The Fine Print: DK and HBO own them; we just take them out to play.

Note: With the impending Armageddon, we thought Iris, Justin, and Sofie could use a little fun. So from the seeds of Dana's brilliant idea at the chat the other night, grows this collaborative fanfic. Dana has written Chapters 1, 2, and 5. I wrote 3 and 4.

Red Red Wine

Chapter Four

By Julie (ellisbelle)

Iris Crowe woke up to the unexpected pleasure of her very first hangover. She squinted at the morning sun creeping through her curtains—in blinding rays—towards the singing of the loudest birds she had ever heard. She tried to lift her head from the pillow but it felt as if it were made of led. Frankly, it felt like she had tried to eat the pillow—her mouth was so dry. She swallowed painfully. God, what had happened to her? She closed her eyes again. Her memory of last night was sketchy at best. Sofie. Wine. Music. Wine. Dancing. Wine. Justin.

She opened her eyes again and looked at her room. Her clothes were scattered haphazardly across the floor. She raised herself up on her elbows and bent her neck to look down at her body—no clothes, well, except for those lacy panties she had splurged on last month. "Those are new." Justin's words floated into her mind. Justin. Where was Justin? She looked over her shoulder to the other side of her bed to see if he was beside her. No Justin. He was nowhere to be seen.

For the life of her, she couldn't remember what, if anything, had happened last night once he come back upstairs. Color flooded her face. Judging from her current state of undress, it would appear that something had happened between the two of them. She smiled at the thought. It had been so long.

But she didn't remember it. She frowned.

Her head swam as she forced herself to sit up on the side of the bed. When she stood, her stomach lurched. She wobbled unsteadily on her feet for a moment before collecting herself enough to pull her robe out of the closet and make her way to the bath. She needed a very long shower. And a big glass of water.

Later, when Iris came downstairs, showered and dressed for the day, Varlyn Stroud was lurking around the living room.

He noticed Iris and raised his eyebrows at her. "Hell of a party ya'll had in here last night, it looks like."

"Stroud! Get in here!" Justin yelled from the study.

Stroud shrugged his shoulders and sauntered towards the doorway. As he was walking past Iris, he paused to leer down at her, smirking.

She smiled sweetly at him. "I told."

The grin washed away from Stroud's face, and his eyes narrowed at her. She could see the sweat start to break out on his forehead. "Have a good morning, Mr. Stroud," she said in her most polite voice and walked towards the back porch without looking back.

She felt almost good despite the pounding in her head and the queasiness of her stomach, as she stepped out into the warm morning sunshine. She noticed Sofie standing with her back to her and smiled, shaking her head and recalling most of what had happened in the living room.

"Good morning, Sofie."

Sofie jumped guiltily, turning towards Iris and hiding something behind her back, as she returned the greeting.

The smoke wafting up from behind Sofie was a dead give away that she had been caught smoking. Iris just laughed. "Really, dear, I'd think that after yesterday, you'd know that you don't have to hide that from me."

Sofie grinned and brought the cigarette back to her lips for another drawl. Exhaling, she said, "You don't know how hard these were to come by around here. I had to bribe one of the Oakies with front row seats for the next meeting to get this pack."

Iris laughed again but stopped abruptly as a sharp pain split through her forehead. She brought her hand up to her temple and rubbed at it.

Sofie chuckled. "We got bit by the same dog." She watched as Iris smiled at her euphemism. "Hey, you want one of these?" she offered conspiratorially, holding out the hard won pack.

"I don't smoke."

"Just like you don't drink and you don't dance."

"You've got a point."

"It'll give you a bit of a boost."

Iris shook her head but held out her hand to take the offered cigarette. Sofie brought a box of matches out of her pocket and leaned in to Iris to light the cigarette.

Iris looked uncertainly at it but put it to her lips and inhaled.

She coughed and sputtered, while her eyes watered. She looked accusingly at Sofie.

"It takes a little getting used to," Sofie explained.

After a few minutes, Sofie looked over at Iris and smiled. "You're doing that like a pro now."

"Smoking now, too, are we, girls?"

They both turned to see Justin standing in the doorway with his arms folded across his chest.

"I swear I'm going to put a bell on you one day," Iris teased, smiling at him. She felt a blush start to creep across her cheeks as bits and pieces of last night started to come back to her. The warm feeling soon turned cold as he continued to stare callously at her.

"You don't smoke, Iris," he said tersely.

"Actually, Justin, I have done lots of things that you don't know about." She didn't feel like taking anything off of him today.

"Oh really, like what?" he replied sarcastically.

"Just things."

Flashes of Iris with Tommy Dolan rushed through his mind, his Irina doing those things with someone else.

Iris's mind wondered to a morning spent with Norman on the desk in his study—Justin definitely didn't know about that.

They both glared at each other uncomfortably, but were unable to look away.

They had completely forgotten that Sofie was standing two feet away, looking from one face to the other as they argued. She cleared her throat and caught Justin's attention.

"And you should remember how easily you can be replaced," he warned.

"No, Justin. I hired Sofie—I'll decide when she goes."

Iris looked pointedly at her brother. She took a slow drag off the cigarette and molded her lips to let the smoke curl provocatively from between them; then she threw it off the porch and smirked at him.

Without a word, Justin grabbed his sister by the elbow and led her down the steps into the yard, ignoring Sofie's gapping mouth.

"Justin, what are you doing?" Iris practically yelled as she tried to yank her arm away.

He held on firmly, paying no heed to her, marching her across the yard. Justin called back over his shoulder to Sofie, "Have that mess in the living room cleaned up by the time we get back."

"Let go of me!"

The mounted guards at the side of the house stopped to stare at the scene. Iris stopped struggling, and huffed in annoyance. "Where are we going?" she said slowly, but only so Justin could hear her.

"We are going for a drive."

She stopped walking and looked up at him. "You have meetings all morning."

"My schedule has suddenly cleared." He pulled her towards the car and opened the passenger door for her. "Get in."

She climbed in reluctantly and watched as he slammed her door then walked to the driver's side.

Once they were pulling out of their driveway, she questioned him again. "Where are we going?" she asked, her voice betraying her with the slightest hint of fear.

He didn't look in her direction, just continued to drive. "Nowhere in particular," he finally answered.

Her eyes narrowed at him and then she turned her face towards her window, refusing to look at him.

He glanced over at her then to see her pointedly avoiding him.

Iris watched out her window as the rolling landscape blurred past. She lost track of how long they had been driving. She was surprised when he finally pulled the car to the side of the road and turned off the engine. He got out without saying anything and walked around to open her door. He caught her hand and pulled her up towards him. She looked around her. Nothing. Just grass and the occasional tree.

His face was unreadable as he led her farther and farther away from the road and deeper into the grassy field. Suddenly he dropped to his knees, yanking her down to the ground beside him. Before she could recover herself, he rolled on top of her pinning her body to the ground with his.

She looked up at him, fear written across her face—then confusion as she realized that he was smiling down at her, laughing.

She exhaled loudly. "I don't understand. What's going on?"

"You don't remember what happened last night, do you?"

"Only parts of it," Iris reluctantly admitted.

"Then you don't recall that when I came back upstairs last night, you were passed out cold across your bed. I couldn't wake you up."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "That's all that happened?" she said with a mixture of disappointment and relief.

"I'm afraid so," he said, his lips hovering just above hers now. "However, you were quite convincing when you tried to persuade me to go for a drive with you."

That Iris remembered.

"You mentioned a certain trip to the Carnivale." He kissed her cheek. "And the drive home." He dipped his head again to kiss her neck.

"You won Dimitri for me," she said shakily.

"Yes," he smiled down at her, holding her gaze. "But I think I got an even better prize afterwards." His mouth fell to her neck again, at her pulse, just below her ear.

"Did you really?" she breathed hoarsely.

"Mmmm, yes, I did," he whispered against her ear, biting at her earlobe. "Do you want me to show you?"

"I want you," she said, her mouth so close to his that he could feel her breath brushing against his lips, "to show me wonderful," she kissed his lower lip, "terrible things, Alexsei."

And so he did.

To be continued by Dana . . .