Venus was a solid warmth against him, her hands a ghosted pressure on his hips, breasts pressed lightly into his back, her body automatically mimicking the slight leans and turns of his as he kept the throttle light. The nearer he got to the town limits the more he goosed his speed, slowly letting the engine crank as he followed side streets out of town. Tig could feel the rolled edge of the helmet he'd carefully placed on her when she ducked her head into the windbreak of his shoulders, forehead turned down against the patch that lined his back.

"Gotta ride a bit, sweetheart." He dropped his feet at a stop light, holding his balance and turning the words out over one shoulder. "Want me to drop you off first?" Tig didn't really want to lose her warmth, the way she looped him with trusting arms. Easily balancing, he twisted around, taking in the windblown sight of her.

"And deprive me of a midnight drive?" She was smiling at the awkward way he was turned and the way his blue eyes tinted oddly behind the clear yellow lenses that covered them. "I am loathe to admit it but I enjoy cuddling into your back at eighty miles an hour, scared half out of my wits." Her smile faltered slightly and she bit against her bottom lip quickly. "Unless you'd rather. Whatever you need."

"I got what I need for now, Venus." Letting the bike idle, Tig worked himself out of his cut, draping the warm leather over the handlebars so that he could also remove the leather jacket he wore underneath it. "But you're gonna need this." The leather was warm from his body heat, the thickened smell of him inherently soothing as she pulled it on over the dressier and thinner leather jacket she'd worn. It was tighter in her shoulders than his, the line of it taut over the slope of her breasts. He let her snug it comfortably before running the zipper up to her chin, carefully tucking her hair under the collar. "Ya get tired or wanna stop, jus' let me know." The pads of his fingers rubbed into her cheek before he turned back around and pulled his cut back on, fingers working easily on the snaps. His gloves were body heat warmed and he drew those on too, bending his aching right hand into the tighter fit. Tig waited until she'd gotten comfortable against the broad plane of his back again. "All good?"

"Ride on, angel. Second star to the right."

"And straight on till morning." He agreed, twisting the throttle and lifting his feet.

Tig didn't go as fast as he would have alone. He kept the speed rational and in control, pegged just the other side of legal on the mostly empty stretch of highway. Headlights were a rarity, letting him trance on the way his own light tunneled the darkness in front of him. He'd headed away from the coast, knowing that the traffic would be lighter. He'd pointed them towards known stretches of out of the way blacktop, curvier runs of highway that had been replaced by overpasses and straight lanes. He lost himself in the vibration of the engine and the feel of her leaned against him, her hold trusting and light.

The wind that whipped his curls underneath his helmet drowned out all other sound, made it impossible to listen to the thoughts that rattled through his brain. That, combined with the speed and the black highway that unspooled in front of them made it possible to focus on nothing but keeping the bike upright and between the lines. That was the thing he loved the most about riding, the disconnect it forced between thought and action. The way it took him out of his own head for awhile and left him physically exhausted.

Venus was a dream behind him, matching his movements naturally, keeping a loose hold at his hips. The stretch of their similar statures made it an even ride and she didn't try to talk, didn't pitch giggling squeals of faked fear into his back when he took a corner without braking or try to shout above the wind that whipped them both. She just let him be, let him ride.

Tig notched the throttle back a little bit, swerving over into the right lane and heading on a wide loop back towards Charming, eying the off ramps for signs, looking for a twenty four hour truck stop. He could feel the ache of the ride in his shoulders and his hands, the possibility of a lack of control on top of an overreaching fatigue that had him blinking twice as much as normal.

His speed continued to drop as he moved right again, swinging wider than normal so that he didn't have to drop his feet, aiming towards the way big rigs crowded a light flooded parking lot. Venus moved with him, her head lifting from his back so that she could look over his shoulder, the lulling speed and motion of the highway fading. He slalomed through parked cars, angling the bike to the gas pumps closest to the overly bright building.

"How you doin', baby?" His boots stutter stepped into the pavement as he downshifted completely and walked the bike to a stop, heeling it over onto the kickstand. Tig wiped his helmet from his head with one hand, palming it down to hang off the handlebars.

"I'm fine. You look calmer." Venus left her helmet on and leaned back, giving him room to slide off the bike. Her eyes followed the line of his body as he stretched back, fists planted in the low of his back. The crack and pops that ran his spine made him groan in a mixed huff of relief and pain.

"Feel calmer." Black leather was extremely dark against his windburned skin as he palmed at his cheeks. "Need coffee."

"And I could use the little girl's room." Venus offered him her hand, letting him help her off the bike. "And oceans of coffee." Tig gave her a slow smiled, fingers lingering on her elbow, rubbing into the way his leather covered her arm.

"Won't take too long to get home. I kinda looped us all over hell's half acre on the way out. I just wanted the wind, ya' know?" Tig shrugged lightly and pulled his wallet free, looping the chain around one finger as he opened it and pulled out his debit card. "We'll take the freeway back."

"And when we get there you'll sleep."

"Sure, baby."

By the time they'd made it back to known streets warm fingers had slipped under the hem of his cut and edged his dark button down higher, nails scraping gently back and forth into his bare skin. The touches weren't necessarily lusted, just a comforting slide of skin on skin, but it was a comfort that had him half hard. Tig swallowed a laugh and dropped one hand off the handlebars to catch at her fingers, pulling them away from his skin. He negotiated a turn one handed, leather covered fingers stroking at her knuckles. With a half shrug he pressed her fingers full into the erection she'd started, pinning her palm on warm denim and leading a couple of half strokes before returning his hand to the handlebars.

Venus's laugh vibrated against his back, the sound of it running up his spine and making the skin at the back of his neck tighten. Tig's hand goosed the throttle when she licked him there, her tongue warm and wet on the wind chilled skin. "Holy fuck." His hair tasted like sweat, soap, and cigarettes, the long strands slicking between her lips as she sucked into his skin.

"Pay attention to the road, Alex." Venus barely had to raise her voice to be heard, the tuck of her chin brushing into his ear. "Don't get distracted." She licked at the shell of his ear and ran her nails into the lump in his jeans, working him harder and fuller through the fabric. "Stop sign."

"I see it." Tig muttered, throttling down and dropping his feet. As soon as their forward momentum ceased she stopped stroking him, her palm falling annoyingly still on his thigh. "The hell, baby?"

"Complete stop, Alex. Rules of the road." Their helmets knocked together when she bit his earlobe hard. The pain raised goosebumps along his skin. Venus just laughed when he started into the intersection too fast, the back tire spinning out slightly. She could feel the shake in his thighs, the muscles quivering when she resumed rubbing. There was no way to get a grip into his length so she used the constriction of the fabric to her advantage, pinching and kneading into the worn fabric. The way she nuzzled into his neck was aimed to match the turn of her hand, the flare of her teeth and the scratch of her nails meeting in the pit of his stomach. "Yellow light." Instead of stopping, Tig checked the empty intersection and sped up, easily passing under the light as it flared from yellow to red.

Venus rewarded him with a kiss, lips pressing hard on the bruise she'd left on his jaw the night before. She could feel the way he growled into it but he'd sped up again and the wind stole the sound, shunting it off his lips and out behind them. The tension in his hips was insane, the way he locked himself still and solid, his control of the bike steady and unwavering. He worked his jaw in the rhythm his hips wanted to make, clenching his teeth together and relaxing them as he pulled breaths of the whipping air that battered his face. It wasn't the greatest of positions but between her hand, her mouth and the vibration of the bike he was close to coming.

The throttle had worked up past legal again, the thunder of his engine ringing loud through the neighborhood as he took lefts and rights into the parking lot of her building. His foot was hard on the gear shift, the press of his foot tight and jittered as he tightened his hips farther, tipping his pelvis to give Venus more room. In response she lengthened her strokes, tilting farther into him so that she could run searching fingers farther down between his legs. His chest caught on a breath and he damn near didn't see the low curbing that ran along the parking places.

Tig dropped his feet to the ground as soon as the engine cut, lifting himself off the seat enough to make some room in his jeans and allow Venus to curl her fingers along his length. As he balanced the bike steady and leaned into the handlebars she used her other hand to pop the button that rested under his belt and run his zipper down.

"Go, baby." Cords stood out on his neck, the clench of his muscles hanging somewhere between pain and pleasure as she teased him. Fingers brushing against bare skin only to draw back while her other hand continued stroking through damp fabric. She could hear his groan this time, the press of his voice echoing off the bank of apartments behind them. Laughing, she dipped her hand against the fevered skin of his erection. Her fingers curled on him and he was already coming, the short jerks of his hips almost violent as he tried to hold himself still, teeth drawing blood off his own lip. "Fuck."

"Let it go, Alex." Venus used the run of her fingers to spread wet warmth along his length, speeding her strokes and settling a kiss into the curls at the base of his skull. "That's my good baby." The slump of his body was braced by flexed arms, his grip on the handlebars aching in the knuckles he'd bruised earlier. Sliding forward, she toed at the bike's kickstand, her heels skidding on the smooth metal before catching and working it into the pavement. "More?"

"Yeah. Just, keep going for a second." Tig roughed the words, licking at the blood that rilled his bottom lip. He let his head hang forward, helmet holding back curls, and breathed into the way she continued running long strokes between his thighs. "Sorry."

"You're fine." She calmed, one hand sliding above his belt to rub comfort into his belly. "Breathe, Alex." He stuttered into a smaller orgasm, muscles clenching to the cramping point and then jittering loose and running tired. Tig slumped back down onto the bike, one hand coming off the handlebars to stop her strokes. He folded her hand in his, leather covered fingers drawing her palm up so that he could settle a soft kiss onto the damp skin.

"I got a house in Charming, ya know." Tig leaned back against the headboard of her bed. "Decent sized, two stories. Got a backyard and everything."

"And I'm sure it's absolutely charming, Alex." Her skin was still wet from the shower and she had both hands up using a towel to scrub the water from her hair. "A perfect picture of a small town utopia." The line of her had him reaching for his cigarettes.

"It's actually kinda a shit hole." He drew smoke deep into his lungs and shifted on the mattress so he could watch her better. "But it's my shit hole, ya know? Been more of a storage shed than anything else." The distinctly feminine way she wrapped the towel against her hair made him smile. Venus matched the smile and pulled another towel off the shelf over the toilet, wrapping the thick fabric around her torso before stepping back into the bedroom.

"Baby, explain to me how a man in his fifties can live out of a backpack." She dampened the sheets that he had slung low on his hips as she straddled his thighs. "Because I cannot imagine life without all my little geegaws, tchotchkes, and trinkets."

"Never thought I'd see this side of fifty, Venus. Got used to livin' outta a bag in the Marines, didn't see a reason to change when I landed here. Keeps life simple, ya know? Mobile." The cigarette burned between his lips as he rubbed both hands on her damp shoulders. "I got some shit, letters, boxes of pictures from when I was younger." His fingers nudged along the line of the towel, pulling the fabric until the knot she'd wrapped at her side gave way.

"Young Alexander." Using the bend of her elbow she held the towel up, reaching for the cigarette in his lips with the other hand. "I'd like to see those." She half inhaled, letting the smoke fill her mouth so that she could blow it out towards him as a smoke ring.

"I'd like to see these." Tig teased a hand under the loosened fabric, thumbing against her nipple. When she held the cigarette to his lips he took a drag, jaw turning up as he sucked the smoke deep.

"Of course you do, because they are absolutely spectacular." But she didn't move her elbow, only shifted on his lap to butt the cigarette out in the ashtray that he'd left on her bedside table. Tig groaned into the movement, eyes rolling closed when she purposely rocked forward, settling her ass tighter into his groin.

"Ya get no argument from me, sweetheart." The callouses on his palms and fingers roughed against her skin. "Absolutely none." He held her eyes as he tugged harder, pulling the towel free and tossing it onto the other side of the mattress. A pinked blush worked her cheeks as he eyed the naked stretch of her, the blue of his gaze deepening and his tongue running his lips. "Damn. I gotta say, sweetheart, you're better for wakin' up than a hot cup of coffee." The way he trailed his short and bitten nails over her breasts and down to her stomach had her holding her breath. The way her head tipped back drew Tig's attention to the line of her throat and he leaned off the headboard to kiss against her pulse. The kiss was soft, careful, and easy, a slow press of lips and tongue into smooth skin.

Venus pressed her hand to his skull, forcing him closer before tugging into long curls and drawing his head back. The bite he'd worked into his own lip the night before was a reddened mark that she aimed on, teeth gritting it swollen as she led a rough kiss into his mouth. The taste of sleep and cigarettes mingled with toothpaste, give and take passing back and forth on heavy breaths.

"Did I hear you ask me to move in with you before got distracted by my entrancing breasts, Alexander?" The words breathed against his jaw. Before he could answer her tongue lashed against the roof of his mouth again, their teeth clicking together as she rocked forward and ground her erection down into his. "Was that what that was?"

"Givin' you the option." The way she was pinned over his hips was exquisite torture and he held her there with an iron grip, fingers digging into her hips. "Too many strangers here, baby. I need my own around me." Tig arched his hips into a thrust, drawing a moan off her chest. "Gotta be near to home. Want you near to home."

"You are using words that build to happily ever after, Alex, houses and love and home. Beautiful words that create castles out of thin air. But I am so afraid." Her hands cupped both his cheeks, the wide brace of her palms aiming his eyes to hers until wide and serious brown met blue. "I am so afraid that you are going to leave me as soon as you realize that there are no more bullets. No more bombs going off."

"Baby, that's not-"

"Your entire life fell down around you, Alexander. You were in free fall, in pain, and heading down a road that ended in the ground." Her thumbs turned circles into the tired bruises under his eyes. "Any port in a storm."

"That's bullshit, Venus." His fingers tightened further to bruising.

"I'm afraid now that the storm is over, you're going to look around and decide this isn't the port for you. That I'm not the, not the woman for you." Releasing his face she leaned back in his hold, one hand tracing from her breasts all the way to her softening erection, the musculature of her torso on full display. "Because this is how I am, how I will always be." He followed the motion, jaw tight with frustration. "This is how your friends will always see me. You, my darling Alexander, can take all the pretty words in the world and build a fairytale but it will never make them forget that I have a penis, that, in their eyes, you are sleeping with a man. A freak that thinks he is a woman." Tears glinted in her eyes now, a sorrow that matched the sadness in her voice. "And I know that you said it didn't matter."

"It doesn't."

"It does. You need your own around you, Alex. You said it yourself. And your own will never see me the way you do. The way you say you do." His eyes thinned, pupils dilating with anger.

"The way I say I do? I'm not makin' up lies, goddamn it!" He shook her once, more exasperation than violence in the motion. "You are fucking beautiful to me. All of you." Tig repeated the words, the pale of his face damn near ashed. "I've fucked so many women, baby." A self loathing smile slashed across his features drawing a thin rill of blood to his bitten lip. "You got no idea. I mean, not a fucking clue. And you're the only one I've ever wanted to come home to." Venus blinked at that wash of red, her teeth marks still blanched into his skin. "You're the only one I've ever shown my miserable fucking soul. I'm a fucking murderer, a monster, Venus. A bigger freak than you will ever be. The things I've done? I ain't never gonna be forgiven for that shit." There was no emotional disconnect in his eyes, no distance. The lingering ache that she had grown used to seeing had flashed to faded red on his cheeks. "And you love me anyway? Fuck." Tig shook his head once. "You think I care that you got a dick?" One hand loosed from her hip, fingers running warm and soft into her penis. "Think this makes a difference?" Venus flinched into his touch, chin dipping as if in defense. "It don't make no difference to me. Never did. It's you, part of you." He stroked a hand at her jaw, drawing her head up. "It's a dick, baby, not a deal breaker." His words drew a sudden run of nearly hysterical laughter from her chest, her tears wetting at his fingers. Tig matched her tearful smile, tilting his head to one side, the drop back to deadpan evening his emotions somewhat.

"You make it sound so easy." Venus sniffed and let her head lean into his hand.

"It is easy. You're my girl." Tig wiped at her tears and kissed her lips, his tongue stroking easy entry before drawing away. "Ain't gonna be happily ever after. We're both old enough to know that's bullshit." The skin at her jaw was soft and smooth under his fingers. "I never done this before, Venus. But I'm tryin' here." Sincerity laced his voice sweet. "And havin' you close, once I know Charming is safe, that's part of it. Part of me tryin'." The tamp of his teeth inched his jaw higher, a cooled shade of blue coming into his eyes. "I'm gonna take care of anyone who's got a problem with you bein' on my arm, baby. All that shit shakes out in our favor, I promise you that. They're gonna get right with it 'Cause that's how it is. How it's gonna be."

"Sweet Alexander."

"Now you gotta stop cryin', sweetheart." Tig pulled her close and used one hand to tip her head against the side of his chest, fingers rubbing into shower wet hair. "It makes me nervous." Venus laughed again, the sound spreading between them a bit easier than it had before. "I ain't goin' nowhere." He carded through the shower tangled strands, wondering at the words, at the way they settled easily in his chest.