After two days of rather intense meetings, things slowed down. He discovered remembering how he and Snow used to normally treat each other was a challenge. Acting like memories of them having sex weren't coming back to him every time they talked wasn't easy. It was doable, but it wasn't easy.
Everyday he hoped that maybe it would be the day he'd visit her apartment again, but days went by and Snow got her period, so he assumed she wouldn't invite him in until it's over. He wouldn't really have a problem with blood, but he wasn't going to tell her that to not scare her.
Almost two weeks passed and he really started to miss her. Her scent, her tender skin, how she acted when there was no one else around. It became especially apparent each time they met now. His memories of her smoking and drinking with him did not match how they talked at work at all. And he just missed sex in general. He went without it for so long he forgot how good it could feel. And he's never had anything as good as this.
When he encountered her in the common kitchen on a coffee break, she looked like she was done with everything. And she still was wearing her hair down.
"Crappy day?"
"Crappy job" she answered and turned on the coffeemaker.
She was too close to him. He started to look for cigarettes in his pockets.
"What happened?" he asked Snow and took a puff.
"Nothing new. I need to decline every request due to budgeting problems. Which would be solved by better tax progression. But we can't get better tax progression, because the law of Fabletown is established only by the rich."
He took another puff. "Yeah, I hate Bluebeard too."
She sighed. "Whatever, complaining won't change anything. I need to get back there." She sweetened her coffee. "Are you still having it without sugar?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I like how bad it is" he answered. After a moment he spoke again. "You know, if you unwind sometimes, it can only help you work better in the long run."
"I'm aware. See you in the evening." She gave him a look, took her coffee and left him speechless.
It was a slow day and he spent it on filing overdue papers. It was boring, but he couldn't postpone it forever. After about an hour he got a call for his office. He hoped whatever it was, it wouldn't take long, as he had plans for the night.
"Bigby, you need to help me." It was Cindy.
"Okay." He was curious. Cindy asking for a favor? It wasn't happening often.
"Some idiot is nagging my shop for extortion." Trying to assault a secret agent? He was almost sorry for the guy.
"Here, on the main street? And you can't take care of it?"
"I've already said he's an idiot. And I can't, because nobody knows I can." She was in a rush. She wanted him to go there now, didn't she.
"It's the twenty-first century, it's not that uncommon for a woman to know how to defend herself."
"But it can cause suspicion." Was he really that annoying? She sounded like he was.
"Take on some self-defense class so it won't."
"Sure, later. Come on, he'll be there past seven, right after closing."
Shit, this better not take much time.
"Well, when I describe this in my report as resisting arrest, at least I won't be lying." His left arm was bleeding and still hurt awfully. The rest wasn't that bad, a lot of bruises, but that's it. "I don't suppose you have a clean shirt I could borrow?"
"Nothing that would fit you, boss." She crossed her arms. "Sorry, I thought he'd just run away, I didn't think he was this stupid. If I wanted to attack you, I'd have you outnumbered at least three to one."
"He thought he'll get lucky with that knife." He took the weapon from the floor. "Give me a bag for it."
She gave him a branded bag of the shoe shop. "You know who he is?"
"Nope. And we don't know if he was working alone. He might be in some gang that considered you an easy target and tried to not cause commotion. Still an idiot move to try this right next to the Woodlands." He handcuffed the man on the floor. "He'll tell me all about it tomorrow when he wakes up."
She moved closer. "You want to take him now? You don't want to wait until there's no people on the street?"
"I'm not very eager to take some unconscious bloke to the Woodlands leaving a bloody trail behind, but I'll know when there's no one out there, I'll go soon." He checked the time. It was after eight already, but Snow didn't give him any specific time to meet her. He could still be fine. As long as she still wanted him when he was wounded.
"You don't need to go, I told you before and the offer still stands, you can stay over if you want to." It was funny how she said that, totally platonically friendly, like she was asking him to go out to a pub and grab some beer. It only highlighted how non-casual his casual relationship with Snow really was.
"No thanks. And where would I hide him?" He lighted a cigarette. "You want one?" He offered her the pack.
"This crap? No." She moved a bit closer again. "Come on, you won't tell me you have something better going on."
He didn't answer.
"Wait… you didn't want to come, you want to get out of here as fast as you can, you check the time, you avoid the question. Do you have something better going on?" She looked at him in disbelief. She was better at this than he gave her credit for, maybe he should give her a raise. On the other hand, she misjudged the situation and now his left shoulder was fucked. Anyway, he had no answer for her again. Which was an answer itself, unfortunately. "You're going back to the Woodlands. Who lives there…" She considered it for a moment. "No. I don't believe it. She finally gave in? Good for you." She poked him with an elbow.
"Whoa" It hurt, but it was funny. "I need to go." He picked up the man from the floor. "And don't tell anyone."
It was a quarter to nine. Before he went up to meet Snow, he took the fastest shower of his life. And changed clothes. He was in need of a smoke, but there was no time. The good news was that his arm stopped bleeding, the bad news was that she will most likely still kick him out, but he wanted to visit her, even to just let her know he didn't forget.
He was ready to go, but then he thought about the arrested man who's gonna spend the night locked and who knows when he's going to wake up. Shit, he should leave him some food. What did he have in his fridge, dried meat? Should be fine.
After taking additional time to go back to the arrest, he headed towards Snow's apartment. He came in without knocking as always, the difference was this time the lights were off, did she go to sleep already? She surely was in her bedroom, but she still had her door open. Did she even hear him?
She did, apparently. He saw her coming to meet him wearing white silk robe, splendid as always. "I thought you wouldn't come."
"It would take more to stop me."
Within a second she became suspicious. "What happened?"
"I was stabbed." This certainly didn't stop her suspicions.
"What did you do again?"
"Hey, I was protecting an honest member of our community and respected business owner from an attack. I didn't ask for this." He played out his offense a bit.
"What exactly happened?" She was interrogating him, or at least it felt like it.
"Cindy called me, because someone of unknown identity was harassing her for extortion, I went there, he stabbed my arm, he's in custody now." He wanted to tell her that Cindy is now in on the secret to be fair with her, but she would ask how this came out in the conversation and he didn't really want to tell her that Cindy proposed the same thing to him as she did. And he really, really didn't want to explain why he said no to Cindy and yes to her.
She wasn't at all taken-aback when he stated the need to protect Cindy from an attack though, good to know she still didn't figure out his secret spy operations.
"Take your shirt off."
So he did. He looked worse now than even fifteen minutes ago, because his bruises started to show. And she looked worried.
"You look like shit. And you didn't even bandage it? Bigby…" She sighed.
"It's not that big of a deal, it's not like we can get infections."
"Yes, we can. It won't kill you, but it can slow down healing or leave scars" she said with confidence in her tone.
"I was wounded more times than I can count, but the only time I was left with a scar it was your doing, actually." She dismissed him.
"That was different. Stop arguing, I'll get the first aid kit."
He didn't really need to take any special care of the wound as he knew from experience that something like this would heal by itself, but it was nice to sit on her bed and let her take care of him. In fact he loved it.
"I assume there is no point in trying to convince you to go see doctor Swineheart," Snow said, finishing putting bandages around his left arm.
The moment she pulled her hand away, he started to miss her touch. "I'd go if it wasn't something that will heal in half a week. Thank you."
Light purple cotton pajamas weren't the most compelling outfit he's seen her wearing, but it was still Snow White, she could be wearing anything and on her it became the most elegant garment. He knew he would keep in his memory forever how she looked like in this moment, in the dim light of her bedroom.
"Anyway." She looked away. "I've got an implant. I'm not seeing anyone else, so if you're willing to be exclusive with me, we could have sex without condoms. You might not care about diseases, but I do."
This idea made him feel warm inside. Condoms or no condoms, it didn't matter much to him, but the thought of them sharing some kind of bond of trust was very alluring. "I'm not seeing anyone else either. And I don't need to."
"Great." She looked him in the eyes. "So now what, I don't think you're in condition for sex."
"I think I am. But to be honest, I thought you'd show me the door."
She raised her eyebrow. "Why would I do that?"
"Because I look like shit." He smiled.
She moved closer and put her hand on his tight. "There is something heroic about getting injured to protect the innocent." He kissed her. It was tender and he didn't want it to ever end. He could not believe he went for so many years without kissing her.
After they kissed for some time, he could not tell how long, he felt her hand on his lower abdomen, as she started to unbuckle his belt. Soon he was almost completely naked, as she slid his pants and underwear to his ankles. Without saying anything, she kneeled down between his legs and started giving him a blowjob.
He really loved it. And about the parts he didn't love? He'll take them to the grave, he certainly wasn't planning on criticizing her technique. Kind of a double standard, as he would gladly welcome any feedback from her when it came to oral sex. It seemed like she was right the last time they talked about it.
As his attention was undivided and focused on her very, very soft lips and tongue, he had to keep in mind that the fact that she was doing what she was doing meant that she trusted him and he could not fail this fragile trust.
Her movement became faster and more consistent. As he was feasting his eyes, he'd love nothing more than to catch eye contact with her, but she would not look up. Unfortunately, this blowjob will end before she overcomes shame.
"I'm close." Snow got off her knees and sat next to him on her previous spot. She was holding his dick in her right hand. "Instead of finishing this now, you can give me a break and I'll fuck you, your choice." Now she looked at his face and removed her hand, again without a word.
"You really don't care about the pain?" she spoke.
"I can do it standing up, if it's bothering you so much."
After a moment she answered "That could be fine… How much time do you need?"
"Not much, I just need to cool down for a moment." He took off his clothes completely.
"So… you seem to really like it."
He straightened up "Getting my dick sucked? That would be right."
"I just wanted to know if I'm any good at it." It was so sexy that she asked that.
"You're amazing." He kissed her and then took her top off, her pants right after. She had nothing underneath, it made everything much easier for him. Once again he was astonished by her beauty, he could not imagine it ever not bewitching him.
She was aroused, but he didn't think it was enough for them to fuck, so he started to finger her while they were kissing and observe her reactions until she was ready. Then he lay her on the bed right where she was sitting, stood up, positioned himself between her legs, moved her hips closer to his and slowly started moving in and out of her body.
Lack of a condom honestly didn't change much when it came to the sensation itself, but psychologically it was doing something for him. He was learning he loved having this kind of skin to skin contact with Snow. He was so deep into his own thoughts that at the beginning he forgot to make it as good of an experience for her as well and stimulate her clitoris. He quickly fixed this mistake and it definitely had an impact.
Change of their usual position was interesting, but he preferred facing her, as it allowed him to kiss her while thrusting his genitals into hers. Actually, if they were trying something new, he had one idea.
He switched hands, so now he was touching her clit with his left hand instead of right. He used his right hand to raise her leg and rest it on his shoulder. She smiled as he did that, so he was reassured that she liked it. After all, he respected her nursing work and didn't mess with his left arm.
"Is it better this way?" he asked.
She smiled at him again. Sometimes he felt like he was having sex with her just to see her look at him like that. Even taking into account how he was again and again reminded how good sex with her was. "I don't know yet, we'll see."
For him the change was perceptible, but he didn't really have an opinion on whether it was for better or for worse. While he had his penis in her it was fairly difficult for him to be a judge of anything. He surely liked caressing her smooth long leg though.
Feeling that she was close, he focused more on her clitoris and kept a steady rhythm of movement, just like he knew she liked it. She came with a soft, silent moan and he was convinced he's found his favorite sound in the world but there was no place for complacency, she needed to come for the second time for him to start feeling self-gratulatory. The good news was he was getting better at it and he could keep it up for longer now without a struggle. Even after a blowjob.
This time he had an opposite problem. After her second orgasm, he didn't want to take too much time, because he knew it stopped being pleasurable for her and he didn't want to cause her any discomfort, but he needed a minute to finish.
"Are you okay? Do you want me to pull out?"
"It's fine, take your time." She looked very relaxed lying there, getting fucked.
It was a bit messy after he was done, previously condoms took care of this for them. Some possessive part of his brain was happy to see his semen leaking out of her vagina. It was wrong and weird to feel proud of that, but he did anyway.
After she wiped herself with a tissue, she spoke. "It's very late already and we don't work tomorrow. Well, on paper we don't work tomorrow. We don't need to go to the office. You need to go to the arrest, I presume. Anyway, you can stay for the night, if you want to." That would be excellent.
"Sure" he answered.
"I have a spare toothbrush in the locker next to the mirror."
He had nothing to change into, so he went to bed naked. Going to sleep in such a close proximity to her was high on the list of things better than sex in his head. He would really, really like to spend every night like this.
"So you did like it? When I lifted your leg?" he asked. He was lying on his right side, looking at her, while she was lying on her back.
"Yeah, sure." Okay, he was counting on something more.
"But was it better, was it worse?"
"It was better, I suppose." She was acting differently no more than fifteen minutes ago. He went to the bathroom to wash himself and now she was so… unavailable again. "I'm sorry, I don't know, I started to think about work again."
"You think about work every night before you go to sleep?" It was concerning.
"Most nights" she admitted.
"Atrocious" he answered. He reminded himself he was in her apartment for so long and still hadn't eaten her out. "Better think about something else." He said and got under the covers.
