Chapter 7
Eliot's mind slowly came back to him. The first thing that registered was the soft, warm feel of Parker's skin as she lay pinned under his body. Next was the way their chests rose and fell rapidly, almost in tandem. Her fingers laid limply against his back, and his face was tucked into the curve of her neck.
A sigh, born of a contentment he wasn't sure he'd been aware of, slipped out of Eliot and he exhaled against the damp skin of Parker's neck. He felt the little shiver ripple through her, and smiling softly, turned his face and pressed his lips to that spot he liked so much, where her shoulder met her neck.
Then he forced himself to roll off her. After all, he outweighed her by a ton, he had to be crushing her. Never mine that he'd been about as comfortable as he'd ever been in bed. Parker laid still next to him, still breathing deep and quick, for a long moment. Then she shifted and made to roll out of the bed.
Eliot didn't think, just reacted. His hand shot out and caught hers. She paused, up on one elbow, one leg off the bed already and looked back over her shoulder at him.
"Stay," he said quietly. Parker's eyes were harder to read in the now dim light in the room, but he looked back up at her while she studied him.
Then she smiled, that wonderful quicksilver gleam of teeth and eyes in the dark. "I'm just going to go the bathroom," she said and squeezed his hand. "I'll be right back." Eliot didn't say anything, but squeezed back quickly before releasing her hand. He watched as she walked, naked, pale, gleaming, to the bathroom and disappeared inside.
When the door closed, Eliot blew out a breath. Well. He hadn't expected to spend his evening this way. Not that he was objecting, no sirree. Of course, now that he'd had Parker, that knotted up feeling inside of him was even worse. Now he wanted her again, and not just in his bed. Eliot rubbed his hands over his face and then dropped them to the bed. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up and poked around his suitcase for a pair of shorts. He'd just pulled them on when the bathroom door opened and Parker slipped out. He felt the breath rush out of him just looking at her.
"You are so beautiful," slipped out of his mouth without thinking. Parker paused mid step and he could feel her eyes on him. Then there was that curve of lips again and she stepped closer to him.
"You are, too," she said quietly. Her fingers reached out and trailed lightly over the planes of his chest, dancing gently over the scars, tracing the ridges of muscle in his stomach. Eliot caught her hand and pulled her closer, up against him and into his arms. He sighed when her skin was pressed to his, and his hands slid to the small of her back.
"Stay," he said again.
Parker sighed as well, a warm little puff of air against his chest. "Ok," she said. "But I'm hungry. And I really wish we were home so you could make me grilled cheese."
Eliot smiled, tucking his chin into her hair. "There's always room service, darlin'," he said.
Of course, the world didn't stop turning just because Eliot wanted it to. While what he really wanted to do was stay cuddled down in the bed and make love to Parker again, slowly and thoroughly this time, they were on a con. And that meant the team came looking for them a few hours later.
Eliot's cell rang first, and he heaved a sigh before reaching for it. Parker was curled up against his chest, napping off two grilled cheese sandwiches and a glass of chocolate milk. She ate like an 11-year old, he thought again with a grin.
"Nate," he said in response to his glance at the number on the screen. "What?" Parker shifted silently awake, and he tightened his arm around her, keeping her pressed against his side.
"Eliot, Hardison's got some footage from the cameras you and Parker planted," Nate's voice said briskly. "He's cuing it up so we can run through it." There was a pause. "Sophie says she picked up Chinese food," he came back.
"Right," Eliot muttered. "Fine. Be there in a few."
"You haven't seen Parker, have you?" Nate's voice asked mildly. "She's not answering on the earbud and her cell's turned off.
Eliot glanced down at the blonde head currently tucked into his arm. "I'll find her," he said dryly. Parker was tracing patterns on his chest with one finger, and she glanced up at him. Those blue eyes were curious and she opened her mouth. Eliot shook his head at her quickly, and amazingly, she closed her mouth again. Huh. First time for everything, he thought. She was still watching him, though.
"Thirty minutes to food," Nate said, and then hung up.
Eliot closed his cell with a sigh and tossed it on the bedside table without looking.
"What did Nate want?" Parker asked.
"Meeting," Eliot said, shifting her in his arms. He pulled her flush on top of him, naked breasts pressing against him, her legs falling between his.
Parker wiggled, something that Eliot laid there and enjoyed, smirking a bit, and then she folded her arms beneath her chin. "Why didn't you want me to say anything?" she asked. There was no anger in her voice, no condemnation. Just simple curiosity. Eliot reached up and smoothed a wayward lock of tousled blonde hair back from her face, tucking it behind her ear. That was possibly one of his favorite things about Parker. She didn't play games. For better or worse, she'd give it to you straight. If she wanted to know, she asked. Now that had led to some interesting conversations in the past, like when she'd asked in the middle of a meat marked what happened to all the cute parts of the baby cow when Eliot had brought her along to pick up some veal… or when she'd questioned why the football players kept grabbing their crotches on the field, while in the middle of a television store… that one had been with Hardison, thank god. Eliot wasn't sure he'd have gotten her out as smoothly as the hacker had.
Eliot snapped back to attention, realizing Parker was still waiting, watching him. "I don't want to share," he finally said. And left it at that. After all, he wasn't sure he could explain it any better.
Parker's eyes narrowed just a bit, and her head tilted to one side as she studied him. There was a long, slow second of silence, and then she smiled. "Ok," she said, and made to roll off him.
Eliot pinned her against him. "Whoa, darlin'," he drawled. "Where do you think you're going?"
Parker squirmed a little. "I need a shower and clean clothes," she said. She scrunched her nose at him. "So do you."
Eliot grinned. "Isn't that interesting?" he said.
Eliot was resisting the urge to whistle as he slipped in the back door of the house Hardison and Nate were using as a base. He and Parker were set up at the hotel, along with Sophie… that was for the con. But Nate and Hardison needed to be out of sight for the plan to work. Parker was right behind him.
He'd always been a big fan of water conservation, he thought cheerily. Save the planet and all that shit. Yep. BIG fan.
Eliot jumped as Parker's finger drilled into his ribs. "You're humming," she said as he turned his head to glare at her. She smirked. He rolled his eyes.
"Eliot, do you want a beer, darling?" Sophie's voice called from the kitchen.
Eliot stepped away from Parker, who drifted toward the living room and the screens that Hardison had set up, and into the kitchen. "Thanks," he said, accepting the cold bottle from Sophie.
"You look… happy," Sophie said, eyeing him. She smiled, rather knowingly. "Anything you'd like to share?"
"Nope," Eliot said and took a drink. Poker face, poker face, poker face…
"Hmm," Sophie hummed, and smiled again. "Food's in the living room."
That was enough for Eliot and he beat a hasty retreat. Hardison was spread out on the couch, wireless keyboard in hand and two measly monitors hanging in front of him. He was currently bemoaning to Parker the lack of a good T-something connection, Eliot wasn't really that curious. Nate was sitting, sipping a glass of something on the rocks. Eliot had to figure Nate had brought the booze with him, rather than rely on local supplies. Food was on the coffee table, and Eliot snagged a box of what looked like beef and broccoli before dropping into the overstuffed chair off to the left.
"We're all here now," Nate said, raising his voice just a little to interrupt Hardison. "Let's run it, Hardison."
"Right, fine, let's show them all what I can do even with substandard working conditions," Hardison said. Parker drifted away from the hacker and slipped down to sit on the floor in front of the coffee table, eyeing the boxes in front of her contemplatively. Eliot leaned over and tapped the box of Szechwan chicken silently with his chopstick and Parker grinned and snatched it up, chopsticks already in her hand. How the hell she moved that fast, he'd never know.
He felt eyes on him and didn't bother to look at Sophie. Instead he kept his eyes on the monitors and shoved a bite of Chinese in his mouth. Poker face, poker face, poker face…
"Meet Gerald Pitts," Hardison announced, pulling up a photo from the race earlier today. It was the greasy little bookie. "Got a rap sheet full of petty crimes, all gambling related. Illegal dice games, under the table betting, etc, etc… Oh, and my personal favorite, fixing dog races."
"How do you fix a dog race?" Sophie wondered out loud. She shook her head at Hardison. "Never mind, I really don't want to know."
"If he's been willing to fix dog races, I'd bet he'd be willing to fix car races," Nate said.
"Guy's address is listed as the Big Apple," Hardison went on, "but he's got no charges there for the past year or so. Lotta hotels and bars in the same towns as rally stages, though." Credit card receipts flipped up and slid by, Eliot taking it all in.
"He got any mechanical background, or is he paying someone to do the actual fixing?" Eliot asked.
"Naw, no getting his hands dirty for our man," Hardison said. He pulled up another picture. "Meet Tiny Tim."
"He's not very tiny," Parker observed. Eliot snorted. Yeah. That was one way of describing the clearly hulking man occupying the screen. Had to be six foot, seven inches or so… heavily muscled and tattooed, nose ring, bald head. Hell, the guy just screamed 'thug'.
"He used to work for Atlantic City casinos, as a head cracker," Nate told them. "He was, ah, let go by the bosses there because he got too enthusiastic with his work."
"Tiny Tim does however, have a brother who owns a repair shop, still in Atlantic City," Hardison jumped back in.
"Is the brother involved?" Sophie asked, cocking her head.
"Nope, looks clean," Hardison said. "Got credit card charges that put him in Atlantic City all this time. He ain't traveling with his brother."
"So why haven't we seen this guy?" Eliot asked, setting down his nearly empty carton and pointing toward the screen with his beer in hand. "Guy that big, that ugly, he stands out."
"Probably laying low," Nate said. "Staying away from the races to avoid suspicion."
"Ah, but here is why I am the master," Hardison said and tapped keys. "Cams from tonight at the bar… please look to the left side of your screen and observe the ugly mass of humanity currently sucking up to the local skirts."
Eliot watched Tiny Tim trying to get it on with some rather long-faced woman in a too-tight denim skirt, and saw the temper flash across his face as he was thoroughly dissed.
"He's cranky," Parker declared.
"I should say so," Sophie murmured, cocking her head as Tiny Tim slammed his glass on the table in a clear fit of anger.
"Right, so, here's the plan," Nate said, setting his glass down and rubbing his hands. "We need to get both guys in the act. Eliot, you and Parker make an appearance in the bar tomorrow after the special stage. Play up your wins, make some friends. Stay out of trouble. Hardison, we'll need to rig the rally car with surveillance so we can catch these guys in the act. We turn them over to the local cops, game over. Easy."
"I hate it when he said, 'easy'," Eliot said conversationally to the room. "It never works that way."
Out of the blue, Parker growled. "There's Dumbass," she said, glaring at the screen.
"Probably drinking his sorrows away after loosing to you, Mama," Hardison said easily, shutting the screens down. "After all, you the queen of the track." He suddenly looked thoughtful. "We should get t-shirts!"
Eliot groaned and sat back in his seat. Right. T-shirts. Nate's plan wasn't bad, he though, it certainly was simpler than a lot of the others they'd run before. But it left an uneasy feeling in his gut and he wasn't sure why. His eyes dropped to rest on Parker as she chattered at Hardison about how she wanted the shirts to be lime green. With sparkles. One thing was sure, he was keeping Parker close until this was over.
So everyone enjoyed their weekend? I'm glad my little bit of smut managed to help with that… Thanks for all the compliments. I do enjoy my work. *wink, wink*