Sweethearts

"Hey Reese," he began again, "wanna know what kind of fruit I brought?"

An annoyed "no" was her only response.

The smile crept over his face as he told her anyway, "cherries - beautiful, plump, ripe, fresh Bing cherries." Her groan was worth it. "I knew this girl who used to come into the bar who could do the most amazing things with cherries..." his mind wandered taking his tongue with it.

"The bar you owned with Tom Seybolt?" she inquired incredulously. "The bar you owned with the man whose family you went to jail for killing?"

"Yeah, only I didn't kill them," he shot back quietly and winked.

"I know that Crews." She was exasperated with him in general, but with this in specific, "but why would you want to remember anything about that?"

"This girl…" he noticed her eyes darkened as he said it (maybe it was the way he said it), but her eyes became unreadable, almost as though she was jealous. "This girl could tie a cherry stem in a knot with her tongue, Reese. With only her tongue." He was obviously impressed by the dexterity shown in the bar display of this unknown woman from his past.

Dani rolled her eyes in faux agony.

"Can you do that?"

Her eyes narrowed as she considered his direct dare and replied, "just give me the damned cherry, Crews."

"Are you sure you want the whole thing because I think the trick only requires the stem and if you had the whole thing that would qualify as eating fruit…." He trailed off as her eyes narrowed and her jaw clenched. "I'll just give you the whole thing."

He looked through the bag until he found the perfect cherry. It was so deeply ripe it was nearly purple and the stem was long and flexible. He secretly knew Reese could do the trick – most girls over 14 could do it, even Rachel could probably do it, but he did so love to tease Dani. He reflected that her competitive streak sometimes made her an easy mark as he gently laid the cherry in her upturned palm.

She threw her head back and the way she eased the cherry into her mouth made his mouth water and his pants feel too tight. She was toying with him. She liked that too. She bit into the cherry and made a satisfied pleased groan that made Charlie's temperature rise. Then she grasped his free hand and he watch in rapt attention as her eyes smiled while her tongue did it's work inside her hot little mouth. Her lips twisted in a wry, dangerous and seductive smile.

He so desperately wanted to kiss her that he licked his lips and leaned, but she shook him off. The mirth in her eyes was undeniable as she opened her mouth and produced the cherry stem tied neatly in a knot. Charlie was speechless and tried to hand her another cherry just to watch the event again.

She laughed at him. "Nice try, but we are on surveillance and you are supposed to be watching that house, not me. And no I'm not doing that again," she joked.

"I'd rather watch you do just about anything," he confessed. "Than watch that house. I'd rather watch you do that again, or fold clothes, or sleep or chew on that pencil at work – poor little pencil," he mused.

"Yes, well that's not what we're here for. Just eat your cherries and be quiet, Crews."

He let out a shuddering sigh and rotated his shoulders to shake off the powerful effect she had on him. He sat the bag between them and quietly, but solemnly offered, "You can have more and I promise I won't watch." She smiled at this.

He could be so very sweet when he wasn't annoying the shit out of her.

They sat in companionable silence eating cherries and dropping the pits and stems out the window as the night wore on. Once or twice their hands brushed as they reached into the bag at the same time, but on those infrequent occasions each time their touch lasted longer than necessary.

What began as incidental became deliberate, a brush because a caress and once again he found himself hot, not because of the temperature or lack of air but the proximity of the woman beside him. Damn her he thought, she has to know what she does to me. When the last of his patience burned through, he unbelted himself and leaned into her space, she didn't even try to get away, she grinned like the Cheshire Cat. "Why do you tease me like this?" he whispered across her lips.

"Because you like it…" she murmured against the smooth skin of his lips, "and because you started it…" she taunted.

"I wanna do things to you…" he held back as he felt her breathing increase.

She grabbed him by the tie and dragged him to her, "shut up, Charlie. Just stop talking already. Just shut up and…" she never got to finish her breathless chiding because he slanted his mouth across hers, wound his fingers into the hair at the base of her neck and kissed her senseless. The things he could do with his own tongue proved pretty impressive and it ended when she pushed him away in a need for air.

"Okay, stop…" she said, "it's getting too hot in here."

"So now…you ready to admit I'm hot?" he joked but forced himself back into his own seat and straightening his tie.

"Those words will never come out of my mouth Crews." She shot back. "Now you just buckle your seatbelt and stay on your side of the car." She warned wiping her lipstick from his mouth with her thumb. He captured it in his teeth and she hissed "Crews, stop." He grabbed her hand and kissed the pulse point at her wrist before releasing her.

"Okay, you win," he laughed.

"I always win, moron," she shot back.

"One day you're gonna bite off more than you can chew, sweetheart. I just hope I'm there to see it," he teased.

"Did you just call me sweetheart?"

"What you'd prefer something else? Tell me what you want me to call you?"

"What's wrong with Reese? ….or Dani?"

"Nothing's wrong with Dani…" his voice got lower and it dragged them both somewhere dangerous, "but some of the things I wanna say to you…do to you… Well, let's just say they are things I can't say to Dani or Reese, definitely not Reese."

"So you aren't just using some catch all phrase so you won't scream out some other girl's name during sex," her reply was full of fun and a part of her he really wanted to see more of.

"We're gonna have sex?" he whispered the last word like it was a secret.

"Not if you keep it up Crews?"

"But also not if I can't keep it up," he joked at the double entendre she'd thrown.

Her grin was devilish. She chuckled softly. "Okay, this one you win."

"Sweetheart?" she shot him a dark look and a growl.

"There are no other girls." He promised and just her eyes smiled.