An Arrangement of Sorts

**This story is just a "tide-over" while I work out some chapters for other tales that aren't ready yet. I'm writing this in my head while I do other, more mundane things. Kinda fun, but I think I'll be back the my more regular stuff soon. O_o

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After a long while, they pulled apart enough to slide their arms a little lower so that they could look at each other while still touching as they sniffled a bit. But neither of them minded much, since it made them smile a little as well.

"Can I please just come home with you, Chris?" she asked softly, "I don't mind if we don't start my job for a day or so. I just, ... I just don't want you to leave me. I guess that I'm afraid that -- "

"I won't disappear, Joss," he said, "I'd really like that. Come on; let's get out of here before Honey decides that she's got to investigate a dumpster. If she gets much bigger, she'll be about tall enough to."

They drove in silence for a few minutes as Joss pet Honey's head over her shoulder. "I really like her," she said, "what kind of dog is she?"

"Uh," he sniffed, "needy. She's needy. When she's not, she's some kind of Great Dane cross. I can see that she likes you too."

There were a few more minutes of the slightly uncomfortable silence between them.

"Where do I sleep, Chris?"

He had to think about it. "I hadn't thought of that. I live in a big old farmhouse, and there are a bunch of rooms that I haven't even gotten around to decorating yet. I guess you can have your pick and we can furnish it. For tonight, you can sleep in my bed and I'll bunk out on the couch in my den. That'll confuse Honey, or at least I'll know what she loves better, my bed or me, since no matter what I say, she ends up on my bed by the morning."

"Have you got a big old T-shirt or something like that for me to wear as a nightshirt?" she asked, her voice growing even softer because she was pushing herself hard to even ask him. "Because if you do, and if it's alright with you, I think that I'd really like it if I could sleep in your bed next to you."

He turned to look at her and she felt herself blush instantly as she struggled to say something. "I just want, ... "

She exhaled, "I just want to know how it feels to sleep next to a man again. I used to feel safe like that and I haven't felt it in a long while."

She found herself smiling a little when he nodded. "Sure, Joss. I know what you mean. I've almost never felt it, it's been years and years for me since I just curled up with a woman. I was struggling because I really wanted to ask you for the same thing, but I didn't know how. I might snore though, I have no way to know. I can say that nobody's ever complained to me about it."

"Well," she said, trying to smile a little hopefully, "I've been told plenty. I can probably snore enough for us both. Just wake me up and I'll go to your couch if I get too bad, ok?"

He shook his head, "It'll be fine. I sure won't mind anyway, and I'm getting used to snoring. That girl there behind you snores like a barn saw."

It made her laugh a little and when she looked down, she saw that his hand was hanging over the end of the center console. She took a deep breath and forced herself to look straight out of the windshield as she reached over to hold his hand. The silence grew a little more comfortable then.

When they arrived at the house, he smiled at Joss and said, "Just stay here for a minute. Honey's going to go a little nuts for a little while. She always does when we get home. It looks to me like she's got to say hello to about everything and then of course, she'll have to pee again."

"That's ok," she smiled, "I think I can understand her." She got out after Chris had opened the door for Honey and the huge hound was gone like a shot, tearing around happily. Joss laughed at her as she watched her go and then suddenly stop to squat down abruptly. Honey trotted back to them and sat down at Joss' feet.

He knew what was about to happen and he tried to warn Joss but it was too late when she pet Honey's head for just a second and Honey leaned against her. She was well over a hundred pounds already and Joss barely had enough time to react.

"Whoa, Honey," she laughed in sudden surprise, "I like you too."

The wind was up a little and Chris looked at the sky. "It's gonna get a little wet soon. I can smell the rain."

The heavens answered him with the first of the approaching rumbles. Chris was surprised when he found the two of them very close to him suddenly. Honey looked as though she wanted to crawl into his shoe. "Come on," he said, "I'm uh, taking it that you aren't all that fond of weather?"

"Lightning, "she nodded, "it scares me to death. I've been like this all my life."

He got them onto the porch and unlocked the door. With the lights on, Joss walked around staring, "This is really nice, Chris."

"Thank you," he smiled, "would you like a cup of tea?"

It made her laugh a little, "What kind of a girl from Georgia would I be to turn down a cup of tea? But do you have any -- "

"I've got Mason jars around here someplace," he smiled as a tease.

"That'd be really nice," she said, a little surprised, "I like mine black with --"

"I know," he held up two fingers over his shoulder as he walked into the kitchen, "Two sugars."

"How do you know all of these things?" she laughed, "Does it say that in my record?"

"No," he laughed, "then again maybe it does, but I didn't read far enough. I've been to Georgia a few times and I was even outside of Atlanta."

He found her several minutes later in his den. She was staring at the fine gleaming veneer on the paneling and the plaques, old photographs and the swords that adorned the walls. "Here, Joss," he said as he held out the Mason jar of tea for her, "Sorry about all the testosterone in here."

She accepted the tea with her thanks, but she continued to stare.

"So this is the sanctum sanctorum," she said with a little awe and also a little humor. It made him grin the way that she'd said it. "I feel like I ought to maybe get down on one knee in here or something. My God, "she said with a giggle, as she looked around her, "I think I've found the Bat-cave, or the command center or something, for damn sure. What's all of this army stuff?"

"I was in the Army Intelligence Corps," he said, "I know that most people think of it as an oxymoron, but that's what I did. I finished up at the Army Intelligence and Security Command in Virginia and then I decided that, ... well I'm in the Marshals Service now."

She walked over to one of the highly polished swords displayed on a fine piece of walnut. The hilt bore a crest and there was a motto, but the lettering was too hard to read in the light. She turned to him, "Your family's insignia?"

He nodded, feeling a little self-conscious, "Yeah. It's been around, as I said. I don't have much of anything to do with my family anymore. I'm sort of the black sheep, for lack of a better term. I think I've been written off the rolls for what I did."

Joss sipped her tea and smiled at him over the rim, "Ooh, you really are the dark knight, then."

She grinned as she saw the way that he tilted his head at that. "Nothing bad, Chris, I just had this idea after I left the diner about you. I kind of saw you that way. It was a little weird, but I really liked the way that I felt about you like that. What did you do, a little too much rape or was it all of the pillaging?"

"No," he shook his head, "I married someone, that's all. They didn't approve of her, and told me that I had to divorce her if I wanted to stay in the family, basically. You could call them all old-fashioned, but that wouldn't cover ten percent of it all."

He sighed, "I've always been an idiot and I loved her, so I refused."

She was shocked, "They tossed you out for that?"

"Well," he said with a small smirk, "there was a bit more to it than that. I uh, "he looked down with a smile, "I said some things, about twenty years worth. They'd have erased my name, but that sort of thing is out of their hands these days. They did make a point of disowning me and there was a bit of furious will re-writing going on for a while. So they don't have anything to do with me now and I don't stand to gain anything if one of the old shits kicks it, but I don't care.

I'd never do something like that to one of my own, ever. Family is family -- or it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be about people that you love and whose blood you share with them, not the tons of money that's rotting in a vault someplace, so I'm sure that they don't see it and they never will, but to my eyes, they have nothing to be proud of in the least.

My mother died when I was fifteen. If she'd been alive when all of this happened, I'm sure dear old Dad would have been wearing his balls for a necktie by the time that she got through with him.

He always adored and praised my big brother, since they're just like each other, but Mom always loved me, and she was pointed about it since Dad didn't really give a crap once he had his hallowed heir. She's the only one that I miss. The rest of them can go fu-"

He stopped himself with an embarrassed sort of smile, "Well, I'm sure that they already do that, anyway."

Joss had to struggle to avoid spilling her tea with her laughter.

"If you think this here is a bit much, you ought to see the house that I grew up in. Stuff like this went on for miles in the Great Hall, as they called it. But I think they've forgotten a lot of what all of this is supposed to be about. They're just playing at being descended from a noble family -- they haven't got a clue about integrity. They just use it to hold up their snooty noses.

So apparently," he said with a resigned sigh, "I am a lower case god, banished and trapped here forever among the swill and swine of the lower plane."

"That's ok, Sir Moreth," Joss said softly, "We're very glad to have you among us." She set her tea down on a side table and walked to him. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him softly for a moment, "We swine know our good fortune when we see it. Thank you for what you're doing for me."

She was about to step back to prevent the awkward moment from dragging out, but he held out his tea off to the side and he held her for a moment longer with his free hand. "I think I'm detecting that I'm in the presence of more than a run-of-the-mill farm girl from Dalton, Georgia."

She sighed with a small smile, "Well, I've got a degree in History and another one in Literature, for all the good that they've done me. I met Bobby during my final year and we got married. I've never worked in either of those fields." She looked at him and thought that she could already see some of his wheels turning in there.

"Wait, Chris," she said, "I know what you're thinking, and I appreciate it, but is there a way that you can see yourself allowing me to do this job that you told me about for at least a little while first? I don't think I even know what's what anymore. You don't have to pay me."

"Yes I do," he said quietly, "this is a real job, Joss. There's no reason that you can't catch your breath and still look for something else."

"We can talk about that later," Joss said, before noticing the way that he was looking at her. "What?" she asked, "Am I growing horns? Already? Aw shoot, ..."

He shook his head, "No. I just had a thought that's pretty dumb, and for me, that's saying something."

"Well, what button do I have to push to find out what it is?" she smiled.

"I was just thinking that to me, you look sort of like one of those, ... ok, don't kill me for this. You did ask. I just see you as one of those nymphs of Greek mythology. It's something about the way that you look at things."

He looked down, "Ok, I don't even know where that came from, I'm sorry."

Her smiling face came into his field of view from underneath and it made him lift his head. She kissed his cheek, "You're a very amazing man. Thank you for that. I was named after one, you know."

She smirked to herself a little, "My Momma used to laugh at me when I was little. She said that Daddy got the name out of some old book from school, and she never ever called me Chloris. She always called me Chloe, every time that she found me running around bare-assed, since I liked that better than wearing clothes. I'm still like that, ... well not as much lately."

She chuckled as she looked down remembering, "If I was outside someplace where I knew that nobody could see me, I always was a bit if a nudist."

The memory passed and she looked up at Chris with a little shock at having made that sort of admission.

He laughed a little, "This place is in the middle of nothing. There are fields that I've got to see about maybe renting out to some farmer to work to get me a little money, but there's also a bit of woods and a pond that a stream runs through, so hey, if beautiful Chloe ever feels the need to sally forth once more, you just go for it, but be sure to check it out first and take Honey with you, ok?"

"I don't even know how that came out of me, it just sort of, ... " She smiled, blushing furiously now, but liking the idea of it, though she'd have to see just what all of this job and housekeeping entailed at the very least before she could see herself traipsing naked through the woods or anything. She thought it might go better, once she knew a lot more about him, if she could maybe take a dark knight along.

"So tell me," he smiled warmly, "whatever happened to Chloe the nymph?"

She looked down, "Well, Momma told me about nymphs one day, though she left out the promiscuous part. She said that they were beautiful nature deities who ran around like I did." She smirked, "it wasn't until later when I looked them up that I found out about that part, but I remember that I still liked the idea of them. Momma used to tell me that I had to watch out for satyrs. When I got my first clue about the bastard that I'd married, she told me that I'd likely married one. Since he drank like a fish and couldn't keep his willy in his pants to save his life, I guess I had to agree with her."

"Can I ask you a question, Chris?"

He sipped his tea, "Sure,"

"I don't understand it," she said, "I've always had a, ... well, I guess you could call it a healthy sex drive, you know? Or at least I thought so. Momma used to tell me that it was important to keep my man pleased, and he'd do the same for me. I almost never told Bobby no. I'd even stop what I was doing to give him a little lovin'. I, ... I guess I'd like to ask you why men do that. Why do they run around?"

He shrugged, "Joss, we all live in this thing we call civilization. We've set rules in every society on how we're supposed to behave, like, we're not supposed to go around killing each other either. But really, it's all just a thin veneer, just like the finish on these walls. Underneath that, it's pretty rough wood.

We're all built for it. It's our nature to seek mates, and that only needs to be long enough for an orgasm or two. Women and men, it's the same thing. It would be nice to have something steady for that outlet, and for that, well I guess nature gave us the capability to love each other as mates. But for some people, the grass is always greener somewhere else, I guess. My ex is one of those -- probably an extreme case," he chuckled. "I'll show you what I mean, if you want."

"Show me? What do you mean?"

"Well, that's if you're up for it," He walked to his desk and opened his laptop. While it booted up, he reached into a drawer and took out a DVD.

"You want to show me a porno?" she guessed, "I've seen them before. Bobby had loads of them."

"Oh, I doubt you've see one quite like this," he said. "Relax, I just want you to see how this works. It's only about four minutes long."

He loaded the disc and it began. Joss watched and he said nothing. When it was over, she looked confused. "I've seen better ones," she commented.

"Oh, I imagine most of us have, but this one is a little unique to me. It was taken in a bar at mid day. The man was a guy from a company that I hired. The reason that the woman looks so shocked is that right at the end, he served her with the papers for her divorce. The woman was my wife."

Joss' jaw dropped. "Really? Seriously? That was your wife and you caught her like that? Holy Cow ..."

"Well, it was a little worse than that," he said, "I wanted to divorce her for years, since she was always gone and only came around when she needed me for money and to keep me hoping that we could just be regular married people and I was stupid enough to allow it to go on for years. We'd go to a hotel and we'd get our rocks off, but to her, that's pretty much all that it was .To me, well, I did that too, but I was trying desperately to show her that I loved her. Have I told you that I've always been an idiot?

I was at that bar right then. She came to ask me for more, and this time, I just set her up so that she'd know that this was it. God knows I tried to tell her for a long time that I wanted out, but she never heard a word. So I did this. I knew that she'd do it, so I just gave her the place and the man. The owner of the bar is a friend and he burned the disc for me from his bar's security cameras."

He sipped his tea and chuckled, "And he had that video feed on every big-assed monitor in the place, maybe ten of them, so everybody saw it happen live. I just wanted to make a point."

"What happened then?"

"I stayed long enough to see that it was happening and then I got up and left. The guy served her the papers as you saw, but by then, I was on my way back to my hotel. Somewhere inside me, I still loved her. I didn't want to see the effect of what I caused -- just like she never stayed to watch what she did to me every time when I'd wake up alone after she'd agreed to just try acting like regular married people. Mine was just a more blatant 'fuck you', that's all. I keep that around as a reminder.

I've had a few relationships, but they never go far. I've been burned too badly. I tried a few times -- even before I divorced her, since I sometimes wouldn't see her for a year or two at a time. But, ..."

He shrugged and walked to the doorway. "Come on, I'll get you that T-shirt that you asked for."

Joss nodded, but she followed him with slightly wide eyes. "I guess there are some people, ..."

"Yeah," he said, "there are. I'm not one of them. I was a young guy and played the field, then I fell in love and only wanted her. Now?" He shrugged, "I don't even know anymore."

She stopped him. "Do you still want to sleep with me? I mean, in the same bed together?"

"Yes," he smiled, "I want to know how that feels again. Do you want to?"

She nodded, "I guess we're a couple of misfits, huh? Think there's hope for us?"

He sighed, "God, I hope there is."

Joss stepped closer and kissed him softly. He smiled but looked a little confused.

"We're friends in a day," she said, "maybe we can hope. In the meantime, let's sleep on what we seem to have between us today. I need your help and I'm beginning to think that you need mine too. So we need to care about each other, I think." She passed him and went to the bedroom.

After showing her where the bedroom was, Chris wandered out onto the porch. He stood sipping his tea and thinking as the clouds all around the horizon rumbled their threats. He wondered just how this was going to work, but he wasn't all that concerned. The two of them clearly liked one another. He found that he was incredibly attracted to her and that made him wonder if it was just that she was here -- a lovely woman who had landed in his life, well, after some help that he'd had no choice in himself but to provide. He thought about her and her situation and he felt for her.