"What are you doing here?" She asks, loud enough to be heard by him, still moving her arms back and forth in the water go keep herself afloat, her head tilted up ever so slightly.

"Watching you." He answers simply and she turns away and swims to the further side of the pool, her back on display to him now and he sees the intricate pattern right at the bottom of her backless bathing suit, fitted against her smooth skin. "White is your colour."

"I know."

"You should wear it more."

"For who, you?"

"Well now that you've brought it up." Jamie turns around at his words and finds he isn't there. For a split second she thinks she imagined the entire thing. Too much rosé, Jamie. But then a figure slips through her first floor glass sliding doors and makes their way over to where she is, in the pool. It's him.

"Come to get a closer look?" Jamie asks with a bit of a teasing tone, extremely calm, having come to acceptance with a few things over the past few days after talking to her mother and sisters. She watches him take a seat next to the pool, legs pulled up to his chest, his elbow resting against his knee as his arm dangles in between them.

Instead of saying anything, Hitter looks at his watch and begins tapping things on it, Jamie's eyebrows furrow as she swims to where he sits, disappearing underneath the water for even just a moment to push her hair back from her face, running her hands through the strands before they touch the wall, inches from his feet.

"What are you doing?" As the words leave her mouth, Jamie's entire house is plunge into darkness, the previous Christmas like effect it may have had disappeared, from all of her multiple rooms, the backyard lights, and even the pool ones and she takes a deep breath, pulling herself out of the pool, and onto the ground beside him but her feet remain. "Did you just..."

"Cut out your power? Yes." Hitter answers and Jamie closes her eyes against the dark since her eyes are only confusing her by the shadows.

Wolf on the other hand has done enough missions in the dark that he can almost see her leaning back against her hands with her head tilted back.

"I guess you like me better in black."

"Nonsense. You need to be seen."

"By you?"

"Careful, you sound hopeful."

"Then you don't know me very well." She answers and he smiles in the darkness, listening to her breathing to know just where she is.

"James."

"You've been saying my name a lot lately."

"You like to hear it." He retorts back and she gives a breathy laugh, drawing Hitter closer until their hands are touching but she quickly lifts her hand from underneath his. "Scared?"

"Of what?"

"The fact that you had to ask leads me to believe you are." Jamie slams her hand down and grips his in hers, her breathing quickening when he turns his own over and interlocks their fingers.

Warmth. All he is- is warm and flashes of the other day when he held her sends even more heat pulsing to all the corners of her body.

Opening her eyes to see what he may be thinking, she remembers they're currently plunged in darkness and internally rolls her eyes.

"What are you doing here Hitter?"

"Touching you." His other hand reaches over and trails up the length of her other arm and she starts to shake a bit, like she did in his arms the day he held her while she cried. But this time is different, this time she's afraid of...possibilities. "If you don't want me to–"

"Just, shhh." She interrupts, moving her body closer and her dripping feet leave the pool. His legs are still up, and she slips her own underneath his so they're tangled, letting go of his hand and placing her hands on his neck, feeling his mask.

"Would you ever take it off for me?"

"No."

"Not even to kiss me?"

Hitter's hands draw away from her so quickly you would have sworn her skin burnt him but she grabs them in hers and interlocks their fingers again, no matter how much restrain he tries to show or how much her heart threatens to jump out of her chest at the awakening of this bravado.

"Will you tell me your real name?"

"Wolf."

"I'm serious."

"So am I. My sister's name is Crow, I'm Wolf."

Leaning forward, she whispers so her breath is tickling him through the dark material of his mask, "Wolf, I like it." Then pulling her hands free, she reaches for that mask but he pushes her hands away.

"Jamie no."

"It's dark."

"I'm still...no."

"Why are you afraid?"

"I'm not." She places a hand on his leg.

"You can trust me."

"It isn't about trust."

Pulling both her arms back, Jamie hugs her hands against her chest, slowly pulling her legs away too, sensing the detachment from him.

"Jamie..." Hitter breathes heavily once coldness floods him, numbing his recently overheating mind as he lowers her onto her back, his hand coming to cover her eyes and then he takes his mask off and trails his lips over her face until he finds her lips, claiming them in his and her back lifts off the ground as her arms wrap around the back of his neck, his hand never lifting from being draped over her eyes as they kiss.

It's slow and devouring, concentrated but natural and she inhales deeply through her nose as her hands moves to his belt loops to pull him higher.

It's weird to kiss someone you've never quite seen before but are told they've known you for ten years of your life. The know you but...how well could you possibly know them?

Pulling her back up to sit, Jamie sits in between his legs and draws her lips away, then rests her head against his chest.

"Put it back on, and leave." She pants, her hands around him like a hug as she directs her head down so she isn't looking up at him. He's touched that she isn't trying to sneak a peek his way even if she could just look up right then and there as he's bared to her.

"Jamie, are you okay?"

"Because I sound so breathless right? I'm fine, that was just the kiss." She answers simply.

"I'm serious."

"Why did you come here tonight?"

"To check if you were alright."

"Well the truth is, I'm better than I thought even after...everything." Jamie answers truthfully and Hitter nods though she can't see him but she feels the movement of his head as it shifts up and down. "I-I wanted to thank you for the other day."

"I didn't do anything."

"You let me hurt while being there for me and...I needed that I guess."

"You're welcome..." Hitter says lowly, his hands on her bare back as she remains in his hold. "Jamie."

"Yes Wolf?"

"Firstly, don't call me that." She laughs but doesn't say anything to let him continue whatever it is he wanted to say. "Secondly, you have nothing to worry about with Yasmine. Crow and I aren't trying to steal her from you."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You sure?"

She sighs, licking her lips as she thinks of what to say next. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Hitter tilts her chin up, his hand sliding over her eyes again, then kisses her once again, gliding his tongue over hers and she holds onto his shoulder, letting herself sink into the touch she's thought about ever since that day but she has to force herself to pull away when a need pulses through her like a storm before it takes her. "Go."

"I will." He says, kissing the corner of her mouth, just as hesitant about parting so soon as their lips keep meeting in soft strokes unlike either of them have ever experienced before.

Just as they're running out of breath, Wolf pulls back and slowly gets to his feet.

Jamie shuffles back forward and places her feet in the pool, flinging herself inside at the same time the lights come on, and when she surfaces from the water and looks up, he's gone.

She wishes the water was cold because she can still feel every inch of his warmth on her skin.

The mask he was wearing is sitting next to her glass of rosé and she leaves the pool dripping to go pick it up, bringing it to her nose and smelling it.

The best way to describe it being of masculinity and discreetly of his cologne.

"Wolf." The whisper leaves her lips like a declaration.

*****

Dressed for the day in sweatpants, a lace bra and top set, Jamie heads down to the kitchen and makes breakfast, just a bowl of oats with some fresh fruit she had in the fridge.

Now sitting on the counter, Jamie rehashes the events of the night before and wonders how she's going to deal with it, but then her eyes fall on the box of whisky she still hasn't taken down to the basement where her collection is and smiles.

Scotland.

The way last night happened can only be described in five words,

Undeniable tension, curiosity and attraction.

Yeah, it was bound to happen for the pair clearly. The connection that was there in all their bickers was sexual attraction.

Did they act on it now? Yes.

Does Jamie regret it now, though? Sort of. Not really though but sort of.

She's just afraid of what it means. Her mother hasn't always been the biggest fan on the girls being in relationships so as the oldest, Rickson had to learn to love a man and try to teach her sisters that it's okay to fall in love too.

Jamie has always been for dominance though so she decided to stay alone just like her mother. A boss. But now things are swirling in her mind and she doesn't even know what she wants.

Eating her breakfast, she thinks of the getaway to Scotland and decides to go scouting on another possible contribution to her collection even if it wasn't really in her plans after she retrieved a blankin' Macallan '26 but now things are different.

Now she made out with a hitman and she needs a vacation. Looks like Yasmine is going to get what she wishes for after all.

Her daughter is taking a break! All because of a kiss. Damnit, it's affecting her.

As though fate had jolted a needle into her bubble, her phone rings, and when she answers it, she rolls her eyes at obvious somewhat of the worst karma anybody could be graced with.

"Jamie sugar, we have to discuss a few things. Do you mind coming to the house?" Yasmine's voice says over the line and Jamie sighs at the inevitable.

Dammit! "Of course not, I'll be right there momma. I just need to shower then get dressed."

Finishing her breakfast, Jamie rinses her bowl and places it in the dishwasher before hopping up the stairs to do what just informed her mother over the phone.

Applying a coat of lipstick to her puffy lips, Jamie then covers them with a generous layer of gloss.

Leaning over her vanity, she takes a deep breath then stands and begins to change and get dressed into a knee length bedazzled sheer skirt with a bodysuit underneath it. A matching jacket and a towering pair of heels later, she's grabbing her sunglasses and ready to go with a text to her mother letting her know she'll arrive in fifteen minutes at most.

*****

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