A/N: A thousand apologies. My Muse packed her bag and flew the coop for an extended vacation. She hasn't really returned, the stinker. While this story isn't what I intended when I started, I'd rather finish the tale than leave it hanging indefinitely. That being said, the rating has dropped to a more appropriate "T".
On the blog front, thank you for all of the input. I'll put the suggestions to use eventually. You guys are the best.
Oh, and thanks to those of you who recently reviewed/favorited Ouroboros. Thank you for enjoying the story in all its strangeness! It was fun to write.
Anyways, I'm still alive and I intend to finish these stories. Eventually. It's just taking a while. Between editing the novels (I'm finally able to put the excellent feedback I got from the RWA contests into practice after a year and a half) and my Muse taking a hike, I'm kind of short on fanfic inspiration. ~Calla
#
In spite of her words, Lisbon knew she wasn't going to suddenly start tearing Jane's clothes off any more than he was about to do the same to her. In spite of their spicy banter, and knowing they were heading in that direction, the actual moment hadn't arrived yet. Too much hung in the air between them.
"You know, we're damned if we do and damned if we don't." Lisbon's laugh was more raw than amused. "By the time we get to work on Monday there'll be fifty versions of what happened on Islamorada making the rounds. Not a one will be flattering or true."
"What else is new?" Jane's replied flippantly. "Who cares anyway?"
His tone clearly said he didn't. Resisting the urge to push up and pummel Jane for his stupidity, Lisbon conveyed her displeasure with a sharp snort instead.
"Are you for real?" She demanded. "We're supposed to let everyone think and say whatever they please like they have the right?"
"Why not?" Jane asked. "People believe what they want to believe. They always have and…."
"They always will." Lisbon finished for him. "Even if we wish it was different."
"Even if we do." Jane gently brushed her hair back from her face. "Why bother worrying about something we can't change anyway?" His point was valid if Lisbon would only see it. "Whether we like it or not, the old rumors followed us here. Every last one of them. If you thought any differently, you're better at denial than I am."
"I'm not." There was no point in lying since Jane would call her on it. "I've heard the whispers too."
She might have spent a couple of years in a Podunk town where she was a fairly big fish in a tiny pond; but, she hadn't been completely lulled into that false sense of security. While the edges might have blurred, she hadn't completely forgotten what it was like in the real world of Law Enforcement. Well, maybe she had, a little. But, she'd gotten a fairly brutal refresher course soon after joining the FBI. It hadn't taken long to figure out she was just another minnow in a pond filled with much larger fish with sharp, gnashy teeth.
Compounding first impressions, her actions in the early days of Jane's "recruitment" to the Bureau had raised eyebrows among her peers. Her eventual defection to Abbott's unit as Jane's handler hadn't helped their current situation. How comfortably she'd fallen into place in her "new" position and Jane's obvious happiness at having her there hadn't gone unnoticed either. In fact, their actions had only alerted the seasoned gossip mongers there was more to their whacked out fairytale than met the eye.
That, in turn, had started the bottom feeders digging as only Law Enforcement can. Unfortunately, their efforts had proven fruitful and they'd uncovered unsavory events better left buried… Enough of them to set tongues wagging and dissuade wise men from pursuing her… Pike obviously hadn't fallen into that category…He'd foolishly chosen to walk where angels fear to tread.
If that wasn't sin enough, their aborted relationship would unleash a fresh inferno of unsubstantiated claims everyone would be quick to declare truth.
Lisbon was positive everyone at HQ already knew Jane had driven her home from the airport and that he'd yet to leave her place several hours later. Or they would long before either of them returned to work on Monday. They were so done. They might as well commit the "crime" they'd be convicted of in the court of public opinion. She was certain no one would believe they hadn't.
Who cared about the truth when gossip was better?
"What whispers are those?" Jane asked with a surprisingly straight face.
"Oh, you know the ones." Two could play that game.
"You mean the one's saying we've been banging like bunnies since Day One?" Making a rude noise, Lisbon shook her head in defeat.
"Yep, those would be the ones." She agreed.
"They've never bothered you before." Jane said quietly. "Why let them bother you now?"
"Because they're true." Raising up, Lisbon gave him a frustrated look. "Or they will be eventually." Talking about someone burying their head in the sand…. "Besides, if we'd been going at it since the get go, all the hell you've put me through over the years would have been worth it or I'd have dumped your butt long ago." Looking into her eyes, Jane didn't doubt her words for a second. Lisbon's expression was enough to give any man a serious case of performance anxiety. Fortunately, he wasn't prone to that kind of thing so he couldn't care less. "Since we weren't, what do you have to say for yourself, Mister?"
"Wanna make up for lost time?" Jane's irreverent smirk said he wasn't affected in the least by the finger so rudely poking him in the chest or the angry spiel she'd vomited on him.
"You offering?" Lisbon quipped reminding him risqué banter was one thing…follow through another.
"Yeah, I think I am," Jane stated firmly with none of the doubt his statement implied. "More than offering."
"Then, yeah, I think I'm taking you up on the offer." Lisbon said with equal conviction.
"Yeah?" Jane's lips quirked in a smile that was more ravenous than affectionate.
"Oh, yeah." Lisbon agreed.
"Then I'd say you don't need this." Jane reached down to lift the well worn sleep jersey over her head and toss it aside before fixing her with a slightly surprised look. "I'd also say you were expecting things to heat up before the evening was over."
"That doesn't mean it was going to happen;" Lisbon admitted not denying what he could see. "But, a girl can hope can't she?"
"I suppose she can." Jane agreed. "Although I wasn't expecting this."
He motioned to the lacy lingerie leaving little to the imagination knowing darned well Lisbon didn't wear things like this under her work clothes. It wasn't practical in the least. Added to that, he'd sneaked a peak in her lingerie drawer enough in the past to know what was and, more importantly, what wasn't hidden away in there and he'd never seen anything like this. He might have relieved her of it if he had.
As perverse as his actions seemed now, he'd considered his covert forays into the forbidden an acceptable way of keeping tabs on the private life Lisbon kept much too private. He hadn't cared the woman would neuter him if she caught him rummaging her panty drawer. Mercifully she never had and mercifully there hadn't been much going on before Pike. He was as sure of that as he could be considering the pretty, but much too conservative, bits he'd constantly seen prior to that last interlude when his clandestine forays had come to abrupt end.
What he did know was the pretty emerald wisps she was wearing hadn't screamed seduction to any other man.
Not considering he'd purchased them to go under that beautiful emerald lace dress he hoped Lisbon hadn't jettisoned on Islamorada in a fit of pique. Jenny, his ever helpful sales associate, had assured him she had the perfect undergarments to go under that dress via Chat and he'd taken her at her word once she'd sent him photographs backing her claim. Deciding, that while he liked the vision before him, he still hoped to see Lisbon in that dress Jane ruminated on the possibility she'd left his purchases behind in her abandoned hotel room. It would be a crying shame if she had since that piece, of all of his purchases, was his favorite. He'd known she'd look beautiful in that dress and he'd eagerly anticipated seeing her wearing it.
He'd just as eagerly anticipated getting her out of it although with hindsight he doubted things would have gotten that far even if his poorly thought out plan had worked as he hoped.
Truthfully, in typical Jane fashion, he hadn't thought far enough ahead to work out precisely what should happen after he convinced Lisbon to drop Pike and give him a fighting chance. Persuading her to get with the program was all he'd cared about. Once he'd removed the threat to their relationship and prevented his woman from leaving him, he'd been positive things would fall back into place over time. They always did. What that meant exactly he hadn't known at the time.
What he did know was he hadn't wasted much time thinking about taking their relationship to the next level. He'd given even less thought to the actual consummation. He'd known he wasn't ready to go there any time soon as fervently as he'd known he wasn't willing to let Lisbon go. He'd concentrated, instead, on stopping her defection before it was too late since preventing Pike from getting that ring on her finger mattered most in the big scheme of things. Maybe he'd been too idealistic in his thinking.
"You should have been." Lisbon patted his cheek condescendingly. "I guess that goes to show you don't know me quite as well as you think you do. Oh, and you're an idiot if you think I'd toss all those expensive purchases because you pissed me off."
The slight nod of her head emphasized the silent, "So not happening, Buster." Jane could read in her eyes. All three of those dresses were hanging in her closet upstairs. Perhaps a tad wrinkled from being angrily crammed into her suitcase; but, nothing her steamer couldn't handle. If she had her way, she'd be wearing all of them before too long. Austin had plenty of upscale restaurants Marcus hadn't taken her to. Whether he knew it or not, she and Jane were visiting every last one of them on his dime.
Just wait and see.
"Perhaps I don't." Jane agreed deciding none of that bothered him as much as it should have. "I'm assuming that's your way of saying you'd have worn those dresses for Pike?"
"You better believe it." Lisbon snapped. "What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Besides, I doubt Marcus would have cared that much if he did find out. Not knowing it was compensation for the latest crap you'd pulled."
If things had worked out differently and her lover had cared, Lisbon's tone said he'd have gotten over it if he knew what was good for him.
"That's one way of looking at it." Jane agreed. "And you may be right."
He wasn't sure he'd go that far. But, Lisbon was entitled to her opinion...Even a wrong one…He was a man. He knew better. His rival wouldn't have been as indifferent as she seemed to think. To say Marcus would have been upset by her attitude would be an understatement. He certainly would be in a similar situation. No woman of his would ever wear an expensive collection of dresses given to her by a man who wasn't her father.
Not even if they weren't lovers.
So not happening no matter what Lisbon said.
Then again, Pike would have probably sucked it up in the end if he knew what was good for him. Lisbon could be stubborn like that and Jane knew she would never have parted with the one truly thoughtful thing he'd ever done for her. At least that's how she'd have justified upsetting her significant other to herself. The real reason was far different and he wasn't going there. Not out loud.
It wouldn't get him anything he wanted in the end.
"I may be." Lisbon's tone said the subject was closed. "What I don't know is how you knew all the right sizes to buy unless you've been snooping around where you shouldn't."
"Would I do that?" Jane refused to answer on the grounds it would incriminate him.
"Yes." As much as she wanted to be angry with him, she really wasn't. "You would and I should make you sleep alone tonight."
"You should." Jane agreed. "But you won't."
"No, I won't." Lisbon agreed. "We've waited too long for this."
"Yes, we have, and this looks nice on you." Jane toyed with the strap of her bra. "I'd like you to wear it under the green dress when we go out to dinner tomorrow night."
"You're taking me out to dinner?" Lisbon quirked a brow at him. "This is the first I've heard about it."
"We'll talk about it later." Jane said as he reached behind her to unfasten her bra. "Right now I can think of better things to do with our time."
"Oh, yeah?" Lisbon mirrored his smirk back at him. "What might that be?"
"If I have tell you," Jane said. "You're not ready to play."
"Oh, really?" Shrugging out of her bra and tossing it aside, Lisbon leaned in to give him a toe scorching kiss. "You might need to rethink that."
"Maybe I do." Jane agreed as he realized Lisbon had skillfully removed his pajama top in the midst of pleasantly mauling him and was well on her way to divesting him of his pants as well when he hadn't felt a thing. Well, maybe he'd felt something; but, it wasn't his clothes slipping away. "We seem to be on the same page without my saying a thing."
"You think?" Lisbon smirked at the mild surprise on Jane's face at how quickly she'd gotten them down to skin on skin.
"Oh, yeah." Jane agreed quickly deciding if Lisbon wanted to take charge, he wasn't stopping her.
Not when his eyes were already rolling back in his head.
