A/N: I think a few people missed the last update and then this one has been a while coming because I got sick last week, but hopefully everyone will see this chapter and love it! Thanx for the reviews from those that did, and for your patience in my absence. Here is me trying to write Tara and then... well, you read it, you'll see!

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 11

So far, Tara wasn't really sure what to make of the Leverage team. When Sophie called and asked her to fill her place until she felt ready to come back, to secretly keep an eye on the little family Sophie had made for herself, there wasn't much of a choice for Tara but to say yes. She owed her fellow grifter a huge favour, and besides, it wasn't as if she was doing this stuff out of the goodness of her heart like the rest of them. She was going to get her cut from each and every successful job they pulled, and from what she'd seen so far, this team did not fail.

Hardison was very young, but seemed to know what he was doing. He managed a degree of professionalism that Tara respected, and the fact he liked the look of her didn't hurt, because she could always used that to her advantage if she needed to. As for Nate, he was less a professional and more of a potential loose canon, but Tara trusted Sophie and she in turn trusted Ford, so it worked out.

That just left Eliot and Parker, the two members of the team that Tara was having most trouble with. Job-wise, she didn't doubt they were excellent at what they did. Parker was supposed to be the best when it came to safe-breaking, rappelling, and pick-pocketing, which were some pretty good skills to have in their line of work. She was quirky to say the least, but that really didn't bother Tara. As for Eliot, well, they didn't call him the muscle for nothing. The guy was beyond built and seemed like he would do the job first and worry about everything else later. Of course, Tara had certain ideas of how she and him could spend their down time, but she hadn't told him that and probably wouldn't either. It wasn't that she was worried he'd turn her down, Tara Cole never worried about that kind of thing. Her reason for keeping her hands to herself was simple; she knew she wasn't what Eliot really wanted and she knew she'd cause a rift in the group if she did what she wanted on that score. The reason was Parker.

"Y'know, you can tell me nothing is going on until your face turns blue, but I don't believe it" she said, shaking her head as she followed Parker's gaze to where Eliot was kicking Hardison's butt at darts on the other side of the bar.

"What? Huh? What did you just say?" asked the little thief, suddenly snapping out of a daze, "Me and Eliot?" she said, looking as if she were about to laugh about that topic again.

"C'mon, something happened... Or you want something to happen?" she tried when she realised maybe her first guess was wrong.

Parker looked from Tara to her drink to Eliot and back around again, getting an idea.

"What would you do?" she asked, curious to get another woman's opinion.

She had tried things Sophie's way and it wasn't exactly working. Parker didn't think she had a way of her own to try, so maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask Tara what she thought. There weren't exactly any other females in her life to talk to about all this, and she was feeling more than a little out of her depth right now.

"What would I do?" asked Tara, turning her attention from Parker to the hotness of the team's hitter, "With him? Hell, if I thought he'd go for it, I'd rip all his clothes off and... well..." she leaned in closer to Parker and whispered a few things in her ear that had the thief's eyes wide as saucers.

Hell, she thought she knew about sex, but she'd never done that... or that... or any of this... except for that, obviously. Still, the point was not the myriad of things Tara would like to do to Eliot, it was the fact she was telling Parker about it, as well as the fact that a moment later she told her why she wouldn't do any of it.

"Of course, that's if he would go for it" she sighed, finishing off her drink as she glanced over at the guys one more time, "but we all know he'd be thinking about you the whole time so..."

"That's crazy" said Parker definitely, "Isn't it?" within a second she looked uncertain and Tara stifled a laugh as she turned to her.

"Seriously? You don't see it?" she checked, "He likes you, and obviously you like him, so what's stopping you from just going for it?" she asked, leaving Parker to think about that as she wandered across the bar to where Nate was talking with a potential client.

Poor Parker was beyond confused by now. She had been following Sophie's plans this whole time, thinking that the grifter knew everything when it came to guys, and relationships, and life in general. She trusted her and even though she'd up and left her behind, Parker still believed that all Sophie wanted to do was help.

Of course, following her friends advice hadn't worked out so well up to now. That made her wonder if she should try doing things her own way. It took Parker a while to work out what her own way was. She liked to speak her mind, but more than once that had led to her being called crazy, to Eliot himself telling her there was something wrong with her. It was said that actions spoke louder than words, and since this whole mess of feelings she couldn't deal with had started with one pretty hot kiss, Parker couldn't help but think the real way to simple this whole thing up was just to kiss Eliot again and see what happened.

It hadn't occurred yet, the right moment just hadn't come up. Any time Parker decided might be a good one, something prevented her from following through. The mark made an unexpected move, Nate called them back for a meeting, the phone rang, it started to rain. It was as if the world was conspiring against her, and Parker ought to be used to that by now.

Still, she wasn't being beaten this time, not by anyone or anything. She had to admit, even if it was only inside her own head, that Tara had a point. She wasn't sure she entirely trusted the teams temporary grifter yet, but she knew that she was right about Eliot. He was probably really good at sex, since he had proven to be great at kissing. He was certainly built for the task, probably had no end of stamina, and he had to have talents enough because women were always falling all over him wherever they went.

"Hey, you okay?" Parker was snapped out of deep thought by Hardison appearing beside her, "Where's your head at, girl?" he asked her as she came to from her daze and glanced up at him.

"I was just thinking about sex" she admitted, as the hacker did a double-take, wondering if she really had just said what he thought he heard, "It doesn't matter" she sighed, as she realised Nate was gesturing for them to follow him upstairs to the apartment.

Seemed like they had another job to focus on right now, and everything else would have to wait until later.

It had been a long couple of days. Any job the team pulled could turn into a crisis at a moment's notice, and the stress of that was enough to exhaust a person by the time the con was complete. Of course it was somewhat worse for Eliot who rarely ended a job without some serious injury or other sustained in a fight he'd gotten into with the mark, the mark's henchman, or some other unexpected party.

This seemed like it was going to be a simple con, duping some dumb over-zealous would-be fashion designer out of her money for the sake of some hard done by factory workers. Eliot had hoped for an easy ride on this one, but unfortunately not. He had figured on the toughest part being getting his eye-liner on straight but then the Triads had shown up and the whole thing got decidedly out of hand.

Stepping out of the shower, Eliot checked himself over. He had a few more bruises than he'd like, but thankfully no cuts from the cleavers that had been waved at him. He had to admit that Tara had been quite the asset in that fight. The chick had skills, that was for sure and he respected her for that, but he still wasn't entirely sure he trusted her. It was going to take more than one successful con and Sophie's coercing to convince him it was going to work with the new girl on the team.

After towelling himself dry and pulling on his underwear, Eliot went over to the bathroom cabinet and checked his face in the mirror. If he didn't know better, he'd swear he could still see make-up around his eyes. Hell, his Momma would have a fit if she knew her boy had been wearing mascara, even if it was all for a good cause.

A fashion show was hardly Eliot Spencer's scene, though it hadn't seemed to matter too much that he thought he looked ridiculous as Caprina's assistant. The girls at the show seemed interested enough, and truth be told he had played on that, especially when Parker was around.

It was childish and stupid, Eliot knew that, but the idea of making her jealous kind of appealed. Mostly he wanted to see if it could be done, test the waters maybe, see if she really did have some feelings in there for him. Focusing on that stopped Eliot having to think about any feelings he might be having himself and in Parker's direction. Talking about how many models he'd dated, about the private fashion shows that ended with dresses on the ground, it was going to annoy any woman, so it was hard to tell if her snippy tone was down to jealousy or just his being somewhat of a chauvinistic pig in that moment, judging women by their looks alone.

He wasn't really that person, though of course he liked a pretty face and well kept figure, he was only human after all. There was no way he would ever want a real relationship with any of the models or similar that he had known, any more than they'd really want to date him. It was all about the good time that could be had, a night of fun before everybody moved on, back to their real lives.

These days Eliot's nights were often spent alone, and yet his mind found all kinds of fun to throw at him. He was still dreaming of Parker more often than he wasn't, and no matter how hard he tried not to think about it, he just couldn't get the girl out of his head.

Heading to his room, Eliot dropped down onto the bed and wished the world away. He really needed some sleep, in spite of the fact he told the team he survived easily on ninety minutes a day. He could do that for a while, if he had to, but mostly he didn't try. A normal person's eight hours was preferable if he could get it, unless of course he started dreaming again, in which case he often woke up more exhausted than when he went to sleep somehow, and certainly a lot more frustrated!

A sudden sound in the dark had Eliot's eyes open in a second, the arm that had been behind his head now down at his side as he sat up, swinging his legs out of the bed. He listened carefully, sure he heard something but unable to put his finger on exactly what that something was. Surely no-one would be dumb enough to be breaking into his apartment, though of course some unsuspecting burglar would have no idea what they were dealing with.

In near-silence, Eliot put his feet to the floor and moved softly to the bedroom door and out into the living room. He was half way to the front door, fists up and ready for a fight with whoever was trying to bust into his home, when suddenly the door swung open, the light flipped on, and there she was.

"Parker?" he looked stunned by the sight of her, not just because she was maybe the last person he had expected but also because of what she was wearing.

Not in her usual cat burglar garb or even the plain shirts and pants she often wore when sitting around at Nate's apartment, instead Parker wore a long flowing figure-hugging red dress with a split that ran from her ankle right up to mid thigh. Eliot swallowed hard as his eyes ran over her body and up to her face. A part of him almost thought he had fallen asleep and this was all just one of those erotic dreams he'd been getting for weeks now, but he knew better. This was reality, this was really Parker. The smell of jasmine gave her away as not being a hallucination, and the way she was looking at him right now was too strange for if he'd conjured her up in his head.

"Er, how'd you get in here?" he asked, feeling more than a little dazed and confused, as he let his battle-ready stance go.

"Hello? Lock breaker!" said Parker without quite enough sarcasm, not least because she was entirely distracted by the sight of Eliot in nothing but his boxers, and over-run by a nervous feeling that just wouldn't quit.

Parker had never done anything like this before and was just a little worried itwas going to go horribly wrong. She was pretty sure she'd got it right, the dress and everything seemed to be making Eliot stare which she thought was the point of it. Now came part two as he asked her what she was doing here so late.

"I thought you liked private fashion shows?" she said, echoing his own words from the con just hours before, as she pushed the door closed behind her.

Eliot wasn't sure how to answer that as his mind went back to the same conversation she was referencing.

"Parker" he began, "I don't..."

Before he had a chance to figure out the rest of what he was trying to say, to even fully process what she was doing, the zipper that ran down the side of Parker's dress was undone, the silky red material sliding down her body and pooling at her feet.

"Most of the dresses end up on the ground, right?" she said, her expression showing she wasn't entirely sure she was doing this right and yet was determined to go with it anyway.

In all honesty, Eliot wasn't much looking at her face right now, and most men would probably have the same problem when standing opposite the unexpected surprise of a very nearly naked Parker. It wasn't as if he hadn't noticed before how gorgeous she was, and it wasn't as if she hadn't been free and easy about changing clothes in front of him before tonight, but she was never at his house before, never saying these things that sounded so much like an invitation. Not that she was so much talking now as stepping out of her abandoned dress and walking toward him.

Lips to lips and skin on skin, if Eliot hadn't been certain before that this wasn't a dream, he knew now. This was reality, because no fantasy could ever feel quite like this as Parker kissed him and he kissed her back, not even debating the fact that this might be a really bad idea. All those nights he dreamed of her, all the time spent wondering what would happen if any of those scenarios his brain conjured up actually came true. Now here was the literal woman of his dreams, making a beeline for his bedroom, her arms locked around his neck and her lips attached to his as she kissed him with an intensity he ought to have known existed within her all along.

As for Parker herself, she stopped thinking the moment she stepped out of that dress and into Eliot's arms. Her whole life, she had learnt to act on instinct alone, not to over analyse just to make a quick decision and go with it. Most of the time it worked out for her, and given how much time and effort she'd already fruitlessly wasted on trying to figure out what to do, taking advice from everyone else and not trusting her own judgement, well, now was the time to throw all that away. Parker made a decision, to come over here and just go with her instincts, all the unidentifiable, unnameable feelings she'd been struggling with for weeks now be damned.

It didn't take long for Parker to realise she had made the right choice. People always said that reality could never rival imagination but so far she was here to tell them they were wrong. That kiss she and Eliot had shared weeks before was hot, she was aware of that, but she had started to wonder if she was remembering it better than it truly had been. Here was proof that she hadn't embellished at all in her mind or her dreams, as her whole body came alive in a way she never could have imagined at the touch of his lips and hands on her skin.

If either of them had been thinking clearly, they might've stopped this, thought about how they would feel about what they'd done come morning. It could have a major impact on their lives, on their work, on their happy little family-type team too. The fact of the matter was, neither Eliot nor Parker were thinking much anymore, about these things or anything else right now. They had waited so long and this felt so good; to hell with everything else.

To Be Continued...