Deja Vu (DCAU)
Diana hummed softly to herself as she rode the elevator to the top floor of the hotel, watching each consecutive floor number as they lit up. She swore she could still feel the pounding beat of the music from the nightclub pulsating in her ears and thumping in her chest. She had to admit that it had been a fun evening even if Audrey couldn't be there to join her.
The elevator doors finally parted when she reached the top floor, allowing the Amazon Princess to exit. A smile graced her face as she made her way to her hotel room, her mind suddenly whirling with memories of a similar situation to this one. It had been two years ago in this very same hotel. Little had changed since then except her hotel room number…unfortunately.
It had been the occasion when she had solved the mystery of the fearsome Batman's identity. He had vehemently denied it for weeks and even months after, but he had eventually given up altogether. She had yet to let him live it down that she had unraveled the secret all by herself, knowing that it annoyed him greatly. Getting under his cowl was a highlight for her mostly because he was equally good at giving it right back to her.
They had shared quite the adventure together, one that had started out with an extravagant gala that had quickly turned into a dire mission. They had ended up saving Princess Audrey and stopping Vandal Savage. Now that she thought about it, Bruce still owed her a dance. She'd tried to get him to take her dancing a couple of times, but he always managed to wiggle his way out of it.
Reaching her room, Diana inserted her key card and opened the door, closing it behind her. She began to hum to herself once more as she paused to remove her high heels, tossing them to the floor. Reaching behind her, she felt for the zipper of her dress as one of the straps slid off her shoulder.
"Are you going to let me completely undress before revealing your presence?" Diana asked, pausing in her task to look at the man sitting in a side chair in the safety of the shadows.
It was déjà vu.
"I wanted to see how far you would go before you actually stopped," he responded with that throaty rasp that was like fingernails raking up her spine. There was a definite rough quality to his voice this time.
Diana chuckled as she gathered up her raven locks and pulled them aside, turning to offer her back to him. "A little help?"
She caught the barest of hitches in his breathing and the smallest of pauses in his step before his gauntleted hands were touching her skin. His breath was hot against the back of her neck as he slowly lowered the zipper of her dress for her, the red material giving way from her body and revealing the expanse of her back. They both knew that she was more than capable of doing this herself, but neither was about to voice that knowledge in that particular moment.
"I think your skills are slipping," he huskily breathed near her ear, pausing to inhale her Jasmine scent as his hands brushed against her bottom. "I don't think you knew I was here until you began to undress."
"I knew you were here the second I opened the door," she revealed, holding the front of her dress against her breasts as she turned to face him with an impish expression gracing her face.
His breath caught in his throat to find himself standing inches away from her like this, Diana barely clothed and her hair draped over one shoulder. He swallowed hard as he attempted to tamp down on his desire for her. He was here for business, not pleasure. Unfortunately, she was making it damn near impossible to focus on anything but her at that moment
"If you say so," he stated, brushing it off.
"What do you want, Bruce?" she asked, walking to her closet, and sliding the door open.
Bruce turned around just as her red dress hit the floor, catching only the scantest of glimpses of her perfect form. It was growing incredibly warm in here, making him wonder if Diana had turned up the heat when he wasn't looking.
"I want to know what you're doing here," he growled a little more fiercely than he'd intended, forcing him to clear his throat in an effort to hide how she was affecting him.
"Why do you care?" she demanded to know, pulling out a navy-blue piece of lingerie and slipping it on over her head. She turned around to find his back to her. She chuckled softly. "I never took the famous billionaire playboy for such a prude. What happened to your bedhopping reputation?"
"I'm not a prude," he insisted, turning back around to face. He steeled himself against the swelling emotions inside of him with the sight of her in lingerie. He thought for sure his heart was going to pound out of his chest and she knew it. "I was being respectful of a teammate."
"Oh, come off it, Bruce," she uttered with a roll of her eyes, her frustration more than evident. She ran her fingers through her thick hair as she walked past him to her bed. "We both know what you want, but you won't let yourself have it. Now, why are you here?"
Bruce was slightly stunned by her assertiveness but knew that he shouldn't be. This was Diana after all. She always had a way of keeping him on his toes and feeling exposed. He wasn't about to let her do that to him this time. It was too dangerous, especially in this particular situation.
"I'm here to follow up on a stolen shipment of military-grade weapons," he informed her, folding his arms against his chest in an intimidating pose as if he was speaking with a suspect.
"Funny," she replied, reaching for her bottle of lotion on top of the bedside table. "That's why I'm here."
"You are?" he questioned her, taken aback by her revelation.
"Remove the cowl and we'll chat," she offered, pausing to pat the bed next to her.
She rubbed the lotion between her hands before reaching down to apply it to her long legs. Batman stood there frozen like a statue of solid ice as he watched her rub the lotion into her skin. He found himself aching to touch her, to feel every inch of perfection that he knew she would be.
"Diana, you know that's not a good idea," he ventured, deciding his words sounded forced.
"I don't bite, Bruce," she told him, smoothing the lotion over her arm. Her lips curled into a smile as she gazed directly at him. "Unless you want me to."
He found himself removing his cowl and gauntlets against his better judgement, tossing them onto a nearby desk. If she wanted to tangle with the master, then he was ready to play the game. She thought she knew him…knew who she was dealing with, but she had no idea.
"Fine," he relented, telling himself he was only doing this to get the information he needed for his case. "What do you know?"
Diana sighed in exasperation. She had been able to chisel some knicks and cracks in his impenetrable wall that surrounded his heart over the years, but it had been tedious and painstaking work. Still, she wasn't about to give up on him. She cared about him too much to give up…even loved him.
"Audrey contacted me the other day," Diana told him with a sigh, pulling her legs up onto the bed and tucking them beneath her. "She was concerned that her director of security had been dealing in illegal arms on the side. She feared that it would bring shame and disgrace to her country and her reign. She asked me to look into it to see what I could find out."
Bruce rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he sat down on the edge of the bed near her, contemplating this revelation. He was sitting near enough to her that he could reach out and touch her if he wanted to and oh, how he wanted to. He wanted to do so much more than just touch her, though.
That was the dilemma and had been for the last four years.
"I had it narrowed down to three individuals who were part of Audrey's circle of influence. You just narrowed it down even further for me."
"How did you get involved?" she asked.
"There's a gangster in Gotham that was the middleman in arranging the heist of the military-grade weapons," Bruce informed her. "I have a feeling he's in deep with Audrey's head of security. I think they're going to make Gotham their base for their stolen arms ring."
"Just because there's a middleman in Gotham doesn't mean they're going to set up their base in Gotham," she said. "I mean Audrey's head of security is in Kasnia. It's a pretty far trip from Kasnia to Gotham."
"Still, I can't rule it out as a possibility," he told her. "What did you find out at the nightclub?"
"I saw her head of security there," she revealed, grabbing her cell phone. "His name is Hadi. He met with three other men that I didn't know, but I have pictures."
"Let me see," he said, holding his hand out to her. "I may know them."
She shifted her position to sit right next to him on the edge of the bed as she pulled up the pictures on her cell phone. She handed him her phone, leaning against his shoulder to look at them with him. With a little luck, they might be able to shut this ring down in a couple of days.
Bruce did his best to focus on the pictures and not the fact that Diana was pressed against his side, her long hair falling onto his shoulder. Flipping through the pictures, he had to admit that she did a really good reconnaissance job. He right away identified the gangster from Gotham that he'd been trailing. He didn't know the identities of the other two men, but he would have it figured out by morning.
"How did you know I was here in Paris at this hotel?" she asked him.
Bruce looked away from her, knowing that he'd been caught. She wasn't going to let it go with some flippant, offhanded comment from him. He was sunk and he knew it. He could evade the question for as long as possible or try to…
"Bruce," she sharply said, taking her cell phone from him and setting it aside on the bedside table. "How did you know I was in Paris?"
His jaw visibly clenched as he finally met her intent gaze. "I always know where you're at, princess," he softly confessed, feeling cornered and uncomfortable.
"Why?" she pressed, hoping to finally break through his defenses. "Do you do this with any of our other teammates?"
"No," he quickly denied.
"Then, why me?" she demanded to know, her anger rising at a rapid rate. "Don't you think I'm capable of taking care of myself?"
"Diana, don't!" he snapped, leaping to his feet to begin pacing. "Just leave it alone."
"No, Bruce," she countered, getting off the bed and going to him. She made him turn around to face her. "Why do you keep track of my location? Don't you have any faith in me?"
With a growl in his throat, Bruce suddenly grabbed her by the arms and kissed her hard, effectively silencing her. It was her turn to be caught off guard, but she readily reacted to the forceful heat of his kiss. Her arms wrapped around him, drawing him closer to her. She'd wanted an actual answer from him and while this wasn't what she had expected, she wasn't about to let him withdraw from her back into the shadows now.
She pulled back just enough to catch her breath, her mouth just millimeters from his. "So…that's why," she whispered.
He tightened his hold on her arms, not wanting to let her go and yet not certain he could admit these feelings he'd held for her for so long. He'd been trying to run from them for the last four years. Now, there was no more running, only facing them…facing her.
"Now what?" he murmured.
She caressed his cheek as she gazed into his eyes, wanting him and yet still needing answers. "If you don't want to be with me, this is your chance to leave," she sternly told him. "But if you want me, you will have all of me forever."
Bruce answered her with an almost bruising kiss, stealing her breath as he began to remove his uniform. His desperation to love her was running rampant throughout his body, taking complete control of him. It didn't take long before the last piece of his uniform was joining his boots and utility belt on the floor, her lingerie following.
They exchanged passionate kisses as he backed her up to the waiting bed, both tumbling into it. His hands slid up her torso and over her arms, his fingers intertwining with hers as he kissed her senseless. He settled his body between her long legs, trapping her arms against the mattress.
He kissed along her neck, savoring every single second of this intimate contact with her. He'd dreamed of this with her for so long and now it was becoming a sweet reality. He took his time as he kissed down the length of her body, exploring and memorizing every inch of her body.
Diana sighed as he kissed her ankle, his hand stroking her thigh as he gradually began to work his way back up. She instinctively reached for him, her fingers wrapping around strands of jet-black hair as he built her pleasure higher and higher. Fireworks began to explode behind her eyes as she arched her back.
She gasped with overwhelming pleasure as he finally pierced her, giving her all of him…giving them what they had both wanted for a long time. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he made love to her, finally rolling him onto his back and taking full control.
Bruce found himself staring up at an absolute goddess, her raven hair tumbling down her spine as she threw her head back with a throaty moan of bliss that only turned him on even more. She'd never known such intense ecstasy before this as he swelled even further deep inside of her. She never wanted this to end and yet she could feel that end rapidly approaching all too soon.
She began to move at a frantic pace, unable to hold back any longer as she came with a cry. He quickly followed her with a drawn-out groan of her name. His breathing was erratic as he sat up, kissing her roughly as he flipped her onto her back.
He was nowhere near done with her yet as he stroked her side, his tongue thoroughly exploring the sweet hollow of her mouth. He could tell that she felt the same way as she ran her fingernails over his back, his name a breathless plea on her lips.
He kissed along her clavicle, pausing as Diana began to laugh. "What is it?" he asked, giving her a curious look.
"I was just thinking earlier about how this was like déjà vu," she explained, gazing up into his eyes. "But this is much better than the last time I found you in my hotel room."
The corner of his lips curled into a smirk. "You don't know how badly I wanted to ravish you that night," he revealed. "You looked so sexy in that red dress and heels."
"Why didn't you do something about it?"
A sheepish look crossed his face as a sigh escaped. "I didn't want to give away my secret identity," he replied. "Come to find out you had figured it out on your own."
Diana grinned up at him. "I'm glad you can finally admit it after all this time," she said. "You know you still owe me that dance."
Bruce shook his head in amusement. "Later," he murmured. "I have other things I'd rather do with you right now."
"And then we go after the arms dealers."
"Exactly," he readily agreed, tilting his head to silence her with his mouth.
He wasn't about to let her leave this bed until morning. He already knew that the arms dealers were meeting at the nightclub again tonight, making it the perfect time to finally take them down. In the meantime, he was going to do what he should have done two years ago—just love her.