Bring all that you're scared to defend and lay it down when you walk through my door. Throw all of it out on the floor, your sorrow, your beauty, your war. I want it all, I want it all. Bring your secrets, bring your scars. Bring your glory, all you are. Bring your daylight, bring your dark. Share your silence, and unpack your heart. -"Unpack your Heart" Phillip Phillips

The bed dipped beneath him as Lucas slipped under the covers. It had been a long day, which had inevitably become a long night, of seizing the remaining high-level Cleansers operatives in England. He was bone-tired, but when he wrapped himself around Varinia, he remembered their activities before Xióng's questioning, and so did his body. She was asleep, her breathing slow and steady. She smelt of flowers again, mixed with the scent of his soap. It was comforting and familiar, and he nestled his face in the crook of her neck.

Varinia shifted, sighing softly.

"You're here."

Lucas moved her hair aside and kissed her nape.

"Go back to sleep," he whispered.

"Okay," she murmured but turned to face him instead. "I could do that. Or we could continue what we started this morning."

"I would love to, but we're both-" He broke off as Varinia's hand snaked down his body to rest on his clothed cock.

"We're both what?" she asked, pressing down just enough to create a delicious friction while she palmed him. "Too tired?" His cock grew and hardened the longer she worked it. "I think your body begs to differ."

Lucas could not deny it. Exhausted though he may have been, he wanted her-had wanted her from the moment he had first laid eyes on her. His hand traveled along her curves, over her hips that were noticeably free of a band. As he ventured lower, his suspicion was confirmed. Varinia was not wearing knickers under her stain nightgown.

He groaned and parted her folds with his fingers. "You make it difficult for a man to resist."

"That was the idea," she replied.

In the light of the moon that shone through the windows, he saw her grin. Then she straddled his thighs and began to shower his naked torso with attention. She kissed a path from his neck to his hips and followed it with her tongue, lingering on the Gnothi Seauton tattoo, as she was wont to do. Reaching the waistband of his boxers, she pulled them down and kissed his hipbone in thanks when he lifted his arse to help the disrobing process.

Varinia smoothed her hands over his muscular thighs, her fingers treading maddeningly close to where he needed her touch the most. His cock twitched, as if to beckon her. Wrapping a hand around the base, she moved it up until his foreskin pulled back to reveal the glistening, pinkish-purple head. Her ministrations were sure and steady, and each time her thumb nudged the frenulum, his hips bucked up into her grasp.

But that pleasure was nothing compared to the sensation of his erection suddenly enveloped by the warmth of her mouth. Lucas moaned. He tangled his fingers in her hair as she proceeded to give him one of the best blowjobs of his life. Varinia increased the speed gradually, one hand pumping what her mouth could not reach, while the other hand cupped and rolled his balls. Her tongue swirled sensually around the head, alternating between flat strokes and hard licks. Lucas was hurtling swiftly towards orgasm, and as the heat pooled at the base of his spine, he tugged sharply on her hair.

"Varinia," he said, his voice rough with desire. "Varinia, stop. I'm about to come."

Her movements ceased, and she pulled off to look up at him.

"That's kind of the point," she said dryly.

"You know what I mean." He fixed her with a pointed glance-or as pointed a glance as he could manage with blown pupils and flushed skin. "Blowjobs are good and all, and this one was particularly good, but I'd really rather come inside you."

She grinned. "I'm amenable to that."

Varinia straddled his hips and allowed him to tug the nightgown over her head. Now that nothing barred her from his gaze or touch, Lucas indulged himself. He surged up and captured her lips in a fervent kiss, his tongue tracing her bottom lip to beseech entry. Granting it, she simultaneously gripped the base of his cock and rose up just enough so that it slid through her slick folds, before she sank down upon it, slowly taking him until their pelvises met.

"Fuck, Varinia," he gasped against her lips.

He was fully sheathed inside her, surrounded by her tight warmth. An arm wrapped around her waist, while the other draped across her back to cup her nape.

"See?" she said, her voice hitching as she began to move in long, deep strokes. "Aren't you glad I didn't go back to sleep?"

"Very glad," he replied. Lucas let her set the pace and contented himself with helping, but not guiding, her movements. "You planned this, didn't you? You knew I wouldn't be able to resist when I realised you weren't wearing knickers."

He saw her smirk in the moonlight, then felt her clench around him. He groaned and bucked up into her, her answering moan prompting him to tighten his arms around her.

"Maybe," she teased. "Or maybe I just prefer to sleep knickerless," she suggested, undulating against him.

He met her motions with thrusts of his own, their pace increasing as their pleasure mounted. The hand that had been on her waist now cupped one of her breasts, and he pressed wet kisses onto her neck when she tipped her head back.

"That's true," he murmured into her skin. Varinia clenched around him again, and he closed his eyes to savor the sensation. Lucas was rushing towards his release, and she towards hers, as she rocked against him. He shifted her slightly, and the new angle elicited another moan from between her lips. "Ah," he said, panting heavily, "there it is."

They didn't speak after that, lost as they were in the heat spreading through their bodies. He squeezed her breast, and she arched into him, riding him hard and fast. He felt her tensing, her walls tightening, and then she bowed forward and cried out, her nails leaving half-moon imprints on his shoulders.

Lucas fucked her through her orgasm, his hips quickly losing their rhythm, until he, too, reached completion with a breathless groan. He held her to him, his face buried in the crook of her neck and his hand still resting on her breast.

"So, did you catch Xióng's agents?"

Considering their position, the question was asked in such a casual tone that Lucas nearly laughed.

"Yes," he said. Lucas lay down, bringing Varinia with him. "The most important ones anyway."

Varinia rested her head upon his chest and absently brushed her fingers over his tattoos. It was a habit she had developed after he'd explained their significance.

"What'll happen to the others?"

"They'll be found in due time, but our role in this thing is over," he reassured her.

"Thank God," she said, sounding relieved. Varinia was silent for a moment as he languidly stroked her back. "The day after tomorrow is Sunday," she remarked.

"It is," he affirmed.

"You promised me a proper Sunday roast."

Lucas nodded. "I remember." He leant down to kiss the top of her head, hiding his smile in her hair. "And I'm a man of my word."

"Mmm," she hummed in response. "Do you have to go in tomorrow?"

"You mean today," he corrected, glancing at the clock. "I do, but only to write up my case report."

"And the rest of the team?"

"Harry will update the Home Secretary, Dimitri will oversee the search for the stragglers, and MI6 will liaise with the other intelligence agencies," he said. "What will you do?"

She pressed a kiss to his chest and sighed.

"I'm going to go home," she replied. "I think it's time that I do. I can't avoid my flat forever."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"No," she said, and he heard the smile in her voice. "This is something I need to do alone." Varinia leant up to kiss him. "But thank you, Lucas. You've been so kind and understanding."

He cradled the back of her head and kissed her again, deeply.

"Move in with me," he whispered against her lips.

"What?"

"Move in with me." He pulled away to look at her. "I love you, Varinia, and I want you beside me every day."

"In bed?" she inquired, with an arched brow.

"There, too," he agreed.

Varinia held his gaze as she worried her lower lip-a sign of unease that he well knew. But he resisted the urge to reassure her and allowed her to think on his invitation.

"We've slept together," she began, "but we don't really know each other."

"I know you," he stated. "I wouldn't love you if I didn't. And you know me, don't you? You know why I am the way I am. You know the darkest parts of my past."

"But you don't know my past," she countered. "Unless, of course, you read more of my file than you say you did."

"I didn't," he assured her, with a kiss to her forehead. "I agree that I don't know your past, but that's only because The Cleansers dominated our conversations. Now that we're rid of them, let me get to know you properly."

She stared at him for another instant, then grinned.

"I think you'll find that stories of my childhood are rather mundane in comparison to a global terror plot."

"Perhaps," he conceded, "but when you're a spy, the mundane is a rare treat. I want a life with you, Varinia, and I'm hoping this is just the beginning."

"Well, it's certainly not the end," she quipped and kissed him. When they broke apart, she said, "I'm going to need some room in the closet and maybe a drawer in the bathroom for my makeup."

Lucas smiled. "Deal," he said, hugging her to him. "And I'll even throw in a few drawers for your knickers and socks."

"That's very generous of you." Varinia yawned and laid her head back onto his chest. "Love you," she murmured tiredly.

"Love you, too."

He closed his eyes, reveling in the warm, sated drowsiness that always crept up on him after sex with Varinia. And he would be lying if he denied that he also reveled in the happiness of simply being with Varinia.