Chapter 8: Keep on Looking at Me That Way

A/N: More of the good stuff, a little bit of detecting. Sorry (not sorry). A little more suggestive than prior chapters but I tried to keep it fairly tame. Title from an Eric Church song.

Nancy woke up slowly, feeling more refreshed than she had been since before starting work on the Davis case. Warm sunlight was just beginning to filter in through the curtains. She scooted up a little in bed, propping herself on her elbows, and in the process jostled the blond head which had been using her bare belly as a pillow. Joe's eyes snapped open and she felt him go tense, his fight-or-flight reflex on a hair trigger after all his years of chasing trouble. She touched his face gently and he relaxed.

"Good morning, gorgeous," he said softly, turning his head to press a kiss between her breasts. "I don't know if I'll ever get used to this." He kissed her again, dropping a little lower this time. Nancy closed her eyes and let her head drop back, giving herself over to the sensations: the softness of his kisses, the scratch of his stubble against her skin, the sudden pleasurable sting of his teeth nipping at her side. She felt her body responding to his, skin flushing and heart stuttering in her chest. Joe's teeth scraped her hipbone and Nancy moaned, fingers twisting in the bedsheet.

"Joe, I don't have time," she said breathlessly. "I have a lot planned for today."

"Five minutes," Joe said, circling her navel with his tongue. Nancy arched into his touch like a cat.

"That sounds a bit one-sided," she said, eyes still closed.

"Would I leave you unsatisfied?"

"After only five minutes? Probably," Nancy said, desperately attempting to cling to logic over desire. Her mutinous fingers went on twining into his hair anyway, betraying her approval of what his mouth was doing.

Joe paused and looked up at her, resting his chin on her stomach. He winked. "Have a little faith in me, honey."

Feeling suddenly mischievous, Nancy grabbed Joe's phone off the bedside table and pulled up the stopwatch app. "Okay, Hardy. Five minutes. But if you can get me off that fast I'll-I'll bake you a cake."

Joe grinned, a filthy, joyous grin that did unfair things to her insides. "You're on, Drew. Start the clock."

Nancy collapsed back onto the pillows, breathless and boneless with pleasure. She had just enough strength left to smack the stop button on his phone and peer at the display through half-open eyes. 4.47. Shit.

"Well, look at that," Joe said in mock astonishment, flopping down beside her. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!"

"I call foul," Nancy mumbled, pushing the phone away. "You cheated with all that kissing and biting beforehand."

"Couldn't help myself," Joe said breezily. "Anyway, our terms covered the actual orgasm, not foreplay. Overruled."

"Rematch? Best two out of three?"

Joe leaned in close and kissed the tip of her nose. "I like chocolate cake. With chocolate frosting," he said. Then he was vanishing into the bathroom, laughing. Nancy threw a pillow at the door.

"Bastard," she said happily.

Although she would still have to stop by home for a change of clothes, Nancy decided to get a shower before she left. When she emerged from the bathroom she found Joe waiting with two cups of coffee and a plate of toast. He'd been tinkering with the electrical bits on his desk, but he set them down when she walked in.

"Still angling for a rematch?" he commented, turning to watch her retrieve her clothing from its various resting places around his room. Nancy shook her jeans inside-right before slipping them on, doing a little twirl for his benefit.

"Just giving you something to think about later," she said, reaching for her bra.

Joe got up and came around the bed to grab her shirt before she could put it on. He tossed it toward his pillow and reached for her, big hands fanning out over the delicate symmetry of her sides. Blue eyes caught hers, fathomless, filled with something she couldn't quite name.

"Nancy. We should talk."

Nancy swallowed hard, unable to look away. "Isn't that my line?" she asked faintly.

"Not a bad talk. Just a talk." Joe stepped back to sit on the edge of the bed, steering Nancy to a spot beside him. She sat, pulling her legs up to sit cross-legged, and Joe mirrored her actions unconsciously. Nancy reached out to hold his hands, feeling nervous.

"I don't usually do this," she said. "I'm assuming that's what you want to talk about."

"What, have sex?"

"Casual sex."

"Is that what this is to you? Casual?"

Nancy forced herself to look him in the face. "No," she admitted. "But I'm not going to make any demands on you. I'm perfectly fine taking this one day at a time."

Joe's hands tightened on hers. "See, that's what I wanted to talk about."

"So talk to me."

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm really happy with the way things have been developing between us," he said hesitantly. "I like the way I feel when we're together. I feel happy and comfortable and-and better, if that makes any sense. And I like you so much. I like working with you, and I like hanging out with you, and I like sleeping with you. Don't smirk! I'm trying to be serious here!"

"I'm sorry," Nancy said demurely. Joe sighed.

"So I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm willing to take this one day at a time if that's what you want, but to me that doesn't mean I'll call you when I want sex and be off the hook for everything else. That's cheap. I'm all in, Nan. I'm not looking at anyone else. And I'll stand by you and be there for you and whatever other cliches you want to throw at me. I'm your guy, Nancy, and I'm hoping you want to be my girl." It was his heart, laid out for her there in his clumsy words, and Nancy realized what a precious gift it was. She squeezed his hands tightly and took a deep breath, willing her voice not to shake.

"You're saying you want us to be together," she said. Her voice shook anyway.

"Well. Yes."

"I think," Nancy said carefully, "that we'd be stupid not to give it a try." She smiled up at him, trembling with the sudden release of emotion; and Joe, tactile as ever, released her hands to grab her and pull her into an exuberant hug. For a few minutes the whole world was composed of their two bodies, warmth and heartbeats and pure happiness radiating between them.

Joe broke the silence, in the end. "Coffee's getting cold," he said reluctantly. They sat up, disentangling their limbs, and Nancy reached around for her shirt while Joe got up to retrieve their breakfast.

"Grab that computer, too, please," she requested, scooting up to sit against the headboard.

"Any guesses on the password?" Joe asked, settling in next to her and handing it over.

"A few," Nancy said, flipping it open. "But if it comes to it, I know a really good tech guy."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. He's a pretty good hacker and he's really hot, too."

"I've met that guy. He only works for cake."

Nancy rolled her eyes, fingers tapping away at the keyboard. "Moment of truth," she said, hitting "enter." The screen faded, stayed dark for a long moment, then lit up with Rowena's desktop. Nancy grinned triumphantly.

"Parents. So predictable."

"Her son's name?"

"Bingo." Nancy scanned the folders, looking for anything that looked promising. Photographs, anti-virus, tax records, a few games.

"Try her email. She probably left herself signed in," Joe suggested, offering her the toast. Nancy traded him the laptop for the plate and ate her slice while Joe entered the Hardys' wireless password and pulled up Rowena's web browsing history.

"Bingo again," Joe said, swapping the computer for the remaining toast. Nancy peered at the screen. Rowena's inbox was filled with email after email from Sebastian. Evidently Rowena felt as sentimental about electronic correspondance as she did about written.

"I could spend a week reading these," Nancy groaned.

"Skim through the most recent," Joe advised, reaching for his coffee. Nancy clicked on the last message Sebastian had sent.

"Classes, disobedient students, bicycle club," she said, skimming through. Joe yawned.

"Boring."

"More about his students. Biked 20 miles."

"Not a good reason to kill him."

"Too much rain to ride...petty argument with another teacher...oh, here's something. 'Met with Mr. Nickerson today about Tadpole. He seems to think I have a good chance of winning sole custody.' I had no idea Sebastian had a child."

Joe leaned in to look. "What did Rowena say about it?"

"Um...here we go. 'So glad to hear you are finally taking steps to get my poor baby away from that bitch. Don't worry about money for the attorney, Seb, I can help you out all you need.'" Nancy pushed her hands through her damp hair. "Of course Ned is the lawyer involved in this. Of course."

"I can talk to him if you want. I'm not afraid of the big bad ex."

"Thanks, but I doubt he'll be free to discuss the facts of the case, especially since it involves a minor. I'll talk to Bess first. She knows everything about everyone in this town." Nancy brightened. "At least now we know Rowena's motive for blackmailing Sir Morgan. She needed money to support her son's court case. And we can assume that the mother of Sebastian's child, whoever she is, is very likely mixed up in this whole thing."

"Do you think she killed Sebastian?"

Nancy closed the laptop and set it aside. "I'm not sure. I still need the details of the car accident."

In the kitchen, Frank and Callie were drinking their own coffee and eating scrambled eggs. Frank was reading the newspaper while Callie sketched his profile.

"Mornin', Gramps," Joe said, pushing Frank's reading glasses up his nose on his way to put their plate and mugs in the sink. Frank said "Hey!" and aimed an automatic punch at his brother, who dodged with the ease of long practice.

"Good morning, all. Joe, I'll wash those," Nancy said, following behind.

"You can wash up next time. Today you have work to do."

"I'm not the only one. Don't you have to follow up on that vandalism case?"

Joe shrugged. "I'm pretty sure I know who's responsible. Kid's in summer school all morning. I'll head out there this afternoon and catch the little criminal mid-mural."

Nancy pulled up a chair at the table. "Hey, Frank?"

"Hi, Nan. What can I do for you?"

"What makes you think I was planning to ask a favor?"

"You have a tell," Frank told her. "I can always tell when you're lying and when you're asking a favor. You hold your breath."

"Somebody should have mentioned that to me sooner," Nancy said indignantly.

"It's not obvious," Joe said. "It's just that we've known you for so long..."

"Callie, do I really do that?"

Callie looked up from her sketch. "Not that I've ever noticed. But you know me, Nan. I'm as gullible as a baby."

"Never mind that. What do you need?" Frank asked.

"That car accident last week," Nancy said. "I'd like to see the accident report."

"I'm not on duty today. I can remember the gist of it, though. Brake failure. There was no impact event; the driver just lost control and went over the bridge. The coroner found that the driver and the passenger both died of blunt force trauma."

"Could it have been deliberate?"

Frank thought for a moment. "We had no reason to view it as suspicious, but yeah, I guess the car could have been sabotaged."

Callie shuddered. "You'd think I'd be used to hearing things like this over breakfast."

"I'm sorry, Cal." Nancy stood up. "Thanks, Frank. That's helpful."

Joe walked her to the door, pulling her in for a long kiss in the entryway. "Talk to you later?"

"Mmm. Yes." Nancy smiled up at him. "Thanks again for your help last night, Joe."

Joe wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "My pleasure, mademoiselle."

"Dirty boy." Nancy kissed him again and left, laughing.