Sunderance - Chapter 15: Reflection (Part 1)

    Silence had followed them into the office, though she had expected that after the fox had taken a full ten minutes checking every room, every corner, and every shadow. She understood. Even with the surprising revelations that he had shared with her about Yurei, he had also reminded her that someone had sent a squad of killers to do what the tiger had failed in. The idea of questioning him never crossed her mind and she stayed just inside the doorway, her eyes following him as he moved from one side of the room to the next so quietly that the only sound she could detect was that of her own heartbeat in her ears. Thorough wasn’t the word Judy would have chosen as he checked under every surface, in every openable object, and if the fact that she saw his tail close to the ground through the small bit of the bedroom she could see, under the bed. She was pretty sure he even checked between the mattress and under the toilet seat, which might have made her smile if her own mind wasn’t racing through the possibilities.

    Another bunny in Zootopia, one who worked directly for the Administrator as… What? Her personal assassin? Bodyguard? ‘Fixer’? She was pretty sure some mammals would have used that term for the one who cleans up all the messes, by any means. This fit to what Nick had told her, in some ways, and it made her nervous. Nervous that the Administrator employed someone like that at all, even if this Jack didn’t seem to be one of the mammals sent to kill her.

    And she really hoped that her parents never, ever learned that she was thinking about who may or may not have been sent to murder her.

    Lavender eyes followed the fox when he came back into the room, peeling his jacket off quickly and tossing it over the chair by the desk. Her gaze wandered from his face, down to the twin guns that were holstered under his arms. How had she never really seen them, even if she had been sure that he carried them? Had she been so distracted by the case that she had never even seen him take his jacket off? This seemed to be the case. When he turned into the bathroom, bending over the sink to splash water over his muzzle and face, she also saw the baton sheathed at the small of his back as a part of the same leather rig. She had never seen any of it, maybe because he hadn’t wanted her to see it, and it made her wonder what else she had missed or what else he kept hidden from view.

    A blush warmed her ears, causing them to drop when she realized that he was looking at her in the bathroom mirror as he ran a towel slowly over his face.

    “It’s clear, Carrots,” he said lowly, though he didn’t take his eyes off her when she took a deep breath, nodded, and stepped further into the room.

    Seeing him wince a bit and glance down at the towel, she spotted the blood at the same moment that he did. The cut on his cheek was slowly oozing blood again, though beyond the splash of water and towel, he seemed intent on ignoring it when he exited the bathroom without a word. He also didn’t seem inclined to remove the harness when he walked past her, lifting a single blind to check the car outside before turning to drop himself into the chair. When his head dropped back and his eyes closed, it only took her a moment to decide that the relaxed appearance was only on the surface. She could see tension in the way his jaw worked and the fact that his paw was not as still as it could have been on his knee.

    Stepping past him and going into the bathroom to get the small first aid box – one that she instantly decided they needed to replace with something more robust – out of the cabinet, she returned to him with her ears lifted again. Not sure why she felt so hesitant all of a sudden in the face of the fox, she released a quick breath that was mostly annoyance with herself as she set the kit onto the desktop beside him. “You need to let me look at that cut.”

    “We’ll have to be more careful from now on,” he said, his voice as neutral as the set of his ears and the expression on his face when he raised his head to look at her.

    His eyes were cool. Or he tried to keep them cool when there was something brewing just under the surface, she decided. Something she probably would have missed only two days ago. What it was, she couldn’t really say, but it made a shiver slide down her spine with such intensity that heat crawled under her fur and her tail twitched restlessly. The fact that his gaze traveled down her body as she dug through the kit, coming to rest on that tail and the hips that they were attached to, caused her mind to go blank for a moment. A moment that left her standing there with gauze in one paw and tiny alcohol packets in the other before she shook it off and turned to face him fully.

    “I can’t image how we could be more careful,” she said, keeping her voice steady by using every ounce of courtroom showmanship she knew to level it when she looked up at him. She opened one of the alcohol packs after determining that the cut was longer than it was deep, reaching up to carefully clean the soft orange fur as she tried her best to keep her tone light and conversational. “You’re already with me twenty-four hours a day.”

    “Talk like that, and a fox might think it’s a hardship, Carrots,” he said, unmoving and unflinching when she dapped at the edges of the cut with a wordless smirk cast in his direction. “I mean more careful in everything, at the very least until I speak with The Administrator. Jack being there means one of three things: she knew where we were and he was waiting, he had been following us for some time, or that she had foreknowledge of the team sent to kill us. None of those sit well with me.”

    “Why does it bother you?” she asked, using her fingers to part the fur around the wound as she tried to decide if the fur needed to be cut. She couldn’t apply a bandage if the fur remained, but it didn’t look too serious. “I mean, killer bunnies aside, I knew that she was watching me. It goes with the territory of being an invited guest of someone as powerful as she is.”

    “Because if she knew where we were, it means that she expected us to see Flash at some point and knows who Flash really is,” he added, his eyes never leaving her as she set the now soiled pad aside and reached for sterile cloth. “If it was him following us, it means that I failed to notice a tail for the entire time you’ve been here. And if she knew someone was going to try for you tonight, that means she may know who is responsible. None of those things are ideal.”

    “Nothing about the situation is ideal,” she said softly, not really noticing the soothing notes in her tone as she cleaned the rest of the blood from his cheek. “But you did say he was wearing some sort of holographic device. If he was following us, he was probably using it to avoid being seen at all. As unnerving as that is, it wouldn’t be surprising.”

    “He was supposed to be the one to protect you when you reached the city,” he said, surprising her fingers into stillness as she raised her wide eyes to his. Predatory green eyes that were no longer as controlled, that cool burning away from the surface as his paw came up to close around her wrist lightly. “She knew someone would try for you at some point and so she sent him to watch you. To gain your trust, so you would accept him as your guard while in the city. I’m not sure what her end game was with that, but I do know that seduction was on his list of acceptable methods.”

    “Seduction?” she said, feeling her stomach drop for a moment when she realized what he’d just told her. Her eyes narrowed and sharpened on him when she realized that he still held her wrist. She tugged on it, found herself held in place half by that paw and half by the way he looked at her. “So, what? Do the bodyguards of this city run around seducing lawyers to keep them in line?”

    “Oh, Judy,” he murmured, surprising her as a soft, pleased grin climbed his muzzle. “I’ve already told you, I’m not a bodyguard by trade. And I have anything but control of you.”

    She jumped when she felt his paw flick at the front of her jack to unbutton it, causing it to fall open just as that same paw slipped into it. Her entire body shook with unexpected… Everything when she felt his paw slide around her waist, drawing her just a little closer as he brought the paw he held to his muzzle. Her knees weakened when she felt the warmth of his breath against her palm, followed by the lightest of touches. His tongue, she realized, when her desire to pull away melted into the same puddle of desire as the accusation itself.

    “I didn’t mean to say that,” she whispered, a little dazed and unresisting as he drew her closer until she stood between his knees. The scent of fox and flowers, an oddly delicious scent that was both obviously predator and yet so amazingly tempting to her. “I know you…”

    Cut off when he leaned closer to her, her eyes widening when his muzzle pressed against her cheek. The quicksilver pulse of lust centered in her belly made her feel like she was about to catch fire, made worse and better by the draw of his tongue along her cheek. The light rasp of that wide, warm muscle ruffled her fur and she was certain fried brain cells by the thousands as her ability to think was scattered. Some part of her expected him to stop with that one lick. Maybe it was simply affection? A show of appreciation? One that now had the large, dark paw under her jacket tugging her ever closer before it slid down and spread over the curve of her hip. She couldn’t find any reason to stop him. The bunny couldn’t find even an inch of desire to do so, either. Not when his hand paused at her thigh, obviously exploring as his fingers passed featherlight caresses along the line of her suit pants for a moment before moving back up to mold against the curve of her lower back.

    She found herself draw up to him, felt the soft rumble of his growl in his chest as his teeth found her ear. It was the second time she’d felt his teeth, and without the fear of their first encounter, the slick pulse of pleasure caused her to moan. Her paws snapped up to grip the front of his shirt, desperate to balance herself as her knees became water. What had been a short nip the first time became a series of nibbling kisses that followed the rim of her ear all the way to the base. She had no resistance left, no desire to look for more by the time his teeth and lips left her ear.

    “We have to stop,” he whispered, words that came so suddenly that they managed to snap her back to where she was. And who she was with. And yet, she didn’t pull away from him even when he raised his eyes to look down at her.

    “Nick,” she breathed, her voice escaping in a tone she hardly recognized. The sudden loss of contact made her feel empty, and even a little annoyed. Her fingers tightened on his shirt as her other paw gripped his tie, and she had the satisfaction of watching his eyes go a little wide as she pulled him forward. “How sensitive are your ears?”

    Knowing that she had caught him off guard was a temporary victory, a feeling of satisfaction that was replaced with a need to know the answer to her own question. Feeling his breath catch and then rush out in a low growl when she turned her lips to the tip of his ear made pleasure roll through her. She wasn’t going to let him walk away and leave her wanting like he had last time, at least not before she knew for certain that this rush was mutual. She kissed the tip lightly, letting the longer fur tickle her lips as she exhaled a warm breath, delighted when the fur on the back of his neck rose and quivered. The paw at her hip tightened and the other came around the back of her neck but didn’t try to guide or stop her when she breathed again.

    He was right. They needed to stop. His scent was too good. The paws that could so easily possess her were trembling as in what she could only believe was control on his part. And more than that, she didn’t know that she wanted him controlled. She wanted more but was entirely unsure if she was ready for it.

    “You’re right,” she said, taking one daring moment to close her lips on the edge near the base for a suckle. When it caused him to tense, growl, and then moan in the most perfectly male sound she had ever heard, she slowly drew back to look at him. His eyes were bright and a little stunned, no doubt a match for hers as she relaxed her grip on his shirt and slid her paws over his chest to smooth the fabric. He was breathing as quickly as she was, and it made her smile faintly. “I suppose now we know it wasn’t a one-time fluke.”

    “Was there ever a doubt?” he asked, his tone low and breathless as she felt his paws slide away from her body. And they did slide, she realized. Not simply pulled away, lifted, or removed. His paw slid around her waist far more slowly than was needed, causing her eyes to drop half-lidded when she tilted into the touch before it was gone. She smiled a little, when she felt him button her suit again, her gaze on his until he was finished. Then he leaned in close, and before she realized what he was doing… His lips very faintly ghosted over her cheek. For something that couldn’t even really be called a kiss, the shock that passed between them almost made her reconsider the decision to stop herself. “Tomorrow, I’ll take you for ice cream.”

    The words surprised a laugh out of her as he released her, violet eyes sparkling as she searched his face to see if he was serious. “I thought we needed to be more careful,” she teased lightly as she took a half step away before reaching up to straighten his tie.

    “Being more careful doesn’t mean I intend to lock you away in the office,” he replied, his smirk soft but slightly reserved. She wondered how much effort it took for him to put on that cool face again, and how hard it might be for him to restrain himself. She knew it wasn’t easy for her, nor would focusing on the information from Flash once she opened when he sent. A smile spread and she dropped her paws away from his tie when his answer delighted her to no end.

    “Besides, I feel like I could use something as cold and huge as a Jumbo Pop right about now.”