Radclyffe - Honor Bound

"You'll be the senior agent in the field, Commander," she said quite clearly. "I have no problem with you making the call."

Cam nodded and straightened up. She still needed to go over the com links with Mac, and then review the construction plans they had received from the city planning office for the amusement park. She needed-

"Commander?" Savard said, breaking into her thoughts.

"Yes?" Cam asked.

"You'll need to be fresh, too, and you haven't had much sleep the last couple of days."

Cam raised an eyebrow, surprised by her frankness.

"There's still a few hours before we have to gear up," Savard remarked.

"I'll take that under advisement," Cam said. "Thank you, Agent."

Savard took one step forward, reached to touch her, then stopped. "We're all trained for this. It must be very difficult for someone who isn't - the uncertainty of it all." She hesitated, then added, "She'll need to hear that you'll be back."

Cam stared at her, expressionless for what seemed like an interminable length of time, before a grin lifted one corner of her mouth. "They certainly are not making FBI agents the way they used to."

Savard grinned back. "No, ma'am, they're not."

Chapter thirty-six

18:00

For the third time in as many days, Cam stood at Blair's door, knowing that when she crossed the threshold, her life would change. Each time she stepped outside of her comfortable world of regulations and routine to enter the uncertain arena of her relationship with Blair, she came away more deeply bound to her. It wasn't easy, but she couldn't deny that she wanted it. More than that, she couldn't deny that she needed it.

Blair opened the door and said softly, "Hi."

"Hi," Cam said, not yet moving to enter. Blair looked tired and that was unusual for her. There were smudges of fatigue under her eyes and the smile she offered Cam was tinged with sadness. Cam reached out and ran her fingertips over Blair's cheek. "Have you slept?"

Blair shook her head. "I meant to, but I couldn't stop thinking."

"You should try," Cam said gently. "It's going to be a long night."

"I know," Blair answered softly. She wanted to reach out to her, to pull her inside. But she also knew that she wanted tokeep her inside, away from the night, away from the danger, and that wasn't her choice to make. It hurt to think that Cam would not choose safety over responsibility, even for her. So she stood waiting, wondering what it was that Cam really wanted. Finally she said, "I wasn't sure you would come."

Cam lifted her fingers briefly to Blair's face again. "I'm sorry you didn't know that," she murmured. "I'm sorry for the pain of all of this."

"No," Blair said quickly. "That's not your doing. It never has been."

"I could have done things differently," Cam said softly. "Between us."

Blair smiled at that, a faint fond smile. "Could you have?"

Cam shook her head. "No. But Iwish that I could have, so as not to hurt you."

"That just might be enough," Blair admitted, because she couldn't imagine which part of Cam could be changed without destroying some essential element of her. She feared that to change her would be to lose her.

"Blair," Cam said urgently, "I want you to know"

Blair stopped her with her fingers on her lips. "Will you come in now?"

Cam kissed her fingertips. "Yes."

"Can you stay?" she asked again.

"For a little while."

"That won't always be enough," Blair warned, but there was no anger in her voice.

"I understand," Cam replied, stepping across the threshold. "But I won't always be leaving."

Then Cam was inside, and Blair closed the door, and they were alone. Blair raised her arms to Cam's shoulders and moved up against her, resting her face on Cam's shoulder. She sighed, and as she couldn't seem to do before, she let go of everything in her mind and floated in the certainty of Cam's embrace.

"Let's go to bed," Blair finally murmured. "I need to hold you."

"Yes," Cam answered quietly, her lips moving gently on Blair's ear. "I need to tell you things."

And then they were naked in one another's arms, face to face, covered only by a light cotton sheet. Slowly, they kissed, each exploring the other anew with gentle strokes and tender caresses. They didn't hurry, but touched with absolute certainty, as if there had been no beginning and there would be no ending. Slowly, they stirred one another until they trembled together, breathless and poised on the precipice, ready to fall.

Blair brought one leg over Cam's hips, opening herself, as she stared into Cam's eyes. "Come inside," she whispered.

Cam slid her hand between their bodies, her fingers parting the swollen flesh, gliding over Blair's clitoris, making her gasp and quiver. "In a minute," she whispered back.

Their eyes locked as Cam held her tightly, drawing her fingers lightly back and forth over the exposed, exquisitely sensitive tip. Blair's fingers dug into her arm, and Cam murmured, "There's no hurry. Let me have you."

Blair was barely breathing, her muscles clenched and begging for release, every cell focused on the overpowering pleasure rippling under Cam's fingertips. "Oh please," Blair moaned at last. "Let me come."

Cam pressed harder, circling faster, each knowing stroke bringing her slowly but steadily to orgasm. She watched Blair's blue eyes darken to purple and lose focus.

"I love you," Cam whispered as Blair threw her head back and cried out sharply, pushing down hard against Cam's hand. Cam entered her then, prolonging the spasms with each thrust of her arm until Blair grew quiet and sagged against her.

"You wreck me," Blair gasped finally.

Cam wrapped her arms around her tightly. "I meant to."

"Just give me a minute to catch my breath," Blair murmured, pressing her lips to Cam's shoulder, wondering if she would ever recover, not from the pleasure, but from the agony of loving her so much.

"I'm okay," Cam answered, kissing Blair's temple gently.

"Bullshit," Blair laughed softly. "I can feel you on my leg, and you're a long ways from being okay."

To prove her point, Blair pressed her thigh hard between Cam's legs, and Cam groaned at the rapid surge of blood into her clitoris. "No fair," she gasped.

"Yes, fair," Blair said firmly, pushing Cam onto her back and rolling on top of her. "I told you I just needed a minute."

Cam looked up at her and grinned. "That's probably all I'll need, too."

"Oh no, Commander," Blair said softly. "I want much more than that from you."

And then Blair took her slowly, with her mouth and her hands and her tender caresses, drawing the fire from her blood and the heat from her bones, igniting her nerves and scorching her senses, until all Cam knew was Blair and all she could do was cry out her name.

*****

They slept for an hour and awakened together, just on the other side of darkness. They lay side by side, hands clasped, their fingers entwined.

"What happens now?" Blair asked in the stillness.

Cam spoke quietly, her voice steady and calm. "At twenty-one hundred hours, Savard and I will leave for the rendezvous site. Thirty minutes later, Grant will walk out the front entrance and flag down a cab. Stark and Fielding will be in that cab. We're assuming that Loverboy may be watching here to assure himself that you are really going to meet him, and that you're coming alone as you said that you would. It's possible that he has someone else watching the building for him and relaying a message. Either way, it will look like you have once again slipped by us and are on your way to him."

"So how willhe get to the meeting site on time, if he's here when Grant leaves?"

"Lindsey Ryan speculates that he chose this site some time ago, and I agree. He was prepared when you agreed to meet him. He named that place and time almost immediately. It may have just been his fantasy that you would someday come to him, but Lindsey thinks he's actually been there, and may have already 'readied' it for you."