She couldn't help the pleased smile she met him with as he angled a freshly filled glass down toward her, his hand long and curved carefully around the rim of the thin glass. Her eyes tipped the pale of his wrist where his beads had slipped lower on the bridge of his hand, grazing the tattoo as she took the wine from him and let her head roll back into the wooden framing of the lounge chair. Her boots were clipped up, heels between slats and the book open into the up drawn stretch of her thighs, and she watched the way he just gave her a shied smirk before swallowing against another bottle.

Ally turned the other hand out, breathing in the smoked smell of the grill as she pressed her palm flat into his side, drawing warm into her chilled fingers by the spread of denim and the waved heat that came off him. The simplistic movement drew his glance back down, a smile still cradling across his lips and broadening his scars as he looked over her.

"Learnin' anything?" he asked quietly, keeping still into the way she shrugged as she let her fingers lag against his wallet chain and hang loose and limp against it as her eyes cast over the work shirt he had tugged over his shoulders.

"Yeats makes me sleepy." She teased at him, tugging on the chain.

"Wine makes y'sleepy, Lieutenant." He corrected as his glance turned back over the grill, watching it. "You're later than I expected. Problems?"

"Paperwork." Her fingers skidded off the chain and she intentionally stroked against his ass, smirking into the way he shot a glance down over her as he swallowed from the bottle again.

"What'd I say?" he stepped from her stroking fingers and toward the open grill, grinning into the annoyed noise she made. "Hands t'yourself, Althea. Y've got a real listening problem."

"I've got a real wanting problem." She corrected as she shut the book, sipping down the deep red and letting her eyes graze him.

He gave her a tipped shrugging and a gift of a grin as he set the bottle to the raised side of the grill and flipped the steaks lazily, "Same."

"Feels like you're being nice to me because I'm not gonna see you every night." She aimed softly after him, letting her eyes ride the line of him and enjoying the way the familiar curve of his ass rose into slimmer hips than expected.

Carreira had been too damn on the nose. Thirsty may have been too apt a description.

Because his continued attention to where she had her hands had her wanting to slide them over him for a long while.

"I am nice, Althea." He cast over the grill, shifting the steaks even though he didn't necessarily need to do so.

"You know what I mean."

"Aye." He agreed into a shaded softness. "Wanna get plates?"

"I'm allowed in the kitchen by myself?" she waved the glass toward the door in teasing.

"You can search the house whenever y'like, Lieutenant." He waved back toward it idly, taking another swallow off the bottle. "But I'm hungry. Top shelf. Second from the sink."


"It's nothin' personal." He hushed the apologetic murmuring into the side of her head, liking the curled up curve of the way she was sideways seated into him in the large chair, her shoulder stalled up into the center of his chest as she sipped on the last of the wine.

"I know. I'm not taking it personally." She shook off as she flipped to the next page, the glass lifted away as she rubbed under a word and lifted her head into questioning.

"Sidhe." He pronounced the long and hushed lean of the word, all rushed and breathy vowel sounding.

"Hence banshee." She murmured as her fingers struck and stroked down the page.

"Bean sidhe, cu sidhe, sluagh sidhe, my Leanan Sidhe." He wiped her hair back off the side of her face, watching the coloring of her eyes tint as the sun gave up waiting on the both of them. "Don't really know my own daughter, Althea."

"You will." She lifted her head into the sudden admittance of concern that had tinted his tone quieter, lifting the glass to his lips playfully so that he finished the last strong swallow at her urging, "Fairly soon. If she's anything like you I highly doubt she's shy about who she is."

"She was shy." He slaked his tongue across his lips, taking the glass from her fingers and slanting it to the porch floor slowly. "A bit. Not as much now. She's got a mouth on her, for sure."

"Gets a little tetchy with daddy, huh?" She grinned and nodded into the shamelessly proud glance he gave her in response. "Thought so."

"Gettin' her away from Jimmy did more than I'd hoped for her." He murmured as he twined her hair back again, fighting the sudden urge to ride his fingers up into its darkness and draw her head into so sharp an angle she couldn't keep him from burying his mouth down her throat.

She looked at him like she knew exactly how dark he was inside, "Did you kill him, Filip?"

His eyes met hers in a pure lift, the darkness in them unchanged by the way she was watching his shifting, "Y'know I can't answer you that, Ally."

"Part of me doesn't want you to tell me." She tightened into leaning her shoulder closer, looking away from the intense honesty of the way he was watching her.

"I know."

Her hands shunted the book closed on a sudden restlessness, shifting her hips in his lap in a way that had him caging along her back. "Part of me hopes you murdered him bloody."

"Know that too." He acknowledged into a mingling of sadness and proud humor, the sound of it twisted through his throat by the adversity of the disparate emotions.

The turn of her jaw onto her shoulder seemed like such a beautifully natural taunting of perfection, the way her shoulder lifted just pert enough to make her seem so legitimately adorable in her thin lipped smiling, "Part of me is extremely turned on by this conversation."

Chibs just grinned into a breathy chuckle, letting his head bank back into the chair as he pinched against her hip and exhaled as much from his lungs as he could, "You're wicked, Althea."

That lift of her shoulder faltered some as she let her glance dip along his lips and rise again with a worry that discolored the brightness of her eyes, "What if I'm the one that can't sleep, huh? What if it's my turn?"

He made an argumentative noise in his throat, shifting the book from her lap and letting it lay aside to the floor with a thumping that preceded his hands curling up and wide on her ribs. The force of his movement drew her shifting and he watched the turning of her body and the arching rise of her spine as she settled her knees to his side, letting her body lean into the pass of his chest so that her weight was balanced warmly into him. She let herself lean so easily into his physical presence and he was equal parts surprised and swayed by the movement, dropping his head farther back so he could lift a glance over her fidgeted watching, smiling into the way she was skirting her tongue along her bottom lip.

"Not sayin' I won't be seeing you." His voice had wandered even softer than earlier, tipped farther toward affection than she thought was likely from him, "You're not getting away that easily. Just not throwin' it in her face first thing."

The brightness that flared up in her eyes timed the same as the parting then pressing of her thin lips, a definitive questioning on her face before she marginally shook her head and shrugged, "I wasn't implying - "

"You're gonna meet her whether y'want to or not, Ally." He threaded breathy laughter into the words, nodding as both his hands drove up under her shirt, letting the tips of his fingers rivet up the lines of her ribs as his wrists bunched the fabric. "You face that fact right now. Get right with it. It's happening."

"So demanding." She playfully pouted into wiping a finger along his forehead.

"So skittish." Chibs countered as he dug his fingers into a slight force and jerked her closer into leaning over him.

A smile lit and lifted her lips as his hands curved up over her breasts, palms closing as she blew her breath past her lips, "We doing this right here?"

"You're askin' like you have a problem with public indecency." He let his face bury into the leeching warmth of white cotton, sinking into the smell of comfort and buttery lotion and unrestricted proximity, "And it's not even all that public."

Ally let her hand curve around his neck, keeping him lined into the center of her chest as his thumbs nubbed past her hardened nipples through the fabric of her bra, "I'm asking because I'm cold."

"And you wanna see the bedroom." His beard scruffed fabric as he lifted an arched glance and a curt tone, "Don't play at bein' coy."

"I really am cold." She shrugged closer into him, shoulders tightened up as she tucked into the heat of him and skidded harder down into his lap, causing a jerk in his waist as both her palms curled between them and down.

"Not entirely, you're not." He answered the shift of her hands with the downward swipe of his own, catching against her wrists and wrapping them into one hand while the other wended between her legs and brushed against denim.

"No." She tugged against the way he was pinning on her, her eyes thinning quickly accusatorily, "Watch your hands, Telford. Keep 'em to yourself."

He just grinned into her tightened up leaning, "Y'think I can't - "

"You just keep them to yourself." She was still wrangling her wrists against the sure pure strength of his fingers and he sat his back up straight to lock their hands between them, his head lifted up to rise his cheek into her jaw.

Her breath was dry wine warm and heating along his temple and he didn't think he wanted his hands anywhere but exactly where they were.

"We're at a stalemate, my love." He raised the whisper into her down angled jaw, tinting the whisper amused even as she grunted annoyance at him.

"Far from it." Ally retorted into a shifting of her right wrist, a surprised jolt on her entire frame when both his hands caught against her wrists cleanly again and wound them up along her back. The broad stretch of stronger shoulders lifted even higher into her as he braced her clenched fists into her lower back.

"Don't really wanna fight you tonight, Althea." He'd meant to tease on her but a weary slinging of aching filled his voice, his face wiping down along her shoulder so his forehead could rest along the strong lift of it.

"You wanted a challenge." She murmured into his temple, tone cautious into his sudden stillness.

The rush of his sighed hot breath slaked moist heat over her bare skin, "And every inch of you is one."

"I have absolutely no idea what you mean by that." She jerked playfully against his gripped fingers, watching the way it lifted his attention back to her. "Because you're just as - "

"Stop." He shook his head with an affectionate leaning, lifting his jaw into smirking as he breathed a laugh through his nose. "Just stop, Ally. I don't wanna fight with you."

Confusion turned her eyes a golden shade, "You and I can never just act as though we're normal, Telford. Remember?"

He looked shamefully saddened by the reminder, shaking his head away as he bit down on the back of his jaw, "We could if you'd just… stop."

"Stop being myself?" Her shoulders swayed back and away from his leaning, forcing him to hold her balance and trusting into the shifting even as she glared on him, "You get awfully pissy when I imply you should stop being who you are, President."

"Stop fightin' the fact you're in love with a murdering son of a bitch." He cut up into her, mouth catching hers so quickly and briefly that she blinked into the way he watched the reaction crash her face slack, "And I'll stop pretending that the way you act like a haughty bitch in a uniform doesn't turn me on like a goddamn light switch."

"You really do." Her surprised blinking made her face seem young and pale, "Don't you?"

Chibs turned his head marginally, casting a sidelong glance at her as he tightened his fingers on the strong flexing turns of her wrists, "Do what?"

"You really do have feelings for me." She murmured as she studied his face, nothing so much as smug on her features. More a blatant and brightened surprise.

"And I've proven it more than should be necessary, Althea." He raised into her cheek, his voice curbing onto a hushed whisper that bent toward derogatory, "Don't wanna fight you tonight, darlin'."

Ally let her head down into the directness of his response, her hair laying and leaning forward and brushing them both as she waited out the shifting of his fingers wiring tighter on her wrists, "You don't have to."

"I'm gettin' tired of provin' it."

"I get it." She nodded into his low laying frustration.

"Good." He turned his kiss along her cheek like an instantaneous forgiveness, something he seemed primarily incapable of at any other moment, "Now keep your hands t'yourself."

She shifted her hands and felt his grip tamp tighter in response, her head turning to catch a way brown eyes had grazed from dissatisfaction to mischief. "You just said - "

"Stop fighting me." He interrupted with a clean and quick nod.

She swallowed hard into the curled turn of his palms bracing her wrists, watching the complete stillness of his glance as he held hers. "Okay."

"You really are chilled up." He smiled as he wiped his stubbled jaw line from her shoulder to the arching curve toward her upper arm, hips shifting up under her to draw her into moving. "C'mon."

She leaned back into the way he was still holding her hands captive and claimed up behind her as he shifted forward in the chair, letting her stand so that he could wipe his face lazily against the fabric of her shirt. "I get to see the bedroom?"

A snort of laughter heated damp through cotton, "We may get there yet, Lieutenant."


He didn't realize how much she'd really been pulling her strength on his holding, keeping lax into his grip just out of an agreement of whatever game they were playing while he walked her backwards with slow and slaking kisses. Because he hadn't even been fully aware of the rules before she'd broken them, snapped up between them by the slamming jerk of both her wrists breaking downward against his thumb as she'd slung around and slacked her back up into stalling his chest. The chilled open spread of her back suddenly so tightly pressed into his shirt as his face had landed into the heat of her hair.

And he knew she wasn't playing any sort of game anymore - she'd broadened her shoulders back into the stretch of him in such a hard stillness that he'd pressed motionless in a surprised confusion.

She had to have noticed something off and odd a fractional moment before it'd sunken into his addled up and lust laden head. Because she palmed down into his cut and under to find the holster a cutting and caught up moment before he could curl her still.

"Ally." He breathed her name softly along her ear, stroking up along the tautly lifted and tensed muscle of the back of her arm, feeling her tense against the touch as he closed a full palm along her wrist. "Put it down."

And Gaige watched the movement from across the table with an edged smile that was supposed to tally into humorous but really just went damning, "Agile, ain't she?"

"Even I'm impressed." Chibs hushed into the way he closed tighter around her wrist from behind, leaning her hip first into the table as his other hand braced the rioting of her clenched muscles.

"Shut up." The blade in her hand seemed so oddly formed and unfitting, like it had been made for someone so drastically different from her as she tipped the keened edge of it for the doorway, "And get out."

"Darlin'," He couldn't help but smile into how full his lungs went with an animalistic pride, groaning into heady appreciation as he finally forced a wedging down into her arm and toward the table. "put it down for me. C'mon."

"I'm gonna kill him." She shied to the side and the softness of her hair laced with the tint of wine off her breath made him smile farther.

He lifted a glance to the way Gaige was still seated lazily at the table. "I think she really means it, friend."

"Filip - "

"You're not using it on anyone tonight, mo ghràidh." He couldn't curb the proud amusement from his voice, regardless of how sharded up and sharp she seemed to be trapped up into his chest. "Drop it."

A disgusted noise of aggravation lifted off her lungs as she finally flared her fingers loose, the knife dropped clattering to the table as she tried to slide her wrist from his hold again. This time he let her go, his hand dropping to flatly cover the blade on the table as he cocked a half grinning glance toward the other man. There was a brow arching glance on the other man's face, his features pale but attentive as he watched warily between the both of them. The both of them followed the shift of her as she shunted Telford's chest off from leaning against her spine and shoulders, her body suddenly seeming long and lithe and stronger than expected as she stalked toward the counter and backed her hips up against it.

He caught the jacked rise and fall of her chest, jaw pent furiously tight as she glared the Irishman down like a misbehaving child. "Y'gonna behave?"

Ally's eyes slid on him slowly, derisively dark and near on malicious before she exhaled through her nose and swallowed, "Sure."

Chibs exhaled slowly on a shake of his head. "Althea."

"I promise." She mugged at him with a forced and intentionally faked smile, letting her hands break back against the edge of his counter in a way that spread every muscle that supported and shored her upper body.

"Did you think I wouldn't notice, Filip?" the murmuring Gaige teased quietly up between them turned both their glances his way as he let a palm tap flat against the table, a shrug lifting his shoulders as he breathed out a laugh, "That I wouldn't know? Where is she?"

"Y'told me to bring her home, boss." He made a noise against his teeth before shrugging into a smile that carried more disgust than humor, the last word accented hard with sarcasm. "That's just what I'm doin'."

"Y'think that makes her safer?"

"I am so goddamn sick of hearing your pissy little threats, Cal." Ally's voice thwacked so hard in the other man's direction that the both of them sharpened her glances and she had to shake her head away from to ignore how cutting they were. "Man up or just fucking go home. I was busy."

"I could tell." He chipped back in her direction, a bit of near on affectionate humor raking over his sweetly accented tone. "I'm a little jealous."

"Eat a dick." She shunted back tightly between them.

"To do list?" His grin went wide into asking.

"Both of ya." Chibs raised his palm off the knife, gripping the handle up while the other hand shifted leather so he could sheath it. "Shut the hell up."

"Christ," Gaige pressed slowly up from the table, both hands flat pressed to the top of it in his shifting as he angled a glance between the both of them and grinned, "she's worse than the last woman threatened to stab me."

"No doubt." Chibs agreed as he passed a hand smoothing against leather, keeping his glance keened between the two of them.

"Course, it was your sister." The Irishman's steps were intentionally slow as he passed between them, his hands raised defensively as he smirked his steps past Ally's darkened watching, his shoes hushing the tiled floor.

"I highly doubt she was the last." Telford turned his hips into leaning against the table, forcing his frame relaxed as his arms crossed against his chest, keeping her toned tightness in his peripheral as he matched Gaige's brighter glance.

The younger man breathed out his cagey laughter, "Eh, you're probably right. Think it's smart t'have Fiona's blood in the same house as this one? Maybe I don't even need to be involved for it to break you."

"Think it's smart to threaten the man we'd both kill for?" Ally's voice tipped gently warm and sweetened over the kitchen, intentionally cradled softly and seemingly lushly eerie in its velvet.

"Point made, Althea." Gaige smiled wide before he'd even turned her his glancing, his eyes suddenly brightened up in the yellowed kitchen lighting, "Well done, darling girl."

Her brow arched into the coddling term, "Get the hell out."

"Think she means it." Chibs repeated into a gentled threatening of his own, his body a rigid line regardless of his leaning.

Cal just gave them a nodding as he angled his steps back away from them, Telford pressing off the table to follow and assure his retreat, "So you've said, friend."