"I promise I'll be with you in a minute," Red said. "I just need to find one more corner."
Lizzy sat straight-backed in the chair next to his with her arms crossed, impatience positively radiating off of her body. "I don't see it, are you sure it's there?"
"It's not possible it's gone missing, I'm always extremely careful with these pieces," he said, but he checked under his book, behind the candlestick, and beneath the ashtray for good measure.
"All right, fine. I'll show you where it is," Lizzy said, with something in her tone that drew Red's gaze up from the table to her face. "But it'll cost you."
Red raised an eyebrow. "Elizabeth, have you resorted to palming puzzle pieces to convince me to stop working on this?"
"You didn't seem interested in my other suggestion."
"That's only because I can't wrap my head around the concept of 'strip puzzle'."
"Your lack of imagination isn't my fault."
Red sat back in his chair with an exasperated huff, all of his attention finally and firmly on Lizzy. She let him catch a teasing glimpse of the missing piece before it disappeared again before his eyes.
Slowly, she took to her feet and moved to stand over him.
"I want to keep helping you with this case, I really do. But we have a little time…" She lowered herself into his lap and draped her arms around his shoulders.
"And you've gotten used to our, ehem… lunch breaks, I take it?"
"Mmm, haven't you?" she asked, leaning close, close enough to taste if he shifted his face just so… but when he did, she moved back out of reach.
"Elizabeth…"
"What? Do I have something you want?"
"Yes."
"Just the puzzle piece?"
"No. Not just the puzzle piece."
Lizzy hummed her approval and rewarded Red with a kiss, deep and thorough and searching, before she pulled back, gradually allowing his bottom lip to slip from between her teeth. Red let his fingers dance around her waist above her waistband, light and ticklish, until he thumbed open the button at the top of her fly.
"I'll help you pick up the pieces if we make a mess of your puzzle," she whispered.
"Help me finish it and we have a deal."
"I'll get the sitter to stay late."
"Perfect," Red said, closing his hands around Lizzy's waist, but she was already hoisting herself onto the table without his help, and shoving at her pants, as desperate to have him between her legs again as he was to be there.