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Jack Robinson stirred in his bed to the distraction of a sound he quickly dismissed for the desperation of sleep. It had been difficult after how thoroughly Phryne had teased him over the course of dinner and drinks to begin to think of sleep, for starters. His 'discomfort' along with the strange new bed had him struggling with sleep from the early hours of the night.
"Mmm ..." he grumbled sleepily, forcing himself to relax - any sounds out in the hallway were well and justly belonging to other guests. He was a policeman first and foremost, but as he laid there, he convinced his senses that sounds were completely normal. He wouldn't wake to the gentle padded footsteps out in the hall or creaking around him. If he was to be presentable the next morning, he needed a proper night's rest. With a steady sigh, Jack let his arms go loosely at his sides - let his legs relax under the covers - and put himself to sleep with thoughts of hobbies he dearly missed.
The next time Jack woke, he frowned before his eyes had the chance to blink opened. There was a very strange sensation on his wrist. The moment Jack's eyes focused in the darkness around him, they widened - his own darbys were being used against him! Before any further restraint could be cast upon him, Jack grabbed the intruder's closest wrist, and struggled until he had cuffed it with his. The very last thing he wanted was yet another case at Prudence Stanley's house, so he disabled the mystery. Whoever had dared try to subdue him would be made very clear as soon as he hit the lights.
It was only after Jack had ceased his thrashing movements that he realized he recognized the voice gasping from beneath him. And laughing. Was that laughter he was hearing?
"My my Inspector," was whispered underneath him, and Jack was horrified that he had just wrestled in earnest - grabbed and cuffed - Miss Phryne Fisher.
"What ... what're you doing in here?!" he hissed quietly back to her, immediately taking his weight off her body. He tried not to think about what he might have touched or grabbed in their struggle. She'd been wearing a silky material underneath a robe of sorts. If her arms had only been bare, Jack would have known sooner about the sex of his attacker - the soft, smooth skin would certainly have given her away.
"Well I WAS here to cuff you to the bed and then interrogate you about your feelings for me ... because I knew you would only turn me away again if I came to you without such a devious plot ..."
"-Yes, I most certainly would-"
"... But now you've cuffed us BOTH to the bed, Jack," Phryne explained quietly still, teetering on the twin bed until she steadied herself on her side, and tugged lightly at her right wrist secured to his. "See?"
"What? TO the bed?" Jack breathed in panic, giving his right wrist a tug that had Phryne's whole hand bumping none-too-delicately against the iron bars of the headboard.
"Ow!"
"I'm ... my apologies," Jack mumbled naturally at the thought of hurting her when he suddenly remembered Phryne had snuck into HIS room, and planned to cuff HIM to the bed with his own cuffs. "Wait - why am I apologizing?"
Phryne bit her smiling lip when she realized something of her own. "Umm ... Jack?"
"What?" he snapped under his breath, the comforter kicked into a messy pile between them.
"Promise you won't yell at me ...?" she tried, slinking down into the bed a little with the very thought of having to confess her news to Jack.
"What have you done, Miss Fisher ...?"
"The keys ... might be ... out of range."
"WHAT?!"
A few other members of the household awoke to the loud sound, but since it was solitary and drowned nicely into the silence, they found their heads resting comfortably back onto their pillows.
Phryne breathed unsteadily on top of Jack, having slapped her free hand over his mouth. Dressed in a very expensive lavender pyjama set and matching, hand-sewn robe with leaves embroidered into the collar, she laid draped over Jack who wore simple striped men's pyjamas.
"Shhh," she instructed, suddenly blushing at the fact that she hadn't needed to throw herself on top of him to keep him quiet. She couldn't help noticing, however, that it certainly helped to silence him. "Promise to be very quiet if I take my hand away ..."
Jack didn't necessarily want that hand pried off of his mouth - nor the warm, slender body to slip off of him again - but he knew better than to enjoy it just then.
Slowly, he nodded.
"Good boy," she purred wickedly, easing her hand off of his mouth to put some space between them. In the modest light of the moon and the light cast under the bedroom door, Jack could catch the smirk to match the most ludicrous of teases. 'Good boy' ... why on earth would he want to be good, tied to a bed with the one woman he had wanted to touch for so long? But then he remembered Phryne's appetite for sex, and the large household surrounding them. He was too often doing the right thing with Phryne, but he also sensed that it simply wasn't the time to release himself to desire.
Jack shifted and cleared his throat: "Yes, well ... let's just figure a way out of these, shall we?"
Phryne just barely contained a moan at Jack's impressive - if frustrating - sense of self-control. It excited her to great lengths, wondering how and when she might break through his worrisome defences.
The smile on Phryne's lips twisted again as she hummed seductively: "If you insist ..."
Jack found it best to ignore such appetizing sounds, glancing around the blackness of his surroundings - imagining that he and Phryne could tease one another after they had escaped from their shackles.
"Where did you leave the keys?"
"I ... didn't think I'd need them so suddenly," Phryne admitted apologetically, twisting so she could prop herself up on her elbow. "I only grabbed the darbys. I thought I would get the key after I turned on the lights."
Then Jack felt rather confused. "How ... did you even find them in the dark?"
"I was in here earlier ... I umm ... I mean ..."
"You went through my things?" Jack gawked, being very careful to keep his tone of voice as low as possible.
"I'm sorry, Jack," she groaned in return, flipping herself over so she wouldn't have to witness Jack's disapproval of her selfish plan. She had wanted fun, and she had only caused them both grief. She felt terrible.
It was difficult, watching Phryne's sadness. Jack saw the spin just as well as he saw the perplexing look on Phryne's face as she did it, feeling remorse at the harsh way he had spoken to her. She had certainly only meant to tease him, and if the woman of his waking dreams saw it upon herself to bound him to the bed and excited him, then who was he to complain? After all, Phryne always did have a rather strange sense of amusement.
"Phryne," Jack started tenderly, touching his fingers to the top of her shoulder. Unable to see the rest of her, he tread very carefully as his left palm smoothed softly down her arm. It seemed a rather awkward position to be placed in, with both of their right wrists cuffed, leaving him fully able to spoon her smaller body as they each laid on their sides. He imagined it was a position he would enjoy very much had they been more purposefully sharing the bed, but quickly shook that thought from his mind, and pressed with a caring voice. "Phryne ...? Are you alright?"
Phryne was so ashamed at the tears brimming that she closed her eyes completely only to feel the droplets push past her thick lashes. She counted two tear drops fall to the pillow before she reached up with her other hand to fix her make up. This wasn't like her - she didn't cry over such adventures - but things were always different with Jack. They always had been. Still, she would not allow herself to cry.
"I'm fine ... But I really am sorry, Jack."
"It's okay," he whispered, thinking that it definitely was NOT okay if anyone found them in such a state. "Did you by any chance lock the door, at least?"
Phryne warmed with the hint of a tease, smiling: "Yes ... of course I did that."
Jack chuckled despite himself: "Okay ... well, that's something. Now my keys are in my suitcase on the other side of the room, so I don't know how we're getting out of here. This is a soundly-made bed."
"Do you have your gun?"
"We are NOT putting a bullet through my own police-distributed darbys!" he gasped for effect, earning a little chortle that captured his heart. He smiled at the sound of Phryne's uniquely amusing laughter.
"Yes, I don't suspect that would be easily explained ..."
Jack smiled and thought for another moment before perking up and tucking a little closer to her with excitement. "Do you have your dagger?"
"I wasn't planning to torture you," she chuckled easily, throwing her head back to enjoy the quiet instinct along with Jack's own rumbled laughter. "Goodness Jack, what kind of woman do you take me for?"
Then Jack gazed across at her, and the very sight of her face laid on his pillow like that had warmth spreading from his heart downward. "You're a prepared woman," he explained with affection that Phryne could see in the glow of the soft lighting. "I always assume you are ready and willing to fight off any perpetrators."
"I dare say you're no perpetrator," Phryne teased, adjusting herself a little closer to that self-contained man at her side with her right arm somewhat awkwardly crossed between them. "More like a ... partner in crime."
For the time being, Jack had all but forgotten about the situation in which they had found themselves. He didn't freeze or withdraw when Phryne shuffled closer - his smile simmered with the leg that draped over his. "... And just what crime will we be committing tonight, Miss Fisher?"
There was some light shifting from one or two doors down, but neither flinched. They stared at one another with a raw, heated lust that was only unveiled by the privacy they were afforded for once in a very long time.
Phryne still brought herself closer to Jack, even with the way the cuff was digging into her wrist at the strange position. She moved so closely, in fact, that she draped her body over Jack's just like before to finally free herself of the arm in between their chests. She drew a finger over Jack's chin with her free hand, and then pressed her palm to his chest to adjust her legs.
Jack choked on his breath for a moment at the new position - Miss Fisher astride his hips. As she had felt him hard between her legs just earlier that day, it hardly seemed logical to be shy about his reaction, but somehow he still felt as though he were dishonouring her by it.
"Miss Fisher ..."
"When I'm cuffed with you to the bed," she started, moaning into his ear after having leaned down to offer him a view of her revealing nightwear. "... And when I'm sitting on top of this very ... pleasingly stiff appendage ... I would really rather you call my by my given name, Inspector ..."
It took an entire minute for Jack to close his parted lips, open his eyes again, and push down every desire in him that was raging to throw her down onto the bed and grind his hips into hers. Once he had properly contained himself, he licked his lips to see Phryne sit upright atop him again.
"... And yet I'm still 'Inspector'?"
"Well, that is rather more of a fancy of mine," she teased, shimmying her shoulders for his benefit while she tried to keep in the moan at the back of her throat. Straddling Jack proved to be a very distracting feat indeed. "I do hope you'll allow it ... just this once ...?"
There was only so much teasing he could take. He was at his breaking point, and the next words out of his mouth were carefully constructed in order to try and ease the strong, lively sexual tension between them.
They had to be assertive words to let Phryne know that he could keep his control in all situations. A strong, authoritative voice would do the trick.
"I ... uh ... a ... w-we ..."
Phryne moaned again with a simple smile that told of her ample life experience as a girl who had grown up with nothing and gained it all. "I don't suppose that little speech has anything to do with- ... Uhh ..."
She was silenced when Jack's free hand closed over her hip, keeping her weight just where he wanted it while he lifted his hips from the bed to remind her what she did to him. Phryne's reaction was a reminder of its own - she was weak for Jack, too.
As much as he wanted to tease her for losing her words just as easily, he was much too fascinated with the way she tilted back her head, and leaned onto him. She was already moving in rhythm over his body and pressing against the hard gift straining against his pyjama trousers - causing him to throb mindlessly. His grip tightened just slightly over her hip, encouraging her movements.
"Jack ..." she panted into his ear, rocking back and forth with her hips tilted so that she rubbed deliciously on top of him. "Jack ... I can't take this any longer ... all this teasing ..."
"Might I remind you ..." Jack panted back - more reserved about his desire, but definitely as excited. "That you ... are the one ... who starts these things ..."
"Because you refuse to end them," she pouted against his ear, suddenly unable to help herself from the vulnerable ear for the taking. She eyed it playfully.
Jack pulled his right hand again only to be reminded of their situation. He was becoming desperate to have her - the way she panted and pleaded with him giving way to a very different Jack he hadn't known himself.
"Let's ... let's get out of these," he growled with such strength and yet such composure that it broke Phryne completely.
She allowed herself everything she wanted: biting, kissing, and even licking at his ear while her free hand started unbuttoning his striped shirt.
The moment Phryne's tongue slipped into his ear, Jack's eyes opened wide - that was a new sensation. He shivered and felt completely helpless to the onslaught of Phryne's affections. The way she moved her tongue ... He wanted his fingers inside of her. He wanted to bite her just to hear her scream. He wanted to take her with a rough sort of force he hadn't even fully allowed himself to fantasize before. He was surprised with the thoughts that raced through his mind with her tongue in his ear. His panting was becoming deeper and louder.
"Jack ..." Phryne moaned - her voice breaking at the need that pulsed through her from her spine to her toes. "Jack ... touch me ..."
His logic and self-control blurred shamefully as his hand snuck around her hips to press between her legs.
"I've imagined having you this way so many times," Phryne admitted freely in her state of wild arousal. Her hair fell to tickle Jack's nose when she twisted her head at the sensation of Jack's fingers pressing into her pyjama bottoms. She exhaled, and took her breath in all at once. "Jack-"
"You imagined we were cuffed at your aunt's house ... after a murder investigation?" Jack teased, regaining some semblance of control again when Phryne was rightly distracted by his hand.
Although Jack's hand only cupped her sex with a gentle massage, Phryne felt her legs tremble and a whimper escape her lips. It was a sound Jack thought he would never witness, much less create.
"Jack ..."
And then, with Phryne lowered weakly on top of him, Jack took the opportunity to whisper something appetizing into her waiting ear: "Just imagine what I could do with both hands ..."
That was all it took for Phryne to roll off of him onto her stomach to start working on a way out of the restraints. She panted as her eyes took in the position of the cuffs and the size of item she would need to pick the lock. She also eyed the iron rod at the head of the bed, but imagined there would be no chance that she would be able to bend or break it. Instead, she mindlessly patted herself down for any sort of thing that might fit into the lock.
"Do you need help with that?" Jack found himself teasing with a very pleased, mocking grin on his face.
Phryne didn't even notice - so focused was she on earning BOTH of his hands on her squirming body. She shivered at the thought. Would he really touch her again? Just as she started to doubt Jack would be as brave a second time around, she felt his free hand rest on the small of her back.
"Jack ... now is not the time," she whispered, eyes frantically searching any reachable surface that might have useful items.
Undeterred - perhaps even more encouraged - Jack smiled, and slipped his hand over her backside. He found that causing the trouble for a change was a very pleasurable strategy, and he relished in Phryne's whimpered reactions as he allowed his hands to drift down the backs of her thighs.
When Jack's palm rested on her right thigh, and only one finger traced back up her left, Phryne halted. Was he about to touch her again? Would he be able to feel her heat on his fingers? She held her breath in wait.
With great focus and adoration, Jack watched the reactions Phryne gave him to his every touch. She certainly couldn't handle a tease as well as she could deliver one. He smiled and kept that thought for another time.
"Jack ...?" Phryne asked when his finger stilled over her leg. She wanted to ask him to continue, but when she thought about what she wanted even more, it was to have both of his hands free. "Will you help me with this? They're yours after all."
It was difficult not to find the humor in Phryne's words when the meaning was so clearly invested in her tone. He chuckled and moved a little closer and put his desire aside for her, as he always had. As he always would, if need be.
"I can't see what's on the night stand," Phryne started distractedly. "Can you- ... Jack?" When she turned with desire in her eyes again, Jack realized his length was pressing into her side. He pursed his lips, acknowledged the accident with a nod, and answered her initial question.
"Yes ... I uh ... I don't think I have anything - or wait ... I think I have a pen, a book, a folder from the case we just solved, and ... my reading glasses."
When Phryne's eyes lit up with possibility, Jack knew exactly what she found so promising. "No ... no, Phryne, not the glasses-"
"They'll be so perfect!" she whispered, adjusting herself over to reach the night side table on her side of the bed, already opening the top drawer as Jack sighed and watched her work. "I guarantee you this very same pair once we're out of this horrible predicament, Jack ..."
"-A predicament you enlisted, I'll remind you-"
"... I just need to bend them a little."
He allowed her to fully destroy his reading glasses while he watched, because he loved her. He couldn't imagine any material thing he wouldn't see her destroy if that meant their happiness together - if it meant hers.
"Almost," Phryne whispered cautiously, so intent on unlocking the cuff that she didn't notice Jack's intense, romantic gaze.
Without pause, Jack interrupted her work. "Phryne ...? I would like to ... take you out to dinner."
"It's a little late in the evening for that," Phryne teased, glancing over to catch his meaning and dropping her task to gaze back at the man she loved. "You mean you'd like to court me, don't you, you hopeless romantic?"
Jack chuckled: "Do I have to be hopeless?"
"It doesn't hurt."
They were both enjoying the tender moment when Phryne heard the glasses tumble between the bed and the wall. She looked guiltily over to Jack who only rolled his eyes and laid back.
"Well. That's that, then."
Phryne huffed in frustration, and wriggled like a child who lost her candy. "This is ... ridiculous!"
"Keep your voice down," he chastised quietly, resting next to the most infuriating, terrifying, seductive, and intelligent woman he'd ever known. He enjoyed the fact that he hadn't run from her, and that he was confident enough in his own masculinity and professionalism to stand - or lie - aside the lady detective.
"Jack?"
"Yes?"
"I have an idea ... but you're not gonna like it."
"Well, I'm afraid there isn't much that could make this situation any more humiliating than being caught like THIS," he confessed, earning a prompting smile that snuck to Phryne's lips every time she was silently asking for his participation in one of her schemes.
It was silent throughout the house, and all other guests were sleeping, except for one who awoke to a very faint noise that grew suddenly, and then grew faint again. Hugh Collins sat up in the guest bed with groggy vision and a yawn to get to his feet and check out the sound.
It sounded like furniture sliding, Hugh decided, poking his head out into the hall only to hear the sound twice more. He shot a glance in the direction of the sound - was it coming from the inspector's room? Hugh's eyes widened at the very thought of trouble coming to his supportive superior.
Suddenly the hallway became darker as one door closed, and then as Hugh padded down the hall, yet another door closed that had been dark anyway. There was some mumbling, but Hugh wondered just what on earth was going on. Was it only members of the police constabulary that cared about mysterious and dangerous sounds striking in the dead of night? He imagined that must be the case.
With one more scraping sound - yes, that was it - Hugh directed his attention to the detective inspector's door, staring at it. He couldn't imagine Jack might need help in a small scuffle, but all the same, Hugh Collins knocked.
Phryne and Jack both paused in their aerobic movements to turn their attention to the door. They were each on hands and knees on the bed, side-by-side, trying to use their weight and energy to shift the bed when pulling with one hand each hadn't yielded any results.
"I-Inspector ...?" Hugh asked through the door, giving both Phryne and Jack some relief. He didn't sound to be assuming anything unadulterated. "Are you alright in there?"
Then Jack dropped his head and sighed at the thought that if Hugh from down the hall had heard them, everyone else likely heard them, too. Phryne didn't bother with the worrying, and hurried around the bed to contort herself so she could reach those glasses again.
"Inspector?"
Before Hugh could imagine him in any danger, Jack called out as fatigued as he was: "Yes, Constable?"
"Oh, you're up," Hugh said, blinking with some confusion and a boyish frown he used when he had no idea what he was supposed to think. "Very good then, Sir ... I just ... heard a disturbance ...?"
Phryne stood with a very satisfied look on her face when she showed she uncuffed herself. She modelled her free arm while Jack rolled his eyes.
"But everything's alright then ...?" Hugh asked, "Isn't it, Sir?"
"Yes, Constable Collins. Everything is just fine," Jack sighed, sending Phryne an appreciative smile.
"And the noise, Sir?" Hugh asked in bewilderment when the door was suddenly pulled open and Miss Fisher stood there before him with her lavender robe cinched appropriately at the waist - her hair properly fluffed back into place.
"Hello, Hugh," she smiled widely, gesturing back toward the shifted bed and the irritated inspector sitting along its edge. "I saw a large possum, and I came to ask Jack to help me remove it, when it followed me right into here. And lo and behold, the godforsaken thing crawled behind the bed! Wouldn't you know it."
"A possum?" Hugh asked, worried for the other members in the house if there was a possum roaming, causing trouble.
"Yes, but the inspector very graciously let it out the window."
"Onto the roof, Miss?" he asked, causing a humored furrow of Phryne's brow as she realized the flaw in her story. It was then that Jack lifted himself to his feet to chime in for assistance.
"Constable," Jack started with an authoritative voice that melted Phryne and reminded her of the reason she had so desperately looked to unfasten them. "Could you be sure that no one else is roaming the halls?"
"Certainly, Sir," Hugh answered so willingly, Phryne smiled back at the unwavering man fast approaching.
"Remind me why I have to return to my own room," Phryne teased, raising her hands to his chest for just a moment to do up one of the buttons he'd forgotten in his haste to make himself presentable again.
"Because," he answered, catching one of her wrists in his hand. "Tomorrow we're leaving this place, and we can wait one night without release."
"Speak for yourself," Phryne quickly returned in quiet tones, insinuating with an arch of her brow that she participated in a solitary pleasuring every now and again.
"Everyone's in their rooms out here," Hugh assured, waiting for Phryne to pass him after Jack requested the young constable walk the Honourable Miss Fisher back to her room. It was only when Hugh noticed the darbys shining brightly thrown haphazardly into the inspector's clothing luggage that he became confused. Didn't Jack keep the darbys in a briefcase with his police reports? Hugh wished the inspector a good night and closed the door before wondering any further, and paused in the hallway. If Hugh knew anything about Jack's work habits, it was that his supervisor kept the darbys either on his person or carefully tucked into his work case. In the wrong hands, cuffs could certainly propose a grave element of danger.
"It's this way," Phryne hummed as she walked fluidly down the hall, back to her room. She spoke with a healthy familiarity of her kindness that had Hugh dismissing his previous thoughts. After all, what fun could such a restrictive device be, anyway?