Thanks for the reviews!

The bantering completely took over this chapter and Mark and Lexie didn't want to stop. I love writing those kind of chapters. I'm sure you don't mind. :-) Enjoy!

Chapter 3

Lexie had just arrived at the office when Scott came down the steps and shouted over the railing into the bullpen. "Sloan is waiting for you in the conference room."

Lexie sighed heavily before she stood up and walked slowly in the direction of the conference room. When she reached the door she took in a deep breath, before she exhaled slowly. She'd decided yesterday, after tossing around in bed for hours, that there was no way around it. She had to work with him. So they better stopped trying to yank at each other's chain. It would just made the job that more complicated if she reacted to his teasing as if she were a fifteen-year-old teenager. Straightening her shoulders, she reached for the knob and stepped into the room.

"Agent Sloan." Lexie nodded briefly at him before she went to the side table and poured herself a cup of coffee. "Do you want some?" Lexie asked him over her shoulder.

"No." Mark held up the steaming cup in front of him. "I'm good, Agent Grey."

Lexie could hear him stressing the word 'Agent' but she didn't take up the bait. There were here for work and nothing else.

"So let's see what they want us to do." Lexie sat down and opened the folder in front of her, scrunching her nose as she read the first paragraph. "So, I'm going to be the suburban housewife."

"You don't like it?" Mark asked, well aware that she must hate to play a housewife. Especially for him.

"I guess, there is not much jobs on the job market for a retired hooker." Lexie sighed, realizing that she had to deal with it.

"Guess not."

"So what are you going to be?" Lexie said, leaning back in her chair, taking a sip of her coffee.

"They wanted me to be a doctor but ..."

"Yeah, I can see that it would have been the perfect fit." Lexie interrupted him.

"Huh?"

"You know, you would nail the whole "Gods in white" thing." Lexie replied dryly. "Arrogant as hell, convinced of himself to a sickening degree and too handsome for his own good."

"Too handsome for his own good?" Mark cocked an eye brow, throwing her a smug grin.

"Of course that's the only thing you've heard." Lexie rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "Like I said it would have been the perfect fit."

"Yeah, probably. But I have zilch knowledge of medical stuff. It would have been too dangerous. Someone could ask me something I should know."

"So what are you going to be?"

"A nerd. Or is the right term geek?" Mark shook his head and said. "Anyway, I'm some IT guy, working at a small firm in the middle of Washington."

"And you know about that stuff? Not scared that someone finds out that you are anything but."

"I know enough to avoid deeper questions. You know, programming isn't that interesting."

"Yeah, but hacking is." Lexie muttered under her breath.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." Lexie replied innocently and Mark furrowed his brows, knowing that there was more behind it.

"So, how come you aren't angry with me anymore?" Mark changed the subject since he'd wondered about it the moment she'd stepped into the room. "When I left you last night you were fuming. I was surprised that I didn't see steam coming out of your ears."

"Well, I realized it was childish to get all riled up about a simple shooting match." Lexie stated calmly.

"That's it?" Mark asked surprised.

"That's it and that you played with unfair methods."

"I did not."

"Of course you did." Lexie said firmly, her eyes meeting his.

"And what methods would that be?"

"You could have told me that you were a sniper."

"Where would have been the fun in that?" Mark grinned, his smile grew even wider when he realized that she had looked him up. ""Did you snoop around?"

"A little." Lexie admitted, averting her gaze back to the file in front of her.

"Wait a minute. You read my file?" Mark suddenly realized that she could only know about him being a sniper if she'd read his file and he wasn't sure he liked the fact that she had read it. There were some stuff in it that he would have preferred to keep from her. "How did you even get it?"

"Aehmm, ..."

"Oh I see, now your comment about hacking makes sense."

"When I want to be convincing as your wife, I need to know more about you than your name and profession." Lexie said, trying to distract him from asking too much questions about where she had her information from.

"I don't really care." Mark looked back at the file in front of him and said slowly. "They left it up to us to come up with a convincing story about how we met. So what do you think?"

"You mean to disguise the fact that we met because you needed to pay for sex?"

"Yeah, I don't know how we gonna sell that if someone ever finds out that you were a hooker."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on!" Mark huffed, standing up to walk to the coffee machine. "Look at me. As if I ever would need to pay for sex."

Lexie suppressed a smile and arched one eye brow, looking him up and down as he poured himself another cup of coffee. His mouth twitched up amused as he saw her checking him out and he leaned back against the table, waiting for her to finish her survey.

"Well, I guess probably not." Lexie said matter-of-factly.

"Probably not?" Mark replied slightly affronted and a laugh escaped Lexie's mouth as she realized that she'd apparently bruised his ego.

"Okay, okay." Lexie grinned up at him. "I was just teasing. I wouldn't have pegged you as being so self-conscious."

"Please, I'm not self-conscious." Mark huffed out.

"Then why are you such an easy mark?"

"I'm not … I don't know. Maybe you've caught me on the wrong foot."

"Hmm, does your ego need some strokes?"

Mark narrowed his eyes dangerously "Don't push it, Grey."

"It's different when you are at the receiving end, isn't it?"

"What receiving end?"

"The teasing."

"Can we just get back to work?"

"Of course, Special Agent Sloan."

Lexie felt satisfaction rising up in her chest as he saw how his jaw clenched. It was good to know that she was able to rile him up almost as easily as he was able to rile her up. But she decided to rest their little 'war' for now because after all they had a job to do and for the next twenty minutes they went over the file together working out the kinks until a knock at the door interrupted them and Scott's head appeared around the corner.

"Are you finished?"

Lexie realized that they'd actually talked their way through the whole file so she replied. "Yeah, we are."

"A word, Agent Sloan?"

Lexie furrowed her brows, looking from Scott to Mark, not sure if she liked how they looked at each other. As if they wanted to mark their territory.

"Sure." Mark said and stood up. "We'll see each other in two weeks then, Grey. By this time we should be married."

"Yeah, honey." Lexie replied. "I can't wait."

Mark chuckled as he closed the door behind him but the smile dropped off his face as he turned around and saw the stern expression on Burn's face.

"Just to be clear here, Sloan. If you hurt her in any way or touch her inappropriately ..."

"We need to play husband and wife, I don't know how I should sell that convincingly without touching her inappropriately." Mark said calmly.

"You know what I mean. Like I said, one false move, Sloan, and you have to deal with me … and Monroe."

"Are you jealous, Burns?" Mark asked tauntingly.

"No, I'm not." Scott replied calmly. "She is my partner, Sloan. She is one of ours and we protect her no matter the costs. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Mark replied, realizing that he would do the exact same thing if he was in Burn's position. He knew loyalty when he saw it and he respected it. "I understand."

~M&L~

"I love this house. It's incredible." Lexie exclaimed as she twirled around in the kitchen. "Look at this kitchen. I always wanted a kitchen like that."

"Aehhm, Grey. There is no one here for whom you have to play the thrilled wife." Mark said, watching her warily. She was acting strange. Since the moment they'd entered the house.

"But look at this gorgeous kitchen. So big. I love it."

Before Mark could say anything she was out of the room and Mark could only look after her with a baffled expression on his face. He would never understand women.

"Oh, my. Come in here, Sloan." Lexie shouted from the living room and he strolled into the room, hunching his shoulders in expectancy of the next outburst. "Look at this gigantic winter garden. This undercover job might not be that bad at all."

"What's gotten into you?" Mark asked, shaking his head disbelievingly.

"Mark!" Lexie looked at him with pity. "I'm still a woman."

"Huh?"

She walked over to him and patted his cheek. "Don't worry. You are a man. You aren't supposed to understand a woman."

Mark stared after her completely at a loss as she disappeared through the door and he followed her slowly, realizing that she went back into the kitchen again.

"It's a shame." Lexie sighed heavily.

"What's a shame?" Mark asked, already dreading the answer.

"That we won't use these awesome appliances?"

"Why won't we?"

"Can you cook?" Lexie asked, looking at him expectantly.

"Don't tell me you can't cook."

"Of course, every woman need to know how to cook. In which century are you living?"

"I always assumed it comes to all women naturally." Mark mumbled, his comment earned him a roll of her eyes.

"No, Sloan. It's not encoded in our gene code. But what did I expect? You are a man."

Without waiting for his answer she stormed out of the room and took the stairs two steps at a time. Mark followed her slowly, asking himself if he would survive one day living with her in the same house. He found her in the master bedroom, her eyes shining with joy.

"Yep, this is mine."

"No, no way." Mark said as he realized the implication of her statement. "I'm not sleeping on the couch in the living room."

"This house has several bedrooms."

"Nope, Grey." Mark crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the door frame. "I'm not taking the risk that someone comes into the house and find signs that I'm sleeping in another bed or that Sutter gets suspicious and uses a thermal imaging camera to spy on us and sees that we are not sharing a bed. It would blow our cover."

"Fine. Then we sleep in the same bed. It's big enough." Lexie replied, putting her hands on her hips. "But I swear, Sloan, if you scoot over during the night and put your paws on me ..."

"Won't happen."

"If you want to keep your fingers, you'll stay on your side of the bed."

"I will."

~M&L~

He had no idea how it happened. He definitely didn't do it on purpose but when he woke up at the crack of dawn, she was lying in his arms, her head resting comfortably on his chest and he could feel her even breath brushing over his skin. He would not read too much into it that he liked holding her in his arms. It was just his morning erection that clouded his brain. Nothing else.

He closed his eyes and contemplated what he should do. If he tried to slip out from under her she might wake up and she would definitely rip his head off when she realized where she was. Of course she would give him all the blame, though she was the one who snuggled deeper into his chest right now and huffed out a contended sigh before she slipped back into a deep sleep, making it that much harder for him to suppress the desire that was rising up in his body.

He needed to calm down first anyway. If she would catch him having an erection while her body was pressed alongside his, she would probably not stop with ripping his head off but cutting off his balls as well. Better to pretend he was still sleeping and let her deal with it when she woke up.

He didn't know how he managed it but apparently he had fallen asleep again and only woke up when he felt her stir in his arms. He made sure that he continued to breathe evenly, his arm still loosely wrapped around her upper body, his fingers resting on her stomach. He could feel her stiffen under him as she fully awoke and realized her surroundings. He was hardly able to keep his own body from reacting as he waited for her next move.

Lexie awoke slowly, her mind struggled to shake off the sleep. She felt warmth under her cheek and fingers and suddenly realized that it wasn't a pillow under her face but a living breathing body and since the only one who was in bed with her was Sloan he must be the one she was currently using as a pillow. Her first impulse was to jump up and shout at him for daring to put his fingers on her but a small part of her enjoyed the feeling of his bare chest under her hand and she closed her eyes for a few seconds, listening to his heart beating under her ear, feeling his chest rising and falling under her fingers.

She was willing to admit, though only to herself, that she was tempted to explore his body. He was ruggedly handsome after all and who was she to deny that there was sexual tension between them. But this what not the time and place to slip under the covers and still her curiosity if the rest of his body was as well-built as his chest. Better to just stand up and slip out of his arms, hoping that he wouldn't wake up. Everything else would just complicate the situation.

Sighing silently she slipped her hand over his and pulled it up slowly until she was able to extricate her body out of his embrace. He was only grunting when she put his hand back on his stomach and she remained sitting on the bed for a minute, only watching him sleep, her hands itching to trail her fingers over his jaw line. It was going to be a piece of work to ignore the desire for him over the next few weeks but she would manage. She had to. Slipping out of bed, she went to the bath room to take a shower and wash away the unwelcome desire for a certain man.

When Mark heard the bath room door he opened his eyes and a grin formed on his face. So she wasn't unaffected by him either. He could work with that. He just wondered how long it would take him to have wild sex with her, because judging from their conversations it would be wild and uncontrolled if they ever unleashed the desire that was apparently simmering inside of them. Maybe they should wait until it exploded. It would definitely be a memorable experience.

~M&L~

As she accompanied him outside after breakfast to send him off to work, being the good suburban housewife she was supposed to be, he couldn't resist to draw her against his body and steal a kiss from her. He hadn't expected her to reciprocate it but she did. Their kiss turning into pure heat and passion in seconds. Her fingers digging into his shoulders made him dizzy and breathless and his hands around her waist tightened, pressing her further into him, before the reality seeped back into his brain and he pulled away, staring dazzled at her.

"We said no tongue." Lexie breathed, licking her lips in a way that made it almost impossible for Mark to not give her another toe-curling kiss.

"You were the one who wanted to be the convincing wife." Mark told her. "We are only married for two weeks. Of course we have our hands all over each other. Besides, we are really a great match. Kisswise, I mean. Why shouldn't I enjoy the perks while we are undercover?"

"So kissing me is a perk?" Lexie replied smugly, ridiculously happy that she wasn't the only one who thought that the kiss had been great.

"Aehmm, … I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did."

"So, one last peck for the beloved husband?" Mark teased and was completely taking by surprise by her response.

"Of course." Lexie replied with a dangerous glint in her eyes and she pulled him down, pressing her lips on his, her tongue darting into his mouth instantly, eliciting a groan out of him as her body molded into his, her center rubbing against him causing his body to react in the only way possible when a hot woman was kissing him senseless.

"You've done that on purpose." Mark growled when Lexie wriggled out of his arms and she smiled wickedly as her eyes dropped to his pants.

"Of course I did." Lexie replied contently. "Like you said, I'm enjoying the perks of this job, too."

"No way." Mark grabbed her by her arm as she wanted to walk away from him. "You're staying right were you are."

"Mark! Let me go." Lexie replied irritated.

"Can't! The neighbor." Mark whispered in her ear and shifted so that Lexie stood directly in front of him, blocking successfully the gaze of their new neighbor. She didn't need to see the tent in his pants. Lexie was so gonna pay for this.

"Hey there." The neighbor greeted as she approached them. "I'm Mollie Granger. Your neighbor. I just wanted to say hello."

Mark let his chin drop on Lexie's shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her from behind and laid them on her stomach, smiling welcoming. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Granger. I'm Dylan Baxter and this is my wife, Alexandra." Mark replied politely, taking a wild guess that she was married after seeing the wedding band on her finger.

Mollie stretched out her hand, shaking Lexie's enthusiastically. "My husband and I are living here for about six years now. So how long have you two been married?" Her gaze fell to their matching wedding bands as Lexie put her hand over Mark's. She could play the loving couple as well as he could and if he wanted to be the snuggling type than they were going to be the snuggling type in public.

"Only for two weeks." Lexie replied, turning her head to smile up at Mark. She really pulled off the loving wife, Mark thought, as he gave her a peck on her lips before they both turned around to Mrs. Granger again who smiled happily at them.

"That's lovely. So I don't want to intrude any longer. I don't want to disturb your young love."

"You are not intruding, Mrs. Granger." Mark said, pulling out on of his characteristic smiles that had never failed so far to charm the women. "We love to meet new people. Why don't you and your husband come over for dinner tonight? My wife is a great cook." Mark hissed out a breath when Lexie's elbow hit his ribs but he immediately turned it into a cough, smiling broadly at Mollie.

"Great. Thanks for the invitation. We are looking forward to come. Do we need to bring anything?"

"No, no need." Mark told her. "We have it all covered. So what do you say? About seven o'clock?"

"Perfect. So seven o'clock it is." Mollie beamed at him before she turned around and walked back to her house.

"My wife is a great cook? Are you insane?" Lexie hissed the moment Mrs. Granger disappeared in her house, shoving his hands away from her stomach.

"Payback is a bitch, huh?" Mark replied, grinning broadly.

"Payback my ass!" Lexie pinched his chest with her finger. "Just so you know you'll bring the food with you. I might need to play the suburban housewife but don't believe for a second that I'll really turn into one. That means no cooking, no cleaning the house or your clothes."

"What about cleaning my body?" Mark said suggestively.

"Sloan, you better go now!"

"Why?" Mark asked innocently.

"I'm sure you've read my file by now."

"Yes!" Mark admitted. "And?"

"So you do know that I'm very well trained in several martial arts. What do you think the neighbors would say when I throw you on your back in the middle of our front yard?" Lexie asked, her voice sweet as sugar, fluttering her eye lashes at him.

"That I'm a henpecked husband."

Lexie's mouth twitched at his comeback and she turned around to hide it from him as she walked towards the house. Stopping at the door, she swirled around, giving him a dazzling smile before she replied. "Damn right! So watch out! In a week you are going to crow on command."

Lexie could hear his amused laughter when she closed the door behind her, a smile gracing her lips as she realized that she enjoyed bantering with him. More than she probably should.

I know I need to update "The Strange Ways of Destiny" and I will as soon as possible but I'm currently having a little writer's block when it comes to this story. I have quite a few written for later chapters but I'm struggling a little with the chapters in between. Well, hopefully I'll snap out of it soon. In the meantime I hope you enjoy the direction in which this federal investigation is going. :-)

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!