A/N I hadn't intended there to be this much smut in this chapter. I got about halfway through writing it when the plot took off in an entirely unanticipated direction, and instead of fighting it, I was just like, "Okay, more smut it is!" I'm feeling out of touch so this may not be my finest work, but hey, there's naked people having fun, so whatever.

More chapters to come, this isn't the end of the story. I have some plot points planned out to guide me. Feedback welcome!

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After breakfast the following morning, I called Shaw to see if we had a Number for the day. Probably not, since I had woken up on my own time around 9 o'clock and the calls for cases tended to come earlier than that, but I wanted to double-check.

"Nope," Shaw said. "John's called dibs if one comes in. Poor guy doesn't know how to relax. Got any plans for the day?"

"Well..." I said, idly turning my half-filled teacup a few degrees at a time, "I was going to try the thing with Root today, assuming she doesn't change her mind again."

There was a pause, just short enough to make it hard to tell if it was cellular delay or Shaw hesitating.

"Oh," she said. Her voice was just a little too casual—Shaw's brand of disappointment was subtle, but still discernible. "Well, have fun."

"We'll see how it goes. She might freak again."

"Can I at least lurk in the background somewhere? I want to watch her squirm."

"Maybe if she decides to go out in public," I said. "Don't worry, I'll give you all the dirty details later. How about over dinner sometime? It's been awhile since we've had a nice night out."

That seemed to brighten her mood.

"Sounds good," she said. "I think I'll go to the range. Been awhile since I've shot the Barrett. Finch is such a wet blanket about guns these days."

We exchanged good-byes and I hung up. Taking a soothing sip of tea, I leaned back in my chair and browsed through my phone's contact list until I found Root's number. I was just about to push send when the phone buzzed in my hand.

Root really had the eeriest sense of timing.

"Hi," she said when I put the phone to my ear. Her voice was soft and nervous, bereft of its typical flirtatiousness.

"Hey, Root," I said. "I was about to call you."

"I know. That's why I called first."

"Right." I had no idea if she somehow actually knew or if she was just trying to be creepy, but it wasn't very important either way. "So, what do you want to do?"

She didn't answer right away. I waited patiently until she said, "I want to try it. Where did you have planned? 94th street loft?"

I allowed myself to feel the tiniest amount of excitement, but I wasn't going to get my hopes any higher than that until she actually showed up.

"Yeah," I said. "I can be there at 11."

"Okay," she said, and she hung up.

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I arrived at the apartment building—a three-story brick structure encrusted with flowing ivy—a few minutes before 11. The exterior entrance was an aging metal door recessed into an alcove next to a defunct hardware store. I opened a crooked, weather-stained telephone wiring box in the alcove and entered a code into the keypad within. The door clicked open. Inside was a quiet hallway and a staircase that led up to a second door and another keypad, this one in plain sight. I tapped in a different security code, rolled my eyes at the little security camera mounted next to the door, and stepped into the apartment.

The loft was an expansive open-air space of hardwood floors and brick walls thirty feet to a side. The frosted skylights and ceiling girders were two stories above my head and the arched windows towered eight feet tall. Two ceiling fans, suspended at different heights, spun lazily. Wide black couches surrounded a glass coffee table in the center of the room. Along the back wall, a massive plasma TV sat atop a long, low cabinet containing AV equipment.

Over in the corner to the left was my favorite feature of the apartment: a reading niche. Tall wooden bookcases, all neatly lined with vintage hardcover science fiction and fantasy books, had been set up along the walls, and several comfy, plush maroon chairs were just waiting for somebody to sit down with a good cup of tea, kick up their feet, and bury their nose in a book.

On the opposite side of the loft was a freestanding serving bar and a modern kitchen, replete with chrome fixtures and appliances. Nearer to me, a polished wooden staircase ascended to the balcony that overlooked the living area. At the top of the stairs was a compact office area, which Root had claimed months ago as a home for an excessive amount of computer equipment. Past that was the "bedroom"; the balcony widened to accommodate an armoire and a heavenly queen-sized bed.

The place was surprisingly cozy despite its size. Sounds did not reverberate much even with all the hard surfaces; tall acoustic panels of various sizes were mounted along the walls and patterned throw rugs helped absorb sound as well. Automated shades on the windows and skylights could be closed with the touch of a button, giving the loft a more intimate feel.

Despite it being on a relatively busy street, the apartment was well protected from prying eyes and ears—Finch had purchased the buildings on either side (because of course that was something Harold Finch would do), and the old storefront at the ground floor was perpetually "closed for renovations". Considering the way Shaw, Root, and I liked to unwind after hard cases the privacy was welcome.

I could get really loud.

After I had taken off my shoes, I went through the apartment to make sure nobody else was around—a paranoid habit instilled by John, but one I followed dutifully—and then grabbed a book from the bookshelf and sat down on the couch to wait.

Root showed up at 11AM on the dot and let herself in.

"Hi," she said, closing the door behind her.

"Hey." I looked her over. Root was wearing a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved gray cardigan over a white top, and short leather boots, the last of which she kicked off at the door. She had her arms crossed, as if she was cold, but I realized that she was cradling herself.

"To be honest," I said, "I was expecting you to change your mind again." I motioned to the spot next to me on the couch. Root hesitated and sat down. She made an abortive move to cross her legs, but then pressed them together instead.

"I almost did," she said, putting her hands on her knees. Her leg couldn't seem to stop fidgeting. "I was thinking about it on the way over."

"If you're that nervous, we don't have to do this," I said. "But I think it'd be fun to give it a shot."

"Yeah," Root said. She glanced at me and then down at the couch. "You know, you've had so many opportunities to literally screw me over. I was expecting revenge for the kidnapping thing."

"I think we're pretty much even, considering Shaw took your clothes and left you zip-tied to a—"

"Yeah, that," Root said, and a dreamy little smile came across her face. "That was actually kinda hot."

"Uh-huh," I said dryly. Root chuckled, but the nervous sound quickly pattered out and left the room draped in awkward silence.

"Um, so," I said, "there's a couple of ways we could do this. I was thinking we could start here in private, and then if you're comfortable, we could go out in public later. But we don't have to go out if you don't want to. I guess it really depends on exactly what you're after."

"The meaning of life and a semblance of order among the cold chaos of the universe?"

"Root," I said, rolling my eyes. "I meant with the vibrator. Like, when I did it with Shaw, it was...well, kinda thrilling to wear it in public without anybody else knowing. So going out and about was a big part of it. But so was Shaw holding the remote. Which part turns you on?"

"I—" With a frustrated sigh, Root looked aside. "I hadn't thought about it much. It just seemed really hot when—when I heard about it, you know?" She motioned vaguely with her hands. "Both things, I guess. Having somebody holding the remote, not knowing when they're going to turn it on...the anticipation, and knowing they could make you come at any time, and you can't do anything about it. And nobody around you can tell what's going on unless you blow it."

"You really do need a partner you can trust with something like this," I said. "Just because they could really doesn't mean they should, unless you agree to that kind of thing or something."

"Yeah. And I...trust you." Root looked like she was confessing to some heinous crime. "On this one thing, I mean," she clarified, just a little too hastily. "I wouldn't give you the encryption keys to my laptop or anything like that." Her face took on a faux look of seriousness. "Confidential information. You understand."

"I trust Shaw," I said, amused, "but she doesn't have the passphrases to my hard drives either."

"Your weird porn is safe," Root said.

"Hey, girls in suits are not weird," I said, indignant. "You're the one that goes on about tentacles!"

Root shrugged. "Back on subject?" she asked with a wink.

I was amazed that my eyes hadn't stuck in the back of my head yet, given how much I rolled my eyes around Root.

"All right, how about we try it in here first?" I said. "Baby steps and all that. We can decide later if you want to go out."

"Okay," Root said, and her leg started wiggling again.

"Are you, ah, wearing it already?" I asked. "You're pretty squirmy."

"Yeah," Root said.

"Okay. I'll pair it and show you what the app looks like." As I spoke, I fished my cell phone out from my skirt pocket. Root watched with anticipation and curiosity as I fired up the application and scrolled to the pair request screen.

"That doesn't look like my app," she said nervously. "Mine has way more pink and blue."

"This is a pet project," I said, not without a certain amount of pride. "I didn't like their UI, so I wrote my own. It uses the same API calls to their system as the real app. Not that they documented those very well."

"I bet it took a lot of 'experimentation' to figure them out," Root said. Her voice had regained some of its usual seductive lilt, but it couldn't mask the nervous waver.

I gave her a brief grin and returned my attention to the screen. Within seconds, I had accepted the pair request Root had sent the night before. I switched back to the main interface and showed her the various screens and operating modes. On the main screen were the manual control sliders, one for the vaginal probe and one for the clitoral vibrator. Another screen allowed me to control both at once by dragging my finger along a 2D graph, with each axis corresponding to a different motor. A tap mode translated momentary touches into bursts of speed, and a preset menu allowed for "set and forget" modes, including sound activation.

I made sure to draw Root's attention to the big emergency stop button at the bottom.

"Every screen has it," I said, tapping it. (It didn't do anything, since the vibrator wasn't on yet.) "Just in case, you know?"

Root nodded.

"If I didn't know what it was, I'd say it looks like any other app," she said. "I suppose that was the idea?"

"Yeah," I said. "It's not exactly subtle to use an app with giant pink accents in public. This is more generic. I'm still working on it. It'll look a little less hackish when I'm done."

"Right."

"So..." I held out the phone to her. "You wanna try it out?"

Root reached for it, but she hesitated and drew back her hand.

"No," she said. "You do it."

I raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

"Yeah. Turn it on."

Root had her hands clasped tight in her lap. Her leg was wiggling again and she looked like she was bracing herself for something painful. There was no way she was going to have any fun in that state.

"What, just like that?" I said, grinning. I set the phone on the coffee table. "No foreplay or anything?"

"I have to be spontaneous, remember? I—"

I was getting really tired of hearing her spout that word. This was ridiculous. How was she supposed to have any fun if she had to trick herself into using the toy?

Well. If she really wanted spontaneous...I could do spontaneous.

Root made an undignified yelp when I grabbed her shoulders and shoved, using my weight to push her over and force her down against the pillows. She ended up sprawled on her back. I straddled her leg and knelt over her.

"You," I said cheerfully, prodding her chest, "need to relax first." Her shoulder was a knot of tension beneath my hand.

"I'm relaxed!" she said. I was far from convinced. "I really am!"

"I'd really hate to see you when you're all wound up."

"Very funny," she said, rolling her eyes. But she didn't resist as I bent down and planted a soft kiss on her cheek.

"Root," I said, squeezing her shoulder in reassurance, "you're safe here. We have all the time in the world to figure out what you want to do."

"I know," she said, and now it felt a little more genuine. I felt the muscles in her shoulder gradually slacken. A mischievous grin appeared on her face as she reached up, took a fistful of my blouse, and yanked me downward towards her waiting lips. I stumbled at the sudden change in balance and my knee nudged between Root's legs. She let out a soft gasp as the inert vibrator jostled against her body. I liked the sound. I liked a lot of sounds Root made. She was a veritable jukebox when it came to making sexy noises during lovemaking.

"I've been waiting," she said when our lips parted. "For like a week. Haven't touched myself at all."

"You should see a doctor." I left a trail of kisses down her cheek and neck. "Nobody should go without orgasms for that long. It's unnatural."

"You have nooooo idea how horny I am," she whined.

"It'll be worth it," I promised. A moment later, I felt Root's hands creeping up under my blouse, warm and soft against my chest and back. I allowed my hands to roam as well, running them all along Root's body.

When Root's probing fingers started fumbling at my bra, I figured she was comfortable enough to have a little more fun, so I disengaged myself as gently as possible and felt around for my cell phone on the coffee table. Root pouted when I pulled away, but her expression turned to a combination of excitement and nervousness when I held up the phone.

"Gonna start it nice and slow," I said. "Ready?" She nodded. Carefully, I used a finger to drag the slider for the vaginal probe up an inch.

Beneath me, Root moaned softly.

"Oh," she said, flexing her fingers. "Oh, wow." She laughed and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "That feels great."

"See?" I said, smiling, "it's fun." I pocketed the phone and returned my attention to Root. My hands slipped under her shirt and rubbed along her chest and sides.

"How high is it?" she said.

"Not very," I said. Even so, the vibrator was already having an effect; Root's hips were beginning to move of their own accord as she tried to get a little more stimulation out of the device. "I didn't even turn on the clit vibe yet."

"You should do that," Root said.

"In a bit," I said. Root's hand moved downward towards her nethers. I grabbed her wrist and made a tsking noise.

"Not yet," I scolded. Root made an inarticulate whine in the back of her throat and tried grinding against my leg. "We have all day to look forward to."

"I should've gotten one of these a long time ago," she panted.

"Having fun?"

"No, it's like watching paint dry. C'mon, turn it up. I want to feel what it can do."

"We should probably move upstairs first," I said. "We'll have more room on the bed."

"Yeah."

I helped Root up off the couch. Her knees wobbled and she leaned against me, although I was pretty sure it was just to cop some extra feels and not because she actually needed the support—the vibrator definitely wasn't running at "jelly legs" speed yet. Root ran her hands over my torso, pawing at my breasts as we stumbled up the stairs. I wasn't sure who was leading who; the only certainty was that we'd be getting there together. My fingers found the button on Root's jeans as we passed through the office area. We paused just long enough for her to shimmy out of them, leaving her in the tight blue panties that held the vibrator in place. They were practically dripping.

It should've been illegal for somebody to have that much self control.

When we neared the bed, Root's hands withdrew from my blouse and made a grab for my shoulders, no doubt intending to force me down like I'd done to her in the living room. But somewhere in the back of my mind I'd been anticipating the move; I held onto her arms, using our combined momentum to ensure we went down together. We ended up facing each other side by side.

"Nice try," I said. I pulled out my cell phone, intent on adjusting the vibrator. Root took advantage of my distraction. Moving quickly—much faster than I would've expected in her state—she rolled on top of me, straddling me and pinning my arms against my sides.

"You know I like to be on top," she said, grinning.

But I still have the remote, I thought gleefully. Keeping my eyes fixed on Root's, I allowed myself a tiny smirk before I used my thumb to flick one of the virtual sliders up as far as I could get it. The response was near instantaneous. Root's eyes went wide, she let out a startled shriek, and her hands shot to her crotch. That was my opening. A little roughhousing and a tap on my phone screen later, I was on top of her and the vibrator speed was back on low.

"You wanted someone else in control," I said, smiling down at Root. Her hair was all mussed up from our struggle and it spilled across the soft sheets. I liked the look; it was much better than her always-perfect waves, especially when paired with the smoldering desire in her eyes.

"Only if they work for it," she grumped. "Also, that was a dirty trick. Was that the clit vibrator?"

"Yep. And I thought playing dirty is the whole reason we're here."

"Yeah, okay, sure," Root allowed. "Can you turn it up now?" She squirmed ineffectually beneath me, although I was pretty sure she could dislodge me if she really wanted to. "Just not that high!" she added quickly.

"Only if you ask nicely," I said.

"Turn it up."

I laughed. "Try again."

"Turn it up, nicely?" She tried giving me The Smile, the one that somehow managed to disarm Shaw from time to time. It had no effect on me. Root's hips wiggled as she tried to grind against the vibrator, but she met only air.

"Who's Nicely?" I asked. "Don't know anybody named Nicely."

"You know, you're a smartass sometimes."

"Pot calling kettle. Come on. I know you know how to say please."

Root set her mouth in a firm line, raised an eyebrow in challenge, and said nothing.

So that was how it was gonna be, huh?

Challenge accepted.

I might not've known Root that well, but I had learned a few of her weaknesses. Maintaining eye contact as much as possible, I slowly worked the hem of my top upward a few inches at a time, dawdling when I got to my bust.

"You can make it easier on yourself," I said sweetly. "Just say the magic word." Root didn't respond, but her attention was wholly focused on me.

I pulled the top over my head—quickly, in case Root decided to stage a coup while I was distracted—and threw the garment aside with a casual flick of my wrist. I didn't care to see what it landed on. (I found out later I'd managed to toss it right over the balcony—smooth.) Root's eyes drifted southward. I took my sweet time unhooking my bra, and by the time I had flung it aside as well, Root was unabashedly staring at my chest.

Sucker.

"All you gotta do is ask," I said, leaning down and throwing in a bit of jiggle for good measure. Root fidgeted beneath me. The haughty look on her face was already starting to falter. I rubbed the inside of her thighs, moving my hands in small circles and letting my fingers drift close to her groin. "Just ask..." I crooned.

I pushed up Root's top and nuzzled her stomach, teasing the skin between my lips while my hands continued to massage her legs. Her breathing quickened and turned into feeble moans, especially when I started working my mouth towards her panty line.

Root's panties were drawn tight around the rounded shape of the vibrator, holding it securely in place over and within her intimates. Its power light glowed faintly through the fabric. Every once in awhile, I made sure to "accidentally" press against the vibrator. The first time, Root let out a strangled groan. The second time, she eagerly leaned into it. I let her have a few seconds before I took my hand away.

The third time, she broke.

"Turn it up," she whispered.

"You know what you have to say," I said. She held out for a few more seconds, and then, finally, gave in.

"Please," she choked out.

I grinned. Triumph was mine, and quicker than I'd been expecting—Root must've been really desperate.

"Now was that so bad?" I said.

Root let out a despondent whine when I took my hands and mouth away. It turned into a breathless gasp when I turned on the clit vibrator.

"Oh fuck," she groaned. She spread her legs wider and clutched the sheets. "Ohh—"

"Hits the right spots, doesn't it?"

She nodded, her eyes fixed on some faraway point above us. Her hips gyrated, rising and falling like waves as she tried to press against the vibrator. Holding up the phone, I used the app's momentary mode to give both vibrator motors a quick burst of speed. I was rewarded with a startled gasp and Root's hips fell back to the bed. Her thighs trembled and her fists clenched.

Switching modes on the app, I stroked the phone screen, teasing the vibrator speed up and down. Root's eyes tracked my fingers.

"That's...very low latency," she noted, her voice breathless. "Really sexy."

I couldn't help but laugh—of course Root would focus on something like that. Giving both motors a little boost, I enabled one last mode and pocketed the phone again.

"Turn it up more?" Root asked.

"It'll go up by a random percentage every minute or so," I said. "So you might be coming in a few minutes...or an hour..."

Shaw probably would've paid big bucks to see the look of consternation on Root's face. "Don't worry," I said, "I'll help you along a little." I crawled further up Root's body and straddled her waist, lowering myself until I felt the buzz of the vibrator weakly through my skirt and panties. It didn't have much of an effect on me, not with all that fabric in the way, but the extra pressure pushed the toy harder against Root, eliciting a keening moan that was doing it for me far better than the muffled vibrations from the toy. I set up a slow, gentle rhythm, rocking my hips back and forth to grind against the vibrator. Root moved her body with mine to get just the right amount of pressure, and soon, our bodies had synced in a graceful, undulating pattern.

Suddenly, the vibrator began to buzz harder, and Root let out a startled gasp.

"Looks like it's your lucky day," I said, surprised. The vibrator didn't usually accelerate that quickly. Root didn't say anything. Her mouth was ajar, letting free a continuous series of moans and gasps, and her eyes were wide, flickering between my face, my breasts, and the ceiling. Her arms wrapped around me, her fingernails pressing into my back as she desperately pulled me closer.

It wasn't long before the vibrator kicked itself up another notch. I doubted Root was going to last much longer. Her body trembled and her fingernails dug into my skin. My lips found the junction between her neck and shoulder and I bit, nowhere near hard enough to break the skin, but enough for Root to shudder with delight.

"Oh fuck—" she gasped. I bit again. "I'm—Ellie, I'm gonna— "

Her body quivered with tension. Her eyes squeezed shut, her mouth fell open, and for several seconds, all I heard was her gasping for breath. She twitched and spasmed and her grip tightened, forcing me desperately against her. We rode out her orgasm together, until she let out a long, shaky moan and began to squirm beneath me.

"Fuck—fuck—" she said.

"Having fun?" I whispered in her ear.

"I came," she gasped out. Her voice was a high-pitched squeak. "Oh fuck! Fuck! Turn it down!"

I briefly considered leaving the vibrator like it was, or even turning it up a few notches. If it'd been Shaw and her fucking multi-orgasmic body (I wasn't jealous, at all), there would've been no question—I would've cranked it up, because okay, maybe I was a little jealous, and I liked hearing Shaw swear and yell when her body kept going and going, but we'd talked about it and she dug it when that particular boundary of hers was pushed a little, so it was okay. But Root's body was in the same camp mine was, which meant that without ropes to hold her down, I was probably going to get kicked across the room very soon, and our tenuous relationship probably wouldn't fare much better. So I quickly fished out the cell phone and turned the vibrator down to a gentle purr, just about the level that I could stand after a good orgasm.

Root's breath came in little pants and her skin was flushed. Her top, dampened with sweat, clung to her curves.

"Wow," she said, propping herself up on her elbows. "That was great."

"Sounded like you were having fun."

"Much better than watching paint dry," she said. She let her head flop back against the sheets.

"Another go?" I offered, holding up the cell phone.

"No," she said. "I'm through."

With a smirk, I tapped the stop button on the app and watched Root's body relax. Setting the phone on the bedside table, I laid myself down next to her, running my hand over her chest. She leaned into the touch, edging closer to my body.

"I'm not sure which is hotter," Root said. "You having the remote or all the technology that makes it work."

"Definitely me," I said. "I'm miles better than Bluetooth, HTTP, SSL, Java, and GSM all put together."

"I dunno," Root said, her voice playful and innocent. "I think it's a close race."

"Oh hush," I said. But coming from Root, that might've actually been a compliment, an acknowledgment that a human being could hold some measure of status next to her beloved computers. I supposed I was honored.

We laid there for several minutes, not saying anything until Root abruptly spoke.

"I want to try it on the town next time," she said. "Let's do it tomorrow?"

"Sure," I said. "If you're comfortable, I mean. And if we don't have a case."

"There probably won't be."

Once again, I found myself wondering how Root could say that so confidently. But I dismissed the thought when Root snuggled closer and put her arms around me. When it came to precious days off, days to fuck and cuddle and not get chased by angry people with guns, I was willing to take whatever I could get.

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