Snorting into his pillow, John almost knocked his head against the headboard as he reeled back from the smell under his nose. "What the-"

"Wake up sleepyhead."

"You could've shaken me." John pushed himself up and back onto the bed, away from the cloying fragrant smells assaulting him from the mug Anna held. "You didn't need to put smelling salts in water and-"

"This, I'll have you know, is an ancient herbal tea recipe, handed down through generations, from my friend in Beijing."

John sobered almost immediately, "The one who…"

Anna nodded and sipped at the tea, pulling a face. "I'll admit, it's a bit foul to taste and has a very strong smell but I've not been sick in… Probably two years now and I'll take anything that keeps me on my feet when my students are coughing and hacking through the winter months."

"I do hope you didn't wake me up to offer any of that poison to me." John shoved himself to a sitting position, resting against the headboard. "Because I'll have to tell you I'd rather drink sewer water."

"Don't be stupid, I only have so much and now that I can't travel to China without ruining our little charade…"

"Then you drink it in peace and try not to get any on me."

"Spoilsport." Anna shrugged and sat on the end of the bed, sipping at the drink. "But speaking of our little charade, I'm here because I'm wondering if Ms. Forbes has told you how well her little masquerade is holding up."

"Why'd you ask?"

Anna shrugged, "We've been holed up in here for a month now and your contractual employer's got to be feeling a little anxious by now."

"Probably a bit but he's only hounded me by email once a day." John checked his phone. "I keep telling him I'm trying to woo you into revealing your secrets."

"You'd seduce me to get at my notes?"

"Of course not." John put a hand to his chest before grinning, "I'd seduce you to get into your knickers and then get your notes. There's an art to this."

He deflected the pillow Anna threw at him and set it by his side. "In all seriousness, I think we're getting to the point where I'll have to give him something before he wears a hole in whatever floor he's probably pacing."

"He'd got people to pace for him." Anna snorted into the bottom of her mug. "Like he does his own pacing."

"All the same, him pacing or some poor, sweating intern, he'll want something before he drops another one of your researching friends."

Anna paused, reaching toward John to set her mug on the bedside table, and wrapped her arms around herself to pull her dressing gown tight. "What about them? The rest of my colleagues, I mean."

"According to Mary, and whoever else she hired to keep tabs on them, they're all fine. A few light tails and some surveillance but all of them are within reach of aid the moment something looks like it's going to go wrong."

"So they're safe?"

"Not as safe as you are, here, but safe." John nodded, biting at the inside of his cheek. "Although, how is your research coming?"

"With Doctor Ma dead it's a little more difficult but we've managed, thanks to your friend Henry, to get our research pulled together. We'll have something ready to publish in another month so that's when the review process starts." Anna shrugged, her arms loosening slightly and pulling her dressing gown just far enough apart to let John see her bare skin underneath. "But I'm not sure how that helps our current predicament since your employer wants something before then."

"That's up to you." John pointed at her with an open hand before rearranging the sheets around his waist to try and bunch them so they hid the unexpected tent he created. "You're the one who wanted to help."

"Then I'm going to suggest something that you won't like." Anna bit at her lip before speaking again. The shift forward in her posture tugged at her dressing gown and John stared at the ceiling and counted the whorls in the wood there to try and steady himself before he looked a fool. "We need to go back to Oxford."

"What?"

"It's where my research would be done and, if you're supposedly seducing me, it's where it'll be most believable." Anna reached forward, leaning slightly as she put her hand over one of John's. "It's time to risk it."

"But Ms. Forbes has it all under control and she's-"

"Not me. For as good as she is, she's not me." Anna shook her head, scooting toward John. "She can't pull off this next part."

"The part I'm not going to like?"

Anna nodded. "We need to use me as bait. It's the only way to draw Green out and the only way he'll believe that the research I give you is genuine."

"You seem very sure about this."

"I'm very good at what I do." Anna's hand shifted slight and John almost bit the end of his tongue when she landed just shy of his morning arousal. "And it's time to prove that to Green."

"If you say so."

"I do." Anna held John's gaze as her fingers curled into the sheet and whipped it back faster than John could rescue them. "I knew it."

"What? I… I didn't-" John tried to rescue the sheets but caught sight of the devious expression on Anna's face as she removed her dressing gown and let it drop to the floor. "You knew I was trying to-"

"I heard rumors about the tea but I've never tested it and now…" Anna crawled over the bed to straddle John's lap. "It worked just fine."

"I didn't drink any of your poisonous water."

"It's the scent." Anna let her hands move over John's shoulders and down his chest, dragging her nails to leave the hairs on his body standing on end. "And since I drank it, it's triggered your hormones."

"You can't prove that."

"I could try." Anna dipped her head forward, pressing intermittent kisses over John's neck before whispering in his ear. "Would you like to be my test subject? It would be a rigorous process."

"I've got the stamina for it." John almost hissed when Anna's hand wrapped over his erection and pulled before squeezing. "But it won't be accurate."

"No?"

"No." John shook his head, moving one of his hands over Anna's to guide her process. "Because I'm almost always like this for you. Correlation, as they say, does not necessitate causation."

"Very true." Anna ran her tongue over her lips before gripping her unoccupied hand tightly at John's shoulder. "But we could insist on a no-touching policy, just to make sure we've covered all the dependent variables."

"That wouldn't help." John's other hand ran up Anna's thigh and between her legs to stroke his fingers through the growing damp there. "I can look at you and feel ready for just about anything."

"That's dangerous."

"Very." John placed his thumb on her clit and plunged two fingers inside her, biting at the inside of his cheek when Anna's hand tightened her grip on him in response to the clench of her vaginal walls. "But I think you enjoy it."

"I do." Anna nodded, her eyes barely fluttering open. "I want you all the time too. I can't help it."

"I wouldn't want you to." John ran his lips like butterfly kisses over Anna's cheekbones and down the line of her jaw as her hand fluttered on him in response to the more focused efforts of his fingers inside her. "I want you to feel like you can have me all the time. Because you can."

His lips traced the lines of her skin to her collarbones before he sucked at her breasts. When he enclosed one of her nipples at the same time he added another finger inside Anna, her nails sank into the skin of his shoulder and she thrust with abandon against his efforts. It only took another minute, John trading attentions between one breast and the other, for Anna to come around him. Her body undulated and her vaginal muscles clung to his fingers as she quivered down from the high.

John waited, kissing at Anna's shoulder as she folded herself over to leave her forehead against his collar. Her chest pressed against his as she tried to fill it with air and John carefully moved her hand from his erection. When he brought her hand to his lips, kissing delicately over her skin, Anna slowly rose up and her eyes met John's with the same mischievous glint from earlier sparkling there.

"Take me." John moved to kiss her but Anna pulled their still intertwined hands between them, kissing at his before dropping her grip. "Not like that."

"How do you want me to take you, Anna?" John's hand skimmed her side, settling on her ass to bring her forward so his arousal could ride along the damp line left from her climax. He rolled his hips slowly, noting the haze returning to the edge of Anna's vision. "Do you want me to take you like this?"

"Wouldn't that be me taking you?"

"I'm not picky." John ghosted his lips over her cheeks again as he squeezed at her ass. "Do what you will with me, Dr. Smith."

Anna held John's gaze as she dug her knees into the mattress to rise up just far enough to let John slide along her sopping folds before she helped him slip inside her. The agonizing minute that she held herself, with John just inside her, had John's fingers digging into her skin as he held himself back from jerking his hips up to meet her before dragging her down to thrust deep. She must have seen it in his eyes. There was no way to miss it or the quiver to his muscles as he practically chomped at the bit to bring them tighter. But Anna delayed it as long as possible before plunging down hard enough to bruise their hips on impact.

The force left John breathless a moment and that put him at Anna's mercy. She curled her fingers around the back of his neck and pulled them close enough together for her lips to graze his ear. John held still as she tugged the lobe between her teeth before whispering to him.

"I still want you to take me. But I think I'll take my turn first."

John tucked himself forward, wrapping his arms around Anna, and rocked in counterpoint to Anna's motions. The bed bounced them slightly, rolling them as Anna's knees tightened at John's hips to control the speed of each thrust as they gyrated and ground together. And when their fingers dug hard enough to bruise bone, colliding at Anna's center as they fought furiously between kisses, they came.

Untangling proved difficult and they caught in the sheets. It tipped Anna sideways and almost sent John out of the bed but they caught him just in time. Exchanging a few giggles between deep breaths, they righted themselves and John leaned over Anna to kiss her. She dragged the kiss longer, weaving her fingers in his hair, and only let go with a pout.

"Going so soon?"

"Someone said she wanted to go back to Oxford." John held himself over her, his knees on either side of Anna's hips. "I do hope you got all that Chinese sex tea out of your system."

"Why?" Anna wiggled a bit, tracking her fingers in a walk up his chest. "Worried I'll make you come over all insensible in the car on the drive back?"

"Very. You being randy will distract me and then we'll crash the car and in the burning wreck I'll have to decide to save either you or myself and live with the guilt for the rest of my life."

"Sounds miserable."

"It would be." John nodded gravely, "The movie would win at least an Oscar for best original screenplay and the special effects would all be practical."

He dipped to kiss her again, cutting the kiss off before she could tease him further. "And we've got to close out this place properly before we go back. That's a bit of a process."

"It won't take all day will it?"

"It could." John went to move but Anna's hand smoothing over his hips before teasing a rise to his already half-hard erection forced him to pause. "Anna…"

"Is that a warning?" Anna wrapped one of her legs over John's hip. "Or a suggestion? Or a plea, even?"

"Warning, definitely." John covered Anna's hand with his and removed it slowly. "Because you promised me a turn."

"Did I?" Anna wiggled away, half turning as if to escape. "I don't recall."

John seized her hips and stopped her with a kiss to her lower back. Tracing the signs of her shivers up her spine, John kissed to her shoulder before whispering in her ear. "You wanted me to take you, Anna, and I'd want to do it like this. Can I?"

"Please." Anna shivered again and John's hands smoothed over her skin as his hold on her hips loosened slightly so Anna positioned on all fours. "Take me John."

"My pleasure."

He dragged kisses down her back as his hands continued to smooth over her legs and up her torso. As John traced the dips of Anna's spine his hands cupped over her breasts and kneaded them as Anna shifted her position on the bed. They maneuvered, pausing when knees knocked or the sheets slipped their progress. But despite the little hitches, John managed to make his way between Anna's legs and set a kiss at her clit.

Anna bucked and, for a moment, John caught sight of her fingers gripping into the tangle of sheets. Smiling into her skin, John dragged his tongue between her folds and hummed at the combined taste of them there. Her taste only increased as he continued to suck and sip at her until his hands held her hips carefully to avoid losing his hold as Anna's body shook with her climax.

With her body almost lax in the aftermath, John slid her back to the edge of the bed and stood behind her to retrace the progress of his earlier kisses to her shoulders. Copying her earlier motions, John tugged at the lobe of Anna's ear until her fingers carded back into his hair to hold him there. Their cheekbones impacted and John moved away an inch before hitting Anna's jaw. They laughed it off, kissing to take the edge off the moment but all it did was spin them higher until Anna's nails dug half-moon marks into John's scalp.

"Do you want me to take you now Anna?" John struggled to breathe, pressing their cheeks together to resist the urge to kiss her senseless again. "Do you want me to take you this way?"

"Yes." Anna's fingers loosened and their mouths meshed together again, the impact driving air from John's lungs. "Do it now please."

John forced himself away from Anna's mouth and gripped her hips hard to hold her still as he dragged his fully hard erection through the results of his earlier ministrations. Anna groaned, lifting her ass slightly as she tried to bury her face in the wrecked remains of the sheets. It took everything John had to draw out the teasing for even another moment before he thrust forward.

His fingers flexed on Anna's hips as he held himself still and she gave a muffled moan into the sheets. But whatever fragile control John tried to exercise over himself as shot the second Anna shimmied her ass into the cradle of his hips. Then it was nothing but a punishing pace that had him practically pounding into her with each of his barely restrained drives.

And when the end peeked over the horizon, John leaned forward to run his fingers over Anna's swollen clit. She tightened around him, clinging so tightly all John could manage was two more thrusts before he came. The resulting tumble left them unintentionally spooning on the bed as John tried to breathe normally. His chest rose and fell against Anna's back as his hands trembled and shook in their quest to ease the quiver from Anna's limbs.

"I think I'll halve the dose for the sex tea next time." Anna half-turned back to look at John, her fingers spearing through her hair to stop it sticking to her face and the back of her neck. "Otherwise I'll just leave you exhausted."

"It's a good kind of exhaustion." John rose up on his forearm, leaning over Anna to kiss her. "Now, if we're going back to Oxford, I've got a few things we need to do first."

"Like what?" Anna pushed herself up to, folding her legs gingerly under herself as John moved to the edge of the bed."

"Get this place clean for starters. Wipe down all the surfaces, clean everything, and get it all shut down with the proper protocols."

"Is that strictly necessary?"

"A safe house isn't safe if you don't make it that way." John shrugged, "It might be a little extreme-"

"Sounds like overkill to me."

"But it'll keep it safe for the next time I have to use it. If I do." John put his fingers through his hair before catching sight of himself in the mirror and patting it all down so it was not sticking out all over the place like a hedgehog. "And then we'll have to take a bit of a winding route back to Oxford."

"To check for tails and leave our ETA ambiguous for anyone attempting to set up a roadblock or other kind of trap?"

John grinned, "You took your lessons with me seriously."

"I plan on living so of course I did." Anna quieted, "Do you regret, taking this job? If you're being serious about it, do you regret it?"

"Should I?"

"It's a bit more involved than your other jobs, if your stories are true, and there's a heightened sense of danger to this one."

"I can't say I'm eager to put my life on the line in any situation," John rubbed absently at his leg as it spasmed. "But I took the job under the pretense that it would put a bad man away. I'm not ashamed about that. And I don't regret being involved with you in this, if I'm allowed to say it, other than the obvious lying that happened at the beginning of our courtship period."

"We're courting now?" Anna lay back on her forearms, "I didn't realize and here I am in my most indecent."

"Well I don't take just anyone to a safe house and have wild sex with them." John leaned over, holding his leg straight to stretch out the muscles, and snatched Anna's dressing gown from the floor. "And if you're worried about indecency, then here's your dressing gown madame."

"Now I just sound old."

"Do you want me to call you 'Doctor'?"

"I'm not that egotistical or kinky." Anna wrapped herself in the dressing gown. "But I do like the idea that something good came of all this."

"Which good thing?"

"You." Anna leaned forward and put her hand over John's. "Without this, we might never've been honest with each other."

"Your honesty, as I recall, wasn't the problem." John released his leg to hold both of Anna's hands. "And no, to answer your question, I don't regret any of it. At least not the parts of it I've initiated. I regret lying to you, I regret ever getting involved with Green, and I regret how this might affect you in the long run but I don't regret the chance it gave me."

"Me either." Anna shrugged, "And the long run is what we make of it. Science, especially the field I study, isn't exactly one rocked by scandal unless it loses you a tenure or you've got yourself arrested for something heinous. An affair or working with the government… Those are just bumps in the academic road as long as I publish on time and continue to bring grant money and research to the university."

"Tough crowd."

"We're all self-obsessed here." Anna pushed herself off the bed. "But, in the spirit of getting us ready to depart, do you think sharing a shower would be a bad idea? It would save water and time."

"Both of those are lies." John stood, taking Anna's offered hand. "But I'd be an absolute fool to say no when a gorgeous woman wants to share a shower with me."

They moved to the bathroom and John started up the water in the glass box of a shower before turning back to see Anna on the counter. "What are you-"

She spread her legs to drag her fingers between them. "You didn't think this was just about sharing a shower did you?"

"I think you had to much of that tea this morning." John moved toward her. "The hot water responds pretty quickly here."

"Then I guess you'll have to get to work." Anna took one of John's hands and placed it between her legs. "Unless you've got another idea."

"I've got plenty of ideas." John's other hand moved to Anna's breasts and started kneading. "But I've also got a little time before I'd be ready to take you up on whatever offer you're hoping happens in the shower."

"Just the standard offer." Anna tried to trill out but her hand clutched at John's shoulder as his fingers entered her.

"Good." John bent his head and, with fingers crooking inside Anna to find the patch of rougher muscle that triggered her release, he took one of her breasts in his mouth. She bucked and writhed against him as he changed the speed, depth, and angle of his ministrations at her core and breasts until he found the ones that had Anna's voice pitching higher. High enough to leave his fingers almost mangled inside her at the tight wrap of her walls around him.

But John drew back, watching the flush spread over Anna's skin from the reddened flesh between her legs, and sucked his fingers dry before pulling Anna to him. She almost wrapped around him, her body sagging for a moment until she stiffened as John placed her ass on the colder tile of the tub. With her eyes open, Anna took in her surroundings but John could only smile to himself as he dragged a bathmat over and kneeled on it.

"John?"

"I can't kneel well enough over there and my knee won't allow me to crouch." John lifted one of Anna's legs over his shoulder and the other as she leaned back on her hands. "And I couldn't do this well from a crouched position."

With steam filling the bathroom and Anna's voice filling his ears, John let his mouth fill with the taste of her. One of Anna's hands abandoned its supporting role to grip hard into John's hair as she guided his speed and direction at her core. With his tongue spearing into her before dragging between her slick skin to suck and slurp at her, John lost himself in the pursuit. One of his hands massaged at her breasts, guided only by sensation, and the other took hold of her ass to change the angle so he could drink deeper and leave Anna's cries more satisfied. But his work was only finished when Anna cried out and left a surge of her taste on his tongue.

John pulled back, easing from Anna to allow her the tremors in her muscles to cease before he helped her to stand. Her hands clutched at him, holding tightly as she tried to walk into the shower with him. They only managed it with John leading the way but he almost lost the sensual nature of the moment when the hot water scalded them both and he fought with the faucets to stop the redness of their skin being the result of the lava pouring over them.

It soothed muscles and slowed their motions. With the steam slowing, John guided the soap over the both of them and allowed Anna to dig her fingers into his hair to wash it out for him. But she gasped when her chest met the chillier tiles as John pressed her against them. Even with his hands snaking between them, one to hold her breasts and the other to urge the sparking nerves of her clitoris back to life, Anna still shivered in John's arms. It took him only a moment to realize the shiver now came from the stroke of his arousal between her legs.

"You can come again, if you want." Anna turned her head to look at him and they brought their lips together in an odd twist of their bodies as John entered her from behind.

The water, both friction and its sloppier opposite, fought and furthered them. Even when their speed decreased and the urge to rush to the finish faded, they moved as one. John's arms tightened around Anna's waist and held her close as she came around him. He followed shortly after and dragged his fingers over her abdomen to hold her hips as he drew back.

They rinsed, finishing with the water markedly colder than when they started, and toweled one another dry. For a moment they were quiet, the silence settling a little heavily on them as John took the used towels into the bedroom and started gathering the sheets and blankets for the wash. He only allowed himself to speak when he heard Anna give a little huff.

"What?"

"I think being in isolation with you did nothing for my waistline." Anna made a face before finally zipping her jeans. "You're fattened me up."

"I was wondering who ate all the pies." John deflected the pillow Anna threw at him. "If you want to split tasks we could have all this ready to go by this afternoon. Take the night drive back to Oxford."

"As another way to avoid detection?"

"That's the hope." John paused, holding a pile of the bedclothes in his arms. "Are you scared, Anna?"

"They've already killed a friend of mine, threatened me, and killed someone in front of you to tell you they're serious." Anna nodded, "I'm terrified."

"It's okay to be scared."

"I know." Anna put her hand on his arm. "And I've got you to help me so I'm a bit less terrified now than I would be if I tried to go this alone."

"You're not alone." John kissed her. "Not now, not ever."

"And that's why I don't regret any of this." Anna nodded at him. "You get all that started and I'll get to the cleaning. Make short work of the whole thing."

"Sounds like a plan."