Title: Bets and Bunny's (A Halloween Story)
Author: Melissa (aka: mcgarrylust/ mamc031282)
Rating: Not really an R, but definitely not a PG-13, so let's just call it 'mature'
Notes: My poor CJ/Leo muse has been run ragged as of late, but some of you have made the mistake of encouraging me, and this is the result. It does require suspension of reality and for that I apologize. ;)
For Jayne, who puts up with me when nobody should ever have to. x
The knock on his door surprised Leo. It was a Sunday night and he had only left the White House a couple of hours prior. To have someone appearing at his door was unusual to say the least and he couldn't hide his disappointment at the interruption in his evening. It was so rare these days that he got to sit back and just watch TV or read.
As he plodded his way to the door, he prepared himself for it be a wrong 'number'. It happened often enough that someone would get confused about where their friends or family were supposed to be. More often than not he'd hear the click of a key card, and the swearing of someone who was obviously inebriated as they kicked the door.
Hotels had a lot of character, he reasoned. For all the years he spent in them, Leo had a particular fondness for the quirky happenings of the hotels in which he lived.
Which is why, when he opened the door only to see a six-foot tall woman wearing a black high-collared floor length coat and bunny ears (with a nose and whiskers to match!) his only response was for his lips to turn up in a grin.
"Trick or treat," the bunny said, as her lips moved, her nose twitching and sending her whiskers into frantic motion.
"Why not trick and treat?"
She bit back a comment. "Could you just let me in?" CJ tried to look indignant, but she knew that it must have been shocking that she showed up on his doorstep.
"Sure. But dare I ask what's with the floppy ears?" Opening the door wider so she could walk through, Leo tried to curb his enthusiasm that she was there in the late evening. CJ Cregg, the most exquisite example of femininity and brilliance he had ever seen, was standing in his hotel room wearing bunny ears.
"It's Halloween, Leopold," she laughed. "And I lost a bet."
Shaking his head, Leo's hands reached up to take her jacket.
"NO," CJ said, too quickly for her taste.
"CJ, are you planning on coming in and having a cup of tea? Because I'm not going to make you wear your jacket while you're here."
"The costume is really quite bad," CJ clarified. "It's probably best that I leave the coat on."
"It can't be that bad, could it?" His curiosity was peaked. It was like Christmas, and he had this overwhelming urge to unwrap his present, though in his rational mind he knew it was very much so not like Christmas in that she wasn't a present, and even if she was, she wouldn't be his to unwrap.
"Oh, trust me. I lost a bet with Toby and Josh. The deal was they would have to dress up as Hansel and Gretel if they lost. You can only imagine their retribution." Making her way into the hotel room, CJ wondered how they had been friends for so long without her ever having seen his place before.
"The idea of Toby in lederhosen is great," Leo smiled, enjoying the quirkiness of his staff. For all essential purposes, they were his best friends, and even at their zaniest, he loved them.
"Yeah, well, it would have been great, though not as great as Josh in a white tulle dress. In exchange I got this. Next time I think I'll skip the betting and just go straight to the abject humiliation."
"I can't exactly see what it is, so I wouldn't know, though you never look bad in anything, so I imagine it's probably not your style."
She rolled her eyes, and shrugged it off. The boys sure did have a sick sense of humor.
"The bet was about...?"
"You don't want to know," she said defiantly. Settling in a chair, CJ crossed her legs and closed her eyes for a second, trying to re-ground herself.
As she crossed her legs he noticed the most interesting fishnet stockings peaking out from where the coat had shifted. Swallowing hard, Leo tried to focus on anything but the thought that kept flooding his mind. There was no evidence of a skirt, shorts, or anything for that matter, to be seen. "Well, for all the things I don't want to know, what are we going to talk about?"
"Did you hand out candy for Halloween?" It was the only thought that came to mind and even that seemed silly to ask. They were grown adults who had maintained a flirtation for several months after having been colleagues and friends for many years. How as it possible that they had nothing to discuss? CJ corrected herself. It wasn't that they had nothing to discuss as much as she was seeking out only 'safe' topics.
"No. They don't let the kids wander the halls anymore. Too much vandalism. But we all pitch in and donate money and they make that scary entrance way you must have walked through," Leo said, smiling.
"I came in the back entrance," she admitted. "I didn't want to run into someone we might know, so I paid some kid who works in the kitchen twenty bucks to let me in through the service elevator—I think you should be a little more concerned about security around here."
He chuckled. He hadn't meant to, but it was unavoidable. "Do you really think he felt threatened by a woman in a trench coat with bunny ears and a plastic nose?"
"Do you think he could have identified me if I went on a murderous rampage?" She deadpanned, waiting for his response.
"Well, that's a thought I didn't need. A bunny with a modified AK-47. Next time I look at the assault weapons bill, I might think twice."
CJ smiled. She really shouldn't have gone to see him. "I was walking through your neighborhood after dropping off my youngest niece, Louise."
Leo nodded in realization. At least it explained why she appeared on his doorstep, even if only partially. "So what did Louise go as?"
"A toaster." At Leo's shocked expression, CJ shrugged and then added, "it's all about character. Hogan used to go as a princess or a fairy, and now Louise only wants to go as inanimate objects. She's obstinate for an eight year old. So far she's been a garden, a car, a tent and a candy bar."
"I imagine her mom makes the costumes?"
"Dear God, yes. Dana is phenomenal with sewing, thankfully. If it were left up to me she'd be going in a store-bought frou-frou thing. Instead she's these giant cubes that don't fit in the car."
The image of CJ walking around, bunny ears sticking out and twitchy nose, while holding the hand of a toaster was much too amusing, drawing another round of laughter from Leo. "Have you ever worried that one day you might need to fit her in the car?"
"We'll strap her to the roof first," CJ said, sarcastically.
"So how bad is your costume? A bunny can't be that bad, can it?"
"I dunno, 'cause the people in Starbucks found it quite amusing. The guy who made my chai made a few comments, and that was all while he was steaming my milk." She shook her head, shocked by the innuendo in that statement. The bunny ears were obviously affecting her thought processes.
"Starbucks?" Okay, he had not expected her to be stopping for coffee in that getup.
"I detoured home and picked up the coat after that rather traumatic experience. Lemme tell you, there's nothing worse than the seventeen year old kid at Starbucks steaming milk and making comments about my tail."
"Let's see," he said, standing and offering his hand. "It can't be that bad."
"Trust me, it's bad, Leo." Looking up at him, she wondered if she had the nerve to take off the coat. She had managed to walk around Georgetown in the ensemble, with relatively few strange glares, but then the crowd there wasn't quite the crowd she'd find three blocks from the White House.
"It really can't be that bad. The ears are cute. As are the whiskers." She really did look great (from what he could see), even if she felt somewhat ridiculous.
"Josh and Toby picked it out. You have to expect it to be horrendous."
Shrugging, Leo tried to downplay the entire situation. "If you're going to stay for tea, you really don't want to be sitting here in your trench coat, and if it's that bad then I'll have to make Toby and Josh feel horrible about it on Monday. A little teasing reprimand couldn't hurt, could it?"
The image of him torturing her friends really was quite enjoyable, even if it meant the embarrassment of showing him the costume. "Promise not to laugh?"
He nodded, as a gentleman would. He couldn't imagine anything that would look less than tantalizing on CJ.
"All right, but I reserve the right to put the coat back on if you laugh too hysterically," she said firmly, and waited for his nod.
Finally, having taken his hand and stood up, CJ took one last deep breath and then untied the belt around her waist. Just as she was about to open the coat, she stopped. "It's really bad," she reminded him, her voice full of hesitation. She really should have just gone straight home instead of stopping to see Leo, but she was so close to the building, and since he was unknowingly the reason she was wearing the ridiculous costume, it seemed only right.
"Ah, get over it," he said, his trademark grin lighting up his face. Something about the way he said it was incredibly comforting to her.
Slipping the coat over her shoulders, she let it fall onto the sofa, her eyes never once meeting Leo's. Instead, she looked on a spot on the floor by their feet.
The black bustier-style bodysuit fit perfectly, hugging every inch of her slim form, and the small bow-tie which had been covered up by the collar of her coat was now visible. It pushed her breasts up and in, making her seem much better endowed than she really was. Of course it didn't hurt that she the stockings made her legs appear longer, and the high-cut waist of the body suit left little to the imagination.
"What was the bet about?" Leo asked again, his mouth still agape as his heart raced at the sight of her in her state of considerable undress.
"That I wouldn't get up the nerve to tell this guy I like him," she said, still unable to look at him. CJ suddenly became more self-conscious as she realized that his silent appraisal of her in the suit meant she didn't know what he was thinking, which only served to further unnerve her.
His mouth felt dry and the power of comprehensible speech seemed too much to ask. It wasn't as if he was accustomed to having beautiful younger woman come to his hotel room in what could generously be called their underwear. "Well, if you show up at his door looking like that, he might not give you the chance to say much," he commented, his eyes drawing up and down her legs that went on forever, and then further up to her breasts and incredibly long neck. He had never seen anything so amazing in his entire life.
"That's what Toby and Josh said when they gave this to me," she said quietly, before taking a step closer to him. "What do you think of the tail?" Turning, she gave him an opportunity to check out the tail placed ever so carefully on her behind.
"I can see why the guy at Starbucks was getting all steamed up," Leo said, swallowing hard. Her back seemed to go on forever, perfect and graceful.
"It's a ridiculous costume," CJ said feeling about of shyness while waiting for his response. "I'm too old to be a Playboy Bunny."
"Hardly," he defended, still barely in control of his breath. The image of her standing there in a bunny suit would definitely be forever engrained in his memory, which made him further consider that he inadvertently would owe many happy nights to Josh and Toby.
"I have a tail," she pointed out.
"Maybe, but you make it look sensational," he assured her.
Noticing his approving perusal over the costume, CJ felt somewhat more confident. He was absolutely mesmerized by it, which, she knew, was the intent and that realization made her feel somehow more in control.
"So who was this guy, and does he have a pulse?" Leo fought to regain logical thought. It seemed too high an expectation, but he felt it was necessary if he was going to be in the same room as her for much longer.
Leaning closer, as if to tell him a secret, CJ felt a jolt of electricity surge through her as her chest pressed against his. "You," she said simply.
"Me?"
"Yep."
"So now you're here, wearing a bunny costume."
"One you seem to like," CJ said, coyly as she enjoyed the flustered expression. She had his full attention, undoubtedly.
"I confess, I like the woman wearing it," he whispered, his voice low and gravelly. He fought the urge to reach out and graze a hand over her shoulder and down her arm. If he touched her, it might well be the end of the wonderful dream he was having, because in no realm of reality could it be possible that CJ was standing in front of him in a Playboy Bunny costume.
"I'm going to take off my nose now," CJ said softly, leaning closer. "It smells like horribly sweet plastic, and I think it might get in the way when I kiss you."
His eyes struggled to look up from her cleavage to find her mouth and the gentle curve of her lips which he found just as distracting. "We wouldn't want anything in the way, now would we?"
Shaking her head no, CJ grinned as she pulled the bunny nose up over her head and let it drop to the couch behind her. It only took a second for her to lean in to him enough that her lips touched his.
Leo tried not to fall over from absolute astonishment. If this was a dream, it was the most vivid one he had ever had – which was saying a lot considering the dreams he had through the years. Everything he had ever imagined was put to shame by this minute of his life when CJ Cregg pressed her lips to his and proved that she smelled, tasted and felt better than anything he had ever been able to imagine.
Her hands reaching to hold his face, CJ felt her heart flutter and race. She had spent all too long wanting this man, only to convince herself that nothing could ever come of it and now here she was kissing him and enjoying the sensation of his hands as they caressed her hips and sides.
Gently separating her lips from his, CJ smiled. "You do realize that I was subject to complete and utter humiliation for us to get this far," she pointed out.
Leo didn't know what to say, his mind was still too closely focused on what it was like to have her so near that he could feel her heart beating. "You should never feel ashamed or unsure of yourself—you're more beautiful than anyone I've ever met."
CJ blushed at his compliment. For all the nervousness she knew she should feel, her mind was sent reeling by the look of undeniable affection in his eyes.
"So tomorrow morning I should be thanking Toby and Josh, I guess?"
Resting her forehead against his, she couldn't bare to break eye contact. "Depends on what you're thanking them for," she managed, still spellbound by his features.
"So dare I ask how this all came to pass?" Leo's fingers stroked over her shoulders, before making their way up to her bowtie.
"The kiss?"
"The costume. The kiss, I would hope, was my natural irresistible charm combined with our feelings for each other..."
"Last Easter," CJ started, remembering the events almost fondly, "Josh and Toby dragged me to this bar, and we were all in such bad places...somehow we ended up back in my office playing truth or dare."
"And you took dare?"
"I took truth," she admitted.
"How do you end up wearing a Bunny costume if you choose to tell the truth?" He had never played the game himself, though he understood the fundamentals.
"Toby asked me why it wasn't working out with Ben..." This was where it got complicated. "Seems easy enough, right?"
Leo shrugged. He had forgotten about Ben and somewhere in the recesses of his mind the guilty 'Catholic' part of him screamed out that he shouldn't be standing so close and he should be keeping his hands to himself.
"I dumped him," CJ said, noting the sudden look of apprehension in Leo's eyes. "It's over. But anyway, Toby... he wanted to know what the problem was, and I must have been pretty drunk because I told him the truth."
"Which was?"
"That Ben didn't make me feel the way he should. That if I was going to spend the rest of my life with a man, I at least wanted it to be someone who made my heart beat fast and made me weak in the knees." Her fingers played with the belt loops at the waist of his pants. "And then he asked me who did make me feel that way."
Swallowing, trying to bite back that nervousness that kept swelling up, Leo considered his words before he spoke. "And your answer was something incredibly profound about meeting the right Calvin Klein model?"
Ok, so he knew her well enough to know that she was sarcastic at the best of times, and he wasn't running screaming from the room—a fact that bode really well for her. "You."
"Me?" The genuine surprise in his eyes was evident.
"You're an amazing, sexy man," she said, punctuating her words with kisses along his jaw line and down his neck. He smelled so good and she couldn't believe that he hadn't pushed her away yet. If this was a dream, it was one from which she never wanted to awake.
"Is this the trick or the treat?" Their bodies were flush, and his hands roamed the length of her long back.
"Trust me, oh, trust me...when we get to the tricks, you'll most definitely know," she purred.
"Oh yeah?" He kissed his way up her neck and back down across her collarbone. "You do realize I have a few tricks of my own, don't you?"
Nodding, consumed by his efforts, CJ's fingers tangled in his hair. "So this ridiculous costume wasn't all bad."
Leo stopped and appraised her once more. "Oh, not even partially bad."
"I expect to see you in something incredibly sexy and revealing sometime soon." CJ smiled as his lips turned up in a grin. "In fact, I'd say it's about time to get this tail off..."
"I like the way you think," he whispered, taking her hand and leading her towards the bedroom.
"Just wait until you see your treat..."