The door rebounds off the wall with the force used to shove it out of her way yet all Alice can think of is just how tempting all that coiled power is wrapped up in the even more tempting woman now making her angered retreat from the disaster of the one-sided bar fight.
Robin's intoxicated victim whimpered like a kicked puppy staring with glazed eyes up at her from her sprawled place on the bar room floor blood running thick and fast from her nose and her mouth from the blow whilst Alice struggled to keep from beaming in smug pride as Robin's shadow clears a little more of the bar's side windows.
Had she let the incident go on a little too long? Perhaps. But at least she now had a much clearer picture of where her crush of a reunited best friend turned much-needed bodyguard stood in her feelings for her.
"I think that's my…. Our cue to leave." The frazzled blonde decides dropping several crisp bills on the closest liquor-splattered tabletop before hurrying after her angered bodyguard. "Hope to see most of you at my next art showing." She adds over her shoulder clearly an afterthought before the bar door swings closed behind her.
Seemed her target had made it much farther down the block than Alice had anticipated meaning that the pursuing blonde soon had to resort to kicking off her high-heeled shoes in order to have a chance of keeping up not only with Robin's head start along the empty sidewalk but also with the seething woman's longer strides.
"Hey," Alice called out mostly in an attempt to get the other woman to at least slow down a little so she could catch up sooner rather than later.
The angry growl from behind her only has Robin quickening her stride as she stomped off into the night air. The chill of the changing season does nothing to cool her flaring temper as she feels more than sees another blood drop falling from her clenched fist onto the darkened sidewalk.
"You know you're doing a pretty poor job of guarding me if you're just going to storm off like this every time you don't like someone else getting too close." her client reminds.
"She had it coming. You were clearly not interested in spending the..." Robin argues in a rumbled growl.
"First off she was intoxicated." Alice reminded now holding her shoes by one finger as she stalks closer with each word now it looked like Robin had stopped for the moment. "Second things like drunken art fans trying to get handsy are a hazard I can handle on my own."
"Then why didn't you?" Robin growled back her clenched hands now buried deep in the pockets of her jeans as she glared at a slim point just over Alice's shoulder instead of completely meeting her crush of a client's gaze.
"Honestly?" Alice asks in a guilty laugh that does nothing to lighten Robin's annoyed mood as the shorter of the two rubs her shoes free hand against the back of her neck "Cause I'd forgotten how distracting you get when your jealous" Alice confessed her eyes darkening with barely checked desire as they run over her companion's ridged posture.
Even now just the memory of the long scrapping of Robin's barstool sliding back from the bar has fresh longing heat pooling low in Alice's belly as well as between her thighs as she once again burns that simple life-changing sound into her deepest of memories along with the headed intensity of Robin's glaring eyes as she crossed the separating distance faster than the deadliest cobra strike after she'd tossed back the single whiskey shot she'd allow herself 'on the job'.
"Really having to try to listen to Miss Spilskey was my way of stopping myself from dragging you into a dark corner." Alice summarizes with a pleased smile at Robin's visible gulp at her words before that frustratingly unreadable mask smooths her expression.
"It's my job to keep you safe, Alice. That woman back there was about to cross a line she had no right to be crossing, alcohol or no alcohol." Her bodyguard reminds her words as cold and harsh as the chilly weather around them regardless of the point when Robin's hardened eyes fall to tracing the curve of Alice's lips as she spoke.
"The fact she also looked similar enough to Drizellathat even I had to do a few double takes myself when she pushed her way passed the others didn't hurt much either." Alice snickered liking the darkening blaze in the other woman's eyes much more than she should given the tightrope walk the two had been struggling to walk ever since her father had hired Robin's services as a personal bodyguard over the fact his daughter's newest and longest lasting ex-girlfriend Drizellaseems to have considerable trouble understanding the fact when Alice took out a restraining order against her meant the pair's whirlwind of a rollercoaster fling was glaringly over.
In a flash, Robin was standing in front of her. Sinfully close in fact for the closeness to be considered any kind of professional as Robin had been so careful to promote whenever the two were out like this.
Not that until now the two had acted on the growing feelings they held for the other apart from several longing looks, a few lingering reassuring brushes of hands from time to time thought out the day, and several nights of falling asleep snuggled up together after an afternoon of long talks or in front of a late-night movie neither ended up paying the slightest attention to.
"She will never have the chance to get close to you ever again Alice. Not while I'm still breathing."
Maybe it was because of the raw promise behind the declaration, maybe it was simply because Alice was completely over trying to fight the feelings she'd been struggling to hold back since she was a teenager when it came to the very woman now front and center in her life once again.
Maybe…. Maybe because Alice was just terrified that if she didn't kiss the other woman soon, she'd go even madder than a lot of her critics claimed she was.
In any case, she wasn't at all ready for the butterfly-triggering and underwear-destroying moan Robin made against her mouth before the slightly taller of the two began kissing her back with a matching fire of her own.
"Alice."
The sighed hum of her name has the artist groaning in longing as Robin's hands move to grip possessively at her clothed hips tugging her flush against the inviting heat of her ever-steading bodyguard as Robin's head drops to rest her forehead against the dip of Alice's shoulder as the two catch their breaths after their anything but innocently traded kiss.
"I'm tired of fighting this. Of fighting us." Alice says her breath tickling against the shell of Robin's ear. "We've already tried once…." She reminded licking a slow trail down the tight cords of Robin's neck as she spoke.
"I wasn't worthy of you back then." Robin argues in a whimper mostly due to the enticing way Alice now has her back against the darkened ally wall during the haze of traded kisses. "am not even sure I am n-" The bodyguard starts to say in a husky sigh as her hands move from the soft skin of her client's back to anchor at the clothed curve of Alice's hips. The rough feel of the more dressed-down dark-washed jeans Alice had chosen for the night maddened her all the more as they keep her hunting fingers from the flushed skin, she craved to feel under her hands right about now.
Alice cuts her off with a hungry kiss.
"I wasn't Alice and we both know it." Robin keeps going even as she kisses back just as fiercely as Alice was in her attempt to quiet her. "I was….."
"We both have pasts Nobin." Alice recalls her voice rough from their traded kisses as her hand's fist that much tighter in the unraveling waves of Robin's no longer braided hair. The elastic band had been sneakily tugged off and was now resting proudly around Alice's wrist as her fingers braided themselves behind the other woman's neck. "or have you forgotten how wild I got after we broke things off the first time around?"
Robin groaned at the reminder or that could have been more for the fact Alice's hips clench tightly around the thigh she'd slipped between them when it seemed Alice was swaying unsteadily against her. The evidence of Alice's desire soaking the denim of her jeans in seconds. "I bedded one half of the school, and you snagged the other." She agreed enjoying the building whimpers Alice gives as Robin's hands keep up their slow tease and massage her breasts once she'd gotten the baring covering of Alice's bra out of her way for the moment.
"And what neither of us wanted Ruby cleared up before Dorothy show up to put her in her place." Alice finishes in a hitched gasp. "God Nobin, you're killing me here." She mewed attempting to get her own hand to cooperate more than scratching claiming scratches down from the middle of the other woman's back under all her delicious teasing.
"You know you're the only one I let call me that." Robin sighed as an afterthought yet hearing her teasingly given high school nickname now only has more desire sweeping over her as Alice's hips grind a little harder against her braced thigh.
"I better be." Alice snapped her blue eyes blazing in a stormy blue fire as she pulled back to meet Robin's equally lust-darkened gaze.
"Easy Tower Girl." Robin husked back earning a pleased sigh of her own complete with a hard rocking of Alice's hips against her braced thigh making them both groan in barely checked longing at the shared rubbing friction of their jeans at the action along with the mingled heat of their own building desire grinding even warmer between them.
Alice's nickname coming not from a foolish slip of the tongue as Robin's had upon first meeting the striking blonde-haired temptress who'd taken up the empty seat at the table in the pair's shared art class back in their high school days but upon careful questioning as the semester drew on Robin finding that Alice's home life was more akin to a more modern seeming princess trapped in her ivory tower by her then completely domineering mother.
"Been meaning to ask since I noticed it." Alice purrs one hand dropping to skim feather light down the length of Robin's arm towards the inked mark she knew rested against the other woman's forearm. "That's why you picked my favorite chess piece for your tattoo?"
"Possibly." Robin groans not realizing until it was happening just how very much, she liked the feeling of Alice's calloused fingers tracing along the sensitive skin of her inner arm. "My two deepest loves. You and my family." She explains as Alice rocks back just enough to up the sleeve of Robin's shirt to expose the tattoo in question whilst Robin herself nuzzles her nose against the golden curtain of Alice's hair pulling in another breath of the other woman's favorite shampoo brand.
The image no larger than the close of Alice's palm around it inked forever against the deceivingly toned muscle of Robin's forearm was a combination with the proudly marked figure of what Alice still jokingly thought of as the 'Locksley lion' colored in golden outline against the darkened backing of a towered chess piece.
But then Robin's other hand was closing in a gentle yet restrained hold around Alice's wrist as Robin herself straightens up swiftly at the warning rumblings of a newly pulled-up motorcycle now rolling to a stop along the curb to the ally the two were standing in as Robin does her best to suitably smooth the 'caught in the tryst' look of hers and Alice's clothes and hoping the lack of proper lighting was enough to hide the obvious wet marks coating both woman's inner thighs through their pants.
She seriously doubted anyone with a lick of useable brain function would believe a cover story of both of them spilling drinks into their laps at this point as they hastily separate.
"And here I thought hearing second hand about my little sister breaking rank to punch out some 'handsy admirer' was the highlight of the evening" Roland snickers flipping up the helmet's visor by way of a greeting. "and your welcome by the way. If it wasn't for my dazzling hacking skills with the number of cell phones recording or taking rapid-fire pictures of the whole thing this place would be flooded with magazine reporters. And you two would be headline news come morning."
"She had it coming," Robin grumbles leaving her shirt sleeve rolled up as the only allowance of any kind of closeness between herself and her client as she reaches over to thread her fingers in grounding reassurance with Alice's as the two separate as discreetly as they can amid what little covering the ally shadows allow them from the flickering reach of the bar's neon signage overhead.
"Figured, but Dad will still be calling you in to give his 'time and place' talk later." Her brother warns as the two approaches still holding hands. "Also, why I over-road the locks on the bar's doors so no one could follow you until I could sweep in for the rescue." He grinned as Robin tugged out the spare helmet from under the seat behind him.
"Fantastic." Robin sighed heavy sarcasm layering her words earning a teasing giggle from Alice at the huffed comment. Mostly the amused darkening of her bodyguard's eyes when Alice shakes her head and holds out her hand for the helmet Roland was attempting to pass to his younger sister.
"I'm not as delicate as I seem. I can handle things getting rough when the time calls for it" Alice reminds doing her level best to avoid sneaking another glance toward Robin as she spoke. "Besides I'm getting thirsty from all this excitement." She adds as an afterthought as she makes another impatient motion toward the withheld helmet.
The truth…mostly. Not that Roland needed to know the details of who Alice wanted to taste on her tongue right about now. Lucky for Alice it did seem that Robin caught on to the hidden meaning of her comment if the way her fingers tightened around the curve of her own helmet were any clue.
"I passed a decent seeming diner on my way over if either of you are getting hungry too. As long as you let little sister here order for you both in the drive up you two should be safe enough stopping off on the way home." Roland offers as his eyes flicker between them.
"Whatcha say Nobin?" Alice asks her smile much more devilish once she noticed Roland's distracted gaze as he does another surveying glance down the still-empty street. "hungry?"
To Alice's surprise, Robin flashes one of her more controlled smiles as her eyes flicker towards her watchful elder brother but the darkened spark in her eyes was all the proof Alice needed to know what had started in that darkened alleyway was far from over. "Starved." Her bodyguard snickered her low purr of a voice just audible over the rumbling idle of the motorbike as her tongue flicks out to wet her lips. "and you know I'm a big fan of food." She adds mindful of her brother's too-interested glance between her and Alice at the moment.
Both knew full well that if they did take a side trip any actual food, they'd pick up on the way back to the loft acting as their latest safehouse would need to be reheated by the time they'd get around to eating it.
"Then get outta here already." Roland scolds good-natured as he shoos both women towards the motorcycle.
If either Robin or Alice had bothered glancing in one of the motorcycles mirrors after peeling quickly from the curb Alice sitting at the controls with Robin holding onto her from behind as they weave their way into the darkened street, then they might have immediately fishtailed back at the sight of that all too familiar figure stepping out of the shadows of another bar doorway. One with a clear view of the alleyway they'd just been occupying.
The figure moved silently up behind Roland still watching the departing motorbike with a knowing smile on his lips as he shakes his head as the obviously less than-innocent thought he could read all too clearly in both woman's eyes as they'd tried and failed to hide the obvious attraction they'd carried since the ladies shared high school years.
But neither woman did notice the tearful shadow closing in on their snickering friend and brother as they drive away.
And they'd only find out in the glaring news headlines the following morning complete with clear black and white pictures of the aftermath of the deadly confrontation that followed the glinting flash of the knife Drizella pulled on him in her own sense of heartbroken revenge. "She took away someone I love. I take away someone she loves." Alice's ex will defend as her knife hand strikes out at Roland's unprotected back the same instance the glare of motorcycle tail lights fades around the corner.