"What are you doing, Elizabeth?"

"Why are you always asking me that?" Beth is frustrated by the question, mainly because she doesn't know the answer. Admittedly, it was a fair question. But she can't answer him because she doesn't know what she's doing or what she wants. She's afraid to know. She's afraid, eespite the crime and violence, that Rio's the best thing that ever happened to her.

Ever since that night she came home to find Rio and Dean in her dining room, both beaten and bloodied, Rio challenging her to shoot, they'd reached a strange truce, timidly picking up their partnership where they left off. Which is what brought him to her house, uninvited as usual. She is waffling on a new job and Rio needs her decision, leaning against her bureau as if he has all the time in the world. She's across the room from him, standing next to her bed, pretending to ignore the intimacy of Rio in one of the most personal spaces in her home.

Beth looks down, unable to maintain eye contact as Rio studies her face. She's losing her bearings, feels the live wire of this thing between them getting dangerously close. Working together means money coming in, which of course Beth likes, but she also likes the warm sensation that spreads through her whenever they are together. She likes it more than she should. Like right now. She exhales deeply, reminding herself who she has to be to him. Distributor, that's it.

"You should leave," she finally replies, too breathy for her own good.

"Is that what you want?"

One thing Rio learned is to always prepare. For the unexpected. For mistakes. For the variability of human behavior. When he started working with Beth he had planned for every possibility. Except for one. He never planned on this woman turning his world upside down, sending him into a beautiful chaos. She couldn't be more confusing. She's saying no to this job but she chose this life of crime, chose him. That night when Beth had a chance to shoot him, she didn't. She chose him. Maybe even wanted him like he wanted her.

He'd thought about fucking Beth since that day she left pearls in his warehouse. At first, it was an offhand thought, then it became more persistent. More often than he cared to admit he dirty-dreamed of her naked except for those pearls.

It's this spiral of thoughts that make Rio move to her, slide a hand on her cheek. Beth should back up but instead she breathes him in, crisp and dark and…comforting. It's the middle of the afternoon but the moment is timeless, everything around them fades and blurs. The air is charged, complicit, crackling with desire and possibility.

Beth has time to say stop. She doesn't. She wants to live in this moment for the rest of her life. Her skin vibrates as he glides his thumb over her lower lip. It's erotic and sweet at the same time. A hint, a tease. Sparks of pleasure zip across her skin, settle between her legs.

He presses his lips to hers, gentle and firm, tender and hungry. Beth sighs, a whispery request to do it again, do it more. Rio accepts the invitation, moves against her, kisses her harder. A hint of his tongue. A nibble on her lips.

He tastes like he looks. Strong. Primal. Dangerous. Beth gives right back, urgency in her touch. Soon the kiss becomes a blur of heat and need and hands and lips.

Rio travels down the column of her throat, mapping her with kisses. She lets her head fall. His thumb sweeps over the curve of her breast, back and forth. She shudders so he does it again. She rubs against him, trying to relieve the pulsating ache that only he can fix. The outline of his erection proof that she's affecting him as much as he's affecting her.

He kisses her lower, between her breasts and lower still on her stomach through her shirt. It's only then that Beth realizes he's on his knees, looking up at her as if she ordered him there. She wants to ask him what he's doing. But she would let him do anything, everything.

Rio takes her silent permission. His hands run up and down her legs, help her step out of her clothes. His fingers brush over her, tease her with their lightness. He leans forward to kiss her thighs, moving higher and higher. Still teasing, nipping, his playfulness at odds with the man who pointed a gun at her more than once.

And then he kisses her hard, in her center, and Beth loses the ability to think or stand as sensations claim control of her muscles. Rio circles an arm around her to support her. She's the most intoxicating thing he's ever tasted. He drenches her in wild, hot kisses, his tongue stroking and devouring her. Beth pushes her hips against his mouth, seeking more friction, moaning and panting, grabbing his head. He urges her on with his pace, with his fingers, and it's hardly necessary because her world is already exploding into a million pieces of light.

Rio smiles as he retraces kisses up her body. He reaches her mouth and she gets more turned on by the taste of herself. She bites his lip. Hard. His hips jerk. He likes it when she's rough.

He guides her down onto the bed, peeling off all their clothes. Rio savors the view of Beth spread naked in front of him. Commits it to memory. There is nothing like a fantasy becoming reality. It's a rush, a high, that you want to remember forever. Beth shivers as he stares at her with fire in his eyes. She was so seen. Isn't this what she always wanted?

Kneeling between her legs, he sinks inside her. Even with his narrow waist he spreads her wider and starts moving, slow at first. With each thrust Beth moans. She digs her nails into his back, moves her hips to match his. Neither of them hold anything back. They go hard, they go slow, they go fast. It's beautiful and primal, the only way it could be between them.

Rio braces his weight on his hands so he can watch her expression twist with exquisite torture.

"You're so beautiful, Elizabeth." Rio is not entirely sure where this affection comes from, ignores the pull on his heart with each syllable.

Those four words undo Beth. The world disappears as she comes again. Rio pumps faster, harder, more furiously until everything turns into a white-hot blur. He collapses onto Beth before rolling over.

He turns to look at her. She's sweaty and so is he. Her eyes are glossy and her cheeks flushed. The look on her face is dreamy happiness and Rio can't think of anything else to do other than kiss her tenderly.

Later, he wakes up with a raging hard on, Beth tracing her fingers over the ridges of his firm stomach.

"I could help you with that," she whispers. How does he do this to her? Make her fearless? Rio pulls back to look at her, arching an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? How's that, sweetheart?"

She circles a hand around his length. Long, thick, perfect.

Rio groans at her touch. She grips him hard in one hand, using her tongue masterfully, up and down, all while making the sexiest little noises, letting him know she's enjoying this as much as he is.

He looks at down at the surreal sight of her lips on him, her tongue stroking him, tasting him, a wicked look in her pretty blue eyes. He wants to go deeper, pull her head closer to him, but Beth doesn't need or want his direction. So, he takes the pleasure she's giving. And then he feels her relax and take all of him.

Rio starts losing grip on his control and thrusts his hips, his vision blurring as his climax builds.

"I'm coming." It's part statement part question, zero embarrassment at the quickness.

Beth nods and sucks and strokes harder as an orgasm blasts through him.

The next time they wake up, she rides him. He loves the position, how amazing she looks straddling him, taking him in. He loves how he can watch her, moaning, rocking, grinding. The way her breasts bounce, her hair swings, her nails dig into his chest.

When they wake up for good, he's the first to speak.

"It's different between us, you know that, right?"

The look in his eyes is intense and meaningful.

"I know."