"You knew that Henry Lin had Doctor Knowles murdered." The cutting edge of her tone was in complete contrast to the softness of her hands as she raked the cut down off his shoulders and back, pausing as he hissed into a sudden twinge of pain. "What?"
"Nothin'." He shrugged the leather lower off his arms and swung it down, catching the collar up into his fingers as he fully turned into the front of her. "Don't wanna talk about it."
"What happened?" her discriminating glance at once amused and concerned him.
"Jarry." He sighed into frustration. "Nothin' happened."
"Bend over then." She shunted into him, her hips gliding against his in a way that brought a growl up from the bottom of his throat.
Instead of playing into her concerned demand he jerked his hands against her hips and tugged her even tighter, letting his weight lean into hers so that her hands braced into his chest. "You first."
"I want to know." There was a sudden sweetened whisper to her voice that disarmed him, and a matching plead in her eyes that actually had him trusting in the show of concern.
"Threw down with some trash. Trust me, Ally, he deserved the whomping he got." He whispered the words into her sharply angled jaw line, feeling her head tilt away to bare her throat to the rasp of his beard and the brush of his lips. He laid his tongue onto skin that tasted sharp and bright and warm at once.
"You knew," her whisper washed heat on his ear, "about Lin."
"Aye." He razed his teeth on skin before laying his tongue against the reddened mark.
Her hands suddenly had his head jolted up straight and in a shock of defensive posturing he'd jerked her so tightly into his chest that her lips were nearly brushing his and her eyes were dark points that he could barely focus on. "You knew about Lin."
Chibs blinked once into the accusation in her voice, resignation paling his features. "Aye, I did. And y'know where we stand on things like that."
The pause in her breathing and the perfect stillness of her was a stop in time, looping them together in moments that neither nor never existed.
They couldn't stay here.
Not in this place where she was a woman he wanted to crave but couldn't bend for…
It could kill them without letting them die.
She was gracious and so was her hand as she stroked her fingers against the line of his nose, "You must be a very important man to have your very own guard dog."
"You or the clown on the bike?" It was the second wink he'd given her in twenty four hours and as much as she wanted it to annoy her independent woman ways, it actually softened the frustration that had pinioned her spine straight.
"You don't need me to protect you." She pressed the words into his lips, swiping her tongue against his before kissing words into his jaw. "And I don't need you playing protector either. We're grown ups, Filip."
"She says to the man who saved her pretty ass in an explosion." The lagging tiredness of his brogue was still tinted with teasing.
Ally just smiled and it lit into her eyes, "Pretty sure you were already looking for a reason to climb on top of me."
The loud break of his laughter was a warm precursor to his arms looping her up in more comfortable heat than she'd expected. "You came after me, Lieutenant."
"And you came back, Vice President."
She let her head tip back as his mouth downed along her throat and aimed straight for her breasts, lips traveling her neckline while one slowly sliding hand stroked along her ass. Althea let her eyes dip closed arms sliding to ride along his shoulders and settle there as he curled her into an arch, forcing her to press up into the way he was driving the fabric of her shirt lower with his mouth.
"This is going to end badly." She sighed the words into the room and enjoyed the way he growled annoyance at the interjection of reality.
"Why don't you stay here with me, love?" he was laying his mouth against hers again and she let him drive the sudden roughness of the kiss he was giving her. "Where it doesn't matter."
"It matters." She stated matter of factly as he tugged at the bottom hem of her shirt, allowing him the movement even though her tone was argumentative.
The groan he laid between her breasts made her sigh again and instead of fighting the way he walked her back into her bed, she let him make the movements. Staying with him touch for touch.