A-N - Hey everyone. First of all, thank you for the reviews and follows etc. They're appreciated very much :) Secondly, I make no apologies for this chapter. Monroe and Charlie wrote this, I was just the vessel lol. Hope you guys like.

Charlie made her way back to camp with her mind reeling. She had kissed Monroe. Without a gun pointed at her head and somebody telling her to do it or die!

This was beyond awful. Her parting remark about Connor might have royally pissed him off - she could see it in the the way his jaw clenched - but Monroe wasn't stupid enough to believe her explanation.

She felt like the stupid one. Very, very stupid. And also humiliated. And incredibly turned on. Sex with Connor hadn't produced the reaction in her body that just a kiss with Monroe had. And that was bad. Very bad. She'd never look him in the eye again. 'He must think I'm a whore!' Despite the fact that she was supposed to hate him and certainly not meant to give a crap what he thought, she couldn't help the horrible feeling in her gut at the idea of him thinking badly of her. 'But then,' she thought, 'he was the one who kissed me back. Why did he do that?'

She had no idea. Heat of the moment probably. Seeing Duncan again might have gotten him wound up. They clearly used to sleep together. Maybe she had turned down a repeat performance. But why would he then take his pent up lust out on Charlie, even if she had initiated the whole thing, was way beyond her.

Thinking about Duncan and Monroe together made her cringe. The warlord had turned out to be pretty cool - not that Charlie would ever admit that out loud - but the idea of her anywhere near Monroe made Charlie fantasize about sticking sharp things in the bitch's eyes.

She didn't even wanna think about why that might be.

By now she was back with her men. Connor, she saw, had already fallen asleep by the fire and she was glad. His attempts to get closer to her on the way back had been hard to dodge. Spending more time with him, she realized he was an okay guy, but beyond a passing physical attraction she felt nothing. Even his father stirred more passion in her than he did.

And thinking about his father was something she intended to never do again.

Abruptly, she forced her mind onto other things. The men Duncan had given her were a good bunch. They did everything she asked as soon as she asked it. They seemed to respect her and for that she was glad. It was nerve-wrecking - ordering people around, especially with the former dictator of an entire Republic watching her every move with them like he was just waiting for her to fail. So she was grateful that they seemed to like her.

The other two men she traveled with hadn't quite managed to get their approval though. They barely tolerated Monroe and were just about stiffly polite to Connor. If she hadn't found it so funny she might have asked them to lighten up on them. But anything that annoyed Monroe was fine with her. She had to work with him to fight against the patriots with any chance of winning, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

The problem was she did like it. Far too much. Charlie had never felt more alive than when she was fighting back to back with him. The way he moved with a sword in his hand was almost poetic. It was also one of the hottest things she had ever seen, but that had quickly been filed under the Never Think About Again folder in her head. Or at least she'd thought it had. Now that she had kissed the hell out of him she wondered if she had ever really forgotten how attractive he was to her.

That had been the point of sleeping with Connor she now realized, forgetting that his father could make her pants damp just by looking at her. Okay, pissing off his father had been her primary intention - but having just had her tongue in Monroe's mouth - she realized that she had mostly been trying to bury the feeling that she'd had in her chest whenever Duncan had gotten the idea that they were together.

She pulled her bedroll out and lay down after nodding to one of her men who had taken first watch. Turning onto her side she caught sight of Monroe returning to camp. As he got closer she squeezed her eyes shut tightly and prayed he wouldn't feel the need to speak to her. Or to mention what they had just done to anyone. Or, God forbid, try to kiss her again. The sensation of his lips moving over hers, domineering and powerful and oh so sensual was stuck on permanent loop in her head. Frustration ate at her insides. Imagining what his tongue could do elsewhere on her body was not helping. With a loud sigh, she turned over and tried to make her mind go blank.

She was not thinking about Monroe again.

Monroe bit back a smirk as he watched Charlotte pretend to be asleep. He hadn't been that far behind her, there was no way she had passed out so quickly. The smirk died on his face though when he made eye contact with the man on watch. Those assholes were gonna learn a thing or two about respect by the time this was over. The dislike they had for him was almost tangible in the air every time they were anywhere near him. Like everyone else they probably believed that he was responsible for the bombs dropping. Idiots. He grabbed his bedroll and decided to try get a few hours before they had to start all that damn walking again.

Later, he would say that it was purely by accident, but he had somehow made his way right next to a "sleeping" Charlie. It occurred to him to move further away, but a part of him that wanted to keep close to her won out. Wasn't like they stayed far away from each other these days anyway. Truth was they pretty much did everything next to each other. Eat, sleep, even the walking. Somehow they always managed to be within touching distance of each other. He told himself that he had just been keeping a close eye on her, as Miles would want him to. But deep down he knew what he was really doing. He just hadn't realized that Charlie was actually doing the same thing. Now he could see it clearly.

He wanted her. God did he want her. And it seemed like maybe Charlotte wanted him too. He wasn't an idiot. The look in her eyes after he had kissed her couldn't have been faked in that moment, no matter what she said afterwards. Thinking of her jibe made anger surge through him again. Connor had nothing whatsoever to do with what had happened between them and they both knew it.

Charlie sighing then shifting beside him caught his attention.

"Finding it hard to sleep, Charlotte?" He whispered, low enough that only she could hear.

The surprise on her face when she turned to face him said she had been so deep in thought she hadn't even heard him approach. He grinned at her as she glared, her mask of calm indifference gone.

"Jeez... Seriously Monroe, you couldn't find anywhere else to sleep?" she whispered.

He couldn't keep his grin from widening, not that he tried to, "Am I making you uncomfortable, Charlotte?"

Bass bit back a chuckle as she snorted, "Of course you are, you're you, you make everyone uncomfortable. And stop calling me Charlotte! I hate when you do that."

He felt a surge of lust at the look on her face. It was hard not to just reach out and yank her to him. And speaking of hard - just breathing in her scent was doing dangerous things to his body. His eyes darkened as he stared at her, suddenly deadly serious. Charlie shot him a half assed glare, looking uncomfortable again, before turning away from him completely.

"Goodnight, Charlotte." He whispered at her back.

Instead of an angry retort, something inside of him clenched painfully when she finally spoke again.

"Goodnight... Sebastian."

It was still dark when she opened her eyes again. There was an arm around her and her face was pressed against something solid and warm. Fingers were gently running through her hair. For a second she pictured Connor sneaking in beside her and irritation rose. Then she caught a familiar smell - woodsy and masculine - and realized who was holding onto her. Embarrassment filled her immediately. She must have moved in her sleep, straight onto Monroe.

Slowly, she pulled her head back to look up, certain he would be ready to mock her. But instead of humor dancing in his eyes in the glow of the dying fire, she was shocked to see sadness there instead. His fingers had remained in her hair, but her movement had seemed to startle him back from wherever his mind had been. Their eyes locked together. Charlie had no idea what to say, or do. She had never experienced an upset Monroe before and had no idea how to handle it. Suddenly, she was very aware how close they were. Before she had a chance to think anything else, she felt his lips brush softly against hers.

Her heart began pounding in her chest. Monroe's fingers had tightened in her hair. She let her eyes flutter shut as he watched her, as if trying to gauge her reaction. Seemingly encouraged by this, he did it again. What little defense she had against his touch crumbled as she kissed him back. Their mouths moved slowly against each other, something other than desperate passion guiding them this time. Her hands rested against his chest as she all but purred into his kiss. Their tongues tangled as they deepened it, each content to take it slow, as though they had all the time in the world.

He gently maneuvered them until she lay beneath him, his body resting between her legs, lips never parting once. She could feel him rock hard against her and on instinct wrapped her legs around him, pulling his body against her in the most delicious way. He let out a low groan against her mouth, breaking their kiss only briefly to mumble her name. Her entire body seemed to come alive.

Monroe's hands should not have felt so damn good sliding down her sides and up under her shirt, but they did. As his fingers brushed over her nipples she almost came right there. Thrills of pleasure rode up her spine as he pressed his erection more firmly against her. Though they were fully clothed, they began moving against each other as though they were naked. As his tongue danced with hers, she swore she was about to explode from the amazing friction they were creating between them.

Her hands slid down his back, slipping inside his jeans to grip his ass, her nails definitely leaving their mark. He hissed and broke away to bury his face in her neck, biting and sucking at the skin below her ear, still grinding against her.

Charlie's entire body was alight with need, she was so close to an orgasm that all it took was for him to whisper her name in that sexy, husky voice of his to send her over the edge. She gripped onto him, bringing her hands up to drag his face back for another explosive kiss.

As it overcame her, she groaned his full name softly against his lips and he followed her over the edge.

They finally stopped moving and he collapsed on top of her. Charlie's fingers immediately went to his curls, lost in momentary bliss.

Disbelief, shame, anger and blame would probably follow this, but for right now, she was content to just lay where she was, Sebastian Monroe in her arms and the warmth of satisfaction humming through her entire body. In seconds, she was sleeping peacefully.

Monroe's last waking thought that night was that he had actually just dry-humped a girl half his age. Who also happened to be the much loved niece of his best friend. The man who used to rule half the country was being reduced to acting like a desperate teenage boy. He was definitely going to have to kill her.

A-N - As I said, not sorry lol. They're not the kind of people who wouldn't act on their feelings in the moment. Consequences and the feelings afterwards/ next morning are a different matter. Let me know what you think, or you're not getting any more! lol kidding!