Chapter Seventeen – Damaged Goods

Clint lay atop Jen, propping his weight on his elbows to avoid crushing her, his face buried in her hair, spread across the pillow in a thick mass of damp honey-gold. It smelled fresh and clean. Summery, like ripe peaches. He breathed in the scent until his pulse slowed to a steady rate, and then lifted his head to look down at her. She had her eyes closed, a smile on her face as she stroked one hand gently along his spine.

"You're so damned beautiful," he muttered thickly, and she opened her eyes and smiled up at him.

"You make me feel beautiful," she said simply.

He lifted his hand and stroked her cheek. "You are," he insisted. "Especially when you come."

That made her blush, but she couldn't exactly evade his gaze, not when he was still buried deep inside her. He kissed her gently, drawing her lower lip between his and nibbling on it. "I plan to put that look on your face many more times tonight."

"What, embarrassed blush?" she sniped.

"No," he eased his hips back, withdrawing gently from her. "Orgasmic ecstasy."

"Oh," she muttered as he headed for the bathroom. "That one."

She'd retrieved the sheet when he returned and curled up behind her, but she snuggled happily into him as he eased in and spooned her. For a few minutes they cuddled together. And then Clint leaned up on one elbow.

"So, can I buy you dinner yet?"

Jen laughed. "You better had. You've made me hungry."

There was a Thai restaurant just across the street, so Clint offered to go collect while Jen dried her hair. She gave him her keys and told him not to frighten the doorman. He grinned, watching her get out of bed and walk to the bathroom. She glanced over her shoulder at him and poked her tongue out to let him know she'd caught him watching.

"What? I'm just appreciating the view." And wow, it's a helluva view.

The door closed firmly, and he heard a hairdryer start up. With a sigh, he eased out of bed and dragged his clothes and boots on. He checked the fridge and found not much apart from fruit, yogurt, and a bottle of white wine with about half a glassful left in the bottom. Maybe he'd stop in at the 7-11 on the corner as well.

He was back within twenty minutes, just as Jen finished drying her hair. It was quite a lot longer than Clint had realised, he thought, as she came out of the bedroom to find him decanting food onto plates and opening a fresh bottle of wine. Her hair was thick and slightly wavy, falling to the middle of her back, dark honey blonde with lighter platinum and darker caramel streaks. He'd have bet his favourite bow it was natural, the colour not coming from any bottle. It was beautiful. He wanted to fist his hands in her hair and stroke it all over his body, feel it swaying against his thighs as she took his cock in that soft mouth of hers…

"Oh, you got more wine, thank you," she smiled up at him, interrupting the filthy turn his thoughts had taken at the mere sight of her, accepting the glass he poured.

"I was thinking that I'd get you drunk and shamelessly seduce you," he deadpanned.

"You already did that and you didn't even need the wine," she teased back gently. She'd pulled on a dark red silk kimono, and even though it was belted tightly it still gaped a little in front as she moved, drawing his eyes to the shadowed vee between her breasts.

"It'll be even more fun with wine. I'm thinking I'd like to lick it off you."

She blushed, still shy with him, and he grinned, taking the wine glass back from her hand and putting it down, and then tangling his fingers in her hair and drawing her to him for a long, drowning kiss. "But after food. I'll need the energy."

"Then you need to get your hand off my boob," she retorted, and he chuckled and slipped his hand out from under the kimono.

They sat at the breakfast bar and ate, sharing off each other's plates, although Clint easily ate three times as much as Jen did. Which wasn't much of a surprise because he had to be at least twice her body mass, all of it muscle, and probably had a metabolism like a blast furnace, considering his obvious fitness level. He ate like he did everything else, swift and efficient, sipping economically at his glass of wine now and then, though she noticed he'd poured a large glass of water too and was slugging that back.

They finished and tidied up together, then Clint handed Jen her wineglass and gestured to the couch. "Come sit with me?" he invited.

"Sure," but when she sat down, she found his phone under the cushion and handed it to him, eyebrows raised enquiringly.

"Making sure we weren't interrupted again," Clint smiled and took the phone, dropping it on the table. "Stark can be a right pain in the ass. He'd probably think it was funny to achieve coitus interruptus."

"He got pretty close," Jen snickered at the memory. "Is he really as much of an arrogant dick as I've heard?"

"Probably. He's possibly the smartest guy alive on the planet right now, and worse, he knows it. But he absolutely loves people who aren't afraid to stand up to him, to be rude to him, so you already got on his good side. The employees he likes, rave about how good a boss he is."

Jen blushed. "I'm embarrassed now that I sent that first email."

"What did you say exactly? JARVIS – that's the AI in the Tower – said something about fucking pimp, but…"

Jen facepalmed and let out a groan. Clint grinned, leaned closer to her and pulled her firmly against his side. "Come on, you need to tell me, or Stark will ambush me with it at some point. If you tell me now I might be able to turn it around on him."

Jen sighed. And then she got up and fetched her tablet, making a few swipes and taps before handing it over, curling back up beside him. "Here. Read it for yourself. I'm too humiliated."

Clint grinned, scanning the email. 'Dear Mr Stark,' he read. 'Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. You want to reward your tame archer, screw him yourself, you fucking pimp. Even you can't afford me because I'm NOT FOR SALE. Yours not at all sincerely, Genevieve Svendson.'

He laughed so hard there were tears coming out of his eyes. He could just imagine Tony's eyes widening as he read it, and the huge shit-eating grin which would have followed. "Oh, God, I'll be lucky if he doesn't fall in love with you himself," he choked out finally.

Jen was watching him, the corners of her mouth turned up in a sheepish grin. "I was kind of angry and not thinking straight. I – I've spent the last week watching news reports about the Avengers heroes and how you had been magically hypnotised by Loki…"

Just like that, he stopped laughing, and looked at her seriously. "I haven't seen it. What's been said?"

She shrugged. "That he caught you in some kind of magical mind-trap and forced you to help him, but that you got free somehow and helped the others take him down. There were a fair few surveillance cameras watching the battle, you know; that shot which Loki caught and then blew him out of the sky – you were going for the kill."

"I wanted him dead so fucking badly," Clint said softly. "I still do." He told her, then, about that afternoon and how Thor had taken Loki back to Asgard to face judgement and retribution there. Somehow, he ended up lying on the couch with his head in her lap while she ran her fingers through his short hair.

"Tell me about it," she said finally. "Tell me about Loki. Do you remember what he made you do?"

Clint nodded, squeezing his eyes shut at the memory. "Yeah. Look, it was like – it was like when you were trapped in that elevator, watching the battle. You could see everything, understand everything. But you were totally helpless."

Jen said nothing, just stroked his hair gently. "It's all right," she whispered after a few moments. "He's gone, Hawk."

"I was trapped inside my own head," he said dully. "It was like being in a glass cage. I could see everything, hear everything. He used my intellect, my knowledge, my skills. At first I was totally helpless, a bystander. After a while I realised that if he was busy or distracted, I could fight, a little bit. Be slower than I needed to, or interpret his orders slightly different than he intended. I – fought him over Natasha. He wanted something he could use against the other Avengers, and I don't really know the others well enough to give him weapons against their psyche. She told me that he tried to get into her head when she was interrogating him, and she knew that I had to have been fighting him, because of what I'd given him to use against her. There could have been so much worse, you see. That's why Natasha decided to fight for me. She knew I was still in there somewhere."

"I'm glad she did," Jen said quietly, "because I wouldn't be alive otherwise."

"You – are the only thing I have that he didn't touch," Clint opened his eyes and looked up at her. "He knows nothing of you. I feel like everything else that was ever good in my life, he contaminated. But not you. You're clean of him."

Jen smiled a little sadly. "Oh, my Hawk," she whispered. "It must have been terrible for you."

"I don't want to think about it. I'll probably have bad dreams for a while, until I get past it." He smiled wryly. "Nothing new there for me, I'm afraid. My subconscious is pretty fucked up. I should tell you that I won't sleep around you."

"Why ever not?" her brow furrowed quite adorably.

"It's not personal. I don't sleep near anyone. I have a nasty habit of waking up going in for the kill."

"Oh!"

"Quite. I wouldn't want to hurt you accidentally."

She smiled, running her fingers through his hair again. "Well. If you aren't staying the night, how about we head back to the bedroom and you can follow through on that promise you made me earlier?"

"Promise?" he blinked. She lifted her wineglass, dipped her index finger in and traced the liquid over his lips. He licked it off, and caught her fingertip in his mouth to suck for a moment. "Ah yes. That promise." He smiled slowly.

A/N Soundtrack for this chapter:

Afterglow: Taxiride

Bandaged Knees: The Almighty

I Don't Want To Wait: Paula Cole

Promises, promises… more smut next chapter, I promise! A nice long chapter today (well, long for me, anyway!) How's it going? Still hanging in there with me? Things are about to take a turn for the crazy…. I'd love to know what you think of the story, please let me know in that great big empty reviews box!