Thank you for all your kind and lovely comments! Now, it's finally time for the nightcap at Jack's!

Honorary Inspector Phryne Fisher found herself outside a rather modest but well-kept house in the nicest part of Richmond. She had parked her Hispano-Suiza on the street and walked up the garden path, just to stop short before the door. Her heart beat with the anticipation of finally getting some answers about the riddle that was Jack Robinson.

She had never been in this house before; Jack had never invited her. And now he had. She felt ridiculously like she was Jack, and he was her, waiting for her hardworking friend – friend? Well, yes, among other things – to join her. When she finally knocked on the door, she half expected a butler, perhaps even Mr Butler, to open the door. But the person on the other side was decidedly Jack Robinson, even if he was unusually relaxed, standing there in his shirtsleeves, with rather unrestrained hair, and without shoes.

Phryne felt her heart beat faster as he was fully revealed to her by the opening door. Jack Robinson in shirtsleeves! Was that even possible? And how could it affect her so?

"Please, come in, Honorary Inspector," he said and moved to the side.

"You might as well call me Phryne," she said while she stepped in. "Everybody else does."

At her words, he smiled the sweetest smile she had ever seen on his face, and she couldn't have stopped her mouth from answering even if she wanted to.

"Do they?" he murmured as he took her coat and hung it up in the hall, before taking her into his… well, it was hardly a parlour, but at least a living room. He pointed her to a chair and went to fill two glasses with whisky before joining her in the adjacent chair and handing her one of the glasses.

"Thank you, Inspector," Phryne said and clinked the glasses together, still smiling, and looked him straight into his blue eyes while drinking from the whisky. Those eyes seemed to devour her, and Phryne felt she could probably accept some consumption.

She realised there was a distinct difference between having a nightcap at her place and at Jack's. Jack lived alone in his house, and it felt much more intimate to sit in his chair and look him in the eyes than it did when he visited Wardlow. She could feel her heartbeat accelerate and her stomach constrict. Or wasn't it because of the setting? Was she just experiencing what it meant to be Jack Robinson?

"I never realised you would fit so well as inspector," Jack finally said. "Two days in and one could think you'd been doing it for years."

"I have been doing it for years, Jack," she answered with a rather delighted smile. "And I've watched a rather good specimen too."

He didn't take his eyes off her, and Phryne considered her options. Was this a good time to finally seduce Jack Robinson? He didn't seem to be too shaken by her taking over his police station, and he had invited her to his home, where they were alone. He was in shirtsleeves, which was the most relaxed she had ever seen him. He looked at her like she was the most intriguing woman on Earth, and she felt goose bumps on her skin just thinking about him touching her. He swayed slightly towards her, as if he had the same thought, his eyes dark and large and alluring in the weak lighting. Phryne drew in a small breath and let her gaze move from his eyes to his slightly parted lips.

Her stomach growled loudly.

Jack sat up straight with a blank look on his face. The moment was gone.

"Did you come straight from the station?" he asked her. "When did you last eat?"

"Um… at one, I think."

"You need food," he said. He looked rather stern, but a smile shone from his eyes. "It seems I will have to feed you, Honorary Inspector."

Phryne burst out laughing at that, and he rose to go and potter in the kitchen. Phryne rose too, and took the opportunity to look over the bookshelves and the more private displays in his living room. Photos of younger Jacks – Jack as a young boy with parents and siblings, Jack as a proud young constable, Jack as a soldier – made her heart constrict a little bit. Just imagine he had been that young man, with those hopeful eyes. He still had them, she corrected herself, only with some layers of experience and world-weariness added to them. The Jacks in the photos seemed to be under development, on their way to become the Jack she knew and cherished.

She went to the kitchen door and watched him arrange sandwiches and tea on a tray. She had never even thought about what a domestic Jack would look like, but when he appeared before her, she felt her breath hitch at the sight. This is a side of him too. This Jack Robinson existed – a Jack in shirtsleeves and braces making sandwiches and carefully putting pieces of pickle on them to make them more appealing to the eye – and he had existed in parallel with her competent Inspector in a three-piece suit all the time. Phryne felt slightly stupid for being surprised by it.

Jack took the tray and headed for the living room, starting a little when he saw her standing there, resting her intense eyes on him.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Just… just ravenous," Phryne answered.

"I can remedy that," Jack said, and Phryne wondered if he noted the potential double meaning of the conversation. She even felt herself almost blush (but only almost, of course, she was still Phryne Fisher), and she decided it was lucky the assignment was only for one more day. Driving carefully, dressing professionally, blushing at double entendres, working hard enough to forget to eat – the thought of continuing this way of life made her shudder.

Jack set the tray on his living room table and poured Phryne both tea and some more whisky. She dug into the sandwiches with an eagerness that surprised her; focusing on her food she didn't even see the soft smile taking over Jack's face at the sight of her appetite. He poured himself whisky and drank it while she ate. Taking her last bite, she looked up at him.

"That was delicious, Jack. You might even have something on Mr Butler."

"I believe that is as close to sacrilege as you can come, Miss Fisher."

"It might be." Phryne smiled and finished her tea, silently thinking for a while and then eyeing him rather purposefully. "Or maybe there is one more thing I haven't managed to trespass on just yet."

"Yes?" he asked. "You mean apart from other people's positions and offices?"

"Apart from other people's positions and offices," Phryne repeated and her eyes darkened, her voice turning so velvety Jack's breath hitched. "Yes. Apart from that."

She leaned into him, slowly, her face serious and her gaze flickering between his eyes and his lips. She was unsure of how he would react, but had decided she would not be the one to stop them. If she was to be Jack Robinson, she could at least make him a little bit bolder than he usually was.

He swayed towards her too, and it was slow enough to make her itch all over her body in anticipation. When his lips finally were on hers, soft and warm and strong, Jack surprised her not only by meeting her kiss, but by immediately making it so passionate, almost desperate. She had always imagined them going very slowly, kissing softly and tentatively, but he opened his mouth and kissed her with everything he had: lips, tongue, teeth, and sighs.

Phryne decided there was no way she was going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Without letting their lips part for even a second, she took the steps necessary to plant herself in his lap. He buried his hands in her hair, she put a hand on his cheek to feel his jaw working to kiss her. It felt like an eternity. She retreated a little just to look at him, flustered and agitated and absolutely beautiful. She put her hand in his hair to loosen his curls even more, then she kissed him again, but in that sweet, soft way she had always imagined he would prefer. When she pulled back Jack found his voice.

"I want to take you" – Phryne couldn't help but arch her eyebrow meaningfully at him, which made him speak faster – "to the bedroom. To bed, I mean. Do you… what do you say?"

Phryne was about to quip something back at him, about fraternising with other inspectors, but she decided to just kiss him again, more thoroughly than before. He got her message and pulled her up to standing so they could switch rooms.

Jack sat down tentatively on the bed, just to find Phryne almost knocking him down and crawling over him to quickly find her way to his mouth again. As she pushed at his braces to rid his shoulders of them, and as he pushed his hands up under her blouse to caress her back, he couldn't help but laugh – at their urgency, at the surprising fact that they were actually finally doing this, and at the thought that he had to be degraded by his boss for it to happen. Phryne stopped undressing him for a moment to look at him with mirth in her eyes, drinking in this carefree version of her Inspector. Then she set to work once more, attacking the buttons on his trousers while kissing him with renewed energy. He gasped as she managed to open his trousers, and with fumbling hands he grasped her buttocks and pulled her to him, realising he wouldn't get much sleep this night.

Well, luckily, he wasn't the one in charge of the station in the morning.