Lionel opened the door to his small apartment with a look that could only be described as disgruntled. He was not happy he was babysitting for John so he could go out on a date with his partner.
"Uncle Lionel!" Aubrey cried in exuberance, reaching out for him to take a hold of her.
"Hey princess," he greeted warmly, taking Aubrey into his arms. He was still honored that John and Jessica asked him to be Aubrey's godfather, a role he took very seriously. He was working his ass off at becoming a better cop, better father, and better person, not just for Lee but for this cute little thing too.
John smiled. "Thanks for watching Aubrey, Lionel."
Fusco frowned at his best friend once more as he put Aubrey on her feet. "Go turn on the television, I'll get Snow White on for us in a minute."
"Okay," she agreed happily before taking her jacket off and running for the living room.
Both men watched the little girl who was already in her pink pajamas before looking at one another. "I already fed her and bathed her. She's really excited to have a night in with her Uncle Lionel."
"Yeah, well, I'm happy to watch her for you but did you tell her why you needed Uncle Lionel to watch her?" John shook his head, no. Fusco nodded before eyeing the clothes peeking out from beneath the leather jacket he was wearing and made a face. "You even dressed up for Carter!" he said almost accusatory.
John looked down at his very simple buttoned down dark blue dress shirt, paired with dark dress pants. It wasn't fancy but it was a step up from his well-worn jeans he typically chose to wear.
"Well, Lionel, you see when a man goes on a date he dresses up to impress. What was I supposed to wear?—my workout gear I wear when training the women at the self-defense classes?" He asked. Lionel ducked his head a little.
"Yeah, you're right, go have fun, but not too much fun."
John rolled his eyes. "Okay dad." Lionel glared at him before slamming the door shut in his face. He laughed softly as he turned around and walked away.
"Did you shave your legs, Carter?" Shaw demanded.
"Yes."
"Under your arms?"
"Yes."
"Shave your downstairs?"
She rolled her eyes. "Not answering that."
"Have condoms on hand?"
"Not answering that either." Joss snapped as she got the gold hoops into her ears. Sometimes Shaw could be a crude person. Shaw and Finch were connected to her via their earwigs and Fusco was called by John to babysit his daughter. Joss had a bad feeling about tonight. Not that anything was going to go wrong, on the contrary, rather that tonight it was going to be a really nice date and nothing was going to happen. Except for explosions between her and John, something that she didn't want to happen. She wasn't ready to be dating, hadn't even dealt with what happened to Cal, but yet here she was.
"He's here, Carter." Shaw said just before the doorbell rang.
Joss gave herself one last look before she turned around, exited her bathroom, and hurried down the stairs. She rushed to the front door, tugging it open, and stared. She was hit with his intoxicating scent, his cologne, and something else.
"Hi," she forced out.
John's eyes raked down her body, taking in her snug fitting blue dress with simple short sleeves, hint of cleavage, and the hem reached mid-thigh. She kept her hair down, put subtle makeup on, and she felt beautiful under his adoring gaze.
His eyes lifted. "You look gorgeous, Joss."
"Thank you, John." She said sincerely before grabbing her black suede jacket, tugging it on, and flicked her hair out from under it, and proceeded to close the door and lock up. "So where are we going?"
"I hope you like Thai."
She smiled. "I do actually, did you figure that out on your own or did you have Fusco give you pointers?" she teased.
He laughed softly. "Do I get any points if I tell the truth and say I asked Fusco?"
She shrugged softly, her smile growing. "Maybe," she murmured as he led her to his car and she watched as he opened the passenger door for her. "Such a gentleman."
"Do I hear a touch of surprised amazement? Should I be offended?" John asked. She giggled (and she inwardly blasted herself for it). "What the hell was that, Carter, did you just giggle like a teenage girl?" Shaw demanded. "Finch, Carter has a crush on our number!" Joss discreetly reached up to her ear, muting the gnat.
"No, it's just I thought chivalry was dead," she admitted as her breath hitched a bit when he took her hand, helping her sit down. The heat between them even at the simplest touch was downright intense. She tugged her hand free the moment she was seated. The independent side of her was berating herself for allowing such a thing, but, the far corner inside her was giddy that he was being old-fashioned. He probably would pull out her chair for her at dinner too.
He leaned down so that she could see his face, he had a eased look on his face. "Chivalry isn't dead, it's just a forgotten art," he assured her before sliding the door shut and walked around the car to climb in. She quickly looked in the side mirror seeing Shaw was following from a safe distance.
She turned her gaze to eye his handsome profile. "So John, Fusco told me much about you," she said, noting that his hands squeezed the steering wheel tight for a brief second before it faded.
"Oh yeah, what?" he sounded cautious. Had Joss not known why, she probably wouldn't have noticed it, but she did. She knew he was on the run from something.
But she didn't want to have him run the other way from her, especially since she was trying to protect him. "He told me you are wrapped around your little girl's pinky," she said and watched as his visibly relaxed.
"I am; she's everything to me," he agreed.
She nodded. "What happened to Mrs. Reese?" she prodded to see if getting information from John was going to be easy or not.
"She died." It was a short clipped answer, but it did give her the answer to her question; it was not going to be easy to get him to talk, not whatsoever.
"I'm sorry, John."
His eyes flickered to her for a brief second and there was an unreadable mask over his emotions. "Thanks, what happened to Mr. Carter?"
There it was again, steering the conversation away from himself. "Divorced."
"What happened?"
She shrugged. "We drifted apart. We were both in the military, both did things and saw things, he more than me, but I found a way to cope, while he couldn't and he changed into someone else entirely."
"You were in the military?"
Joss eyed him as he flicked his gaze back her way in surprise. "Yeah, you say that as if either you don't believe me or you don't believe someone like me could be in the military."
"Neither, really, I just figured you were a cop all your life."
She nodded. "Where'd you serve?"
"What makes you think I served, Joss?"
"I don't know, call it a hunch."
He laughed. "More like Fusco struck again, huh. But yeah I was in the military, army—Special Forces."
"When did you get out?"
"2005."
"When did you join?" she asked even though she knew the answer, wanting him to get comfortable with talking about himself with her.
"I was eighteen."
She nodded. "That's a long time, why did you quit?"
"I wanted a family and if I stayed any longer, being a soldier would be all I knew how to be. And I didn't want that to happen," he said quietly and she eyed him. So far everything he said was what she already knew. She needed him to talk about things they didn't know about, like what could possibly have him spooked enough to change his life and his daughter's? And who would want to hurt him?
They had a nice date, they laughed, had fun. Damn it, this was why she didn't want to go out with him. John was easy on the eyes, interesting, had knowledge on lots of different topics which made conversation with him titillating and invigorating. But the problem was every single time she tried to get some new additional information out of him about himself, he shut her down. He was good at deflecting, and at shifting the conversation away from him that she nearly forgot that she had asked him a question while she was the one answering everything. Now here they were at the end of the date, back at her place, and she hadn't learned anything to help with learning why his number was up.
John cut the engine, turning to face her. "I had a really nice time, Joss."
"Me too." She admitted. Don't do it, don't ask him in, don't do it, her mind screamed. "Would you like to come in for some coffee?" she asked as her mouth had a mind of its own.
He smiled. "I'd love too." She felt an answering smile fill her face. She turned, opening the door before climbing out as he did. She unmuted Shaw. "I'm extending the date," she whispered.
"Yeah, kind of figured you would with all the flirting you two did at dinner. Carter, if I didn't know any better I would say you're just as hot for this guy as he is for you."
Joss didn't bother to respond as John slid up beside her, touching her back gently and intimately. And heaven help her, but she didn't mind one teensy bit. She took the front stoop first, feeling his eyes on her ass, and she nearly groaned in agony. This was torturous. She unlocked the door, shoving it open, entering first and he followed. She turned the light on.
"So where is your son, Taylor?" he asked gently as she took his jacket after closing the door and taking hers off, resting it on the hook near the door.
"Study group." She admitted. At dinner they had talked about their children, he was proud of his little girl and she was equally proud of Taylor. That had been the only personal subject he had readily talked about, Aubrey. He showed her pictures, his daughter was beautiful. "How do you like your coffee?"
"Black, please."
She smiled. "Coming right up, have a seat in the living room." She motioned and he nodded. She turned, hurrying into the kitchen. "Shaw, I have no idea who would want to hurt him, but I don't know how much I can go on with this," she whispered as she entered the kitchen, turning on the light.
"On with what, in need of his love stick?" Joss made a face at that, Shaw had no idea. She wasn't typically a hormonal woman but all dinner long she had been gently squirming in her seat feeling uncomfortably moist between her legs.
"Not what I meant, Shaw." But she decided to ignore the woman as the coffee brewed enough for two cups before she poured a cup for him, and one for her. She put one cream and one sugar in hers before carrying both cups out into the living room.
He stood up, walking to her, and taking his coffee from her. "Thanks."
She kicked off her heels before they sat down together on her couch. They were both quiet for a few minutes, sipping their coffees and eyeing one another. She shouldn't have asked him in here. This was way too intimate of a setting.
"This was probably one of the best first dates I ever been on," he admitted slowly before taking another sip of his coffee.
"Me too," she acknowledged before being unable to hold his gaze any longer, and looked down. "So tell me, what made John Reese decide to be an Instructor at the police academy?" she asked, looking back into his eyes. She saw a shadow flicker across his face before it was gone.
He shrugged. "The job called to me; when I was in the Special Forces I had come across many different kinds of weapons and mastered them all."
"You are also well versed in many topics too," she added. He was extremely intelligent, which he tried to downplay at dinner and it led her to believe that this man picked things up quickly. "You could have done anything, just curious as to why you settled for being an Instructor rather than straight up becoming a cop."
He smiled. "I'm not very good at following rules."
"Oh, a troublemaker, eh?" she teased as she cocked a brow and sipped her coffee.
"Carter, tread carefully you don't sound like an interrogator interested in learning his truth, but rather a woman interested in a man." Shaw's voice interjected, reminding her that this wasn't a real date, and that he was just a number.
He laughed softly. God, was it such a sexy sound, like a light rumble. "You could say that if you want, I like to think of myself as a jack of all trades, and following all those rules would be constricting." he admitted and their eyes connected. He could say that again. From what she knew of what he had done to hide himself he was very much a man that was a jack of all trades. "But that's enough about me, I'm not nearly as interesting as you are, Joss, so tell me why didn't you pursue a career in law as you said you got a degree and even passed the bar?"
She forced herself to not feel a bit discouraged. She wasn't getting anywhere with him. "Is that your subtle way of saying I'm pushy?"
His smile was wide and distracting. "Not pushy, but maybe curious. You ask a lot of questions."
"Maybe it's because I was a former army interrogator, back when I was in the military," she said and his smile widened. Maybe if she gave him something about her, he would in turn give her something about himself.
"That doesn't surprise me."
She nodded. "Well, I left the military because of an injury and I had a law degree. But to answer your question, I guess I wanted to try to stop crime from happening. I wanted to get the criminals off the street rather than trying to send them to prison."
"That's admirable."
"Well, my personality is ripe for being a lawyer but my heart is with being a cop. I always wanted to be one, even when I was a kid." He eyed her and she chuckled softly as she sipped her coffee before leaning back. "I'm a bit stubborn," she admitted.
"I've been told I'm a bit stubborn too."
Joss eyed his long, lean, and athletic body up and down. "You look stubborn."
He laughed heartily. "There is a look?"
"Yes, there is, and are you going to say I don't have the look myself?"
She internally groaned as she just gave him an open invitation to give her yet another onceover, having those sexy eyes on her was making her body temperature rise quickly. "A little," he agreed. And suddenly the air felt different between them as their smiles slowly faded, and they just sat staring at one another silently. John leaned forward to put his coffee down, she followed suit, and he turned to look at her. Her breath caught as his fingers touched her chin tilting her face up.
Their gazes met. "John." Joss barely got out before his lips took hers. His lips were soft, moved on hers assuredly, and she hesitated all for seconds before she kissed him back. He was a really good kisser, as he slowly deepened the kiss. There was no fumbling, no first kiss jitters. Nope, this man just went for it, owned it, and made her toes curl. All coherent and rational though fled from her brain as his tongue swiped across the seam of her lips. Joss rested her hands on his shoulders, his very strong shoulders.
But before she could open her mouth in unabashed invitation, the annoying gnat spoke again. "Wow, Carter, I didn't know you put out on the first date." Shaw commented via earwig and she tore her mouth from John's. He was her number for cripes sake and she was close to making out with him on her couch.
She stood up immediately. "I'm sorry, John, maybe you should go."
He eyed her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to overstep."
"You didn't John." She ran a hand through her hair. "If I didn't want it, I would have knocked your teeth out," she assured him and he flashed her that sexy and devilish grin he had. "It's just I don't do this."
"Do what?—kiss? I find that hard to believe, Joss, you're very good at it and you're a very beautiful woman."
"No I meant, invite men in my house after the first date."
He stood up and towered over her again. Damn it, she wished she left her shoes on, because without her heels she felt even smaller in his presence. "I'm glad you chose to invite me in, Joss. It was nice, so was the kiss, but I should be going. I need to pick up Aubrey." She nodded her head. "But before I go, call me, and we'll set up another date."
Joss felt uncomfortably warm as he bent to kiss her cheek, that shouldn't be in any way sexual but it was. He made everything he did sexual. "I will," she whispered breathlessly. She followed him to her foyer where he grabbed his jacket.
He turned to look at her. "Goodnight, Joss."
"Goodnight, John." And with that he turned, opened her door, and exited. She slid the door shut, and leaned her back against it. "I'm so screwed," she whispered to herself.
AN: Sorry for no actual date but knowing me had I wrote the date this chapter would have been way to long. Next chapter there is a little bit of everything in it as Shaw follows John and is made, there is a little tidbit thrown in about why he went into hiding, and Fusco gets a little protective ;D And that's just the little stuff because there is something else in it too! I'll try posting soon!
Thanks for reading!
