Author's Note: None of these characters are mine and neither is Haven. If that was so, you'd have to watch it on HBO, or Skinemax. I make not profit off this and have no desire to do so, I just want to have fun. I may pull the characters a little OUT of character from time to time but my goal is to keep them as close as possible while I draw the story along. I'm starting with the intention of keeping close around the events of episodes as they come along, but again, I may have to veer off. We all have our stories to tell. This is the first time I've ever tried to complete and publish a fanfic so constructive criticism and technical pointers are welcome.

This picks up with Season 4, episode 8 "Crush"

"My feelings for Audrey are complicated. But I'm not that selfish." That wasn't really true but Duke wasn't going to get all open hearted touchy feely with Nathan right now.

"You know, it's funny. In some ways you're actually one of the least selfish people I know."

Duke felt that clench in the space not too far under his heart that was starting to get familiar. "You're actually the second person to tell me that today."

"Who was the first?"

"Someone a lot cuter than you." And Duke needed to NOT let her move off his boat or out of his life. After stripping off the diving suit he made his phone call. Not surprisingly it rang once and went to voice mail. She was still pissed. He knew her though. He knew she would listen to his message. He knew all too well the effect he had on her. He'd played only lightly with the frisson of energy that always ignited around them. He hadn't really played fair. But protecting her had become a priority along the way and that meant from himself. From curses that were worse than silver eyes and almost uncontrollable strength and urges. From a history of horrible things happening to the women he cared about. Duke wasn't selfless. Because he planned on keeping Jennifer. On his boat. In his bed and in his arms.

Jennifer paced and ranted. Mostly she ranted out loud and kept her more confusing thoughts to herself. Because the confusing thoughts were tangled with memories and sensations she was going to have difficulty shaking off in the coming who-knew-how-long it would take to get over it all. Get over Duke and the fact that HE had never once kissed her, just some kid named Tyler using Duke's face and mouth and scent and taste. And how she had ignited anyway. How she ignited every time he touched her or stood close. Get over how Duke had carried her away from danger and stood between her and any threat from the day she had sprung him from the mental hospital. Hell, contrary to what he said was his nature he'd placed himself between almost everyone in Haven and danger every chance he got. So she wasn't special. No matter how she wanted to believe that in sending her away he was trying to protect her. What she felt was on her and her alone, including her mixed up feelings about the end of his curse. And Duke obviously had a flame for Audrey going on. God, she'd been so stupid. But then that phone call when she had been collecting things from her birth family's home. Not wanting to deal with him she'd taken a shallow and not satisfactory enough revenge at rejecting his call. "I reject YOU, Duke!" But then, she couldn't listen to his voicemail fast enough.

"Jennifer, I'm sorry. I was stupid. I don't want you to leave the Rouge. Please. Get your stuff and come back. I swear I'll explain when I get there. Ah, please be there."

That last sentence was so soft and desperate feeling. It was so damn sincere and piled onto her confusion. But she did what he said. Because, apparently she was stupid and pathetic. But at least she could make up her mind - unlike certain self-proclaimed bad ass businessmen.

Duke neared the dock and said a silent prayer of thanks to whoever was listening that Jennifer's car was there. He had no idea what to say to her. How to explain why he wanted her to stay or why she should. Foremost on his mind was the incident when Tyler had used his body to kiss her. To try to land some claim on her for obvious reasons that still pissed him off. Because even in the back seat of his own body he'd tasted and felt her. Tyler's quick arousal and reaction to her had only been aided by his own. And he was a little bothered by the notion that he didn't feel very sorry that the kid was dead. Tyler's body was ruined but his soul had apparently never been in very good shape to begin with to treat the lives of others so shabbily. He wondered if she knew it would be different when he kissed her. Competing for space in his crowded brain right now was the sight of Wade leaning over her, going for her neck with the knife in his hand and abusing Jennifer on his mind. And just the memory of that burned a clarifying light for him. He loved Audrey. She had inspired him and believed in him. And he loved her. But it wasn't the way Nathan loved her. His feelings and reactions to her weren't the same as those he had for Jennifer. He didn't know if he loved Jennifer. But he damn sure wanted to find out. So he wasn't selfless. And in about forty five seconds she was going to find out just how selfish he could be.

He could hear her as soon as he got below deck. And if he wasn't on such a serious mission he would have laughed. She was always so utterly herself. Possibly one of the bravest people he'd met and so full of fire and life. And she didn't hold back in her expression.

"Make up your mind – Businessman!" Jennifer wheeled around for another good pacing and ranting combo and stopped when she saw Duke.

"Hi!" Hell! How long had he been there? How much had he heard? She straightened. It was too late to pretend she hadn't been having a one sided ass-chewing session with him. She could do it in person too. Or she could if he didn't seem so different. He was even quieter than usual and looked like he had something to say. He HAD promised an explanation over the phone. She'd let him get it out and it had better be good.

So when he moved in and kissed her she was so completely unprepared for it, it felt like she was sinking in a hole that suddenly erupted in the boat underneath her and clinging to Duke was her only salvation. Because it was DUKE this time, not that awful kid Tyler. And while the scent and taste were both the same Duke's presence shot through her and coiled around her like one of those fire tornadoes in Australia. He released her and gazed down at her, like he was gauging her reaction or asking her permission. She swallowed to get her heart out of her throat and back where it belonged and decided that a kiss like that was better than any explanation she was likely to hear from anyone ever in the history of ever and showed him what it was like when she really kissed him back. Not just accepted a kiss from Puppet Duke. She took in his gaze that had gone hot and even a little dark with something she wasn't sure of and reached to pull him back and kiss him back and not let him go any time soon.

Duke gathered her into his arms easily and smiled through the continuing kiss. She was tiny and fiery like a C4 explosive and he wondered if she would appreciate the comparison. He felt her hands caressing his neck, tunneling into his hair where it was gathered. One hand clasped onto his shoulder while she tugged at the band with the other. At the same time she was doing this mindscrambling suck on his tongue that was going to cause things to go a lot faster than he had intended. He adjusted his hold on her, bringing her flush against him with her legs wrapping around him as he dragged his hand down her body, gripping her ass and forcing her even closer, grinding her against his cock right at her sensitive spot. She released his mouth and gasped, her head tilting back and her neck arching toward him. He took the opportunity to regain control, fastening onto her beautiful jawline and the delicate skin just beneath, earning a contented purr and slightly alarming wiggle from her. He pivoted and pressed her against the wall, using it for leverage as he worked to get her boots off and start on her blouse. Her own hands were successful in removing his hair band and starting immediately on the buttons to his shirt. Once the boots were off she wrapped her legs back around him and used the wall for her own leverage, grinding against him as she moved her own head forward to pay him in kind for nibbling at her neck.

"Jesus! Jennifer!" If he didn't get her off the wall now he was going to pin her to it. She giggled at some private amusement and he spun away from the wall, finally getting her back to his room. Once she was standing in her bare feet he had to duck a little lower to kiss her and she was already ducking to finish his shirt one handed, the other already working on his pants button. In an apparent race to get each other dressed he would be winning. After all, he had her boots off. Finishing with her buttons he stripped off her jacket and blouse at once and unfastened her bra from the back while he tugged open the button to her jeans and started on the zipper. She had hit an obstacle with his under shirt and instead of letting her raise it he pulled off her bra and caught her wrists in one hand while he pulled at her jeans. When he couldn't get them down any further he knelt before her and yanked them the rest of the way off along with her panties, leaving her naked before him. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her navel, giving himself a calming breath and moment to regain control of himself. He eased back onto his haunches and gazed at her. He took in the play of light and shadow on her ivory skin, perfected with the odd freckle here and there. He committed to memory her tiny frame; every curve and dip and the shadowed rose of her nipples as they hardened and budded at his gaze. His hands braced her hips, one thumb softly stroking the taut, delicate skin inches from where her soft dark curls brought his gaze down to her sex; where he could see soft glistening folds waiting for him. He looked up to see the sun lighting her eyes with gold and lighting her hair with a dark red fire with gold burnishing. Her hands were stilled and grasped his shoulders. Her beautiful mouth parted and she breathed his name.

Jennifer's skin felt tingly all over and too tight by half. She couldn't catch her breath, not with Duke gazing up at her like that or with his hands grasping her hips with his fingers curled into her ass and his thumb doing something hypnotic at her hip bone.

"God, you're beautiful," he husked. And she was sure she blushed down to her toes. One hand released her hip and caressed upward. With his fingers fanned out he brushed the tips across her breasts and then brushed his knuckles gently across the under swell of each breast. He proceeded with a leisurely caress of his hand down the plane of her stomach and Jennifer couldn't suppress the tremor that went through her or the gooseflesh that erupted across her skin. He rose up fully onto his knees and kissed her in the space where her rib cage made an arch, using his tongue to taste her skin. He pressed his face against her there and nuzzled her.

"Jennifer, I, ah… If you want me to stop – now would be the time to tell me." Even as he said it he was trailing kisses like fire down her belly, pressing his tongue into her navel as one hand slipped around and gripped her thigh, gently urging her legs to part. Another hand rose to her inner thigh and hovered just at her mound.

Was he kidding? Did HE want to stop? "I don't. Don't stop." She couldn't manage much more than a whisper.

"Good. I really didn't want to." And then he touched her, feeling the slick wetness that had gathered between her legs and pressed a finger in as he leaned forward and took her clit in his mouth and sucked.

"Ohmigod!" Jennifer was suddenly struggling for balance and breath. Her fingers clawed into Duke's shoulders, neck and scalp and she ended up being completely anchored against him when he nudged one leg over his shoulder, and his free hand steadied her at the base of her spine. When he curved the finger inside her, finding that slightly swollen ridge of flesh and added another finger Jennifer lost her struggle for balance and collapsed backward onto the bed and used her breath to cry out her release. Duke followed and didn't let up, keeping her in that ecstatic state long enough to free his straining cock from his pants and get the condom on, bringing her back over the edge with the edges of his teeth on her clit and a stiffened tongue thrusting into her.

"Duke! Oh… Oh my GOD!" Jennifer wasn't a virgin, and this wasn't the first time she'd had a guy go down on her. But it had been a long time and her lovers few and far between. She hadn't graduated from Emerson with honors by being a party girl. And she hadn't landed a position at The Globe by sleeping her way there either. Being labeled a crazy person had left her out of the mood for sex for the last six months, not to mention reducing her opportunities. Her experience hadn't left her wanting at the time but Duke was starting to make her wonder just what she had been missing. No one had ever made her feel like her insides were melting by standing too close and no one had ever made her come so hard she felt like the ecstasy would tear her apart using just their mouth. Where were his hands? She loved his hands.

Just as the thought occurred to her she found his hands at her back, scooting her further back up the bed as he moved his mouth away and showered the sensitive skin of her inner thigh with nibbling kisses. He burned that trail up her body as he positioned himself over her and when he reached her breasts, his mouth closing over first one and then the other bringing her back to a panting need for more.

Duke held off from taking her as long as he could. He felt like a lost man finally found. Her body had arched for him and her voice had cried for him without guile or strategy. The way she'd clenched around his fingers and even on his tongue told him that while she thankfully wasn't a virgin she was also discerning with her lovers. She'd been honoring him with her trust from the moment she walked through his hospital door and helped him break out and as he made his way up from her breast to her neck he was reminded of just why she shouldn't trust him – Wade's cut. He stilled and gazed at it.

Jennifer felt the subtle shift in Duke, his stillness and wary tension pulling her out of her orgasm induced haze to look at him. He was gazing at her neck. At the cut his brother had put on her, moments before he had killed him. Her own breath stilled and his eyes raised to meet hers.

"I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault, Duke."

"Yeah, it is. In so many ways it is." His eyes closed ,he bent to administer the most tender kiss to the wound. Jennifer drew in a ragged breath and tried not to cry. Everything he'd done from the moment she'd got him out of the hospital had been to protect her. Including ordering her to get off his boat. He'd killed his own brother to protect her and didn't blame her for it or hold it against her. He'd been acting out of guilt and fear. She didn't know what to say.

He placed another soft kiss just below her ear. "But I'm not going to let anyone else hurt you again." And then he claimed her mouth again with his own and took her with one long thrust that had her gasping for breath. He was filling her a little too much and her ecstasy was slipping into the discomfort zone.

Duke felt her flinch and tremble beneath him and around him and blew a silent curse through his teeth. He repressed the urge to thrust again and rebalanced himself to free one hand, fondling her clit while he withdrew slightly to give her a chance to relax and adjust to him. When her breathing quickened again and her hips resumed their undulation he clasped her to him and rolled to his back, letting her set the pace and rhythm. And, if it was possible, hardening further with the sight of her poised above him. She was beautiful. Her ivory skin flushed and glowing with the sheen of perspiration and painted gold with the setting sun. She moved and her small breasts made a subtle bounce with her movement. Her rosebud mouth was parted in an inviting O and he didn't resist, he pulled her down and kissed her as he met her hips thrust for thrust. She freed herself from his grasp and her head fell back as her body bowed and this time her orgasm made her scream, her body clenching around him so tight he knew he didn't have much restraint left. He rose to meet her and captured her lingering cry with his mouth, reveling in the press of her breasts against his chest, holding her though the tremors of her climax only to change their position again. This time he didn't hold back and promised himself he would go over the edge with her.

As he rose above her she raised her knees further and opened herself more to him, her eyes closed and her mouth, now swollen from kissing curved into a smile. His hands found hers on the bed and clasped them there above her head. When he brought her back to the edge her eyes opened wide.

"Again?" He could only answer with another thrust, and yet another. Until they both went over that edge together, his name a whimpered prayer on her lips.

Long moments later when they were both recovered from their trembling, Duke fell to his side and withdrew from her to remove the condom. She protested his temporary departure to dispose of it and curled into him when he returned to pull down the covers and tuck them both in. He laid on his back and held her to him relaxing under the steadying rhythm of her heartbeat and brush of her breath. Her hand had come to rest on his stomach and he clasped it in his own hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing her delicate fingers before drawing one in, giving it a languorous suck and savoring the trace of her perfume that lingered on her wrist. She responded by pressing her own kiss to his chest. And he was surprised to find himself hardening for her again. She soon registered the same surprise.

"Again?" She repeated. He soon repeated his previous answer. This time he was able to spend more time with her. Lavishing her body with every kind of attention he'd thought of since he'd met her. When another condom joined the first he fell exhausted into bed with her. Jennifer fell asleep as soon as she was tucked against his body.

When he awoke he checked the time. He'd been asleep for an hour. Feeling restless he pressed a kiss to her cheek and eased out of bed, dressing and retrieving the hair tie as he went. He checked in on her before going topside to start retrieving her stuff. She was smiling in her sleep. He was pretty sure she would stay.