****

'Traitor!! his body screamed at him as he slowly surfaced out of the inky blackness that had consumed him.  He heard a slight rustling sound and fought to open his eyes.  He felt a movement on the bed and then a pair of warm lips pressing against his.  Jake opened his eyes to see a pair of green eyes staring back at him framed by rich auburn hair.

"We should do this more often." she whispered.

Reality hit him and he sat up sharply.  Jackie smiled and stood back.  Slowly she pulled the zipper up on the back of her dress.  "Are you alright then Ricky?"

"We can't do this again."  Jake sat up, the sheet puddling around his hips not quite concealing everything.  "We can't… Jackie."

"I enjoyed it, didn't you?"  She licked her lips and shook her hair back off of her shoulders.  It rippled down to the middle of her back, a few inches above her waist, in soft waves and curls.  After slipping on her shoes, Jackie knelt back onto the bed next to him and caressed a hand down his chest and stomach.  "Yes, I think you did.  You slept for a few hours, sweetly and peacefully I'd wager too."  Her voice dipped down to a husky whisper as her hand disappeared down beneath the sheet to caress him intimately.  "You look like such an angel when you are deeply asleep."

Jake jumped and grabbed her wrist to pull her hand back.  "Jackie, no.  We can't do this.  I think it's time you left."  He pushed her hand back and fixed a firm look on his face.

Jackie's face fell a slight bit before she flounced up and grabbed her purse.  "I promise you, Ricky Coratta, there will come a time when you want me again."  She took a card out of her purse and flung it at him.  "I'll be expecting your call."

Jake sighed and flopped back into the pillows as she left, closing the front door with a loud BANG.  "Jesus Christ." he muttered.  "What the hell did I just do?"

Jackie stopped a moment outside the door and lifted one heel demurely to refit it on her foot.  Her head dipped down and the auburn hair fell over her shoulder. 

Down the hall behind her, Alex stopped in her tracks.  Her eyes widened as she realized that was Jake's apartment the strange woman had come out of.  Alex had been on her way to see Jake for a check-in.  He'd missed the regularly appointed one and Frank had ordered her to go check on him.  She stepped into an alcove and watched as the red haired woman straightened up, giggled in that happily tossed sort of way and started walking off the opposite direction.  "What the hell...?"

After the woman was around the corner, Alex hustled to Jake's door and didn't even to bother knocking.  She walked straight into the bedroom just in time to see Jake bolt up from the pillows, naked with the sheet wrapped around his hips.

"ALEX!"

"What the bloody hell was that?!"

"Keep your voice down!" Jake hissed.  "It's 1 in the morning!!"

Alex stomped around to the bed and shoved Jake back down into it.  In a fluid movement she pulled her gun and put her knee into Jake's stomach.  The click of the hammer being drawn back caused Jake's eyes to wide and certain parts of his body to shrivel painfully.  "Jesus Christ Alex!  What the hell are you doing?"

"You bastard..." she hissed.  "Cheating on your wife!"

"Alex, you don't understand..."

"No, it's Frankie who won't understand.  How could you?"

"Alex, just let me explain it!"

"Oh I think I understand what I saw.  You, naked in bed with a strange woman leaving your apartment at one in the morning.  What is there to explain?"

"Plenty!  Jesus Christ Alex, get your knee out of my gut and let me tell you that it was -" 

The phone ringing in Alex's coat pocket interrupted him.  Alex snarled and removed her knee from Jake's stomach as she grabbed her phone.  "Cross!"

"Whoa.  Agent Cross, having problems?"

"Not me, not right now.  I know someone who is though.  His world is about to get a serious wake up call."

"What's wrong with him?" Frank was concerned.  He could hear the pure unadulterated anger in Alex's voice.  And the only 'he' that Frank could possibly think of was Jake.

"Oh nothing's wrong with him right now.  He's basking in the afterglow of a sexual romp with a strange woman."

Jake came up off the bed and reached for the phone.  Alex shoved him back down onto the bed and glared at him.  He sighed and put his head in his hands, bracing his elbows on his knees.  If he could just explain...

"Yeah.  He's right here.  I'll tell him."  Alex hung up and pinned Jake with a ferocious glare.  "Get dressed.  You're going to have a little talk with Frank."

****