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She waited until the last embers died down before flicking a glance over at her companion. "...there's a service door that leads into the basement from the back yard. You can...change down there, and throw those clothes right into the washer." Natalia trusted he wouldn't fingerpaint his way along the wallpaper from the basement to the upstairs shower.

Her lip did curl, however, at his mention of the hose. "I'll only hose you down if you get too riled, Barnes. Kick your mongrel ass then turn the firehose on you." But it was said without heat, and the vampire turned without another word to head back across town. There were still two more stops on the docket for the evening, after all.

Once they'd made it back to her residence, and Natalia had pointed out the exterior entrance, she told him, "I'm heading across the river to the warehouse. If you can find the place after you're clean, join me. There shouldn't be any more bloodshed, so it might be...boring." Part of her job was investigative, after all; she didn't get to play at murder all the time.

"I'll leave the light on for you, darlin', and you just get home when you're done. I'll do the laundry, clean up, have you a cup of tea and something else to drink if you want it."

Bucky winks at her before tossing her a half-hearted salute and bounds off, thinking it's better he gets back to the townhouse sooner rather than later. She's got work to do and he needs to manage to get all this goddamn blood off without messing anything up.

And damn if he doesn't succeed, even if he's in a shower that's hot enough to give a human third degree burns and probably is knocking out the whole hot water tank for the next day.

About an hour before dawn, Natalia returned home tired, cranky, and completely out of sorts. Her other two assignments hadn't gone nearly as well as the first, and she was more than ready to bite some idiot's head completely off if anyone pricked her simmering ire. She hated being frustrated, in any sense or fashion, and didn't bother announcing her presence when she finally made it through her front door.

Her coat she slung at the wall rack, missed, and didn't care, but she did, at least, take more care with the weapons, placing each in its proper place in her hunting station just off the kitchen. The knives were delicate, and expensive. But she was hungry, grouchy, and in need of a long, cool sleep, although from the chiming of her cell phone, that wasn't in her immediate future.

Unless she shoved the damned thing in the waste disposal and ignored it altogether. Which was tempting, really.

Bucky hears her when she comes in because he always hears her, no matter how quiet a vampire is. He slips down to the kitchen and looking at her face, he thinks it's probably a good thing that he'd tugged on his boxers instead of walking around feral like he does when he thinks he can get a rise out of her.

"You look fucking miserable, Red. Shoulda brought me along for the other two. Made you tea but you didn't come in so...went to waste, I guess."

He pushes himself up to sit on the counter and assesses her. "Got something else you can drink, though."

She finally went ahead and flung the offending mobile device across the living room, uncaring that it shattered against the wall and clattered into flimsy pieces behind the couch. Hearing the wolf emerge into the kitchen, Natalia just harrumphed in response, not bothering to point out that she had, in fact, told him he could join her if he wished, but there wouldn't be any mauling, biting, or marking on her latter two jobs. Thus, no surprise he'd found them less than attractive.

Grunting at the mention of tea, the vampire went about the automatic motions of making a cup for herself, opting for the Keurig rather than the kettle, this time.

She glowered since she had to move around him to reach into the cabinet, all too aware of the half-naked - more than, actually - slab of male on her counter, looking far too appetizing and smelling like...nothing she wanted to ponder about, really. Lest she give in to...baser desires, in her apparently weakness.

"I don't want it," she replied shortly, automatically, tapping fingernails against the counter as she waited for the mug to hurry the fuck up and fill.

"Liar," Bucky says. "You can't bite me because of your laws and shit and you apparently don't take requests so...here."

There's a knife block next to him, too, and it's nothing to grab it lightning-fast and slice open his wrist. It'll heal fast and without a mark but then she's not breaking any rules, is she?

"Here. Lick. That's not biting."

Her lip derisively curled despite the enticing scent of his blood, welling deep and thick from the self-inflicted gash. "What, you think you just wave your paper cut under my nose and I fall to my knees in thanks? Please, dog." Despite their amicable partnership earlier, Natalia wasn't in the best mood, and having her housemate determined to get her in no end of trouble wasn't helping very much.

"I'm going to take my tea and go to bed, and that's the end of it." She gave his bleeding arm only the barest glance before turning her back on him. "You can bandage it yourself, or whatever." The Keurig finished and she retrieved her tea mug, adding cream and stirring. "And don't you dare wake me up today, otherwise I'll bounce your admittedly nice ass off the flagstones and leave you for the pigeons, Barnes."

"I'd let you rip open my femoral if you wanted it," Bucky says, popping himself off the counter. His wound's shallow enough that it's already started to knit together again and he knows there's barely going to be a mark by evening when she wakes up.

"Maybe it's against your rules but I'm not human, Red Riding Hood. You can sink your teeth into the big, bad wolf any time you want to and I'm not going to say no. You licking me in the alley earlier was the hottest shit I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Looked like it did it for you, too, so - why not enjoy it?"

"Because you'd lord it over me from now until the end of time," Natalia replied tartly, taking a soft sip of her hot tea then putting down the mug to unzip her uniform top and skin it off, absently on the table. Her skin was milk white against the black halter she still wore, and she pulled the ponytail out of her hair, crimson curls tumbling down her back in disarray.

"I had a moment of weakness, a moment," she reiterated, picking up her tea again, "and you just naturally assume I'm going to fall on the first open vein I see, how very typical." The refrigerator door slammed as she closed it, changing her mind about opening a fresh plasma pack. Not with all that deliciousness standing less than a yard away.

"For what it's worth," and how her teeth ground, forcing the words out, "I completely regret...licking at you earlier. I shouldn't have done it, and shouldn't have let my baser emotions get the better of me. So. Let it be, Barnes." She held her tea cup between them, like a shield.

"You don't like me, and I don't like you. Let's just leave it at that, da?"

"If I didn't like you, I wouldn't respect you," Bucky says matter-of-factly. He starts to walk off, convinced this was just a draw and not a victory for her against him and just as he reaches the doorway, he turns and looks back at her.

She's a pretty sight, all that pale skin on display where that halter isn't covering her. Not as much skin as he shows but the most he's seen of her and he has to reward that.

"Your bed's a mess. I told you I was waiting on you to come home. Wrapped myself up like a bow and you walked in too late for it. Shame."

She froze at those words, not quite believing what she'd heard. When she could finally manage enough coherence to speak, the wolf had slipped out of the kitchen and back up the stairs. The teacup landed in the sink, thankfully, as the vampire all but vanished herself, nearly teleporting upstairs to throw open her bedroom door, inhale a deep breath of James Bucky Barnes in her sanctum, and swallow a truly undignified screech.

The door across the hall bounced back on its hinges as Natalia threw it open, and she kept a firm grip on her temper as she glared at the lycanthropic intruder. "What." Each word was clipped, sharp. "Were you doing. In my bed?" Not that his scent in her nose was an unpleasant thing, not really (if she were totally honest with herself), but his scent on her sheets was just goddamned unfair.

"Waiting for you to come and do depraved things with me at my request. Could have tied me up and everything. I would have been the best little wolf you've ever seen," Bucky says, his eyes meeting hers. She's furious but damn he can tell he's gotten under her skin.

"I was a little lamb waiting to get gobbled up. You just didn't show up when I thought you were gonna so I decided it'd be better to just sit downstairs and wait for you. The licking went well so I thought you'd want the whole thing. Lots of places to bite me, after all."

He leers at her. "Why are you so against it?"

"Why are you not?" she snapped right back. "That sort of thing just...complicates everything else. I don't have time for it." But part of her was insisting she needed to make time, particularly given the specimen in front of her. What would it hurt, after all? Other than her pride.

By now more than frustrated, especially since she'd have to strip her sheets and remake the bed before she could sleep in it, Natalia just gnashed her teeth in stony silence, slamming the door before returning to her bedroom and slamming that door, too. She did strip the sheets and put on fresh linens, then slung off the rest of her clothes and retreated to her bathroom for a steaming shower, letting the hot water work to soothe her ire.

Which...didn't, not really, because even though it felt good against her skin, the spray didn't do much to alleviate the heat that still roiled beneath the flesh, wanting. Yearning. Not since Alexi had she felt such stirrings, and she damned sure didn't need to be suffering them now.

Not with that creature just a hallway over, and more than willing, God.

Bucky isn't stupid enough to corner his prey in an open bedroom where she can out-maneuver him easily. No, he's smarter than that so when he hears the shower start to run, he knows this is his chance.

It takes no time to undress and he doesn't waste time getting into the bathroom because that's time he could use to get the jump on her. He pulls the door and hooks his arm around her waist.

"You're going to enjoy yourself for once, Little Red, and I'm going to give it to you."

Natalia was so lost in her own aggravations that she didn't even hear him when he entered her bedroom, and she only had a split second to react when her shower door suddenly opened and the damned wolf yanked her right out of it, although she did manage to land a pretty good fist to the side of Bucky's head. Which, naturally, only succeeded in knocking the both of them right to the floor, thrashing around in a tangle of wet arms and naked legs.

She cursed, clawed, kicked, and screeched, but there wasn't much heat behind her struggles because one, she didn't want her residence destroyed, and two, she'd finally realized that she was fighting a rear-guard position on this one, anyway. But she wasn't giving in, so to speak, without a fight, no matter how good the bastard smelled!

Bucky catches her chin with his left hand and forces her to look at him. "Look, you've been sniffing after me all night and you won't let yourself have it. It's not breaking rules if I'm not human, which I'm not, and it's not breaking rules to fuck someone."

He presses his knees between hers, trying to insinuate himself between her thighs. Maybe if she felt how much he wanted it too, she'd stop fighting herself.

"You wanna fight me some more? I've got some more but it'll be better like this."

"Sniffing after you, are you serious?!" Natalia tried to jerk her head away, but that prosthetic limb held her still. She was too busy trying to clobber him with her free hand that she failed to realize Bucky was wiggling his way between her legs, and then he was there, and the thick heat she felt prodding at her abruptly brought her up short.

Green eyes narrowed up at him. "This is not a good idea," she flatly stated, but she didn't throw him off. "Have you ever stopped to wonder why I live alone and work all the fucking time? I don't have it because I don't want it, and if I did, I'd find someone far nicer than a smelly dog like you!"

"Is that a flat no or a 'Bucky, let me play a little harder to get'," he asks, tipping his head not unlike the wolf he'd spent about fifty years running around as. Flat no means he's up and out but anything else and he's all right with trying to convince her a little more.

"You haven't ever just fucked someone to relieve the stress?" he asks, leaning in to whisper the words against her ear. "I'm not nice but neither are you, Red. We're not the ones you take home to your parents. I can make you forget your own name, if you want. It's up to you."

"You don't want me," she snapped back, but there was a little bit of an inward-turned edge in her voice. "No one does." Natalia turned her head away when Bucky leaned down to whisper in her ear, but she couldn't help the shiver that coursed down her spine, nor the flush that stained pure skin a gentle scarlet. "I'm not human enough," she heard herself mutter, and silently cursed her careless tongue.

God, whatever. "No," she huffed, exasperated. "I haven't. Is that so hard to believe? And my parents hate me, so I'd never bring anyone home for them in the first place." Working down from 'angry' to 'miffed' was exhausting, but then again, she hadn't thrown him off, to her own surprise, no less.

"--and stop calling me Red. I have a name, damnit. Use it."

"Talia, I'd have to be six feet in the ground not to want you. You've seen you, right? And, for all you can be a controlling bitch, I kinda like it. You've got your shit together and you can take care of yourself. That's better than some girl waiting around to get rescued."

Bucky shifts his body some so he isn't pinning her quite so tightly. "I think it might do us good to get the energy out in bed. We might not snap at each other so goddamn much and we were a good team tonight. Besides - I wanna get my mouth all over this body of yours."

All she could do was just...stare up at him. Any other woman would have already jumped his bones, or run away screaming, at such a man speaking these exact same words. And who knew, perhaps he would exhaust her enough so that she'd sleep away the rest of the day without dreaming. Or waking. God, why not? It'd been over three years since she and Alexi had parted ways - hardly noticeable to a vampire, but she still felt his loss most keenly.

"...try not to remember that I'm not your chew toy," she had to snark at him, which was her own skewed mutter of acceptance before she fisted one hand in his thick hair and pulled his mouth down to hers. It was insane, yes, but in its own way it made sense; they were two monsters, no matter how hard she tried to pretend she wasn't, and the moment their mouths met, Natalie felt her blood begin to sing in her veins.

Yes.

She'd hate herself later.

The kiss is just this edge of rough and it only stokes the fire higher for him. Bucky loosens his hands on her so he can slide them down her arms where he'd had them pinned. Pinned no longer, though, because he needs her legs wrapped around his hips.

"Maybe you're not my chew toy," he says lowly, "But I'm yours. I trust you to hold back enough. Been wanting you to sink those fangs into my femoral since the alley earlier. Won't rest until I get it."

Natalia was panting softly when they finally broke apart, staring at the wolf atop her with mildly dazed eyes. She followed the direction of his hands, instinctively parting her thighs and winding lean strong legs around his hips, automatically molding her naked body against his.

"--I can't," she managed to rasp, squirming beneath him. "It's forbidden. Vampires aren't allowed--to pierce flesh with fangs." Biting off a soft moan, Natalia amended, "--or any other sharp object in order to drink blood." But God, wasn't it tempting?

"It doesn't matter if you're human...or not."

"Baby, do I look like I'm going to tell? I heal too fast for it to be noticeable. Unless you've got some kind of ankle monitor on, nobody is going to know and I'm asking you. You're not coercing me. I've just never seen anything as hot as you licking that blood off my neck earlier," Bucky says.

He doesn't get up while he speaks and he bites his lip, hard, so he can taste blood.

"Kiss me now."

This time, she growled at him. Partly for his mouth, partly for his damnable teasing. But the predator in her simply couldn't resist the beckoning scent of his blood, and Natalia surged up from the carpeted floor, devouring his mouth with hers and toppling them over again. She pinned him this time, sharp claws digging into Bucky's shoulders, the nails scraping across metal with a hellish screech.

But there was blood between them now, and the vampire moaned at the fresh, exquisite taste as it hit her tongue. Sharp, sharp fangs sliced into her own lower lip, and her blood mixed with his, driving her even higher. She was dangerously close to becoming a wild thing, hungry and wanton, an edge she'd never before skirted.

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