A/N 1: Well, this is it! As promised, the final chapter. This has been possibly my most satisfying fic to write, and I am grateful to all my readers for joining me on the journey. I'd also like to extend a special thanks to Weathergirl and Metisse (two spectacular CI authors) who did me the kindness of looking over this story when it was 80% laid out to reassure me that I was on the right track and tell me where the holes were.

Dear readers, I can't promise to write any faster than I have over the past couple of years, but rest assured, my passion for CI lives on and I shall continue to express it in fics.

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CHAPTER ELEVEN: HER BOBBY

Bobby answered the door later that evening to find his partner, looking irresistible, in a tropical-patterned sundress with a very deep 'V'. Her makeup was fresh and subtle, but sultry and evening, not her usual work hues. Her hair was up in a loose something-or-other that made his fingers itch.

He leaned against the doorjamb and made no attempt to disguise the meticulous once-over he gave her. Her chin was high and tight, but her hands were shaking. The array of pendants 'round her neck drew his eyes down her décolletage.

He knew exactly why she was there.

Hmmm… what do do first? His instinct was two-fold: one, to do a Snoopy-esque happy dance in the hallway, and two, to grab her, drag her into his apartment and introduce his hands and lips to every inch of her.

But he'd changed his mind about being smooth.

"You put a lot of thought into this," he murmured, reaching out to audaciously finger the fabric of her dress and ghost his knuckles over her jewelry. She abruptly released the breath she'd been holding and he thought she might fall over.

She nodded and rubbed her lips together. "Yep. Now stop smiling."

He smiled even harder. "I can't help it."

He took her arm and gently led her into his apartment. "Took you long enough to make up your mind," he muttered as he closed and locked the door.

"It took me exactly as long as it took me," she replied, kicking off her shoes.

Something about her red-toenailed feet curling through his carpet and her dress almost sweeping the floor made him instantly hard.

Wiggling a little in his jeans, he loped into his tiny kitchen, thanking Fate his apartment was spic and span.

Suddenly he was at a loss. How to proceed? He knew that he could seduce her into making love with him tonight, but was that what she wanted? At this most critical juncture, he didn't trust his gut, and he found he absolutely couldn't trust his body. Especially when he heard the slight swish of her bare feet on the lino and felt the air move against his back. Deciding the best course of action was to draw her out, he fell back into sly wit.

"So, are you gonna ask me out?"

He both heard and felt her huff and then the squeak of the foot she pivoted abruptly on, then out of the corner of his eye he espied her sidling up to his big old refrigerator.

Turning, he leaned back against the counter and bent his knee a bit to hide his erection. Shrugging, he said, "I mean, you came over here all dressed up, I just assumed…"

His beloved Alex rolled her eyes and frowned an adorable frown. "Bobby, how long are you gonna make me work so hard for this?"

"You? Work hard? Eames, c'mon. I bared my soul for not one, but five people. That's gotta count for something?"

For a second she looked like she was literally going to bite his head off. Or leave. Then she glanced down and saw the bulge in his jeans. Looked up, puckering her lips thoughtfully. "What it counts for is that it was four people too many."

Antagonistic flirting with his partner was making Bobby even hotter, and it excited him even more to know that she knew how aroused he was. Time to play. "And what exactly does that mean?"

"It means that you started a courtship in exactly the least romantic way possible, and now you're looking to me to make up for it?"

Aaah, solid ground at last. "Well I'm glad you recognise that I'm courting you, at least."

Drawing herself up to her haughtiest 5'2", she looked him up and down and said, "It was a guess. I see no evidence."

Damn, she was so hot! Bobby sighed – relief, actually – though Alex didn't need to know that. "I can be romantic Eames, I just don't wanna scare you away."

Alex tilted her head and smiled at him… the most amazing, brilliant smile. "After careful consideration, I've decided not to be scared."

o.o.o.o.o

Bobby looked down at his partner's perfectly-manicured bare feet, wondering why he was so surprised that it could be like this.

Of course he could charm his partner.

And of course she would see right through him and yield anyway.

And of course her wit would trickle up his spine like a lover's hand, electrifying his nerves and fusing lust and love within him.

And finally, of course she would choose him, and of course she – like him – would choose a way of revealing herself that allowed them both to skip over the myriad possible awkwardnesses like rocks skipping over still water.

"So we'll just stay in then?" He held out his hand to her across the brief expanse of kitchen and she reached out to meet him.

The feeling of just her hand in his was so exciting that he almost dropped it. His partner's quick gasp told him it was the same for her.

"Absolutely. I'm craving cranberry and soda and microwave spanikopitas."

"For you I'll put them in the toaster."

o.o.o.o.o

Three hours had disappeared, marked by long gazes, long silences, discreet cranberry burps and slightly greasy fingers.

"I'm sorry if I embarrassed you," Bobby said (in lieu of telling her he was sleepy, because he really didn't want her to go). Her pretty feet were in his lap and both his hands were up her skirt, caressing her legs. He was determined not to go past her knees. Tonight anyway.

"By spilling your guts to a perp instead of me? Or spilling your guts to a perp in front of Carolyn?"

He looked at her sheepishly.

"Spilling your guts in front of Carolyn was satisfying, not embarrassing. If you must know. But the other…" All night she'd been ensconced in the corner of his big couch, smiling her sly warm bold smile at him and wiggling her toes. Now she looked away. "For years I took it personally that you shared things with criminals before you told me. I just realised last week that it was your way of telling me things that I hadn't given you permission to say."

Bobby's fingers glided along the smooth skin of his partner's legs, feeling the muscles articulated by hours a week of running, kickboxing and weight training. He ventured to cup the soft, sinewy angles of her knees, working the skin between his fingers as though they were a much more intimate spot.

"Figuring out what to do with you when you became the most important person in my life, was – challenging," he admitted. "Took me a while to adjust."

"I know," she said. "It was quite a promotion."

"If this," he waved between them, "Works out, things will have to, ah, change at work. Maybe then you'll get a real promotion."

She tsk'd and abruptly pulled her legs out of his grip. "OK one," she said holding up a petite finger, "If?" She waved her hand between them in an imitation of his earlier gesture.

He smirked knowingly. "OK, when. I just know how you hate being left out of big decisions."

"One-A, thank you. And now two." She sat up and faced him on the sofa. "You gold digger!"

Bobby reached out, spanning the small space between them, to draw her close. When she was so near he could see the pulse at her throat and feel her soft breasts against his chest, he murmured, "Oh yes Eames. You are a major part of my retirement plans."

And then, giving in to the urge to sink his fingers into her loose 'do, he kissed her.

O.O.O.O.O

Weirdly it was the feeling of Bobby's hands in her hair that did her in. She'd seen with her own eyes how gentle her partner could be… but to feel those soft, deft digits ghosting over the curves of her ears, finding and disarming various clips and ornaments, caressing her scalp… meeting his lips for the first time by comparison actually took a back seat (for now at least).

It was as though the kiss was evidence of his need, but his hands showed her what he wanted, and being the satisfaction of that want was intoxicating.

When earlier he had reached for her hand in the kitchen, Alex had felt the insane desire to twirl in his arms, spoon herself against him and offer him her breasts to be caressed. Feeling instantly conflicted, she had tamped down that particular craving, but now she indulged it.

Bobby was surprised when she pulled away from his kiss so quickly… in just a few seconds he seemed to have lost himself in her. But when she levered herself in one quick movement into his lap facing away from him and cupped his hands over her bust, his whole body relaxed. Well, almost his whole body.

"This is what you like?" He murmured into her ear, and she managed a positive-sounding grunt in reply. His body was so hot! Not how he looked… although she found him very physically attractive… but he was literally hot. His tree trunk legs, his erection, the wall of his chest and shelf of shoulders, seemed to envelop her and radiate heat into her.

She would never be cold again.

Bobby, she whispered, turning her mouth towards his. Her partner's big hands played over her breasts in a slow, firm rhythm that reached right between her thighs, and as if he knew exactly what he was doing to her, he parted his knees, forcing her to ride his legs apart. The vulnerability of being spread and ready only aroused her more.

Bobby's lips were soft and firm when they met hers once again. She felt the tiny, strong muscles of his mouth as they moved against her, but also the slick pillow of his pucker. She didn't hesitate to part for him, sliding the tip of her tongue along the seam of his lips until he opened his own to meet her.

It was overwhelming. The feeling of his physical body overran and upended her like a rogue wave, his huge capable hands worked her breasts and drew out sensations she couldn't recall ever feeling before, and his kiss scorched, captured and owned her all at once. She cried out a beautiful bleat of agony and surrender and he took that as well, inhaling it into his own body and sighing in contentment.

"Alex, I didn't want to go too fast," he whispered breathlessly against her throat between long, sucking kisses that enfolded her in a net of new sensations. He managed to capture both her breasts in one hand, leaving the other free to clutch at the fall of skirts between both their legs.

"I know me too," she babbled in a rush. "Change of plans."

Not much later, naked on her back on his big bed hastily stripped of all but the bottom sheet, her lover's bedroom transformed for her into a universe of infinite stars, his arms caressing her legs like the warm breeze of the Jersey Shore boardwalk. Two people so different, surrounded by the same cosmos, had found a new way to be together that night.

Very shortly thereafter, she shared her stars with him.

Dear readers, thank you for sharing this journey with me! If you would be so kind as to let me know how the journey was for you, I would be most grateful! Please, give me the gift I'll treasure forever, leave a review!

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WORDS: 2071 UPLOADED Wednesday, June 17, 2015