Heat

by ROGUEFURY

You don't expect to be pulled into a heated gravitation with Agent Javier Peña, and the more you both try to navigate your lives around each other, the clearer it becomes that your feelings go beyond the torrid desires you both are able to ignite in each other. Will the heat of your passions win out against the tribulations that threaten to pull you apart?

16. Chapter 16: Corazón

Warnings: Graphic descriptions of sex, including explicit depictions of oral and unprotected sex. Mentions of intercourse with different sexual partners, allusions to past trauma, psychological grief, emotional turmoil, and moral corruption. Remorseful!Javi, Jealous!Javi, Possessive!Javi, Soft!Javi.

---

Chapter 16: Corazón

You go through the motions for days, having to hide your sadness when you're not alone around family and friends, and by the time New Year's has come, you manage to fool yourself into having compartmentalized all your feelings.

At the very least, you choose to focus on the quality time spent with family. Going to Christmas mass with your grandmother, all the cooking and gifts, the merry splendor of memories shared reminiscing over photos – they all warm your heart and make it easy to rebuild the walls around your longing. You ignore the ache between your thighs that lingers for a couple of days, the ruin of your panties thanks to Javi's seed leaking from you, and the hollowness that wells in your chest at night when you curl up and worry about him until you drift into fitful sleep.

The heartache aside, you at least have the excitement and hope of a better year to look forward to, especially when you all spend the day cooking and prepping to enjoy the night together. While you spend New Year's Eve with your intimately small family, getting ready to do the tradition of eating 12 grapes for good luck and prosperity for the upcoming year once the countdown starts, Javier is brooding in the chair he's sitting in while Steve and Ed from Centra Spike argue about logistics for doing aerial sweeps the next day in hopes some fuckwitted sicario will call relatives due to the holiday.

"Care to weigh in here?" Steve grumbles over at his distracted partner.

Snapping out of his moody daze and clearing his throat, Javi mutters, "It'd actually be smarter doing the flyovers tonight, right after midnight. It's not so different than celebrating in the states. People'll call relatives to wish them Happy New Year—"

"But the interference risk alone of the fireworks would make it a wash. We'd have to fly at a higher altitude to avoid projectiles. Not to mention so many civilians tying up the lines would kill any chance at picking up satellite phone chatter," Ed emphasizes by showing them the uptake in signal boosting they'd need to cut through all of the interference.

While the harried man muses that the best they could do would be flyovers intermittently throughout the next few days, Javi goes back to glaring off at nothing in particular, ruminating and seething over his current situation. He'd managed to not hear a peep from Don Berna during the entire holiday – no phone calls, anything – but he couldn't help simmer with the angst and trepidation of the other shoe that could drop any minute. After the familial slaughter he felt personally responsible for, he'd decided he was not going to feed the narco any more intel – that he wouldn't collaborate with Los Pepes now that they'd gone rogue and were indiscriminately murdering innocent people simply because of their associations with Escobar's people. He was pretty sure he could extricate himself now, and that it was the best time to do so with the minimum of fallout, but he wasn't sure—

"Holy shit, what're you doing here?!"

Glancing up and focusing his sullen gaze out to the doorway of Centra Spike's hub and sonar station they were currently holed up in, Javi sees that down the hall, in the makeshift bullpen Mil Group set up for themselves, Nador is boisterously hugging and slapping Samson on the back, who was grinning as Benson hugged the box of booze the man must've just handed to him.

The men were going on, razzing the guy for slumming it on New Years. As he glares at the Mil Grouper, he can't help that roiling jealousy start to boil in his gut. And as it simmers up, his self-demoralizing conscience scathes at him for deigning to be jealous. No, what you really are? Is envious. And you should envy him. He's better than you. Of course she'd let him have her…

His irascible, loathing thoughts fixate on all the qualities and external observations that contrasted him from Luke Samson. For one, he was younger than Javi – in better shape and exuding a physicality that made him a standout from the rest of his Mil Group colleagues. He also was well liked, unlike him, and highly regarded by most in the embassy. From what he'd heard, he was also from a well-off family, had opportunities waiting for him, and was the real brains of the Mil Group operation. But most importantly, he was able to gain your grace – to romance you and have you. Javi had seen how he wanted you the first time he'd spotted you both talking at the top of the embassy steps. And now? Knowing you'd been with him? It made him fume with lonesome hate and despair.

Seeing his partner's wound up demeanor, Steve amusedly comes to sit on the edge of the desk Javi was parked at and glanced over to follow his narrowed glare out to the corridor beyond after Ed went to greet the field operations analyst.

"…Does Samson owe you money or something?" Steve remarks flippantly and taps Javi's shoulder with the back of his hand jokingly.

Javi snaps his angry glare up at Steve before turning away to rifle through his jacket's pocket for his cigarette pack and lighter.

"You've been in a shit mood since you got back from wherever the hell you went that one time," the eagle-eyed blond gripes. "What's the deal—?"

"I'm calling it a night. See you back at the dorm," Javier cuts in coldly as he suddenly stands and yanks his jacket from the back of the chair before storming out of the office.

As he stalks down the hall, he passes the group of men and doesn't acknowledge them as he heads for the stairwell around the corner.

"Hey, Peña!" Javi pauses and glances over his shoulder, training his expression into a hard, stoic semblance when Samson – Luke – calls out to him. "Courtesy of the colonel," the younger man remarks and holds out a bottle of black label whiskey. "Saving me the trouble of walking it down to you—"

"I'm good, thanks," Javi forces out as neutrally as he can muster before dismissively striding off to the stairs.

"Oookay," Samson deadpans and looks over at Benson, who makes a grabby hand gesture for him to just hand it over.

"Don't mind him! I'll take that," Steve slides in and snatches the bottle from Samson's hand and salutes him with it before drawling, "Much appreciated! Have a Happy New Year, fellas."

When the blue-eyed DEA agent strolls into their shared dormitory a few minutes later, he shoots Javi a sarcastic glance before kicking the door closed after himself to waltz over and grab a glass from the top of the mini fridge. His partner is sulkily sitting in the chair by the window while he smokes and glares at the far wall where the TV sits, turned on to the national program celebrating the night's festivities.

Dragging a chair over to sit by Javier, Steve backs it against the wall and plops down in it, undoes the whiskey bottle open, and pours himself a double. "What's the issue with Samson?" he asks while he sets the bottle down and reclines in his chair so he can put his feet up on the stack of boxes by the bunk bed.

"…I'm not in the mood," Javier mumbles and keeps his expression flinty as he exhales his cigarette smoke, keeping his faraway stare on the TV.

"Turning down a free bottle of whiskey is serious," Steve volunteers goadingly, arching a questioning brow when Javi scoffs and finally glares at him. "Do I gotta go ask him—?"

"Jesus Christ," Javi growls fumingly, rubs at his temples and stubs his cigarette into the ashtray impatiently. "You're not gonna drop it."

"Nope," Steve muses and swirls the whiskey in his glass.

"…I went to see her."

Pausing the idle undulation of his hand, Steve glances over at Javi, watching him prop his arm onto the table and lean his cheek into his fist grumpily.

"She surprised me…had me meet her somewhere. We…got to talking—" he haltingly parcels out when Steve scoffs.

"Dude, you clearly suck at that, so you gotta cut that out," he jokes before slinging his drink back and draining the glass.

"Fuck off," Javier grouses and sits up in the chair to cross his arms.

"Tell me you at least got busy before your heart-to-heart," Steve can't help snicker as he pours himself another drink.

"You're too invested in my sex life," Javi jabs dismissively, and debates whether to get up and grab himself a beer from the fridge, but decides against it when Steve chortles a sneering sound. "Fine…I told her about Gabriela – about what happened," he grumbles and diverts his stare from the other man to out the windows.

"Oh, shit," Steve retorts and purses his lips. "How'd she take that?"

"…Not too terribly, since she disclosed that she's been seeing Samson…"

Steve's eyes blaze with understanding. He sits up straight in his chair, grabs the other glass from the top of the mini fridge, and pours a double of whiskey into it before sliding it over to Javier. When he just glares at the offering, Steve drawls, "Technically it's a gift from Lou, so…"

Grunting, Javi takes it and swallows the contents down before exhaling a charged breath from the burn. "I have no fucking right to be jealous," he states in a surly huff.

Shrugging a shoulder, Steve mutters, "You don't, but it's only natural."

Exhaling tersely, Javi wrings his hand from his forehead up into his messy tufted curls before fisting his fingers in his scalp in aggravation. "Fucking hell…"

Steve pours him another drink. "Did you expect her to just wait for you—?"

"Of course not," Javier snaps and glares turbulently at Steve. "But the thought of her with him is infuriating—"

"As if you wouldn't feel exactly the same if she was with anyone else anyway," his partner jabs and knowingly eyes him over the rim of his glass as he drinks.

Javi doesn't have a rebuttal. Because the thought of you with anyone else, no matter whether he knows them or not, sears furious yearning and envy into his very marrow. He absolutely can't stand it.

Exhaling noisily as he idly taps his fingertips along the side of his glass, Steve ventures, "You never did tell me why she broke it off. And…if she was the one to end it, why did she arrange to meet you here in Medellín?"

Javi is drained. His anger and self-contempt have been like embers of coal, slow burning in his gut, but the guilt was beating him down. Everything he felt was wearing him into raw impulse, leaving him exposed and arcing with tension all the time. Looking over at Steve unguardedly, he can't muster the effort to steel himself or obfuscate, so, he tells him what happened. From Navegante's veiled threat, to how he tried to push you away without confiding why, and how he'd reluctantly let it slip when he was with you.

"…It's for the best," he finds himself repeating flatly and gulps down his whiskey.

"Without getting into current concerns…something like that isn't only your decision," Steve offers carefully and glances openly over at his partner. "It affects her—"

"If someone had threatened Connie, you wouldn't be saying that shit," Javier counters gruffly and scowls, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. "You'd have gotten her the hell out of here—"

"You seem to forget about Puff? That was a pretty direct threat—" Steve contests.

"It wasn't in direct reference to her. This was, and it's from a rival narco faction we're not even pursuing yet," Javi cuts in roughly. "We don't know enough about Cali—"

"What's there to know besides they're squeezing Escobar out of the game? I doubt they'd actually go after an embassy employee – and didn't you say her father is high up there in the Armed Forces?" Steve insists and asks while he glances across at him and crosses his arms. "No way they'd want to mess with someone that politically connected."

"I'm not willing to risk it, so fucking drop it," Javier grouses reproachfully before shoving his empty glass to slide across the table, gruff indication he's done commiserating for the night, punctuated by him standing to stalk to the door.

Before he can make a brooding exit, Steve calls out, "Are you willing to lose her like this?"

Hesitating, Javi's shoulders square up. "She's got no real chance at having anything good if I'm around her," he mutters lowly before storming out without a second glance, slamming the door behind himself.

Steve genuinely frowns at that before sighing and pouring himself another drink he ends up nursing while he vacantly watches the New Year's Eve show on the TV.

The pops and crackles of far off fireworks are filling the late night sky, bright sparks of light bursting in myriads of colors and lighting up the darkness. You are distractedly looking out the window at the spectacle while your abuela, tía and prima get ready for the countdown. You have your plate of grapes balanced in your lap, and when they all congregate in the living room, you set it aside and get ready.

"—Cinco, Cuatro, Tres, Dos, Uno. ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!" you all countdown and shout out before going around hugging and kissing each other on the cheek to then share in the tradition of the twelve grapes.

You eat yours dimly, not really paying attention to which are sweet and which are sour, because your mind is somewhere else. It isn't until the phone rings that you snap out of your daze, heart leaping in your throat at the whimsical hope that it'll be Javi on the other line.

Moseying over to the landline, your grandmother answers, and greets your father before glancing over at you, silently asking if you want to speak to him. You shake your head curtly and turn away to go outside and sit on the porch so you can stare off at the fireworks that are now erupting in earnest throughout the night sky all over Medellín.

You mutely hear her speak to him civilly for a few minutes before wishing him a Happy New Year, but you let yourself stare off unfocusedly to the festivities, and the din of the masses celebrating all around you is the perfect distraction. It helps you detach from the heartache you suddenly feel, longing to know if Javi's ok.

The sky above his head is filled with spent firework smoke while some sporadic rocket flares sparkle and fizzle in the distance. From where he's laying on his back on the grassy knoll within the sprawling grounds of the police academy, Javi can hear the rumble of reveling from cadets and inter-agency personnel on assignment alike, and he ruminates. He's not nearly as drunk as he should be, but the bottle of whiskey he took from his desk drawer has been long empty, sitting propped against his thigh.

Part of him is completely dejected, another part is unfeeling, but the small intrepid thought that twists him up has the anger flaring hot in his chest all over again.

Get in the car and go see her.

Furious with himself, he sits up, scoffing as he shoves the empty bottle away and buries his face in his hands. "You fucking idiot…" he grumbles ferociously at himself before angrily lashing out by punching the ground in a flare of tempestuous temper, sneering with disgust at himself.

His self-loathing stews in him for days after, and when his phone rings with Don Berna on the other end, his disdain only increases. He can't help deprecatingly think how considerate the narco was to at least give him a reprieve from the bullshit for Christmas and New Years, but the moment he sits down at the cafeteria table with him and declares he's no longer going to collaborate with them, he hears why they hadn't tapped him for more info. But after their target, Fernando Duque, ran off without even a scratch after they emptied an uzi clip into his car, he knows he's on a balancing wire – a dangerous tightrope between stringing Don Berna along while he buys himself time to locate Escobar's mouthpiece of a lawyer. He decides he has to find him before Los Pepes do, if only to absolve himself of the guilt his murder would have on his already battered soul.

So, when Ed gives him the intel he ran from the CNP database, he hopes it's his chance to right some wrongs – to bring the desperate man into the DEA informant fold. At the very least, it would be quite the catch to leverage in their manhunt against Escobar. His ability to maneuver is helped once Steve absconds with his passport to chase an even bigger fish Javi's not aware of yet, and after a day of looking, he finds Duque, ensures his cooperation, and sets out to make the arrangements to bring him in.

Walking into the cafeteria and seeing Stechner smugly appraise him, which rattled him into a stunned shock is not how he thought this would go. Let alone that the CIA station chief is the real reason for Javi being compromised to the likes of Don Berna and Judy Moncada to begin with. But when the supercilious bastard tells him the Castaños found the lawyer without his help, Javi knows he's been sold out. Seeing the mutilated bodies of father and son in the trunk of that car only sealed his furious despair, at having been played yet again – this time by someone as close to him as Trujillo.

Javier is utterly adrift after confronting the callously calm man, so much so that even finding out how Steve spent almost 72 hours just traveling between international airports to fuck over Escobar's family does nothing for his wicked sense of irony. If anything, it dings his psyche – drives the sense of being forsaken deeper into him like a dagger, knowing that his partner and friend kept something that big from him. That he didn't trust him – couldn't trust him to not pass the intel over to Los Pepes.

Sitting in the room with Colonel Martínez briefing them about how Escobar's network is shrinking, only to punctuate knowing that someone in that very room was collaborating with Los Pepes? It leaves Javier hollowed out and deadened to his guilt. It's like a vice around his ribcage, and it's all he can do to not find a solitary corner where he can bash his fists into a wall to exchange the sorrow for physical pain.

He inevitably finds himself wandering out to the training grounds, to sit at the cement bleachers and stare into the abyss he can see eroding its way towards him. But even in such a fractious state of mind, he can't help think of you. Hell, he aches to be encircled by your arms and held. It's what he's longing for sullenly when Steve strolls up and sits next to him.

It's time to warn his partner of what's coming. So, Javier does, succinctly telling Steve there's blowback coming, and if anyone asks, he didn't know what he'd been doing. Steve is gruff, having to stop himself from rolling his eyes when he senses how riled Javi truly is. He doesn't expect the little solace that blossoms in him to come from Steve assuring him they'd all gone off the rails in the pursuit of Escobar, and that as long as they were over the motherfucker's dead body at the end of it all, they had a chance of walking away clean from the entire gory business.

"So I want you to think about that before you make any more decisions that you might regret," Steve gravels tersely and stares earnestly at Javi.

Exhaling at that, Javi slumps his shoulders and rests his elbows on his knees more, feeling deflated by the pressure. He can't look Steve in the eye, so he trains his expression into that flinty regard that shields him – that hides how terrified he is, and stares with a faraway gaze across the sprawling fields ahead.

After a beat of silence, one where Javi deliberates whether he should say more, but doesn't know what, his partner glances over at him appraisingly.

"One thing you could use as motivation," Steve begins to drawl, "Is the thought of coming out of all this with her on the other side, waiting with open arms."

Javier chokes on a tense laugh and shakes his head. "You're fucking relentless—"

"Hey, I just really wanna be your best man when you marry her," Steve remarks with a wily grin and nudges his shoulder into Javi's when he bows his head and exhales sardonically at that. "And lasagna. I really want lasagna."

The laugh that bubbles up from him is free of angst or derision, surprising even him, helping Javi feel light in his chest for the first time in a while.

"…She's not the marrying kind," he volunteers in a mumble before stubbing out the cigarette he'd accidently let burn off.

"Well, shit. You actually talked about it—?" Steve amusedly gapes.

"Yes, thanks to you hassling about it. Ended up asking her, and she flat out told me she's not the marrying kind," Javi deadpans and leans back so he can cross his arms self-consciously.

"You tell her about Lorraine?" Steve queries, curious.

"Yes…and you had a more dramatic reaction to it," he snorts.

"Dammit man, she's a keeper. You gotta salvage things with her while you can," Steve presses with genuine care, adding broodingly, "You're going to regret it if you don't. The way I let things go with Connie…how I treated her. I'm going to regret it forever, even if I manage to fix it."

Sobering, Javi absorbs that and nods as he drops his arms to press his palms over his knees, head bowing contritely. "If I can make it out of this without a bullet in my head, or a prison sentence…"

"It's not going to come to that," Steve huffs and flicks his cigarette down. "But it's time to reset – get our heads in the game to what we're doing here. I got your back, no matter what martyr bullshit you try to pull," is his snarky musing, earning a dry grunt from Javi.

After the two DEA agents commiserate more, they eventually end up back at their desks, and when Messina calls later in the day with news of the capture of Blackie and orders them to Bogotá to find a way into an interrogation room with the tier-one sicario, Javi and Steve are on the first chopper out to the capital.

You, meanwhile, are running on fumes after a hectic week back at work.

Not two days since you'd return to the office, the deadliest car bombing in the capital had occurred – right in the middle of back-to-school shopping. You'd actually been in your office and heard the sirens from the cavalcade of emergency vehicles from your desk, and you could see the smoke from your office window. Then, Ellis had gotten a frantic phone call from Anita, who was hysterically crying. She'd been several blocks away, and while she wasn't caught in the destruction, news reports were flooding in about the number of casualties. Many of them ended up being children, and a few of them were kids from the school she worked at.

Ellis ended up taking a leave from work to be with Anita while she grieved, and you'd been juggling it all. Your boss chipped in to help, and commended you after a particularly grueling day, but you felt numb. Here you were, getting patted on the back over stupid clerical shit, while your good friends got to attend the funeral of a poor nine-year-old…it all seemed cruel and unfair. It hurt your heart deeply, and for days, you go without thinking of Javi.

Until today, when you see the DEA attaché getting into the elevator ahead of you this morning, and instantly your heart wrings and worries about Javi. The temptation to call him has risen in you several times since after you'd parted ways, but the ruthless part of you would seethe at the needy desire. All you are to him is a burden. Leave him alone…

Tersely, you set your work aside at the end of the day, and collect the potluck you'd made to take over to Ellis and Anita's this evening, wanting to use feeding them as an excuse to check on them in person. You're hustling out of the office, arms laden with your purse, computer bag, and the shopping tote with the food you'd brought and stored in the break room fridge so you could go over immediately after work.

You're breezing across the lobby, saying goodnights to the security guys as you go, and once you're going out the main doors, you start to fuss with the cargo and try to adjust everything before you head down the steps.

Steve is pulling into the embassy security gate and driving up to the above ground carport, with Javier riding shotgun. They're both tired from hauling ass to Bogotá only to spend the last few hours arguing with CNP officials to be given access to Blackie for their own interrogation. After securing a commitment to have a shot at the sicario the following day, they'd decided to go check in with Messina, in person. As Steve is pulling up to park in a vacant spot, he catches sight of you first, so he swats Javi and gestures with the point of his chin up to the embassy front steps.

Javi stiffens and just stares at you, pining gaze the only thing that betrays how absolutely in love with you he is. You're dressed in a blue and white pinstripe blouse, navy pencil skirt, and black Mary Jane block heels, hair undulating around your shoulders from the early evening breeze. He sees you fumbling with your things, and is about to throw all caution and propriety to the wind by hopping out of the jeep and running up to aid you, when he sees you turn your head as if someone's called out to you.

Glancing over after someone calls out your name, you spot Luke, and smile as he bounds over, greeting you warmly before he shucks your computer bag off your shoulder so you can regain your equilibrium and balance the shopping tote better. "Perfect timing," you quip and smile when he hefts the computer bag effortlessly to his shoulder. "Now I can trouble you to walk it down to the western lot for me," is your musing chuckle as he tries to peek into your tote, so you playfully nudge him away. "Not for you!"

While Luke jibes charmingly with you at the top of the steps, Javi watches from his seat, feeling emotionally steamrolled. Steve can't help frown and give his partner a moment to collect his ruminating dejection, feeling him smolder with impotent rage and jealousy while he watches you nod to something Samson says before strolling down the steps with him and across to the adjacent parking area reserved for band-three personnel. Just before you both turn out of sight, Javi watches Luke cup the small of your back as he escorts you to his SUV.

When Javier doesn't say anything, Steve blows out a tense breath and hazards a glance his way.

Javi's eyes are dark and etched broodingly, jaw clenched so tight that the tendon in the hinge is taut. Before Steve can think of something to say, Javi opens his door and storms out of the jeep. Sighing, Steve follows suit, catching up to his partner as he stalks up the steps and into the embassy.

Based on what he saw, it looked like you and Luke were canoodling before going home together, but in reality, Luke had cajoled you into letting him drive you to Ellis and Anita's. He charmingly wouldn't take no for an answer, and with how wiped you were, you wanted to take advantage of the ride rather than having to trek down to the far-off lot to get to your car. It also helped that after the week you've had, you could at least decompress with amiable banter, and the occasional flirty musing from the handsome Mil Group member.

Ellis and Anita seem exhausted, but they're glad to have the company, so you heat up the rice and chicken dish you made, and while the men catch up, you console Anita, giving her a shoulder to cry on. The grueling toll of your poor friend witnessing so much devastation up close and personal empathetically rattles you, but you bury it, along with all the other feelings you've been repressing. When you feel like it is time to leave them be? You nudge Luke's shoulder and ask him for a ride home. Once you're both driving to your side of town, you can't help feel adrift and sad.

"That was rough," Luke states the obvious, but reaches over and squeezes your arm affectionately. You glance over at him, bemused when he murmurs, "You're a great friend. I admire the hell out of you."

You sigh, giving him a tired smile. "What's to admire? I just made a dumb dinner and intruded—"

"You cheered them up. That means something," he cuts in reassuringly, hazel eyes appraising as he muses, "It'd mean the world for me."

Begrudgingly, you soften at that, so when he pulls up to the drop you off at the front of your courtyard's entrance, you lean over and kiss him on the cheek. "Thanks for tagging along, soldier. I needed the company," you chime and smile at him when he blows a raspberry and quirks his expressive brows playfully.

"…Do you want any company tonight?" he murmurs in that tenor purr and leans close to brush his lips against yours.

Smirking, you pinch his chin and nudge him back. "I am exhausted, so I'm going to cuddle my pillow tonight as soon as I collapse onto my bed," you joke and smile when he grunts disapprovingly. "What?"

"Let me walk you up, at least?" he proposes and gestures to your computer bag in the back seat. "I can be your mule again—"

"Oh yeah, because then you'll offer to carry it into the apartment, unload it, plug it in for me, and maybe even offer to help me undress and get in my pajamas, right?" you tease, and when he charismatically snickers and turns sidelong to roll his eyes dramatically, you snicker, "Yeah, I thought so. Thanks anyway," before leaning forward and pecking him on the lips. "Goodnight, Samson," you lilt, saying his name in the Boston accent Benson uses and earning a wry chuckle from the handsome man as you grab your bag from the back seat and secure your purse to your shoulder.

Exiting his car and waving goodbye as you saunter off, you smile to yourself, feeling a little lighter after such a heavy week. A few minutes later, you're locking the door behind yourself and setting your things aside in the living room before kicking off your shoes, totally serious about collapsing face-first into your pillow as soon as you wash your face and strip out of your clothes.

The knocks on your door make you jump before you whirl around, baffled. Looking at the nearest clock, you see it's not too late, and think that maybe Luke is being a bit daring? Once you'd gotten back from your time off during the holidays, you'd gone out to dinner with him once, and afterwards, you'd gone to his place again and had sex, and when you'd started getting dressed after insisting you like to sleep in your own bed, he'd purred, "When can I come over and sleep with you, then?"

You'd joked, "When you're daring enough to show up at my door and sweep me off my feet." However, you knew he wouldn't after you'd told him you don't have men over because your apartment is your only refuge and you don't like having guests. Total lie, but it'd seemed to work. After all, you couldn't see yourself having another man over – not after Javi…not into the sanctity of your safe haven.

Could this be him daring to call your bluff? Biting your bottom lip, you go to the door, unlock it, and open it.

Javier stands there, illuminated by the glow of the outer hall light and the path pendants that illuminate the courtyard below. Your heart does a summersault in your chest – mind derailing from whatever the previous train of thought had been to stare up at him. He's wearing a slate-colored bomber jacket, coal-gray shirt, blue jeans and a light brown belt. The intertwined whiffs of his aftershave, cologne and cigarettes bind with his musky, masculine scent, making you internally swoon, as he seems to fill your doorstep with his broad shoulders.

His eyes are crinkled worriedly, as if he's second-guessing himself, and no matter how conflicted you feel, you find yourself throwing your arms around his neck and hugging him desperately. Javi's exhale stutters out of him, and he embraces you so tight that you are pressed against his sternum, left to dangle on your tippy toes until he comes to his senses and whisks you inside. Once through the threshold with the door bolted shut, you come to your senses and unhook your arms from his shoulders and waver backwards.

"Did something happen? What's wrong—?" you begin to query, eyebrows furrowing with worry.

"I just…" Javi diverts his gaze, hiding how ashamed he is as he lets go of you and vacillates. "Shit, I shouldn't be here. I just…I needed to see you," he murmurs tensely before glancing sheepishly at you. He sees your expression melt into confusion, plush lips softening as he exhales and rumbles, "When I saw you pull up, I just had to take the chance."

Startled features flickering with wary concern, you step back to grip the back of the chair you bump into, and stare sharply at him. "What?"

Setting his jaw, Javi doesn't know what to do with his fidgeting hands, so he crosses his arms tightly and huffs, "I saw you with him earlier, and…I just couldn't sit at my place thinking about you two together, so I parked out front, hoping you'd come home…"

That ignites a powder keg of emotions in you. "You mean you saw...from the embassy?!" you query, flummoxed. Javi nods stiffly, eyes flaring with unease as your gaping expression etches with outrage. "So, once again, you only come around giving a shit because you saw me with someone else?" you accuse crisply, hands curling into exasperated fists at your sides. "What if I hadn't come home? Would you have gone to Luke's and confronted me there?!"

Javier seriously stares at you, crossing his arms tighter, and grumbles, "I don't know where that asshole lives…"

You are taken aback, and before you can even think of a rational response, you grab the pillow from the chair behind you and smack Javier with it, bopping him on the chest once, and when he just flinches his arms down to his sides and stares like a startled puppy at you, you hit him again for good measure. "Are you trying to drive me fucking insane?! Get off on stringing me along like a damned fool?!" you rail and unleash all your wound up angst and frustration on him now while he stands there tense and fraught with what to say. "You gaslight the shit out of me in Medellín – tell me how much of a fucking liability I am, how it's for the best that I stay the hell away from you, and then you show up at my door in the hopes that I didn't fuck Luke? Did I get everything right?!"

"…Did you?" he queries, and you are thrown off, in disbelief that he would have the audacity to ask, and just when you recover from your shock and grip the pillow harder for another swing, he adds resolutely, "Because I don't care if you did. I love you. I can't stop thinking about you…hoping to be with you again…if you'll have me," and when he steps close to herd you against him, he husks, "The only thing that's gotten me through this fucking miserable hell, has been you."

Your anger is napalmed to ash at that, and your heart is a beacon – lit aflame from how earnest his voice his, and how warm and molten his eyes are as he confesses this to you. The pillow plops to the floor as your hands wring into his shirt and pull him close. You're floored, and while part of you is still indignant, it's not nearly as beseeching, especially when you stare up into his burning brown depths and see how hopeful they are.

"What are you going to do about it, then?" you find yourself murmuring beguilingly, and gaze up at him with fire in your eyes.

Javier's eyes darken with want and flicker from yours to your lips before he cups your cheek adoringly. "I'm gonna beg," he rumbles incandescently. "Please, querida. Forgive me."

You are astounded, eyes trembling with emotion as you caress your hands up to his shoulders. The urge to pounce on him is strong, but you rein it in, squeezing his shoulders as you scoff coyly, "For what?"

Suppressing his smirk – which quirks his handsome mustachioed mouth and crinkles his eyes – making him look ruggedly debonair, Javi mumbles, "You're gonna make me work for it, aren't you."

You defiantly glare at him. "Yes, you overgrown brat. I want specifics," you needle and purse your lips to stifle your own wily grin.

He brushes his thumb along your cheekbone as his fingers curl to the back of your neck while his other hand herds you closer. "I was an asshole…I shouldn't have pushed you away. Shouldn't have kept what happened from you," he mutters before lowering to kiss the corner of your mouth. "I should've trusted you more," he muses and kisses the other corner. "I had no right to be jealous…envious," he murmurs and brushes his lips over yours.

Feeling tingly, you melt into him and loop your hands behind his neck to nuzzle his jaw. "…And?" you press in a goading lilt as you fold your palms into his jacket collar and fan them sideways to start working it off his shoulders.

His eyes narrow wryly. He shrugs out of his jacket and tosses it aside, then swiftly removes his gun and badge to set them unseeingly behind himself onto the side table before snaking his arms around your waist and pulling you flush against him.

"And…I won't do it again?" he attempts huskily, and you quirk a haughty brow at that. "I shouldn't have made decisions that affect you without you," he states firmly, and that seems to appease you, because you caress your fingertips along his jaw. "I'm sorry, mi amor."

Smiling, you hug him, relishing his warm scent and sighing when he caresses his hand into the back of your hair and tilts your face up to meet his hungry, albeit loving kiss. The sensual passion of your mouths slotting possessively against each other while you cling to him and he clutches at you is intoxicating, so when Javi picks you up by the back of your thighs and effortlessly carries you to your bedroom, you are yearning to be his after so much emotional turmoil.

You let him ease you onto your bed so you both can work each other's clothes off while you kiss and entice each other with tantalizing touches. When Javi pulls your panties off and stares heatedly at your nude form, you exhale a reedy breath and sit up to trail your hands down his torso, delighting on how his muscles tense with excitement and his grunts tangle in his chest. You help him ease out of his jeans and boots before you coax him onto the bed so you can sidle against him and free his stiff, throbbing erection, feeling him tremble under your touch. His pulsing length twitches in your hand as you kiss his throat, savoring his salty musk as you breathe in his warm skin and swivel your thumb over the head of his cock.

In a sweeping whirl, Javi picks you up and gathers himself between your thighs as he presses you down into the pillows, mouth voracious as he claims yours and pulls a moan from you. His hands map your body with practiced prowess, and when he breaks the kiss to suckle wet fire down your neck and over your breasts, you whimper, "Please, mi amor—" before gasping when he purses his mouth over your nipple and teases the taut flesh with the tip of his tongue.

He hums against your flesh when he scrapes his lips down to your sternum while his hands force your knees up and wide. "I need to taste you, hermosa," he husks before slinking down your torso and bowing his head between your thighs, pinning them open for his broad shoulders to settle between them. Your airy sigh of excitement stutters into a sound of desire when Javi uses the flat of his tongue to lave at your dripping seam before nuzzling your slick folds apart.

Fingers twisting into your bedspread, you arch your pelvis and pant his name as Javi devours you, tongue working through your tingling cunt and getting you so wet that you blush at the obscene sounds of his mouth claiming you with slow, deep licks. When his lips suckle over your clit, you clench your thighs and arch, mewling a fiery sound that shoots lust straight down Javi's body to make his cock throb. His drawn out groan of approval vibrates through your pussy and has you keening in pleasure.

"Oh my god—Ja-Javi!" you cry out and writhe in delight when his tongue presses into your tight slit and buries into your constricting sheath, already tremulously edging you to the precipice of scintillating pleasure.

He's drunk off your taste and heady scent, wanting to coax every tremor of need out of you with the weight of his tongue, so he twirls the talented appendage into your eager cunt as far as it can go before widening his jaw and slotting his mouth around your drench heat. You see stars in the backs of your eyes as bliss sparks wildly inside you, causing you to whimper inarticulate mewls and feel your core become a cloying beacon under his oral worship just as your body wrings with pleasure from your climax. Javi groans and revels in how warm and slick your ecstasy is as it drenches his lips and drips down his chin, feeling high on the accomplishment and drinking your pleasure straight from your chalice.

Slack and sweating from the scalding fever of delight Javi's wrecked you in, you unlatch your fingers from the rumpled bedding to reach for him dazedly. "Ja-Javi…mmm, pl-please," you hiccup breathily and bury your hand in his hair while the other weakly cups his deltoid. He groans and answers you by licking you clean of your climax before languidly kissing your pussy, earning a jolting shiver to skitter up your spine. "B-Babe—" you gasp when he presses an open-mouth kiss over your thrumming clit before nuzzling your mound.

Your hand gripping into the tufts of wavy hair by his temple snap him back from the besotted daze of worshipping your glorious pussy, forcing him to shamelessly bore his smoldering gaze over your trembling, burning body until he's staring into your eyes. That delectable little chill his voracious gaze zings in you sends sparks of yearning into your core, already riling with titillated anticipation all over again. You expect him to prowl over you and bury his cock to the hilt before possessively fucking you into a blissed-out bolt of euphoria, but instead, Javi kisses up your scorching skin until he presses his damp features into your neck and sighs. His arms encircle you, and you can feel how corded up his muscles are, so you wrap your arms around his broad torso and anchor your hands to the cling to his shoulder blades.

"You…you're the only safe haven I have, querida. Need you all the time," he whispers against your ear before nuzzling you and exhaling shakily. "I don't ever want to lose you…"

Your heart bursts with the deepest most igneous love you've ever felt, desire becoming a molten thing in you that flares to burn through you. Turning your head to coax him into tipping his face to you, Javi stiffens at the sight of your welling eyes, brimming with love as you caress his tense features with your doting fingertips, brushing them over his brow and along his forehead soothingly.

"You will always have me, Javier," you declare on a hoarse whisper, struggling to keep the knot of emotion buried in your chest – not wanting it to bubble free and give way to your tears. "I love you," is your flittering exhale before you kiss him imploringly, only breaking it to breathe out softly, "I will always love you."

Javier feels like all the heavy loathing and terrified anger unfurls away from him, allowing him to shed all the misery and get lost in the sensation of being loved and yours, safe in your immensely amorous grace as you kiss him with such yearning that he shivers in your embrace.

In a salacious haze of ardent passion, you and Javi make love, arching and writhing into each other with every rolling thrust and undulating rock of your bodies as you covetously kiss and strum pleasure free from your tethered desires. His ravenous mouth shares the taste of you, and the sweeps of his tongue into your mouth has you aflame with lustful urge. He groans when you lick his full, pillowed lips, gasping with thrill as you nibble on his bottom lip before pivoting your hips to buck hard onto him. Becoming feral, he mouths down your jawline, and you writhe as his cock grinds against your walls while his damp moustache brushes tickles along the delicate skin underneath your earlobe before he nips you there.

Sweat clings in a thin sheen over both your bodies as Javi hikes your thighs up and apart, pinning you open as he shifts his hips and strokes deep into that pleasure point inside you that has you curling off the bed and clinging to his flexing forearms. He watches you react, and his eyes fixate on how heavenly you look – hair tossed wildly over the pillows, pupils blown out, and apples of your cheeks flushed while your plush lips hang open on a breathy cry.

"You're so beautiful—so fucking good to me," Javi is panting in a husky grouse as he watches you shut your eyes and bite your lip hard to keep from wailing in pleasure at his rocking thrusts. Your lashes are dark fans against the tops of your cheeks and your delicate brows arch in beatific euphoria from his words. It has primal urge igniting in his belly, winding up into his apex and causing him to quicken his pace, piston-like thrusts becoming the forceful snap of his hips into your tightening heat as he groans, "Te adoro, querida—"

"Javi, oh god," you cry out, cheeks burning as the sounds of your lovemaking fill the room and the force of his thrusts becoming that ruinously amazing pounding of your cunt that has your toes curling and knees riding up to cling to his sides crescendos as you pivot your pelvis to take him deeper. "N-Need you so bad," you stutter before mewling, "Oh Javi, I c-can't be without you—!" He growls a possessive sound and snaps his hands to grip the backs of your thighs as he hunches and buries his cock so deep that you shout, "Javi!" in a drawn out wail before mewling broken sounds and hooking your arms to cling to his back as he slams through your rippling sheath and grinds his apex into you.

You come so hard that you exclaim your exhale and toss your head back against the pillows, expression etching into startled ecstasy as devastating rapture singes through you and your sheath clamps down around Javi hungrily while your nails dig into his back.

"F-Fuck—!" he moans and thrusts fast and hard until your yearning cunt demandingly clutches and flutters around him, causing his pace to stutter in rhythm before he barrels a few more pounding strokes into your ravenous heat and comes with a shout of your name.

His cock swells, stretching your sheath and throbbing against the strain of your constricting heat until it gushes hot, thick pearly spend that makes your core pulse from the force as his seed coats your inner walls. You sigh blissfully, insides warm and tingling while your heart thunders in your chest. The orgasm is so dazzling that your mind fills with static for a fleeting moment before you come back into yourself and realize you're boneless under him. Javier is shivering from the effort of not collapsing onto you, reveling in how you're now so impossibly tight – how your dripping heat envelopes him lovingly. Your hands languidly rubbing his sweaty back makes him dissolve into a wrecked heap, and when he lies on top of you, the delighted breath you let out is the greatest compliment he could wordlessly get from you.

Even though you're now slick with sweat and cum, Javi adoringly kisses you as he rolls you both onto your sides so he can caress your lower back and grope your ass affectionately.

"I could fucking die in peace after that," Javi rambles in a husk as he nuzzles the side of your head.

"Christ, Javi. Don't say that," you whine in a sigh, carding your fingers into the back of his hair and tugging admonishingly before relentlessly kissing his now-exposed jaw and cheek. He grunts in amusement, kneading your ass cheekily and curling his other hand up your back to massage the nape of your neck when you nuzzle his jaw. "Tan atrevido," you grumble and let him cuddle you, but start to fidget now that your body is recovering from the shattering high of being ravished, and can feel how slick and wet you are.

Javi pulls out right then, and you whimper at the loss of his thick filling you only to shiver as his cum seeps in his wake. You start to shy away, but he kisses you soothingly and dips his hand between your bodies to tenderly caress his warm fingers along your messily weeping pussy, causing you to hitch a tremulous sound.

"I'm only telling the truth. You make me feel so good, preciosa," he purrs in a honeyed baritone, making you groan and curl back into him. "Being with you is the closest thing to heaven I'll ever get," he murmurs and keeps touching your aching, ravished cunt, ever so gently. "Wanna take care of you, touch you like this all the time. Feel your pussy dripping me forever," he growls in a velvety rumble, eyes dark and gleaming with devoted lust.

"Oh," you gasp when he trails his fingers over your clit before lazily gliding them back down through your drenched folds. "Javi—te quiero, te necesito," you ramble. "St-Stay with me, mi amor. D-Don't ever go…"

He kisses you and starts working his fingers into your still fluttering pussy. "M'not going anywhere, querida," he rumbles with conviction, holding you close while he takes you apart with his deft fingers. "Now, go ahead and come for me again. Wanna watch you come around my fingers and have my cum drip out of you," he murmurs sweetly, as if he's not telling you salacious filth, and you moan when he kisses you encouragingly. His handsome countenance – how dreamy his dark eyes get, brows relaxed and full lips supple as he licks them – stokes your carnal want just as much as his sinful touch. When his eyes get heavy with desire, you burn for him, whimpering and spreading your legs so he can watch his fingers delve in and out of your squelching heat.

Javi loves watching you get off, fantasizes plenty raunchy scenarios starring you, but his favorite is usually you naked, pussy dripping-wet while you're fingering yourself and moaning. Giving you pleasure like this is what he needs after pining for you for so long, and when you squeeze around his fingers and cry, 'Oh, Javi!' over and over, he feels savage pride, nuzzling your jaw and murmuring praise as you ride through your climax.

"Tan hermosa—So perfect—Always good to me—Te amo…tienes mi corazón—Will love you forever—"

Your enthralled delight washes over you at his powerful, smoky purring murmurs, eyes glossy as they stare unabashedly into his and an enraptured smile blossoms over your dewy, flushed features. The needy, ridiculously tender orgasm he plucked from you would be embarrassing if it wasn't so good, and even when he uses the edge of the bedspread to clean you of the mingled post-coital mess between your thighs, you're not even mad. Can't even care about anything other than him making you feel so desired and wonderful, knowing he didn't want to leave your side to get a cool washcloth and tend to you – that he couldn't hazard being apart from you for even a few seconds.

No, Javi just wants to hold you and savor your body, warm and sated, pressed against his.

You hum contentedly when he arranges the rumpled covers around your nude forms, tucking you into his side before worshipfully caressing your warm curves soothingly.

Recovering long enough to shift up into the pillows and pull him close, you wrap your arms around Javi, disarming him. You can feel how wrought with exhausted tension he is, and when you sit up to lean against the propped pillows so you can hold him in your arms, Javi dissolves, melting like sinewy putty in your embrace. You let him just cling to you like you're his only tether keeping him anchored for a while, and it centers you, having him in your arms like this, where you can bury your nose into his crown of wavy tresses and breathe him in, kiss the top of his head and caress his shoulders and back with fond love. So, when he squeezes you tight and exhales a hesitant hum, you kiss his temple and brush the back of his head.

"…Needed this…just need you, mi amor…mi corazón…"

His drowsy murmur against your collarbone is like melted velvet pouring over your buzzing mind and spreading heat through you. Arms encircling as much of his broad shoulders as you can, you whisper, "What's going to happen with us, Javi?"

He stirs to embrace you tighter and bury his face in the crook of your neck with an inarticulate grunt. Then, when you think he's going to let the quiet deafen you, he exhales.

"I don't know. All I do know is…I want to be with you," Javi states in a low baritone before adjusting to sit up and nuzzle your hairline. When you sigh, he tilts your face up so you can look into his resolutely etched countenance. "I…I don't know how all of this is gonna go. Truthfully, I haven't been able to think of what's gonna happen, beyond everything with the manhunt. But, the thought of not being with you…" he lowers his gaze when your eyes soften and stare wondrously at him. He wants to tell you that the thought of it leaves him adrift, aimless and empty, but he doesn't have the strength, so he murmurs instead, "I want to make this work."

In this moment, he questions whether he should've ever let the veiled threat from Navegante rattle him in the first place. After all, the man technically was only goading him to make sure Javier would keep motivated on his hunt of Escobar, and seeing as he'd fed intel to Los Pepes, that certainly gave them no need to leverage you for anything. Maybe he'd blown the whole thing out of proportion—?

You caress his cheek and coax his gaze back to yours. "So, you're saying you don't want me to see Luke, then?" you drawl, devious grin flooring him into a comical pause before he gives you a wicked, possessive stare and irreverently hauls you against him so he can mercilessly cuddle and cheekily growl kisses into your neck while you giggle maniacally and wriggle in his grasp.

The way you're able to lure him away from the precipice of the abyss – yanking him away from the doom and gloom he's so susceptible to falling into – always anchors him. Your grace is divine and multifaceted, able to meld into the exact thing he needs when he needs it. And right now? Having you melodiously laugh and kiss him has something in his heart fluttering.

"Pinche atrevida," he growls and fondles your ass when he wrangles you to drape over his chest. After you give him a coquettishly look and make sweet, innocent eyes at him, Javi grunts and drawls hotly, "You fucking love making me jealous, dontcha, malcriada."

"I do not. But, getting you riled up? It's a side of your domineering attitude that I just love to lure out, querido," you quip and trace your finger teasingly over his pouting lips.

"Yeah, well, I don't fucking like getting furious, thinking about you with him…" he grumbles tersely, smoldering gaze flicking away from yours in a surly snit.

Rolling your eyes, you playfully thump his chin with a tapping finger. "We didn't have sex tonight," you tell him, enjoying how his dark chocolate eyes wander intriguingly back to yours. "He just tagged along with me to Ellis and Anita's."

"…You kissed him," he mutters huffily, eyes narrowing when you blink at him. "I was parked at the corner when you pulled up," Javi adds pithily, and when he sees your eyes flicker with upset, he adds firmly, "What you said…I didn't mean to make you feel like that. You're not a liability. I…I just wanted to protect you, but I was an idiot on how I went about it," he pauses to gaze resolutely into your glimmering eyes to grouse, "I don't care that you've been with him. "

You wilt in relief, sitting up to sigh into his arms. The love you feel for him is boundless, and you're beaming when he kisses your forehead caresses you tenderly.

"…But…I did hope you hadn't fucked him," he suddenly adds in a musing murmur.

You reel back and scoff a laugh before swatting him. "Oh yeah? Well, so sorry to tell you, but I said it didn't happen tonight," you can't help jab acerbically. When his soulful gaze becomes molten, you chime, "Doesn't mean it didn't happen a week ago…"

His brow furrows sulkily, but he exhales through his nose and clenches his jaw before muttering lowly, "Did he at least fuck you good enough to get you to almost scream my name again?"

You are floored and flustered by his crass jab, so you scathe acidly, "Did your escort get you to moan your filthy promises like you do with me, cabrón?"

Hackles rising, Javier growls, "No."

"Good, because he didn't fuck me as good as you do," you muse provocatively and pointedly slink away while you wrap the sheet around your nudity, as if you're going to snippily roll over and ignore him.

Javi loops his arm around your torso and hauls you back into him. "He didn't, huh?" he drawls against your ear, pitch of his gravelly tone making your tummy tense with excitement. You shake your head, and Javi chuckles smugly before purring, "An insatiable little thing like you? Glad you got me around to get the job done."

You melt and defiantly nudge him at the same time, haughty as you scoff, "Big talk, querido. You'll have to back it up."

He grunts challengingly at that, yanking you onto his lap, earning a breathy sound from you. The twinkle in your eye as you wrap your arms around him has instant arousal flooding him, spurring him to claim your mouth with his. You curl your hands up to bury in his dense tresses, loving the hum that bubbles up in him as he deepens the kiss. He's already hard when you playfully pull back and coquettishly slink off his lap, loving how it makes him burn with want.

When he goes to agilely scoop you back over, he ends up swaying from the sudden swift maneuver, making himself dizzy. "S-Shit…" he croaks and wavers before extending his arm to catch himself sidelong on the bed.

Your mischief is quelled instantly as you rush to slink up against him. "Babe, are you ok?" you fret and cup your hands around his face, surveying him closely.

"Yeah…just felt a little lightheaded," he mutters sheepishly, and when your wide gaze sharpens, he flatly jokes, "You got blood rushing somewhere else, cariño—"

Javi's stomach growls, and you watch him look gruffly chagrined as his brown eyes flicker meekly at you. "Javier! When is the last time you had something to eat?" you press, eyes blazing now.

"…Last night…." Javi mumbles, feeling you rile. "I've been busy—"

"Coffee and cigarettes is not a fucking way to live, Javier," you huff testily and pin him to lean back against the headboard as you stare him down bossily. "Tú te me quedas aquí," you order before bounding up out of bed, grabbing his discarded shirt and shrugging it on since your robe is in the bathroom, and declare, "If you move from that spot, I'm gonna be really mad at you," when he flippantly grumbled and started to climb out of bed after you.

But, with a threat like that, he immediately drops back into the spot and reclines back, wryly watching you sway away on wobbly knees and dwarfed by his grey button up shirt as your hair flounces about with your movements.

When you come back a few minutes later with a giant sandwich, some chips, and a Colombian soda, primly raising an imperious brow at him as you hand him the meal, Javi can't help gaze proudly up at you as he puckishly sits up and starts eating while you shrug his shirt off, slink back into bed and under the covers with him. He relishes the meal – better than anything he's had in weeks, and tells you so, asking, "You're not gonna have anything?" while he devours the sandwich in several bites and munches on the chips.

Smiling at him as he eats with gusto, you explain, "I already ate. I made dinner and brought it over to Ellis and Anita's. They've been having a hard time…she knew some of the people who were killed in that car bomb." When he whips his head up to stare forlornly at you before pulling you closer, you sigh and rest your head on his shoulder. "One of her students died in the blast…wanted to go over and cheer them up, even just a little."

The fact makes Javier tense up with impotent fury, knowing that had they caught Escobar one of the dozens of times they came close to it, so many lives would've been spared. It roils him towards his simmering, ruminating despair, pushing him down into his loathing, when you turn your head and kiss his jaw lovingly and snap him back.

"How terrible is it that I wish death upon that man…?" you ask him vacantly before shaking your head free of the glum musing.

"Considering I think about personally putting a bullet in his fucking head every day? Not bad at all," he quips macabrely, and you stifle a startled laugh into his shoulder. "Tomorrow, Steve and I are interviewing a tier-one sicario. If we're lucky, his intel could be the beginning of the end for that motherfucker," Javi states ruthlessly, glancing down at you when you grunt amusedly.

"Ah-hah, well you ain't doing shit until you finish your food," you prod, fishing one of the few remaining potato chips from his plate and feeding it to him. He chuckles as he chews, so you purse your lips goadingly and add, "You have to take better care of yourself, Javier—"

He conceals his eye roll with an irreverent shake of his head, before tipping his soda bottle up to take a long pull from it. You watch his corded neck work as his throat gulps the soda down, Adam's apple bobbing mesmerizingly before he gasps a little content sound and smirks down at you. "Maybe I just want to be taken care of…" Javi teases once he's set his mostly-empty plate and bottle aside to pull you close and peck you on the lips. "Have a feisty little malcriada fuss over me," he purrs, brushing his nose affectionately against yours.

You snicker and wrap your arms around his broad shoulders as you straddle his lap again, pressing your naked form cheekily against him. "Maybe I will. That way, you'll have to abide what I say and fucking take care of yourself, you smug chavón," is your wry reply before you teasingly press your plush lips over his.

"Mmm, maybe," he rumbles sexily before caressing you shamelessly into rutting down against his rock-hard cock. When you hum in intrigue, he cups your lower back and glides his other hand over the planes of your torso before fondling a heavy breast into his warm palm, drawling, "So…where were we?"

A fed and coddled Javi is just as lustful and insatiable as a half-starved, brooding Javi, so you easily find yourself being ravished by him when you feign demureness and playfully amble away so he has to chase you a little. You don't make it to the foot of the bed before he's slid you back possessively by your ankle, and when he pounces on you, it's hard not to become a feral woman and turn the tables on him. But, when Javi wrestles you sensually and eventually gets you on your hands and knees? You are yearning to be dominated, and by how wet and needy you get when he ruts his cock through your soaked heat from behind? Javi knows it too, and revels in the savage pride of having you desire him so wantonly.

He disassembles you with sinful grace, fucking you like you love and holding onto you with his powerful hands that feel like they could hold you together through anything. When you bow into a throaty moan and buck mindlessly back into him, Javi growls at the sight, drunk with primal accomplishment at watching you come all over his cock as it plunges in and out of you before he snaps his hips roughly into you to chase his own coiled need before it springs free.

The wail of pleasure you let out when his hands grip your waist and he roots himself deep inside you has Javi high, so besotted with the glory of being with you like this that he swears he's never come harder in his life.

The way your core is quivering after the onslaught, you would definitely agree with him, groaning wistfully as you feel your sheath brim over with his thick seed. Once you've recovered, you find yourself curled onto your side, with Javi spooning you from behind, soothingly caressing your flushed skin as you come down from the blissful high. He nuzzles kisses into your trapezius, and you just lie like a melted heap of euphoria in his arms and sigh contently.

After you've regained your grace, you turn in his arms to curl lovingly against him, encircling your arms around his broad torso and murmuring, "I love you."

His chest feels like it's expanding with heat at that, so he kisses you breathless.

Caressing the contour of your spine while his other hand affectionately kneads your thigh, Javi murmurs, "I know I don't always deserve it, preciosa. The fact you let me have this with you, even after all my fuckups..."

You kiss his jaw. "None of that. Just love me back, Javi," you whisper softly, genuinely, and press your forehead to his. "We can figure out the rest."

The passion that ignites in him at your powerful words has him shuddering as he kisses you worshipfully before rumbling in a honeyed tone, "I love you, bravita."

You smile and hum happily as he picks you up to carry you back to the pillows and under the covers, where he kisses and cuddles you possessively. The comfortable silence that settles over you both is only muted by your airy sighs and his pleasant hums as you lounge together in sensual repose, hips carved around his and arms looped round his torso while he holds you against him and breathes you in.

"…You'll be gone again tomorrow?"

Javi exhales and presses a kiss to your hairline. "Yes. Don't know for how long…"

You don't want to burden him with your fretting, but you also think you deserve to know where things stand. "Can you…can you tell me what's happened?"

Weighing that, Javier deliberates whether he should tell you anything. He really wants to protect you. That has not changed, but having you in the dark about certain things could be just as dangerous. So, reluctantly, he decides to divulge certain things, and entrust you with others. He tells you how he's guilty of letting Los Pepes run amuck, confiding only that whenever CNP hit a procedural wall, the intel they sat on would end up with the vigilante outfit. As Javi tells you things, you listen intently, and do not interrupt. He knows every time something he tells you worries you by how you clutch at him, or press your nose comfortingly into his neck when you really want to say something but don't.

It's when he tells you about what happened with the lawyer and his teenage son that you figure out some things on your own, stilling against him while he collects his thoughts. Then, he surprises you by musing in a pensive mumble, "There's people at the embassy…that have their own plans; that I need to watch out for."

"…Anyone in particular?" you finally ask, unable to not keep this query bottled up.

"Yes, but…I don't want to say. It's better if you don't know," he rumbles haltingly. "In any case, the way things are playing out, I have a chance at avoiding any fallout – getting myself out of any complicity, as long as I play it smart."

You absorb that, mind compiling everything and organizing it all into a huge puzzle that you're sure Javi thinks he's been evasive enough to render you unable to piece everything cohesively together. However, you are your father's daughter, and sordid business is something you took a master class on growing up, so while you keep mostly quiet, you think you've deduced a concise understanding of just how involved Javi is – at how compromised he might be.

You choose to spare him the burden of guilt, or worry, so you don't voice anything other than, "As long as you and Steve are okay on the other side, that's all that matters, Javi."

He relaxes in your arms, and you are glad to give him some peace, so you let him burrow against you and breathe in your comforting scent while he slowly dozes off.

It's the first time you've both been able to sleep serenely in weeks, the tranquility of each other's embrace anchoring you in the calm serenity that exists when you're together. It's such a tranquil haven he's fallen in, that when Javi begins to stir, he's lethargic and relaxed, dimly stretching and rolling over to cuddle you close.

When he comes up empty, he flails his arm out until he comes up to the side of the bed, so he opens his eyes to blearily pout and wake reluctantly. The morning sun is already filtering through your bedroom windows, and the soft chirps of distant songbirds echo faintly as he rolls onto his back and rubs the sleep out of his eyes.

The sound of the front door opening and closing with a soft click, followed by the chime of keys being set down on the side table, startles him to sit up in bed. Before he can wind up with apprehension, you're loping in pleasantly and humming when you see him awake. He registers how your arms are laden with things. You're in a fetching pair of jeans and a crewneck white t-shirt, hair up in a flirty twist with a few lush tresses undulating to frame your face. Javi quirks his brows bemusedly when he notices his duffle hanging from your shoulder along with the large thermos he usually leaves in the back of his jeep for stakeouts, and a big paper bag with a familiar logo emblazoned on the side balanced in your arms.

"Rise and shine, agente," you lilt as you saunter over to the side of the bed and sit so you can lean over and peck him on the lips. "You need to jump in the shower and start getting ready," is your affable purr when you shrug his duffle off your shoulder and onto the bed before setting the thermos and paper bag to the nightstand.

"…You went into my jeep?" he asks as he sits up against the headboard and stares warmly at you as you tilt your head amusedly and smile.

"Yep. Woke up and realized you, uh, have no other clothes here, so I went to get your duffle to see if you needed anything ironed," you tell him as you unzip the travel bag and rifle through his shirts. "While I was at it, I noticed the thermos, and figured you'd need the good stuff, so I drove over to Don Gilberto's and had him fill it up for you. Snagged some breakfast sandwiches and fresh pandebonos too," you explain as you pick a clean shirt from the bunch, snap it out and stand to go set up the ironing board. "There's plenty for you to share with Steve, so don't be a greedy brat this time," you joke while he stares with enamored pride at you.

Well, he did say he might want to be taken care of, and this certainly fit the bill. Besotted, he grabs his toiletry bag out of the duffle and gets out of bed, cockily strutting in the buff right by you, as you get ready to iron his shirt.

"Hmph, I could use help in the shower too…" he mutters sexily and cheekily grabs your derrière as he lopes by.

"Báñate, atrevido," you snicker and leer at his ass, pleased by his swagger and delectably swinging dick as you watch him stroll down the hall and into your bathroom with a dry grunt that echoes back at you.

By the time he's freshly showered and sauntering back in just a towel, you've just put the ironing away, having finished getting the wrinkles out of his jeans and hanging them up with the light-gray button shirt you'd picked out. You're humming a jaunty little tune as you reach into the duffle to see if he has a clean pair of socks and underwear to go with the ensemble when you find a hidden inseam pocket and fish out a pair of your panties.

"Oh my god, are you serious?!" you exclaim in aghast humor as you whirl on him and grimace. "You are a filthy freaking beyako—!"

Javier laughs and snatches one of his favorite possessions out of your hand and objects, "What?! You gave me a pair—"

"Not that pair!" you scoff and accuse, "You've had those panties since the first time we were together! They are gross—"

"They are amazing and you're not getting them back," he cuts in and ceremoniously folds them with reverence before slipping them back into the duffle along with his toiletry bag. "You never gave me back my shirt, after all, so I get to have a couple of keepsakes of my own, malcriada."

You flush, because indeed, you still have his college shirt. Even when you'd hastily tossed all his belongings into a bag and foisted them on him, you'd forgotten the soft gray garment was tucked in your pajama drawer. After all, on nights when you were alone in bed and missing him, you'd sleep with it, soothed by his exclusively scrumptious scent.

"…I'll give it back, if you want," you grumble and pout, not really wanting to part with it.

He chuckles as he finishes fishing out undergarments to wear for the day. With a teasing grunt, he tosses his duffle aside so he can lay out the clothes you set for him on the bed before he leans over to kiss you chastely on the lips. "You can keep it, corazón," he purrs when he taps his curled forefinger under your chin and smirks. "It looks a hell of a lot better on you anyway."

You melt at that, and Javi puckishly turns to discard his towel from his hips so he can start getting dressed. But, he's set a little fire of desire in your belly now, so you saunter over, turn him on his heels and shove him down on the bed. He lands on his back with a bouncing protest of the mattress, and when he grunts and sits up on his elbows to inquisitively peer up at you, his gaze ends up following you down as you kneel on the floor and stare at him lustfully while you palm his semi to stroke it into a full-blown hard-on.

Javier's mouth drops open when you worshipfully lave at his warm sac before suckling at his balls, making him hoarsely exclaim in pleasure, and when you purse your lips around the head of his cock? His eyes roll back and he arches from the bed with a thick groan. Your velvet-wet mouth is pure heavenly havoc – his rapturous undoing in an embarrassing short span of time, but you hum with pride as you suck him through his orgasm and let him spill his salty spend onto your tongue while he moans wantonly.

Needless to say, Javi is buzzing with contentment by the time he pulls up to pick up Steve, and when he wordlessly offers his partner the paper bag with the other breakfast sandwich and a pandebono for him to have before tapping showily at the thermos in the center console, Steve gives him a shit-eating grin and beams.

"Hell yes!" the blue-eyed blond cheers as he digs into the delicious offerings while Javi drives, chewing and humming dramatically before purring with his mouth full, "So, you're saying there's still a chance at lasagna?"

Javi lets out a drawn out scoff at that, but can't suppress the sly smirk quirking his full lips under his moustache, no matter how far he tucks his chin into his chest.

By the time they get to the interrogation room, though? They're both all business.

Seeing a dastardly sicario like Blackie riddled with guilt is something Javier takes a cynical amount of pleasure in, and when he gives them La Quica? It feels like a huge score, one with their boss dangling on a string, just barely out of reach. They have to play this smart, though, so when Martínez inquires if Los Pepes are going to intercede on the raid and beat them to the punch yet again, Javier knows he has to nip it in the bud.

Trujillo is a good man, but Javier has no qualms about confronting him. Especially when he's spent so long obsessing about how he'd been compromised.

After the man assures him that he believes in the colonel's assertion that a Colombian officer is the one that needs to be standing over Escobar's body at the end, Javier believes him – sees the conviction in the shorter officer's eyes. They fall into a complicit silence, prepared to never speak of Los Pepes and their collaboration again. But, something needles at Javier, and he can't help turn to stare at Trujillo direct – not through the mirror's reflection – and appraises him with his brooding eyes for a beat.

"Who did you tell about her?"

Trujillo whips his head around to stare earnestly at Javier. "No one—"

"Someone did. Are the other men who were on that stakeout in Cali's pocket?" Javier cuts in firmly, eyes flinty with his repressed rage.

"No…but you know better than anyone, they can dig up ways to discover leverage. No matter how careful you are," the CNP officer assures Javier before turning and walking away, exiting the communal bathroom and leaving him to glare at his own reflection.

If not Trujillo, then who had divulged about your relationship to the Cali cartel, and when? Los Pepes weren't a thing until way after Navegante had made his subtle reference of you to Javi, but besides Steve and Carrillo, and the Search Bloc officers that'd been staking out El Coyote that night, who else would've found out about you? Could he have been right all along about his phone being compromised?

He decided it had to be that, similar to how they'd gotten audio of Steve giving intel over to Search Bloc. But still, who on the inside was collaborating with the clandestine criminal enterprise?

For now, he stowed the rumination away in order to get ready for the operation that would be launched first thing the next day.

You, meanwhile, spend the time apart trying to come up with a way to let Luke down gently without disclosing your sudden opposition to pursuing something. Frankly, you're a bit worried about how it'll come up, and once Ellis is back at work, you know you won't be able to avoid his questions that'll make you even more wary about the whole thing. But, thankfully, the opportunity doesn't arise, not with the major bust that has Luke joining the rest of Mil Group at CNP headquarters in Medellín, and you and Ellis distracted with all the final onboarding steps for the essential embassy personnel. Moreover, you have time to wonder if this is finally the time for you and Javi to make it officially known to others that you're in a relationship. The thought still makes you nervous, but not for the same reasons anymore.

After you see the news about La Quica being captured, you expect Javi to call you, but when he doesn't, you worry that there's something keeping him from reaching out. That perhaps he's back on his evasive shit again, for a new perceived threat of exposure.

Javi's truthfully brooding irascibly at once again being thwarted in capturing Escobar, and while he usually was able to keep his cool in the face of disappointment, that night? He'd absolutely not managed to do so. Aside from offing several would-be sicarios, the raid was an abject failure. Steve had to reel him back after he'd literally gone in blasting, but really, his partner knew why he was so furious.

It was early evening, and he was currently typing up a report to Messina since Javi was still too wound up to center his thoughts for the aimless task. Steve only betrays a haughty glance at him when the phone started ringing, and Javi was still staring faraway while he smoked in a sulk.

"Least you could do is get that," Steve grumbles as he types away.

Huffing, Javi reaches over and snags the phone up before reclining over his desk.

"Peña," he answers gruffly and pinches his cigarette between his middle and forefinger.

"¿Quiubo, agente?" is the purred response that instantly coils heat down his body.

"…You gotta tell me how the hell you got this number," Javi grouses in a mutter, but Steve's curious gaze flicks up from the typewriter anyway.

"Really, Peña?" you drawl mockingly. "I work in Clerical Operations, aka I can get any phone number I want, if it's in the directory," you humorously chime, before adding, "It also helps that I'm digitizing the entire directory across inter-agencies, creating a digital database."

"Hmph…that sounds like some Star Trek shit, you know," he quips dryly, and you snicker. "But, why're you calling me on here?" he asks in Spanish and shoots Steve a glare for trying to eavesdrop, earning a wily expression and eye roll from the other man.

"Working late, all alone in the office. And, well, you're the paranoid one about intercepted calls. It's very difficult for inter-agency landlines to be bugged without the knowledge of someone in the embassy. It would require top clearance access to do something like that, so, it's unlikely both these landlines are compromised," you answer him in Spanish. He marvels at the logic, not having thought of it. "So…what're you wearing?"

Javi sputters on his cigarette, having been pulling a drag on it when you saucily purr that into his ear. He coughs, and Steve glances derisively at him and mouths, 'Get a room, would yah?!' before grinning and getting up from his desk to get himself a coffee refill.

"Atrevida," he growls before murmuring darkly, "You're calling and being naughty over work lines? You know that deserves punishment—"

"Oh, it does?" you rumble sultrily in Spanish, and Javi gets turned on, despite the public spot his desk sits in – practically dead center in the middle of the police academy headquarters. "When can I expect to get punished, then?"

Hi cock throbs, tenting the crotch of his jeans, so he scoots his chair further into the desk to conceal his hard-on. "We're going back to the capital day after next to re-interview people," he replies in a low intonation, and when you hum, he adds, "I'll be at your door that night, and you better be prepared—"

"Aren't I always?" you lilt angelically, causing Javi to grumble, so you giggle, "Hasta luego, Agente Peña."

He chews on the inside of his lip before grunting wryly in farewell, and once he hangs up, he has to think of every un-sexy thing possible in order to get control of his arousal. After all, there is no privacy at the dormitory or communal bathrooms, so he can't even go anywhere to take the edge off right now. He's deliberating whether he could get away with sneaking into his and Steve's dorm to jerk off to the panties he has stashed away in his duffle when his partner saunters back to the desk with a filled mug of black coffee and a sardonic smirk on his face.

"You look like a wound up bronco," Steve chortles as he sits and reclines, sipping his coffee glibly.

"…Tell me, Murphy. How in the hell have you gone so long without getting some and not blown your brains out by now?" Javi deadpans as he stubs his cigarette out and goes into his file drawer for his secret stash of whiskey and his stored glass.

"Easy. I jerk off in the shower every morning," Steve unabashedly answers and sips his coffee like he didn't just say something outlandish.

Javi just stares at him in mid pour, nonplussed. "Well, I'm sorry I asked," he grouses and shimmies backwards in his chair after resuming pouring some whiskey in his glass. "That's a visual I did not need – whole new meaning to 'hit the showers', buddy," he jokes and drinks, shooting Steve a goading stare when the blond rolls his eyes and flips him off.

Steve's about to razz his partner that he can keep quiet when he jerks off, unlike Javi, when he catches sight of Luke Samson hustling down the stairwell on the opposite landing from their recessed makeshift bullpen. The younger man is shooting the shit with one of the onsite CIA agents as he goes, and Steve grunts, pursing his lips covertly in that direction when Javi quirks his brow and turns to follow his gaze.

"Think he knows?" the eagle-eyed blond queries, raising a brow when Javi wordlessly turns back and pours more whiskey in his glass. "Gonna have to bail you out after you win a duel for the maiden's favor?" Steve jokes, and Javi shoots a death glare his way. "What? I'm just wonderin'. Last I saw him was with her—"

"And last I saw her, she was with me," Javi grounds out in a mutter and drinks his whiskey.

"Ok, but I hope you're not doublin' down on some love triangle shit here," Steve insists derisively.

Javier scoffs and finishes his whiskey with a harsh exhale and goes to light himself a new cigarette. "You gotta be in love with two people at the same time for it to qualify as a love triangle, Steve," he sarcastically jibes, puffing his cigarette and reclining in his chair to shoot his partner a smug look. "That's not the case here."

Pursing his lips and nodding musingly at that, Steve sips his coffee and lets Javi have that. After all, since the letdown the other night, this was the most at ease he'd seen his partner, and in their business, these little things are necessary to keep from going off the deep end. Javier had been close to it already, so anything that gave the man solace from the miserable frustration of their assignment, he'd encourage it.

He just hoped Javi would have better luck in this whole affair than he's had so far, and although he was looking forward to going back to Miami and getting Connie back once Escobar was off the board, he knew this life wasn't conducive to a healthy relationship.

Pretty soon, Javier would learn that the hard way, and you would be left reeling from the fallout, but for now, you both look forward to the gravitation of being with each other once again.

---

Spanish-English Glossary:

Sicario = Hitman

Abuela = Grandmother

Tía = Aunt

Prima = Cousin (female)

Cinco, Cuatro, Tres, Dos, Uno. ¡Feliz Año Nuevo! = Five, Four, Three, Two, One. Happy New Year!

Querida/querido = Affectionate term, akin to expressing one's want and desire

Mi amor = My love

Hermosa = beautiful

Te adoro = I adore you

Tan atrevido = So daring

Preciosa = Gorgeous; precious

Te quiero, te necesito = I want you, I need you

Tan hermosa = So beautiful

Te amo…tienes mi corazón = I love you…you have my heart

Mi amor…mi corazón = My love…my heart

Pinche atrevida = Fucking daring woman

Malcriada/malcriado = brat/spoiled

Cabrón = Asshole

Cariño = darling/sweetheart

Tú te me quedas aquí = You stay right there

Chavón = a man that's pestering you

Bravita = Tough girl; feisty girl

Báñate, atrevido = Go bathe/shower, daring man

Beyako = Puerto Rican slang for horny/naughty guy; akin to "horn dog"

Corazón = Heart; pet name to signify how deeply you love someone

¿Quiubo, agente? = How goes it, agent?

Atrevido/Atrevida = Daring man/Daring woman

Hasta luego = See you later

Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a comment and sharing your feedback. I would be eternally grateful.