and me."
"You aren't about to make a pass at me, are you? Cause if you are, I need to sit down first."
"Go ahead and sit down," he offered.
She stared at him in open disbelief. "What?"
"Are you going to sit down? Or should I just continue?"
"Please, continue. I've changed my mind. I feel better with my back to the wall."
He nodded, "You were right, in the meeting. I knew some shit was going down, but I couldn't figure out what. But it wasn't going away. We needed a Pres, and we needed it now. So when you stepped up, I figured we would have you for a week, and whatever it was that was coming down would reveal itself. Then, we would have an emergency session, get someone real into this office, and take it from there."
She suspected all of this from day one, but having him lay it all out for her like that got her ire up fast. "My panties are melting," she sneered. "Do you always use pickup lines like that? No wonder you're still single."
He shrugged in resignation. "I deserve that, probably deserve even more." He seemed to be collecting his thoughts before continuing, "After that, you held your little war council and started fucking with all of my plans to lay low for a while; to wait to see what we were up against."
"That would have worked out well," she snarled.
He nodded his agreement thoughtfully. "Probably would have ended us."
"Are you going to get to the part where you try to get my pants off soon? Because I can't wait to shut your ass down," she snapped, her voice stiff and restrained.
"It's coming," he nodded.
"Good, keep going then."
"After that, you kept at it, changing our tactics, meeting threats we couldn't even see, and over all, doing one hell of a good job at keeping our asses out of hell," he told her.
"Yay me," she hissed.
"Last night, when the ambush hit, you had it pegged. Solid. Saved at least five lives. I know you aren't sure how you knew that was coming, but I woke up this morning with a lot of faith that you are going to figure it out."
"Well, I haven't," she told him with a disgusted grimace.
"You will," he told her.
"And?"
"That's it."
"My pants? When are they coming off?"
"I lied."
"Asshole," she said, but couldn't help a smile coming to her lips. "A coward on top of that."
She walked to her desk, and sat down in her chair. "Wouldn't work with us anyway."
"Yeah? Why's that?"
"Because you're a controlling bastard. You wouldn't just have me and enjoy the ride. You would have to own me, and I'm not going to be owned. By anyone," she told him, not believing she was having this conversation with him, after all these years of pent up lust and fantasy. "So, I can't take that chance, especially now. You're the best man I got. I can't lose you. Not over something I can easily avoid."
"You mean like sex," he gathered.
"Yeah. Exactly like sex.
"That's too bad, because I really got a thing for you."
"You— you what?"
He nodded, "For a long time too. But, well, you were Jim's niece. I wasn't bold enough to go there. Not with your history of ‘fuck'em and forget'em.’"
"So, because I'm a slut," she surmised.
He shrugged, "Never thought of you that way, but definitely because you mean something to me, and I knew I wouldn't mean much to you."
"I can't believe this conversation is getting weirder," she murmured and reached for her cup of coffee. "So, just having sex is out, because..."
"I don't know. Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm a controlling bastard. Definitely because I wouldn't want to just have sex and then carry on like it never happened."
"You would want me at home, doing little house things and waiting for you to take me for a ride," she grimaced.
"Oh hell no," he said, actually looking appalled.
"I've seen the women you ride with, Liam, and that is exactly your type," she told him.
"Yeah, but they ain't you," he