(Sia - Fire meet Gasoline)

The blissful thing about living full time in a hotel was the pool was usually empty during these hours. Dick sliced through the water of the hotel pool in strong powerful strokes, he wasn't even sure what lap this was by now but since the beach was hosting that 'clean up' party surfing was out of the question.

Logan was driving him crazy with that ring burning a hole in his pocket.

Depressingly, before all this hot mess, Dick would have been making moves on some environmental chick with his Mother Earth loving activism, but right now, all he was thinking about was Mac. His roommate was the worst idea for a double-agent, especially since the target acquired was Veronica's best friend.

He was half-way out of his mind after their recent hook-up in the computer lab. He should have been filling up that chalkboard in his room he'd bought for all the names of his freshmen year conquests, instead he was failing to tame the Burmese python that was now his dick.

"Trying to get in shape for all those women I'm not having sex with," Dick grumbled to himself climbing out of the pool and heading towards the steam room.

Of course it wasn't over… They were sexual napalm, and despite her protests about dating Bronson, it hadn't stopped her hooking up with him again.

"Happy with yourself?" a familiar voice demanded.

That smile that makes me stupid. Mac thought angrily. The smile that made me just break up with a perfectly great guy because I keep giving into the last guy on earth I should be thinking about. He halted retrieving his towel, a smile lighting up his face.

Boom! She finally broke up with that animal rights activist douchebag…He wasn't even sure why he'd been so on edge about it. Now that roadblock was removed.

"It sounded like a perfectly reasonable arrangement…" Dick shrugged, taking in her appearance. She must have been out on a date judging by the sleek blue dress and small heels. Despite its obvious cheapness, it hugged her curves in a way that made him want to jump back into the pool to cool the fire igniting in his blood.

"Your sordid little proposition to share me?" Mac demanded incredulously. This whole situation was like a criminal multi-story carpark, it was wrong on so many levels

"Bronson doesn't strike me as the territorial type," Dick said. Not like me… and there would be no one else holding, touching and devouring you.

He was fighting the urge to throw her over his shoulder and haul her back to his room, especially given the way she gulped as her eyes involuntarily moved down his naked chest to the deep v in his waistline and shot right back up, then away again.

"You sent it to my room… with balloons!" she exclaimed. She'd been mid-break up with Bronson when his messenger had shown up. Her eyes continued to eat him up and it had a direct effect on his body.

Why did he have to look like the centerfold of a swimsuit magazine?

His smile faded. "And chocolates."

"Why can't you just go back to being a skirt-chasing manwhore?" Mac said as he wrapped the towel around his waist. For some reason, that made staring at his beautiful body even worse because it gave the impression he was naked underneath, even though she knew that he wasn't.

"The same reason you ended it with Dr Dolittle… this campaign of resistance is failing miserably," he answered sarcastically running his fingers through his damp messy hair.

You're single now... so lets bang...

"I'm not debating this with you so just… stop," she said breathlessly.

Dick a nerve ticking in his jaw. "You're attracted to me, you get speechless around me, you keep checking out my body… you want my hands on you. I don't have to do anything, you know you're going to give in. It's why you're here. Why you can't stay away from me. You can try to be the Queen of Tease, but we both know your throne is my face."

Mac felt legs promptly turned to jelly and internal alarm bells screamed for her to abort mission. He was rewarded by pink cheeks as her mouth gaped open in astonishment.

Yeah, sweet cheeks, you heard me. His blue gaze taunted her. She took her eyes off him with visible effort. Dick smiled, and it was the smile of the Devil himself, Cindy Mackenzie wasn't half as confident as she was letting on.

She wanted him.

Confronting him over that stunt earlier had seemed like a great idea while she'd been seething and having that second glass of wine before ordering a cab to the Neptune Grand, she knew now, that she'd stupidly walked into the lions den.

A lion with a beautifully muscled torso, and a hungry look in his eyes.

Her heart was beating so loud as he stepped forwards it had to be audible. Her nipples pebbled beneath the thin layer of blue cotton, he might have been the one headed towards the steam room, but she was plenty hot and bothered all on her own.

"Keep standing here, and you're going to get wet," he teased in a deep voice smoothing a strand of curled brown hair from her face.

'You're going to get wet…' As if he didn't know exactly how badly she ached for him!

Her tongue slid out and moistened her lips, his steel-blue gaze narrowed in on the small gesture and then danced with hers. The last time they had been this close, he was pushing her legs apart, entering her, his hips picking up the pace as she met him thrust for thrust for that delicious friction as he towered over her. They'd barely undressed, she hadn't gotten to admire his powerful broad chest and shoulders covered in a sheen of sweat as her body clasped around him. Not like she could if he dropped to his knees, ran his hands up her thighs, pushing her knees apart, baring her to him, and pulled her onto his length, taking her right here against the marble tiles.

She saw the tension in his powerful body, as if he'd read the very thoughts in her head, a sweat broke out over his brow.

"Mac?" he swallowed. Her body came to life under his gaze alone and he couldn't ignore the shifts in her breathing that hinted his proximity alone was arousing her.

Sex. It had just been sex. He knew all about sex. He'd been having and excelling at it since sophomore year. Smoochie Booches.

But this? This was ridiculous. This connection with her went way beyond just an orgasm. It was primal, knowing she'd finally broken it off with Bronson eased some dark chest-beating part of his psyche that had been plotting ways to sabotage their relationship. His blood sizzled all over again. She knew how to use that body like she'd been taught by Aphrodite herself.

Mac closed her eyes managing a rough sounding "I can walk you know... and I'm leaving." Even if it was away from a damp and half naked ripped college hunk…

But actions speak louder than words, and she didn't move.

Her scent hit him like a steam train.

"I want to take you out tonight," he said tilting her chin up.

Take the pretty girl out to eat… then eat out the pretty girl…

"No," she said averting her hungry gaze from his mouth. Feigning a calm she didn't feel. She'd answered far more curtly than she intended, but this was about protecting herself. Their complicated past alone should make any kind of relations between a no-go area. You didn't drink poison just because you were thirsty… Her dark hair was long and loose around her shoulders, shuttering her expression from him as she stared at her feet.

Gritting his jaw he tried to bite back the slew of curses, she was a free agent, so why was she still resisting this? This magnetism between them made ending up in bed again inevitable. Some women he lured into his bed with shiny things and expensive clothes. Not Mac, she was starving for him and it was mutual. The idea of not being with her again was like swallowing nails. He'd tackle every wall she threw up between them until it was rubble.

"No grimy college bars, I'll order champagne, get a suite for tonight, we could get room service," he husked. I could use those little dimples of Venus hiding beneath your teeny-tiny dress as thumb cushions...

Mac shook her head. She needed to get away from him before her composure slipped.

Her eyes were huge, pupils dilated. Staring at him intently just like they would if he were buried deep inside her heat.

Damn her. Her breasts pressed against him, her hips welded to his, in a slow, sensual dance but still she was holding back. Her breath grew choppy as the hard bulge beneath the towel pressed against her.

Tightly he said, "If you don't want to go, we can stay."

He knew she'd be tight and soaked… why did she have to make this so much more difficult? It was fait accompli. They belonged together until they'd fucked each other right out of their system. Which couldn't happen without her co-operation, why did smart chicks always have to overthink everything?

Mac half-choked out a laugh. Her smoky grey eyes regarded him with that sharp intellect.

He wanted to kiss her doubts into oblivion. They were both liberated adults, he didn't get off on drama and he hated that she could reduce him to this. He didn't turn into Logan over any woman.

Pinning away for some forbidden love was how a guy ended up with blue balls, and a card carrying membership of the Friend-zone.

Dick tried not to think about her, at night she haunted him, echoes of that first night together were clearer now, and his body ached for her so badly, he could only ease it by jerking off like a horny teenager. He entertained the idea of erasing her from his mind with some other chick, but it was like the rest of the female side of the species ceased to exist.

"I never came to you for that," Mac scolded as crossed her arms and he made a sound half-frustrated, half-angry.

"No you came all over my cock," he gritted.

"Be serious Dick…" she swallowed. Careful not to crowd her but moving infinitesimally closer.

Now she was squirming. She did want him...

"Semantics," he shrugged a seductive smile tugging at the corners of his lips as his fingers gripping her hips.

"I'm not going to bed with you…" she said trying to sound firm but it was lost in a breathy whisper. Was this how small animals felt when they knew they were being hunted?

He looked into her eyes, a grin tugging at one corner of his mouth. "Okay.. no bed."

"Richard.." she warned throatily.

He looked wolfish, no she didn't want to leave his arms but it would be crazy to linger here a moment longer. Before she could dwell on it he took her mouth with a low groan. Hormones humming through her body were stronger than anything she'd ever felt before, then he was pulling back. Her face burned as he gave her infuriating smile again. Like he'd just proven his point.

Stupid panty-twisting kisses… stupid hot blonde with magic fingers who has the nuclear launch codes for the big O...

Management at Neptune Grand had been livid after a facilities attendant had found the two of them looking a little disheveled returning from the steam room and spa. She'd been never been so embarrassed as when Dick had casually joked they were just blowing off some steam.

Then pointed out more seriously that part of his rental agreement with the hotel accounted for his own private use of the spa for 'holistic therapies' and that she was his sexual therapist, shooing the management away with a wave of his credit card and a big evil grin.

"I'll never be able to live this down…" Mac grimaced as the spa attendant handed her a small cloth hotel bag. She didn't need to open it to guess what was inside since she was currently sans underwear and praying like Hell the cab ordered would arrive soon. It wasn't entirely Dick's doing and she knew it, she had been right there every second of the way kissing him back hungrily and begging him to take her harder, deeper, faster.

It didn't stop the self-loathing that usually followed afterwards.

What the HELL was she doing?

"You're dignities in tatters, why not your panties?" Dick shrugged looking ridiculously standing beside her wearing his bath robe in the hotel lobby.

You sexy hot mess of a woman stop running from me… there's 126 perfectly good beds in this building…

"I'd never have gotten into this kind of trouble with Bronson," she snapped before he grabbed her arm and turned her to face him.

How could someone still be so pissed after such great sex? That little pussy had been creamed so many times he'd thought it would be impossible for her to still be cranky.

"True, boredom leads to whoredom…breaking up with him was for the best. He was nice but dull. I like my life steady and uncomplicated. I want you. We can't ignore this mutual attraction anymore. That nerdy brain of yours short-circuits when you look at me, I don't have to chase you… every lickable curve of your body wants me," he said calmly. "I don't care about tongues wagging all I care about is getting your body undermine."

The conviction in his blue eyes following her as she pulled her arm wordless away and fled to the car outside told its own story.

It was incendiary.