She was making everything a damn rampant battle and while it normally would have worn tiresome on him, something about the whipping challenge of her when her eyes flicked over him made a possible win a victory he craved over and over again. The sex had been seething and a digging fight over control and he'd given himself some lead time when he'd curved his palm up her throat to rush her jaw line, thumb keeping her chin pride-high as he'd slowly stepped her into the hallway wall and told her to just be still. There'd been enough rough and rasp and frustrated force in his tone that she'd given him a softened smile of acquiescence before her hands had stroked evenly down his chest, a grace of surrender on her face.
Granted, she hadn't kept the peace for long and by the time her long legs were wrapped at his hips and his arms were keeping her pinned up against the wall she'd already jousted back for the lead. And by then he hadn't cared. Because he was starting to inherently recognize the way her hands felt when they sloped the sides of his face to guard his scars. He'd memorized the taste of the specific moan she made every time he wrapped his fingers into her hair and pulled taut.
"Just sleep, Althea." He roughed the words into her scalp before wiping dark and silken hair off her forehead, looking down over the way she was laying into his side. Her thigh was possessively drawn up tight between his legs as she studied the bare inches of him with tracing fingers, "Jesus. You're making me blush."
Now it was a battle to stay awake.
To be the one that anchored the other in unguarded and vulnerable rest.
"You're not the type." She whispered as she traced the outline of the tattoo on his chest, her touch tacit and light and dangerously near tickling on his already tensed skin. "You're too bold to be shy, Telford. Too proud."
"Cocksure." He winked and lent into a chuckle as she lifted her head and arched her brow in obvious derision.
"You seem to think so." She whispered as she stretched up higher on his shoulder, studying the angles of his profile as he let his head dip back into her pillow, body lanked and relaxed as he palmed against the back of her head. "Are you really?"
"Would y'just sleep?" he kissed quickly at her while the other hand slapped playfully against the back of her thigh, avoiding the question in a rush.
"Why?" she caught his hand and wrapped against his wrist, shifting her hips over his abruptly so that his other hand braced on her waist, eyes following the slender and delightfully inviting line of her while she straddled him.
"Maybe I wanna stare at you naked." He lifted the wrist she was still gripping against, drawing her down over him with the pull of his arm and the grip of his other hand, "Take it all in."
She cocked him a dry glance but leaned in slowly, shaking her head before her lips brushed his, kisses taunting and intentionally light. "You've seen more than your fair share of naked women. You boys have been pussy barons for years."
"Sure," he angled her up suddenly with a palm flush into her abdomen, eyes pinning toward dark points as he studied the way she was arched, shoulders back and hair mussed down as she wiped along his forearm, watching the way he licked along his bottom lip as he studied her, "but I don't have to share this with boys, havin' a jerk while mommy's downstairs hooverin'."
"Possessive." She hissed at him, eyes thin in teasing as she pushed his hand away, laying back into his chest as she dug her hips down into his. "Filip does not play well with others. Displays aggression and violence without remorse when feeling as though his person, priorities or possessions are threatened."
"Play just fine w'you, love." He rubbed into her forehead as he gripped into her hair tightly, eyes catching hers. "So far. Now sleep."
She gave him the win he was wanting. Let him own it.
Because, for a little while, it kept him safely pressed beneath her.
"Stand down, VP." She murmured into the sudden sharpened back jolt of his shoulders at the sound from the front door, his head angled hard from the way he'd been pouring coffee. "Pretty sure a threat wouldn't knock at eight in the morning."
"Pretty sure I've knocked a'plenty at all hours, Althea." He countered as he turned her a hardened glance, his palms curving pale knuckled into the edging of her counter.
"Relax, Scotty." There was almost humor in her voice as she buttoned up the black cotton of the shirt she'd stolen from the pile of his things that were littered over her bedroom floor. Maybe she was guilty of her own possessive qualities. And maybe she wasn't prepared to let up on the smell of him on her skin.
Ally skimmed her fingers against the bare run of his spine as she passed by him, angling her steps from the kitchen and into the hall that led to her front door. She passed a glance through the front window as she curled her palm along the door handle but didn't pull, her lungs dumping a groaned noise before she rolled her eyes and shook her head. Slowly she cracked the door, leaning into the frame without pulling it open entirely, her face intentionally passive and composed as she met Unser's eyes in the morning's sunshine.
"Wayne." She nodded forward, catching the surprise and half amusement on his face as he took in the sight of downed dark hair and a man's shirt. "Good morning."
"Mornin'." He smirked his eyes straight to hers, keeping them there as he lifted report folders. "I, uh… wanted to drop these off. Didn't mean to interrupt your morning off."
"Don't worry about it." She shook her head and reached to take them, her spine suddenly lacing up tight when she felt Telford's warmth spread into the reach of her space, the guarding of his body a shift that was an intentional drive of his push for control. The flag of his possession was planted somewhere in the way his body flanked hers from behind, the bare flat of his arm riding the frame behind her head while the other hand cracked the door a bit farther open.
"Come on in for some coffee, then." The tone Chibs used was neither welcoming nor true, but instead a dank hiss of derision and the steel chord of it actually brought her skin tight. "Wayne."
She watched the mingling of surprise and a sort of confused betrayal on the older man's face, blinking as he shifted his shoulders back in a bright realization of understanding. The older man shook his head in a sudden shunt of forced composure, lifting the files into her reaching hand as he shrugged in shaded self defense. .
"Just returning some paperwork." Unser offered the other man softly before meeting her eyes once again. "Thought you may need it."
She pushed back into the way Chibs leaned forward, elbow angling into his ribs forcibly as she nodded a smiling thanks, "I appreciate it."
"What the hell was that?" she slapped the paperwork roughly onto her entryway table.
He just threw up a hand as he moved down the hall, greeting the furious thrust of her voice grazing bare shoulders by turning into the way she was glaring him down. "I don't trust 'im, Ally. He's been half in half out too long. He's survivin' more than cancer."
"This is about trust?" she slapped the comment at him harshly, looking absurdly attractive in his shirt and a rile of fury, "Really? You wanna debate trust when it comes to crooked cops? Have we met? Because your precious fucking bike isn't the only thing you parked on my property last night."
"Hey." His hand came up sharply in her direction, "Don't."
"Don't what?" she was all long legs as she stalked on him, her movements quicker than he expected as she pushed into his chest. "Don't remind you who we are?"
"You think I can forget it?" the sudden ferocity in his face made her lungs lock, his voice a rush of frustrated vitriol before he swung away from her, the side of his fist breaking hard into the kitchen door frame.
Ally sloped a glance over the way he rubbed the side of his arm into the frame before swinging his forehead against it, leaning forward so that his bare back was an open pass in front of her. She exhaled into the writhing silence that vibrated off of him, her shoulders dropping into the unavoidable urge to touch against him, her hand curving the ride of his belt against his hip before she leaned a kiss into the tattooed cross at his shoulder.
"We're just buying time, Filip." She let her cheek lay into the heat radiating off him, curling into the side of his tightened body.
"I know." He hushed down the line of the doorframe.
"But it's for sale," she laid full into him. "And I want as much as I can get."
He turned his face into her hair, exhaling hard, "I'll pay for it."
"We both will." She looked up into the sullen way he was watching her.
"I mean," his head angled as he looked over the dark break of his shirt on the pale of her skin, "I'm willing to pay it. Rent to own, Cu Sith."
"You're so full of shit, Telford." She hushed a smile into the words as she dug closer into his side.
"Aye," he nodded as he dropped his arm against her shoulders and leaned her into the frame, intentionally crowding closed around her. "And you like me."
"That's debatable."
He just gave a sadly knowing smile over her, shaking his head slowly, "No. It isn't."