I know I said Two shot, but there will be one more chapter. Bear with me. :)

She found him in the library that afternoon, scribbling furiously in his journal; Altair had dismissed the others to their duties some time ago and was now trying to make up for all the reports he really should have written days ago. Maria was going to distract him, he knew; it was really only a question of how long he could ignore her before she became insistent. As it turned out, he did not have long to wait.

The whisper of her clothes as she moved was enough to catch his attention, but he plowed determinedly on until she draped herself on his shoulders, pushing down with all her weight and catching his writing hand with hers. "You left me alone all morning. Did you really think I wouldn't find you?" He swallowed a laugh and hid his smile by turning his face from her. "Do you really think you could have found me if I had not wanted you to?" Maria nuzzled his neck softly, nipped along his jawline. "I'm certain of it, I know you too well." He squeezed her hand warningly, "That sounds like a challenge." "It is a promise".

He could feel her smirk against his shoulder, she was learning some of his bad habits, including his arrogance. This was as good a time as any to teach her the error of her ways. "Very well. A game, then. I will hide and if you find me I will take back everything I said and finish what I started this morning." She snorted, "We are not children to be playing games, and I expect to finish what we started right now." With that, she bit into his shoulder, running her hands down his front slowly to linger along the edges of his stomach, sliding down to scrape softly at his hip bones. Altair sucked in a startled breath, reaching to catch her hands but she moved too quickly and caught his instead, trapping them at his chest with a firm grip. "No. My turn." That didn't sound promising; clearly he just wasn't meant to get any work done today.

When he went still she allowed his hands to drop and pulled away, he could hear a whisper of cloth and the hiss of weapons leaving their sheaths, and just what the devil was she doing anyway? Altair turned to find her kneeling, arranging her weapons just so, her robe obviously discarded. "Someone could come in." Maria chuckled softly, "We'll just have to hope your reputation for reprimanding the poor fools that dare disturb your work will keep them at bay, won't we?" He made to move toward her but she held out her hands to stop him, catching his hips and guiding him back into his chair. "No. I said it was my turn; that means for now, I give the orders."Altair could not quite stop himself from swallowing nervously, his throat was curiously dry, "Only for now, remember. I wouldn't like to find a mutiny on my hands."

Her smile turned vaguely predatory as she tugged at his belt, shifting his robes out of her way, arranging his knees so that she could kneel between them. He reached out to caress her face, tracing the lines of concentration that tightened her eyes as she sought out and discarded his weapons. She pulled back and brushed his hands away: "Hands on your desk, don't move them." It took him a moment to comply, it had been some time since he had taken anyone's orders, but it was Maria after all and if anyone could command him and expect to be obeyed it would be her. Even Malik could not quite go so far. He jumped when he felt her hands on his bare flesh, her nails tracing the outline of his muscles down to those intriguing indentations about his hip bones, she leaned forward to trace the trail with her tongue and Altair felt himself tremble slightly before he managed to regain control. "I have duties to attend to." He was rather proud of how steady his voice was in spite of all. Her breath was warm on his flesh as she replied "Yes, you have duties you want to attend to and I wanted a little longer abed. Alas, neither one of us is getting precisely what we want." Altair shuddered, "I wouldn't be so sure of that."

He arched as she moved forward again, running her hands down his legs and back up the inside of his thigh, her mouth moving lower still. It didn't help that he was well-acquainted with precisely what she could do with that wicked tongue. As said tongue traced him, he reached to twine his fingers in her hair and she pulled back with a mocking frown. "I said no touching and I expect to be obeyed. Prices paid remember." He clenched the edge in a desperate grip as she resumed her ministrations, those callused hands and that talented mouth working together in sweet torment. Altair stifled his groans as she moved steadily faster, closing her mouth about him and squeezing him firmly. His eyes did not want to stay open, and his vision was darkening slightly. He was too close… and then she stopped.

Maria rose and stretched, moving to quickly collect her things and dress before his mind had quite processed what had happened. "We'll call it even, shall we? You have duties to attend to and I really should head out to the practice court. It's been a while since I went through my paces." Altair growled, "Are you sure you want to do this?" She grinned childishly "Absolutely. Revenge is sweet, I would know." "Tease." "No worse than you."

Maria leaned forward to kiss him softly, reminding him painfully of exactly what he might have had. He tried to pull her in for a deeper kiss but she resisted, twisting out of his arms as she laughed gaily. "Meet me later in the practice courts. We can discuss it there." Altair nodded, a ferocious scowl on his face that promised retribution. "I will." Even after she had left, it was some time before he could get back to work.