"Burn the list.  I know what I want Billy."  she said flatly.

She walked up to him at the back of the car, standing close to him.

"I think you do too... why should we pretend we don't?  We're both adults now... we don't need games and lists if we know what we want.  So... I dare you to follow your heart and not let anything or anyone's stupid ideas of what's right for us get in the way.  Cause... that's where all this has been heading.  All night.  It has to be.  The final thing, the only thing, the one line we both know is there... burn it.  Burn it and the list.  No more lines between us."

She whispered, "Do you want that?  I want that... very, very badly."

Billy nodded.

"I do. I want a great many things Aurora. I want you in my life more than anything. Let's go back to the apartment and get cleaned up."

He leaned down to hug her and whispered into her ear.

"If you really meant what you said. What I want is to keep doing what we've been doing all night long. I like pushing your boundaries, and you pushing mine."

He smiled and held the door open for her.

"You two get in the fucking car and get us home would ya? And tomorrow, you're gonna take some goddamned lessons on how to upkeep a car."

He stepped into the car and reached his hand out to hold Aurora's.

Aurora squeezed Billy's hand, the smile on her face drew attention to her distant and dreamy gaze that couldn't keep from coming back to him time and time again.  Her pulse raced.  He was looking at her and he hadn't stopped, not for a moment and it felt right.  Not racy or dangerous or as if she was on the verge of fucking it all up... it felt comfortable.

The hum of the wheels on the street lulled her and while she was still excited, some of the urgency had died down thanks to the bursting tire. 

"Integra isn't home is she?"  She asked quietly, ending the statement in a little chortle.  "I mean, we could always go somewhere else if we need to?  Someplace with one shower even - it's not like we need two."

Billy shook his head.

"I don't think she is, and if that's the case I have a spare apartment just one floor down that does, in fact, only have one shower."

He smiled and then for the first time tore his eyes away from her to take a look at the road and see exactly how far from home they were. About fifteen minutes.

"If my hands weren't so greasy."

He whispered as he leaned in and touched her thigh.

"I really would have a hard time waiting till we got home."

She smiled at the black smear on her thigh. 

"Now look what you've done..."  She chuckled. 

"I'm making you wash that off, Mister."

She leaned forward to look over the front seat, "Gentlemen, eyes forward.  If I catch you looking into this backseat, your boss is going to spend the latter half of his night looking for places to bury you and his early morning interviewing replacements, capisce?"

She fell back into the seat and looked to Billy, taking hold of his hand and putting it back where it was.  "We were in the middle of a dare and I do not intend to lose $1,000." 

She smirked, leaning against the door on her side of the car, "And I never said when."

Billy looked down at Aurora for the moment and suddenly was overcome. He felt altogether as if he were sweating through his shirt, and about to release his dinner all over the inside of the car. He didn't want to do either of those things. What he did want to do, he began.

As he got closer to Aurora, she did not say no. He was surprised to be honest, he was sure she would, but nevertheless the dare would stand and he would persist. And nothing was said between the two of them. Barely anything was audible in that car, right up until Aurora eventually let out a sigh.

Billy smirked then. It felt good. It felt better than good, it felt amazing. To make the woman that he loved feel as good as that sigh suggested. He continued on as they were for just a few minutes, Aurora helping him when he clearly did not know what to do next until she finally bit her lip and shook her head.

Billy, for all of his nerves, could not help but to keep on smiling. 

Aurora shivered.  It wasn't cold, not particularly but her heart was racing and she'd begun to sweat.  She squeezed her thighs tight and blinked a few times trying to dismiss the golden halos made by the streetlamp above her outside the car window.  Stars danced across her vision.  Billy's hand felt like fire as it slid away from her.

She lifted her head to look at him, he was smiling.  She'd never seen him smile so big or so stupidly before.  He wasn't laughing at her.  He was proud of himself and his handiwork.  

Heh.  Handiwork.

She chuckled at the thought. 

"Are we there?"

Billy nodded.

"We been here very long?"

He shrugged.

She eyed his pants which were quite misshapen at the moment.  She smirked.  "You gonna be able to get inside with that canon you're carrying?"

Billy blushed. He adjusted himself then and nodded.

"Should be fine now."

He smiled and opened the car door, stepping out before offering his had not Aurora.

Aurora forced herself to sit up, checking the knife strapped to her upper part of her left thigh, making sure it hadn't come loose while she was otherwise engaged.  Then, satisfied she was ready, she followed Billy out of the backseat.  

"Goodnight Miss Byrne."  Both Charlie and Oscar said as they reached the door, the image of respect and decorum they didn't even really look at her, instead they bowed their heads ever so slightly.

Billy opened the door and held it for her. 

She paused to smile at the guards,  "Goodnight gentlemen."  And then she went inside, hearing Billy give the guys brief instructions before following behind her.  When he had the door's locks in place, he turned to find one of her shoes laying in the middle of the floor and then a short distance later another.

Her dress lay in a pile just outside the barely cracked bathroom door and as Billy was reaching it, he could hear the shower turn on.  Behind her, she could hear the door opening.  She had her back to it.  Naked she was bent over removing the straps which held her knife in place.  Even over the din of the water pounding against the shower floor, she could hear his breath catch and she smiled.

As she stood up she purposefully placed the aged looking knife on the sink beside Billy's comb.  Her back had a few small freckles, one on her left hip just above the curve of her bottom.  When her hair moved aside, he briefly caught a glimpse of the tattoo on her left shoulder, near to her heart.  It was the same dragon and wolf's head that was crafted in wrought iron on the gates of Hollowood. The dragon was done in black and the wolf free of color - both had an eye that was as amber in color.

The water was clearly heating up as she turned wreathed in thin wisps of steam.  Her body, unlike her mother and fathers, was free of scars.  The lioness tattoo on her thigh was fully visible now, a small grease stain on it from Billy's hand earlier.  While always a point of interest to Billy, it now seemed positioned in such a way to accentuate the length of her well-muscled dancer's legs.  Her form was the result of a lifetime of training, of self-imposed demands for perfection and control in all aspects of her life.  She was proud of it and seeing Billy admiring her now gave her no end of satisfaction.

She reached out and pulled open the shower door, checking the water temperature.  Assured that it wasn't too hot or cold she turned back to Billy still watching her in the doorway.  She sauntered forward, letting her thighs slide across one another with each step.  All modesty had vanished as she embraced her decision with confidence.  

"Can you bear to let me spoil you for a bit?" 

She reached out and began undoing his tie.  His hands tentatively touching her flesh, first on her upper arms and then exploring her more fully with all the caution of a curator handling a precious masterpiece.

"Let me love you ... like you did for me in the car?" 

She cast the tie aside and began to work on his shirt buttons, exposing his firm pectoral and stomach muscles.  She brushed her fingertips along them, savoring the feel of him only for a moment.  She could get lost in him and she damn well knew it.  If her plan was going to work, she had to stay focused.

"I figure..." She stopped after getting his shirt half-way open, "We have all night, right?" 

Just then, for reasons she did not spell out, she dropped her hand and began to unfasten his belt.  Billy finished taking off his shirt and throwing back behind him somewhere.  He was bare to the waist and she could see his scars.  He watched her working on his belt, then stealing a kiss upon the firm puckered flesh where he'd taken a bit of hot lead for her.  Then she looked up to meet his eyes.

"Same as you said to me." 

She pulled the belt off and the steel buckle clattered loudly on the bathroom tile. 

"If you say 'when' and I'll stop."

She swore his button on his trousers came open with such force she could almost hear it make a sound.  Before she could begin to pull them off, he took her face between his hands and kissed her.  Time stood still, her hands still on his waistband, her pert breasts brushing the muscles of his core as they kissed in the steam-filled bathroom.  Aurora no longer felt afraid of making a mistake, of chasing him away with the wrong word.  She was in her element now.  A world of actions.  Clear.  Concise.  No room for misinterpretation.  Just she and he, together, and their bodies did all the communicating that was necessary.  They'd crossed the first real, and dangerous threshold and this was their reward. 

This moment was their eye of their storm.  Untouchable, safe, they did not have to fear what was - or what may yet come.  All that mattered was this moment.  Death might come tomorrow, but they had tonight.  Aurora had learned long ago not to waste moments such as these.  One just didn't didn't know how many they might get before death inevitably caught up with you.

Eventually, she found the strength of will to stop and pull him backward, towards their destination.  She stepped back into the shower, water cascading across her skin, flowing down the lines and gentle slopes of her body.  Her amber eyes smoldered, watching him peel away his pants eagerly.  Her pulse quickened as she watched with anticipation, waiting to see him naked before her as she'd been for several minutes now.

He was gorgeous.  It was an odd thing.  She'd seen images of naked men, in art and medical books, she'd seen most everything - but nothing made her ready for standing before a lover this exposed and with him so vaunerable to her.  

Although, she felt a little guilty.  Her brain had been thinking of ways to escape, secure, and kill men for so many years now, that she had already puzzled out a way to do it before he even stepped into the small space with her.  She decided that was a detail he was better off not knowing about.

Was he shivering?  She stepped back allowing him to come into the water more fully.  Of course, she instantly realized his size made it almost impossible for her to enjoy the water with him.  The practicalities of this were much more complex than it had been in her mind where this would be incredibly sexy and beautiful... instead, it was either her drowning under the water so that at least one half of him could be wet and warm while she was too - or her left out in the cold as his massive form blocked all the water flow!

She could almost laugh at it.  They pretty much needed two showerheads for this to have any hope of functioning the way it did in that dime store novel she'd stolen from her mom's nightstand a few years ago.  

Damn.  Well, the best laid plans...

"Roar?"

She chuckled.  "I'm okay, was just overthinking things."  She put her hands on him and stepped near to him.  "The shower isn't as ideal in reality as it was in my head."

"We could go to..."  Billy began to offer, but Aurora put a finger on his lips.

"I didn't say I didn't like it, just, it would be nicer if we had two shower heads.  One here and there... but who the hell has something like that and OH!"

The whole time she'd been prattling on about shower construction Billy had slowly been backing her up with a predatory look in his eyes.  She hadn't realized it until her back touched the ice-cold wall and she leaped forward right into his arms.

They stood now, skin to skin, for the first time.  Instinctively their arms came around one another and they were kissing.  Her skin prickled as goosebumps rushed over her.  She pulled him tight to her, greedy to feel all parts of him against all the parts of her.  Her mind was spiraling out of the orderly and controlled place she kept it.

At some point Billy had reached a hand up to move the showerhead so that it sprayed on the wall, warming it.  When she found herself against the wall, this time it was a comfort.  He pressed himself into her, his hips gyrating in a steady rhythm against her, moaning against her kisses as water poured down off him and onto her.  She could sense his desperation with each frantic motion and for a moment she was brought out of her selfish thoughts.

She pulled her lips from his and he instantly began suckling upon her neck, not realizing she was going to speak, perhaps not capable of rational thought at that moment.  Her left arm held him tight to her, fingers digging into her back as his body blindly went through motions seeking relief.

Her right arm released him from the embrace and instead fell down and between them and as soon as he felt her, his head came up from the place where her shoulder met her neck.  He'd gone from gasping for breath to holding it as his eyes met hers first in a bit of shock - and then his heavy lids fluttered closed.  His ragged exhale was the only motion he made.  He was frozen there, his muscles locked up as she worked in the same rhythm he'd been keeping.  Their breath and the water the only sound as her left hand held him close and her right urged him closer to climax.

She watched his face intently, first in the throws of expressions he was clearly trying to control - clearly aware that she was watching him.  Then he found her lips again and the kisses became as frantic as they had been before she took hold of him.  His hips began moving in time with her and his grip on her body became merciless.

He convulsed, tensing in her arms and then it was done.  He was burying his face into her neck again.  She released him and that action sounded almost as if it caused him pain.  The weight of him, pressing her against the wall was all that held them up right now.  

He lifted his head, after catching his breath, and kissed her whispering tenderly how much he loved her.  This was the part where it normally ended, but Billy wasn't like the others.  Already he'd shown her that and it was the whole reason she was going to share his bed tonight.  Billy turned his head taking a mouth full of water and swallowing several times before turning to kiss her again. The water was growing cooler, she hadn't felt it because Billy was taking the brunt of the flow, but soon it would be cold.  Though by the smile on his face, she wondered if he cared at all.

She smiled back at him.  

"Do you feel better now, Luce dei Miei Occhi?" 

Billy sighed deeply. His breath had not been caught yet, and mostly because he had never felt that way in someone else's hands before. He felt like Aurora could mold him into whatever she wanted in that moment. He wondered to himself if that's how she had felt in the car. If that's what love really felt like. Like being able to mold the other person, and trusting the other person to mold you too, so that the both of you fit perfectly together. It was a real sweet thought.

And then she spoke.

'Do you feel better now, Luce dei Miei Occhi?'

Billy could only nod in response as he stared into her eyes. The amber hue to which his entire system would willingly revolve. Those eyes, in this moment, became the twin suns that he was destined to encircle until they both were gone from this world.

He reached out and turned the faucet, listening to the water suddenly stop he stepped backwards once and realized that he didn't have to pull at Aurora to come with him, or to hold out a hand to invite her. It was as if they were back to dancing again, he was leading this time instead of her, and she would follow wherever he went. So, on he went.

With a disregard for towels, or for being dry, he spun her around in the bedroom and lay her gently onto the bed. He began to kiss her, slowly making his way across her body. He remembered thinking earlier that he wanted to kiss every inch of her flesh, just to see how her skin felt against his lips. Now he could. Now he did. One small inch at a time, using nothing but his breath and his lips down her torso, and across her stomach. He stopped a moment when he reached her thigh and touched the tattoo that rested there with his lips longer than he had any other part of her.

He took a second to look up at her. He liked both of her tattoos, not just this one. He wanted to say that, but in the moment he felt as if words would have shattered the air around them like a hammer onto glass. The only sounds that would be allowed for a while would be breaths, and an occasional natural noise.

Billy grasped Aurora by the hips and slid her further onto the bed. While he knew he was not very experienced in this, he knew what he wanted to try, the things he had hear about, and more importantly what his gut was telling him. He could feel her gasp as he began. There would certainly be no more talking from Billy for a time as he was otherwise occupied, but Aurora would be free to continue to make every noise she wanted. Every breath that caught, every squirm she made only made him enjoy himself more. It was when her fingers ran through his hair though that he could no longer stand a lack of reciprocation, and so he made his way up onto the bed properly and looked her in the eyes.

"I want you to be my only Aurora, Profondità della mia anima."

He watched as she slowly nodded and let out a breath he had been holding as they became joined in a way that they had never done before, and yet somehow as old as anything two people have ever done in this world.

Billy was surprised in every way except for twp. The speed with which it was all over, and how much it took out of him. Never before had he wanted to collapse in the way that he had after that stasis of time between them. Never again would he be the same for knowing that bliss either.

Aurora woke with the morning light falling across her face.  She blinked a greeting to the dawn and smiled as she found she was not alone in the bed.  Beside her, Billy softly snored.  His body was draped across most the bed, and she had squirreled away in her sleep to a far top corner of the mattress.  One of his hands was up over his head, one of his legs was down on the floor.  She KNEW he couldn't be comfortable like that and she felt somewhat bad for having taken up any room on his bed at all... but only somewhat.

Still naked she slipped carefully away, doing her best not to disturb Billy as she made her way to the bathroom and began her morning routine.  She used the toilet, washed her face and hands, she brushed her hair and her teeth.  And as she was thinking about going back to the bed to await his awakening she spotted a small pad of paper and pen sitting on the bedside table.  Picking it up she wrote a fast note and walked it out to the kitchen and left it upon the counter.

Tip-toeing back into the bedroom she slid down under the blankets and snuggled up close to Billy - her cold feet and hands causing him to startle awake, his teeth grit tight, with a violent intake of breath.  It only took a moment for him to realize what was happening, where he was, and who was beside him - in her current state of undress.  Not even the artic feel of her flesh could keep him from pulling her into his arms and kissing her.  He would warm with his own body.  

"Good morning, Luce dei Miei Occhi."  She kissed his lips.

He whispered, nuzzling her with a mischievous grin on his face, "Di nuovo, profondità della mia anima?"

"Again."  Aurora giggled as Billy didn't hesitate in rolling atop her, peppering her face in tiny playful kisses as they came together one more time before they knew they both had to get started with their day.

---

The plane taxied down the runway and Charlie watched his boss waving to his girl until she disappeared into the clouds above the motor city and could not be seen any longer.

Billy walked back towards the car and Charlie opened his door for him.  At the driver's door, Oscar chuckled and asked, "Have a good nice, Boss?"

Charlie couldn't help but smirk, his partner was bound to get his ass kicked if he wasn't careful.  Surprisingly Billy didn't over-react to Oscar's usual inappropriately familiar way of being with their boss.  Billy was actually smiling! 

The Corktown Don simply nodded and said, "We never discuss this again... but, yes.  Yes, I did."

"Good for you."  Oscar said nodding.  "Miss Byrne's a real nice dame."

"We're happy for you, Boss."  Charlie added respectfully.  It was true.  They were happy for Billy.  He was a good guy and if anyone deserved happiness in this way, it was their Don.

Charlie shut the door after Billy sat down in the back and he returned to the passenger seat where he silently watched for danger the whole drive back to the apartment.  Once there, he got out and followed Billy inside.  The Don went off to his room while Charlie and Oscar went into the kitchen and started whipping up lunch while they waited for the Don to decide what their next move was today.

It was then that Charlie spotted it, laying on the countertop.  A notepad with feminine handwriting upon it.  Picking it up he quickly read the strange note and walked back to his Boss' bedroom and tapped on the door.

"Sir?"

"Come in."  Billy called out and Charlie entered. The Don was stripping down the bed, Charlie noted Aurora's panties were still here, laying on the nightstand.  He didn't allow his eyes to linger on them and instead offered the notepad.

"Found this, in the kitchen."  

Billy took the notepad, looked at it and sat down on the edge of the bed with the expression which only needed to be described by one word: love.  Charlie backed out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him, leaving Billy to his private thoughts.

THINGS WE CAN'T DO WHEN WE'RE TOGETHER

- nothing -