Hello again! I have a surprise for you all! I had a very productive week and that's why this weekend I'm going to post two chapters instead of one! Yay!

Anyway, I don't want to say much about this chapter because spoilers, but I really, really, hope you like it ;)

Enjoy and don't forget to share your thoughts!

Chapter 12

Magnus was spending the night in Alec's apartment and, although they had already settled that whenever they were together they always had a really great time, he still couldn't believe that this was happening for the second time in such a short period of time. Alec's invitation had caught him completely off guard and, although he had agreed as quickly as the agent had invited him, he was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that, well, things were changing between them at the speed of light.

A few weeks ago they were nothing more than two strangers who had decided to team up for the greater good, and today they were, what? Some kind of friends? Acquaintances? Magnus wasn't really sure of their official status, but they were definitely not in the same terms as they had been a few months ago. They felt comfortable around each other, they hadn't known one another for long, but now there was definitely an understanding and trust between them that hadn't been there before. They talked and shared things as normal friends did, but there was something else blooming between them, something dangerous that as hard as they had tried, they hadn't been able to stop.

They liked each other.

Magnus had tried to fight against that feeling, he had tried to control himself in front of the agent, but Alec hadn't been making it any easy. He was actually, making it very, very complicated. Magnus knew that the two times that he had been in Alec's place had been because he had decided to crash without a proper invitation, but those same two times the agent had been the one who had asked him to stay and, how could Magnus say no to that face? He was really trying to resist the temptation, but at the end of the day he was only human and Alec was, with his good looks and amazing personality, the embodiment of the serpent that had deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. He was like that glass of water you wanted to drink when you were thirsty, like that piece of chocolate cake you craved to eat when you were on a diet—the man was simply irresistible.

"There's nothing here!" Alec exclaimed in frustration, slamming his hands on the table.

They had been working on the case for hours without any rest. At first they had been laughing and joking about the stupidity of the situation, wondering what they would have done if they had been in this man's shoes, but now it was very late and that good mood had long since died. It was past 3 a.m., and although there was plenty of fresh coffee and the company was more than perfect, the frustration of not finding anything useful was starting to take a toll on them. Alec had been grunting non-stop for the past twenty minutes, making clear with his attitude how desperate and frustrated he was, and Magnus's butt was starting to feel numb from all the hours that they'd been sitting there in the same position. They needed a break.

"Okay, enough!" Magnus exclaimed, standing up from his chair. "Let's take a break! We need to rest our minds and stretch our legs, I can't keep doing this!"

"But-"

"Listen, we both are tired and we won't achieve anything if we continue like this, let's rest for a little while and maybe then we'll see this case through different eyes."

Alec looked down at his watch, surely to count down the hours they still had until he had to head back to the office. They were still getting to know each other, but Magnus already knew that this man was a workaholic. "No, you take a break, I need to find something before dawn."

"Alexander, I'm serious, we both need a break! You won't find anything in the mood you're in. You've been grumbling for half an hour without stopping, I know you're frustrated and desperate to find something useful, but obsessing over this won't help you solve it. You have to rest, stretch your legs. I don't mean to be rude, but your chairs aren't the comfiest in the world, I bet your ass is as numb as mine, come on, stand up!"

"What?"

"Stand up."

"I don't want to stand up, I'm good here."

"Well, you have to."

"Why?"

"Because we're going to dance, you can't dance if you're sitting."

"We what? Are you crazy? I'm not going to dance."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't dance."

"Well, you will with me." Magnus insisted. "Dancing is a great way to distract our minds, Alexander. We haven't found anything useful in hours and I'm tired of reading this nonsense, and since we can't go out for a run because it's late and this city is full of dangerous criminals, we are going to dance."

"Well, I don't care if it's a great way to distract our minds or whatever, I'm not going to dance."

Magnus loved a challenge, so he decided to ignore Alec's apathetic attitude and just walked to the record player and put on some music. He wasn't familiar with the artist, but he decided to give it a try, after all, this was something Alec enjoyed listening to and Magnus wanted to know as many details of the agent as were possible—likes, dislikes, everything.

"This is nice." Magnus said, when a soft tune started to play and a melodic voice echoed in the room, sending chills all over his body. He liked it. The song was slow and melodic, ideal for dancing, so Magnus immediately began to spin around the room, absorbing the notes and letting them determine the way his body was going to move.

"You have good taste, darling." Magnus said, but the agent ignored him. "Come on, Alexander. You're not going to let me dance alone, are you?" He asked, winking at him.

Alec shook his head, rolling his eyes in exasperation and just pretending to go back reading the files. Magnus laughed, swirling around the room, enjoying the music and just trying—maybe a little too hard—to get Alec's attention.

"I'm not going to dance." Alec said, without looking up.

"Come on, Alexander!" Magnus insisted, getting closer to the table and gently pulling him, trying to lift him off the chair, dragging him with him into the living room where there was more space to move. But Alec was putting up resistance, practically gluing himself to the chair, and pretending he wasn't laughing at Magnus's antics.

"I'm not going to dance." The agent said between giggles.

"Yes, you are," Magnus said, smiling, "you may be strong, but I'm stronger than you, agent." He added, finally making Alec to stand up.

"I'm still not going to dance." Alec stated.

Magnus ignored him again, and tried to make him move, to make him dance. At first, the agent resisted, rolling his eyes continuously to show his annoyance, but slowly, oh-so very slowly, Magnus felt him relax, the muscles of his back finally yielding to the soft twirling of their bodies, and soon, they were moving in synchrony, slow dancing to the rhythm of the music.

Alec was taller than him by a couple of inches, so Magnus let the agent take control of the dance and guide them, and God, if that had been a good idea! Alec could dance, he had clearly lied about that. He knew where to put his hands and how to move Magnus around the small space.

"You lied earlier, you know how to dance." Magnus pointed out.

"I didn't lie," Alec sai,. "I said I didn't dance, not that I didn't know how to do it."

Magnus laughed. This man was something else entirely. The English language, or any language for that matter, lacked the words required to describe him. "Who taught you?"

"My sister." Alec said, making Magnus spin and not just with their bodies.

Magnus's mind and heart were literally spinning out of control. He had never felt so damn attracted to anyone before the way he felt with this man. Alec was everything, and having him so close to his body was causing him all sorts of emotions.

The song kept going and they kept dancing. Alec had closed his eyes at some point in the middle of the song and Magnus had been watching him ever since, taking full advantage of the proximity to commit this man's features to his memory. He was so handsome and so sweet—Magnus had trouble breathing just by being in his presence.

The song came to an end and their bodies stopped. Alec opened his eyes and the moment their gazes met, Magnus lost what little self-control he had left. He didn't know what was leading him to do it, but the next thing he knew, he was closing the small gap between them and placing his lips against Alec's, kissing him as he had been wanting to do since their first date.

The kiss started out soft, hesitant, just a brushing of lips, but in a matter of seconds it turned passionate, hot. Alec kissed as well as he danced, and Magnus's entire world was, like when they were dancing, spinning out of control. Kissing Alec was intoxicating, addictive, he knew there was no turning back now. Alec was a drug, and Magnus was already addicted to it.

They broke the kiss to take a much-needed breath.

"We should-" Alec said. His breathing was ragged and labored, his eyes were burning with something that looked a lot like desire. Magnus was almost certain they reflected his own. "We should go back to work." The agent added, trying to compose himself, but failing miserably. Alec was a complete mess, and Magnus was proud to have that effect on him. The agent was always so composed, so still, that seeing him so damned affected was equally rewarding as it was hot.

"Of course." Magnus said, trying to suppress the smile on his face, and simply taking a seat again. He could still feel Alec's lips on his, so he ran his tongue over his lips, savoring the taste and sensation that that kiss had left him.

o-o-o-o-o

It had been barely a couple of hours since he and Magnus had kissed, and Alec still couldn't think straight. Well, he had never thought straight anyway, but that was not the point. The point was that that kiss they had shared had left him all kinds of confused. Yes, Magnus had initiated it, but Alec hadn't stopped him, in fact, he had done quite the opposite, he had kissed him back with a passion that until now, he hadn't felt before. He had practically forced himself to stop it because his body was reacting in a way he hadn't expected.

Alec knew he had no real experience in the dating sector, no one before Magnus had invited him on a date before, but that didn't mean he was a saint either. He had hooked up with random strangers in bars on those nights when he had felt particularly alone, but truth to be told, he had never been kissed the way Magnus had kissed him. And what was worse, he had never kissed back the way he had kissed the criminal.

He couldn't deny that he had found Magnus attractive since the first time he had laid his eyes on a picture of him, the guy knew how to exploit his looks, but so all the models in those magazines his sister loved to read. The problem with Magnus and Alec's evident lack of self-control in his presence was that the man had turned out to be completely different from the person he had thought he was. These past few weeks Alec had discovered something about him, something new that had made him change his perception of him. A new Magnus that didn't match at all with the description written in the file that the Bureau had of him. The number of layers in his personality almost matched the number of layers that the man loved to wear, and Alec had been discovering them all little by little, learning to like and understand them. And as a result, he was finding it almost impossible to get away from him.

Magnus was as intriguing as he was sexy, and Alec had a weakness for that. The connection they seemed to have didn't help either. All his life, Alec had struggled to open himself up to people, hence his lack of experience in the love sector, but then Magnus had stepped into his life, turning his world upside down and showing him that what everybody said about the 'understanding of souls' wasn't just a myth, but something that happened in real life, and from that moment on, he had completely lost himself. Alec loved control and order, but since Magnus had arrived, he had lost both and now, well, he didn't know how to handle it.

For weeks he had tried to put that feeling aside, pretending that what was happening between them was nothing more than a cordial agreement among two parties to get a benefit from a situation that was affecting them both, but the truth was that he had just been fooling himself. All those calls, text messages, and invitations to stay over had been, at least on Alec's part, nothing but a silly excuse to spend more time together and get to know the criminal.

Alec was aware of how wrong this whole situation was, he was an FBI agent and this man, despite his recent changed opinion about him, was still a criminal, but, well, apparently that hadn't been enough to stop him from getting caught under his spell from day one. Magnus had bewitched him, and now that they had kissed, Alec didn't know what to do with himself. This game they were playing was dangerous and even life-threatening, and he knew he couldn't get lost in it; he had to think with his head and not with other parts of his body, but the problem was that he no longer had a say in that. The man had kissed him and completely melted his brain, making any-

"Of course!" Magnus exclaimed, snapping Alec out of his thoughts.

"What? What is it?" Alec asked. They had barely talked since the kiss, both lost in their respective thoughts, trying to figure out what that little lip-action between them had really meant for them and their agreement.

"It's so clear!" Magnus continued, looking at Alec as if whatever thing was crossing his mind was plain obvious.

"What's so clear?" Alec asked confused.

"Don't move." Magnus said, ignoring Alec's question and just standing up from his chair and walking toward him.

"Why?" Alec asked a bit alarmed. Magnus was staring at him as if he had something on his face. Was there a spider walking on his head? Maybe this wasn't the best time to confess that he was a bit afraid of spiders, or any bug for that matter.

"What-what are you doing?" Alec managed to ask. Magnus was now standing behind him. Alec could feel the criminal's body right behind his chair. Having him in such close proximity was causing Alec's brain to short-circuit, and he didn't know why, but suddenly the air in the room wasn't enough to fill his lungs.

Magnus ignored him again and just leaned over, carefully passing his arms around Alec's body—without touching him—and rearranging the five wills that were spread on the table. He was placing them in some sort of circle, but Alec's eyes weren't fixed on whatever Magnus was doing with the sheets of paper, his eyes were fixed on Magnus's hands, on the way they moved around the table, on those rings that gleamed in the dim light, wondering if they would feel cold against his skin.

What?

Alec took a deep breath and looked to the front, trying to regain control of his body, but it was impossible, he couldn't stop thinking about how close their bodies were. He could feel Magnus's breath against his neck and that was waking up things inside him that he hadn't felt before.

"See?" Magnus said.

Alec took another deep breath and forced his eyes to look down at the arrangement Magnus had made with the wills. "Oh my God…" He whispered the moment his eyes landed on the table.

The wills formed some kind of pattern. Alec didn't know what they were exactly, he had never seen anything like it, but the five corners of each sheet completed and complemented the other one, creating a funny-looking circle.

"It's a map." Magnus whispered into his ear. "All the corners have a different symbol, see?" He pointed to the symbols in question. "I bet they lead somewhere, and I dare say that they probably lead to where the real will is."

Alec gasped, but not because Magnus had, single-handedly, solved this whole case, but because despite the more than good news he had just received, all he could think about was that kiss they had shared a couple of hours ago. Magnus had made him see stars, and Alec wanted to see them again, he wanted to kiss him and feel those lips in every pore of his skin, so almost as on an impulse, Alec turned his head around and clashed their mouths together.

o-o-o-o-o

Magnus pushed the papers from the table, making them fly all around them and guided their bodies there. He and Alec were kissing, they had been kissing for what felt like an eternity. At first it had been just lips, then lips and tongues, then lips and tongues and hands, and now things were getting hotter and reaching a different level, a level that was clearly making the temperature of the room to increase by the second.

Alec was so damn sexy and Magnus was no longer in control of himself. How could he be when the man currently pinned beneath him was already trying to unbutton his shirt? He had already said it, he was but a mere mortal and this man was the embodiment of temptation—the devil in the flesh.

"Eager much?" Magnus teased, feeling Alec's desperate, cold fingers touching his very much heated skin. It was like ice on fire. Magnus had never felt so damn aroused before. Yeah, he had had pretty hot make out sessions and wonderful sexual encounters with past lovers; Imasu was very good in bed, and then there was Camille, but he had never felt like he was feeling at that precise moment. Every cell in his body was on fire.

"Shut up." Alec said, making Magnus's shirt to fly across the room.

Magnus seized the opportunity and took off Alec's shirt too, admiring with pleasure what he found under that piece of dark cloth. Alec had an incredible, mouth-watering body and Magnus wanted to worship every inch of it—his arms, his abs, his chest, his neck.

They kissed again and their chests touched, the skin-to-skin contact was almost unbearable.

"Dear God, Alexander." Magnus whispered, kissing the agent's neck and marveling at the sounds the man could make. Alec had a spot on the left side of his neck that made him moan loudly, and Magnus was pleased to use it to his advantage. "You're so sexy." He whispered, now traveling down his body, leaving a trail of wet kisses around his chest, and losing himself in the man's chest hair. It was so damn masculine, so damn sexy—he wanted to spend the rest of his life there.

Magnus's hand trailed down Alec's muscled back at the same time as he captured one of his nipples between his teeth and gave it a tentative bite, sucking on it slowly, not taking his eyes off the agent, watching with awe how he arched his back and cried out in sheer pleasure.

"Alexander…" Magnus said, because that had been probably the hottest thing he had ever seen and heard in his life.

Alec grabbed his face and brought him to him, pushing his tongue deep into Magnus's mouth and giving him the best kiss he'd had so far. Alec's lips moved slowly, but surely, exploring Magnus's mouth gently and with that same urgency that had reigned between them all night. Magnus couldn't help wondering if the agent had wanted this to happen as much as he did.

The answer to that came almost immediately when Alec bit his lower lip and grabbed his ass. Magnus moaned and let his hands travel further down until they reached the hem of Alec's pants. He was just unbuckling his belt when out of nowhere there was a knock on the door.

"Alec, are you there?" A voice said.

"Shit! Izzy!" Alec exclaimed, sitting up with a jolt. Magnus didn't have to ask who Izzy was to know that it was Alec's sister, Isabelle Lightwood, the other federal agent, who, by the way, lived next door.

"She can't see you here!" The agent said, quickly picking up their discarded clothes from the floor and buckling his belt back up. "You have to hide!"

Magnus just stood there laughing at the situation as quietly as he could. He felt like a horny teenager who had been caught making out with his high school sweetheart in the backseat of a car.

"Stop laughing and move!" Alec said, practically pushing Magnus into one of the rooms and then into the closet.

"Seriously?" Magnus questioned, raising an eyebrow at the agent. "I was never in the closet, just so you know."

"Well, I was, and I remember it was a very nice, cozy, and safe place, so...please?" Alec asked, almost pleading.

Magnus sighed, cursing the power that those beautiful eyes had on him, but stepping into the damn closet. He had no choice, did he? Alec was right, his sister couldn't see him there.

"Thanks." Alec said, closing the door and disappearing from the room.

Magnus rolled his eyes playfully and just took a deep breath. He was in Alec's closet, so the scent emanating from the clothes immediately made him smile. They smelled like Alec, an unusual blend of cologne and mint mixed with the crisp unmistakable scent of fresh laundry, and something so faint and sweet that it made him want to bottle it just to be able to preserve it.

"Oh, Magnus…" He murmured to himself. He was falling for this man, he knew it. He knew himself too well to recognize the symptoms, but unlike the other times, this time he felt that what he was feeling for Alec had the potential to completely destroy him.

He sighed. As Murphy's Law said, 'anything that could go wrong would go wrong,' so there was no point in worrying about it just yet. For all he knew, Alec's sister could walk into the room at any moment and put him behind bars.

Though now that he thought about it, a couple of minutes had passed since the interruption, and he hadn't heard her enter the apartment yet. All he could hear was Alec walking around the living room, surely getting rid of the evidence of his presence there.

"You took forever!" A high-pitched voice exclaimed. Magnus immediately knew that Alec had finally opened the door.

"What do you want?" The agent said in a not-so-friendly tone.

"Good morning to you too, it's good to see you're in such good spirits, big brother. Did you fall out of bed or what?"

Magnus chuckled, little did she know she was the reason her brother was all grumpy. Alec hadn't fallen out of bed, he had been interrupted by a very annoying sister when he was about to get some action—her timing had been terrible.

"I didn't sleep last night," Alec justified himself, "but what happened, what do you want?

"My car broke down," She explained, "I need a ride to work."

"What about Jace?"

"I went to him first, I thought you had already left for work, but he didn't sleep here. Can you believe it? I called him and, although he didn't say where he was, I know he was at Clary's. I could hear her talking in the background. But anyway, I was on my way to hail a cab when I saw your car parked outside and that's why I came, I thought we could go together and...wait, why aren't you ready for work? Are you okay? Do you feel sick? Do you have a fever or something? Now that I think about it, you do look a little flushed."

"No, I'm fine, Izzy. Why didn't you take the subway instead, huh?" Alec said, and Magnus chuckled again. Alec's grumpiness was adorable, especially since it meant he did not regret what had happened between them.

"I haven't taken the subway in years, Alec! You know that. Not because I'm a New Yorker means that I'm going to live like one." She exclaimed, and Magnus had to press his lips into a hard line to avoid laughing out loud. He didn't know Isabelle personally, but he already liked her. "But anyway, we have to hurry, it's late and I know how much you hate being late for work. So go take a shower or whatever you need to do and I'll wait here."

Magnus sighed, that was his cue to leave. He knew his time there was over for the day, so as quietly as he could, he came out of the closet—the irony, right?—looked around Alec's room and grabbed the notebook that was on the night table to leave him a message.

"I'll call you later, okay? I hope you can solve your case and we can continue what we started. XOXO. M.B."

He left the piece of paper stuck to the closet door and disappeared through the window before anyone could see him.

It happened! I told you we were getting closer. It took 12 chapters, but I hope the wait has been worth it. From now on nothing will be the same, I can assure you that ;)