Faith slammed pots and pans around in the kitchen while she tried to find her back-up gun.
Spy movies had told her that it was always important to have a back-up gun in a weird, but easily accessible place. The problem was? She'd moved so often she had a hard time keeping track of exactly where that place was.
Plus the back-up gun wasn't actually ever going to be any kind of useful, because she REFUSED to keep a loaded gun floating around somewhere in her apartment. So in the case of emergency, she'd either be in her office, with the locked ammunition drawer, In her bedroom with the locked gun case (conveniently hidden under the floorboards), or in the kitchen, with a lost, unloaded gun.
Essentially? She'd be screwed.
That wasn't what was annoying her though - she'd find the gun eventually - it was Nathaniel.
She'd woken after a brief nap on Friday, still in the gym to find him curled around her, hugging her back against his chest, with his chin resting on the top of her head.
She'd wriggled free immediately, and he'd let her go, sitting up slowly. He was still shirtless, which caused her to sit and stare for longer than she should have.
God he was beautiful... Scary and beautiful.
"Why did you do that?" She asked, pulling her tee-shirt back on.
Nathaniel had grinned his wicked half grin and hadn't replied, leaving her confused.
"Ahah!" She exclaimed pulling her gun out from her pasta strainer.
"Interesting storage place for it." Nathaniel remarked quietly behind her.
Faith resisted the urge to squeal like a girl, and instead spun on the balls of her feet and arched an eyebrow at him. He was leaning against the stove, clearly having let himself into the house some time earlier.
"Since when did we stop knocking?"
Nathaniel arched a scarred eyebrow right back at her and said "I did. You were busy having a temper tantrum."
"Was not you lying prat. I was looking for this, and I found it. Yay. Mission accomplished." She lied.
"Yahah. Get a move on, we need to be at the airport in a couple of hours. Bad-tempered hellcat."
"Irritating shit head." She muttered under her breath, heading for her bedroom.
"Distemperate whore." He called back cheerfully, managing to make it sound like a sexy little nickname.
Shaking her head at the non-weirdness of him being in her kitchen, after... Well, actually, after making her come like a steam train.
The non-weirdness in itself was weird.
She heard his softly pad into the room behind her and flicked a glance up at him, before opening the floor gun cache and depositing the gun from the kitchen there. She also grabbed her shoulder holster gun, and the one from her bedside table, locking them away.
Flipping the door shut, she laced the floorboards back where they belonged, and nudged the bed back into place over top of it.
"Clever." He murmured.
"Yeah, well, I learned from the best." She said, standing upright.
Nathaniel leaned back against the door frame, taking her measure. She was tense, but didn't seem scared of him. He exhaled a small breath of relief. He didn't want her scared of him.
In fact? If he was right, she was turned on.
"Faith? Are you packed?"
"Yeah" she said, patting the bag beside her on the bed, giving him a strange look. Of course she was packed. He could see that.
Nathaniel's face lost expression as he became focused on her. He had his killer face on again. Her breath caught in her throat.
"We have a couple of hours though. Why are you here so early?" She asked warily.
He didn't answer instead stalking forward. When he got close enough to touch, she took a step back, turning her face away slightly.
Nathaniel stopped moving forward, but reached up to touch the curve of her jaw with a single fingertip.
"Can I kiss you?" He asked.
She bit her lip. "I'm not... I don't want sex. Not with you, not with anyone. I promised myself..."
He smiled reassuringly. "I know. That's not why I'm here Faith."
"Why ARE you here?" She demanded "Are you trying to apologize? Or are you trying to make yourself feel better? Am I some project? Some
thing
in need of fixing?"
Nathaniel traced his fingers along her jaw, and applied a little pressure to turn her face to him fully. "No. None of the above."
"Then what?! Why are you here?"
"You can't guess Faith?" He asked.
No. No she couldn't guess.
It seemed that all she could do was stand there and stare up at him. Meeting those icy cold blue eyes. Cold eyes that burned warmly for her.
She bit her lip again, and Nathaniel ran his thumb along it, disengaging her teeth. "Be gentle to your lips. They're one of my favorite things about you."
He leaned in to lap at her bottom lip, and Faith held her breath.
"Can I kiss you?"