Author's note:This story started as PWP. Smut. That's really all. But then it grew and changed. And became the inspiration for this whole little series.

Tag for 4.14, Up in the Air

~begin~

"Last call, people. Time to clear out and let us clean up!"

Vincent stood near the swinging door to Café Diem's kitchen, rattling a wooden spoon in a metal bowl.

Jo raised her eyes from the tablet to look at Zane, who was sitting next to her at the far counter. She raised her eyebrows.

He shook his head. "You can finish this last problem before we go. You're more than half done already."

Every single whiny thing she'd ever said about middle school homework echoed in her ears. 'I'm tired!' 'This is stupid!' 'Why do I have to do this?'

Her inner twelve year old must have leaked into her expression. Zane cocked his head at her, considering, then shifted on his stool to face her, leaning closer and dropping his voice to say lightly, "We're friends, right?"

There was something crafty glinting in his eye. She nodded warily. "Right."

"The kind of friends that come with extra benefits, yeah?"

He put his hand on her leg as he spoke, just above her knee. He emphasized the 'benefits' he was talking about by wrapping his fingers around to press gently at what he damn well knew was a trigger spot for her.

The sparks ran right to her belly, then burst up toward her breasts and all the way down to the tops of her thighs.

Her faint tremor was barely noticeable, though, she was sure. One glance at his smug little grin and she knew he noticed it.

She narrowed her eyes, ignoring a powerful urge to cross her legs. She refused to give him the satisfaction. She tossed her head and shrugged dismissively. "Sometimes."

More like, two nights out of three, not counting the odd mid-day hookup. Which she absolutely was not.

He was laughing at her, with his eyes. With his mouth he said, "Finish this last problem and you can cash in all sorts of extra benefits tonight."

"What if I don't want too?"

It was a weak line. The weakest. He'd felt her flinch. And she hadn't removed his hand.

He leaned still closer, his thumb stroking along her knee, his voice a low burr against her ear, all confidence and sass. "You want too, Jojo."

He was so damn tempting. She wanted press her mouth to his, suck his full lower lip between her teeth and bite down, hard enough to make him jerk, not so hard as to make him jerk away.

Thought blurred into action and she was already in motion when he sat back abruptly. Smirking. God, he could be such an ass.

"After you finish this last problem." He tapped the pad, all serious business again. "You're less than three steps from the solution."

She turned back to the wretched, horrid math problem, trying, as she scowled at the stupid, uncooperative numbers, to decide which would be more likely to preserve her dignity. Leave with him? Leave without him? Sneak out? Run screaming?

Was the remote possibility of her making the cut for the Astreaus crew really worth all of this… whatever it was?

A few minutes later Zane took her elbow as Vincent waved them, along with the last of the stragglers, out of Café Diem. His voice low and triumphant and full of promise against her ear, "I knew you had it in you."

She wanted to make him wait for it. Make him beg. Extra benefits. Ha. Who benefited, exactly, and from what?

She wanted to run. Far, far away from all his damn… Zane-ness. Stupid bad-boy felon. With impressive musculature and stamina.

She flashed on an image of them naked, twisting together, their skin slick with sweat, breathing harsh with effort. She had no idea if it was memory or a daydream. She ached with desire either way.

His hand slid around to her back and she discovered she was already walking toward his car.

So she folded her arms and harrumphed instead. But she didn't move away and she didn't shrug off his hand and she didn't change directions.

Even his answering 'mmhmm' sounded smug. He added, "I'll take that as a yes."

She wanted to say 'no.' Just because.

She wanted to pretend she hadn't heard him.

She wanted to get naked as fast as possible so she didn't have to think about it any longer.

When he opened the passenger door, she slid right in, already calculating the hours until she'd have to wake him up to get out of his apartment in time to pick up her car before dawn.

They didn't talk on the short drive. Zane because he'd learned she got snippy if he took his concentration off the road. Her because being ignominiously defeated by her own lust wasn't offering her much in the way of clever conversational fodder.

She declined his offer of a drink. She'd had so much water and tea at Café Diem she was going to be up half the night peeing as it was. She marched straight back to his bedroom, pulling off her jacket and tugging off her boots as she went.

He detoured through the bathroom and the kitchen.

Extra benefits. She wanted them all. She'd earned them. Stupid math. Stupid, bad-boy, genius, no-fly felon. Who thought she was smart. Smart enough he could teach her what she needed to know to be an astronaut. Smart enough to be an astronaut from Eureka.