CHAPTER 8

Author's Note: Thank you everyone for reading. I had so much fun writing this. Might even write more mis-adventures of my favorite Councilors. Who knows. Drop me a note if you had a fun ride. I did :)

I'd called myself all kinds of stupid. But there was no other word for it really. The one person who was my tether, was now going to be awkward, uncomfortable and unhappy because of me. Because I couldn't keep my damned libido in check.

But there was no lying. What I'd suddenly felt for Councilor Garrus Vakarian was nothing short of epic and galaxy-shattering. Because well hey, that's how far we'd gone.

Another string of colorful expletives followed.

The world beyond was darkness. This part of the presidium was still uninhabited. The damage was extensive. I'd flown my skycar around on a whim. And sure enough it was still there. His favorite place on the Citadel.

Illuminated in the low beam of my skycar, I had managed to lean against a fallen palling, a few lopsided crates supporting my back as I stared out into the darkness. The one afternoon of target practice running like a mantra in my mind. If only I'd known what I know now. I would have saved…

Orange light flared on my wrist and I blinked down in shock. Who…

My heart both sank and gave a little lurch when I saw exactly who had managed to find me. With a groan, I flicked open the channel and glared into his orange tinted spikey self. "Did you just hack into my omnitool Vakarian."

"Uh…yeah."

"How did that lecture go? Oh yeah, you're a councilor now."

"Do shut up Jane." I felt more than heard the laughter in his flanging voice as he narrowed those blue eyes at me. "Are you alone?"

"No."

I watched with some heinous satisfaction as he floundered for a moment then seemed to hone in on me suspiciously. "Who's the unlucky bastard?"

"Jack Daniels."

There was a spurt of startled laughter before he cleared his throat. "Ah…then perhaps I shouldn't come up and disturb you two."

I frowned into the darkness and sure enough there was another source of light somewhere beneath the structure I was holed up on. And like the rising human reaper we'd defeated before, he slowly and ominously slid up into view, ogling me from inside the skycar.

Grunting, I shielded my eyes and flicked off my omnitool. My fellow councilor slowly maneuvered his car around to park on a study section before the door hissed open and he came out. Dressed in his Councilor garb as usual, I saw that he looked a lot more harried than usual. A sick little part of me was happy he probably had to go searching for me. Another saner, lets renegade part of me wanted to reach out and sooth him.

His fringe was stiff, his mandibles tight against his jaw, the jacket open around his carapace, a crisp white shirt hanging a tad lopsided over his pants. Even though I didn't know much about Turian fashion, I could tell the look was pretty damn sexy on him.

Focus, my inner soldier commanded as Garrus came to stand beside me, the lights on his skycar finally going down. "You're intruding."

"Huh. Never minded before. Buuut," he chuckled low and rumbling, "I did kick your ass here. Interesting place to pick." I saw him sit on the crate to my right, his thigh nearly touching my shoulder, one open talon on his opposite knee as he slid the behind me, his thumb ghosting over my nape.

A shiver went through me and I saw the blue flicker of his visor. Lifting my head up in my best Shepard Commander glower, I spoke through gritted teeth. "Take that thing off."

"Come on Jane…"

If I'd been anyone else, I would have demanded. But I had leapt, one hand wrapping around his headpiece with the speed of a viper and yanked it off. Now Garrus is no novice. My attack although successful didn't manage to make its inevitable retreat. His rough, thick talons caught my wrist, his other arm snaking around my waist and pulled.

Balance shifting, I realized the error of my strategy with belated lament as I was flattened against his carapace without further ceremony. And the spiral of bawdy images and ragged breath began. Well fuck. I was an idiot.

I could tell he'd been startled by my assault, his own muscles reacting on reflex, but when his brain caught up with just how close I was pressed against him, my breath wafting across his mouth plates, Garrus Vakarian sighed. Or moaned. Or whispered my name. I couldn't tell because everything around me had caught fire.

"Let go of me," I rasped, light breaking out behind my eyes, fingers clawing as the freight of all I'd denied seem to build to a hurtling speed inside me.

"Jane," the Turian hoped for calm as he gently began, his fingers flexing on my wrist and waist. Then he felt the jerk of my bones, stubborn and unrelenting. Afraid. He switched gears and yanked the rug out from under me. Mouth widening into a toothy, shit-eating grin, he stole my breath completely as he leaned his head closer, nose pressing into mine. "Let go of the visor."

Blood ignited, I refused to avert my nearly cross-eyes gaze. "I'm warning you Garrus."

"I'm reminding you Jane," he purred and the vibration of it pulled more quakes from my frame. "I'm not Alenko."

Streams of colorful curses abundant, I think I head-butted him. Either way, amid cries of surprise, fury and laughter (mostly his!), Garrus and I went over the crate in a heap of tangled limbs. Struggling, hoping to refine my hold on him, I keened inwardly when I realized my bones and muscles didn't respond as they once had before the Reapers dropped the entire Citadel on me. Grunting and still spewing curses, I screamed bloody murder when Garrus easily maneuvered me under him, both my wrists wrapped in one big hand, his grip unrelenting as was the press of his hips against mine and ankles pinned under harder, longer limbs. Damn his reach!

The visor was still in my grip. Take that you big, bully, sexy-voiced dinosaur!

"Really? Dinosaur?" I glared when I realized my inner monologue had also found its way among the many colorful names I'd already been calling him. Too angry to speak, too turned on, too everything, I ducked forward and snapped my teeth at him. Garrus Vakarian only laughed, his eyes full of something warm and teasing. Like thick, sweet molasses. "Sexy-voiced, hmmmm?"

A wild, careening thing seemed to ricochet through my bones and settled low in my belly. Warming, roiling and definitely wanting. "I've called you worse names!"

"Oh I heard them all." Astoundingly enough, the dinosaur in question completely ignored my spitting, biting threat and nuzzled his nose with me. The act was so out of left field that for a breath-stealing second, I just lay there in a stunned heap. "With you sweetheart, I've learned to filter what I don't need."

Mouth parting more at the endearment than his clear disregard, I realized why I was so off-balance lately.

The truth was simple: the balance had shifted.

I wasn't Commander Shepard Soldier Extraordinaire out to save the world. He wasn't Rookie C-Sec looking to prove himself either. And it was then that I realized why I was here with Garrus and not anyone else. Of all my people, he had come such a long way. Made so much of himself. Made me so incredibly proud of all he'd weathered and persevered.

The stupid visor was just an excuse. It wasn't that it gave him an advantage. It was that it scared the shit out of me. I had no shields where this Turian was concerned.

"Jane?"

Teeth grinding together, I realized I'd drifted off into my own head. His hands were gentler, as was his sexy voice. The soft breath that wafted across my temple was endearing. Tender and so very accepting. That alone made my breath hitch. "Get off me."

"Are you going to avoid?" I scowled up at him, his smirk didn't falter. "You've tried biting me already. That's all that's left in your arsenal."

I put up one last struggle and cried out in frustrated anger. It sounded more like a whine. "Is this fun for you?"

"Oh yeah. I do like a fighting spirit in my women."

Everything tingly pooled between my legs and I gasped my eyes going glassy. "Is this your way of pissing on your property?"

Garrus threw back his head and laughed, but when his eyes came down they were full of the one emotion I had the worst time with. I just didn't know what to do with love.

"Let me show you the possibilities."

Dammit, I said that out loud as well.

"`Fraid so. Jane?" This time, there was a clear warning the way he spoke my name. It sent up every red flag I'd ever put up against being vulnerable. "Take a deep breath."

"Wha!" My eyes widened at the feral snarl that preceded him diving forward and kissing the living daylights out of me.

And despite our fit. Despite all the differences between our species, one thing translated perfectly.

I want you. I love you. Shut up and kiss me back.

If I'd thought he'd be gentle, I was wrong. Hell, those claws sent my skin screaming for more. And that sleek wet tongue did things to my mouth I would never be able to think clearly about. For all his lack of lips, the Turian branded every inch of my lips, teeth and tongue. There might have been an instance my tongue slicked too close to the sharp edges of his teeth, but I will not lie. Nothing seemed more important.

My fingers weaved through the spikes of his crest, edging and pushing into the rough hide of his neck. Pulling, divesting him of coat, shirt and everything in the way.

The visor skidded away a few feet and blinked off.

Somewhere across the galaxy an Asari cut off the feed, her cheeks tinged with a hue of lavender. Well! About time really.

THE END