One good thing about living above the shop is that technically I never have to LEAVE my work and home. Sure grocery shopping had to happen eventually, but if I didn't mind, I could make due with pastries and take out. I might admit to being a tad more jumpy than usual, after locking up after Todd and Rachel, after turning off the lights, and walking upstairs to my apartment. What person, logically, wouldn't be after hearing from Clay that MAX could consider using them as bait?

When the soft knock, almost as known to me as his voice now, came to my outer door I started to open it, but Clay admonished me from the other side, holding the door shut. "Look out the window, Char." I complied, letting him see me roll my eyes at him through the glass. He was shaking his head when he opened the door. "Do you think that if MAX is watching the apartment, they aren't learning my routines?" I sighed and let him pull me into his arms. "Is it worth it?"

I tilted my head back to look up at him in confusion. "Is what worth it?"

"Me." He offered, looking down at me with tight eyes. "Charlotte, am I worth the fear and the danger?" My heart was pounding at the thought of him NOT being near me.

Eyes wide, I stared up at him as I tried to make sense of the question, and prayed that my heart would slow down. "Are you saying you don't think I'm-"

"Oh shit," his arms tightened around me, cradling my head to his chest. "No, Char, that's not what I was-" He groaned and kissed my head. "Fuck. You're worth it, you are, I just don't want to put all this bullshit on your shoulders."

I sighed into his chest. "You're worth it too, Clay." My voice was muffled, but his arms tightened letting me know he heard me. "I just don't know what to expect."

We talked, really talked that evening. Clay wanted to know if the shop, or my apartment had any type of security system he hadn't noticed. When I told him they didn't, he said that would be rectified by morning. He pulled out his phone and told Jensen what was needed, smiling when he assured him that he could take care of it after his date.

"So he did manage to call Carrie?" I asked, once Clay signed off and told Jensen to come upstairs to be let into the shop from my apartment. His eyes met mine with a twinkle and his smile made my heart beat faster for an entirely different reason. "Good, Carrie's a good-" but then his lips touched mine and I stopped talking.

"Jensen's busy for a few hours," he murmured against my lips, his hands sliding down my arms to land on my hips. "So the security system is on hold. I have Cougar perched nearby watching to be sure that we're safe for now." Cougar, I thought, trying to force my mind away from how his long fingers were wrapping around my hips, was 'Charles'. "That means-" He pulled and I was straddling him. "We have time to-" It was my turn to cut him off, my mouth licking into his.

We didn't make it to my bed, the need for one another was too great. Our clothes were tossed around the room, and as we lay pressed together on my couch, skin on skin, I felt much calmer than I had when I first got upstairs. Sex, I guessed, looking down at Clay and correcting my thought to sex WITH Clay could relax me better than a hot bath.

The knock came and I glanced up with shock at how dark it had grown. Damn it, I really had relaxed. "Let me," he shifted me so I was laying on the sofa, pulling the throw blanket over my naked body with a smile, he looked around trying to find his underwear.

"By the stove," I offered, thinking I'd tossed them in that general direction. "Or maybe-"

"The top of the fridge?" He laughed, and I heard him pulling them on. "The living room looks like a tornado of clothes, Char." He was walking toward the door, and I listened as he said something quietly, and the sound of the curtain being moved. "Hey." The door opened and I heard Jensen's voice, along with Carrie's. "You must be Carrie."

I sat up, careful of the blanket, and grinned over the back of the sofa. "Hey!" I waved and my smile grew at the blush that was burning Jensen's face. "I wasn't expecting multiple visitors." A shrug, and the blanket started to slip. "Shit."

"Sorry to interrupt," Carrie's eyes were shining, and her lips were quirking with barely held back laughter. "We'll just-"

"Yeah," Jensen snapped out of the utter embarrassment he seemed to be hit with seeing me barely covered on the sofa with his boss in his underwear answering the door for him. "We'll head down and start in the shop." He nearly ran into the door that led downstairs, but Carrie's hand on the knob helped him avoid disaster. "We'll knock when we're-" Carrie pulled him through the door with a giggle and I shot a look at Clay.

"That boy," he shook his head with a laugh, carefully locking the door leading to the outside and coming back to the couch. "I swear, I'd think he was a fucking virgin, but Cougar swears that he isn't."

"I think Carrie will make sure he isn't, after tonight, I mean." Clay's eyes met mine and I felt my stomach flip. "Want to make sure I'm not?"

He pressed me back onto the sofa and I laughed into his mouth as he reminded me that he knew for certain that I crossed that bridge some time ago.

When Jensen and Carrie came back upstairs after HOURS downstairs, I nearly burst out laughing. Jensen's jeans weren't fully zipped, he had a smudge of Carrie's lipstick peeking out from the collar of his shirt, and I was pretty sure that his glasses were still slightly foggy. Biting my lip, wearing my pajamas after a few more virginity checks by Clay, I offered Carrie and him something to drink.

Carrie and I moved to the kitchen area, while Clay conferred with Jensen and gave him a gentle nudge to zip his damn pants up. "So?" I asked Carrie, our backs to the two hot fucking men working on securing my apartment.

"He's," she bit her lip. "Damn." It came out a whisper and a sigh. My smile grew. "I mean, DAMN." I chuckled and felt the heat of Clay, wearing his pants but no shirt, against my back.

"What's so funny?" His voice, always so damn deep, vibrated through me down to my toes.

"Not a DAMN thing," I offered, forcing a giggle out of Carrie. "Girl talk, you know, like guy talk without the cock?"

That made Clay laugh, and I leaned back into his embrace as Carrie took Jensen a glass and stood with him while he worked. "She likes him," he sounded surprised and I glanced up at him.

"Have you actually seen Jensen through the eyes of a woman?" He raised an eyebrow, so I went on. "First of all, there's his body. I mean, hello buffman." I could tell that Clay had started looking at Jensen as I spoke. "Then that smile?" Which Carrie coaxed easily out of him as he worked and they chatted. "If you can get him to smile, past all the fucking awkward dork, he's dangerous to women's brain function." I studied my friend and Jensen. "He's sweet, and silly." Clay's arms were tightening around me as I spoke. "So yeah, Jensen is likeable, Clay."

"And me?" It was quiet, but I heard and felt it. "Am I likeable?"

I turned in his arms to face him and look up at his face. "Oh, Franklin Clay, you are far more than fucking likeable." He smiled and leaned down to kiss me. "And once my security system is up and running, I just might show you how much more."