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They decide to fly out to London not long after handing over the tusk to the Ministry of Culture, splitting ways with Sam at the airport.
“I'll say hi to Scully for ya,” he says to Chloe, sharing a mutual look of understanding with Nadine before he takes off to his own gate.
“Well...” Chloe says, resting a hand on the handle of her trolley. “That's that, I suppose.”
Nadine laughs, the sound of it easy. Carefree. Chloe could get used to hearing it. “Let's get through security first,” she says. “Grab a coffee after, ja?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
The whole thing goes off without a hitch. Nadine's hard case is checked into hold quick and easy, after which they themselves go through the lines and the small hassle of unpacking half your suitcase, and then putting everything back in its place after.
It feels mundane with everything that's happened in the past few weeks, and Chloe welcomes the change of pace. It's not how she imagined her journey back... mostly because she didn't plan on anything beyond finishing the job. Nadine seems to be her polar opposite in that department, as she was able to arrange everything with two phone calls. It's admirable.
“So how much do I owe you?” Chloe asks once they leave Starbucks, drinks in hand – an espresso for her, and an iced vanilla latte for Nadine. She'd expected her to be more of a, taking it black type of person, but there's a lot she doesn't know about the woman. By now she should know not to presume too much.
Nadine gives her a curious look. “Niks,” she says, then gestures at some couches where they can sit and wait for their flight. “Consider it a gift.”
“That's awfully generous of you.”
“You split your part with Drake, and considering he won't do it, let me show a little gratitude,” Nadine says. “You did save both our asses.”
Chloe shrugs, winching a bit when the movement aggravates the bruises still there. “Wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you, china,” she replies.
In all honesty, Nadine probably saved her more than the other way around, and if it weren't for Chloe, she wouldn't have been put in danger in the first place. At least, not with this job.
“Shut up and enjoy it, Frazer,” Nadine says, punctuating her words with a gentle shove against Chloe's shoulder, careful enough not to risk spilling Chloe's coffee.
Still, Chloe plays along, grimacing and rubbing her shoulder with her free hand. “Careful with the goods there, Ross.”
Nadine laughs. “The goods? You're – you're the goods here?” She snorts. “Fokkoff, Frazer.”
---
It's a nine hour flight. A ten hour flight, really, and even then it's much faster than the travelling Chloe did to get to Asav’s hide-out. Still, the airplane is packed, and even though this isn't her first, tenth, or even fiftieth flight, Chloe's thanks is a little breathless when Nadine offers to switch seats so she can sit at the window.
She feels a bit silly, acting like this in front of someone who has seen her scale ruins and take jumps that could definitely kill her if she misses a ledge, and tries to find a way to explain it without having to go into detail. “It's a – ”
“Control thing,” Nadine says, cutting her off. She looks at her, her eyes more gentle than they usually are. “Got it.”
“Mm.”
“You can grab hold of me if it gets bad.”
“Thanks, love.”
---
London is a bit like home. Then again, when you travel this much, almost any place can start to feel that way when the definition of home is something more than a house. Chloe even finds herself longing to go on the tube again, which must be nostalgia speaking because who would miss that? But Nadine leads her towards the taxis, which isn’t too bad either.
She sits in the back, while Nadine sits in front, instructing the driver how to reach the hotel. Her phone buzzes, and it’s Nate messaging her.
Nadine Ross?? How are you still alive?
First contact in months and of course it’s because of what Sam must’ve told him by now. Chloe grins at her phone, putting it on silent. She’ll respond later.
The hotel Nadine picked is nice and quiet, by which she means, actually nice and not the cheapest place she could find online. It isn’t over the top either, no golden embellishments or statuettes in sight. It’s just… normal.
Their room follows expectations, having two single beds, a sitting area with an unlit fireplace, and a bathroom. The paintings on the walls show a variety of landscapes, all of them rather vague and without any obvious landmarks, clearly picked for their easy-on-the-eyes compositions and colorings. One might even call them boring.
“So, what brings you to London?” Chloe asks as she takes off her coat, hanging it over the back of a chair.
Nadine opens the closet, inspecting it before going over to her hard case. “I live here,” she says.
It takes her a moment to find her words again, because that can’t be right. “In a hotel?”
Taking the hard case and putting it at the bottom of the closet, Nadine looks over her shoulder, one eyebrow raised. Chloe takes a step back from the chair and gestures at the room around them, trying to get across that this is all she has to go on, and there are people who actually live like that.
Nadine seems to understand her, somewhat, and sighs. “I prefer not to mix work and family,” she says, testing to see if the closet doors can still close properly.
“Family?”
“A figure of speech.”
“Ah,” Chloe says. She leaves her trolley be at the moment, instead taking the time to check out one of the beds. “So you don't have a loving child and husband waiting for you, somewhere.”
Nadine snorts and Chloe can see her push the hard case further into the closet with her foot. This time the doors do close. “No.”
The mattress bounces slightly when Chloe sits down on it. The bed itself is higher than the ones she usually sleeps on, and the sheets are clean. Or at least, white.
“I can go, if you prefer to be alone,” Nadine says, having only now taken off her coat, still holding it in her hands. “Although... I would not mind spending some time with you.”
“We've been attached at the hip for some time, thought you'd have seen enough of me by now,” Chloe says.
“Alone. With no guns, or Sam Drake.” It comes out a little too quick, a little too honest, and there's a moment where Chloe can see Nadine reach the same conclusion, and Nadine shakes her head. “You know... like you said, it's not often you come across a woman in this field of work,” she says, but it comes out a mess of words, her accent more pronounced.
Nadine Ross, nervous? That's a first. It's not hard to see what's really going on, not with the blush that's rising on Nadine's cheeks, and how she can't seem to quite reach Chloe's eyes anymore.
Chloe shapes her mouth in a silent oh.
You fancy me.
The realization hangs between them, silent, daring either one to act on it.
“I can still leave.”
“No,” Chloe says, smoothing out the sheets on the bed right next to where she's seated. “Stay.”
“If you're sure.”
There's been a tension between them ever since... gods, there are so many moments it's hard to pick just one, but it's been growing for a while and maybe if Sam hadn't been there, this conversation would have happened days ago.
Although, it was hard to get a read on Nadine. Up until now Chloe had written off all tension as something coming from her side exclusively. It wouldn't be the first time like that with another woman. The line between gals and gal pals is a very vague area, one where it's easy to blunder and make mistakes.
Women touch and flirt with ease, she finds, but when it comes to actually doing anything more than talking...
“I'm sure,” she says, and looks up at Nadine, who puts her coat on the other bed and steps in closer, hands at her side in loose fists.
The bed dips when Nadine sits down next to Chloe, pulling one of her legs onto the mattress, a triangular shape laid down between them. A distance Chloe can already imagine crossing, but Nadine holds onto her ankle with both hands, slumping in on herself just a bit. Just enough to seem smaller than before.
Nadine opens and closes her mouth several times until she shakes her head slightly, looking away at the bed on the opposite side of the room. “I'm really bad at this,” she says with a smile that's more nerves than anything else.
“You're doing just fine.”
“I didn't think it was mutual.”
“Neither did I,” Chloe says, and look who's being too honest now? She hovers a hand over Nadine's leg, slowly setting it down above her knee. She catches Nadine's sharp inhale and waits, studies her face carefully, the light flush that's creeping down her face and neck, disappearing into the hemline of her shirt.
There's something fragile there, a vulnerability she's seen before in Nadine's eyes, in those moments where the job was put in second place. Like when she decided to go after Asav's bomb, to stop him even if it would cost her her life – and Nadine had followed her, despite everything.
She's heard the rumors of Nadine Ross, the mercenary who knows when to walk away, unlike many of the stubborn dickheads out there. Nate has recapped his encounters with her, and although they were on different sides at the time, there was always an undertone of respect to his stories. How she refused to waste any more time on a treasure that killed so many people, no matter how great it was.
The Nadine Ross that accompanied her onto a train with a bomb seems like a different person in comparison.
She can still see the bruises from Asav's hands in Nadine's neck, and knows she isn't much better off herself.
They almost died.
Chloe reaches out with her other hand to touch the side of Nadine's jaw, her thumb brushing along her cheekbone. Then, she moves her hand further back, until the tips of her fingers are touching the hair at the back of Nadine's neck, and she can feel Nadine's pulse where part of her hand touches the skin.
Nadine allows Chloe to pull her forward as she leans in, touching their foreheads together. She traces the sides of Nadine's nose with the tip of her own. “Why are you still here?” Chloe whispers, and watches Nadine's eyelids flutter shut.
“I couldn't let you go,” she says, and it's enough for Chloe to kiss the top of her lip, her cheek, her jaw before finally reaching her lips, and Nadine pushes back into it, her hands finding Chloe's hips and holding on.
Kissing a woman is different, it's something she has missed while dating men. Despite all the muscle, Nadine is soft to the touch, her smell less overpowering up close than, say, Nathan Drake's. Not that she prefers one or the other outright.
She pulls Nadine's lower lip into her mouth, biting down on it for a second and dragging her tongue alongside it before moving on to Nadine's neck, biting and kissing and licking until she finds a spot that makes Nadine moan softly from deep within her throat, her hands squeezing Chloe's hips.
“Can I touch you?” Nadine asks with an unsteady voice, and the moment Chloe nods, even before she says sure, Nadine's hands are on her, one at the back of her head to pull their lips together again, the other touching the side of her breast, kneading it.
It's hard to say who's at fault, but one of them shifts their weight and they topple over onto the bed, breaking the kiss.
Chloe groans, rolling on top of Nadine and pushing herself up on her elbows. “Maybe we should take off our shoes before going any further,” she suggests.
Nadine looks at her with glassy eyes. “Right, ja,” she says, and they sit up to do just that.
Without unlacing them all the way, Chloe pushes her boots off her feet, unlike Nadine who is actually taking care with removing her footwear. Chloe rests a hand on her upper back, using a light touch to find the hook and loop closure of Nadine's bra. Might as well give her a hand.
She hooks a thumb behind one end of the closure, then slides one end over the other using her second- and middle finger. Nadine gives her a side look, catching her in the act. Sharp. She once undid Nate's belt and fly without the man noticing.
Chloe shrugs a shoulder. “Didn't want to make you do all the work,” she says, teasing. “Looked like you were struggling.”
A quirked eyebrow is her reward as Nadine takes off her other shoe. “Isit? Wearing too much for you, hey?”
“I'm just sayin' I'd like to see more of you, love.”
Nadine pulls her shirt off over her head, revealing the heavy duty training bra underneath, still mostly in place. The straps interlace at the back, above the closure. Double security. Nadine smirks at her as she rolls her shirt's sleeves off her arms. “You've seen me in my underwear before,” she says, and Chloe realizes she's staring.
She shakes her head. “It's a very nice bra.”
“Amazon,” Nadine says and, really? It isn't tailored with kevlar or whatever Shoreline prefers to use? Her surprise must be visible because Nadine adds, “Like a normal person. I can show you, sometime.”
“Okay,” Chloe says, lowering her lashes to match her voice when she touches Nadine's inner thigh and says, “for now I'd like to see it on the ground, I think.”
Nadine's breath hitches. Her skin flushes as she pulls the bra off as well. “Better?”
“Much,” Chloe purrs, pressing her fingertips against Nadine's sternum. The woman moves with her until she's lying down, head resting on the pillow, Chloe on hands and knees above her.
She leans down, kissing the pink scar that runs from Nadine's neck to her collarbone. She hasn't heard the story behind it, but it can't have been pretty. A sign of Nadine's strength and resistance, otherwise she wouldn't still be here.
Her breasts are a smaller than expected and fit perfectly into Chloe's hands as she takes hold of them, shifting her body weight onto her elbows. She looks for the spot on her neck from earlier, grazing her teeth over it as she pinches Nadine's nipples and brings her knee up, pushing it between her legs.
Nadine jolts with a gasp, hands grabbing on to Chloe's upper arms. “Jissis, fok,” she curses, and Chloe doesn't need a translation to know she's on the right path.
She rubs her knee and thigh against the seam in Nadine's pants, alternating how much pressure she applies, and Nadine pushes back, sticking to the rhythm Chloe has set for them.
“You like that, huh?” Chloe asks, leaving a trail of kisses as she finds her way back to Nadine's mouth, parting her lips and slipping her tongue inside.
Nadine moans into her mouth, then pulls back, her cheeks aflame. “Let me show you how much I like that, Frazer,” she says, voice rough, and she reaches between them, grabbing Chloe by her belt loops and tugging up until she complies, sitting atop Nadine's middle, a leg on either side of her.
Resting one hand on the zipper, Nadine slides her thumb underneath, stroking firmly. It's been awhile since someone else touched Chloe, maybe longer than she'd like to admit, should anyone ask, and she moans, tilting her hips into Nadine's hand.
“Eish!” Nadine laughs, stroking a little longer before stopping to undo the button and zipper of Chloe's pants. “That good, hey?”
“Oh, you have no idea,” Chloe breathes, grinning in return. She slides down the side of the bed and takes off her pants after Nadine gives them an impatient tug, and hooks her thumbs behind the edge of her underwear. “On or off?” she asks.
Nadine waves a hand. “Do what you want, I can work my way around it.”
“Can you, now?” she says, getting back on the bed. “Maybe you should show me.”
Tapping her shoulders to indicate where Chloe should move to, Nadine helps the shuffle of bodies along by moving her arms through under Chloe's legs, and then she's pulling Chloe forward, catching her slightly off balance.
Chloe reaches out with a hand and takes hold of the headboard. When she looks down she can only see half of Nadine's face, the lower part of it obscured by her own body, but the woman is smug, so very smug. She's acutely aware of how open this position leaves her, having forgotten all about what it was like.
Her clit twitches when she feels Nadine's hot breath on the fabric of her panties, noticing how they are clinging to her cunt, and then Nadine takes hold of her ass with both hands, bringing her in close. She gasps when Nadine's mouth presses open kisses to the fabric there, when she nudges her nose against the part here her labia split and reveal the hood of her clit.
Nadine moves her head to the side, to give some love and attention to Chloe's inner thigh, and it's hard not to sigh in disappointment even when her mouth feels so good there, too.
There's a bit of awkward fumbling going on while Nadine slides the part of her panties that covers her crotch to the side, but then her tongue is back, licking a long stripe across her sex, ending at the hood of her clit.
Chloe shudders, holding onto the headboard with both hands. Nadine's tongue circles her clit, and god, this is definitely not her first time with a woman. A firm flick of the tongue makes her thighs quiver and toes curl, and her eyes flicker shut as she moans.
She aches, longs to be filled with something, anything, and when she opens her eyes again she finds herself looking into Nadine's, and she can't look away. Nadine tilts her head up slightly, hands squeezing her ass, and then her tongue plays around the edges of her opening, almost slipping inside but retreating at the last second.
“What's this now?” she asks, her voice high and heady with arousal. “Payback– ?” She cuts herself off with a whimper, Nadine choosing that exact moment to enter her, her tongue stroking her inner walls, setting her nerves on fire. “Don't stop – !”
Nadine doesn't, instead thrusting her tongue in and out, and Chloe finds herself bucking into the movements, riding Nadine's face. She can feel as much as hear Nadine hum, a sound of pure satisfaction, and knows the woman has her exactly the way she wants her.
Her head is warm, her vision swimming at the edges as pleasure keeps building inside her. She's getting close, she can feel it, but she doesn't want to come before showing Nadine the same amount of attention. She knows herself. After a long day like this, all it takes is one good orgasm to send her to sleep.
“Okay,” she says after enjoying it a liiittle longer. “My turn.”
Nadine looks at her, face flushed and chin completely wet. “What do you mean?” she asks when Chloe moves away. “Did you come already?”
She can't help but chuckle, feeling a little lightheaded. “You would've known if I did, love, believe me,” she says, leaning down lick the side of Nadine's chin before kissing her, open and wet and with the taste of her on their lips.
Adjusting her panties as she goes, Chloe hops off the bed and takes the pillow from the second bed. When she turns back around, she finds Nadine pushed herself up on her elbows, wiping her chin with one hand as she watches Chloe closely.
“Bed's too small, no way I can eat you out the way I want without slipping off the edge,” Chloe says and savors the moment Nadine's eyes widen and her mouth goes slack.
She drops the pillow at the foot of the bed, pushing it further into place with her feet before leaning over and pulling Nadine down towards the edge by her legs. The woman lets out a shriek, unprepared for the sudden move.
Their crotches are almost touching, with Nadine's legs hanging off the edge on either side of Chloe's hips, and Chloe undoes the fly of Nadine's pants. “You're gonna have to pass me that pillow, though,” she says, nodding to the one still lying at the top of the bed.
Nadine looks at her, eyes still wide and with, somehow, even more color in her cheeks. “Bladdy hell, you're serious.”
“'course I am, sweetheart. Hasn't anyone ever gone down on you?”
“Not like this, no,” Nadine says, voice strained. She hands over the pillow and lifts her hips so Chloe can slide it under her bum.
Oh, but that's a shame...
She reaches an arm under one of Nadine's legs, her other hand gripping her hips, and then pulls them flush together, grinding up against Nadine's crotch. “Let's change that, huh?” she says, squeezing her hip before thrusting against her.
“Ah – verdomp –”
It's exhilarating to see Nadine's face screw up, to see her bite down on her lip as if to keep herself at bay. Chloe releases her leg only to slip a hand between her pants and underwear. It's warm, damp, a heat radiating out from her core, and Chloe runs her fingertips against the fabric lightly, following the line there.
Nadine bucks into her touch, cursing again when Chloe removes her hand completely. “Gonna make me beg for it, mm?” she says, frustration shining through and Chloe leans down over her, kissing her stomach.
“No, love,” she says between her administrations. Maybe she should make her beg... not right now, though. Making sure she's got a good grip on Nadine's pants and underwear, she sets one of her knees onto the bed, throws one of Nadine's legs over her shoulders and leans in, pressing forward enough to lift Nadine's ass from the bed.
Nadine moans, hands fisting the sheets while Chloe pulls her pants down in a quick move, taking a step back to take them off one leg entirely. She doesn't bother with the other leg, instead using her now free hand to knead Nadine's mound.
Her middle finger is already wet from just touching her. She runs it through the slick, pressing inwards. Nadine's body quivers under her hands. “Oh, sweetheart,” Chloe coos. “You really enjoyed having me up there, didn't you?”
She hears Nadine huff out a short laugh. “Yeah...” One of Nadine's legs wraps around her back, the heel pushing her closer. “T– fuck me, Chloe.” It's meant to sound as a command, but she's heard Nadine shout out orders before, and this comes nowhere near, too much want and need in her voice. It's endearing.
“Certainly,” Chloe says, rubbing two fingers along her folds, getting them slick before pushing in one of their tips, moving it in and out, keeping it slow and shallow.
There's some shuffling on the bed, and when she looks she finds Nadine has pushed herself half upright, leaning back on her elbows. She's glaring, or trying to, hair clinging to her forehead, flustered and so very, very obviously turned on.
Chloe grins, biting the tip of her tongue at her, and for one stroke slides the finger in further, but then it's back to one knuckle's length, and Nadine groans.
“Is this what you call fucking, Frazer? Because I've– nnghh – !”
Nadine's head falls back when Chloe thrusts both fingers in at once, hard and deep. The movement is fluid and she can feel Nadine clench around her, hot and soaking wet.
“What's that, love? Don't think I quite caught that,” Chloe says, using her free hand to pull Nadine closer by the hip.
“Insuffera – ahh – hah, keep doing that.”
She's out of practice, already becoming aware of the muscles in her arm protesting against the fast pace she's set. Not that it matters, she can easily keep this up longer, but soon it will start to distract her... although...
Looking at Nadine, how she's had to drop herself back onto the mattress, the sweat beading on her forehead and the way her mouth hasn't fully closed since Chloe really started finger-fucking her, is beautiful.
And incredibly hot.
Fuck.
Chloe slows down, ignoring the low moan of protest coming from Nadine when she settles down with her knees on the pillow next to the bed and pulls out her fingers. “Patience, love,” she says, resting Nadine's legs over her shoulders and spreading her labia with her fingers.
The first stroke of her tongue is rewarded with a kick from Nadine's heel and a sharp gasp, followed by Nadine trying to sit up, apologizing profusely.
Chloe chuckles, holding on to one of Nadine's legs and pressing kisses against her thigh. “Relax,” she says, before going back in with her mouth, lapping down the sides of her folds, slipping inside for a moment, and then moving on to circle her clit.
Her own cunt throbs as she works on Nadine, and the pleasure coiled in her underbelly only grows as she watches the woman react to what she's doing to her. She takes her time to slide her fingers into Nadine again, this time crooking them just so, and Nadine cries out.
There we go.
She picks up the pace again, gradually moving faster and faster, keeping at it until her arm is sore and her jaw aches, and then Nadine's body starts to tense.
“Don't stop,” she says, high and pleading, and Chloe hums in agreement. “Don't stop, don'tstop.”
There's sweat running down her arm and she's sure she's about to strain something, somewhere, but then Nadine's hand is grabbing on to Chloe's hair, holding her in place – as if she'd want to go anywhere else at this point – and the lightheaded feeling is back, her legs starting to shake from exertion.
Everything is warm and wet and she swallows, determined to make Nadine come, if it's the last thing she'll do today –
Oh...
Nadine's back arches, her thighs pushing against Chloe's head, and then she's pulsing, clenching around Chloe's fingers.
She presses a final kiss to Nadine's clit, and then a few more to her thigh before leaning her head against it and trying to get her breathing back under control. To not leave Nadine hanging completely, she still moves her fingers while she rides out her orgasm, albeit slower than before, until she lets them slip out. She wipes them dry on the edge of the bed sheets. Let room service deal with that later.
Now Nadine's legs are no longer blocking her ears, she finally notices the ringing in them. The head rush she often feels after making her partners come is hitting her hard, making her drowsy at the back of her mind.
Chloe rises off the ground slowly, telling Nadine she'll be right back before going into the bathroom and running the faucet. The mirror shows a well-fucked reflection of herself, and she takes a moment to appreciate the afterglow in her eyes before running her hands under the faucet and splashing some water on her face.
She doesn't try too hard to clean herself like this – that's where a good shower comes into play, later – but she does wet a cloth and takes it back into the room with her.
Nadine hasn't really moved, only pulled her legs back onto the bed and rolled onto her side, facing the room. She's quiet, unusually so, her eyes tracking Chloe into the room for a few steps before staring blankly ahead again.
“Hey you,” Chloe says softly, sitting down at the side of the bed, near Nadine's head. She holds out the cloth, and Nadine takes a second to accept it and start wiping down her face.
“Thanks,” she says, voice equally soft, but carrying a flat undertone, handing the cloth back when she's done with it.
Chloe folds the cloth in on itself, shaping it into a small package as she waits for Nadine to say something, but that moment doesn't come. So she takes it on herself to ask, “Was it okay? The sex – did you enjoy it?”
Nadine seems surprised by the question, looking her in the eye and shaking her head. “It was great. Amazing, even.”
“What's wrong then, love?” she asks, resisting the urge to reach out and touch her, to try and comfort her, and Nadine sits up, pulling her knees to her chest, rocking slightly back and forth.
“It's me,” Nadine says. “I make bad choices. You were great, but...” The woman trails off, looking to the side.
Chloe swallows back the brick of disappointment in her throat. “This can be... a one time thing,” she says, clearing her throat. “If you want.”
Her heart aches when Nadine nods, but there are tears forming in the woman's eyes. “I should,” Nadine says in a hoarse voice. Then she shakes her head, her hands coming up to rest on her temples. “I really should.”
It doesn't feel like a full rejection, and Chloe can't stop herself from trying to dig deeper. “What do you want?”
“What do you think?” Nadine whispers, lowering her arms again, her hands gripping her knees and holding them tight. She seems so unlike herself there's only one reason Chloe can think of why.
“Me – ? D'you want –”
Nodding furiously, Nadine interrupts her, tears falling from her lashes. “Ja, jy. Ek wil – I need you.” She brushes off the tears and blinks a few times. Takes a deep breath. It doesn't take long, but afterwards her calm has returned somewhat. “Sentimentality gets you killed, isn't that right, Frazer?”
Chloe scrunches up her nose, thinking back to when she said those words. “Pretty sure I wasn't specifically talking about people,” she says. “They don't need that to try and kill you.”
“Dis nie wat ek bedoel nie en jy weet dit,” Nadine mutters under her breath, not meant for Chloe to understand, but she does, having picked up a little Afrikaans from hanging around Nadine... and maybe looking some up on the internet. She likes knowing what people say when they think she's not listening.
“Ek weet,” she says, the words foreign on her tongue, but the meaning comes across well enough based on Nadine's reaction. “I get it. There's a reason I didn't stick around with Nate for very long,” she says. “Well. That, and he actually found someone nice to settle down with.”
“I would have used you as leverage against him, if you'd been there,” Nadine says. “In Scotland, or on the island.”
“Aaand there's a reason I wasn't there, love.” Chloe winks at her. She leaves out the part where she only found out about the wild goose chase searching for Avery's treasure much later, and from Scully before anyone else.
Nadine gives her a look and snorts. Then groans. Then hides her face in her knees and groans again.
“What?”
“My father would not approve of you, of your type,” comes the muffled reply, and for a moment Chloe wonders what type she means – the bisexual type? – but then Nadine specifies, saying, “seeing how your friends ruined his... my company.”
“Ahh...”
The thieving type it is.
Chloe leans towards her. “Can't say my dad would have like you much, either.”
There's a beat before Nadine lifts her head a bit and turns to look at Chloe.
“You know...” Chloe makes a show of grimacing and tilting her head from one side to the other. “He was rather traditional. Had certain ideas about marriage and sex. Definitely sex.”
Nadine smiles softly at that. “Doesn't seem like you respected his wishes much.”
“Hah! Yeah, no. But even if he was... still alive, I wouldn't.”
“You wouldn't?” Nadine repeats, releasing one of her arms from around her knees to reach out to Chloe's hand in a gesture that's shy compared to how they were with each other minutes ago.
Closing her fingers around Nadine's hand, Chloe nods, bringing the hand to her lips and laying a kiss on the knuckles. “'s not my style, love.”
“I've noticed,” Nadine says, deadpan.
Raising her eyebrows, Chloe plays along, leaning back in mock surprise. “Oh you did? What gave it away, my dashing looks? My trimmed fingernails? I'm always prepared, you see.”
“Are you now?”
“Wanna find out?”
There's that blush from earlier, spreading along Nadine's cheeks. “Incorrigible,” she says, shivering when Chloe lets her short nails drag across her back. “How about getting some food, first?”
“Mm...” She leans towards her, lowering her voice as if to conspire. “You make a compelling argument, Ms. Ross.”
“Do I?” Nadine asks, unfolding herself to reach for the side of Chloe's neck and draw her in, and her lips are soft and supple under Chloe's, moving against hers slowly.
It's the fact that she's absolutely knackered from the whole journey and the sex they've already had, but this... being so close to the woman she has come to adore, it's enough to shoot a spark of pleasure deep down into her gut and she groans, pulling away with reluctance.
She opens her eyes to find Nadine looking back, amused.
“Later,” Chloe says. “If you still want to. Obviously,” she adds, but there's very little doubt left in her mind there will be a later.
Nadine hums, getting up from the bed. She steps out of her pants and underwear, or at least the part that was still hanging on to her ankle, and there she stands, bare and naked before her. “You smell like me,” she says, matter-of-fact, and Chloe laughs.
“I wasn't going to mention it,” she says, tilting her head, “but maybe we should take five and clean up before heading out.”
“Take five?” Nadine huffs, her eyes crinkling around the edges, and goes into the bathroom. “It's going to take longer than that. I can't smile anymore without your gunk pulling on my skin.”
Heat rushes to Chloe's face, half because of Nadine's choice of words, the other half from remembering how Nadine looked, lying under her. “That's not very flattering,” she calls out, and Nadine answers with a loud laugh, followed by a hiss and a muttered, eina!
“I swear it just pulled out some hairs.”
That has to be a lie. Chloe's still holding the damp cloth she gave her earlier to –
Nadine pokes her head around the corner of the bathroom door. “There's a tub in here,” she says, staring Chloe down. “My partner should offer me some assistance. I have been through a lot.”
“What you’re doing right now isn’t the epitome of subtlety, in case you were wondering.”
“Falling from great heights, betrayal, – ”
“All that was last week!”
“ – following you onto a train with a bomb.”
That last bit was said with a grin, and Chloe gapes at her. “You were the head of an army of mercenaries, I think you've seen worse,” she says, but rises to her feet anyway.
Leaning against the doorway, Nadine's face smooths out when Chloe approaches, showing a softer version of her. One that most people won’t encounter, Chloe reckons. The thought lingers, and god, she’s a lucky woman.
“Wash my back?” Nadine asks.
“And you even said please,” Chloe says, pressing a kiss to her shoulder.