deadpanned again.
"Because god forbid any woman ever like me just because I'm a nice guy," he commented dryly. She frowned at the statement – she hadn't meant anything like that. "I mean, maybe – just maybe – there's a girl out there who might like me for me. But no. It's always an evil plot to get all the big secrets out of my brain. There's a clear way to weed out the threats against American security – arrest any woman who's ever approached me. Again, thanks."
"I didn't mean it like that, and you know it."
"Doesn't matter, because I wasn't thinking about it," he told her simply, shrugging slightly. Her eyes narrowed.
"You don't lie very well, Chuck."
"Good thing," he stated matter-of-factly. "If that's a fact, then you should know that I'm not lying right now."
His expectant stare unnerved her slightly, and she bit her lip, staring straight back. He put one hand under his chin, holding his head up slightly, and cocked his head to the side, waiting for her to speak.
"Which is funny, because I could've sworn you were looking at that woman as if you were very deeply interested," she persisted quietly. He quirked an eyebrow again.
"Oh please," he replied wryly. "If I didn't see Carina that way, I sincerely doubt there was any interest in that woman whatsoever. She really just wasn't my type."
She couldn't ignore that logic, so she relented and softened her gaze a reasonable amount, giving him a small, rather satisfied smile.
"Good," she said. "Besides, she really wasn't that pretty."
"No, she really wasn't," Chuck agreed, and the small light in his eyes, along with the smile that was almost falling on his lips, had her wondering briefly exactly what he was thinking right then. "You're playing very well today, Sarah," he commented casually, and she gave him a questioning look. "Your cover. You're playing it very well today. More so than normal."
"Really?" she asked, copying him and cocking her head to the side. He nodded, although barely, because they were still very nearly touching. She had a feeling that if they had physical contact in any way at that moment and that proximity, there was a large maybe that they'd wind up working some very convincing, very unplanned, and very inappropriate-for-their-actual-relationship, cover work. She wondered if he knew that too.
"Mmhmm," he replied wordlessly. "Coming in to see me on your day off, Sarah? Not to mention, for a second there, anyone other than me would've believed you were actually jealous."
She smirked.
"Good thing I'm a better liar than you, then," she noted smugly, but he merely smirked right back at her, staring straight into her eyes.
"Oh, I don't think you are," he said slowly. "Not to me, anyway. I'm just a remarkably oblivious person ninety percent of the time. I happen to think you are a bit jealous, actually. I think you really kind of crave my attention."
"No wonder Casey thinks you're deluded," she commented after a moment, refusing to let the smile fade from her face. Far from swaying him, though, it only seemed to make him more comfortable with what he was saying.
"You see, every time I show interest in another woman, Sarah," he explained softly, and she had to lean forward to hear him, because his voice was that low. Where there had been inches between them before, there was now only centimetres. "You seem to do something with our cover that goes above and beyond the necessary course of action."
"Yeah, right," she scoffed lightly, but she couldn't stop the faint tinge of pink that flushed across her face. He stared at her boldly, and she bit her lip at the uncommon glint in his eyes. "Like what?"
"Oh, I can think of a few things," he said casually. "But of course, on the assumption that I'm wrong, and you aren't jealous, I guess I'll just have to wait for that one woman who doesn't show interest in me just because I'm an important governmental asset. I'm sure she'll be beautiful, unexpected, intelligent… I think she'd pass the background check. The motives, though… that's questionable."
"You're talking as though you've already met this girl, Chuck," Sarah breathed, and the closeness now was intoxicating. Master of playing a cover though she was, she couldn't help but glance down to his lips quickly. The small upturn at the corner of his mouth showed her he'd caught her, and she couldn't help swallowing tensely.
She saw his hand move from beneath his chin, and somewhere in her mind she knew, beyond the incoherency that came from their proximity, exactly what he was going to do. As an agent, she knew that she should have been moving away from him right about then, if she hadn't earlier. Both fortunately and unfortunately, she couldn't find it in herself to care.
"You could say that."
"…Should tell Casey to check out her record…" she whispered, feeling her eyelids droop.
Internally, she was wondering why he hadn't just kissed her already, because being that close and being tempted in such a way was nothing less than torture. If it were anyone else, she would've thought they were toying with her, but it was Chuck who was doing it, and she knew that he wouldn't be doing so without a reason.
He had an ulterior motive for dragging on their almost kiss that could maybe make them something more than just a cover, and it wasn't just that Casey was somewhere in the same store. And that was why she realised his point.
He was keeping her no more than an inch away from him, leaving her there, because their relationship was based on 'almost's and 'maybe's, and she needed to realise that it couldn't last forever.
"I think her record's clean, as far as this'll go," she heard him say quietly. She could feel the heat of his fingers, nearly touching the skin of her jaw, and she bit her lip quietly. "I might ruin it."
"I don't think she'll mind," she whispered heavily, and she could see him smiling slightly through her half-closed eyes.
"I hope not," he replied, and she almost didn't hear him.
The fact that she'd been waiting for it didn't make the feeling of his fingertips trailing down her jaw line seem any less intense, or stop the hot flush from seeping through her. It was doubled moments later, when his lips brushed gently against hers, and she barely restrained herself from letting out a moan. Yet, she still couldn't stop a small whimper from escaping her, and she felt him smile gently against her lips.
Several more moments of this pleasing contact passed between them, where the only touching parts of them were his lips on hers and his fingers on the side of her face. They broke apart briefly when Morgan gave them a loud wolf whistle, and they glanced over to see that his customer was gone, probably having been offended in some way or another by the little man. Chuck smiled momentarily at his friend before looking back to Sarah, who stared at him coolly.
She gave him a small smile, and her eyes glinted curiously.
"Jealousy, huh?" she asked softly, leaning towards him again. "You were right," she confessed. "There are few things I crave, Chuck, but you're definitely one of them."
He grinned, and she let out a shaky breath.
"No more maybes, no more almosts," she breathed, and she barely heard him let out a soft chuckle before she pressed her lips against his again.
R&R?
