A/N: Ahh… this smut circle is looking quite awesome. Have decided to take the unspoken challenge left at the end of Zoe's fic Cooking up a Storm, that was derived from Sky's Take the Stairs. I'm terribly sorry this took so long to get out!

The starting to this was Sky's influence and thoroughly her doing. You have her to thank for it's sexy wiles. :D

Now, enjoy!

Commander Taylor was never one to back down from a challenge. Not when it stared him so blatantly in the face and taunted his pride. Threatened to strip it away layer by layer and watch him struggle to straighten his back and take the defeat like a good soldier.

Nathaniel would always take the challenge; would almost always land on top. Victorious. Yet when he stared the challenge in the face of his lieutenant, he couldn't help but think this was ludicrous; that she couldn't possibly be boasting what he thought she was boasting.

"Excuse me?" he asked, bringing his hands down from the shelf to place on his either side of his hips. He'd meant to retrieve a bowl for his lunch. It was forgotten as he looked her over, gauged her expression to see if she was truly being serious. Her dark eyes stared at him, challenging. She refused to relent to his open incredulity of her bold exclamation.

"You heard me, Commander." she returned, squaring her own stance to face him. "One round. That's all I need to come out the victor."

Nathaniel crossed his arms over his chest and leaned a hip on the counter. A brow quirked. Her eyes drifted down to his biceps as they coiled. He'd never get tired of seeing her appreciative gaze roam over him. "What's your game, Wash?" he asked and her lips quirked.

"No game, sir." Her feigned innocence had him instantly suspicious of her.

"You're lying to me." he didn't have to search her for long. She had a very distinct, subtle tell when she was playing him. It was in her voice. It raised a slight octave, softened just so. It was so small a change no one ever caught it. No one but him.

Alicia shrugged and moved to pass him. "If you're not up for it I understand." she started and his eyes instantly sharpened. He knew exactly what she was doing and damn if it didn't work. "Letting a woman beat you would be shameful I'm sure." his hand snaked out fast and gripped her arm, halting her just before she got out of sight.

Nathaniel pulled her back around to face him and, with a look akin to serious annoyance, relented. "Challenge accepted, lieutenant." The grin she gave him would have his mouth reacting before his mind could even process it's movement, but not now. Not when she was so obviously goading him to take her challenge.

"At the table, sir." He followed her and took his respective seat at the table and watched her take hers. His woman- his devious, spiteful woman- placed her elbow in the center of the table; kept her hand open.

"Stakes?" he asked, placing his own right elbow near hers and slid his hand into her cool palm. They clasped hands in a tight grip. Through the gap between their elbows they linked fingers.

"Dinner's on you tonight if you lose." she said with a grin and he couldn't help but chuckle.

"We're arm wrestling for who gets to make dinner?"

Alicia shrugged and it was then he realized it was more than that. She was out to prove something. He didn't call her on it this time and she didn't offer another answer.

"Three…" she started.

"Two."

"One." they said in union and at once they pushed, swayed and stayed grounded in the middle. Taylor watched her concentrate and applauded her stamina. It was too bad she was going to lose this in about 2.5 seconds-

He tensed. Quickly looked down and glared a thousand knives at her. "Wash- Alicia." he warned, eyes growing wide. His arm faltered slightly.

Her foot- her damned foot- placed itself on his thigh and slid higher… higher still. "Moving away forfeits the challenge." she said quickly when he tensed to move from the table.

"You play dirty, woman." the growing heat in his gaze betrayed any malice that may have been perceived in his tone.

"Were you not the one that told us, yesterday, to use the resources given to us?" Alicia ground out, willing the fading strength in her arm to hold out a little longer as her foot trailed up until it reached between his thighs. Gently, she pressed her foot to him and hummed when his eyes fluttered a moment.

"This wasn't what I had in mind." his voice turned husky; betraying the disapproval of her actions he was trying to convey. He concentrated on his wavering arm, conjuring a coherent sentence and, with everything in him, tried to ignore Alicia's foot running slowly up and down his clothed length. Instinctively his legs spread wider, offering her strayed limb the space needed to move over all of him.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself enough." her voice turned sensual, sliding over his senses to shoot right down his nether region.

"This isn't the time for-" his words were choked off by just the right amount of pressure being put over his erection. His arm, his treacherous arm, gave way when her sinful foot moved faster, firmer. It was a clever distraction, an effective one. It was, Taylor realized, the one weakness she had found and thought to exploit in a game.

A game he should have damn well been able to win without question. Without hesitation. When the back of his hand touched the surface of the table, Alicia hummed, pleased with herself and removed her foot; her entire body from his proximity and stood from the table. She placed her hands on her hips.

Her smile was charming, infuriating. "Told you I'd win."

"You cheated."

Wash pinned him with a pointed look. "You're not one to talk."

"Oh?" his brow raised as he shifted in his seat.

"Mmm, no. Last month when we were OTG and our rover broke down, is one example." Taylor smirked, remembering the memory quite well. They were making outpost rounds when an awful storm hit, and as if luck were further on their side, their rover broke down. An innocent game of cards to pass the time, quickly turned not so innocent.

Alicia turned her back to him and headed for the fridge. He enjoyed the way her muscles contracted and shifted under her thin tank as she moved. Taylor got up from the table, baring no shame towards the evidence of his arousal. He stalked her as one might their prey.

"Tell me you didn't enjoy it." his voice was little more than a rasp as he came closer… closer.

With her back facing him, she propped the door to the refrigerator open and looked inside for something other than water to drink. "I didn't enjoy it." There was a dullness to her tone that suggested she was lying. Bluffing. Taylor saw through it. He always did. Just like she always saw through his.

"Face me and say it." he inched his body close to her but didn't touch. His heat, he knew, radiated off him in waves and poured onto her exposed flesh. She didn't do as he commanded. Another form of insolence.

He mentally chided her and gripped her hips. Nathaniel forced her to turn despite her small struggle to remain facing the fridge. He stepped forward, she took one back. He took another forward and brought her hips flush against his. He arched a brow, waiting. She pursed her lips, finding it impossible now that she had to look at him and say it.

"Can't bring yourself to, can you?"

"All the same, it was unfair of you." his grip tightened and she winced only slightly. There would be marks but she didn't stop him. It was his way of telling her he wanted no other. No other made him turn all sorts of predator but her. For her.

"I believe it was in retaliation for the stunt at the bar you pulled the week before the rover." Taylor replied and dipped his head to her neck. He purposely avoided her lips. They were his undoing, his private delight. They would work over his mouth and unhinge his frustration; coax him into compliance. Alicia would then have total reign of the situation. It wasn't something he could allow. Not now. Right now he was in charge. He had the reigns and he wasn't letting go.

Taylor pushed her closer to the open fridge as his teeth scraped over her pulse. He caught skin and sucked; mimicking what he could- and has done before- to other more sensitive parts of her. A hand cupped the back of her neck, pulled her closer to firm his mouth and increase the pressure of his suction.

A throaty moan escaped her.

Yes. He moaned to himself. Nathaniel licked from her throat to her jaw and placed a hot opened mouthed kiss close to her lips. Alicia's already parted lips sought his; wanting- needing- his touch, his tongue. He pulled away from her and ground his hips into hers.

One of Wash's hands flew to his lower back and held him close, thoroughly enjoying the friction of fabric, enjoying that he was driving himself crazy and steadfastly taking her with him. Her other hand went to the back of his head to hold him and find purchase through the sensations he was coercing from her.

Nathaniel's free hand fisted in her shirt and lifted up to expose the skin of her abdomen. His mouth, his sinful mouth, left her neck to take in the sight of her clothing being stripped away. Alicia made him work for it by pushing it down with one hand and brought his head close to hers. He veered course and nipped her ear, chiding her for her devious actions. She turned her head and managed to graze her lips against his.

"Shirt off." Nathaniel demanded, taking the shirt once more and, easier this time, lifted it over her head. She shivered. The cold of the open fridge ghosted over her skin, creating goose flesh that begged to be rubbed.

Her bra formed perfectly to her breasts and his eyes took her in greedily.

"Kiss me." she breathed, flushing under his gaze. Under the heat of him and suddenly she was grateful for the chill at her back.

Nathaniel smirked at her as if to say 'you'd like that right now, wouldn't you?' and trailed his fingers lazily from her collarbone to the rim of her left bra cup. Their eyes never strayed from the other- hers infuriated yet aroused all at once, his tauntingly smouldering. Taylor's fingers gripped the cup.

"Nathaniel, don't break this one." Alicia said, demanded.

He arched a brow at her. "Is that an order, lieutenant?" he leaned close, his mouth hovering. Each time she tried to meet him half way, he pulled back.

"Damn straight it's an order." the growl in her voice was unmistakable. He hummed and gripped it harder.

"Don't-" he did. The fabric tore and gave way to his strength; his need to take her in this very instant. She was angry, frustrated with him. Both her hands took either side of his face and stayed his retreating head, while she attacked him with her lips.

Alicia was hot, throbbing and his show of dominance over her was only further creating heat in the pit of her core. He groaned at the contact and pulled her head closer, crushing her lips, bruising the flesh against his. It only further aroused her. She hoisted a leg over his hip to create a new angle for the friction and rubbed herself over his erection straining against his pants.

It brought a moan from the both of them. Their tongues met in a frenzy, a hurried union that over took their senses, made them forget the purpose of their positioning, the frustration they held for one another. They battled everything out in their kiss, trading dominance for submission; forcing the other back when they'd had enough of being compliant.

Alicia's hands fisted in his shirt and pulled up. They broke apart long enough to hoist the fabric over his head to discard it on the floor. Instantly they were back on one another, hands roaming, groping, tracing muscle lines and raised scars.

"Nathaniel…Need you. Now." her voice broke into a gasp when his fingers found her nipples and toyed with them, rubbed and tweaked the pearls until she was but a writhing siren in his arms. He watched her eyes loll and took one of her hands. He raised it above them and she gripped the edge of the fridge, her gaze amused and filled with all sorts of sexual enactments she was visualizing.

"Minx." he growled, seeing the expression on her. It was wonderful, beautiful…sinful. With both hands he undid her fatigues. She shimmied out of them, kicked them aside and returned the favour, taking his boxers down with his pants. Nathaniel's hands roamed her, covering every inch of her skin. She tipped her head back and gripped the side of the fridge with her other hand as he cupped her breasts and squeezed with just the right amount of pressure to have a gasp escape her.

"Stop teasing." she moaned, licking her lips, a half plead making it's way through her voice. Nathaniel took her lips in quick response and was beyond pleased when Alicia hooked a strong leg around his hip once more. They were perfectly aligned, perfectly in tune with one another.

The Commander gripped the edge of the fridge above them on the other side of her head as leverage. His other arm hooked around her waist to keep her against him, forcing her to stay put as he made his first thrust into her.

Alicia's moan was breathy, low. It wasn't what he was aiming for. The muscles in his arms, legs and buttocks bunched, contracted all at once. He thrust again, her cry pierced his ears.

Over and over he made deep, hard thrusts into her, forsaking the frenzied rhythm he knew her to favour. By her tipped head, open mouth and glazed expression, he guessed she very much enjoyed this rhythm. Over and over he slid in and out of her, scraping against her walls, grinding with her clit. It was all so much but at the same time not enough. Wash let go of the side of the appliance to take hold of his head. She brought him down to her chest and marvelled at the feel of his breath on her sensitive flesh.

For a brief moment to humour her, his rhythm faltered as he latched into her pebbled peak and sucked. Alicia's hand moved back to the side of the fridge. She could do nothing to keep him there. If he so chose he could move his mouth and cease the delicious stimulation running through her body. In fear of this, she urged him to stay where he was by arching her chest into his mouth.

Nathaniel hummed around her nipple the same time he thrust in and a positively beautiful sound came from her mouth- half way between a sob and groan, followed promptly by a sharp inhale. His hips thrust harder, faster.

Alicia's inner muscles tightened around him over and over, delivering his control, snapping it with mere movements designed to send him into a frenzy. He saw stars for a moment as white hot pleasure flowed from his nether region to the rest of his entire body. He moved against her- within her- with renewed vigour.

Nathaniel's thrusts turned animalistic. No longer was there any sign of- or that there had been- any control. If he wasn't so lost in the moment he was sure he would have thrown her down onto the floor and taken her. He was sure with every fibre of his being that, because of her inner movements spurring on his inner animal, he would take her over and over; ever relentless in his pursuit of her constant pleasure. But his movements wouldn't cease for him to make nice of his mental thoughts. The bliss was too great to counter with petty preferred positions. Instead he used his hand on the fridge as leverage. Each time he went in they jarred the appliance from the wall. Had they been in the right state of mind, they would have stopped to consider the damage they were doing.

Rather, they rose to their peek and tumbled over it together. A rare occurrence but one they revelled in when they managed it. A sharp cry rolled out of her mouth the same time he grunted loudly. He spilled into her and she milked him, bucking her hips against him; wanting all of it but never getting enough.

Slowly they came down and she lowered her leg, he slid his hands to her waist and held her steady. They breathed heavily, their eyes trailing to the other's lips. Alicia leaned in, abandoning her hold on the fridge to place her palms flat against his pectorals.

They inclined into the other, lips almost touching. Breath mingling.

A sure noise of malfunction from behind Alicia broke their moment and the pair turned to the refrigerator. It was terribly off base with the cooling system flickering until finally it gave out.

"Shit…" Alicia muttered and placed her hands on her hips. "You're explaining this one to the tech team. I got the last one."

Taylor narrowed his cool blue eyes at her. "No you-"

"I explained the DNA computer in Malcolm's lab." she countered before he had time to finish his sentence.

Damn.

"Fine. Be a coward." he goaded, knowing just as he had, she would raise to it.

She squared her stance. "Is that a challenge I hear, Commander?"

"Damn straight it's a challenge." he mimicked her earlier words. Alicia's own eyes narrowed.

"Challenge accepted."

Taylor grinned, allowing her to take his hand and lead him to their bedroom as pride swelled within him. That's my woman.