The Model Agent
By SarahsSupplyCloset
Author's Note: Thank you for reading. I don't have much else to say but that. Have fun!
Summary: Sarah Walker's modeling career is in its budding stages when the CIA recruits her into their ranks at 16. 10 years later, she's balancing being a world famous supermodel and actress with spying for the CIA. Her existence is fraught with danger and she's constantly on the go, until she meets a disarmingly sincere man on the beach...and her life is changed forever.
Disclaimer: I don't own CHUCK. I am not making any money from this.
The sound of his name on her lips, the way it dripped with ecstasy as it reverberated throughout the room.
The way her fingers clung to his lower back, the slight sting of her fingernails digging into his skin there.
The strength of her thighs trapping him between them even as her body shook with climax beneath him.
Her breath hot against his ear as she panted.
He tightened his arm he'd slung under her lower back to hold her up at an angle from the mattress, and he held tight to the headboard in his other hand to keep from slipping and having them both crash down to the bed, afraid he'd crush her with his weight.
Pulling her close, he kissed the juncture of her shoulder and neck, letting her feel his tongue on her dewy skin there, and he even grazed her with his teeth, feeling her shiver under his grip as she rode out the waves of her finish.
Her chest heaved against his and she moaned, laughing breathlessly, her nails easing out of his skin again.
And then she went limp, giggling as her limbs flopped back to the mattress, forcing him to ease her back down to the bed again, a grin on his face at her playfulness.
"Mmm don't go," she panted, grabbing him by his waist when he meant to pull himself out of her and roll to the side. "Come down here."
Her mischievous blue eyes and smirk had him grinning so hard he thought his face might break, and he complied, easing his chest down onto hers and nuzzling his face against her neck.
Sarah Walker hummed wantonly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and hugging him tight.
It felt so good, and he wasn't even struggling with the fact that he hadn't finished yet, still being inside of her not driving him as crazy as it normally might thanks to how content he was just to be held like this by her.
Chuck Bartowski had never experienced anything this intimate in his entire life, her arms so tight around him, their legs tangled together, her chest beneath his rising and falling, her lips pressed into his hair, still joined with her.
He didn't know how long they stayed that way, but he finally began to feel the ache in his lower body. He tried to take deep, measured breaths to ignore the sensation.
But then her chest began to bounce under his and he frowned in curiosity against her neck. He heard a quiet giggle then, more of a sniffle, but he heard the mirth in it. So he pulled his face back just slightly to furrow his brow at her in question.
"Why did you hide after you knocked on my door?" she giggled quietly. "What were you doing?"
He narrowed his eyes in a wince. "I, um, I don't know. Guess I thought it'd be cute?" She laughed a little harder, beaming at him. "Okay, stopppp," he said, rolling his eyes. "Guess it didn't have the desired effect. I thought, you know, you open the door and look down to find the same coffee I bought for you yesterday morning and a bouquet of pretty roses. And then you're like, oh who sent these? And then I show up at your door a minute later." He sighed. "I get now that it was stupid."
"It wasn't stupid!" she exclaimed, still chuckling. "It was actually pretty cute, so it did have the desired effect." She paused, and then she brought her left hand up to stroke her fingers down his cheek. "I'll tell you honestly that nobody ever did anything like that for me before. So you've got a one-up on everyone else there."
"So I'm a singular jackass then. Good."
Sarah cracked up and teasingly knuckled his shoulder with her fist. "Stop that. You're not a jackass. I will say though that the next time you do that for a girl, maybe make sure she can't see your foot poking out from around the corner."
Chuck frowned at that, then looked down at where his toes covered hers, their feet tangled together, and he laughed. "Oh damn, did you see me?"
"I did. It was probably the most endearing thing I've ever seen in my life," she laughed with him.
"I'm so embarrassing, oh my God." He groaned and buried his face in her neck as she kept laughing. "That's what I get for trying so hard."
Her laughter subsided and she cupped his chin, making him lean back to meet her gaze. She had such a soft look on her face, he melted further into her automatically. "The mere fact that you're trying is way more than I can say for anyone else, so please don't demean yourself over that. You're the sweetest. Trying isn't a bad thing."
He raised his eyebrows. He wasn't sure how to take that, honestly. So he cleared his throat and nodded slowly. "I kind of…" He stopped. "Nope. No, not gonna say it."
"What?" she giggled. "You can't start a sentence like that and then stop and say, I'm not gonna say! That's not fair! Now I wanna know!"
Chuckling, he leaned in to nuzzle her jaw with his nose, dotting a kiss in the same spot. She melted. "I think I have a tendency to say too much right off the bat. Isn't there a whole thing about a sense of mystery being sexy? And me? I just bulldoze in, telling people everything. Blabbing like an idiot."
"Tell me what you were gonna say." She nudged him with her hips teasingly and he bit down on his bottom lip, resisting the urge to cross his eyes. That had felt excruciatingly good.
And it focused his attention down there again.
"Uh…" He took a deep breath. "I forgot now." She laughed at that, pushing her fingers through his hair as if that was supposed to help or something. "My sister says, um, and she's right about this, she says that I spiral when I like a girl and I try really hard, and I guess I must like you a lot because I have this strong urge to try super, super hard."
She seemed not to know quite how to react to that, nibbling on her lip quietly, darting her eyes to the side.
Her hand landed on his bare chest, teasing him with her fingertips, sending a shiver through him.
Maybe he shouldn't have said all of that. Which really underscored his earlier point about always managing to say way too much way too soon.
"You say things sometimes that stop me in my tracks, Chuck."
He pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Is that good?"
Sarah smiled slowly, then ran her fingers up his chest, tracing his collarbone lightly, before she wound her arm around his neck, shoving him onto his back and rolling over with him to straddle him.
Just like that, she had her fingers wrapped around his wrists, pinning them up over his head. Grinning with her teeth grazing his jaw, she began to gyrate in his lap.
This time he didn't resist at all, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as he groaned, arching himself against her.
He supposed this was the best 'yes' he could've asked for.
Sarah held tighter to his wrists, her movements more desperate, his name dripping from her lips with each of her thrusts, and Chuck tried to brace his feet against the bed, meeting her halfway. And as he arched himself up in an attempt to match her rhythm, Sarah's mouth fell open and she whimpered out, "Yes, Chuck…"
As she tilted her head back and arched her torso away from his, Chuck strained to lean up and catch one of her breasts in his mouth. He gently captured her nipple between his lips and sucked, grazing it with his teeth. Her hips jerked and she gasped in surprise. "Oh God," she said, her voice crackling so deliciously with lust.
He noticed her fingers had weakened their grip in her surprise at his actions, so he broke out of her grasp and wrapped his arms around her lower back, hugging her lower half against his tightly and using his legs to start bouncing himself up into her.
Sarah yelped and held onto his shoulder in one hand, slapping the other one against the headboard. "Chuck!"
He whispered, "Yeah, Sarah. Yeah!"
She just held on, moaning as he kept going until he felt her body tighten and shudder against his.
"Yeessss!" She rolled her hips as she came, using her grip on his shoulder to shift her legs, bending her knees and straddling him with her legs on either side of him.
She sat in his lap now, pulling him up so his chest was pressed against hers, and she began to ride him.
Chuck could feel the goosebumps on her skin and he didn't know if she was cold, but he couldn't do anything about it except wrap her up in his arms and try to fend off the cool air in the room on his own.
This felt so incredible it was like someone had lit a match and tossed it onto the bed with them, catching the whole thing, and them, on fire.
He couldn't get enough of her, even as she pushed against his chest and forced him to lie flat on the mattress again, bracing her hands on his shoulders and starting to bounce in his lap.
Chuck cursed and brought his hand up, making a fist and biting down on it, groaning around his knuckles.
Sarah laughed, losing her rhythm a bit as she let her head fall forward, the sound of her laughter, so melodious and sweet, filling him with glee. He laughed with her and shrugged as best he could, pushing his hand he'd bitten down on a moment earlier through his curls. "You just feel so good," he panted, grinning up at her sheepishly.
Taking a deep breath, she began to bounce again, harder this time. He watched what it did to her breasts and he groaned loudly, wondering if it was okay for him to stare like this. He didn't know why it was so hot but it was.
Reaching up tentatively, he closed his hands over them and squeezed, feeling the hard nubs of her nipples against his palms.
Sarah cursed this time, letting out a high-pitched exclamation of encouragement. "Nnn hnnn!"
He could see and feel her body starting to tighten again as she bounced, and he slipped his hands down to hold onto her hips, trying to do what he could to support her even as she was driving him insane with what she was doing to him.
"Chuck…I'm-I'm almost…"
He knew. God, he knew, and he'd never wanted anything in his life as much as he wanted that for her at that moment.
Sliding his large hands around to hold onto her backside, he dug his heels into the mattress and started to bounce himself up against her hard and fast.
He watched her as she froze, gaping down at him, her blue eyes wide and shimmering in the morning light coming through the windows, and then she tipped forward.
He caught her with one hand on her waist, adrenaline shooting through him as she slammed her hands down onto the bed on either side of his head, and he kept thrusting up into her. She held on, twisting her fists in the sheets, and shutting her eyes tight.
The whimpering sounds she made were threatening to tip Chuck over the edge.
And as she spilled over the edge herself, crying out, her shoulders quaking, Chuck knew he was right behind her.
Sarah must've felt it herself because as soon as she came down from her high, she sat up straight again, sank heavily onto his lap so that he was as deep as physically possible, and she began to whip her hips back and forth.
Chuck craned his neck to look down his body, shock going through him, ecstasy even. He was so close. He was so close he could almost taste it. "S-Sarah…oh my God, Sarah!"
She didn't stop until he felt something twitch in his lower stomach. This was it.
He needed to be close to her though. He needed to hold her, feel her against him. And he grabbed her, pulling her down to lie on top of him, rolling them over to pin her to the bed as she squeaked and giggled, wrapping himself around her.
Chuck thrusted down into her until he emptied himself, groaning her name into her hair, not realizing how tightly he was holding onto her until he thought he felt a little pop in her shoulders.
He loosened his grip a little but kept his arms around her as she hummed in pleasure, and she wrapped herself around him, too, clinging.
"Oh, wow," he groaned, panting as he finally pulled out of her and flopped to the side. "That was—WHOA!"
THUMP.
He heard Sarah cackling breathlessly and couldn't help but laugh at himself. He'd thought there was still quite a bit of mattress left on that side of Sarah but he'd chosen the wrong side, throwing himself right off the edge of the bed and landing hard on the floor.
Her gorgeous face and halo of blond hair poked over the edge. "Are you okay?" she asked, her eyes shining with tears as she continued to laugh.
"Yeah, the rug kind of broke my fall," he chuckled, wincing.
"That's not a rug, that's your shirt."
"Oh?" She just laughed harder as he tugged it out from under his back. "Oh it is!"
Well, such was his life.
+ —
"So am I gonna be your errand boy now?"
"What?" Sarah laughed, pushing herself to sit up more against the pillows so that she could see him better. He was splayed out in the opposite direction, his head at the foot of her bed and his legs akimbo, heels of his feet pressed against the headboard next to her.
They'd both eventually put their underwear back on and she tossed an old workout shirt on over her top half.
She'd made Chuck hold ice against the back of his head, too, because she felt a small bump there from when he accidentally flung himself over the side of the bed and onto the floor after they'd had some really exceptional sex. The adorable doofus.
The ice was melted now, the bag sitting in the bathroom sink filled with cold water, and they were both just splayed out over the bed, enjoying one another and the bowl of fruit between them.
Fruit she'd asked Chuck to go buy for them from the farmer's market a block away.
"I'm kidding," he chuckled, popping a grape in his mouth and chewing. "I was just saying that 'cuz that's twice now I've ventured out to provide sustenance for us. I could give you examples in the animal kingdom for why that makes sense though," he teased, yelping and laughing, trying to dodge when she flicked a grape stem at him. He didn't dodge well enough and it smacked him in the chin as they both cracked up.
"Lionesses do all the hunting while their shitty man lions sleep all damn day, so how's that for your animal kingdom?"
"Okay, that's a fair point."
"I know it is."
"My teasing aside, I genuinely don't mind being your errand boy," he said, and his grin became very cheeky.
"I'm gonna kick you outta my bed in two seconds," she threatened, smirking.
"You've already done it once and I knocked my head on the floor," he muttered casually.
Sarah gasped. "That was not me! You basically launched yourself off, okay? I had nothing to do with that." She munched on some honeydew.
"Nothing? You sticking with that story?"
"Yes. I am," she replied primly, licking her fingers just as primly.
"Really? Because if you hadn't made me literally forget what universe I was even in, maybe I would've known there was no bed left on that side of you and I would've rolled to the side where there was bed left."
He shrugged and popped another grape in his mouth.
"You're incorrigible."
She loved the way his giggle sounded, so boyish and sweet. And she watched as he craned his neck and bent his arm in an uncomfortable looking position to grab a slice of strawberry and pop that into his mouth.
"No, I'm joking about the errand boy stuff. I promise. I understand you not wanting to be spotted out there. Especially in a farmer's market situation. There are certain moments when I'm at one of those when I realize that I'm literally surrounded by people. It's intense. If you were in there and even one person recognizes you?" He shivered. "I dunno, honestly that sounds super unsafe. And anyways, it meant I got to pick out all the fruits. So ha."
Sarah snorted, shaking her head at him. "Yeah, and then you got back here and sliced it all up in the kitchen before I could even get out of bed, which…"
"Impressive?"
She giggled. "Sure, that. I was planning on saying very sweet, though. It was thoughtful."
Chuck craned his neck to smile warmly at her. "Well all of that brought me to this very moment, so it was worth it. And then some."
That one hit her right in the chest. She smiled softly at him. "There you go saying the right thing again."
He had a sparkle in his eye then, and it was almost as quickly replaced by both questioning and unsureness. "Hey, uh, if I prop this bowl of fruit on my chest to give you easier access to it—the fruit, not my chest, that was weird—would you be okay with me resting my head on your lap?"
Sarah smiled big, but didn't show her teeth. She felt shyness creeping up as she blushed a little. And then she nodded and sat up a bit more as Chuck crawled over, grabbing the bowl, draping himself perpendicular to her position, his legs hanging over the edge, and gently easing his head onto her lap.
She only had her underwear on, so his soft, delicious curls laid directly on the skin of her upper thighs, giving her good chills. "Better?" she asked once he settled the bowl of fruit on his bare chest.
"Oh yeah. Less of a choking hazard when I eat lying down if I've got a pillow." He brought his hand up and felt in the bowl for more fruit, slipping his fingers around a piece of strawberry and carefully inserting it into his mouth. "Mmm, yep. Experiment conducted. Success."
Giggling, she smiled down at him. "Because you didn't choke?"
"Precisely."
He looked so loose and comfortable, draped over her bed, his long legs flopping over the edge of it, his hair a mess, no shirt, his boxers a bit crooked. And she felt a thread of nerves go through her as she realized she was pretty comfortable like this herself, his head in her lap, his curls tickling her thighs, nobody here but them, nobody even knowing that they were here. Not even Casey.
How did she get here? And with him in particular?
A fortuitous kick of Carina's favorite surfboard in a certain direction.
That was it.
She moved her fingers to his hair and gently pulled a curl away from his head, letting go to watch it bounce back and smiling a little. That was kind of fun so she did it again.
"Hey…"
"Hm."
"Anybody ever tell you your hair is fun to play with?"
"Mmmm no. Come to think of it, nobody has." He shifted his head in her lap and grinned at her. "Why?"
"Because I'm saying it. Right now." She tugged his curl out and let it go again.
"That kind of tickles but I like it at the same time." He gave her a thoughtful look, narrowing his eyes and pursing his lips.
Sarah giggled and began to stroke his hair, loving how silky it felt between her fingers. She could do this forever.
"Can I ask you a question this time?"
She nodded, smiling down at him as he craned his neck to look at her upside down. It felt like something someone much younger than he was would do and it was so cute.
"Did I overstep? Showing up here like this out of the blue without even calling or texting?"
Sarah paused as she thought about his question. Did he? She hadn't even thought about it, really. Because he'd shown up, and she'd wanted him right when she opened the door and saw him standing there with a sheepish look on his face.
But she also realized she'd better speak up before he got the wrong idea and thought she was upset.
"Did it seem like I thought you overstepped when I immediately dragged you into this bedroom?" She raised an eyebrow.
His grin was a little smug. "No. It did not."
"There you go." And then she frowned, something occurring to her. "Wait, how'd you even know where to find me?"
"You told me," he said matter-of-factly with a shrug. "You gave me the floor number."
"I'm not staying on the entire floor. It's only one suite…"
"You said it was the executive suite." She tilted her head in question, and a nasty, slithering feeling worked its way up her spine suddenly.
She recognized it for what it was immediately. Suspicion. And with him, it felt that much worse, after everything. "Yeah but it doesn't say that on the door."
She watched him closely as he sighed, then winced.
"Okay, fine. I'll admit this, but please…please don't kick me out or get mad." She just kept staring at him, her heart thudding against her ribcage. "I snuck around the concierge desk and looked at a map of the floor plan of the hotel they had on their computers, and saw where the executive suite was on this floor." She widened her eyes, the bad feeling slowly dissipating. "I know it was bad and I shouldn't have done it, but nobody was at the desk and the computers were just sitting there, I'm sorry," he rushed out. "That wasn't—"
Chuck stopped when she gently laid a finger over his lips. She felt like shit for having doubted him, but the fact was she was more than just a supermodel who had press chasing after her trying to get the next big scoop on her personal life and romances. She was also a spy. And as much as nobody knew she was a spy besides a handful of superiors and John Casey, that didn't mean people couldn't find out and send operatives in to check her out.
It would be so easy to send someone like Charles Bartowski in, his cover established, so different from the guys she was used to, with an easy smile and charm for days.
But he had these quirks, these imperfections that were so HIM that she couldn't imagine anyone was this good at acting. Not even her, and she was damn good at it. At least on the CIA side of things. She'd heard enough reviews of her performances in her films to know that her acting skills were questionable according to assholes.
"You snuck behind the front desk?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I wanted to surprise you."
Sarah laughed, shaking her head at him. "You could've gotten in some serious trouble if they'd caught you, you know. This is a 5-star hotel not a Motel 6. I'm not ruling out that the FBI might show up to drag you to an underground bunker or something if these guys found you trespassing behind their desk. Ambassadors and shit stay here."
"Oops. Good point. Though I've always wanted to visit an underground bunker. Like a real one."
She cracked up, giving him a weirded out look. "Why?"
"Because I—I don't know," he chuckled, shaking his head, and then he laid it back down in her lap and snuggled cutely. "Just to be in there and plan a clandestine attack on the foes of the United States," he said in an old-fashioned sounding newsreel voice that made her laugh.
The CIA was nothing like what he thought. And apparently he had some thoughts about it, thoughts he probably got from watching movies or TV shows.
And she'd been in an underground bunker built by the CIA before. Hungarian arms dealer Pyotr Balazs had informed to the CIA, to her in particular, on the rest of the guilty party a few years ago in exchange for safety. They'd whisked him away to a secret underground bunker in Wyoming, where she'd been the one to tell him what his life was going to consist of from that point forward. Grey stone walls, passably edible food, a small grainy TV, and a few books in his own language. She was flown in from Los Angeles for the job because she could get by alright speaking and understanding Magyar. That had been why she'd been given the job in the first place.
And now Pyotr Balazs was the only person besides a handful of need-to-knows who knew Sarah Walker the supermodel and actress was also a CIA agent. A spy.
They'd weighed the risk and decided to go for it since there was no way this guy was ever leaving his bunker.
"I don't think you'd like it much," she said quietly.
"What? A bunker?" He gave her a thoughtful look. "I mean, I don't want to live in it. But just to see it? It'd be interesting." He waved his hand through the air above him grandiosely. "A relic of the bygone Cold War Era."
He had no idea about the reality of this job.
She ate another piece of honeydew, licked her fingers, and then draped her hand lightly over his chest and played with the hair there. He was just staring at the ceiling, his eyes so warm and speckled with gold, and she decided he really was handsome.
Sliding her hand up, she traced his hard jaw, then lightly ran her nail over his lips, stroking his chin again. She found herself wanting to know more about him. Anything about him.
Maybe everything about him.
So she hummed quietly, then cupped his jaw in her palm, causing him to turn his head to look up at her. "Tell me something about yourself."
Chuck raised his eyebrows. "You wanna know somethin' about me?"
"Yeah." She gave him a flirtatious smirk and nudged him a bit with her thigh his head was pillowed on. "Hit me with your best shot, nerd."
There was a spark in those eyes of his that made her smirk widen.
"Okay, um… There's a lot of stuff but now that you've put me on the spot, I can't think of a single thing. What the hell?" He blinked in confusion, making her giggle.
"Anything. Doesn't have to be big." She played with one of his curls again.
"Uh, okay. Well." He paused thoughtfully. "Okay, I'm pulling out the big guns. Just warning you. And it's maybe because I really like you and feel like you need to know just how bad I am now before you spend even one more second with me."
She widened her eyes. "Wow. Okay. What is it?"
"When I was 14, I won a statewide Tekken tournament. There. Now it's out there. And you can expel me from the premises if you'd like." He curled himself up in a bit of a ball, sort of a full body wince, and it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen. "Just say go and I'm out of here."
Sarah laughed and shook her head. "What's a Tekken tournament? Is it, like, some kind of sport I've never heard of?"
Chuck's eyes snapped open and he twisted himself onto his side, nearly tipping the scant remainder of fruit pieces still residing in the bowl over onto her bed. He yelped and caught it as she moved to do the same, giving him a chastising look as she snatched it from him and set it safely on the nightstand. "Sorry. I just… A SPORT?" He cracked up. "Really? You really don't know Tekken?"
She shrugged. "Am I supposed to?"
Chuck narrowed his eyes. "Come to think of it, no." He chuckled. "It's a fighting game. A video game. Greatest fighting series ever. Well, it's up there."
"Oh, a video game! That makes sense now. I don't know a damn thing about video games."
He didn't say anything for a while, just staring at her. And then he shook himself when she gave him a questioning look. "I'm just kind of confused. I told you I won a statewide video game tournament and you haven't thrown my shirt and pants at me and told me to get the fuck out."
Sarah gave him her own confused look. "I don't care if you won a video game tournament." She stopped then, wincing. "I didn't mean that in a mean way. I just meant I'm not kicking you out for that. Like, it doesn't upset me."
He chuckled. "I got what you meant. And that's good. That's encouraging."
She gave him a mischievous look then. "Honestly, though, if you planned on dropping something this appalling on me before things got too intense, you probably should've done it the other day up in that garden. Before all of this sex."
Chuck's jaw dropped, and then he chuckled, which turned into a full-blown laugh. "You make a really good point. Timing is everything."
"It is," she giggled. "Good thing I didn't find it all that appalling. Wait. You did that at 14? Was it a kid's tournament or something?"
He shook his head. "Nah. Anybody could enter the tournament. Well, not anybody. I'm sure, like, a 4 year old wouldn't have been allowed. I forged my dad's signature."
She snorted. "That's a pretty amazing reason to forge your parent's signature. A video game tournament. He wouldn't have let you do it if you'd asked him?"
Something came over his face and he shrugged then, a bit jerkily. She watched him curiously as he cleared his throat. "Uh, he was away at the time. But I'm sure he wouldn't have minded signing it if he was there. He probably would've given me one of his encouraging pats on the back and an Aces, Charles! or something along those lines."
The something was gone just as quick and she found she had a lot of questions. She didn't know him well enough to ask and, frankly, she didn't want him asking questions back. She had quite a bit to hide. And she had no intention of revealing any of it, no matter how good this guy was in the sack. Or how much he made her laugh.
"I see. Wait, you played against adults and won?" She raised her eyebrows, impressed, as he nodded. "Wow, there must have been a lot of pissed grown men."
"There were," he said with a smug shrug. "And anyways, that was money I needed."
"Did you buy a bike you'd been eyeing or something?" she asked, her fingers drawing circles on his arm.
"I wish!" He scoffed. "Actually, it was the last push we needed to be able to afford a car."
And now she had even more questions. He said it so matter-of-factly, but she had a feeling there was so much more to it. Why was a 14 year old boy winning video game tournaments and using his winnings to help his family buy a car? And how did he go from that to where he was now?
"What?"
She shook herself and looked down at him as he stared at her with a small smile on his face. "Hm?"
"You looked super thoughtful for a second," he answered.
"Oh. No, I-I was just…picturing what 14 year old you must've looked like."
Chuck snickered. "Well, I hadn't hit my growth spurt yet, so much smaller. 10th grade was such a good year for me."
She rolled her eyes at him, then tugged at one of his curls. "Did you have these?"
"Yep. But longer. Messier."
"Hmm, I like how that sounds."
"Uh, are you hitting on 14 year old me, Sarah?"
She cracked up and shoved at his shoulder. "Ew! Although, 14 year old Sarah Walker might've crushed."
This time he cracked up and she gave him a bit of a pout. "Sorry," he said, thrusting a placating hand out towards her and squeezing her wrist. "It's just… No, trust me, you wouldn't have. At all."
"You don't know that."
"Uh, I do. I always had my head in a comic book. Literally buried in a comic book because it was a good way to cover up the acne. My clothes never fit me because I was growing weirdly, like in fits and starts. It was bad."
Sarah was this close to insisting she didn't look like this when she was 14, but the fact was, she was already getting modeling gigs at 14. She'd had good times when she'd been more popular with her classmates, and bad times when she'd been the brunt of mocking and derision, whispering as she passed in the hallways. It had trained her to cut herself off from people altogether, and she'd finished high school with very few people she could talk to.
But the problems he'd just talked about weren't something she could relate to.
And she wouldn't try to lie to him about that.
Instead she just shrugged. "Maybe that wasn't something I would've minded back then. I imagine you were sweet then just like you are now. After all, giving your prize money to your family for a car instead of getting something for yourself? That's the kind of guy I can get behind. Even 14 year old me."
Though she wasn't as sure about that as she sounded. She'd been privileged then, and unlike now, she'd been totally ignorant of her privilege. She'd been sort of stupid back then too. And she'd crushed on crappy 16 year old boys who treated others like shit. So maybe Chuck wouldn't have been on her radar. And that would've been her loss.
He pushed himself up to his elbow then, next to her hip, his torso draped over her lap, and he dropped his head into his palm. "Okay, tell me something about you now, Sarah Walker."
"Gardenias." She'd had this one in her pocket since she'd first asked him to tell her something about himself, knowing he'd return the favor, and knowing she'd need an answer for him. One that wouldn't be hard to talk about, that wouldn't reveal too much about her or open the door for him to seek answers about more personal aspects of her life. He furrowed his brow in question. "My favorite flower. I love gardenias. I know they're super simplistic and, like, not as pretty maybe. But there's just something about them that makes me feel good when I look at them. And the scent is so nice too. Not too strong, not too sweet, just comforting."
Chuck just watched her quietly, a smile spreading slowly over his face. She blushed a little as his silent stare lasted longer than made her comfortable. "Sorry," he said, obviously recognizing that he was staring. "I just like you."
Sarah felt how shy her immediate smile was as she ducked her head. "You sure you're not just saying that to get in good with me because I have connections in the modeling industry?"
His laughter galvanized her and filled her with warmth, both at the same time. "You got me. I'm really talented in front of a camera. If you could just put in a good word and tell them that. I have the perfect model look for it." He pursed his lips seriously and began to wiggle his eyebrows. "See that?" She burst into laughter. "I'm a natural. I keep telling people but they don't listen."
"Oh, yeah. That's the stuff," she teased, making him break character and laugh with her.
He beamed up at her and scooted closer to her so that he could prop his chin against her abdomen and peer up into her face. Her hands landed on his shoulders and she squeezed. She was acutely aware of his thumb drawing a delicious pattern against her bare hipbone. His grin died a little then, and he furrowed his brow. "Actually, um, I don't mean to sound like I'm trivializing your job. You provide an important service to, um…"
God he was trying so hard to figure out how to end that sentence without saying the only thing he could really say to make the sentence make sense. She pitied him and thought he was adorable all at once.
"People who want to look at my face and body?" she finished for him, smiling good-naturedly.
"No, you…sell products. You sell clothes and products and that's… our economy! You know? That GDP is very important. Gotta get it up." She widened her eyes and he blushed. "The…GDP."
Giggling, she pushed her hand through his hair. "It's sweet you're trying to build my job up to be as important and heroic sounding as possible but it isn't at all. I understand that completely and I always have. Which is why I try to do the best I can to make up for it in realms that exist…outside of the modeling and entertainment industries."
"Your philanthropy," he said, his voice warm and his eyes soft. "I still think about that speech you gave a few weeks ago."
She raised her eyebrows. "Do you?"
"Mmhmm."
He was so good at making her feel good. And she wondered if he knew the extent of it. The way he seemed to respect and admire her for her, the way he listened and paid attention. He felt so solid and real, and he made her feel solid and real.
"I wanna know something else," she said quietly, stroking her fingers down the side of his face. "Tell me something else."
"Uuuuuhhh, elephants can't jump."
She laughed. "I meant about you!" Then she paused. "Wait, they really can't?"
"Nope."
"Huh." She didn't know that. And then she got back to the subject at hand. "About you," she emphasized again. "It doesn't have to be as impressive as whooping a bunch of adult men at video games when you were 14, though." She gave him a flirty look.
"It boggles my mind that you think that's impressive. Wait. Unless you're being sarcastic…" He looked at her dubiously.
"I'm not," she laughed. "It is impressive."
"Mhm," he muttered while giving her side eye. "There's also this." He held up his right hand where she could see it.
Her heart stopped for a second, and then she realized it was his right hand, not his left, and he had no rings on any of his fingers. "Oh my God, you held up your hand like that and for a second I thought you were trying to show me a wedding ring or something and I was going to be so pissed off."
"What! No!"
But she was laughing already, relief pooling through her. She was too distracted by him sitting up in a panic to think about why she'd felt so much immediate fright and hurt when she stupidly thought he might be married. And that meant she was also too distracted to be unsettled by how bad it had felt for that split second.
"I'm-I'm not married! No, no, no. No, no."
"I know," she laughed, grabbing his forearm reassuringly. "I just thought that was what you were doing for a second, which is stupid, I know. You held up your right hand anyways." And then she gave him a teasing glare and grabbed his left hand as if to inspect that one for a ring.
"I'm not married!" he exclaimed, chuckling with her finally, the wide-eyed panic gone now. "Come on, I know you don't really know me all that well yet, but do I seem like the kind of guy who would do that?"
"No, you don't," she said, smiling at him. "It was just a moment of panic. Ignore me." She took his right hand then and held it in both of hers. "Go ahead and tell me what you were going to tell me. Sorry I let myself think you were a philanderer for half a second. That was my bad."
He chuckled. "It's okay. I was showing you my hand because you see that on my middle finger?" He pointed to a light scar on his finger from the knuckle to the middle. She could only really see it now because he was pointing to it. She nodded. "It's a scar from surgery. I broke my finger right there. Snapped the bone."
"Oh God! Ouch! How'd you do that?"
Chuck winced. "The one and only time I ever hit someone."
She met his gaze and raised her eyebrows. "Seriously?"
"Yeah. I absolutely failed at it, hence the broken bone. You could say that experience made me a, um, big giant pacifist."
Sarah giggled. "They must've had a jaw made of steel."
"No, I just had no idea how to hit and I swung at him in fury and it went pop." He grimaced. "Or more like CRACK."
She pulled air in through her teeth. "I'm sorry. That must have hurt like a bitch."
"Exactly like a bitch. The worst bitch." She laughed. "And at the end of the day, totally not worth it. Because I was in so much pain and so much trouble that I didn't even get any kind of satisfaction from the response of the asshole I hit. I think I still hurt him a little bit. Busted his lip. But still not worth it. Vowed not to do that again." He shook his head.
"Why'd you hit the asshole?" she asked.
"See, and because I had my hand in a cast for so long, I couldn't write, and I taught myself how to write with my left hand. So I'm ambidextrous now. How cool is that?"
Had he meant to ignore her question, or was he just finishing his thought? She bit her lip and watched him closely. "…Why'd you hit him?"
"Oh. Um…" Chuck shrugged, and she wondered if he actually had ignored the question on purpose. "I was used to getting bullied. Kind of became immune to it when it was about the nerdy stuff, you know? The typical stuff kids bully other kids about. But he made a crack about my, um, family. And it seriously pissed me off. Like…I saw red. And I just swung around and BAM."
Sarah made a face, then pouted. "You mean… and crack?"
"And crack, yep. I was a senior in high school. It was dumb. Typical dumb boy stuff."
"I dunno, if you were sticking up for your family, I can't blame you that much." She closed her hands over his and squeezed. "That's kind of a trigger for everybody, isn't it? Somebody shit talking your family."
"Definitely."
"Cool you can write with both hands though. Silver lining?"
"I mean, sure. Or I shouldn't have been such a macho asshole and lashed out to hit him with absolutely no strategy and no expertise except for watching a bunch of kung fu movies with my best friend growing up. I mean, when I tell you it hurt, it was excruciating."
"Awwww." She lifted his hand to her face and pressed a soft, warm kiss to the scar, lifting her blue eyes to his brown ones. And then she froze.
She felt it immediately. The air had shifted between them. And she knew why. That had been a very intimate thing for her to do. It wasn't purely physical like the sex they'd had when he first showed up. She'd kissed his finger so calmly and naturally, without thinking twice about it.
Sarah was sure Chuck had felt it too, recognized it, and now wasn't sure how to react either. They were in limbo.
At least they were there together?
Oh God.
Blushing, she almost said something, what she didn't know, but he cut her off, leaning in to press his lips against hers.
The kiss was soft at first, making something flutter in her chest. But then a primitive need awoke inside of her and she wanted nothing more than to feel him against her again. She kissed him back hard.
Her arms wound around his shoulders and yanked him in so that his weight clashed into her chest and he giggled into her kiss. Both of them grinning, they kept kissing, hands wandering. And then she slumped down more against the pillows, laying down more than sitting, and his hips were lined up with hers.
She threw her head back with a gasp as he rocked himself down against her, and that gave him access to her neck.
Sarah wanted him, her whole body ached for him. The ache was in places she hadn't even realized existed as he slipped his hand under the cup of her bra and squeezed her breast.
"Hnnng! Chuck!" she whimpered into his lips, arching herself up against him wantonly.
As good as this felt though, she felt him between her legs, which felt even better, she also noticed that he wasn't fully erect yet, so she helpfully slipped her hand down the front of his boxers, curling her fingers around him. He let out a strangled gasp and froze above her, his body going rigid, and she began to twist her hand slowly, pumping up and down his shaft.
His thumb swiped over her hard nipple and she hummed, tilting her chin so that she could catch his lips in a passionate, open-mouthed kiss. And she clamped her teeth down on his bottom lip then, pulling back and letting it slip away, snapping back against his own teeth.
He gave her an electric look, his jaw clenching, and he dove in again, kissing her hungrily, rolling her nipple between his fingers and driving her absolutely mad.
He was starting to get a lot harder under her hand as she kept pumping him in her fist, and she felt him slip his hand out from under her bra to start to tug at the waistline of her panties desperately.
But then she heard something distantly…
And he must've heard it too because he paused, his body tensing.
Their lips made a smacking sound as they came apart and he blinked his eyes open, looking down at her.
She knew what it was. "My, um, my phone," she panted.
"Oh! Oh, um, you can take it."
"Okay. Uh. Yeah. I-I will." But she was still underneath him, taking deep breaths, her nose brushing his, and her hand still buried down his boxers. Shivering with need.
"Are you…?"
"Oh!" She let go of him and gently but quickly pulled her hand out, blushing, darting her eyes to the side as he rolled off of her and let her get up. "I'm s-sorry. Sorry, it might be…"
"It's okay, I'm good."
"Okay." She gulped, still feeling shaky, her insides quivering with lust. "Um, thanks. …Where's my phone?" She spun on her heel where she stood next to the bed.
"It…" He sat up, breathing hard, and he spun where he was sitting, his movements jerky. At least she wasn't alone in feeling discombobulated. He blinked.
She heard it in the other room. "Oh, it's out there. I'll be right back."
"Sure, sure yeah. Take-Take your time. I'm…good here."
Sarah retreated awkwardly as he flopped onto the bed and just stared at the ceiling in awe, and then she left him behind. Her phone had since stopped ringing she took so long.
And now that her head was a little bit more on her shoulders, she realized that could be Casey calling about some sort of emergency mission they had to go on. She'd be so pissed off. They told her she'd get some R&R. She'd fucking earned this.
She was already angry as she snatched her phone and looked at it.
But it wasn't Casey. It was Carina.
Relief flooded through her. And in spite of knowing it probably wasn't going to be anything important, she still called her back. It was her best friend after all.
Carina picked up after the 3rd ring.
"The hell? You don't pick up when I call you? How dare you?" the redhead teased.
"I'm sorry I'm not at your beck and call," she teased back, turning to lean against the table where she'd left her cell phone. "What's up?"
"Did I interrupt a shoot or something?"
"You interrupted nothing at all," she said quietly, hoping Chuck didn't hear that. "I just couldn't get to my phone in time. It, um, it was in the other room and…and I was in the tub."
Sorry Chuck, she thought to herself.
"Oh. Oops, sorry."
"It's okay," Sarah chuckled. "I haven't talked to you in a while, so this is weirdly nice."
"Ew, okay, well don't get all chummy on me. Gross." Sarah laughed. "Listen, I might need a favor from you actually. If you're up for it." She rushed on before Sarah could interrupt. "I know you hate the whole blind date thing but what if the date was Ben Harkness, as in A-Lister Ben Harkness who just starred in War of Tomes? He's very eager to meet you and I'm on set with him and his good friend Louis O'Brien. I was thinking the four of us could get drinks at Stiletto's downtown. You could do worse than being seen out and about with Ben Harkness," Carina hissed into the phone as if she was around people and didn't want them to hear.
"Hate to do this to you but I'm out of town."
"You're what? Oh, come on! How far out of town?"
"Like, across the country," she giggled. "Anyway, you're right. I'm not stoked about the idea of a blind date, even with Ben Harkness. Also…War of Tomes? Red, did you even see that? It was full of plot holes. No character growth. And that guy's face doesn't move."
"Okay, well that's rude, it—Oh. It kind of doesn't. You're right. Well that's not his fault!"
Sarah laughed. "Look, he is hot. And I appreciate the invitation."
"It was kind of his idea, I'm not gonna lie. Man found out we're best friends and he asked about you. Pretty eagerly."
Raising her eyebrows, she tilted her head. "Well, that's interesting." And maybe a few months ago, if she was in LA, she would've agreed. It wouldn't do any harm. It'd be fun, most likely. Even if the tabloids made a meal of it. It might even give both of them a bit of a needed publicity boost.
"Interesting enough for you to fly over here right now and make this A-Lister a very happy man?"
"Uuuhhhh, no." She thought of Chuck Bartowski trying to calm his breathing in the other room and she grinned hard. "I'm afraid I'm not that interested."
"But can I give him your number?"
"Please no!" she said quickly.
"Okay, okay, sheesh! I won't! Yikes, Blondie."
"Sorry," she said, wincing. "You just…know how careful I am about giving my number out. Paranoid even." She turned towards the window and stared out at the late-morning NYC skyline. "I'm not really in the right frame of mind for a phone call from an A-Lister. Kind of a lot of pressure and I'm not interested enough for it to be worth it. But thank you for inviting me anyway, Red. Seriously."
"I can't believe you're passing up on THE Ben Harkness. 99% of the world would hop on this chance."
"Well, maybe THE Ben Harkness doesn't do anything for me." She turned away from the window and saw Chuck standing in the kitchen, a glass of water half raised to his lips. How hadn't she heard him come in? Crap.
He mouthed 'Ben Harkness' at her, his eyes wide. She shook her head at him, glaring a bit.
"I don't know where in the hell you'll find better, kid. He's hot and actually not totally full of himself. He's down to earth."
"That's what everyone says about these actors, and at the end of the day, they're not as down to earth as all that. And trust me, I'm sure I can find better somewhere." She kept her gaze on Chuck as he drank an entire glass of water and let out an adorable "ahhhhh".
"Sure, Sar. Whatever you say. Fine, I'll tell Ben. I'll try to let him down easy."
"You do that, Red." She pushed herself off from the table and smiled at Chuck. "Have a good night anyway. Love ya. Ta."
"Bye, girlie."
Sarah hung up the phone and set it back on the table, but not before turning the sound off. Let Casey bang on the door if he had to but she wasn't answering her phone anymore.
Chuck cleared his throat. "S-Sorry, I was on the bed waiting and I got really thirsty. Er, for water. And I decided hydrating was important. I didn't mean to hear your conversation. That—That wasn't, um, my, um, intention."
She smirked and joined him in the kitchen, folding her hands behind her back. She caught his gaze wandering down her figure as she only wore her bra and panties. And she let him, especially since he snapped his eyes right back up to her face as if aware he'd been staring.
"It's okay. It wasn't anything private. Just my best friend calling to say hi. Haven't seen her in a few weeks."
"What, um, I mean, I wasn't listening. I wasn't TRYING to listen, but I heard you say something about Ben Harkness?"
Curious to see his reaction, she opted with the truth, even as she'd lied blatantly to Carina about being here with a man, something else she'd have to think about, but later.
"My friend wanted me to go on a double date tonight, that's all."
"W-With Ben Harkness?"
"Mhm." She nodded innocently.
"A…a double date with THE Ben Harkness?"
"Yes. Him."
"War of Tomes Ben Harkness?"
"Yes."
She watched as his face went blank, and she gently plucked the empty glass from his hand before it slipped out of his fingers and crashed to the floor. She really didn't want to have to pick up glass right now, especially not with both of them having bare feet.
And then she stepped in close, carefully putting the glass on the counter, before looking up into his face. "Are you…okay?"
"You…and…on a double date with Ben Harkness?"
"Yeah. Obviously I'm on the other side of the country right now so it didn't work out." And then she realized how that sounded and winced. "I-I mean, that isn't the only reason."
"Was he…was he on the phone? I-I mean, was he on the other side of the phone call? Did HE ask you?"
Sarah shook her head, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from showing too much amusement. It was obvious Chuck knew Ben Harkness, and that he'd seen War of Tomes, and was maybe even a fan. "No, no. That was my best friend. Carina. She's in the modeling industry too. She's having a thing with Ben's friend Louis O'B—"
"O'Brien?" he asked so sharply she jumped. "Holy SHIT buckets, really? Your best friend is dating Louis O'Brien!"
"She, um, she's sort of… I dunno, I think it's mostly casual, but still."
"Oh my God. This is… You aren't, like, pulling my leg, are you? You're really good at teasing me." He gave her a dubious look.
"No, I'm serious," she giggled. "It's not that big of a deal anyways, she said he found out I'm her best friend and he asked if she could invite me out with them so that he could meet me."
Chuck clasped his hands over his curls. "Ben Harkness. And Louis O'Brien. Sarah, this is crazy. Do you know who those guys—Sorry, of course you know, I'm an idiot." She chuckled at the way he was unraveling right in front of her. "I'm losing my mind. I-I apologize. I'm being a lot. Too much."
"You're fine," she giggled, squeezing his hand as it flopped back to his side after he pushed his fingers through his curls.
"Not at all. Sarah, you just got invited on a double date with Louis O'Brien and Ben Harkness, and here I am standing in this kitchen in my dumb faded boxers. It's blowing my mind."
Furrowing her brow, she tilted her head. "I don't think your boxers are dumb, first of all, and secondly, you really didn't know who I was but you know Ben Harkness and Louis O'Brien, great. That's great. Who are you?" she teased, giving the hem of his boxers a little tug.
"War of Tomes! And Louis successfully made the transition from rock musician to actor without falling into, like, tropish roles. He's an icon and he's only in his 30s. I-I actually feel really bad. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have—"
Sarah burst into laughter, shaking her head. And then she grabbed his arms reassuringly. "Chuck, it's okay. I'm not mad. War of Tomes made, like, almost a billion at the box office. Harkness is a big deal, especially for nerds I guess." She raised an eyebrow. "I should've offered up my spot on the plane Carina tried to get me to take to you so that you could take my place on that double date."
"I wouldn't say no!"
Her jaw fell open and she laughed harder. His face cracked into a smile.
"Too bad you're in New York, huh?" he asked quietly then. "You could be going out on a date with THE Ben Harkness instead of standing in this admittedly very nice hotel suite kitchen being geeked out at by a…well, a geek."
"Nerd," she corrected primly. He raised his eyebrows. "Isn't your company called Nerd Tech Inc? You aren't a geek, you're a nerd. And actually, I'll take this kitchen in this suite over getting ready for a date with Ben Harkness. I need a break from all of that, and also, it's kind of hard to think about going out on a date with some other guy right now considering I'm here with you."
Chuck made a face like he couldn't believe his ears. "Sarah, Ben Harkness. He's been People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive, like, 15 times and he's barely 35. And he asked to meet you. Like, I don't blame him at all, 'cause y-you're you."
"And? I'm not People Magazine. And I'm not trying to sound like an immodest jerk or anything but at this point the only person I'd lose my mind over meeting would be Princess Diana, which isn't gonna happen for obvious reasons, and Munroe Freemont." When he looked confused at that, she didn't blame him at all. "He's the greatest fashion photographer ever. Ever ever ever. And having a shoot with him, seeing pictures he took of me in magazines, I'd just…explode." She shook herself. "That doesn't matter. What matters is that I said no."
"Right, you're across the country."
"That, sure, but it's also that you're here." She took a deep breath as she realized what she'd just said. "You're here, Chuck." She shrugged shyly. "Anyways, I wasn't interested. I'm NOT interested."
He looked unsure about what he was going to say, but then spoke anyways. "Because…of me?"
"Sure, that's part of it. But I'm also just…not interested."
He grinned at her, shaking his head in awe. "You're truly…something else. Letting Ben Harkness go, Ben Harkness, because you're just not interested. I mean, are you hearing your life at all?"
She shrugged coyly. And then she slipped her hands around his hips and pressed her chest into his. "You know, before Carina called, we were…"
"Oh." And then his eyes widened as he figured out what she didn't say. "Oh! Oh, right! That! We were! Are yoooou saying we should, ahem, try it again?"
"For science," she said with a cute shrug.
"For science," he repeated, a slow grin that set her on fire right between her legs making itself know on his face.
Sarah found herself laughing as he hugged her tight around her lower back and lifted her feet off of the ground. And she laughed even harder when he ran to the bedroom.
THE Ben Harkness didn't stand a chance. Please review. Thanks!
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