Author's Note:

Warning: there is a majorly fluffy scene in here, just Claudia and Nick misbehaving and being a little OOC -) And as always, thanks for reading and reviewing!

"Leave everybody sleeping in this sleepy town tonight." ~Love and Theft

Nick's P.O.V.

About halfway into long flight to America, I glanced around to find almost everyone asleep. Claudia, who was sitting next to me, had fallen asleep with her head on my shoulder. Stephen, who had been sitting across from Connor and Abby, was asleep and snoring loud enough to possibly crash the plane. Joseph, who was sitting in the back by himself, was also asleep but unlike Stephen was completely silent. The only person awake besides me was Lester, who looked absolutely bored as he read a book he held open in his lap. Even he looked on the brink of falling asleep.

I stroked Claudia's hair as she slept, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her head. I didn't know how much longer it would be before we landed, but my muscles were growing stiff to the point of being painful. I shifted slightly, careful not to wake Claudia. She only murmured something inaudibe in her sleep and moved closer. I leaned back in my seat and, like everyone else on the plane, fell asleep.

When we finally landed, we were all jetlagged up one side and down the other. It took Stephen five minutes to get me awake, and then he almost got his head bitten off when he woke Lester. Joseph was in absolute disarray, his clothing disheveled and his hair in a tangled mess. Claudia was still asleep, and I promptly growled at Stephen when he went to wake her up. I picked her up and carried her off the plane, ignoring Lester's eye rolling. We all looked like a mess, our hair tangled and mussed and our clothes out of order. Lester looked particularly irritated with his appearance, and I couldn't hold back a slight smile of amusement as he pulled a comb from his pocket and began pulling his hair back into place.

"Nick?" Claudia mumbled.

"Morning beautiful," I smiled.

"You can put me down now," she said, and I gave her a quick kiss before gently sitting her on her feet.

A button at the top of her blouse had come undone in her sleep, and I reached out and quickly buttoned it for her. I was about to pull my fingers away when my hand accidentally brushed bare skin, and I found myself frozen in place just as she was. My fingers had just barely brushed her chest, but that one small accident had left us both very affected.

I heard an exasperated sigh from behind us. "If the two of you are going to rip each other's clothes off, could you please be so kind as to wait until you're alone? There are small children present," Lester said, throwing a pointed glance at Abby and Connor.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Right," I stuttered, pulling my hand away.

"We should be going," Claudia breathed, blushing.

"To get yourselves a hotel room from the looks of it," Lester muttered under his breath.

"Oh shut up Lester!" Claudia snapped, her blush deepening.

"We should get to Biltmore guys," Stephen said, who had been watching with amusement as I made a complete idiot of myself acting like an awkward teenager.

"Yes," Claudia agreed, and we collected our luggage and took care of everything we needed to before leaving the airport and splitting up into the rental cars we'd had brought ahead of time.

Claudia's P.O.V.

"Oh my god, this place is gorgeous," I said when I caught sight of Biltmore. Everything from the huge, colorful garden to its amazing structure was just breathtaking.

"Maybe we'll take care of the anomaly and still have a little time to look around before we have to go back to London," Nick said.

We got out of the car and walked into the entryway of the grand castle, and a guard approached immediately. He began peppering us with questions, and I irritably pulled out my mobile and dialed Lester, who said he'd be here in a moment. The guard was still asking us just about a million questions when he finally walked up.

"James Lester," he introduced himself, and the guard stiffened instantly.

Our cover was that we were just curious tourists here from London, and Lester was playing the role of the filthy rich bureaucrat to buy our way through it, promising money or whatever to the people in our way wanted. Pretty much the same thing he did back in London; used money and power to get his way.

"Yes of course, right this way sir," the guard stammered, introducing us to the tour guide.

Soon we were being toured around the vast place, being shown around and having its history explained to us. I played the overly eager girlfriend of Nick's wanting to know all the facts whilst Nick and Lester looked around for any traces of anomalies or dinosaurs. The rest of the team were in various other areas on the grounds searching for the same things. The media headlined it "Dinosaur Attacks In Biltmore?," but it didn't say where in Biltmore.

Suddenly our tour guide's mobile started ringing, and she excused herself briefly. In her absence, we began searching with more detail. Nick pulled out a compass and began pacing the halls; something he couldn't very well do with the chipper tour guide yapping at us. Connor had tweaked the compass to give it better range, which we would need given the size of the estate. Lester went in one direction and Nick and I went in another.

As we started down a hall, I curiously wandered into a large bedroom. It was stunning and amazingly well preserved. Dark wood that looked stunning against red fabrics made the room seem almost like something out of a fairytale. And given we were technically in a castle, the fairytale thing wasn't that far of a stretch. I couldn't resist running my fingers over the velvet chaise lounge and staring at the huge, intricately carved fireplace.

I knew we needed to be working and no one was supposed to touch the furniture, but I couldn't resist flouncing down on the massive four poster canopy bed. The guards were busy downstairs and our tour guide was nowhere to be found, so I let myself enjoy a small moment of simple pleasure as I sprawled out on the velvety duvet. I was about to rise to my feet when I felt lips gently catch mine, and I leaned into Nick's kiss without hesitation.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled myself closer. In spite of knowing this was the last place we needed to be kissing, no one was around and I just couldn't help myself. Nick couldn't seem to help himself either, for he pushed me back down on the bed and came down on top of me. He brought out my wild and reckless side, a side I hadn't even known existed until he came along. The kiss deepened rapidly, and my heart began racing wildly as his hand gently reached under my shirt and stroked my side. His fingers against my bare skin elicited a shiver, and I couldn't repress a small noise of pleasure as his lips traveled down my neck.

I was confused when he got to his feet, but after closing the door, he returned to me. I eagerly pressed my lips back to his, heedless of our location. My desire for him had been repressed for too long as it was and his kiss had only caused my resistance to slip completely. The tension between us had been nearly palpable since his fingers had accidentally touched me at the airport.

He easily unbuttoned and slid my blouse from my shoulders, and I rose to my knees on the bed and pulled his tee-shirt over his head. My hands ran down his bare chest, and then I pushed him down against the bed and began trailing my lips down his torso, going from his neck to just above the waistband of his jeans and then back to his neck.

I situated my knees on either side of his waist so that I was straddling him and then leaned down to kiss him again. He ran his fingers down my spine, which was completely bare save for my black lace bra. I was in such a desired frenzy that reality was slowly going to small, fragmented pieces. I reached for his belt buckle but suddenly heard footsteps. Oh hell, I thought.

I looked over my shoulder at the door just in time to see Lester walk in and then turn around so fast he walked face first into the wall. I scrambled off of Nick and hurriedly pulled my blouse on and buttoned it rapidly. He pulled his shirt back on and practically fell off the bed in his hurry to get to his feet.

"That is more than I ever, ever needed to see of Nick Cutter," Lester moaned to himself. He rubbed his face where he had walked into the wall, his eyes squeezed shut tightly. He looked so mortified it was almost funny.

"We're dressed Lester, you can open you're eyes now," Nick laughed, seeming more amused than embarrassed. I was so humiliated I wanted to find a rock to go crawl under.

"What the hell were you thinking doing that in Biltmore Estate?" he demanded, infuriately spatting out almost every other word.

"Umm…" Nick trailed off and scratched the back of his neck, at a loss for an answer.

I was also in lieu of an answer, I had no idea what we had been thinking. Lester, for once, was right. What had we been thinking?

"Oh good lord," Lester muttered, seemingly more to himself than Nick and I. "Well, if the two of you are interested, Joseph and Stephen found the anomaly. If not, then feel free to proceed, but please wait until I am out of the room first," he added exasperatedly.

"Where is it?" Nick asked, suddenly attentive.

"Finally, something that interests Cutter besides Claudia's…" he trailed off at Nick's scathing glare. "Ah, anyways, it's in the garden behind the estate," he explained.

"Let's go," I said, walking by Lester and out of the room. I was so embarrassed I could barely look anyone in the eyes without blushing.

We reached the garden and were a few meters in before we saw the anomaly, looking as bright and glittering as ever. The rest of the team already stood waiting on us, which made me blush all over again even though they had no idea what Nick and I had just been doing. The dinosaurs, which Connor informed me were herbivores, munched contently on the flora. They looked harmless, which was well and fine, but what about the mauled bodies that had been found? These seemingly peaceful creatures definitely weren't the culprits.

I was just about to voice my confusion when Nick cried, "Claudia look out!"

Then everything faded to black.

"Everything you are fades to black. Every time I see your face, screaming the secrets we share, we fade to black." ~Alexz Johnson