CJ and Danny's House in Santa Monica, CA
Sunday, February 10th 2008
She watched from the doorway to his study, waiting for him to notice her.
He was tapping away at his computer, and she wondered how much longer this feud, of sorts, was going to stretch out. It had been almost a week since a difference of opinion with one ex-colleague over an op-ed penned by another ex-colleague had escalated into a pissing contest.
She could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she'd seen him backslide into dogged White House reporter mode in the past year.
It usually lasted the length of a heated argument between the two of them; in the course of which she'd always been able to break him from his funk.
This week, however, she was having no luck, and it was driving her insane by degrees.
She'd never admit it to him, but she liked him all riled up.
The hard set to his jaw, the way his mouth moved, the way he enunciated his words. Even cologne smelled different on him when he was angry.
In a misguided attempt, she'd floated the idea that maybe John Gill had a point. When this had not gone down well, she'd backtracked and said that he was giving John too much importance.
And now he was pissed with both of them.
Part of her worried that this was a time-delayed response to leaving his life in DC behind, but there was no easy way to broach the subject under the current conditions.
"Danny?"
"Yeah?" he replied without looking up.
"It's Sunday night."
His hands hovered over his laptop.
"Do you want to give it a miss tonight?"
He turned to look at her in what felt like the first time in four days, and she felt motivated to go out on a limb before he had the opportunity to take her up on the offer.
"Do you remember the fight we had in my office the night before we headed out to Rosslyn?"
"Yes," he answered warily.
"Let's put that on the list for tonight."
"I don't remember wanting to kiss you that night, why would we put it on the list?"
"You're right, you didn't. But you did get a few things off your chest. And you're angry with me tonight, too."
She watched his eyes narrow briefly before he went back to typing.
"Danny?"
"I'm thinking."
"Okay."
"Do you still have those ridiculous glasses?" he asked after a while.
"As a matter of fact, I do."
"Your office or mine?"
"Mine."
"Okay then. Twenty minutes?"
"Ten."
With the exception of her hair, she looked pretty much as he remembered. Grey pant suit, blue silk blouse, the glasses that he hated. Even the necklace seemed right.
She was even juggling folders and stuffing them into a bag.
"Take it from how long you covered the White House," she said, without looking up.
"What? "
"I've covered the White House for eight years .. take it from there."
"I've covered the White House for eight yea-"
"You were angrier."
"I've covered the White House for eight yea - that wasn't a good night, CJ. You really want to do this?"
"I really do," she said as she pulled the folders out again.
"I've covered it for the New York Post, The -"
"Angrier!" she said as she slapped a folder down so hard she made herself jump.
Now he raised his voice - although as much out of frustration as anger, since he really couldn't see the point in all of this.
"I've covered it for the New York Post, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, and The Dallas Morning News, and I'm telling ya you can't mess me around like this."
"Danny, I gotta tell ya," CJ said as she removed the glasses "that was .. seriously .. that was a turn on when you said that. Though I'm not sure why you decided to be your most haughty on The Dallas Morning News in that sentence."
"CJ .."
She saw it on his face the moment he realized what she had just done.
Gotcha, she thought to herself as she swept past him.
"Carol said the buses were leaving so .." she walked back and whispered, "the buses are leaving" into his ear.
His hand snagged her wrist before she could move, and he maneuvered her up against the closest wall in a heartbeat.
"Either you're telling me to take myself less seriously," he growled in her ear "or -"
"I need you back from whatever the hell it is you have going on with that prick from The Dallas Morning News, Danny. Not to mention that it will be better for your blood pressure."
"You know what isn't good for my blood pressure?"
"What?"
"You goading me. So .. either you're telling me to take myself less seriously, or this turns you on."
He ran his eyes over her face and tested his theory by separating her knees with one of his own and rubbing gently against her.
She moaned involuntarily.
"It turns you on .." he marvelled.
"God, Danny, you haven't touched me all week .."
"That's not a reason to goad me," he mumbled as he licked her outer ear before sucking an earlobe gently.
She opened her mouth raggedly against his cheek as she tried to latch on to any part of him that she could; gasping the moment she felt his hand at the back of her head.
Instinctively she knew that he was protecting her from hitting the wall too hard when he kissed her, but she wasn't expecting his other hand to pull the shirt out of her pants and snake around her waist.
The kiss, when it came, was crushing.
A fusion of frustration, anger, and a hint of desperation - wrapped up in sensory overload.
"You know if we don't take this to bed right now it's going to end up being a dry rub against the damn wall," he breathed in her ear as he moved his hands to her buttocks and pulled her up against him.
"I can live with that."