She swam up thru Caribbean blue light, warm and happy, her skin silk-slick against her lover's hands, arousal pooling low in her body. Months of running from faceless threats, only him and his assets, her wits and contacts to keep them safe, had forged a bond of trust between the two of them. She wanted him badly, but was not sure if making their relationship sexual would make him a stronger partner or make her a pawn he could better distance himself from.

He lay her out on the warm, giving, soft grass stroking his hands down her hips and pulling apart her thighs to lap at her core. Over and over he laved her as she pushed up into his tongue, the sun striping hot across her breasts. Her climax built steadily until she tipped over the edge, his name ripping from her lips and thru her dreamscape.

"Kirill!"

Her body pulsed as her cry rang thru the small bedroom. She cringed, waking abruptly, visions of last night in the shower flooding her thoughts behind closed eyelids. She had wordlessly asked him to fuck her in thanks for saving her from her public panic attack and he had complied. Now she didn't know what to think of him, of herself, of them. Taking a deep breath, she realized she was no longer spooned in his arms as she remembered falling asleep last night. She was on her back, head and shoulders nestled into the comforter and pillow, lower body splayed with him between her legs pressing soft kisses to the inside of her thighs.

Oh, god. That was not a dream.

"Not a dream, Nee-cola."

She cracked her eyes and tipped her head up to look at him, as he propped his wet stubbled chin on one hand. He gave her a sweet smile she had never before seen on his face. Actually, she had never seen him smile at all - savage grins of satisfaction and several evil-looking smirks of amusement, yes, but no actual smiles.

"Happy Birthday, Nee-cola."

Oh. Maybe last night was turning out to be a good thing.

She tentatively smiled back, before dropping her head back on the pillow, and putting her hand out to him. He tangled his fingers with hers, squeezing lightly, rubbing his thumb gently over her knuckles. They lay there for a few minutes, breathing together in the warm morning sunlight pouring in through the wide paned window. When he dropped his head to begin softly kissing her thighs and the crease of her hip again, she tugged at his hand. He untangled their fingers and crawled up over her, pressing kisses along her hip and up her ribs, giving each nipple a quick swipe, and continuing the path of his kisses back and forth across her collarbones out to the points of her shoulders. He finally settled cheek to cheek, warm breath in her ear, elbows caging her ribs, the tip of his erection just nudging at her soft wet folds.

She put her arms around his shoulders and tickled the soft half-curls at the nape of his neck. Her hips pushed up against his. She could feel his hard, mostly hairless chest pressing firmly into her breasts, every breath sliding smooth freckled skin against pebbled nipples. When he stretched up, his lips trailing across her jaw to her own, she turned her head away, heart hurting at the thought of that final intimacy with a man she knew would eventually be ripped violently from her life.

"Inside, please."

His acquiescence sighed in her ear as his cock slid into her cunt. Her hips tipped up, pulling him deeper, as she wound her legs about his hips and her arms tighter about his shoulders. As his buttocks flexed against her calves, thrusting firmly into her in measured strokes, she pulled her body up into his - breast to chest, belly to belly, hips to hips. His hard length rekindled her arousal and she was gasping deeply within minutes. His own breath was slowly coming deeper, washing her ear in humid sensation.

He took her earlobe in his teeth and bit gently. Her whole body clenched hard around him and pulsed out of synch with his now erratic thrusts. He was gasping for air, no longer holding his weight off her torso, but trying to bury himself as deep within her as he could go with each push.

"Nee-cola!"

He pulled out right before his orgasm, spurting against her belly, the abrupt slide and emptiness provoking another climax of her own, the clench against nothing leaving her boneless, limbs sliding against salt-slick skin to lie against the bed. He slumped onto her for a few seconds before heaving himself off to the side. He reached over the edge of the bed to grab his discarded boxers to wipe them both up. She grimaced up at the ceiling, momentarily wondering how he had gotten her out of her own pajamas without waking her up. When he dropped the boxers back on the floor and relaxed on his back, she rolled up and flopped across him on her belly, head on his shoulder, right arm reaching across his chest to cup his swelling bicep. His left hand came up to stroke across her upper arm, his right teased the tips of her hair across her back.

"Thank you for taking care of me."

Deliberately misunderstanding, he rumbled "It was my pleasure. And the shower was more than adequate gratitude."

"I mean, for everything."

He breathed deeply, pausing to gather his thoughts, "Nee-cola, it is just... returning the favor."

She tried to think of what he meant. Sure, she had handled all of the logistics of lodging and travel, moving them around from town to town and country to country. But during that first attack, a surprise mugging attempt in their third month, and the panic attack last night, he had been the only thing between her and her end.

His next words echoed her thoughts. "I would have been found within the first month. I'm the brawn, you're the mind... the brains."

"So you are saying, when I lost it last night, you were just making sure you didn't lose it too."

"Yes."

She waited, expecting more explanation, something to temper the baldness of that statement, but nothing came. "I think you would be fine now without me. But maybe you are the heart too. Why are you being so kind to me?"

She had asked him once why he had saved her in a back alley of Budapest and stuck with her thru her continued flight from those trying to close all the loose ends of a conspiracy she didn't fully comprehend. It could possibly be something like Treadstone that hadn't yet been fully opened to the press. But the assassins and spies she had worked with over the years doing logistics in Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Prague, and a dozen other cities across Europe had been from organizations she was only starting to learn the names of.

His answer had been yet another conspiracy of money and corruption rooted in Moscow and Siberian oil politics. A tale which finally gave her the details of Marie's death and the reason why Jason Bourne had shown up in Europe after a silent six months. A tale which made her rethink her own encounter with Jason in a subway station utility room and gave her a surprising respect for the man Jason was at his core, even if he didn't know who he had been when she first assessed him as David Webb. A tale which scared her with Kirill's straightforward approach to others' deaths, his acceptance of his own mortality, and his lack of ties to anyone or anything.

She knew he had saved her in Budapest as a favor to Jason in return for the mercy of his own life, what she did not understand is why he accompanied her across borders and identities. She did not know why he did not go back to the Russian mob or any of the other underworld organizations that would be happy to use him and pay him handsomely. He seemed to have an endless supply of cash in various identities, and although they had maybe used only about forty grand in Euros so far, that was more than she had in her untouched emergency fund. And still, every time she had started making plans for the next place, he had simply stated that he was going too and given her yet another account to use to pay for everything.

His reply interrupted her introspection. "I am not kind, Nee-cola."

She tensed. "So why are you still here with me?" A silent minute stretched to two, although his stroking fingers never slackened. "Now that I have 'thanked' you, are you going to leave?"

Another beat of silence, then a sigh. "I will stay with you for five months more, Nee-cola. At least one Russian government fiscal year after the election."

She pressed her face deeper into his shoulder, feeling stupid for not understanding earlier as most hits had a shelf-life for book-keeping reasons. "So next January, they will stop looking for us." That meant she was considered a lesser threat and once her hit was off the books, and whoever had wanted her dead had not been re-elected to a position with the budget for a hit.

"Next February 1st, Alexei will likely stop seeking us."

This was the first time, Nicola realized that it might not just be her this assassin was after. That maybe Kirill might have just as much reason for running as she did. That made her feel better, less guarded and more like a team. This was more information about their situation than she had received in the previous eight months. Maybe sex had been a really good idea.

Kirill continued, "I don't know if we will be safe, because I don't know why they are after us. I do know he will stop seeking us when the bounty deadline runs out."

She left that crucial question alone for now. "How do you know he is after you as well?"

"In Budapest, he came after me first. I am better and escaped. I followed him, and he led me to you."

"How do you know it is the Russian government that is after us?"

"It is not the Russian government, but the Siberian oil cartel. Alexei is family and only works for them. Oil is the biggest revenue industry, so the government uses the same fiscal year."

"How do you know Alexei is exclusive?"

"We were in school together. There were no secrets. If we didn't tell each other outright, we would hack into each other's private records and tell others."

"Assassin school?" She meant it mostly sarcastically.

"Yes."

Again she waited for some further explanation to take away the bluntness of that reply, something to bridge the distance between her naive American upbringing, career notwithstanding, and his deadly weaponhood. When she realized nothing further was forthcoming, she tried to cover her trepidation with a subject change. "So how did you know it's my birthday? It's not like I've used my real identity, although you seem to know it anyway."

His long fingers swept back her hair from her face and she knew she had not hidden her fear from him. When she felt him tilt his head up to look at her face, she closed her eyes, shutting out the smooth expanse of golden skin she had been admiring.

"Do not be afraid of me, Nee-cola. I will not hurt you."

He probably would, but that would not be his fault. Sex had never been casual with her, not last night or this morning, not with Jason, not with any of her short experiments in college and grad school. She opened her eyes, pushing up to straddle his thighs, and smiling down at him.

"I know. Let's get breakfast and go do something fun today. It is my birthday and since I don't have to wait around for my folks to call this year, we can go play."

His eyes stayed too perceptive although he gave her the sweet smile again. He sat up and put his arms back around her in a loose hug. "You knew that last night, Nee-cola." It was a question and statement in one, the truth of her panic attack last night.

She suddenly realized he had said her name, her real name, more times this morning than the whole rest of their time together. He already knew why she hurt and had done what he could to assuage it. It was not what she had wanted for her birthday, that was her family, but it was closer to what she basically needed than anything she could have thought reasonable - someone who knew her to acknowledge her as herself. She put her arms back around his neck and pressed her cheek to his, partly to hide again from his eyes, partly to press herself to his delicious length.

"Yes. Thank you for making it better."

"You are welcome." He chuckled darkly, "But I think I like your way of thanking me from last night better."

She laughed and shoved away from him, flouncing off the bed to find some clothes, feeling light, humor restored. "I do too. And maybe if you are very nice to me today, I'll find something else to thank you for."

She laughed again as he scrambled off the bed and out the door, shouting over his shoulder, "I'll start breakfast, Nee-cola. Hurry up!" This might actually turn out to be a good day.


A/N: Thanks to God Entity for reviewing Chapter 1. This is one of those pairings that just has a mind of its own rather than me manipulating them into some action, so I highly suspect there will be more. There might actually be a plot in future chapters as well.