This good mood just couldn't last. That's the lesson history was unendingly teaching him. It couldn't hold against all the base and degrading shit that was still circling around them. Not that he wouldn't admit they'd brought much of it upon themselves. But some days it seemed as though karma was upending buckets in response to tipped teacups. Still, he was riding somewhere along the gilded heat that had been in her eyes when she'd given him an obviously longing look. And karma could be damned. He wasn't giving up on that momentary high.
"She's gonna be pissed if you just sit here all night." Tig's voice was a gentled taunting as he flopped onto the couch beside the Scot. "Especially if she knows you're here."
"She knows." There was a creeping grin laying into the other man's lips as he intentionally shunted lower on the couch, watching one of the Red Woody girls stalk long legged before them on a pair of heels so spiked pointed that she could have murdered with them. "Told her. That's the bloody point, Tigger."
Tig's chuckle was softly breathing between them, "You're startin' shit with the woman that looked you up and down like a porterhouse this afternoon? That's some twisted eunuch shit, brother."
"She started in this morning." Chibs grinned forward as he hooked the beer bottle that was half empty and already warming from the table beside him, "I'm endin' it."
"I really don't understand you two." Trager's voice sighed out on a sort of whimsical affection. "You're not happy unless you're taking shots. Then you're both fucking giddy."
"Week ago you were worried she was actually gonna take a shot at me, Tiggy." Chibs angled his jaw into the commentary, head tipping as he finished the beer.
"Still am." Trager admitted softly as a scene full of scantily clad women filled in before them, his head shaking minutely. "Doesn't mean I can't find your dysfunction sort of adorable."
"Her dysfunction is adorable." Chibs asserted softly in a weak admission of affection, his head angling as he let his eyes linger along the way one of the girls bent onto a prop bed.
He felt Trager's eyes on pin down on him and he shrugged into turning his head back toward the other man, jaw jerking defensive. "I'm allowed to look, Tiggy. For fuck's sake, she's no Old Lady."
"Bull." Tig smirked brightly, lips curling as his eyes went sky colored. "Shit."
"Fuck off." Chibs argued tightly, as he turned his glance back toward the girls in front of them. "She's not."
"Yeah?" Tig was already pressing up from the couch, his smile brightening even farther between them as he half bent and waved toward the door. "So you don't want me to tell Hap to lay off her? Cause she's about two inches from twisting his balls off. Seems sorta Old Lady-ish to me."
The Scot turned his head smirkingly into the way she was bearing down on the other club member at the nearest door, her hair down along shoulders that were so tightly racked he could find each muscle lining down the length of her. "Guess I win, yeah?"
"Prize is an ass beating, looks like." Tig offered amusedly as he stepped away from the couch and toward them. "Which is a win/win for both of you from what I hear."
He ignored the comment and tossed a glance to one of the girls that was lagging outside of the scene that was playing out before them, "Wanna grab me another round, darlin'?"
He matched the smiling nod she gave him before he watched his friend move away from him with a knowing grin. His spine went leaning farther back into the couch cushions supposedly casually as he settled the empty bottle to the table. Chibs let his head lay back into the plush cushion, angling his glance over the way the lithe lines of her relaxed as Tig pressed himself between her and the Sergeant at Arms, the other man's breezy affection wearing down on her frustration as he hooked a hand at her hip and drew her past Happy. He bit down against the way Tig's arm catching low along her waist had his hands twitching closed, regardless of the fact that it was a purely platonic movement.
It was exactly what he should have wanted. It was a branding of a sort of acceptance.
But it was also the first time he'd seen her in a skirt that laid her hips like another skin.
So maybe it tweaked on him a bit.
And maybe it burned him from the bottom of his lungs.
"Push up on it any farther and I'll be pushin' back, Tigger." He murmured into the amused way Tig drew her closer in response, laying a kiss against the side of her head before drawing away from her.
"He's lightin' fires tonight, AJ. Hope you brought a very big hose."
"Well, I'd need to provide my own, now wouldn't I?" she snarked between them, her eyes a darker shade of golden green than he'd seen since very early morning, the angles of her face a map to her obvious annoyance and amusement.
Trager's laughter as he drew away from them bent into the way Chibs leaned forward, one of his hands drawing down to wipe along her calf as he turned his jaw up at her. Her arms were braced along the front of her in a so derogatorily defensive posture that he couldn't help but smile into the anger on her. His teeth scraped along his bottom lip as he studied the way it tightened up the muscles under smooth skin, tracing the hem of the black skirt before he swept a glance over the equally dark tailored jacket that cut in just where it needed to and ran trim along her hips.
An unintentional smirk tweaked the corner of his mouth, "Coming from a wake or on your way to mine, love?"
"Both, obviously." Her fingers slapped his away from her sharply and he lifted them lightly into the air with a warning glance of annoyance. "Thought you had someplace to be tonight? And I don't mean the front row of a poorly made porno."
"I said 'maybe'." He cocked up at her cheekily, "And they're not poorly made, they're quality productions. Lyla works very hard. Don't be rude, Althea."
"Don't be a bastard." She flicked over him tightly, her fingers finally drawing off her arm so that they ran against his jaw before hooking his chin higher. "It's unbecoming."
"You didn't have to come." He taunted at her, catching the rising ride of golden challenge in her eyes. "I said if y'wanted."
She meant to respond, but the interruption at her side made her suddenly once again aware of where they were and what was going on at her back. And the sudden distraction of a half naked woman aiming a bottle in his direction gave him enough time to notice that there was a long drop of silver chaining around her neck and down the center line from her throat. And more in her ears. And she was wearing more make up than usual. Nothing too painted, but a smoky step up from what he usually saw. It was more of a distraction than he'd realized because she nipped the bottle from the girl's hand before he could reach for it and held it back a moment. The tightly derogatory shake of the head she gave the other woman before handing the bottle back and virtually dismissing her with an arched glance warred the ride of two emotions on him.
The first that she had deftly and swiftly denied him exactly what he'd asked for. And that rightly pissed him off.
Secondly, that she'd very assuredly and so very quietly just placed herself in a position of tailored power that levered her up a notch over the other girls in the room. And that may have made him half hard.
"I asked for that." He told her tightly, glance thinned.
"And I asked for you." She shot back over him. "And you directed me to a porn studio."
"You're too bold some days, Althea." His voice swept quiet as his palm curled her thigh, feeling the sudden tense of muscle beneath his fingers.
"And you're too cocky, Filip." Her tone tipped widely weary. "I asked for you. Maybe I deserve what I got."
He glanced up on a sudden concern that maybe he'd taken it too far, pushed her a little too much on a day that had been far too long on her frame. And had he just taken in the tiredness of her dropped shoulders, he could have carried on in that assumption. But there was still a glinting in her eyes as she rode a fingertip over his left eyebrow, a downright dueling challenge in the way her hips angled closer as both her hands caught along his jaw. He caught the gauntlet she dropped on him with both hands hooking against the backs of her knees. Shifting so swiftly that he shunted her tightly into his lap, skidding the hem of the skirt up with the skiff of his palms as she straddled his legs in a reflexive response.
"It wasn't technically a wake." She let her hands brace his neck as she shifted her knees into the cushions, letting him curl the skirt hem a little higher for the easier break of movement.
"That'd be cuz the brown kid wasn't technically a Celt." He smirked on her as his palm cradled her hips.
"If you wanted a drink, you could have just come to my liquor cabinet." She let her hair tip forward off her shoulders because she knew his eyes lidded low when he watched it happen, her head dipping over his. "It's better quality."
"Snob." He twitched at her in a cautionary manner.
Her brow arched into the way she leaned a kiss down on him, her thighs tightening on his legs as she skated her nails on the skin at the back of his neck. She heard the hummed echo of what was going on behind her and intentionally cupped her palms against his ears as she drove a hard kiss against his lips. He gave a groaning into her tongue and the way it slid against his as she let her thumbs rub a softening along his cheeks as she nipped her teeth lightly against his bottom lip before dragging back.
"What're y'doin', Ally?" he asked amusedly, groaning into the way she was letting her hips drive tighter down into him as his hands skated up under the hem of the jacket to find the black silk of the shirt she was wearing under it.
"I don't think you'll like the answer." She let her lips slick past his in a way that had his mouth lifting for more of her even as she drew back.
"Tell me then." His thumb was pressing into her stomach and dragging down so that he could shift silk from linen and find skin beneath it, the rest of his hand curling onto her waist. "I can take it."
Her head tipped an angle as her fingers scraped down the edging of his cut, prying it apart so that she could lean her chest full into his, his palms reflexively caging around her ribs and dragging the surplus of fabric as he gave in to the urge to lick along her perfumed throat, "Showing these enterprising little bitches where your dick belongs, Scotty."
"You're right." Chibs let his head lay back into the cushion again, a glaring on his face that didn't necessarily darken the interested and mildly amused glittering in his eyes, "I don't like it."
"Telford?" her hips shifted into a sharp angle that instantly brought her down tighter into the erection that was damp hot against denim, her lips hovering a fraction from his, "You're a piss poor liar."
He blushed a laughing smile into her lips, "I know, love."