Michael’s lips twisted as he suppressed a grin at Nikita’s hilarious joke.

Sitting behind his desk, Michael looked up into a smiling face framed with cascading blonde hair. "Nikita, what is … this?"

She bent over his shoulder and flipped forward a few pages. "Keep on reading it Michael. It’s good to know what others think of you. You know, it’s like … well, think of it as gathering intel." The last few words’ upward inflection were said with a moue of her lips as she peered out from under her lashes.

He scanned a few lines, flipped ahead, and continued on for a moment. He saw descriptions of his hand to hand and strategic planning skills, his ‘wizardry’ at achieving end game despite ‘all odds’, his ability to manipulate those who sought to manipulate him, and his prowess at seduction in his valentine targets. "Ni-ki-ta," his voice deepened as it became threateningly softer, "who wrote this?"

A chuckle that sounded like it had come from a longtime smoker reached his ears. "Just stay with it, Michael, you might learn something." With that Nikita sauntered out of his office, but not before sending him a quick look over her shoulder that spoke volumes about how close she was to laughing out loud.

--

Someone groaned and neither of them knew which one had enough breath to make the sound. As the musk of their love making settled heavily around them, they realized that this night had changed the course of their lives forever. They’d been unable to withstand the inexorable pull, the magnetic forces that had bound them for all of what seemed to be eternity. That night, in the park outside of Nikita’s apartment, they had met for what had been planned as a nighttime picnic … a chance for Michael to tell Nikita that she would be safer if they did not stay together … but it quickly transformed into a wild foray into the underbrush. Nikita had brought a blanket, ostensibly to sit on while sharing her coffee-filled thermos. They’d passed on the coffee, for which Michael was saddened as Nikita’s perfection with coffee was legendary in Section, and instead had stroked her eyebrow with his thumb …

Michael read on in an attempt to determine exactly what Nikita was referring to when she had implied he needed to learn something from this crudely written story. He knew whomever had written it didn’t know Nikita’s coffee.

… their passion had accelerated beyond the ability to be cautious about their vulnerability to the world …

‘I would never lose control and become vulnerable in the open like that. Besides, it’s … crude,’ thought Michael.

… as his tongue caressed her sweet horn of desire, …

"Sweet horn?" Michael snorted, surprising himself and was immediately grateful that he’d not reinstated the surveillance in his office.

… after climaxing four times …

… the flush of love …

… and in the aftermath, the bite marks on her neck and the small red hemorrhages in her eyes denoted how strenuous their lovemaking had been …

… oh Michael, I love you. I love you too, Nikita …

Enough! He shut off the PDA and rose, intent on finding Nikita. Surely his ‘superior powers of gathering intel’, as the story had described, could be used in order to discover what Nikita was getting at. "What could I learn from this drivel?"

--

Finding Nikita eating a half-salad and mineral water in the cafeteria with a few other operatives, he asked her if he could speak with her privately.

"So, whad’ja think?" Her eyes twinkled with the laughter he’d seen earlier.

"Ni-ki-ta," pausing as he scanned the room before meeting her gaze, "you must tell me what your point is." Internally he sighed, noting his lack of creativity in beginning his ‘gathering of intel’.

"My point?"

"Of showing me the story."

She was a little disappointed. After all, she knew he knew about the many stories written about them by operatives who had little other form of entertainment in Section as they’d discussed the importance of ignoring them. And she thought he’d known about the "sex in a public place" challenge …

"Well," She looked around for eavedroppers – her lunch mates had wisely moved away as Michael had requested - she spoke quietly enough that no microphones would be able to pick up her voice. "… I was hinting that maybe we should go for another coffee."

Moments passed as Michael stared at her. He then looked around the cafeteria. Nikita kept her eyes on his.

"Don’t you think that would be … reckless?"

Again, she dropped her head, breathed in and looked through her lashes at him. "Mie-kull, don’t you think that could be … fun?

With one raised eyebrow, he stepped back and pivoted on his heel, as he left towards the direction of his office. "I have a profile to finish. Meet me tonight … at the swing set … at 9".

--

Nikita’s thoughts as she exited the cafeteria were gleeful. "I wonder what I could get him to do with my next story?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Author's note: Many thanks to Kathleen and to Rita for their wise words. This was written in response to a Title Challenge put forth at The Challenge Board by Shanola. In a way, this story is not my own ... it's an amazing experience, having a story write itself and merely having to type the words. In another way, this story is not my own -- standard disclaimers apply.