Swiping an errant strand of hair from her face with her arm, Sam plucked another dinner fork from the sink, scrubbed at it a few times, rinsed it, and placed it carefully in the dish drainer before reaching for another.

"You know," Ellie's voice sounded from behind her, "there's this marvelous new invention for that. It's called a dishwasher. I have one – here, let me show you how it works."

Sam chuckled. "I'm really more used to doing it this way. I travel so much, if I just put things in the dishwasher and forgot about them, there could be whole new kinds of science growing when I got back."

"Yeah, but you do dishes for one," her sister-in-law insisted. "Believe me, my kids can dirty every dish in this kitchen within two days."

"I don't know. It's... calming, I think. I've just always done it this way. But it's your house."

"No, no, have it your way." Meandering around the kitchen, Ellie started collecting the random dishes and moving them closer to the sink. "I would just think you'd want to spend more time with General Hunkiness, that's all."

The nickname made Sam giggle, but she didn't look away from the sink. "I would, but he said something about not getting sawdust all over your couch and went to take a shower."

"Well, then you really should be spending time with him!" Ellie teased, eliciting a groan from the younger woman.

"Aunt Sam?"

Thankful for the interruption, Sam spun around, careful to hold her arms up to keep the drips off the floor, and smiled at her niece. "Yeah, sweetie?"

"Daddy said you used to be really good at puzzles," Sydney said. "And I have this one that I got for Christmas last year that's really hard, and I thought maybe you'd help me?"

"Your daddy's right. I love puzzles," the Colonel told her. "Why don't you go get it and I'll be in in a minute?"

The little girl shrugged. "They're in the closet. I can't reach them."

"Go on." Ellie gave Sam a nudge and reached out for the dish gloves. "I can handle this. Syd, sweetie, why don't you finish clearing off the table, and you can work on it there?"

"Okay!" Clearly excited, the girl took off for the dining room at a breakneck pace.

"The puzzles are in the spare room," the older woman supplied. "Right side. It's the only fifteen-hundred piece one in there."

"Got it." Relinquishing all the dishwashing supplies, Sam headed up the stairs. It was probably better that she went looking, anyway, she thought – she didn't really think the General would go strutting through her brother's upstairs hallways naked, but with his luck lately, he'd have forgotten clothes. Or a towel. Or anything that would get him from the upstairs bathroom to their bedroom without danger of indecent exposure.

The thought brought a very wicked grin to her face as she crossed the room and slid open the closet door. "Safari, birds, a unicorn," she mused, tracing down the line of boxes. "Escher – ooh, that must be fun. Under the sea..."

Behind her, the door clicked shut, and Sam automatically turned to look.

And froze.

"Hey, I didn't know you were in here," Jack greeted, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he wore only a towel. A small towel, at that.

As her eyes involuntarily started at his bare feet and traveled up strong legs, past the towel to a still trim torso with shoulders damp and glinting, she managed, "I... I was looking for a puzzle," and hoped he couldn't tell the way he was making her heart pound and her mouth water.

"Ah." By the way he swaggered toward her, slow, intense, she knew he had. "Like what you found instead?"

"Mmm, yes." She hadn't even meant to say the words, much less actually touch him as he came closer, but she'd thought many times about this scenario... and it was so much better in person. Eyes intently following the actions of her hand, she gently touched a droplet on his chest and swirled it around, relishing in the feel of his bare flesh beneath her hands.

"Turnabout is fair play," he murmured in her ear, his fingers dipping under the hem of her shirt to tease the skin at her waistline. As his arms encircled her, pulling her closer, he added, "I have wanted you for so long..."

His lips descended to hers slowly, meeting her mouth as he pressed her into the wall. There was nothing gentle about it, like their first kiss, nor was it wild like the night before. No, he was taking her, claiming her entirely as his own, his tongue mating and swirling with hers as his hips mimicked the motion.

She moaned against his mouth as his fingers traveled lower, one hand slipping down to cup her ass and pull her harder against him. Willing, wanting him to have better access, she wrapped that leg tightly around his waist as his mouth left hers and he left a trail of tiny bite marks down the side of her neck.

"Aunt Sam? Did you find it?"

Her eyes flew open as Jack froze, groaning softly against her shoulder. She nearly jerked her leg back, but realized just in time that it was helping to hold up the towel that (barely) kept the young girl in the doorway from getting an R-rated view. "Uh... no, honey. Give me just a second," she said, trying desperately to slow her breathing.

Mark was going to murder her.

"That's okay. I can get it," Sydney announced, flouncing across the room. "Just don't tell Mom I stood on the furniture." Grabbing the chair from the corner, she dragged it in front of the closet – mere feet from where Sam and Jack had been doing something they very much shouldn't have been doing in front of a child – hopped up, grabbed the puzzle, and left.

The two were silent for a long moment, still locked together – Sam completely mortified, Jack clearly trying to battle every instinct that told him to fling her on the mattress and be done with it. "What the hell goes on in this house when we're not here?" he said finally into her shoulder. "Nothing phases that girl."

Awkwardly clearing her throat, she pushed him away a little, nearly lost the towel, grabbed for it, and wrapped it more tightly around his waist. It could no longer hide everything, though, and the friction made him groan. "I should go downstairs," she murmured, avoiding his eyes. "I promised I'd help."

"Yeah." Blowing out a terse breath, he stepped a little further back. "I'll be down in a minute. Just have to jump back in the shower and turn it on cold."

She grimaced. "Sorry."

"Don't be." He planted a firm kiss on her forehead. "I like your family and all, Carter, but I can't wait to get the hell out of Dodge."

That earned a smile and made her look up. "Me, too."