A/N: Rating changed! You'll likely find that out right away...

L.W.L.W.L.W.

Lexa clutched the sheets tightly, squeezing her eyes shut. Her breathing rapid, she arched off the bed as a tender hand drew figure eight patterns around her breasts. She bit her lip but was unable to suppress a moan when the hand brushed lightly over a sensitive nipple. She was pressed down onto the mattress as a warm weight settled above her and soft lips captured her own in a delicate but searing kiss.

She brought her hand up to tangle in silky hair and wrapped the other arm around a strong back, running a hand up and down the straight spine as the lips trailed down her jaw, sucked at her neck, and traced her collarbone before capturing a nipple in warm heat. Her hand contracted, nails biting into flesh, as she opened her eyes and looked skyward. She could feel a wandering hand running down her side as the mouth withdrew, blowing slightly at the now exposed bud. Lexa shivered at the sensation, her concentration split between the mouth that was now moving to the other side of her chest and the hand that was teasing closer and closer to where she desperately needed it. Lexa looked down to see electric blue eyes staring directly at her, and at the smirk on the angelic face.

"Ma'am." Lexa was momentarily confused. The tantalizing mouth had shaped the words, but the sensations that the other girl was eliciting were at odds with the tone and phrasing of the request. Now that she thought about it, no one had ever called her ma'am in the bedroom before.

"Hmmm?" She murmured, going with it. Rather than the play on her authority she expected, Lexa was distracted from the sensual ministrations as she was quite harshly jarred in the shoulder.

"What...?" Lexa asked, scrunching a brow in annoyance.

"Ma'am, we're preparing to land, you need to buckle your seatbelt." Lexa's eyes flew open and she groggily focused on the flight attendant staring down at her. Nodding, she reached distractedly for her seatbelt. She felt disconnected with her current situation: her body was on fire, and she could feel the need for release with every fiber of her being. She blinked, trying to calm her racing heart, swallowing thickly and attempting to focus on reality.

"Are you alright, Miss Willows?" The inquiry came from across the aisle- not Indra, who knew not to ask those types of questions, but the new girl whose name was escaping Lexa at the moment. Lexa pulled herself together enough to glare at the girl, taking pride when the girl noticeably gulped. Lexa heard Indra chuckle softly from the seat behind her.

As the plane taxied on the runway, Lexa rather thought that Indra may actually be tempted into full-blown laughter if she figured out that her boss' heart was still racing from the mere beginning of a sex dream about, of all things, the Marine next door.

During the ride to the London satellite office she was visiting, Lexa had managed to calm herself somewhat as she mentally prepared herself for the discussion ahead. She'd been tipped that something in the London branch's annual report was fishy. Lexa was in town to demand answers: she had not informed either her staff in New York or her London associates of her trip.

As Lexa exited the town car with Indra and the new girl (Caris, Lexa reminded herself) behind her, she barely glanced at the building facade before walking quickly and determinedly to the front doors. She took great pleasure in noting the gobsmacked look on the security guards face as she walked by and into the elevator. She saw him reaching for his phone as the door closed, and took the ride to the top floor to school her features into what Anya called her 'mask of stone'. It wasn't a tall building, so when the doors opened Lexa was not greeted but heard a door slam down the hall and hurried footsteps in her direction.

"Ms. Willows!" Came the harried voice of Tristan Seaver. Lexa glanced up at him to see him still shrugging into a blazer, looking startled at her appearance.

"Mr. Seaver." She answered in a measured tone. He looked at her expectantly, as if there were more she was going to offer. He glanced quickly at the two women behind her and shifted his feet, straightening his tie. The silence stretched and Lexa continued to look calmly at him. It was a tactic she'd learned from her father- control the conversation by making the other person fumble and guess. Tristan cleared his throat.

"We weren't expecting you for a visit until next month." The few other offices on the floor were quiet- if Tristan wanted to have this conversation in the open, so be it.

"You must know that we keep an entire staffed department in New York solely to audit and track our worldwide progress and reports?" Gotcha, Lexa thought as Tristan paled immediately.

"Of...of course I...I send my summaries directly to them each month." Lexa could see beads of sweat forming at the crown of his shaved head.

"Not only do they gather all reports, they are responsible for verifying all reports both quarterly and annually with information entered in our accounts department as well as with invoicing." Tristan was silent now, eyes wide and unblinking as his breath started to come in short gasps. Lexa let the silence stretch for a moment, before continuing; "judging by your reaction, I gather that you did not know this purpose of our audit department and did not think that they would notice the nearly $850,000 that you have siphoned into your personal account over the past three months." Tristan's eyes strayed briefly to the elevators before wildly settling on Lexa once more.

"You will stay with Indra and Caris until the police can be summoned to arrest you. I suggest you find a lawyer. I don't much care if they are good or not" She turned from him then, knowing that Indra alone was enough to intimidate the man into staying put. Walking a few steps down the hall, she called, "Mrs. Byrne."

A tall woman wish ash-blonde hair stuck her head out of one of the offices, clearly trying to control her smile. Lexa was unsurprised to see her so quickly after calling out.

"Please call all available department heads to a meeting in twenty minutes time. You will take over immediately as interim chief of staff here until a full panel review of qualifications can be held." Byrne nodded and ducked back into her office. Lexa had no doubt that the woman would be ultimately selected to lead the London office after the panel reviewed all options. Though she had indicated otherwise to Tristan, Byrne had provided the initial tip to her audit department to dig deeper into the London finances. The woman had a strong head for business as well as honed instincts, and Lexa had a personal liking for her that she couldn't say about many people in the London office.

Lexa turned back to see Tristan now slumped against a wall and allowed herself a small smirk in satisfaction. Her trip was going very well.

L.W.L.W.L.W.

Lexa was so busy setting things up for change at the office that she didn't think about much else until she was alone in her hotel room late that night, when the image of Clarke flashed in front of her eyes as soon as she shut off her light. She gasped, feeling her body's immediate response.

Lexa had never felt this intense of an initial attraction in her entire life. Her pulse sped up as she remembered all the sensations from The Dream (because she hadn't had a dream like that for years) and she was suddenly aware of everything her flesh was touching: the starched but soft sheets, the mattress and pillow beneath her, her night clothes. Everything started to burn as she imagined hooded blue eyes staring up at her.

Without thought to her actions, Lexa snaked her own hand down her body to a bundle of nerves that was pulsing in time with her heartbeat. It took very little time before she was arching off the bed in sweet release, imagining Clarke's ministrations throughout. Giving herself a moment, Lexa then drew her hand back up before slowly getting back out from the covers and shuffling to the bathroom.

Flicking the light on, she turned on the tap to wash her hands and glanced into the mirror. Her pupils were still dilated, and there was a thin sheen of sweat over her flushed skin. Her wild hair was loose and tangled, and she still was breathing rapidly. As she left the bathroom to climb into bed once more, she thought, I am so fucked.

L.W.L.W.L.W.

After only two days in London during which she had several (thankfully unnoticeable) concentration lapses in meetings as a result of The Dream and her own subsequent actions, Lexa found herself walking slowly up the steps into her own apartment building. She cautiously opened the door, and after a quick scan to ensure that the object of her recent desire was nowhere in sight, she hustled across the lobby to the elevator.

Miller called out to her as she passed him, and she paused guiltily. Forcing her traitorous body to relax, she composed her face as best she could and turned to the doorman with an arched brow.

"Yes?" Miller was looking at her with a bit more calculation than normal, but brandished a note in his hand.

"Miss Reyes asked me to give this to you." Lexa strode over, leaving her travel bag in the center of the hall. Without looking at it, Lexa took the note and nodded her thanks. Miller smiled at her as he always did and she returned to her march across the lobby. The elevator chose to take it's time arriving, and Lexa had to stop herself from reading the note. Miller would no doubt be watching for her reaction- he was observant, yes, but also incredibly nosy at times- to whatever Raven had written (which he'd undoubtedly read). Thus Lexa endeavored to wait. As soon as she was being lifted up, however, she began to read:

Lexa,

I'm away 'til Sunday. We never talk, but I'd appreciate it if you'd check in on the stubborn ass in my apartment.

-Thx! ;)

Lexa blinked, slightly confused. Before Lexa had eaten dinner with Raven and Clarke, she could only think of a few times she'd exchanged words with her neighbor. Her impression was generally of a scatterbrained yet straightforward individual. Dinner had shown some sense of humor, but Clarke had mostly carried the conversation, so Lexa was taken aback by the 'stubborn ass' comment, as well as the winky face.

Had Raven discovered Lexa's attraction to Clarke based on sheer perception (if so, Lexa needed to surround herself with more people that were oblivious to body language and syntax, rather than hyper aware of such), or had Clarke confided in Raven something about the mild flirting that had happened? Okay, so maybe 'mild' wasn't really the word: Lexa had basically invited Clarke over to her apartment for tension relief on an 'as needed' basis. Or did Raven mean something entirely different?

Lexa was still trying to figure it out when the elevator opened and Clarke was walking blindly down the hallway, fiddling with an iPod, her hair up out of her face and clearly heading out for a run in form-fitting capris and a long-sleeve bright blue running top. Lexa's mouth ran dry, but she had enough sense to quickly stuff the note she'd been staring at into her purse. Clarke looked up just as Lexa removed her hand from the purse.

"Lexa, hey! You're back!"

Lexa felt flustered, and knew her cheeks were turning pink as a result. She gulped and nodded, not trusting her voice. Clarke removed one of her earbuds, and a quiet beat reached Lexa. Clarke was smiling as she walked the few steps to stand in front of Lexa.

"I baked some more. Cookies." Clarke faltered for some reason, glancing away briefly, then went on, "Raven left this morning, so I had way too many. I knocked on your door, but had no idea you were out of town." Lexa opened her mouth to respond, but just then the elevator doors started to close. Clarke and Lexa both reached forward to shove their arms in the gap at the same time and their hands mangled together in an awkward slap/punch. Clarke pulled back and laughed, moving slightly away so Lexa could step fully into the hallway. Clarke's laugh was the infectious kind, and it made Lexa smile widely. For a moment, anyway.

"What is wrong with your face?" The question came from behind Clarke. Lexa hadn't even noticed they were not alone in the hallway, and her eyes fell on Anya leaning on the wall beside her door.

"Anya?" Lexa's brain had to be short circuiting; she couldn't figure out why her friend was there. The three of them stood for a moment before Anya broke the silence.

"You told me to meet you here to get the tickets?" She prompted. Lexa flushed in embarrassment- she felt entirely not herself around Clarke, and it was clear that Anya noticed.

"Well, I'm heading out," Clarke announced, shoving the earbud back in her ear and walking past both Lexa and Anya to the stairs. As she opened the door, she half looked behind her and called, "I'll bring those cookies by later!" Lexa took a deep breath and moved to unlock her door.

"Who was that?" Anya demanded.

"Clarke Griffin, she is staying with my neighbor Raven for a while." She could practically feel Anya's eyes boring into her as she dragged her luggage and threw it into her bedroom to unpack later. Anya was leaning against her kitchen counter with her arms crossed and a slight smirk on her face when Lexa came back out.

"Do I need to check her out?" Lexa's eyes widened immediately: the offer was likely serious, as Anya was a detective for the city.

"No need," Lexa answered quickly, making her way to her office and emerging with the aforementioned tickets- they were her birthday gift for Anya. Handing them over and still seeing doubt in the other woman's face, Lexa went on, "Seriously, that is unnecessary."

Tucking the tickets into an inner coat pocket, Anya pursed her lips. "If you're sure. Not every day I see you smile like that. And she's baking for you?"

"She had extra, you heard her…" The argument was weak, and they both knew it. Anya sighed and straightened, heading for the door.

"Let me know if you change your mind, Lex. You can never tell, and this one is trouble, if only for the irrational way she makes you act." She pulled open the door, and with a quick thanks for the tickets, she was gone.

I am so, so, so fucked. Lexa thought when she was alone once more.

L.W.L.W.L.W.

Clarke did indeed bring cookies by later (chocolate chip), but before the two could exchange more than a few words, Clarke received a phone call that she had to take. She was frowning deeply at the number, but managed a wave goodbye before retreating back to Raven's apartment. Lexa spent an uncharacteristically long time contemplating the cookies, and then contemplating Clarke before heading to bed.

She'd only been asleep for an hour when she was abruptly awoken by broken screaming. Lexa sat bolt upright just as the screams died away. Her face turned toward the wall as she heard a loud thump and then, a moment later, the sound of retching. She was out from her covers and crawling out her window before she had time to reconsider her actions. The cool night air woke her instantly and she hesitated only briefly before moving in front of Clarke's window.

There was a light shining from what she assumed was the bathroom- some sort of low glow indicative of a night light. In the meager illumination, Lexa could make out a tousled bed (empty), a dresser, and a night stand. She bit her lip and knocked sharply on the window.