Jack was hungry. He figured he'd order some Chinese for dinner then he and Claire could hunker down on his couch to eat. He was sure she hadn't eaten anything yet. He went ahead and walked to her desk to ask her what she wanted. She'd probably want half the menu, unless she was sick or something. For such a tiny person she could sure put away the Chinese.

He found her sleeping peacefully at her desk. Her head was cradled in her arms on the desk surface and she seemed to be having a pleasant dream. A smile was spread across her lips.

He stood near her and watched her for a few minutes. It was the type of thing he could never do when she was awake but he could do it now. He could look at her beautiful face all he wanted without interruption.

He heard her mumble something. He couldn't quite make out what it was so he put his ear next to her mouth to listen. Her warm breath tickled his ear as she whispered things her sleep.

As she whispered his name in her sleep.

She was dreaming about him. Claire was dreaming about him and it sure didn't sound like his dream-self was having coffee with her. Talk about the unexpected.

She quieted. He waited for a while to see if she would say anything else but nothing else slipped from her mouth. Damn.

He should probably wake her. As interested as he was in what she was dreaming this was no place to sleep. She needed to go home and sleep in a bed. Today was Friday. He'd tell her that if she showed up in the morning tomorrow he'd fire her.

He shook her a bit, whispering her name in her ear.

She blinked a couple times, then picked herself up off her desk. She caught sight of him and a her cheeks reddened. It wasn't exactly the greatest thing in the world to wake up with your boss watching you after you've just been having a dirty dream about him.

Her blush began to fade. At least she was off the clock when she fell asleep. "I'm sorry, Jack. I--"

"Don't worry about it," he said, staring strait into her eyes. "You should go home, Claire."

"I will in a bit," she responded. She broke eye contact with him and checked her desk to see where She'd put a case file before she'd laid her head down. "I've just gotta finish up a few things."

"Uh uh," he said. "It can wait. Go home."

"Jack . . ."

She still had a lot to get done.

"It can wait, Claire." He was looking her strait in the eye again. "Listen, I'll walk you to your car."

"It's in the shop. I'm taking the subway."

Taking the New York subway? At night? Not over his dead body. Jack had prosecuted people who'd caused some of those subway horror stories on his way up the ladder. He wasn't even going to let there be a chance that Claire would fall victim to a crime like that.

"No you're not," he said, giving her no room to argue. "I'm giving you a ride home. My motorcycle is a lot safer than the subway."

She looked away and tried to hide her smile. She knew she couldn't argue with about any of this. She'd seen him like this before and he simply did not give in. He'd be giving her a ride home if he had to toss her over his shoulder and carry her. All she could do was give up.

Although that whole thing with the tossing over the shoulder did sound rather manly and sexy.

Whoops. Shouldn't be thinking like that.

Besides, with the motorcycle she'd get to wrap her arms around him--real tight so she would fall off. That was ten times better.

Dammit, there she went again. She was like some high school freshman with a crush on that cute student teacher who way too old for her.

"Good," he said, taking her smile as a sign of acceptance. He stood up and went toward his office. "I'm gonna give you a pair of my spare jeans for the ride."

She looked at him for a second then laughed. "Jack you're a lot taller than me."

"And bigger than you," he added as he moved into his office. "Trust me though. If we give you a belt and roll them up a bit you'll be fine. You don't want to be wearing that skirt. I can tell you that much."

"I guess you're right," she said as she took the pants and a belt from him. "I'll be back in back in a few minutes."

"Take your time."

She was back out in under five minutes.

"Finally, a woman who can get dressed in a reasonable amount of time."

"Very funny, Jack," she responded. "Could I hang this up your rack until I can take it home?"

"Not a problem," he said.

They went into his office and she hung up her skirt and suit jacket. He grabbed a sweater from his rack and pulled it over his head. He grabbed his helmet as well, then followed Claire out of his office and to her cubicle. Her purse and jacket were hanging on a stand next to her desk and he went ahead and got them for her, helping her into the jacket. He gave her a quick rub on the shoulder, accompanied by a smile and then walked with her to elevator.

"You ever ridden a motorcycle before, Claire?" he asked as he punched the button for the parking garage.

"Not since my first year of law school," she answered.

"Well, you'll know what you're doing then. It's like riding your bicycle--"

"You never forget," she finished for him with a laugh. "I know."

He smiled at her and she smiled right back. She was still tired, and really felt like just leaning against him and falling asleep again. She refrained. He was still her boss. She hung onto that fact as though her life depended on it. As long as she remember that and what had happened to her before she could make sure nothing happened. She hoped anyway.

The elevator stopped and opened to reveal the parking garage.

"So where are you parked?" she asked as they stepped out of the elevator.

"This way," he answered, leading. "It's not too far."

They reached the bike and Jack unlocked it. He pulled the extra helmet from the compartment and handed it to Claire. It occurred to her that he didn't have to bring it down from his office. He usually kept the extra in his office. That cheat. Oh well, she'd rake him over the coals for it later.

He pulled on his own helmet and mounted the bike. She sighed then pulled on the spare and got on behind him. She wrapped her arms tightly around him, feeling his hard chest muscles underneath her arms. She couldn't help but smile at the thought that she was going to be spending the entire trip with her arms wrapped around this body. She was just happy Jack couldn't see her smile. He could probably tell how happy she was about this by the way she was holding him but oh well. Let him notice then. As long as she could at least pretend he didn't.

He started up the motorcycle, then revved it a bit, using the pause to enjoy the feeling of Claire's slight body pressed up against his own.

"Ready?"

"Yup."

He took off, squealing his tires just for the hell of it like a teenage boy showing off to his girlfriend. He paused near the garage's exit, then turned into traffic. He weaved in and out of the cars on the road, knowing that with his smaller size he could get away with it no problem.

He heard Claire laugh behind him and squeeze tighter. She seemed to love it. He was glad. He loved it too.

She shouted directions to him as they went and as they neared where she told him her building was it dawned on him that she'd had him take the long way to get there. He pulled in front of the building and parked, then turned off his engine. She pulled off her helmet and dismounted the bike.

"I'll walk you up," he said, as he got off the bike too.

"Thanks Jack," she said and smiled at him. It seemed that she'd been smiling at him an awful lot tonight.

He followed her up the walk to her building and waited as she unlocked the first of the two front doors to the building. They went in and started up the steps.

"You know," said Claire over her shoulder to him as they climbed. "I'd forgotten how much I loved doing that."

"I noticed we took the long way here."

"Did you?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I guess I was just having a lot of fun," said Claire as she stepped of the flight of stairs onto her floor. She stood near the banister waiting for him to climb the last couple stairs.

"We could do it again sometime," he suggested. "Maybe next weekend. We could spend the day tearing around the city, pissing off as many people as we can."

"Sounds like a lot of fun," she laughed. "We'll definitely have to do that."

She reached her apartment and unlocked the door. She opened the door and stepped inside.

"Do you wanna come in for a couple of minutes and have coffee or talk or something?"

She leaned against the door frame and looked up at him with those big brown eyes. He remembered the first time he'd seen them. They'd left a big impression on him then and continued to right now as they made his heart melt slowly in his chest.

He wanted to come in right now but he'd seen her asleep at her desk. He knew she was tired and he knew she needed to sleep. He declined. He would have another, better chance when they went for that ride he'd been talking about. He'd make sure it happened soon and he'd make his move then.

"All right," she answered, picking herself up from the door frame. She stood there for a moment in the doorway just looking at him. "Thanks for taking me home, Jack."

Before she could think to stop herself she reached up to kiss him softly on the lips. She had every intention of pulling away after the first second but she suddenly found she didn't want to at all. She lingered there and it wasn't more than a few seconds before Jack got over his shock. He took her hand in the one of his that wasn't holding his helmet and squeezed it as he deepened the kiss. She pulled him into her apartment and he pushed her up against the door, using their bodies to close the door.

They stood there for a moment exploring one another's mouths before he abandoned her mouth to start down her neck, leaving a burning trail of kisses in his wake.

She moaned softly. She knew it probably wasn't a good idea to be letting this man be doing this to her. In fact she knew this was a very bad idea but all her doubts had disappeared the moment her lips had touched his. She wanted this. She wanted him and all she could think of was how good it felt for him to be doing what he was doing.

She felt his sweater underneath her hands and began to pull it off him. He paused for a moment to pull it over his head and then went back to kissing her. He peeled her jacket off her body and his nimble fingers began to quickly unbutton her blouse.

She captured his mouth again and pushed against him, driving him toward her living room. His hands quit their work on her blouse for a moment as he moved with her through the apartment as she directed him toward her bedroom. They reached the room and fell onto the bed together, bodies tangled together like vines.

She began to work frantically on the buttons of his starch white shirt. She wanted to feel him against her. Him, not his shirt.

As she fumbled with his buttons, he tugged at her, well his, belt. Clothes came off at a terrifying pace. Neither of them seemed to want to slow down in the least. Claire's drowsiness had evaporated in favor of her passions and Jack was too caught up to think much of anything as well.

They spent much of the night as such. They had nowhere to be in the morning and even if they had it was likely that they wouldn't have cared at all.