Unfortunately I still don't own Chuck...
Stripped Bare
Chapter 10
It was four weeks into school vacation when Chuck had asked Sarah if she'd like to go to Niagara Falls with him for a few days. Molly was staying with friends at a house in Muskoka and she'd never been to enjoy the Falls, so she was happy to head off for a long weekend. She was also excited about the fact that the plaster on her leg was coming off a few days before the trip so, for the first time in a long time, she'd have almost normal motion, although she still needed to rehab the leg. But at least she'd be able to shower, bath and swim – it would be amazing.
He'd paid for a spa treatment for her, Ellie and Anna in LA. It had been a great day, but she'd hated sitting on the sidelines when the others were in the sauna and the jacuzzi. Now she wouldn't have to sit on the sidelines any longer.
She was surprised he'd insisted on staying on the American side of the falls, particularly as the Canadian side was generally credited with having the best views, but she supposed there would be nothing to stop them heading over the border to look.
They drove there in his Range Rover. It was luxurious and nearly brand new, compared to her fifteen year-old Toyota Camry which, although sturdy and dependable, was rusty and worn out.
Their hotel boasted a spa and a casino and she was practically salivating at the idea of checking out the spa. What was better was that she didn't even have to rely on his charity; her job was going so well that she could afford to pay for her own spa experience. It was great when they went out that she was able to pay for herself now, and she enjoyed paying her own share.
They arrived mid-afternoon and he gestured her to precede him into their luxurious suite. The bellboy showed them the bathroom, which was to die for, the huge bed and the jacuzzi bath in their room. He grinned as he saw her face, and tipped the bellboy.
"Maybe it'll be takeout for dinner, and a jacuzzi?" he said, and she could see the smile in his eyes.
She grinned right back at him. "Maybe it will if you play your cards right, Mr Bartowski."
"Do you want to go in now?" he asked. "To be fair, I did get this room because of that."
"Oh, did you now?" she asked, sidling up to him. "Am I a sure thing then?" she raised an eyebrow at him.
"Uh, no," he stammered. "It was just that you seemed upset not to be able to use the one in LA."
She grinned internally at more evidence of her nerd paying attention to her.
"Let's go in now," she said, finally deciding. It did look amazing, and she'd love to enjoy it with him.
"Great," he said, heading into the bathroom to start figuring out the controls. She opened her suitcase and started taking her stuff out, setting it up in the bedroom and the bathroom.
"All sorted," he said, coming in a few minutes later. She could hear the humming of the machine and associated bubbling from next door. "It should be warmed up in a few moments."
He proceeded to his case and started unpacking. He was quite a machine when it came to packing and unpacking. It was down to all the travelling he did, she supposed. He packed in about ten percent of the time she did and it all seemed to just fall out of his case into places in the room.
"Do you want to go and get in?" he asked, "I've just got a few things to do."
She raised her eyebrow at him, but got the hint. "I hope you won't be too long Chuck," she flirted, stripping her T-shirt off and throwing it at him. She stepped out of her capris, and unsnapped her bra. "I'd hate for you to miss anything…"
He grinned. "Don't worry," he told her, leaning in and kissing her right nipple. "I won't be long. Now get!" and he gave her a slap on the rump to encourage her. She yelped but set off, stripping off her panties on the way. She flung them at him as he fiddled in his suitcase, and then dodged into the bathroom.
Climbing into the jacuzzi, she couldn't suppress a moan of pleasure. The temperature was perfect and the bubbles were to die for. He'd emptied some sort of bath salts in and there was a beautiful scent of lavender. She leaned against the side of the jacuzzi and closed her eyes.
A few moments later she heard him entering the bathroom and opened them again. He was naked. He'd become much more relaxed about his body since they'd been together. She recalled how nervous he'd been the first time they'd made love. Now he was totally fine with being naked in front of her. She frowned as she saw that he was carrying a bunch of papers in his hands.
"What's going on?" she asked as he climbed into the jacuzzi, sitting next to her, but far enough around that he could make eye contact.
"These are for you," he said, handing over an envelope.
She was puzzled, but opened it. Inside was a driver's license and passport carrying her photo and in the name of Sarah Lisa Walker.
"Chuck. What is this?" she asked, not really understanding.
He gave a grimace. "I hope you're not upset with me Sarah," he started. "Do you remember when we talked, and I said that I was working on a project to do something about your record?"
She did remember that, and she nodded. It had been part of a conversation where he'd said he was a thousand percent behind her in whatever she wanted to do. She remembered that conversation well. It had made a big impression on her.
"Well, this is what I came up with," and he gestured at the passport and driver's license.
Now she looked at it she recognized the pictures. "These are the pictures you took for the Carmichael Industries security pass," she said.
He grimaced again. "Yes. Yes, they are," he replied. "I kinda lied," he explained. "I didn't need them for your security pass."
"Chuck, I think you'd better start at the beginning," she said. She was shocked more than annoyed, but she did want to know what was happening.
"Yeah," he agreed. "OK, so I've told you quite a lot about my past but one thing I've never mentioned is that I was a hacker at one point, one of the NSA's top twenty most wanted."
"What?" she gasped.
"Oh, I wasn't dangerous," he hastened to say. "I was what they call a white hat. I just went in and demonstrated weaknesses and left them instructions on how to close them. My handle was Piranha." She goggled at him.
He gave a weak smile. "I haven't done anything for years. I got too involved with Carmichael Industries. But when you told me your situation, I was pretty upset about what happened to you, so I dusted off the Piranha."
"Chuck, you shouldn't have," she gasped, upset that he'd taken such a risk for her.
"I wanted to Sarah," he replied, looking into her eyes. She could see his feelings for her in his. "I looked into Samantha Walker in quite a lot of detail and, by the way, you should know that a number of other groups are keeping an eye on that identity, including the CIA."
She was dumbfounded by that revelation.
"It was clear that I couldn't do very much for Samantha Walker, so I decided to make a new identity. Sarah Walker. I copied across Sam's High School transcripts, including the courses that you did in prison, and certain other people's, like Jenny Burton's for instance." He smiled at her reassuringly as she flinched at the name. She'd never shared that name with him. "As I said, Sarah, I'm quite an accomplished hacker," he explained to her look of shock. "But, moving on, I applied for a new passport and driver's license in the name of Sarah Walker. Sarah Walker, by the way, is totally clean and doesn't have a criminal record," he added, and she gasped at him.
"Carmichael Industries has applied for a Canadian work permit in the name of Sarah Walker for a permanent role, and it's been granted. You can stay in Canada and, if at some point, you wanted to apply for Canadian citizenship you can, because there's no criminal record associated with Sarah."
She just stared at him, struggling to comprehend what he was saying, and he gave a small smile. "That's why I booked a hotel on the US side. If you want to use the Sarah Walker identity you can simply put aside your Sam Walker papers and use the Sarah Walker papers to re-enter Canada. Then you're fully legal. You're registered at Carmichael as "S. Walker" so I can simply change it to Sarah Walker when we get back, if you'd like to. Then you can just open a new bank account and transfer everything across."
Now he gave her a proper smile as she continued to gape at the identity documents in front of her. He handed over the final envelope. "Oh, by the way, the COO and the CEO of Carmichael Industries have been really impressed by your work. This is a job offer for the role of Deputy Head of Sales for North American educational software. It comes with four weeks' holiday per year, full benefits (including insurance) and a basic salary of a hundred k and 24% commission on sales. If you add in what you're generating at the moment, you could do nearly three hundred grand a year."
He grinned at what she imagined was her dumbfounded expression. "The CEO is happy to negotiate on salary. He could throw in a few blow jobs if that would help you come to a decision…?" he leaned over and gently took the letter, the passport and drivers' license and pushed them onto the shelf by the sink. "But seriously, I don't want to put any pressure on you," he said. "Just have a think about it before you decide anything."
She continued to look at him, just uncomprehending. How? How could he do all this?
She lunged at him, wrapping him up in a tight hug. Caught by surprise he fell back, his head falling under the water for a second. "Thank you," she exclaimed as he surfaced, leaning forward to kiss him.
He spat water out of his mouth, before meeting her in the kiss, his tongue dueling with hers. "You're welcome," he murmured, pulling her towards him. "I love you."
"God, I love you too," she replied. And she meant it. Nobody had ever treated her like he had, physically or personally. How did this man actually exist? How was he real? He'd dusted off his hacker self, invented a new identity for her and cleared her criminal record. Then, he had negated all the work he'd done on that by offering her a job in his company. A well-paying job that she enjoyed and that she was good at. A job that got her out of stripping but paid potentially more.
"Thank you," she murmured, leaning her head into the crook of his neck, before leaning up to kiss him again. She leaned over, straddling his lap, conscious of his hard cock pushing into her. She reached down and grasped it, ignoring his moan, as she directed it to her entrance. She raised herself slightly and then it was her turn to moan as she slid down his length.
She broke the kiss. "Fuck, I love feeling you inside me," she moaned as he kissed her neck and the top of her chest.
"I love your beautiful warm pussy," he returned, running his hands up and down her back as she rose and fell on him.
"Oh God," she moaned as he leant down and kissed her left breast, flicking his tongue across her nipple. "Right there, Chuck, gorgeous," she told him as he continued to pay attention to her breast. A line of fire shot down from her breast to her clitoris as he continued to pay attention to her right breast, before shifting to the other one. "Oh Chuck," she moaned as his thumb found her clit.
"Oh God!" she exclaimed. "Oh fuck! Oh God! Oh fuck!" It was all she could manage as she bounced up and down on him and he stroked her clit and kissed her breasts. Somehow the warm water heightened the feeling and led to the pressure building up in her faster than normal. "Oh God! Oh fuck!" she repeated as the pressure built up and up until, with no warning, the orgasm exploded over her like a wave. "OH FUCK!" she screamed, arching back before collapsing against Chuck as she felt herself clenching and unclenching along his length.
"Ohmygod," she groaned, her neck muscles suddenly unable to support her head as she rested it against him.
"God you look beautiful," he gasped. "You must be the most beautiful woman in the world."
She rested as the euphoria swept over her in waves and then he obviously decided she'd had enough rest because he started driving up into her.
"Chuck!" she gasped as his hard rod drove back into her. "Ohmygod!"
"My turn now," he grinned, pulling her towards him as he pushed in and pulled out. She was so aroused that it didn't take long before she was panting again.
"Cum for me Sarah," he whispered in her ear. "Cum for me, my dearest."
"Close," she managed to get out through her harsh pants of arousal.
And then it was there. Not quite so strong as the last one, but still amazing and she clenched on him, groaning as the sensation swept through her body. She groaned again as he pulled out, but then a frisson of excitement swept through her as he pushed her around facing away from him and then he entered her from behind.
"Ohmygod!" she exclaimed as he penetrated deeper than previously.
"Like that, do you?" he grunted, slapping her right ass cheek.
"Oh fuck," she moaned. "Fuck me harder."
"As you wish," he intoned, speeding up his rhythm, and smacking her ass again.
"Oh fuck," she moaned. "Again."
"Want me to spank your lovely ass black and blue?" he grunted, smacking her again, harder.
"Ohmygod!" she moaned, as he reached forward and pinched her right nipple, causing her to yelp in arousal. He nipped her back and neck, pushing into her and pulling out of her and she was in a haze of arousal. He pinched her left nipple and she yelped again, struggling to keep control as pressure built up in her again.
"Are you close?" he grunted and she could hear the effort in his voice.
"Yurgh," she replied, arching her back as he gently cupped her breasts, pulling her upward.
"Ohmygod!" she groaned as his hand reached in front of her.
"Oh FUCK!" she exploded as his thumb caressed her clit and a wave of euphoria broke over her. He rammed into her and pulled out a few times more as she clenched him in her walls and then he grunted as came as well. He reached up again, cupping her breasts gently, kissing her neck.
"Love you," he grunted, breathing hard.
"Uh lugh u," she managed, as waves of euphoria washed over her body causing her to shake and twitch.
He pulled her backward so she was sitting on his lap, him cupping her breasts with her back against his chest. "Oh fuck," she gasped as she laid her hands over his over her breasts, leaning her head against his, fighting to control her own breathing.
"Fucking Hell," she managed after a few minutes. "How do you do that to me?"
"Me?" he asked. "You do it to me!"
"You got some serious juju man," she told him. She took a deep breath. "That was fucking amazing."
"Yeah," he said. "I'm glad I shelled out for the jacuzzi!"
She pulled his hands off her breasts and then pivoted in his lap so she was facing him. She saw the sweat on his face from the effort of servicing her and the heat of the jacuzzi. She wrapped her arms around him and his went around her and then she leant in to kiss him, a sensual kiss where their tongues rubbed against one another. "God I love you Chuck Bartowski," she said.
"I rather love you too, Sarah Walker," he replied.
They were rather wrinkly by the time they left the jacuzzi.
By mutual agreement they didn't mention the situation with the papers and the job offer for the rest of the day, even though she was pretty sure that she'd reached a decision. It was an easy one from her point of view. She had no particular love for Samantha Walker. To all intents and purposes she was Sarah Walker and happy to be. To be officially Sarah Walker with no criminal record would be fantastic.
The job offer was also an easy decision. She didn't like stripping but needed to put food on the table and stripping paid well and didn't ask too many questions about her history. But the sales position potentially put more food on the table, and gave holiday and benefits, which she simply didn't get from stripping where she was a sole contractor. Plus, it was at a fantastic company with a very good management team.
Talking to some of the employees at Carmichael Industries at the party in LA had reinforced her impression that Chuck was a great boss. Nobody had a bad thing to say about him and the others told her about how happy they were in their work. She'd seen the office in LA, with its games room and gym and she knew that Chuck was moving the CI offices in Canada to a building with similar facilities.
She'd been wary about the deputy head of sales title, but Chuck had sat her down and showed her the numbers, her numbers vs the disguised numbers of other salespeople. In the past few months that she'd been working for CI, she was the best salesperson by far. Chuck had emphasized that in the market when you came across that sort of person you locked them up fast. Deputy head of sales showed you rated the person but wanted them to continue to work on sales and not worry about administration.
She relaxed a little when she understood his thinking. Seeing that she was seriously considering the role, he'd asked jokily. "If I agree to go down on you once a week for the rest of this year, would that help with the decision?"
She'd pretended to think about it, before replying. "Twice a week." He grinned as she looked at him, "For ten years."
His eyebrows rose but his smile turned impish. "You drive a hard bargain. It almost sounds like you intend to keep me around Ms Walker?"
"I think I will, Mr Bartowski," she replied. She used the Sarah Walker ID when they returned to Canada on Sunday afternoon and set about switching her bank accounts on Monday morning.
"Ma'am," the receptionist smiled welcomingly, "Can I have your photo ID?" She handed over her identity papers and smiled at the woman.
The receptionist looked at something on her screen and smiled. "That appears to be in order ma'am," she announced. "Could you just look into this camera?"
She did and the receptionist printed out the entry pass and handed it over to her. Sarah affixed it to the lapel of her business suit. "You need to go the fifty eighth floor, ma'am," she announced, and Sarah headed over to the elevator.
The security was one of the worst things about having meetings in New York, but Sarah was starting to get used to it now. Originally New York City had only held bad memories for her, but slowly over the past few years of working together, she and Chuck had established some good ones as well. Professionally she had developed some very good ones.
She arrived at her appointment and was welcomed into the office by the receptionist and guided to a room. She chose coffee when offered a choice of beverages, and enjoyed the view as she waited for her client to arrive.
"Sarah, welcome," greeted the tall, dark-haired woman, leaning over to shake hands.
"Hi Greta," she greeted. "Good to see you again."
"And great to see you," the woman replied. "No Chuck today?" she asked.
"He was delayed getting in. Just landed in fact," she explained. "Bad weather at Toronto. He sends his apologies and said to tell you that I'm fully authorized to negotiate the contract for CI."
"Oh, sorry to hear that," Greta replied, gesturing her to take a seat and sat down opposite her. She shuffled the papers in front of her.
"Well I won't beat around the bush because I know we're both busy. Harmony Corp liked the pitch you made. We've looked through the details you gave us and our HR department looked at the specimen course you sent over and it looks perfect for our needs. We'd like to go ahead with the contract."
Sarah struggled to keep the excitement off her face. A year of work based on a cold approach and here they were with a contract for a multi-million dollar educational product. This was just one of four such contracts that they were discussing on this trip.
She stayed with Greta for nearly an hour, discussing the different moving parts of the contract, before the woman stood, and reached out to shake her hand. As they were heading for the exit, she observed. "I'm sorry Neil and I can't meet with you and Chuck this time. We really enjoyed dinner last time."
Sarah smiled. "It was great wasn't it? I'm sure we can meet next time we're in town." She was here every few months anyway. "Or maybe you can come to Toronto? It's great at this time of year."
"We can look into it, schedule permitting," the other woman replied. "How's Molly doing?"
"Oh, she's well," Sarah replied. "She's loving Brown and she's one of the leading lights on the women's soccer team. I'm not sure how much work she's getting done, but she seems pretty happy."
"That's great," Greta smiled prettily as they reached the elevator. "Well, give Chuck our best wishes, and thanks for coming over."
"It was great to see you again," Sarah replied. "And we look forward to a successful relationship going forward."
They both smiled and shook hands and Sarah headed down in the elevator.
It was a warm late-spring day and Sarah decided to get out of the cab after only a few blocks. The traffic was awful (as usual) and it was only twelve blocks or so to the hotel. Halfway into the walk she was surprised to pass a small alley, which held unpleasant memories. She hadn't realized that would be on the route. She didn't linger, choosing instead to continue walking back to the hotel. She was a different person now. That part of her life far behind her.
She arrived at the hotel and was greeted by the doorman. "Hello, Ms Walker," the man said. "Welcome back."
"Thanks Tom," she replied, "Good to see you." She was keen to get back and get her suit off so she didn't linger, heading to the elevator. She sighed as the card clicked open the door but then paused as she didn't see her suitcase in the room. None of her stuff was here.
All that was in the room was a beautiful dress on the bed, a box of shoes and a message. "Put these on. Then come to room number forty-five twenty," it read. It was signed "CB"
She sighed. He didn't expect her to get all doled up without makeup, did he? She looked in the bathroom and saw that all her toiletries were there, including some of her makeup from home. He knew her well.
She had a shower, fixed her hair and makeup and then put on the dress and the shoes. Unsurprisingly they fit perfectly. He had a good head for what she looked good in. Then she headed back to the elevators and to the forty fifth floor, finding the room and clicking the card to open the door.
He was working at the desk, clad in a pair of slacks, blue shirt and a charcoal gray sports jacket. "Ah, my esteemed deputy head of sales," he greeted. "How are you? How did it go?" He stood, walking towards her and wrapped her in a hug, kissing her on the lips. It had been less than a day since they'd seen each other but she never got tired of his hugs, or his kisses. "You look absolutely gorgeous," he said.
"In the bag," she replied, reveling in his admiration. She just loved this man so much. He was the man that had turned her life around. Who would have thought that a Thursday night in a strip club would have led to this? No longer a stripper, she was now a successful business executive, highly sought after and regularly refusing calls from recruiters. She had no interest in going to any other company, after all.
She'd finally accepted his invitation to move in with him about two years ago. With Molly away at school, they now lived alone together and worked together. She was successful professionally, with Carmichael Industries' educational business now making as much as the original and set to overtake it in the next year, and she was a big part of that. His strategy had paid off and the US educational market had proven every bit as lucrative as he had expected. And he had been able to start utilizing the profits from the adult business for the kids' business and, as with the original CI, he had been very successful, winning a number of awards for his innovative educational software for children.
Their personal life was also going from strength to strength. He held himself very tightly to their agreed personal contract, even exceeding the terms of it some weeks! Although, since they had made the decision that she should come off birth control a few months ago, he now sometimes needed to reserve his "treatments" for the next week. Those were always excellent weeks from her point of view, and more than made up for the discomfort of the weeks that preceded them.
"I thought maybe we'd have dinner on the patio tonight?" he suggested, leading her out to show her a beautiful roof terrace adjacent to the suite. A table for two was already laid out, covered by a white tablecloth and with glasses and plates. A patio heater was already on, counteracting the early evening coolness.
"Oh," she exclaimed, surprised. "Any special reason?"
His face crinkled in a grin. "You don't know the date?"
She hadn't paid particular attention to it. On these sales trips, days tended to merge together. As long as she was in the right city, everything took care of itself. They'd both left Chicago last night. He'd had to go back to Toronto for a meeting but she'd come straight to New York. She'd done a day of meetings and they would have some meetings together tomorrow before they were heading up to Providence for the weekend to see Molly play soccer and then spend some time with her.
He grinned at what she supposed was her blank expression. "Four years ago today a rather nervous nerd was forced into a strip club for the first time," he said, reaching for her hand. "And there he found the love of his life. An Amazonian beauty with a heart of gold, called Sarah."
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed. She wasn't good with dates and never really remembered the day of their first meeting. He'd never made a fuss about it before. Given that he made a fuss of her every single day of their relationship, there'd never been any particular reason to worry about any anniversaries.
He led her out and sat her down. The view was amazing, with Central Park stretched out in front of them, the sun setting behind it. A waiter offered her a glass of champagne, which she accepted. They made small talk, catching up together over the meal, which was lovely. Afterwards Chuck thanked and tipped the waiter, Adam, and they sat on the balcony, admiring the view of the city, cocooned in their heated area. Finally their conversation petered out.
"Sarah," Chuck said, kneeling down in front of her, and grasping her hands. She looked askance at him. "Since you've come into my life I've been the happiest man ever. I feel at ease and relaxed. I'm excited to wake up in the morning, and I'm happy to go to bed at night. I love spending time with you. I'm so grateful for having Molly in my life, and I can't wait til we can add to our little family." He paused and she couldn't look away from his soulful brown eyes. OhmyGod, she thought. Is this? Can this be what I think it is? "I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I want the world to know it. Will you be my wife?"
And he proffered a beautiful gold ring with an exquisite pear cut diamond. She stared at it, stunned, and then she stared at him. His beautiful brown eyes met hers and she could see the love pouring out of them from this special man who had changed her life.
"Yes!" she replied. "Yes Chuck, I'd love to be your wife." Never had she meant any six words more than she meant those six.
He smiled and slid the ring slowly onto her finger.
"Wow!" he exclaimed, "It looks beautiful. Do you like it?" he looked at her. "I can change it if you don't like it?"
"I love it," she told him, cutting him off before he spiraled. And she meant it too. The diamond was exquisite. She estimated about three carats and mounted in a simple style. One of the most beautiful she'd ever seen. Now she understood why he'd asked her to go shopping with him to help buy a ring for Ellie, last holidays. He'd been sounding her out about what sorts of styles she liked. And he'd obviously paid close attention.
"And I love you," she said, pulling him into a kiss. "And I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together."
So that is the end of Stripped Bare. I had a clear plan for the story when I started writing it, but it certainly got a bit more sexy in places than I originally envisaged!
One of the things in the series is that Sarah is so damaged because she can't talk with normal people because she's a spy. I wanted to put Sarah into a role that had a social stigma attached that also meant that she didn't socialize, and this is what I came up with. In the end I ended up focusing more on the love story than the interactions between Sarah and Chuck's friends and family, but that's just where my keyboard ended up taking me.
I hope you enjoyed my ramblings and, if so, please leave a review to let me know. Thanks for all those who have done so already.
