Shepard had been called a lot of things throughout her long and colorful military career. Reckless, ferocious, overconfident, and foolhardy, she'd heard it all before. People often commented on her arrogance, but not even she compared to Kai Leng's level of superiority. There was something about him that intrigued her, a magnetic pull that drew her to him. She didn't know what laid beneath his haughty and proud exterior, but she was determined to find out.
They walked together through the Citadel's crowded Upper Ward streets, their pace slow and casual as they made their way to the nearest rapid transit terminal. Biting her lip she gave Kai a side long glance, a strange feeling budding in her chest. Jane had never experienced the figurative "butterflies" in her stomach before; not with Kaidan and especially not with Jacob. She finally understood the meaning behind the phrase. Strange that she would feel it with someone she'd only just met.
The Spectre offices were reserved for Spectre use only. She knew that she could potentially catch shit by bringing Kai, a civilian, into the offices to try out the shooting range. The problem with that was that she didn't have it in her to care. Shepard liked Kai's confidence and she wanted to see if he could put his credits where his mouth was. Men were such petty creatures, and she wanted to find out if that ego was just for show or if he could back it up.
"So, Jane," he started, giving her all the reason she needed to look at him without being accused of staring. When he met her gaze there was a twitch at the corner of his mouth, a challenge, a dare, he was taunting her to be or do something exactly the way he was expecting. "Does work bring you to the Citadel a lot?"
She pursed her lips as she stared at him, fighting back her underlying smirk. At his height, and looking the way that he did, most people had to find him intimidating. She'd dealt with too many men, too caught up in their big boys club to identify a strong woman when they saw one, to feel threatened by him. Shepard knew that the best way to get the respect from a man's man was to beat him at his own game. But Kai's game was impressive, and she welcomed the challenge.
"Not if I'm lucky," she admitted with a smirk. When he glanced at her, his brow raised in question, she supplied, "On a good day, another day at the office includes going through several thermal clips and killing a bunch of bad guys out on the field."
The chuckle that sounded from him was a low and seductive rumble. "Kicking ass and taking names?" he commented with an understanding nod. "That's the ideal nine to five, if you ask me."
"How about you?" she returned his question, genuinely intrigued by him and what he did. Shepard had to ignore the foreign flutter in her chest at the sound of his deep and alluring voice saying her name, her body still tingling from when he'd started his line of questioning.
People didn't call her by her first name as an unvoiced rule. She was Shepard, Commander Shepard. Everything that the name symbolized, the respect it demanded, couldn't be portrayed by her first name. And yet he made her feel just as important when he called her Jane, like she was the same woman, who had accomplished all of the same things, while still being a woman. Was that even possible, to feel feminine and like a badass at the same time?
They stepped up to the rapid transit terminal and Kai summoned a cab. Turning to her, the smirk twisting the corners of his mouth was mischievous when he admitted, "This is actually my first time back in a very long time." like she was on the outside of an inside joke, party of one.
True to its name, the rapid transit terminal supplied a cab before she had the chance to reply. Shepard waited until he climbed into the sky-car behind her, and they were both settled in, before she observed, "How does a successful, private philanthropic organization thrive without a hub here on the Citadel?"
"Without the strain of politics," he answered with another one of his smirks. The sky-car started moving and Kai repositioned himself in his seat. Turning his body toward her, he placed his arm on the back of the seat, tactfully wrapping an arm around her shoulders while maintaining the casualness of their car ride.
Shepard allowed a foxy grin to inch across her painted lips. She batted her eyes at him in that flirtatious way she'd seen Kelly do, and her smile grew at the sight of Kai's dilating eyes. Biting her lip, she turned her body toward him and placed her hand on his chest. When Kai's gaze was on her mouth, she huskily whispered, "Sounds like what you do isn't entirely legal."
He blinked and his gaze met hers. His smirk remained, but had turned challenging in wake of her statement. Leaning closer to her, the mouthwatering scent of Kai's cologne filled her nose and he rebutted, "And how much of what you do is entirely legal, Jane?"
She bit her lip again, her heart beating hard in her chest, pumping excitement through her bloodstream like currents of electricity. Her laugh was throaty when she replied, "Not much." her hand tingling against the warmth of his chest.
"I didn't think so," he purred, brushing a lock of her red hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear. Kai licked his lips, his eyes on her mouth as he commented, "Legalities are so constraining. People like you and I demand a certain kind of freedom that they can't offer us."
Her heart was hammering against her eardrums, the rapid thump-thump, thump-thump growing more and more deafening the closer he came to her. Shepard could feel his body heat, his warmth radiating off of him like the blue fire of biotics. Trying to concentrate on their ongoing conversation, she breathed in his cologne and forced herself to ignore her body's reaction to his proximity.
"And what kind of people are you and I exactly?" she asked, her gaze flicking from his lips to his intense eyes.
Kai's fingers trailed from behind her ear, down the line of her jaw, to her chin and he tilted her face up toward his. He answered her question, "The kind of people who get things done." and inched his mouth toward hers.
Before their lips could make blessed contact the sky-car descended from the airway and landed on the platform. The cab door opened with a wretched hiss, and Shepard felt her hackles rise at the obscenity of their interrupted moment. She blinked and Kai was no longer about to taste her, he was back a respectable distance, her chin free from his hold.
Clearing his throat, Kai paid the cab fare and exited the sky-car. When Shepard scooted her way out of the seat, she accepted his offered hand and allowed him to help her out of the vehicle. She straightened out her dress and sucked in a deep, cleansing breath. The cold Citadel air helped to cool her yearny body. Though she could pretend otherwise, Shepard knew that she couldn't deny the intensity of her attraction to Kai. There was just something about him.
They stood before the embassies and Kai gestured for her to lead the way. Shepard strutted through the doors, fully aware to her companion's heavy gaze on her backside. A devilish grin spread over her mouth. She might not have had Tali's curvaceous figure, but Shepard's ass was still one of her prized features.
Even at this hour of the night the embassies were still functioning. Diplomats, bureaucrats, and late working liaisons were lingering about to finish an unending night at the office. She and Kai walked through the embassies without interruption and quickly cut through to the Spectre offices.
Once they walked past the secure door and stood in the middle of the empty room, Kai gave the office a clinical once over. The expression on his handsome features was unimpressed. When he met her gaze again it was with the admission, "I always imagined these offices to be more…" he paused in search of the right word. After a second he finished, "intimidating."
She smirked at his observation. Leaning on the nearby railing, Shepard crossed her arms in front of her chest and admired his strong features. Appreciating his tall and athletic build, she commented, "I have a feeling that it takes a lot more than an office to intimidate you."
Kai stepped up to her then, cutting the distance between them until his scent was in her nose again. The smirk he wore when enjoying a private joke returned to his twisted lips, and grew at the sight of Shepard's body bowing toward him unbidden. His voice was a deep and sensual purr when he admitted, "I've seen an intimidating office or two in my day."
"Yeah?" she whispered, breathless by his proximity. Biting down on her lower lip, Shepard's gaze flicked from his mouth to his shadowed gaze and back again. She swallowed hard in attempt to rein herself in and control her excited breathing. The foxy smirk that curled her lips was forced, her husky tone dabbed with seduction as she teased the tall man looming over her.
"Mr. 'I get things done' gets intimidated by an office?" She shook her head tauntingly, tsking him like she would a misbehaving animal. "And here I had such high expectations for you."
"A man's office is a representation of the man," he replied, unperturbed by her teasing. His breath caressed her cheeks. "If a man's office is intimidating, that can only mean one thing about the man-"
"He's overcompensating," she supplied with a devilish grin.
He chuckled, caught off guard by her backhanded comment. Kai held her by the chin and used his thumb to pry her bottom lip from between her teeth. His body heat was stifling, suffocating, absorbing all the moisture from her mouth until her thirst for him grew nearly unbearable.
"I wouldn't know anything about that."
Hmm, she hummed jokingly. "I'm sure you wouldn't." Shepard grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled her lips up to his. With their mouths only a hair's breadth apart, she whispered, "You talk a big game." before forcefully shoving him away from her. Acknowledging the surprise on his face with a wolfish grin, she strutted past him towards the firing range.
Without looking over her shoulder back at him, she said, "Let's see if you can back it up."
She had to shake off the excited tingling coursing through her body. There was no arguing the sexual chemistry between them. Denying herself a taste of him was torture, a cruel game she never inflicted upon herself voluntarily. But this teasing back and forth, the sexy repartee, was fun. As much as she wanted it to end so that she could ravish him completely, she had to remind herself that 'all good things to those who wait.'
Once in the firing range, Shepard led Kai to the selection of weapons and leaned sensually against the countertop. Shooting a seductive simper in Kai's direction, she said, "Since I'm the one who challenged you, you get to pick what weapon we use."
"I never took you for a duelist" he commented, moving his admiring gaze from her lithe body to the weapon case she was leaning against. Browsing through the display case, he considered his options before making a satisfied sound and pulling a sniper rifle from the armory.
Damnit! She bit back the stream of curses that threatened to spill past her painted lips. With a displeased growl she wondered, "How did you know?" To Kai's inquisitive expression she elaborated, "The sniper rifle isn't one of my strongest weapon choices." Far from it actually. Handling a sniper rifle required a certain kind of finesse that she simply didn't have.
Another one of his private smirks twisted his lips and Shepard scowled at the sight of it, even if her heart did flutter a little. "Lucky guess, I suppose," he answered, his smirk easing into a showstopping grin.
She made a doubtful noise as she removed a matching sniper rifle from the weapons case. Walking over to where he was standing at the firing range, she took up post beside him and readied her weapon. Giving Kai a sidelong glance, she muttered, "Out of practice or no, I'm not going down without a fight."
Kai grinned in amusement, squinting as he checked the scope. "I'd expect nothing less from you, Jane."
Her cheeks flushed at the intimate way he said her name. Fighting the blush from her features, she didn't risk opening her mouth and sounding like a flustered idiot. When she was as ready as she was going to be, she glanced at him and caught his grin.
"Are you done stalling?" He asked, a provoking note to his tone.
Shepard narrowed her gaze, offended, and replied, "I was just thinking about what gun you're going to get for me."
"Oh?" Kai laughed at her arrogant statement. "And what gun is that? I might need to move some credits around in my bank account."
"An N7 Hurricane." she answered with a sideways smirk.
He arched an approving eyebrow and nodded in appreciation of her tastes. "That's a quality weapon."
"It is," Shepard agreed. "A quality weapon for a quality woman."
The smile that coiled his mouth was daring when he commented, "It's a shame that you're going to have to buy it for yourself. In addition to the weapon you're buying for me, of course."
She couldn't fight the grin from her face as she stated, "You are so sure of yourself." with a shake of her head.
Shrugging, Kai rebutted, "With good reason."
More than ready to put his skills to the test, Shepard started, "The rules of the game are: most precise shots on most targets wins."
"Sounds simple enough," he replied, getting a good grip on the long rifle in his hands.
She also adjusted her grip on the sniper rifle and said, "May the best man win."
When Kai rebutted with a cocky, "I intend to," she rolled her eyes and pressed the button that would summon the targets. Sheets of white appeared at the far end of the long room, descending from the ceiling and emerging at random. Shepard remembered to breathe as she kept pace with the targets, trying to anticipate when the next one would appear.
The long range scope was disorienting as it always was, and it was difficult for her to transition from distant targets to ones that were closer to her position. Even if she somehow lost this challenge, she could still boast the fact that she hadn't missed a single target. Sniper rifles were her least favorite weapon. There was a reason that she always trusted Garrus to have her six.
A buzzer sounded and their time was up. The targets pulled forward to be inspected by both contestants and, to her dismay, Shepard would have to find a way to pry her foot out of her mouth. A mixture of amusement and annoyance burned inside of her at the sound of Kai's confident baritone voice.
"Huh," he said, the grin as loud in his voice as it was wide on his face. "It looks like I won."
She set down the sniper rifle and put a hand on her hip. Boring a threatening look into her male counterpart, Shepard muttered, "It sure does look that way, doesn't it?"
Kai sucked in a deep refreshing breath through his nose, the smile still firmly rooted on his lips as he spoke. "So this is what it feels like to be a winner." He held her gaze and his grin grew taunting. "What am I saying? I am a winner, beating you just feels a helluva lot better than usual."
Shepard wrangled her bemused smile down to a scolding smirk before observing, "You really are a sore winner, aren't you?"
Shrugging indifferently, he replied, "It's one of my very few flaws."
"You're an arrogant son of a bitch." She shook her head and turned on her heel. Leaving the firing range, she led Kai to the weapon kiosk and begrudgingly gestured for him to pick his prize. "Go on, get your toy. Try not to shoot your foot off with it."
He smirked, murmuring, "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" as he browsed the selection.
Shepard stood to the side, her arms crossed in distaste. Returning his overconfident grin with a playfully pointed look, she rebuked, "Maybe then I'll challenge you to a race."
The burst of laughter that bubbled out of him was boisterous and immediately pulled an accompanying giggle from inside of her. Giving her a sexy sidelong glance, he said, "Has anyone ever told you how cute you are when you pout?"
Cheeks flushing at his compliment, she tucked her hair behind an ear to hide her girly blush. Clearing her throat in attempt to banish her school girl reaction to his comment, Shepard admitted, "Cute isn't typically an adjective people associate with me."
Kai gave her a slow and thorough once over, the shadow in his eyes darkening with something she wasn't scared to call lust. When his dangerous gaze made it up her curves and found her eyes, a predatory grin expanded over his mouth. "It's not the adjective I'd use to describe you either."
"Is that so?" She felt her heart leap excitedly into her throat. Her previous heat of embarrassment turned into the heat of arousal, and Shepard was suddenly, and violently, reminded of the sexy creature that was Kai Leng.
With his hand still on the console, Kai leaned toward her and wrapped his free arm around her waist. Pulling her into his chest, he stared down at her dangerously and growled, "Cute is what I'd call a house cat. And you, my dear Jane, are a tigress."
She squirmed in his arms, unable to control her body's intense reaction to him. Wet heat was pooling in her southern regions and Shepard ground her teeth to keep from moaning at his touch. Fisting the front of his shirt, when she spoke her voice sounded embarrassingly needy, her wanton exuding from her in waves.
She pushed her chest against his and breathlessly whispered, "Are we done here?"
The smirk that twisted his lips was seductive. Combing his fingers through her short red hair, his hand burned at the nape of her neck and he lowered his mouth down to hers. His breath gently caressed her face, warming her blood up well past the boiling point.
"We're just getting started."