A/N: The uncensored version of this chapter is available on Wattpad/Archive Of Our Own.

"Beth."

They weren't supposed to be doing this. Laying there like the world didn't exist and Cipher wasn't breathing down their necks. Acting as if nothing had changed even though just about everything was different now.

"What?"

Hobbs was stretched out next to her, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. His brothers had gone to help the Shaws work on their cars, apparently, and Sam wanted to see Hattie. The Fed had said something about her being his daughter's favorite of the Shaw siblings. No surprise there when Hattie was the most likeable of the three, and also the least likely to send a bomb to your house.

"Above board. You sure you want to keep it that way?"

"It's simpler."

"Less fun too."

Jesus. Why didn't he just say it? He wanted the bitch from Hell, yet here Hobbs was still tiptoeing around the issue like they hadn't all but screwed each other in the hotel. What part of kneeling at his feet, his groin inches from her mouth, suggested to Luke that he needed to walk on eggshells anymore? "You're a big boy, Fed. Use your words. If you want to kiss—"

"Do you?"

This wasn't about her and what she wanted. It hadn't been in well over two weeks, or maybe he'd already forgotten his own daughter's kidnapping. Every plan had been thrown out the window the moment she heard that scared voice in the cargo hold, never mind the second she saw the look in his eyes that said Hobbs would do whatever it took to get Sam back. As much as it pained her, as desperately as Elizabeth had wanted for this nightmare to end quickly, any chance of her walking away had ceased to exist after Cipher did the unforgivable.

She turned her head to look at Hobbs. He was flat on his back, staring up at the leafy branches stretched over them, with his hands resting on his stomach. His rough, strong, safe hands that left her aching for more because God, it felt so fucking good just to be touched.

Forty-eight months in Cuba, eighteen of them spent locked up in prison, had left a gaping void inside her. Now Hobbs was her partner, not her captor, and she was allowing a pair of hands that once caused her pain to hold her instead.

Talking to someone at night who actually talked back? It was...nice. Not staring at the walls while she counted the seconds in her head and prayed God would hit the fast-forward button on her life was nice too.

Even the best part of being on the plane had been having people to fill the space and the silence. Because if it wasn't Hobbs she could hear then it was Jakob or Cipher, and all that noise temporarily shrank the void within her.

Yet not one of them made her feel less alone like he did.

And fuck, she missed not being alone.

"I—"

Coffees and breakfasts in bed, talking over meals, was the closest she'd come to having company in a long time. All those lazy afternoons drinking beer in the cargo hold, watching Hobbs work out in the armory, reminded her of something she hadn't had in years too. Even last night, sharing that bed, and laying here together now, reminded her of all the things she'd lost by ending up in that prison cell.

Everything she should have had by now.

Except Elizabeth didn't, no thanks to Hobbs himself ripping her world apart and bringing it crashing down around her. He'd cost her everything, left her to rot in Hell, and never looked back. So why did she want more? More of this. More of him touching her. Putting his hands on her body like they belonged there. Kissing her, sitting her on his lap, pretending that the past didn't exist.

That he wasn't the only thing holding her together.

Luke had saved her life four years ago when he came barging in that cold night in Moscow, and he'd done it again two weeks ago whether he knew it or not. If Hobbs hadn't stepped on that plane, if there'd been nothing to hold her back, God only knew what she would've done.

Or who she would have become.

"Yes." They'd agreed to full transparency, and that was exactly what Luke would get whether he liked it or not. What was the point in lying to him anyway? He'd see it in her eyes or notice some other tell that would make him aware she was full of shit. "But I don't want you. I want this," she gestured vaguely, as if it would clarify her point, "all of this. Just not—"

He rolled onto his side, grunting as Luke adjusted himself and propped his head in his hand. "I didn't ask if you want me, and for the record, I don't want you either...but I like this. I'm enjoying this."

Beth's eyebrows furrowed, head spinning a mile a minute while she tried to make sense of what he was saying. How could he possibly be finding any of this enjoyable? For crying out loud, the only reason they weren't at each other's throats was because Cipher had kidnapped his daughter.

"So, what do you want?"

"We're not talking about me."

"We're not deflecting either. Answer the question."

Hobbs chuckled. This right here was what he wanted. No having to guess what Elizabeth meant, no tiptoeing around the issue. When there was a problem, she laid it at his feet. It was oddly refreshing to be with someone as blunt as her, even if he had instigated it by telling Shaw that it was transparency or bust. "This. I want more of this...and more of what I saw the other morning."

"In other words, you want a girlfriend."

A committed relationship at his age? Maybe one day, but Luke wasn't actively looking for romance anymore. He'd been in love, engaged, married, divorced, and that was plenty enough for now. Hook-ups and one-night stands weren't off the table, but long term sure was. Sam was his sole focus these days, especially with middle school coming up, and then soon there'd be high school, with college and an empty house following on its heels.

"No."

"An affair?"

"No."

"Indulgence? Liaison?"

"Again, no."

"Fling? Hookup? Entanglement? Come on, Hobbs, you're going to have to work with me here. I'm running out of synonyms."

"Fun," he said. "This is fun, and that's all I want. Just this. Us. Fun."

"Fun," she repeated. The dumbfounded look on Shaw's face said she didn't understand one bit. Maybe it was the fact she'd never been married, never fallen in love and had her world turned upside down, or never experienced half of what life had to offer because she'd let herself get caught up in someone else's story instead of writing her own. "You and I have a very different definition of fun."

"So when you're laughing, that's not you having fun?"

"It's an automatic response."

"And when you smile?"

"Same thing."

Jesus. Shaw couldn't stop performing like her life depended on it, no matter who she was with, could she? The woman really had accepted being treated like a tool, pulled out and used by others when needed, then shoved back in a box once they were done. "Your therapist tell you how messed up that is?"

"All the time."

"Beth—"

"We aren't talking about me. We're talking about you and fun."

"It's not fun now I know you're putting on an act."

"Don't." The snap of her voice, the pissed-off tone, made Luke tense instinctively. He pushed himself upright, sitting with his legs outstretched, ready for a fight. "Don't fill in the blanks. You asked about me laughing, not you making me laugh."

"What's the difference?"

Elizabeth looked away, focusing her attention elsewhere while she tugged at the hem of her shirt. "With you, it's genuine."

"And when I make you smile?"

"...Also genuine."

Why did she sound so reluctant to admit that? Was it such a bad thing for her that an asshole like him could make her smile? Or was it that Shaw still didn't want to admit she was as human as the rest of them and could feel emotions too?

"Then what's your definition of fun?"

"You're changing the subject again. Quit it."

"Woman," Luke said, getting up on his knees and moving toward her until he was able to straddle her lower legs, "you have thirty seconds to answer my question, or I'll dunk your ass in the river."

"I don't have one. Now back to you wanting more of this..."

"Us."

"You get 'us' for as long as Cipher's alive. Pick something else."

"You."

"Same deal. Try again."

"No strings."

"Luke—"

"You want to make out? We make out. One of us needs to get off? We can do that too."

"No."

"No?"

"When you say it like that, I might as well be a mail-order whore who you can ship off to prison the moment I don't put out."

Jesus. Two seconds was all it took for Elizabeth to twist it around in her head and find the absolute worst-case scenario possible in the situation. "If I ship you off to prison, I lose my partner, and I'd never mail-order you because you'd probably pop out of the box with a fucking knife and try to kill me."

She snorted and returned her attention back to him, a restrained smile curving her lips. "Shut up."

"You would, wouldn't you?"

"Alright, you can stop talking now." Beth lifted her hips off the ground and eased her pants off, then sat up and set to work on her shirt. "I'm dunking my—"

"No, you ain't."

He picked her up by the waist, securing Elizabeth against him, and all but ran straight downhill to the edge. Before Shaw could protest, Luke jumped straight in. The river was at least twenty feet deep along the edge, probably a good thirty in the middle; no broken trees or rogue branches lurked below, and the current was weaker than it looked.

In short, it was plenty safe for Sam, let alone deep enough for someone as tall as him to safely jump in.

"You do that again," Elizabeth said once they'd surfaced, "and you can sleep on the couch from now on."

"I told you I'd dunk your ass if you didn't answer my question in thirty seconds."

She floated in front of him, glaring, yet at no point did Elizabeth try to pull away. "That one was rhetorical!"

"Still a question."

"Go dunk yourself."

"You sure you want me to do that?"

"God, you really are an insufferable asshole."

Luke chuckled and brought her closer, sliding his hands down to her thighs as he did. "Yet you keep coming back for more. I can't be all that insufferable considering you're sleeping in my bed."

"I'm there for the bed, not you."

"Alright, how about we just skip the rest of this back and forth and get to the making out?"

Shaw raised her eyebrows, gaze fixed on him and scepticism written all over her face. "You want to make out in the middle of a river?"

"It's what regular people do. They go swimming, they make out, have a beer, enjoy each other's company, make out some more afterwards."

"Regular people," she said, "like you and me."

"Did you hear what I said about skipping all the verbal tennis?"

"I heard, but I still haven't decided if I want to make out with you."

"Then why don't you tell me what's holding you back?" She slowly lifted her hands out of the water, resting her arms on his shoulders, and casually checked their surroundings. He'd already done that several times without her noticing to make sure they were both alone and not being watched. As far as Luke could tell, they were in the clear. "The badge? Lack of trust? Deckard?"

"...You saw that, huh?"

"Heard it all too."

"You plan on saying anything to him?"

The Deckard thing was her business, not his. Until Elizabeth indicated she wanted him to get involved, Luke was staying out of it. That drama was strictly between her and the Shaws for now, or up until the moment someone crossed the line. "No."

"Okay."

"Elle."

"You said you want the bitch from hell. Now you want this. Us. I don't think you realize the kind of trouble you're asking for."

Trouble? The woman was a Shaw. A goddamn nightmare. What kind of trouble could be so great that even she was reluctant to act? "Look me in the eye and tell me you're pussyfooting around the issue because you've suddenly decided to give a shit what people think."

"I'm not."

"Then take what you want."

"Doing that comes with consequences."

"I can deal with those."

Elizabeth's fingers grazed the back of his neck while he held her in place. It was plain as day how much she wanted this, how much she wanted him, as if her legs squeezing his waist didn't give it away. Never mind the hitch in her breath, the way her pupils were blown wide with need, or the fact she still wouldn't walk away.

"...No one ever finds out about this."

"Fine. Now stop running your—"

Her mouth slanted over his, lips as sweet and wicked as they had been a week ago. He kissed her back without hesitation, moving his right hand to the base of her head beneath all that dark hair, and held her. Luke didn't need to ask if she was enjoying it, if she wanted more, or just how much she needed it

Those eager moans, how Shaw dropped her arms to grip his ass and pull him closer, told him everything. "Luke." God, even the way she said his name was laced with desire. "Fuck."

"I thought you didn't want to."

"Stop being a smartass."

"Guess you like me now, huh?"

"Shut up."

"Make me."

She pulled back a moment later, staring at him intently as if to say don't tempt me, then lowered her legs and let go. After pushing his hands off, Beth swam for the riverbank. Luke turned to watch her rise out of the water, rivulets sluicing down her body, and walk straight to the tree they'd been sitting under. She sat down on the picnic blanket spread out beneath it then crooked her finger at him expectantly.

Well, that was as clear a message as any.

Luke followed her out a second later and helped himself to the space beside Elizabeth, sprawling out, only for her to straddle him just like he'd done to her. She leaned down and kissed him again, angling his head back with one hand while her other trailed down his chest.

"You sure you can handle what comes after this?"

Had Elizabeth forgotten who he was? What Luke was capable of? Life could throw whatever it wanted his way, and he would take on all of it. "I handle you, don't I? And you are far more trouble than you know."

Those fingers of hers danced along the waistband of his shorts, like she was waiting to see his reaction. Testing the waters to see how far this would go or if he'd tell her to stop. He wouldn't. They'd already gone this far—why not just cross the damn line already and stop toeing it altogether?

"Alright, you can stop talking now."

"I think you already know how this conversation goes."

"If you insist."

Elizabeth kissed him once more then slid her hand down under his shorts, watching his reaction the entire time. She didn't look away as he lifted his hips to urge her on and let out a quiet groan. The woman who'd once threatened to maim him, who had a vested interest in his death, now had her fingers wrapped around his dick. Each movement of her hand was torturously slow and left him tipping his head back, wishing she'd do more than just touch him.

"So, this is all it takes to shut you up, huh?" Slowly, Beth moved her mouth from his lips to his chest before she kissed a trail along the length of his sternum, all the way down to his waistband, stroking him the whole time. Luke gripped the blanket, bunching it in his hands, and lifted his ass higher. "I should've done this sooner if I knew it had that effect on you."

"You wish you were that lucky," he chuckled. "I'm just—"

God. She curled her fingers, seeming to touch him in five different places at once as Elizabeth lifted her head like she wanted to see his reaction. Or maybe she was waiting for him to notice what was possibly the most arrogant smirk he'd ever seen on her face.

"—getting started," she said, finishing his sentence for him.

"Beth." That smirk dissolved into unapologetic desire as she pushed his shorts down, revealing just how hard he was. Elizabeth wet her lips in anticipation, eyes dark and mouth parted, gaze shifting between his shaft and face before, finally, she licked a line from the base of him to his crown. "Oh, fuck."

Instinctively, Luke reached down to touch the back of her neck beneath all that hair. She immediately shifted her attention to his thighs and kissed them slow, flicking her tongue over his bare skin. Torturing him by delaying the inevitable. Every movement was designed to draw this out, to remind him it was her doing this, wasn't it? To show him that the woman who'd once tried to kill him was capable of both condemning him to Hell and sending him straight to Heaven.

"Happy?"

"Mm. C'mere." Luke moved his way back up her body, letting Elizabeth tug him close before she kissed him. No hesitation, no reluctance—Beth wrapped her arms around his waist, tasting herself on his lips and holding him against her. "Not done with you yet, handsome."

"Like me now, don't you?" Luke taunted, earning a nip at his bottom lip. He kissed her until the timer in his head reached zero, then reached for his shorts beside her. "And all it took was a single orgasm."

Elizabeth grabbed her own pants and pulled them close, frowning at her ripped underwear all the while. "I think you know it's going to take a lot more than making me come before I ever get close to liking you."

"That was a rhetorical rhetorical question," he said, giving her one last kiss before Luke moved to sit next to her and tug his shorts on. "You didn't have to answer that one."

Hobbs grabbed his pants and tank top and dressed as quickly as he could. While he did that, Elizabeth walked down to the river, soaking her pants in it before she sat down and pulled them on. Clearly, she already had a cover in mind that would easily hold up to scrutiny. No doubt he was to be the asshole who'd tossed her in the river. Something he'd technically done so there'd at least be no issue keeping their stories straight.

"And that was a one-time deal," she said, returning to the tree as he packed up the cooler and blanket. "You needed to get off, I needed to scratch an itch. If you ever tell anyone I—"

"Oh, that was not a one-time deal."

Elizabeth tensed until he stood up and handed her the blanket. That gaze came to focus on him; her eyebrows furrowed as if she didn't know what was coming next. "Maybe you've forgotten how sex works," she said, "but you don't get to argue with me about how often your dick ends up in my mouth."

"I'm not."

Right on cue, she did that tiny head tilt, studying him like if she stared long enough, Shaw might read his mind. Of course she couldn't. Elizabeth was an open book to him, but that trick didn't work both ways. "You're not."

"If Sam sleeps in her room and all goes well tonight," Luke said, dropping his voice low and bringing his mouth close to Shaw's ear, "I will make you a very happy woman."

"You're going to give me Toretto's corpse in a pine box?"

God, she just couldn't help herself, could she? It was too much to ask that Elizabeth not actively plot how to kill Dom—or wish for his death—like she was writing a letter to Santa, wasn't it? Luke grasped her left shoulder and turned her in the direction of their house, gesturing with the cooler. "Shut your mouth and start walking."

"Oh, by the way, you've got some—"

"What?"

"There's still some me on your face. And try not to look like you just got laid. Right now, you're practically glowing."

Luke snorted in derision and lifted the cooler up onto his shoulder. "I'm not glowing."

"You look a lot happier than you did ten minutes ago."

"No, I don't."

"Hmm," Elizabeth said, following him toward home, "yes, you do."

"Beth, what did I just tell you?"

"Something about you making me a very happy woman."

"You keep running that mouth, I'll be a very happy man instead."

"Oh, I wasn't kidding about the one-time deal. Me getting you off like that? That's never going to happen aga—"

"Dad!"

"Hey, baby." Luke gave a wave as Sam came running toward them. "Let me go clean off and I'll be there in ten, okay?"

"But you're..." His daughter looked at Elizabeth, her hair wet and clinging to her skin, clothes soaked, then let out a giggle. "Dad threw you in, didn't he?"

"Yep."

"Are you gonna kill him?"

Elizabeth glanced at him like she didn't know how to respond, then she shrugged and said, "You want to help?"

"Yeah! Hattie knows how to build bombs. We could ask her to make one. Have you met Hattie yet? She's Deckard's sister and she's a spy. Hattie even kicked Dad's ass once, but he likes to pretend it didn't happen."

"Young lady," Luke cleared his throat, "watch that mouth or there's no pai fala for dessert."

"You made pai fala?!"

"Uncle Jonah did. If you want a slice, you'd better behave."

Sam hugged him, only to turn her head and wink at Elizabeth. "Can you wait until after dessert to kill him?"

"Sure. I need to wash the river off first anyway."

"Alright, baby, we'll be there in ten. I love you."

"I love you too, Dad."

Luke waited until Sam was well out of earshot, practically back at the barn, before he said, "She doesn't know you're a Shaw yet. Didn't think it was my place to tell her."

"Oh, she knows. She's just playing dumb."

"Sam—"

"Magdalene called me their sister last night when Sam was right there at the table. Same thing when your friend in the car called me Miss Shaw. I think your kid knows by now, Hobbs. Hell, she's probably heard a whole lot more than she lets on too. People talk when they think no one's listening and a nine-year-old girl might as well be invisible."

"She's not playing dumb," Luke said as they walked back to the house.

"Fifty bucks says you're wrong."

"I'm not putting a bet on my—"

"You know what?" Elizabeth eased her shirt off and dumped it on the porch then tugged her pants off. "Make it five hundred thousand."

"Beth."

"If you're right, I'll put half a million in an offshore account. Sam won't owe a cent when she goes to whatever fancy college she chooses. You taking that bet or not?"

"And if she is playing dumb?"

"You help me steal Cipher's money and we call it even."

"...Half a million."

"No tax, five percent interest. It'll be three quarters of a million by the time she finishes high school."

Luke shook his head in disbelief. What the hell was he doing? Elizabeth was leading him around like she had him on a fucking leash and not vice versa. Now he was making bets on his own daughter. Jesus. When he finally went home, he was going to have to get his mom to slap some sense back into his brain because Elizabeth had clearly stolen it all when she got on her knees and took all the common sense from his body too.

"Fine." He peeled off his shirt and hung it over the porch railing. "You've got yourself a bet. Any ideas for how you're going to get the truth out of my daughter?"

"One or two."

"Care to share them with the class?"

"You just wait and see."