In the Dark of Night (2/4)

He survived until morning without another dream, which strengthened his resolve to ask Sam out. It still took him two hours after he got to work to get up the nerve to go into her office and actually do it. Finally, he decided he might as well get it over with, so he marched up to her office and knocked on the door.

"Hey, John, what's up?"

"I was working on my report on the scene yesterday morning, and I couldn't remember if there were four knife wounds or five."

She gave him an odd look, but answered anyway. "Five. Is that really why you came in here?"

"Uh, well...." He gave up his pretense. "It's the reason I came up with," he admitted. She waited patiently for him to continue. "Okay, the real reason...I was wondering if you'd maybe have dinner with me tonight?" Might as well get it out of the way.

Sam looked confused. "You needed a ruse to come ask me that? We've had dinner...oh." She suddenly realized why he was nervous about asking this time. "You mean, like a date?" He nodded as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, all but squirming as he waited for her answer. "Oh." She frowned. "I can't tonight. I have plans with Chloe that I can't break." He felt relief mixed with a little disappointment, until she spoke again. "But I'm free tomorrow night."

He was convinced he hadn't heard her right. "Tomorrow?"

"If the offer still stands after today?" she asked a little uncertainly.

He blinked. "Uh, yeah, of course it does."

"Good." She smiled. "What time?"

"What?"

"What time tomorrow?"

"Oh! Uh, seven okay?"

"Sounds fine."

"Oh. Okay, good. Thanks." He turned around and walked out of the office and back to the desk without even realizing he'd left. She was supposed to reject him, but she'd accepted. *Now* what was he supposed to do?


"Red is definitely your color."

She tilted her head to one side. "Funny, I always thought black was my color."

"Right now, I can't think of anything in black that would be better than that red dress."

She slowly unzipped the back of the dress, a teasing smile playing on her lips, and let the dress fall in a red puddle at her feet, revealing the sexiest black lingerie Victoria's Secret had to offer.

"Black is definitely your color."

She laughed. "Somehow I thought you might agree."

He crossed the small distance between them, reaching around behind her to unhook the lacy bra. "I know better than to argue with you. You're always right."

"Is that so?" She pulled his head down to hers for a leisurely kiss. "In that case, you're wearing way too much clothing."

"See? Right again." He started working on his tie, while her hands took care of the buttons on his shirt. They paused for another kiss, then her hands moved to his belt buckle. She lowered his pants and briefs deliberately, crouching close to the floor to pull them away from his feet and remove his socks. She stood up just as slowly, brushing the front of her body against his as she rose.

He wasn't feeling nearly as patient. He shoved her panties, garter belt and hose down in one quick motion, standing back up and reclaiming her mouth before she even managed to kick the garments off her feet. He picked her up exactly as she was standing, her feet barely off the floor, and carried her, stopping when they fell onto the bed. She surprised him by rolling him onto his back and maneuvering herself so she was sitting on his legs.

For a moment, she smiled down at him, then she slowly bent over to kiss him again, her breasts tickling his chest as they brushed against it. Several long, drugging kisses later, she left his mouth, moving down his neck with her lips, taking a detour to his earlobe, then continuing down his neck and chest. She stopped to torture his nipple in a way that he'd used in the past to make her half-crazy, letting out a low, husky laugh when he gripped her hair and gasped.

She began moving lower still, her tongue alternating with her lips as she examined his ribs one by one, lower and lower until--

John awoke with a start as his alarm went off. He grabbed the offensive machine and threw it against the wall, then sat in bed for several moments, trying to catch his breath.

"Alaska," he muttered. "I'll move to Alaska. Far away. Very cold. That might work." Of course, first he had to get through this damn date. And before that, he had to get through the entire work day. He threw one pillow at the far wall, then the other. When that didn't help, he climbed out of the bed with an exaggerated sigh and headed for the shower.


A new case kept him busy for a good portion of the day. He stopped long enough to reschedule with Sam for eight instead of seven, thanks to the case. She made it out of the office before he did, so he didn't see her again until he knocked on the firehouse door at just before eight.

She opened the door, and for a moment he forgot to breathe. He was used to seeing her dressed for work, and even though she wore short skirts at times, they were still rather business like. Now she was wearing a short black dress made of some flimsy material that he swore he could almost see through. Only thin straps covered her shoulders. She'd put her hair up, revealing far more of her neck than he'd really wanted to see, considering the recent dreams. Her earrings were just long enough to draw attention to her ear lobes and the shadowed areas below them, areas no one would think about fantasizing about unless they happened to be him at that moment.

"Hi." He heard the hoarseness in his voice, and he mentally kicked himself. He had to hide his reactions to her better or she'd be running for the hills in less than five minutes. And he had suddenly decided that was the last thing he wanted her to do.

"Should we go?"

"Oh, yeah. After you." He held the door open, then waited while she locked it. He opened the car door for her, checked to see that she was in before shutting it, then hurried around to the other side of the car, just like a normal date. He was about even with the driver's side headlight when it hit him. This was a normal date. A normal date with Sam, which made it anything but normal.

He was never going to survive this.


Dinner was almost normal. He could almost imagine this was any one of a number of dinners they'd had when they'd been working late on a case. Almost. Except that the restaurant was on the outskirts of the city, nowhere near the office. And Sam didn't look like she'd had a hard day at the office. Not that she ever looked bad, but instead of that end-of-a-long-day look, she had that beginning-of-a-long-night look.

He shoved that thought out of his head. He needed to show himself that this was just Sam, and that she was the same Sam he'd worked with all this time. Although, considering that the Sam he worked with all this time was the one he was having dreams about to begin with, he wasn't sure that would help. Still, it was worth a try. He was almost out of options, and if this one didn't work...well, he wasn't quite ready to try Alaska, but it was looking better by the minute.

She could at least try not to look so damn sexy. It wasn't easy to look sexy while you were eating steak, but she managed. He wondered briefly if the field office in Alaska saw much business, because that's where he would be if he couldn't stop thinking of her blonde hair and creamy white skin on his black sheets, biting her lip while he--

"Hey, where'd you go?"

He blinked back to reality. "What? Oh, sorry, I drifted there for a minute."

She gave him her patented Sam smile, one corner of her mouth quirking up higher than the other. "Am I boring you?"

"Not at all." *You don't know the half of it.*

"Good. I have to admit, I'm not quite sure what to say. The usual first date topics are pretty much out the window, since you know almost as much about me as I do. It's kind of bizarre, in a way."

"If you'd rather not do this, we--"

She laid her hand on top of his, halting his speech. "I didn't say it was bad, just odd."

"I know what you mean. I was actually surprised you said yes," he admitted.

Her brow furrowed. "If you didn't think I'd say yes, why did you ask? Why risk it after all this time?"

He thought of a dozen smooth lines he could use, but they were all too fake. Besides, he didn't want a line, not for her. He decided to go with something close to the truth. "Because I wanted to?"

The Sam smile returned again. "Just like that?" She tilted her head and studied him for a moment. "One of these days I'm going to figure out how your brain works."

He hoped it wasn't while he was thinking about her, or she might have him locked up. The images that sprang to mind made him decide that 'locked up' was a phrase he should stay away from in connection with Sam. "I hope not. I like being an enigma."

"That much I have managed to figure out."

"Really? What else have you figured out about me, Dr. Freud?"

She shrugged. " Oh, a few things. A girl can't give away all her secrets." She had left her hand lying on top of his, and her thumb had been slowly moving back and forth across his. It was driving him crazy, but at the same time his hand stubbornly refused to move. He was grateful when the waitress showed up to take their desert orders, because it forced him to take his hand away from hers.

They managed to have a normal discussion with only a minimum of flirting while they waited for desert. He was even starting to feel like he could handle the rest of the evening, until she started eating her sundae. Between the way she licked her spoon and the ideas the hot fudge was giving him, he figured she'd be lucky if he managed to be able to find his way back to the firehouse without getting lost.

"Aren't you going to eat your desert?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." He tried to concentrate on food. His food. He was okay as long as he didn't watch her. Of course, that meant not looking in her direction, which wasn't really possible. Still, he managed to talk to her while still keeping his distracting thoughts to a minimum, and somehow he even made it through desert.

He paid for dinner and they left. On the way back into town, he was relieved and unhappy at the same time. Relieved because the evening was almost over, but unhappy for the same reason. One side of his brain wanted him to get as far from Sam as possible before he was totally gone and Alaska was his only option. The other side wanted to get as close to Sam as possible and thought that he was doing a great job so far. He wanted the two sides to get together and make a decision, preferably one that involved much less stress and at least a few nights of dreamless sleep.

He killed the engine when he pulled up to the firehouse, then ran around the car to open her door. When they reached the front door, they looked at each other in an awkward moment of silence, not sure what to do next.

"I had a great time," Sam said finally.

"Me too."

She looked down at her hands for a moment, then back up at him. "Maybe we could do it again sometime?"

"I'd like that. Are you busy Friday?" What the hell had possessed him to say that?

Sam thought for a moment. "No, I'm free."

*Oh, good. Another night of torture and fun.* "Great. Dinner again?"

"Sounds good to me." She stood there for a second, then she reached up and kissed him. One short kiss before she pulled back and looked at him, her eyes wider than usual for some reason he couldn't quite figure out. He held out for at least two seconds before he lowered his head and kissed her a little more thoroughly than she'd kissed him, but not nearly as long as he would like. Part of him was pleased to see that her breathing was rather unsteady when he pulled away, but the part planning a trip to Alaska was not happy at all. He ignored that part.

"See you in the morning."

"Yeah. Goodnight, John." She disappeared into her fortress, and he headed back to his car, excited and scared and confused as hell. Oh well, if nothing else, he'd always have Alaska.


They were both on the bed. He kissed her, then stood up. "Where are you going?"

"I'll be right back." He left the room and came back a minute later holding two objects in his hands, taking care to keep them far enough away that she couldn't see them in the bright moonlight. He placed one object on the far side of the night stand, and sat down on the bed. He held up a bandana fashioned into a blindfold, then placed it over her eyes. After a second, she realized where he was going with this and lifted her head so he could tie the cloth. "Too tight?" She shook her head, a hint of a smile on her lips.

He reached for the other object and pulled off the lid, then placed a small amount of the liquid on his finger. His finger hovered near her nose long enough for her to smell the chocolate before he placed it on her lips. She pulled his finger into her mouth so she could lick the chocolate before slowly releasing his finger. He placed a little more chocolate on his finger and returned it to her lips, this time leaving only a small amount there and making a trail down her chin. He leaned down and licked the chocolate off her lips, then slowly cleaned up the rest, returning to her mouth for a kiss before reaching for the bottle again.

This time he didn't bother with his finger. He poured from the bottle, leaving a slightly uneven trail of chocolate from her neck to her waist. She gasped as the cold liquid hit her skin, then sighed, her stomach contracting in anticipation. Slowly and methodically, he licked and nibbled his way from one end of the chocolate line to the other and back again, refusing to be hurried despite her pleading sounds. Again, he returned to her mouth, kissing her thoroughly before he pulled away and once more reached for the bottle.

He poured another line of chocolate along the same route he'd just traveled, then drew a line from the tip of one breast to the other, taking great care to circle each nipple with a generous amount. He worked his way down the middle line even slower than before, then he followed the trail leading to the ring of chocolate surrounding one nipple. He ran one hand lazily up and down her chest and stomach, and he felt her heart rate increase rapidly when he began to lick the chocolate off in a circular pattern, making sure he only got a small amount on each pass.

He was on his way to the other side when the phone woke him up. He held back his curses as he grabbed the cordless. "Grant," he growled into the mouthpiece.

"Wake up, we have another one."

Sam. Someone up there really hated him this month. "Where?" She gave him the address. "Meet you there," he said before he switched off the phone and slammed it down on the night stand. He checked the clock by the bed. Five am. They would just have to wait until he had a shower, or he wouldn't be responsible for his actions when he got within ten feet of Sam.

End Part Two

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