"John?" He scrunched his face and blinked, taking in the sight of Anna, her hair wet, in front of him. "Are you alright?"

"I…" John shook his head. "I think I dozed off."

"I think you did too." Anna smiled at him, "You need sleep more than I do."

"Did I-" John pushed himself up in his chair. "My back won't thank me for falling asleep here."

"You're exhausted so maybe your body'll forgive you." Anna leaned back on the table, crossing her arms over her chest. "You need a shower and sleep."

"Are you making a comment on how I smell?"

"More on how you need to return to reality and that requires a shower and sleep." Anna shrugged, "It reset me and you could very much use it."

John laughed, "I'll take that advice but I needed to put it all right first."

"And did you?"

"I got your body double in place and called Henry about getting her everything she needs to know to impersonate you." John took a breath, "And Mary's already checked your flat."

"Confirmed your suspicions?"

John nodded, "It's being watched and it's been investigated… Twice."

"Goodbye privacy."

"Millennials already ruined that." John held up a hand, "I know, 'ok boomer' or whatever to me but everyone's got to ruin something. We ruined the housing market and in retaliation we lost our privacy. It's all fair."

Anna shook her head giving a sigh before moving to the other chair in the room. "What about the other researchers?"

"Henry's got them on electronic surveillance and Robert's agreed to get some people watching them." John winced, "He's demanding a face-to-face before he'll give me approval to tell you anything about my work."

"Did you conveniently forget to tell him what you already told me?"

John snapped his fingers, "Damn, I knew I forgot something."

Anna laughed, "What about this body double? Is she any good?"

"One of the best I've worked with." John counted on his fingers. "Three times. She looks a lot like you and she's skilled. One of the fastest I've ever seen with a gun and pretty good with hand-to-hand combat."

"How'd you meet her?"

"Robert knew her from somewhere and I met her on a job in… Virginia." John paused and the nodded, "Yep. That was before she became an international target."

"What?"

"She's like me. It's a cover for the work she does and it gets her the notoriety to get into places you don't go when you're squeaky clean." John pushed back from the desk. "Her name's Caroline, in case you were jealous."

"Never." Anna shook her head, "What's there to be jealous of?"

"Just making sure." John stretched and stood, immediately cramping and taking a second trying to recover his mobility. "My back isn't the only thing not forgiving me for falling asleep in that chair."

"Age must be so uncomfortable." Anna reclined back in her chair, the grin spreading on her face. "I can't imagine how horrible it is to be as ancient as you are."

"Ha, ha." John shook his head before frowning. "Have you slept yet?"

"I might've almost drown myself in the shower," Anna pushed herself out of the chair and followed John into the master bedroom before crawling onto the bed as John dug in his dresser for clothes. "But I…"

John stopped, turning over his shoulder to see Anna stretching out on the bed. "Like what you're feeling right now?"

"This is incredibly comfortable." Anna exulted in the mattress. "Is this the bed you promised when you mentioned an obnoxiously high thread count?"

"It was one of the options." John shrugged, arranging his clothes on his arm. "But not the one I had in mind."

"Is that one at your flat in London?"

"No." John shook his head. "My flat in London is function over fashion. The necessity of dropping everything and leaving if necessary is critical there. Here…"

John sighed, "This is the kind of place I'd want to stay when I eventually retire. When I disappear from the world and just while away the hours until I eventually greet the Reaper."

"That, in a different context, would be incredibly disheartening." Anna arranged herself more comfortably on the bed before pausing, watching John from the bed. "If you're not opposed."

"Why would I be opposed to the idea of a beautiful woman sharing my bed?" John winked and nodded toward the en suite. "I'll be right back."

"I might be asleep before you even turn the water on."

"Not a problem." John headed into the bathroom and tried to hurry through his shower so he did not fall asleep under the lulling beat of the spray. He shook himself more than once, to stop from dozing on the in-set bench that allowed him to stretch out his right leg under the thunderous beat of a specialized shower head, and finally exited the bathroom as he toweled his hair dry.

True to her word, Anna was practically unconscious on the bed. He snorted to himself and crawled into the space she left to sag against the pillows. It only took a moment before he followed her into a blessed oblivion that anxiety, adrenaline, and fortitude of will held off for so long. The welcome embrace of sleep.

Light petered through the window as John cracked his eyes open. He blinked, trying to get his focus to settle on his phone, and frowned at the time. When he almost shook his phone, as if that might reset the clock, a voice spoke up next to him and John practically tumbled out of the bed.

"It's not wrong."

John hit the floor, groaning as he landed on his right side, and waved away the worried gasps coming from the person he finally recognized as Anna. "I'm fine. I'm fine, promise."

"I very much doubt that." Anna crawled out of the bed and joined him on the floor, helping him stand for the half second it took to pivot and sit back down on the bed. "You hit your bad side."

"At my age, by your own admission, everything's my bad side." John stretched out his leg, rubbing vigorously as the bloom of pain. "But it does hurt."

"I didn't mean to scare you." Ann ignored John's fussing and pulled his leg into her lap to start massaging over it. "I thought you remembered I slept in the same bed as you did."

"Given that I just slept for over eighteen hours I doubt I'd've remembered my own name had you asked me what it was a few moments ago." John sighed and then hissed as the heel of Anna's hand dug into this muscle tissue. "Ouch."

"I'm sure your physical therapist doesn't do anything less when she's the one treating your injuries." Anna continued up his leg before massaging down it again. "I should know. She practiced on me more times than I can count."

"How'd you know Gwen in the first place?"

"We went to secondary school together. Almost went to the same Uni but then I got into Cambridge at the last minute because someone else who was reading decided to take a scholarship to America and…" Anna shrugged, "Gwen understood but I always felt a little… Self-serving to abandon her at London."

"Did she mind?"

"Honestly?" Anna let out a breath, "She met her current boyfriend in the first year. Had we been roommates, like we planned, she wouldn't have been trolling the local Tesco alone on a Friday night. But since I wasn't there and she was alone on a particular Friday night, she ran into Jack and… Well, from the way she's always told it to me there was a very 'meet-cute' moment and it was like something ridiculously saccharine from a fifties movie."

"That's wonderful."

"And it assuages my guilt so I tell the story as often as I can." Anna rested her hands on John's leg. "Better?"

"Much." He adjusted so they sat side-by-side on his rumpled side of the bed. "How'd you sleep, by the way?"

"Like I was laying on a cloud." Anna patted the mattress. "You chose well here, good sir, and I commend you."

"Thank you." John lay back, breathing easily until Anna lay next to him but she ignored the hitch in his breathing as she lined herself along his body. "It was one of the pieces of advice someone gave me when I finally graduated school."

"Always get a good mattress?"

"Something like that." John let out a little laugh, "He told me, 'There are three things to never buy used: a mattress, a good suit, and a condom."

Anna laughed into the material of John's shirt and he joined her, relishing the way the vibrations from their glee rebounded and flowed around them. She recovered her breath first, rising above him to wipe at her eyes. "Good advice if I ever heard it."

"I thought so." John propped himself up on his elbows. "And I've never bought a used mattress because of it."

"It's not like they're cheap."

"No, but mattresses, like cars, are an investment." John slapped his hand on the padding under him. "My body doesn't complain when I get up off this in the morning and that's a comfort to someone my age."

"I'm sure it is." Anna let out a breath and, if John read her face correctly, fought the impulse to giggle. "Unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Unless you're wakened rather abruptly, and surprisingly, by the woman sharing your bed." Anna rested a hand on John's leg and it twitched under her hold. But not from pain. "That might take away the credibility of your mattress."

"I would've thought it contributed to the success." John laid back as Anna straddled his legs. "But, given the comfort of the mattress, I'll let you decide."

"Me?"

"You're the guest." John shivered as Anna dragged her hands down his shirt before sneaking them under the fabric. "Whatever you say, goes."

"You're one of those hosts, aren't you?" Anna leaned over him, drawing her lips in light, flirting kisses over his neck."

"One of what hosts?"

"The ones who make sure your glass is never empty, clean assiduously before anyone comes over, and has a never-ending supply of carefully curated snacks." Anna paused, meeting his eyes for a moment as she forced his shirt over his head to drop to the floor. "The kind of host that put the rest of us to shame."

"And what kind of host are you?"

"The one who wears tracksuit bottoms and waves vaguely toward the fridge to say there might be food in there but scavenge as you want." Anna grinned against his skin and John tried to count the whorls in the wood of his ceiling to keep his breathing regulated. "I don't entertain often."

"Then let me be the first to say," John captured her hands and pressed kisses to both of her palms. "I think you entertain perfectly well."

"Charmer."

"You're the one having your way with me."

"And you're being the infuriatingly gracious host and letting me do as I please." Anna grazed her nails over John's bare skin until he shivered again. "I'm sure you had other plans."

"For this bed or for you?"

"Either… Or both."

John shook his head before capturing Anna's wrists in his grip and flipping them faster than either of them thought possible. When Anna landed, thumping them both on the bed a moment as they regained their breath and sense of placement in space, John held her gaze. "Are you alright?"

"I feel like you're about to be the most generous host I've ever had."

"I'll make sure to continue impressing you then." John helped Anna remove her shirt and sucked in a breath. "No bra?"

"I don't sleep in them."

"Yes but…"

Anna put her hands on his face. "I'll be honest, I was hoping we'd be moving in this direction and I didn't want to waste any time."

"Really?"

"Really." Anna drew John's lips to the rise of her breast. "Please continue."

"With that kind of introduction I can't imagine how I could possibly refuse." John lowered his head to her breasts and kissed his way gently around them. "Is there anything I can get you?"

"Off." Anna sighed, arching her back to force her breasts closer to his lips. "Just get me off and we'll be fine."

"Yes ma'am." John continued his slow trail until he reached Anna's nipple and dragged it into his mouth. She groaned and her fingers dug just behind his ears before relaxing to furrow into his hair. The smooth glide relaxed him like a massage and John continued kissing over her skin.

When Anna practically shined from his attentions, her fingers growing lax in his hair, John skated his hands down her sides to tug at the elastic of her waistband before slipping her tracksuit bottoms to the floor. They thumped for a moment, the heavier material almost distracting John from his work, but when his pajama bottoms joined hers he refocused. Because the angle of his eyes now matched the sight of Anna's fingers slipping under the lining of her knickers.

John forgot to breathe for a moment, his fingers pausing in tugging down his drawers, and watched as Anna shimmied herself loose from her knickers. The view improved dramatically and John practically tripped himself forward toward the bed as he tried to step out of his drawers without focusing on where he put his feet. But how could he when the sight of Anna's deft fingers stroking through her dampening folds drew all his attention.

His hands landed on the bed, stopping him falling on his face to end their sex-capades with a bruise from the wooden floor, and helped Anna kick off her knickers. It cost him barely a thought as he watched Anna elbow-crawl her way backward up the bed to stop at the pillows. Her legs remained open, so as not to cost him the view, and while her fingers slipped a moment in her ascending slide she continued the pace that left her breath escaping in short gasps. Gasps John tried to mimic when his fingers joined hers.

As time and space are relative, one never knows the dimensions or the constraints of something until they are faced with the necessity of their reality. For example, John had never realized that a bed- his bed to be exact- could be both spacious and suffocating in equal measure. For while Anna could spread herself across it and he could spread himself over her, the air around them stifled enough to draw sweat to his skin despite the open concept of the room. The bed almost sucked them into a world all their own as her vaginal muscles spasmed and contracted around his fingers and her own drew out to give him the space to work.

But John brought both of them to focus on a single moment when he captured her wrist with his hand and drew her shining, sticky fingers into his mouth. Their eyes held an unbreakable gaze as he carefully mimed the way her muscles clenched over his fingers with his mouth on her fingers. The world stood still, despite the tremor in Anna's thighs and the quiver in John's muscles, until he finished and used her hand to trace over her breasts as he leaned over her. Leaned over far enough to continue his work with his fingers while also returning to the delicate task of adoring her breasts.

With his focus honed to her needs, it took almost no time at all for Anna to convulse around him and come with a cry. One John let ring around the room, drawing it out further as he coaxed the orgasm to continue, before changing his position to bring his mouth to where her skin soaked with her climax. A climax he licked and laved over until Anna came again, drenching his mouth with her.

John cleaned over her as much as he dared, the harsh staccato to Anna's breathing betraying her as much as the trembling hand she tried to wrap around him, before drawing back to look over her. Anna almost whined for him to continue as her hand tightened over his arousal as if in invitation for him to seek out an orgasm of his own. To join her in the haze of pleasure that permeates the body when endorphins run high and hormones race through the blood.

Not that she needed to. With the sounds Anna made and the scent of her invading his nostrils in time with the taste of her steeping over his tongue, it was all John could do not to thrust with abandon until both of them bore the bruises of their encounter. But he held back.

All they endured, the entire reason they hid in his secret cabin, weighed on his mind. It forced him to pause, to stop himself succumbing to the primal call of Anna's whimpers and lax body. It told him to savor, to enjoy, and to bring Anna over the edge again. For who knew when they would have another comfortable mattress or sheets with an obnoxiously high thread count.

This was no time to rush.

So John did not. He took Anna's lips with his and kissed her slowly, winding them both up- despite not needing it- and sustaining them until they writhed together. It took concentration to slow them again, to enter her so excruciatingly slowly he feared them might combust from the effort, but once he seated himself fully inside her Anna paused them.

Her hand rested over John's heart, holding there for the moment it took for him to meet her eyes again. Then, without blinking, John drew back to thrust forward again. Anna's eyes rolled back and her neck arched but her hips responded. And when John pressed kisses to her breasts and throat between his driving motions, Anna's knees tightened on his hips and her ankles locked behind his ass.

They moved together, the gentle squeak of the bed's wooden legs shifting over the wooden floor the barest of thoughts at the back of John's mind, and gained their own rhythm. One they kept steady, moving together and breathing in sync to stop the other from getting ahead. To stop the piston of John's hips from rushing them during the languid, sensual ascent.

But once Anna's fingers curled into the flesh of John's ass and his scalp, the tugging bringing their mouths together again, John could no longer withstand the urge. The urge to drive as deeply into Anna as he could. To heed her whispers to move faster, deeper, harder, longer until all he heard was the mantra she unintentionally lost herself to the more he obeyed. And finally to break as her voice peaked with a familiar, sobbing cry.

Slumping together, John's sweaty forehead rested on her shoulder as he fought to breathe. Fought himself to not simply collapse but maneuver sideways to land without crushing her under his weight. And finally to appreciate the softness of the bed under him as it welcomed him with open arms.

While he already slept more hours than he could count on two hands, John almost sank into the exhaustion. Not just as a result of their encounter but under the weight of their position. One he thought Anna understood as she rearranged them to curl next to him.

"You'll get all sweaty." He tried to warn but Anna nestled all the same.

"And we've left ourselves a mess and the bed to boot so very much doubt I'll worry about the sweat. At least not for the moment." Her fingers traced over his arm as John allowed it to drape over her waist. "Give me some time to not fight my eyes to stay open and I might have the energy to at least rinse off."

"Not sure I can trust myself if I shut my eyes." John blinked furiously, maneuvering to better see Anna. "I'm tired in my bones."

"That I can understand." Anna's fingers paused before continuing their slow trace of his skin. "Two days ago I thought you were simply a play actor I met on a train, coming up to visit me for a sex-filled weekend."

"If you take out the word 'simply' then it's mostly true." John let out a little laugh before brushing hair from Anna's face so he could thread his fingers through her hair. "But we've crossed that bridge already, haven't we?"

"Burned it with napalm." Anna gave him a smile before sighing into his skin. "What'll happen to us, if we don't get this business with Green sorted?"

"Honestly?" John waited until he felt Anna nod against his skin. "Death, probably. It won't be quick and it won't be painless."

"I figured." Anna pushed herself away from John, laying out on her back so John moved to his side to watch her. "I never thought of myself as important. Never considered the work I do to be of any great significance except to the people we were hoping to help. Nothing to earn this level of attention."

"Not giving yourself enough credit there." John pushed himself up, forcing his posture straight to stop himself heeding the beckoning call of the comfortable sheets. "You're not exactly furniture in this particular tableau."

"This isn't false humility and I've known my fair share of vanity." Anna took a breath, "No this is… It's different. It's different because you expect to be known in a small circle. You don't expect to face a larger consequence of trying to do good."

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

"I wasn't expecting this to be my Hell." Anna took a breath, "Or for this to be the hill on which I died."

"Anna," John took her hand, forcing her to look at him. "I don't intend for anything to happen to you as long as I draw breath."

"Unless you're Superman you can't be everywhere all the time." Anna gave a little snort, "Even then, he wasn't infallible."

"I'm not claiming to be anything other than mortal." John sighed, drawing his thumbs in slow circles over her skin as if hoping to soothe and calm her with the regular motions. "But I'm determined to do all I can to protect you. I won't go down without a fight and I doubt you will either."

"Hence showing me the gun in your safe?" Anna pointed at it, "You haven't told me the code to that yet."

"It's easy," John smiled, "Twenty-ten."

"Special year for you?"

He shrugged, "It was the year I committed to this. The year I decided I need to plan ahead and make sure I was safe."

"Safe with a safe…" Anna shook her head, "It's catchy."

"And available for you." John checked his phone. "We should shower and… I dunno, think about food?"

"Your first time keeping someone for their protection?"

John nodded, "I don't often spend time trying to save damsels from distress I caused. I'm usually a smoother operator than this."

"I don't know." Anna turned onto her side, dragging her finger down his chest. "You've operated pretty smoothly thus far."

"You won't think that when I pass out in a moment." John forced himself to stand and offered her a hand. "You want to shower with me?"

"I was afraid you wouldn't ask."

In the shower, using the bench John installed, Anna aimed away from the specialized sprayer to work her mouth over him. With the steady massage of the showerheads and Anna's mouth enclosing him in a hot reminder of her vaginal muscles, it was all John could do not to come before Anna joined him. Her kindness was responding to his urge to straddle him on the bench, succumbing with fingers raking over his shoulders as he used his fingers to entice her to the edge, to sheath him in a swift swallow.

It took them little time to come together. To sink and find one another in the clinging embrace of bodies and sweat and water. And to find peace in the aftermath of their exertions.