Content Warning: Adult situations toward the end of the chapter.
A dark road on a cold December night. The warm engine vibrating beneath him as he flew over the asphalt. Blue eyes were locked on a sedan a quarter mile ahead of him which he was rapidly catching up to. He maneuvered the motorcycle easily, pulling alongside the car and speeding ever closer until the driver veered away, losing control. The deafening crunch of metal succumbing to a tree trunk erupted behind him. He pulled the motorcycle back around, doubling back to where the car had crashed. He needed to dispose of the witnesses before securing the payload.
He dismounted from the bike, watching blankly as the man with white hair crawled across the frozen dirt. The assassin approached, grabbed the man and pulling him up to a seated position. Brown eyes gazed up at him, and he saw recognition in them. The man breathed a name, a name that caused pause. Did that name mean something to him?
The woman was shouting now, which meant he had to work quickly lest all the ruckus attract more witnesses. Drawing back his metal fist, the man's words were forgotten as the assassin ended him. The brunet moved swiftly to the passenger side of the car to the blonde woman, prim dress and jewelry stained with her blood. He reached in with his flesh hand, fingers wrapping firmly around her throat. It didn't take long for silence to take her, too. Belatedly, he noticed a traffic camera. He disposed of it with a single shot off his handgun. The assassin verified the payload and secured it, hopping back onto his motorcycle and speeding away, ready to lie low in a safe house for a few days before returning to his handler. The image of the recognition and confusion in the older man's eyes fading along with his life was wholly forgotten.
Bucky shot up in bed, drenched in sweat. He brought shaking hands up to his face, stifling a groan. Those brown eyes had recognized him – recognized a friend – before he…
The former assassin had to get up. He couldn't lie beside Harper like this. She'd wake up, surely, and he shouldn't be in her bed with her anyway. He was a fucking murderer after all. He slipped out of bed and silently exited her room, closing the door behind him. Aslan had perked up when Bucky had awoken, but upon seeing the man leaving, had laid his head back down on Harper's leg. He never did give her much personal space, especially not to sleep.
He paced soundlessly for some time, wishing he could forget the look in Howard's eyes, or the feeling of the woman's fading pulse beneath his hand. When pacing proved futile, he tried drinking a glass of water, but that just made him feel ill. At a loss, he moved to Harper's bookshelf, pulling out the next book in the Narnia series.
Many hours passed and Bucky got to a passage Harper had highlighted that made his chest tighten with emotion. He hadn't realized that he had frozen, staring at the page and her small handwriting, until he was startled back into awareness.
"James? Are you alright?" Harper's voiced asked gently, much too close given that he hadn't even been aware of her approach.
"Y-yeah," he replied, shakier than he had anticipated. He cleared his throat. "Sorry, did I wake you?"
"No," she shook her head. "I woke up and you were gone. Are you sure you're alright?"
Bucky nodded once. "I had a flashback."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
He hesitated for a long moment. Harper said nothing, merely kneeled beside the armchair he was perched in. He gazed into her warm cinnamon eyes and admitted, "I was ordered to kill someone who used to be an ally. And his wife."
Harper nodded slowly, eyes glancing down to what he was reading. He thought he saw a shift in her expression, but it was gone and she was looking back up at him again before he could even be sure he had seen anything. Gently, she said, "I'm sorry you had to do that, James. You've carried too many burdens."
He opened his mouth to protest, but she stood, silencing him. The brunette perched on the arm of the chair, reaching for him and gently running her fingers through his long, sleep-tousled hair. He relaxed beneath her touch, and she gently pulled him into her side.
Still stroking his hair, she whispered aloud the very passage that had stilled him, "'Courage, dear heart,' and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan's, and with the voice a delicious smell breathed in her face. In a few moments the darkness turned into a greyness ahead, and then, almost before they dared to begin hoping, they had shot out into the sunlight and were in the warm, blue world again."
"I love you, Harper," he muttered into her sweatshirt, blue eyes closing tight against the deluge of emotion.
"I love you, too, James," she replied. "Courage, dear heart. You, too, will eventually be free of this darkness."
"Foreigner!"
Bucky smiled at the friendly greeting and returned it, "Florin."
The fisherman/restauranteur grinned brightly at the former soldier. "I assume you're pleased that spring has arrived?"
"Very," admitted the brunet, pulling another huge crab trap into place on the boat.
"Will I have you for another summer?"
"That's the plan," Bucky nodded. "How is your family?"
"Good, good. My son, he has begun work in the kitchen now. I'm not getting any younger, so I'm glad he's beginning to learn what he needs to in order to take over the business someday. And you? How is your girlfriend?"
"She's doing well," Bucky answered simply, but couldn't quite keep the smile off his face when thinking about Harper.
"Glad to hear it. She was sick for a while a couple months back, no?"
"She was," the former soldier confirmed with a nod. "She gets really sick a few times a year."
"That's difficult," Florin frowned.
"She's tough," Bucky replied.
"How long have you been together now?"
"It was a year last month," Bucky answered, smile widening. It had been a good month, with both his birthday and their one year to celebrate. Things were good, and he was beyond happy.
"That's not nothing, foreigner," Florin smiled. "Good for you both."
"That bitch!" Harper shrieked as Bucky was letting himself into her apartment. He laughed, closing the door behind him and toeing off his work boots. Harper snapped, "It's not funny! I'm gonna kill Kat!"
"Why?" he asked, walking into the kitchen. Harper stood in front of the sink, halfway through washing some dishes, with her phone in her hands. She had clearly been taken from the task by whatever disaster her phone had brought her attention to.
"She reposted this awful video of us and our other roommate, Tawny, from college. I'm gonna kill her for this!"
"It can't be that bad," Bucky frowned moving closer behind her to peer over her shoulder. Harper quickly held the phone to her chest, hiding the screen from him.
"No way!" she protested.
"C'mon, doll," he pleaded, giving her his best puppy dog eyes.
"Not gonna work!"
He took that as a challenge and reached for her, pulling her into his arms before she could slip away. His fingers dug into her side, finding one of her most ticklish spots immediately.
"James!" she shouted through her laughter. "No fair!"
"All is fair in love and war," he reminded, managing to worm her phone out of her grasp with his other hand. Victorious, he let her go with a grin.
"James, please don't," Harper frowned, recovering quickly from all the laughter. "It's not a good look for me."
"No such thing," he argued, leaning down to place a sweet peck to her forehead. Turning back to his prize, he pressed the 'Play' button on her screen. Immediately, what Bucky could only label 'Fucking music' began blaring through her phone's speakers. The video was of Harper, Kat, and a tall redhead at a club. His eyes widened, seeing Harper dressed in tight black jeans and a tight, daringly low cut black top with bell sleeves. He had hardly ever seen so much cleavage on her. She also wore strappy heels that added several inches to her height. The other women were similarly dressed, and all appeared much younger.
What was more surprising than the outfit, however, was the way Harper was dancing. She was getting down and dirty with the rest of the club patrons, twisting her hips and flipping her hair along to the low, sensual beat. Her torso shimmied and swayed, and he couldn't help but look at her supple curves in the top she had donned. His tongue lashed out across his lower lip unconsciously.
"If you're horny, Let's do it, Ride it, my pony, My saddle's waitin', Come and jump on in it," the singer crooned. Harper grabbed Kat and spun her before pulling the smaller girl against her. Harper began gyrating against the other woman, rolling her hips on beat. Kat responded in kind, grinding her bottom against Harper. The redhead, Tawny, joined in, rocking her body against Harper's backside. In what was one of the most erotic displays Bucky had ever witnesses, due perhaps to his upbringing, the three women moved as one sexy unit of curves and long hair.
Harper snatched the phone from his slack grip, and his eyes moved slowly to look at her. She was a brilliant red, the blush disappearing beneath her t-shirt. Before he could say anything, she defended, "We were 20 and managed to get into that club with our fake IDs. We were wasted, and stupid, and I'd never do something like that now, and…"
"Well, I hope that's not true." Harper looked up at him with questioning eyes. He continued, "Doll, if you can move like that, even my wildest dreams of lovin' you won't compare to the real thing. Fuck, you're sexy."
"James!" she spluttered, blush somehow deepening. "That was six years and like… twenty pounds ago, I'm not-"
"Must be why your tits look even better now," he cut her off, eying her salaciously. He approached her, effectively backing her up against the counter. Bracing a hand on either side of her, he leaned down and captured her lips in a heated kiss.
Harper remained frozen for a moment, clearly caught off guard. Ever since their disastrous attempt at intimacy on Christmas, they hadn't shared more than chaste kisses and fleeting touches. Slowly, she responded and her fervor gradually grew to match his. His tongue parted her lips and met hers, and he moaned at her taste. He had missed kissing her like this, had missed the rush triggered by tasting her, touching her. One hand moved to cradle the back of her head, tilting her back so he could better plunder her mouth. His other hand found her hip, gently squeezing.
Harper's hands rose to his chest, fingers splaying as she felt the hard planes of muscle beneath them. Bucky pulled his lips from hers, and both breathed in deep, shaky breaths. He resealed their lips, hand moving from her hip to caress the curve of her ass through her leggings. Harper kissed him back harder, pressing herself into him as her tongue slid across his. The former soldier nipped at her lower lip before drawing it between his own, tugging and suckling. She responded by lightly digging her nails into his shoulders.
His actions verging on those of a possessed man, he quickly placed both hands on the back of her thighs and lifted her up, causing her legs to wrap around his hips automatically. He swallowed her gasp with his lips, holding her body tightly against his. She was so warm, so soft, so curvy...
"Fuck, Harper," he breathed, placing light kisses along her jaw and neck as he struggled to control his breathlessness.
"James?"
"I want you," he muttered, placing a tender kiss to her lips before resting his forehead against hers. The brunette looked into his eyes, and he gazed back. He wasn't sure what she was looking for, but she didn't seem put off by whatever she found. He carried her to her bedroom, closing the door behind them and triggering an annoyed mewl from the old feline which had tried to follow.
Bucky deposited the young woman on the bed, following before she could even scoot back. He locked their lips, hands roaming her shoulders, arms, and the hourglass dips in her sides. Her fingers feathered over his shoulders, crawled tantalizingly over his shoulder blades and across the taut muscles of his back. Pulling back for only a moment, he shed his shirt, allowing her greater access to his body. She sighed against his mouth, fingers finding the skin they had sought. He let her touch him, explored the skin and scars. His flesh hand slipped beneath her t-shirt and found her breast which, to his pleasant surprise, was bare and already peaked by a hard nipple.
"We weren't planning to go anywhere, so when I changed out of my work clothes I figured… may as well be comfortable," she muttered, face flushing with embarrassment.
"That's so fuckin' hot, doll," he breathed, tweaking her nipple for emphasis. She squeaked and shifted uncomfortably, her thighs tightening giving him no doubts as to what really had her squirming. He lightly squeezed her full breasts leaning back just enough so that his weight wasn't on her. His metal fingers pinched and pulled her other nipple before flicking it relentlessly back and forth. He heard the breath catch in her throat, and a wicked grin pulled at his lips. Quickly, he divested the brunette of her t-shirt, throwing it carelessly behind him. Blue eyes found the revealed skin, as much to his liking as ever. "You really do have perfect tits."
The former soldier bowed his head, lips sealing around the less abused nipple. He suckled for a moment, for his own pleasure, before teasing the nub with the tip of his tongue in the way she seemed to prefer. Sure enough, she breathed, "Shit, James…"
His flesh hand roamed her side, his fingers hooking into the waistband of her leggings and pulling them down her legs as far as he could reach. He pulled back, intent on gazing at the newly exposed skin, but Harper caught his face in her hand. Blue eyes looked into her flushed face curiously.
"Don't," she muttered. "I wasn't exactly expecting this to happen tonight. I'm not really… appropriately dressed."
"What… like… not wearing something lacey and scandalous?" he teased.
"Decidedly not."
"Darlin', that doesn't matter to me," he assured.
"Well, it matters to me," she replied, reaching down and around him to pull off whatever undergarments she wore for herself. He pulled off his jeans and underwear in one motion as she did so. With everything tossed aside, the couple stilled, the position they were in seeming to dawn on them.
Bucky locked his eyes with hers and asked gently, "Is this okay?"
Harper was silent for a full minute before she replied, "I think so."
"That… doesn't sound certain," he pointed out.
"For now, I'm okay," she amended more confidently.
"Well, keep me posted, okay?"
Her lips tugged up in a small smile. "Will do."
His hands returned to her breasts and he covered her lips with his. When she was once again squirming and arching into him, he allowed his flesh hand to slip down her torso. His fingers traced the curve of her hip before moving, searching out the neat patch of dark curls that would guide his hand to its destination. In moments, he found her womanhood, dripping with arousal. His lips slowed against hers, kissing her deeper, more ardently, more intimately. His index finger rubbed up and down her nether lips, gently working between them and relishing in the heat. Bucky rubbed gently at her opening, feeling her tense slightly. He moved upward, finding her clit instead. She inhaled unsteadily, and he circled her pleasure center lightly, teasingly. He tapped the nub with the pad of his finger, and she jumped, her back arching when he continued the motion. With more vigor, he rubbed at her clit and rolled it between his knuckles.
"Fuck," she hissed, thighs twitching in pleasure.
Bucky moved back down to her opening, rubbing the tip of his finger there. Harper tensed immediately and muttered, "Wait, James. I… stop, please."
He did so immediately, removing his hand from her and looking back up at her. To his horror, her bright brown eyes were glassy. "Harper?"
"I need to stop."
A/N: Thank you all so much for all of the support! We're officially at 100 followers, and my mind is a little blown. Apologies for those who are more into fluff, as we are in the midst of a spicy intermission. I'm grateful for everyone sticking with me and for all of your feedback!