Oh, God help her!
She hadn't even gotten into the elevator yet but she could already tell, she was in for quite the day.
She tugged on the hem of her navy blue pencil skirt as she disappeared into the elevator. Her navy blue pencil skirt was short enough to reveal her long legs yet long enough that she wasn't showing everybody certain things she'd rather they didn't see. Her low cut blouse was loosely tucked into her skirt and the v-neck was low enough to keep a certain someone enticed yet conservative enough to still be professional. Her red heels were just high enough to generously display her long legs but low enough that she wasn't tripping over her own two feet.
"Good Morning, Ilsa."
The powers that be obviously weren't feeling very merciful because there he was standing at the base of the stairs in nothing more than a pair of khaki cargo pants and hiking boots. She smiled as she walked over to him and pressed her lips to his. She could feel his hands tangle in her hair as she wound hers around his stomach, pulling him closer.
"Keeping things interesting today," Chance whispered, tracing the soft line of her collar bone as they pulled away.
"Says the one without the shirt." Ilsa whispered, pulling away from him completely. "Going for a jog?"
"Nice morning, I figure why not." Chance shrugged.
He pressed a kiss into her forehead before he headed for the elevator to go for a morning run. Ilsa smiled as she continued to her office to get some work done before thoughts of shirtless Chance invaded her thoughts and shut down all basic bodily functions.
"Hey."
She looked up at the sound of his voice and smiled at the sight of a tired and sweaty Chance leaning against the doorway of her office. She stood up and walked around her desk, reaching out to gently touch his cheek before she pressed her lips to his just as she had not half an hour ago.
"Go shower," She whispered, pulling away and walking away from him, an impish smile on her face. "You smell."
Chance laughed as he winked at her before heading up the stairs to take a shower. He walked into his bathroom, grabbing a towel and clothes along the way. As he started the shower and turned to shave, he couldn't help but smile at the thought of the beautiful billionaire downstairs.
Ilsa was far from what he had thought her to be. She wasn't just a trophy wife.
Correction, she wasn't a trophy wife at all and he got the feeling that if Marshall had ever thought of her that way, Ilsa would have killed him before the CIA could even think about him. She had nearly killed him for thinking that way.
She was beautiful.
There was absolutely no doubt about that at all. She was beautiful and the more time he spent with her, the more he was starting to see what her husband did. He was starting to see the strong woman behind the beauty, the woman who despite the money and expensive clothes, simply wanted to help people. A woman who saw something in him that he didn't see in himself.
His relationship with Katherine had meant something to him but it had been brief. It had been one of those relationships that he'd always remember but one that didn't last long enough to really go any farther than a brief kiss on the docks before he put her in a boat to keep her away from the world he had dragged her into.
Ilsa was someone different.
She was the woman who saw the man behind the guard he had worked so hard to keep up.
After he was through shaving, he stepped into the shower and let the water work the kinks out of his neck. He couldn't help but notice that the usually comfortable water pressure was causing an uncomfortable and ever intensifying sting in his back.
"What the-?" Chance mumbled as he got out and quickly dressed in his jeans, leaving his shirt off as he turned his back to the mirror and noticed that his skin was turning red and the sting was turning into an intense, uncomfortable burn. "Sunburnt, great."
xxx
"Ilsa!"
She looked up from her computer screen as he entered her office in nothing more than a pair of jeans. His damp hair was a mess, a towel hung around his neck and the pained expression on his face made her jump up from her desk. He turned and let her see the raw, burnt skin of his back. It was obvious that jogging in San Francisco without a shirt was a really bad idea, even if she had enjoyed the sweaty, shirtless Chance that had appeared her doorway afterward.
"I have something that'll help." Ilsa smiled as she walked over to the plant in the corner of the room and broke off a stalk of the thick green plant. "Aloe."
He watched as she squeezed a thick gel from the stalk and set it down on her desk before rubbing the thick, sticky gel between her hands. She gingerly rubbed the cool, sticky gel on his back, careful not to press too hard in order to avoid hurting him.
"Hmmm." Chance groaned as the cool gel neutralized the intense burning in his back.
Ilsa smiled as she tenderly rubbed his back, "Better?"
"Much."
She smiled as she plucked the towel from his neck and dried her hands as he turned to face her, "Glad I could help."
"Thank you," He smiled as she wrapped the towel around his neck again.
"Your welcome." Ilsa kissed him quickly before returning to her desk to finish her work. "When you're all better, I'll do that properly."
Chance grinned widely at her insinuation as he turned and left the room, his sunburn suddenly much better than before. Ilsa watched him leave as she sat down to finish her work. If they kept up at this rate, they were both headed for trouble.
The fact that she couldn't touch him only made her want to touch him even more than she already did.
Did he have to be so unbelievably sexy?
She was going to go with the safe answer and say that yes he did have to be sexy.
There was something unbelievably sexy about her blue-eyed colleague who loved to walk around sans shirt. It wasn't that he couldn't pull it off, God knows the man could pull off the whole shirtless and sexy thing, she was just ready to kiss him senseless as it was and now with his sunburn, not being able to kiss him senseless was going to torture her until it cleared up.
Oh yes, the next couple of days were guaranteed to be an absolute blast!
God only knew how she was going to survive the next couple of days without being able to kiss him senseless like she so desperately wanted to do.
xxx
The next couple of days weren't easy for Chance or Ilsa, especially for the latter considering the fact that she had to rub his back with aloe everyday until his sunburn cleared up and when she was done, she wanted nothing more than to kiss him senseless. Watching him come down the stairs everyday without a shirt to let her treat his sunburn was torture for a woman like Ilsa, who liked to kiss a man when she wanted. Although the view was spectacular, it just wasn't the same, not being able to kiss him every day-sometimes multiple times a day, depending on what she chose to wear to work that day.
"Good Morning Mister Chance." She greeted cheerfully on the third or fourth day of the shirtless-sunburnt Chance torture she's endured in order to kiss him senseless without causing him excruciating pain. Unable to hide her disappointment, she noted the army green t-shirt he's wearing with his dark jeans. "I see you've decided to wear a shirt today."
Chance smirked at her obvious disappointment, his eyes unconsciously scanning her outfit. "I see you've decided on an outfit that will guarantee my place in hell."
Her outfit was meant to torture him, give him a little taste of the torture she's endured for three awful days. The black silk tank top is tight enough to accentuate her natural curves but loose enough that she could still breath. The dark red pencil skirt with the slit in the back is short but as per usual, is appropriate for work. The v-neck is deep enough that it shows a generous amount of cleavage without showing everything. The daring red and black outfit that was just dark enough to be appropriate and not trashy, was an outfit that guaranteed every red-blooded male within a twenty mile radius a place in hell, including Chance.
"Well, you've tortured me for three days by going without a shirt," Ilsa teased him as she slipped out of her black stilettos. "I figured revenge was in order."
The expletive that left his mouth is one he's tried to hold back, but good grief, here she is in a red and black outfit looking sexier than he's ever seen her and he is a man for crying out loud. Expecting him to hold back would be the rough equivalent to asking Guerrero not to torture people. It's just not possible.
"Really?" Chance asked her, "Because it seems more like you're trying to kill me and every other red-blooded male within a twenty mile radius."
Ilsa shrugged as she reached down and picked up her stilettos before making her way to her office, unaware of his blue eyes following her every move. She was just about to close the door so that she could get some work done when he came sprinting across the room and into her office.
"You win," Chance whispered as he wrapped his arms around her, "I tortured you, you got your revenge. Please let me kiss you now."
"Please do." Ilsa told him, grinning like a love-sick school girl.
She giggled as he lifted her off of the ground and captured her lips in a heated, intense but playful kiss. As she slipped her hands into his collar and felt of the warm but dry skin of his back, the thought occurred to her that maybe his sunburn was good for something.
"I'm thinking that sunburn might have been good for something after all." Chance mumbled when they pulled away for necessary air.
"Me too." Ilsa laughed as she leaned in for another kiss.
Oh yes, that sunburn was definitely good for something!
I wrote this story for my new and amazing friend, niagaraweasel, who is a lot more awesome than she thinks she is! She gave me the idea for a sunburnt Chance in order to give Ilsa a more hands-on feel of the amazing sexiness that is his body :)
Thank you, Mark Valley, for being the sexy hunk of man you are, without you... well us Christopher Chance fans would have nothing to fantasize about-at least nothing worth fantasizing about anyway! Modern day James Bond? Personally, I find Chance to be much sexier than James Bond, hands down!
Love ya,
RobertDowneyJrLove