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This was clumsy and he’d never been that.

JJ sat that uncomfortable chair – did they do that on purpose in all newspaper offices, like they did in cop shops? Make ‘em as uncomfortable as possible and maybe they’d talk – feeling like his size 9s were suddenly clown shoes. Stomping all over everything, kicking it aside without any control over it. Nope, that was bullshit. He’d had control and it’d been a conscious choice to go against his orders. Saying he didn’t was a cop out and he didn’t do that any more than he did clumsy. Forceful, yeah, purposeful, dogged. He’d take it all, but not clumsy, or evasive. If he did something, he’d put his hands up.

And if he’d necessary he’d choke out the apologies his actions deserved, as though they were as dry as the pastries in half the bloody places he’d looked since he’d come to town. Would it kill ‘em all to chill their dough before they shoved their croissants in the oven? Bone dry pastry wasn’t an apology.

Even the good stuff wasn’t much of one.

If he sunk much lower in his seat, his chin would’ve drilled a hole right through that hollow where his collarbones met. He could practically feel the vibration of Destiny’s anger rolling off of her, all that tension crackling in the air like thunder would crack if she let it go at him. They said lightning never struck twice, but they didn’t say how fucking miserable that first strike was, if you managed to survive it. Right now it didn’t look like his career in Mystic Falls would – not unless the Courier was willing to take on the Daily’s scraps of course.

Trying to clamp down on his own nerves, JJ settled his hands in his lap, his jiggling leaving them twitching as he laced them together. Fingers knotted tight, thumbs digging into his knuckles as he tilted his head slightly. With the way her cheeks were heating – slowly rising towards a Vesuvian red – opening his mouth at all might not be a good idea. He wasn’t gonna have his journalistic scruples raked over the coals though, like he was some glory hunting twat whose only aim was getting his headlines on the front page. ”Two sides to every story, but theirs is the wrong side,” he adjusted. That was the gist of it, weren’t it? They weren’t lying but somehow what they’d told him about Grey Maddox and his murderous tendencies was wrong. Like there was a good reason for people to turn up dead around him.

Forget the gist. Fuck. JJ sucked in a deep breath, little lines springing up between his brows as he looked at her across the stretch of her desk. Lucky had been right then, Destiny had maybe known more about it all than he’d given her credit for and he’d been right too – want to have a baby, not be having a baby. That took the wind out of his sails, slumping him down an inch further in his seat as that sick feeling sum higher. ”I think …” he started before he paused. ”Sometimes it’s the people closest to us we go blind to.” Probably not something she wanted to hear, especially from someone whose business it wasn’t but he wasn’t about to believe that this woman condoned killing people whenever you felt like it.

There was that implication again – he was the idiot. He’d listened to bullshit from multiple sources and he was too dumb to see what Destiny could. JJ peeled apart hands that ached now, holding them up to ward her off. ”I didn’t say that. I don’t think you’d do any of that.” She was smart, she had some vision, and she definitely had more backbone than some would’ve given her credit for but this was love and people in love did stupid fucking things.

She had no reciprocal sort of love for him. Even the respect he might’ve had coming in had been ripped into little shreds like he imagined every copy of this paper she could get her hands on would be. JJ hovered there on the edge of his seat, shoulders tense beneath his shirt as she smiled sourly. ”There is one that comes with the job and I take it seriously.” Whether or not he took other parts of the job seriously were debatable, but that, that he focused on and didn’t like thinking he’d fucked up. He’d appreciated his sources, sure, but neither one had flashed him a little flesh just to blind him. He'd tried to do the right thing and it was backfiring on another wave of tears.

JJ cursed under his breath, tugging at the emptied bag to see if he could fish napkins out. He pushed one across the desk, anticipating getting his hand slapped the other way. A huff of disbelief rolled out, leaving him poking the desk top with a finger. ”Why on earth would I have a bias towards him? If you’ve got an explanation. Give it to me. Like they did. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but you can’t tell me that and keeping it all locked tight at the same time.” Evidence. Destiny had demanded it, he’d given her what he could, but not the sources she wanted to drag out of him – if he was gonna turn the whole thing around, surely he deserved the same.

Just as he deserved the fucking guilt that swam up the back of his throat and almost spilled out onto her desktop to really do away with the fucking croissants. JJ clamped his lips together against it, biting back a response that surely wasn’t gonna help anything. Destiny was already breaking on this and it’d been his hand on the hammer that’d put the first cracks through her again. ”That wasn’t my intention,” he spoke hoarsely. His blow had sure as hell landed fucking wrong, like an inept DIYer hitting everything except the fucking nail.

Worry started to claw through the nausea, hardening the lines of his face. He’d always picked apart what people said, trying to find the actual truth in the subtleties but doing that now left him uneasy. Safe Destiny might’ve been but if he’d ruined that safety with his so-called fucking stunt what did that actually mean for her. Fuck, fuck, fuck. The words echoed through his head as he slid back, propping his elbows on his knees to drag his hands through his hair. More blame on his shoulders, ready to choke him.

Blue eyes, marred by that fleck of brown, rolled up to look at her while Destiny looked at her computer. JJ licked his lips, let a long breath out through his nose while he gripped the short crop of hair hard. ”I can …” Write the retraction if you give me the other half of the story. That wasn’t just dancing on the knife edge, it was trying to do the splits on it. Wasn’t like he had much safe ground with the threat of firing shoved at him. The Courier it was then, since he wasn’t about to crawl out of town with his tail between his legs leaving his brother and whatever fucking trouble he’d find himself in behind.

Or not.

JJ dipped his head, half hiding that face she couldn’t stand to look at. Somehow it felt like he was getting off easy for supposedly ruining Destiny’s life. She wasn’t all razor blades though, not like her boyfriend. A slap on the wrist on the surface, but what was going to come with that sucker punch later. He pushed himself up out of his seat slowly, body stiff, like that blow could come at any moment. It did, just a little swing, as those tear filled eyes met his and the ghost of the child she’d lost floated there between them. ”I’m already packed. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting the second chance.” He wasn’t about to say thank you, like there was anything to be grateful for in the situation.

Slipping around the arm of the chair, JJ started to head for the door, but he stopped halfway there. His lips pursed, his expression flattening back to those sympathetic lines. ”I really am sorry for your loss. Nobody deserves that, not even him.” Maddox had some sort of justice coming to him, but no matter what the situation was the sins of the fathers shouldn’t be laid upon their kids. He nodded slowly, like he was accepting the slap on the arse he’d taken for this, and slipped out. Two minutes later he was heading out of the building, the whispers and judgy glances of everyone else in the office following him like the cloud of stink that should’ve been wrapped around Maddox.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI (The End) * Word Count: 1470

The first time he’d been dropped from a newspaper, he’d gone out and found the shittiest looking place possible in Ealing. A dozen drinks in and he was numb enough that he hadn’t felt it when he’d swung for some smug fucker’s teeth, not ‘til the next morning when he’d woken up on a bench in a park with some tramp rifling through his pockets, the remains of his liquid dinner on the gravel path beneath him and two of the bloke’s cracked teeth stuck in his knuckles. Luckily there hadn’t been a knock on his door later that day to do him for assault – he was pretty sure he’d just been a mouthy see you next Tuesday until the bloke had gotten tired of it and had swung – he hadn’t stuck around long enough. Keeping a solid head on his shoulders with each termination since had served him well, JJ guessed it was probably only a matter of time though.

By now Destiny had probably broken the story to her partner. A little warning of what was gonna end up on every breakfast table in Maddox’s glossy shithole. If he hadn’t gotten it wrong, and he was pretty fucking sure of that, then JJ Hart had probably gone on the top of his list, written in tiny psycho letters, waiting to be crossed out when he’d vanished like the rest of them. Punishment – which he’d take for the upset he’d caused Destiny, and whatever had happened to the baby (it wasn’t him and he’d keep telling himself that ‘til he fully believed – at Maddox’s hands.

There weren’t much point in getting his arse kicked twice, even if another scar or two – should he survive – would just add to his mystique. Might as well just drink, steeping his stinging pride and slightly deflated confidence in a barrel or something. Retreating home to lick his wounds after. Tomorrow he’d regroup, digging more into that shit bag while he toed the company line and sat around his apartment, twiddling his thumbs until Destiny could stomach him back in the office again. Alright, it’d be more like getting himself sozzled on a daily basis and desperately trying to find himself another tell-all that’d get this town all lit up.

At least the booze was free flowing at home, there were no arseholes looking for a little power trip withholding on him. No ugly mugs all pruned up with whatever internal turmoil had them puckering harder than he was. Maybe he shoulda gone to Campbell’s after all, at least it just took a smile to have the owner turning on the charm there. JJ smiled acerbically at the giant swinging one at the end of the bar, mouthing his own ’might fucking die of thirst before you’re done’. ”Just the fucking way,” he muttered before he took another look at tall, hairy and broody next to him. A flex from him might’ve have a decent pair springing into view. Woulda made a man feel inadequate if he was entirely lacking an ego – which was not his problem.

The sour had definitely sunk deeper than his voice. It creased his own brow, had him tensing in anticipation for the answer to his question to be a fist in his face. This bloke probably wouldn’t have any trouble picking shards of his teeth out of those ham fists come morning. The thin lips didn’t moved, but one foot did, kicking his stool over. JJ scrambled off of it, almost going down as it clattered down on the floor, his feet caught in the legs. Son of a bitch. He kicked it back, his chin coming up like he could make up for the handful of inches sourpuss had over him. JJ cackled, puffing out his chest. ”It’s called being friendly, mate. Although I’m guessing that’s something you ain’t ever had. I was gonna say if I had a pair like yours I could flashed ‘em. Muscles don’t make up for friends though, do they?” Nope, they just meant when that swing came it was gonna hit all the harder. Maybe Maddox wouldn’t have to paste him across the floor after all.

Not looking for a fight lately didn’t mean JJ didn’t know how to fight. Hit ‘em first and hit ‘em dirty and you ended it pretty quickly. Tilting his head like he was suddenly apologetic, he went to extend his hand to the bloke – his left. It hung in the air about level with those manly pecs, fingers spread. A lure that got snatched away as he swung. Not up at that Desperate Dan jaw, low, below the belt, literally, then up at that jaw, the sudden ripple of sound only adding power to the swing. ”Shoulda had brothers mate, they’d have taught you how to share, and knocked the knob out of you,” JJ sing-songed up close as he got a hand in that rat’s nest of hair and yanked down. His knee was coming up, aimed right at that blob of a nose, when the hands grabbed him from behind. Not ready to stop yet, JJ fought against them, a ferret’s agility wriggling him in their hold, giving him the momentum to kick up going for maximum destruction, not a little pain now.

Tagged: REMZI DURMAZ * Word Count: 880

He hadn’t needed to play any games to get Leah to talk – not that he was above some negotiation so to speak – but with his wife, it had been one from the start. His old man would’ve called playing it silly buggers, but could you really call it that when it was a perfectly reasonable way to get the story you’d started to piece together? Men and women had been experts at it since Eve had first talked Adam into taking a nibble on the apple. You twisted each other around and as long as there was mutual understanding with it there weren’t a problem. Leah had got it, had seemed to enjoy that bit of the night just as much as she’d enjoyed throwing Maddox under the bus. Now, JJ, figured, he’d have had to be an idiot not to take advantage of it.

Same here.

A little bit of spice to the game, a move to sell the whole thing as the big bollocks himself had finally made his appearance in the crowd. At least he’d seen him coming, the bunch of stuffy old buggers seeming to part like the waves for Moses himself. The shoulders of the black tuxedo he wore a shield against Maddox’s shifty eyes. JJ ran his tongue over his lower lip, chasing that taste of champagne and woman as the charmer slipped back into place. All husbandly tenderness while the real topic here was a little spicier. For her part his wife was squeezing his forearms lightly, like they were still in that precious honeymoon period. ”Makes a man a little … gun shy,” he re-emphasised. Maybe it had her drawing some lines too. Lines sprung up between his brows for a moment. Maddox was like the cleaver that thumped down in warning seconds before it swung for your neck.

Maybe it was dangerous telling her what he knew but it was like catching flies, you got more with honey than you did vinegar. JJ was pretty sure the kiss hadn’t buttered her up any, there were other ways though. He grunted low in his throat at her snort, blue eyes narrowing faintly. ”What would you call it then?” he asked hoarsely. Maddox had been sniffing around Destiny long before the bump had appeared, it didn’t mean the baby hadn’t been an extra click on the cuff around her wrist though. Bringing a baby into things always complicated them, it pushed you to do things you’d been on the fence about – the General’s first wife was proof of that.

He could’ve pulled her back as she reached for his hand, making it clear just where he thought Destiny’s position lay in this but it would be idiocy to cut his wife off, if he was about to get lucky here in more ways than one. JJ wormed the tip of his tongue into the pocket of his cheek as she took the glass and downed most of it again. This was about the point a loving husband might’ve suggested she cool it, but fuck that. They’d apparently just get fruity instead … while she whispered every sordid word in his ear.

JJ beamed a smile at an old biddy who looked prudishly over her shoulder at the two of them as bustled off of the makeshift dance floor and towards the bathrooms. She didn’t look back, but he did as they reached the door, curling his hand around the edge of it for a moment to look up and down the hallway behind them. ”I weren’t gonna leave it open,” JJ snorted as he locked it. He wasn’t the sort to get his kicks that way, no matter how much an adrenalin junky he was at times. While his wife checked the stalls, he checked himself in the mirror, unbuttoning his jacket and smoothing a hand down the front of his shirt.

Shuffling back a step as Lucky slipped in, JJ snorted again at the idea Destiny knew and wasn’t letting on. He sniffed faintly, tipping his head to one side. ”When she’s paying the cheque that keeps me here, there’s a bit more give and take. I’ve watched her at work, she don’t seem the sort to be aiding and abetting.” That wasn’t even bringing the baby into it. He was protecting the unborn child as much as he was Destiny, and if he did have a soft spot for his boss, so fucking what.

Ooof.

Reaching for her hand, JJ lifted it, like he was studying her knuckles for some sign of his teeth marks on them. That one had been a smack in the mouth … or lower if his ego was attached to his balls. ”That’s your husband you’re maligning, love.” Fake husband, who was happily using that connection to get himself another source for the story. He’d be able to triangulate it, compare stories enough to discount anything that sour grapes had tossed in.

JJ pursed his lips, puffing out his belly a bit with the deep breath. He settled a hand on it for a heartbeat before he crowded back into he. Hands skimmed down to her hips, boosting her up into the edge of the marble vanity. The corners of his lips tipped up. ”I guess you’re not afraid of the target either. I’m more of a journalist than you’re giving me credit for. I protect my sources. No names, nothing goes in that can’t be verified by at least a handful of people, so there’s no chance of Maddox going after any sort of reprisal.” Of course he could come straight to the man who knew exactly who’d said what, but didn’t mean he’d dob any of them in. ”I can pay,” he said roughly – with the trust fund of course. Fingertips that were more calloused than most of the old codgers working the story desks at the Daily dropped to skim over the warm bare skin of her thigh. ”Or, I can do my husbandly duty and we can use the second oldest currency in the world.” The same as he’d paid Leah with, although he’d gotten the impression that getting revenge alone would’ve been enough for her.

Tagged: LUCKY CHRISTMAS * Word Count: 1034

It woulda been better if she had just kicked the shit out of him. He’d take a broken rib or having to sit on an ice pack for a week to take down the swelling over a broken woman any day of the week. Spoiler alert: juice and some phenomenal berry croissants hadn’t done a damn thing as an apology.

JJ slammed the car door shut after himself, thumbing the locks closed before he headed for the club with his head down and his heart the only part of him that felt like it’d gone ten rounds with Rocky. He wasn’t used to an ounce of guilt over what he wrote – they were exposés for a reason – this time it had been a sledge hammer wielded by one of those delicate little fists.

Maybe he should’ve believed a little more of what Lucky had told him at the benefit, instead of clinging on to the belief that Destiny and the baby she’d lost were the real victims in all of this. Might’ve made it easier, at least up until the moment her flat stomach had slipped into view next to his desk. All bets were off then, no matter what part Destiny’d had in it all, the baby had been innocent and it getting caught in the centre of all of this was a bloody tragedy.

The burning desire to seer the mental image of the look on Destiny’s face out of his head had his throat like the Sahara as he slid up the side of the queue outside the Ruby Slipper. It wasn’t the first time he’d been in there, although usually it was just in search of a little female company, tonight wasn’t about a quick tumble in the sheets, or a quicker fumble in the alley at the side of the building, it was about the booze. A whole shelf of it if he had his way, maybe enough to have the control he had over his mouth – and he did have a little self-control, contrary to popular opinion – slipping and some arseholes ugly mug appearing right at the end of his swinging fist.

Shooting the bouncer a sour smile, JJ slipped in ahead of some brunette whose acid green dress stopped high enough up her thighs that a sneeze would’ve had everyone seeing what she’d had for breakfast. She squawked, although that stopped when he cut a look in her direction. There was no interest there on his part, not unless the liquor did nothing for him, but there was on hers. He hissed out a sigh and shouldered his way through the crowds in the bar. ”Bad boys ain’t all they’re made out to be love. Go find yourself a vicar instead, at least they’d interested in a little redemption.” It was doubtful the crooned words would get back to her with the music pouring out.

The rumble of the speakers washed over his skin, a thudding bass beat that would rattle your bones if you stood too close. Now it was a blessing, he wouldn’t hear a word any limpet in the place tried to whimper in his ear. JJ ducked across a corner of the dance floor, eyes squarely on the glitter of bottles behind the bar. Top shelf, fucking bucket of slop under it, as long as it had some alcohol in it, he didn’t care. Not tonight.

Like he was Moses pulling off a sodding miracle, the crowd at the bar parted as he approached. A petit brunette held her hands above her head, what looked like at least four or five glasses clutched between them, and shimmied past him. JJ skirted her, diving straight into a pocket that contained an empty barstool. For a minute the hairy bugger who usually manned the bar up here was there on his right, serving another brunette, one with pale eyes – although they weren’t cold in the freeze your balls off sense, they glittered with something hot as she took one look and dismissed him – the next he’d vanished like he was David Fucking Copperfield pulling off the trick of the century.

JJ stood on the rail of the stool, elbows planted on the bar to lever himself up. The guy was down at the other end, already serving a bunch of trust fund fuckheads. ”Anybody ever tell you how shit a bartender you are mate? Oi. Ah, come on.” There was a faint whine to it, a desperation that might’ve pushed him to slide over the bar if he already had a couple percolating in his system, but in an attempt at professionality, he’d kept all of that out of his office at the Daily.

Flopping back down, JJ cursed. He could’ve thrown something, an empty glass off the bar would’ve done, btu that also would’ve been the quickest route out of here, at the end of one of those knuckle dragging overly long arms of the bouncer on the door. ”You think I’d get better service if I had her cleavage to shake at Cousin Itt down there?” JJ griped to an equally hairy lump sitting next to him. Maybe him and Itt were brothers, if they were that’d sealed the shitty deal on his night. He frowned at the bloke, studying that rough-hewn mug. ”What’s put that smile on your face?” Now that was the dumbest fucking move he could’ve made. Blokes like this one didn’t typically cry on your shoulder, but every now and then you got one ready to spill and with his luck, this’d be the time.

Tagged: REMZI DURMAZ * Word Count: 931

Being dragged around the army’s stuffiest dog and pony shows had been a misery, but they’d been a training ground for things like this. The misery of immediately being tagged as General Hart’s boy, patted on the head like a well behaved puppy when he kept his manners, his dad’s fingers biting in his shoulder as a reminder to watch his tongue when he wasn’t. That same question over and over and over – are you going to be just like your father when you grow up? God no, although JJ knew none of them had wanted to hear that. That sort always wanted their sons to enlist just like they had, stuffing themselves into uniforms, dancing straight towards Sandhurst, ‘cause who wanted their kid in the trenches. Their daughters now, JJ cast a glance aside as his ‘wife’ took a gulp from the glass he’d handed her, they were meant to be married off to blokes just like their sons. Keeping it in the family, instead of bolting outside of it first chance they’d got.

This little shindig was skulking back just as far as he had to, no closer, although his old man would see it as some sort of proof that he hadn’t run as far as he’d liked to think he had. Head dipped close to his ‘wife’s’ ear JJ had pushed that distance at her opinion of him, as malformed as hers had been. Close enough to start giving him bloody hives if he stayed too long.

He scowled at her now, the delicate line of her cheekbone, the twitch under that pearl like curve of pale skin as her teeth clenched down on whatever popped into her pretty little head at the idea of biting. JJ gave a light grunt, his lips pursing til that smile took on an edge of something sharper. ”For now,” he said, a faint hint of grumble to his voice. The closest thing he was going to get to a proper mouthful in this town at the moment was the big balls himself – Grey Maddox. Blue eyes narrowed faintly at her, his head dipping a hair closer. ”Just what sort of career do you think’s really got teeth?” His own gritted then, his lips a twitching frame around them. He doubted there was much room for whatever it was in a town like this.

JJ sighed at the thought, cursing his brother lightly. He had followed in the old man’s footsteps and that still weren’t enough for the General’s liking. Now he was washed up here somewhere, keeping shtum … and out of trouble, unlike his younger half brother who was looking to stick his finger into every hornet’s nest he could find in this ugly little fish bowl.

At least he had company in it, sympathetic company who pressed warm against his side. His thumb trailed over the curve of her hip as he snorted at her mutter. Maddox did reek, although he probably had that scent of bullshit covered up with something expensive. He had to have some sort of charm to have his boss curled up around him, tight enough that his little tell all was probably gonna have Destiny slapping a termination of employment notice on his desk, after she smacked him round the chops. ”Enough that you’d wanna share?” he crooned. He hummed lightly in question, sweeping the crowd for some sign of the bloke … or Destiny, as the waiter came crawling through the crowd towards them.

The shudder that ran through her had him running his hand further up her ribs – a husband warming his wife up in the chill of this mausoleum. If she really was his wife he’d have taken that grin as far more promising, maybe even tugging her off out of sight, some broom closet in here somewhere to celebrate his luck in just who’d agreed to put up with his bullshit. As it was, not-Catia was suddenly his shield. Hands newly full, the cool glass pressed to the small of her back as he dipped his hand. Not to her ear this time either. JJ felt the brush of her fingertips through his hair, the tingle it brought running down his neck and waking parts of him up he hadn’t expected to have to employ tonight. She tasted like the champagne, sweet, maybe a little fizzy before she drew back and caught a glimpse over his shoulder of Maddox.

JJ had the good grace to wince faintly. He brought his free hand up to cup her cheek, his thumb gently tracing the line of her cheekbone – wise enough not to go smearing her make up, he was better trained that that. ”I wouldn’t call that ill-mannered. It’s a compliment if I can’t.” She hadn’t said no, hadn’t kneed him in his delicates or threatened to rip anything off. Swaying faintly, JJ pouted before he snorted. ”Dipped mine into his woman? I don’t think I’d still be strolling around town if I did. People who piss Maddox off have a tendency to do a midnight flit, if you get my meaning.” And never be seen again. He hadn’t taken those sorts of liberties with Destiny, maybe he respected her too much to do that.

There she went again. JJ frowned faintly as she tipped straight into giving him a hint of what Leah had. Little images of Maddox overlaid on top of one another, filling in just enough to have him pissed off that he couldn’t see more yet. ”You know what he’s been up to,” he said matter of factly. ”And that the baby’s got his Mrs tied in to whatever he’s doing.” Destiny hadn’t been involved in whatever had happened to Maddox back home, in fact their paths didn’t seem to have crossed until Mystic Falls. ”How about we forget the dancing and find a quiet corner to talk things through. Those evil things are exactly why I’m looking at him. She, as you called her, doesn’t seem to have a fucking clue what he’s up to … and she needs to. I get it on the front page of the paper and at the very least he’s running out of town with his tail between his legs.” Leaving Destiny broken hearted, but safe at least. A kid like that was better off growing up without a dick of a dad in the picture.

Tagged: LUCKY CHRISTMAS * Word Count: 1067

Bullshitted connections was how most people got themselves some upward mobility in the army. You pulled on those tenuous links to move up, or sideways if you had to slide out from under some super shady shit. JJ had watched his old man do it a half dozen times, General Hart’s abilities tended towards the particularly greasy. He could’ve said he’d learned from the master but he’d surpassed him years ago. The General wouldn’t have thought to slip into something like this uninvited – the bastard would’ve had an invite in the first place, but that was neither here or there – he might’ve charmed her though.

JJ’s lips curled into an automatic smile, shoulders rolling under the tuxedo jacket he wore at the question she avoided his statement with. His fingers squeezed hers lightly, his nose wrinkling as he leaned in far enough that he could avoid raising his voice and letting everybody into the place in on their secret business. ”Not in the Biblical sense of course,” he admitted, po faced, as she pressed in closer, her hand slipping from his to press to his back, the other there against his stomach in a way that had him sucking in a breath. ”Let’s say I prefer avoiding frostbite when I can, ‘specially in delicate places.” The ice maiden Maddox had employed had certainly been an effective gate keeper, not an ounce of warmth in her for him to go to work on. Unlike this one.

The hum that rolled out of him was low, considering, until it broke off with a chuckle. This one was spicy, like a vindaloo at the Rajdoot, hot enough to take the roof off your mouth if you weren’t careful. JJ studied her profile as she looked out at the room. ”Well, when you’re half dust already you’ve gotta go for what reflects on the inside, hey? Dusty, out of date, decrepit, and just rich enough to pay for the good stuff.” It was how his family had gotten the blue blood in their veins to start with and it was the ones who’d had too much fun who’d put a dent in the finances. It explained by the General was tight enough to make a duck’s arse look the size of the Bermuda triangle.

Money had never bothered him half as much. The trust fund was there, a good bloody thing when your employment opportunities came and went like the sodding tides. He’d been to enough of these things thanks to that fancy upbringing to know to get his hands on the champagne pretty fast, he wasn’t gonna be tossed out the door completely bloody sober. ”Make the most of it, love, they push out the boat for these things. It’s easier to get the big bucks out of the walking dead if you loosen ‘em up first.” JJ whistled low, tilting his head as it looked like not-Cat was trying to do the same. He grimaced faintly, setting the empty glass back on a passing tray, snagging himself another while his untouched glass was offered up to her.

JJ sipped now, brows hitching above the rim as he looked at her rather than the zombies trundling around in here. That china doll profile was deceptive, the cupid’s bow lips capable of cutting as surely as her tongue. ”Oi, less of that love. There’s the tedium of writing the obits for this lot, and then there’s the sort of news you get your teeth into … and I do like nibbling at things.” The last was said in a drawl that trailed off into a bright smile. He dipped his head then, eyes focused on the delicate shell of an ear as he spoke into it. ”I’ll let you into a little secret. His nibs who’s throwing this ain’t exactly my biggest fan…” And neither was her sister. Fuck.

Had the shit hit the proverbial? Nope. JJ cackled at her description of her sister. ”A truer word’s never been spoken,” he agreed with a hoot. ”Guess that explains where you pulled the name up from.” Swallowing the last of his champagne, JJ let it roll around on his tongue for a moment as almost-Catia snagged a couple of them devilled egg things off of one of the passing trays, stacking them like she had practice in how to strip a buffet dry.

Lifting his hand, JJ waved that bloke off but he did help himself to the next wave behind, tiny toast points with caviar neatly piled atop. Maddox wasn’t pulling his punches here. ”With your sister as his guard dog, you might not get within sniffing distance of the dipshit. He’s the one I’m here take a gander at. You know anything about him? Oi, mate!” Spotting the waiter with the tray of drinks JJ wiggled two fingers towards him. ”How about we take those out on the dance floor and while we’re getting … better acquainted …we have a little talk about Maddox?” The offer dripped with honey sweet as the champagne, the smile he aimed at her pure innocence. Not that there’d ever been an ounce of it in him.

It disappeared when he saw the crowd part and that same smug mug beamed across the room to someone just on the other side of them. Busted, fuck. Smooth as you like, JJ snagged two glasses of champagne from the now reachable tray and held both glasses at the small of her back as he turned into his company and bent his head to kiss her and pull his disguise back up all at the same time.

Tagged: LUCKY CHRISTMAS * Word Count: 936

Nah. He wouldn’t say he lived a charmed fucking life. He got close to it at times though.

Disaster could’ve come calling for him tonight. The beefy hand of one of those knuckle dragging security guards who’d bracketed the door like bouncers outside a Walkabout Inn on a Saturday night clapping down on his shoulder. JJ imagined he’d bounce down them fancy stairs well enough, popping up at the bottom all scuffed up but still as complimentary about their inbred ancestry as they told him to politely go fuck himself. But …

He saw her look at him, a quick dart of those green eyes that had him grinning all the harder. Now, this one wouldn’t have the strength to knock him on his arse even – despite the fact that he weren’t exactly Herculean himself – but there was some backbone there. A little line sprung up between her eyebrows. Confusion? Calculation? Consideration of how she was gonna call bullshit right back at him? A little from all three … oop, no. Well now.

JJ folded his fingers around hers, squeezed lightly as he brought it up to his lips with a wink. A loving little touch that women of a particular sort woulda melted at. Now, she wasn’t that sort, swooning at a little attention, but she weren’t batting him away either. If they weren’t being watched he’d have whistled as she fell right into the role he’d needed her to without a word. A woman after his own heart. JJ chuckled lightly, shooting the woman behind the table a sideways look that had just a little wince to it. ”What are we like, eh? Both of us would lose our heads if they weren’t screwed on.” That sort of couple, utterly believable apparently, when they were both talking out of their arses.

The town might still have been holding on to its secrets but he’d found enough of them out already to know that she was not Catia McKenna. Catia had been the blonde bulldog at the front door of the Grey Haven who’d stopped him from meeting his nibs. JJ let his gaze rake surreptitiously over his company as the dragon here tried to shut them down. Whoever she was she had just as little access to the place as he did.

A sigh rolled out up from JJ’s chest, an apology written all over his face as Catia lobbed ice chips in the woman’s direction. Your screwup, not theirs, something to be figured out in those harsh whispers that’d undoubtedly fly around two minutes after they got inside. ”Do they ever get these things right?” he bit out wearily. He shook his head, a twitch of his mouth shooting that apology back over his shoulder again.

His own stream of excuses would’ve carried on thickening if she’d really been a guest, unprepared to do a bloke a solid and get him in. In the end he might’ve fallen on his sword, leaning in to whisper in that spray tanned ear, tolerating the cloying cloud of Poison that rolled up off of her and tossing out the offer of a night out of there after. It would’ve meant taking more than one for the team but he’d have scrambled out before she turned full octopus on him.

Not-Catia strolled alone beside him, heading for the double doors that led through into the museum proper. Ladies and gents in their black tie best glided in and out of view beyond them, not a single one turning in their direction as JJ chuckled down at that smirk she tipped up at him. ”I’d say we both were … you ain’t Catia McKenna.” And he hadn’t slipped a ring on the fourth finger of her left hand either. JJ shrugged his shoulders as he tugged her in with their joined hands. Dipping his head, he hummed lightly. ”You saying gate-crashin’ a shindig like this ain’t any fun?” he asked lifting his brows. Most of the time it wasn’t. Dusty artifacts on display, equally dusty old codgers paying up big bucks for more dusty shit to go on display. A never ending circle of dust transfer.

As they stepped into the open space of the museum’s grand foyer, JJ reached out with his free hand and neatly snared two glasses of champagne off of a tray. He smiled like a naughty schoolboy trying to convince his mum he hadn’t snuck out of class to have his first cigarette behind the bike sheds – all saccharine innocence and wide blue eyes. ”I’m here for a story, you know, for the local papers. What’s your excuse for bullshittin’ your way past Elvira out there?” Was this gonna be the real story here? One that’d shine the light on every woman in this town who was looking to stick a shiv in the back of the boss’ bloke.

Tagged: LUCKY CHRISTMAS * Word Count: 812