She runs every red light and practically plows through the Palisades' gates in her rush to get back to the house. Their house. Where Lucifer is now unknowingly meeting with a murderer. The fact that this is becoming a near weekly occurrence for him does nothing to ease her mind. It's not as though experience has made him any more cautious. In fact she's almost certain he's currently making things worse for himself. She can already picture it, even as she hurries towards the front door.
She wishes she wasn't right.
"Perfect timing, as always, Detective." Lucifer grunts out from where he's currently sprawled on their living room floor, pinned down by Ms. Palmer's taser gun. His voice is tinged with sarcasm but when she looks at him he's still alive and relatively unharmed so it seems like her timing is rather...timely.
"Drop the weapon, Palmer." Her gun is already out and pointed at the other woman.
"He just attacked me, Officer, I've done nothing wrong!" The explanation rushes out as she pulls the trigger once more, sending Lucifer into frightening convulsions. He manages to grit out a 'I did no such thing' through clenched teeth, and receives another shock for it.
"It's over, we know you killed Vidya. We have you on video leaving with the body in your car." Chloe steps forward, fighting the urge to bend down and try to help Lucifer - there's nothing she can do for him until she disarms Ms. Palmer.
"You couldn't possibly - why would I ever hurt that poor girl? There's no motive!" She's obviously trying to maintain a calm demeanour, though her voice cracks at her words and her hands still grip the taser like a lifeline.
But as much as Chloe hates to admit it, the other woman is right. There is no motive, the two women barely knew each other and losing a homebuyer had only hurt Ms. Palmer financially. She looks the other woman over, trying to decipher the reason she might have killed their victim. For all her shrillness and itchy trigger finger, she doesn't really look like a crazy person or anything right now. Her blonde hair is still neatly pulled back over her immaculate skirt suit, not a single thing out of place, other than the slight shaking of her hands. Wait, blonde hair? Cliff! She hopes she's right on this, it would all make sense.
"We know about you and Cliff," Chloe throws out, "that's why he had the key to the house, and why you killed Vidya Patel - you thought he was cheating on you with her."
Chloe is expecting shock, or anger, but not the disgusted look that spreads over Angela Palmer's face. "Ew, no. I'm trying to build a real estate empire here and you think I'm going to waste my time with some half-rate investment banker who can't keep it in his pants?"
Chloe's a little taken aback by her response. Her instincts have rarely failed her before, but If she wasn't involved with any of the residents, then why...
A sharp grunt beside her draws her attention to the fact that Lucifer has used the moment of distraction to free himself from the taser barbs. Ms. Palmer notices too. Chloe can see in her expression that she knows she's lost any leverage she may have had. This is usually about the time their suspects either clam up or start monologuing.
"It was those stupid cats!"
...Or they spout off nonsense. That one's kind of new.
"But Ms. Patel didn't own any cats?" Lucifer supplies helpfully, clearly not at his best after being hit with 50,000 volts. He pulls himself up to stand at her side, still a little wobbly but at least now he's upright.
"The mountain lions, you idiot!" She responds, as if that makes things any clearer. Though somehow it does to Lucifer. He sets a hand on her shoulder, steadying himself as he attempts to explain.
"I may have mentioned we saw one this morning. They're still a protected species - the woodlands around the development might be protected too if it was part of their hunting ground or linked them with potential mates."
"That land is mine! I paid good money for it, and that annoying little twit thinks she can come in and tell me I can't build on my own land? Just to save some stupid cats?"
"So you killed her." Chloe states, halting her ramble. Lucifer looks deeply offended on behalf of the mountain lions.
"She was standing in the way of progress! All of those tree huggers think they're saving the world but all they're really doing is crippling our economy and preventing hard working Americans from doing their job!"
"Surely you could build somewhere else..." Chloe starts, but Lucifer just shakes his head. There's no reasoning with crazy.
You can, however, handcuff crazy, and read it its rights. And then have it picked up by several police officers, who arrived on the scene shortly afterwards.
With Angela Palmer locked away the house becomes a flurry of activity, filling up with other officers and the CSI and medical teams. She and Lucifer are both cleared by the medics - apparently there's no lasting damage from the taser on Lucifer. Which is weird, but she's slowly getting used to weird. But there's still questions to be answered, statements to take, and barely a moment alone to ask Lucifer if he's ok. She finally gets a chance after the CSI team grabs a few photos of his non-existent injuries, and she manages to catch him just as he's buttoning his shirt back up.
"Of course I'm fine, Detective, though if you're offering to kiss it better…"
She nearly smacks him in the chest, right where he should still be injured. For all that he gets himself into the most ridiculous situations, he always comes out nearly unscathed. It's a strangely comforting habit, though it doesn't stop her worrying. Especially now that they are…
They never really settled on a term for what they are to each other, but Chloe is oddly ok with that. She knows what he feels for her, and vice versa. That conversation feels so long ago now, but in reality they were interrupted only a few short hours ago. She already misses the former peace and intimacy of their shared living room. With all the adrenaline slowly dissipating, Chloe allows herself to subtly lean into the man beside her, appreciating his nearness.
"Maybe later, if you behave." She quietly jokes back, not wanting any of their co-workers to hear, especially since she's not entirely teasing. They definitely have some unfinished business to deal with later, but police work comes first.
Ella sidles up to them, pretending not to notice their obvious closeness. "So...mountain lions. That's a new one. I thought they avoided humans, generally?"
"With you humans encroaching further and further on their territory they're forced to hunt where they can." Lucifer explains, while Ella just nods.
"Was there some sort of PBS nature special I missed?" Chloe adds bemusedly. How do Ella and Lucifer know all these random animal facts?
"Hey so with the crazy lady in jail, what happens to the mountain lions?" Ella asks hopefully.
"The land will probably be seized by the state, or at least get tied up in the courts for a while." Chloe hazards a guess.
"So in the end Vidya Patel really did save those mountain lions, didn't she?"
"Well, they're not actually endangered in the state of California…" Lucifer starts, but Chloe stops him.
"Yes. She really did."
It takes only a few moments to pack up their things - almost nothing in the house is theirs. Chloe isn't exactly broken up about having to leave behind Barbara's wardrobe, minus the dark blue floral dress she's currently wearing, and she can imagine Lucifer is thrilled to ditch the chinos. He's already back in his own clothes, waiting out in the driveway. He's propped languorously against the side of her car, bottles of wine in hand. At this point she really shouldn't be surprised. She grabs the bottles from him, moving to stow them in the trunk along with her few bags.
By the time she gets back to the front of the car, Lucifer has already situated himself in the driver seat. The keys she swore were in her pocket just a second ago are currently being used to start the engine. Lucifer rolls down the window and looks up at her with his usual grin - somehow perfectly innocent and entirely wicked all at once.
"You know this is my car, right?"
"I'm well aware of that fact, Detective. I'm also well aware of your penchant for driving like a septuagenarian when you're not pursuing criminals."
"Just because I follow the speed limit…"
"Yes, exactly. And while that might normally be an admirable trait in an officer of the law, I'd really like to leave this hellhole behind at full bloody speed."
Chloe avoids rolling her eyes again only out of fear of spraining them, and reluctantly settles into the passenger seat. Lucifer immediately reverses out the driveway before she even has her seatbelt on, which she adjusts with a glare towards the man at the wheel. But he is already speeding out the neighborhood, leaving the other houses in a blur behind them.
Chloe wants to yell at him to slow down when she's distracted by an alert from her phone. It's from Dan.
"Why is Dan saying he'll meet me at the house at 9:30? It's barely 4 and we're only half an hour away…" She mumbles more to herself than anyone else.
Lucifer grins, "I took the liberty of texting Detective Douche while you were packing up your things. I may have mentioned that we'd be done here by 9, and you would be home shortly after."
"But we're already done for the day, and we're not expected back at the station until tomorrow morning?"
"Yes, I'm perfectly aware, Detective. Which leaves us with five blissful, uninterrupted hours…"
"Five hours for what?"
Lucifer gives her a look as if she is deliberately misunderstanding him, which she..
"Oh!"
"I would have preferred a full twenty-four, though I'm fairly certain it will take at least several months, possibly years, to even begin to get through all the things I want to do to you…"
He turns to look at her, gaze searing when she finally meets his eyes. She can feel her earlier arousal creeping back just from his words, and the expectation in his voice. The idea of 'years' feels heavy in the best way possible.
"But for now I will take what I can get, as I'm sure you would not take kindly to me keeping you from your offspring any longer than this."
"Not today, at least," she reluctantly agrees. "It's been nearly a week without her."
"If you wish to see her sooner…" The words come out a bit strained, but she can tell he would simply drop her off at home without argument if she asked him to. It's noble of him to offer, but she decides to take pity on him - on both of them.
"She and Dan will be alright for another couple hours without me. I'm not sure I could say the same for you." She teases, "But twenty four hours?"
"Worried you couldn't keep up?" He falls easily back into their usual banter, grin now firmly back in place
"I'm not sure anyone could." She states with a laugh.
"I assure you I can and you will, and you'll thoroughly enjoy every second of it."
Her laughter comes to an abrupt halt at the conviction in his tone. He's completely serious, but even more surprising is her reaction to his words. A jolt of lust shoots straight to her core at the thought, and she tries to press her thighs together discreetly just to alleviate some of the tension. But it only intensifies the sudden aching between her legs, and the move definitely doesn't go unnoticed by the man beside her. His hand drifts from the gear shift to her left thigh, trailing along the bit of bare skin revealed by her skirt. The gentle circling of his thumb against the inside of her knee should have had a calming effect on her, but instead she just feels more wound up than ever. She's not entirely convinced that wasn't his intention.
"Relax, Detective…" He gently commands, voice rumbling over her and doing nothing to ease the tension suffusing her entire body and centering between her thighs.
"You relax!" As comebacks go, it's not her best, but she realizes she's been on edge since this morning - in more ways than one. It suddenly feels far too warm within the car, and her hand goes up to tug back her hair from her neck and shoulders.
But Lucifer just chuckles at her response, allowing his hand to drift slightly higher, until his fingers run along the edge of her skirt. Her breath catches when his pinky barely dips below the fabric, brushing against her inner thigh. The rest of his fingers soon follow, at the same careful pace, either to give her time to stop him or to slowly drive her insane - she's not sure which. Though she might already be past the point of insanity because she never had any thought of stopping him.
His eyes remain firmly on the road, which passes far too rapidly for her comfort, while his fingers inch slowly beneath her skirt. His wrist catches on the hem, dragging the fabric up along with it. She can't believe she's actually letting him do this. She just hopes they're not pulled over for speeding, or public indecency. With their luck it would be Dan that pulls them over. Lucifer would probably love that, actually. And it says something about her current state of sexual frustration that the thought doesn't automatically have her pushing him away. Instead she allows his hand to continue its tantalizing journey along her inner thigh.
Her right leg shifts unconsciously to the side, opening her further to his hand's explorations. His fingers draw nearer and nearer to where she wants them, and she can feel her excitement soaking through the thin cotton of her panties. It's going to be very obvious just how eager her body is for his touch but she finds she doesn't really care. She should also probably be concerned that he's still driving at a rather alarming speed, but she knows he would never let anything happen to them. So she shuts her eyes and allows the outside world to fade away, purely focused on the feel of his hand as it continues upwards.
She's hyper aware of his every movement, and it almost feels as though it's happening in slow motion, despite the overwhelming speed of the world around them. It feels as though several lifetimes pass before he finally reaches the top of her thigh, until his fingers are just brushing the lace edge of her panties. Even now, his fingers continue their maddening pace, trailing along the lace until until she thinks she might spontaneously combust.
It's both a shock and a relief when his hand finally slips down to cup her center, the heat of his palm searing through the sodden fabric of her underwear. She moans at the contact. For far too long he simply rests his hand there, doing little to soothe the ache between her thighs. She presses back against his palm, seeking more pressure, more friction.
"Lucifer. .." She means it as a rebuke, but it comes out as a plea. Still, it produces the desired effect. Lucifer's fingers finally press against her, dragging along her center until they reach the bundle of nerves at the apex before sliding down to start the process over again.
It's still not quite enough, and her hips shift of their own accord to meet his fingers with each stroke. Her hands grip at the door handle and the center console as she rocks deliberately against the movement of his hands. He presses back more firmly but still she needs more. Seeming to sense this, he finally pushes aside the fabric of her panties, allowing his fingers to slip between her bare folds, slight callouses deliciously rough against her over sensitized flesh. They glide down further, barely dipping into her entrance, before spreading her wetness up to her clit and circling it with slick fingers. She risks a glance over at him to see him grinning in his seat.
"You know, you really should wear skirts more often, I must say this is delightfully convenient."
"Not really a skirt kind of girl…" She breathes out, biting back a moan when he reaches down again to dip a finger inside her, barely more than a tease. There's not really enough enough space for more, but it leaves her with a pleasant ache deep inside.
"Then I'll just have to get more creative." He challenges back, but she doesn't spare a thought to worry what that might mean for the future. Right now she is very much in the present, where Lucifer's fingers have found the perfect rhythm against her clit. She can already feel herself nearing the edge after all the teasing. Her legs are trembling even as her hands grip more tightly against the car around her.
All the while Lucifer is still weaving through the surrounding traffic with frightening determination, speeding towards home. Chloe barely notices anymore, lost in the sensation of his fingers moving with equal fervor against her. But the jarring sound of a car horn brings her swiftly back to reality, eyes flying open just in time to see Lucifer cutting another car off.
"Slow down!" She gasps out automatically, but he takes no notice of her choked out command. Or at least it doesn't seem to have any effect on his driving speed, though the fingers circling her clit have now slowed to an agonizing pace.
"That's not what I meant and you know it." She groans in frustration.
"Perhaps you care to be a little more explicit , Detective." He purrs.
"Just...get us home in one piece. Please."
"Well, since you did say please..." His fingers move once more at that perfect pace, and she feels herself sinking deeper into her seat. She can't decide if she wants this to end or if she wants him to draw it out forever. It's rapidly spiraling beyond her control.
"This is only the first of many, love." He finally looks over at her, dark eyes leaving the road only momentarily but it's enough, the heat of his gaze along with the promise of his words, to send her rushing over the edge. Her legs close instinctively around his hand, still firmly pressed against her clit as she rides wave after wave of sensation, her entire body shuddering in release. It's several long moments because she comes down enough to free his hand, falling back against the seat just as the car comes to a careful stop.
"Well, it looks like we've finally arrived." He announces with a cheshire grin as they conveniently pull into the lot by Lux. She wonders if he timed this.