Chapter Six

Breakfast was over much too soon as far as Dean was concerned. He didn't want to leave, because he knew once they got back to the motel and loaded the cars, it would be hours before he saw Amie again. She'd load all of her crap into that stupid European piece of junk she called a car and take off. No matter how often he asked, she refused to follow him to their next destination, always taking off and leaving them behind. Most of the time, she would get to their next job hours ahead of them, thanks to rarely having to stop for gas. As much as Dean hated her car, he had to admit it got much better gas mileage than the Impala. Sometimes though, Amie wouldn't be at the next town or the next job. And at some point, he would get a text message telling him where she had ended up. Then it could be weeks before he saw or heard from her again. And now, thanks to that conversation in the restaurant, Dean was concerned that she was already planning on making her escape. He needed to make sure that didn't happen.

He kept glancing at Amie in the rearview mirror on the short drive back to the motel. She was scrolling through her phone, headphones on, muttering to herself and jotting notes on a small notebook she kept in her jacket pocket.

"She's not going to jump out of a moving vehicle, Dean. You can relax," Sam said quietly.

Dean threw one more glance into the rearview mirror and then looked at his brother. "I know. But you know as well as I do that she's thinking about cutting and running once we split up for the drive to Pennsylvania."

"So stop her," Sam shrugged. "You know you can. You even know what you need to say. Quit being a jerk and just tell her."

"I'm not being a jerk. I plan on talking to her." Dean had an idea of what he would say to Amie, but it meant revealing how he really felt; opening himself up and letting her in. Again. And everybody knew emotional vulnerability was not Dean Winchester's strong point. Plus, he'd already screwed things up with her once before, so who knew if she'd even be willing to listen to him.

He pulled into the motel parking lot and parked the Impala in the spot next to Amie's shiny blue Mini Cooper. Amie quickly moved to get out of the car. He needed to catch her and talk to her before she could solidify any plans she was making. He opened the driver's door, cutting off her route to the motel room doors. He stepped out of the car and grabbed her waist with both hands.

"Wait," he said. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" Dean turned to his brother.

"Sam?" He threw the Impala's keys across the roof. "Will you load up the car?" Sam caught the keys one-handed and turned toward their room.

Amie tried to pull away from Dean's hands resting on her waist, but he wouldn't let her go. "What's up?" she asked warily.

Dean looked around the parking lot. "Can I talk to you, in private?"

Amie looked slightly dumbstruck. "Umm, yeah, I guess so." She pulled her motel room key from her jacket pocket.

He took the key with one hand and grabbed her hand with the other, pulling her toward her room. He unlocked the door and pushed her inside. Amie flipped the light switch near the door, bathing the room in harsh light.

Dean figured it was now or never. Words weren't his strong point, he was always better at showing people how he felt. He pulled Amie against his chest, his hands going up her back, under her jacket. He bent down and captured her lips in a brief, but intense kiss.

Amie pulled back, a look of disbelief on her face. "What the hell, Dean?"

"I've been wanting to do that all morning. And I would have sooner if that waitress hadn't been so bitchy." He moved one hand to Amie's face, grasping her chin with his hand. He ran his thumb over her lower lip, being careful not to push on the cut scoring it. He wanted to kiss her again, shit, he wanted to do more than kiss her, but he needed to move carefully or she would disappear as soon as they hit the road.

"I don't understand," Amie whispered breathlessly. "Where did this come from?"

Dean sighed. He should have known he would have to do some talking. Amie never would let him off of the hook that easily. He looked into her blue eyes, still holding her chin carefully in his large hand.

"I guess that lately, the way I look at you has changed," he mumbled. God, that didn't sound right.

"As opposed to…what? How you felt when we were having sex a few months ago?" she asked, her voice hard.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again. Amie stood in front of him, waiting. He felt his body temperature rise as his nerves kicked in, so he slipped off his jacket and threw it on the bed. He turned back to Amie, but she just stood there, arms crossed over her chest. Why the fuck was she making this so hard? He'd seduced dozens of girls over the years and it had never been this hard. Dean closed his eyes. It was probably because he knew he wasn't trying to seduce Amie. He felt more for her than that. Now if he could just figure out how to say it. "I guess what I'm saying is, I'd like to see where we could take this, this, thing going on between the two of us." Dean gestured between the two of them.

"This thing?" Amie smiled just a little bit. "You're not trying to get me into bed again, are you Dean Winchester?"

"Well, maybe eventually…." Dean laughed a deep, throaty laugh. "But right now, I'd like to keep you close so I can see if there is something more between us than flirting and innuendo and dredging up the past. I know you're thinking about taking off on your own. And I don't want that to happen. I want you to go with us, so we can try to figure out what this is and where we can take it. So, I'm sucking it up and laying it out for you." Dean waited, impatiently, to see what Amie's response would be.

Amie closed her eyes for a brief second. Dean saw her take a deep breath and swallow before she opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. She shifted from foot to foot for a second, before fixing him with an ice cold stare from her startling blue eyes. "So you're telling me you want more. More than friendship. Or at least to see if there can be more than a friendship between us. Is that right?" He nodded, waiting. Amie went back to looking at the ceiling. She took another deep breath, shaking her head. "God help me, I will probably regret this, but okay."

"Okay?" Dean questioned.

"You're right. I was going to take off when we split up. I had no intentions of going to Pennsylvania. But, since you are willing to 'suck it up' well, then I guess I'm willing to do the same. I'll stay with you. I'd like to see exactly what you and I have going on here, too" Amie sighed shakily. "Just, you know, don't shut me out, Dean. All I'm asking is for you to be honest with me. That's more important to me than anything, that you're honest with me. And don't push me away again. You only get one second chance. Don't fuck it up."

Dean stepped forward and pulled Amie close. He laid his forehead against hers. "I won't, I promise," he whispered. Though he wasn't completely positive he could. Being honest had never worked for him. And if it meant exposing himself emotionally, he wasn't sure it would happen. For now, he'd just let this play out however it played out.

But right now, alone with Amie, what he really wanted was his tongue in her mouth, tasting her, kissing her and consuming her. Dean reached up and pushed her jacket off, letting it fall to the floor. He heard the clunk of her gun as it fell from the jacket's pocket. He ran his hands down her arms until he reached her waist. Once his hands were where he wanted them, he slipped them under the edge of her shirt, placing his hot hands against her cool skin. Amie gasped quietly, looking up into his eyes. He leaned down and kissed her, gently at first. He flicked his tongue against her lips, tasting the minty lip gloss she always wore and feeling the cut on her lower lip. When she responded by taking his lower lip between her teeth and lightly nipping him, Dean couldn't hold back any longer. He pulled her against him, lifting her off of her feet, his kisses became more demanding and insistent. She kept pace with him, her tongue darting in and out of his mouth, her hands grabbing at his short hair, pulling him closer. When she wrapped one of her legs around his waist, he let out a groan of desire, sliding his hand under her ass to pull her even closer and keep her right where he wanted her. It briefly crossed Dean's mind that this was escalating much quicker than he had anticipated, but dammit, he was finally where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to do with the first woman he'd really wanted since Lisa.

Dean kept kissing Amie, but he knew he needed to stop, right now, before they ended up in the bed with their clothes in a pile on the floor. And as much as he wanted that to happen, he knew he didn't want it to be the first thing they did while exploring this new facet of their crazy relationship. Not to mention, Amie had made that comment about Dean trying to get her into bed and if he didn't stop, then that would look like exactly what he had been trying to do. He broke the kiss off, pulling away and setting Amie down so she could stand on her own two feet. She took a step back, bent over with her hands on her knees and started to laugh. Dean wasn't sure that was the response he'd expected.

"Holy shit," Amie grabbed her jacket off of the floor and stood upright. "What the hell was that?"

Dean shrugged and sat down on the bed. He tried to catch his breath. "Chemistry?" he muttered.

"You've got that right. Wow." Amie knelt on the floor in front of him, smiled and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Thank you for being a gentleman, Dean. Even when I wasn't being very ladylike." He felt laughter bubble up in his chest. "You're welcome," he laughed.

She laughed and stood up. "I'll give you a minute. I'm going to throw my stuff in my car." He felt her plant a kiss on the top of his head and then she was wrestling her bags out the door. He dropped his eyes to the floor where her gun still was. Man, he had it bad. And he didn't know what to do about it.