Author: Magrat
Ratings: NC-17
Disclaimer: The characters don't belong to me; I'm just having fun with them. It keeps me off the streets.

Willow couldn't remember a week that had gone by so slowly, but finally it was Saturday night. She checked her watch, a few more minutes and Tara would be there. Her heart was pounding loudly and she wiped the palms of her hands on her jeans. She didn't think she had felt this nervous since she completed her last finals. Willow had managed to grab a few happy moments on the phone with Tara during the week, and she could tell the cop was stressed and that there was something big going on. Last night though Tara had phoned and had sounded a little drunk but very happy and promising her a great evening.

The phone rang and for a second Willow was worried about Tara cancelling on her. "Stupid, just answer the phone..." She picked up the phone. "Hi... uhh Tara... I'll be right down." They had agreed that Tara would call for her and wait outside her apartment building. Willow grabbed her overnight bag and left the apartment quickly, conscious of the fact that Tara was parked outside in a no-parking area.

Tara leaned against the hood of her car, waiting for Willow; she was hoping that tonight wouldn't be too much for her. The barbecue had turned into a celebration of the squad's successful operation. She knew the guys could get a bit rowdy and they were bound to come in for a bit of teasing.

Willow caught sight of Tara and her stomach flip-flopped. The cop was even sexier than she remembered. She was lounging against her car one booted foot propped up against the front wheel of the car, her arms folded over her chest. She was dressed in faded blue Levis and a white tank top. Willow wondered if Tara was trying to be deliberately provocative, but there was something so relaxed about her pose that she didn't think so.

"Hey," said Tara, grinning as Willow approached her. She wanted to pull her into her arms, but wasn't sure if Willow would feel uncomfortable with that right outside her home.

"Hey," said Willow, smiling, but the smile faded as she got closer to the blonde. She couldn't believe she had at first missed the bruise on her cheek and a line of little butterfly bandages across the bicep of her right arm. Willow run her fingertips over the bruise and stroked over the wound on her arm. "You're hurt."

"It's just a scratch," said Tara, the tenderness taking her by surprise. She took Willow's bag and stored it in the trunk of her car. She opened the passenger seat for the redhead. "We better get a move on... I might get a ticket."

Willow listened to the blonde laughing as she walked around to the other side of the car. She wondered if she was trying to deflect away the question about her injury. "So what happened to your arm?" she asked when they were both in the car,

"Oh come on Willow I haven't seen you all week, I want to talk about you not some stupid scratch," said Tara, pulling away from the kerb. "I missed you."

"You hardly know me," said Willow, quietly some of the conversation with Buffy coming back to her.

"I know," said Tara. "But I want to get to know you better and it might be hard to talk tonight. I h-hate to say this Willow, but we made a big arrest Thursday night and the gut confessed and well, everyone will be there tonight, celebrating."

Willow felt the smile freeze on her face. "Quantify everyone?"

"Uhm, some of the guys from the squad and their wives and husbands," said Tara, throwing a quick look at Willow's worried face. "It'll be great."

"K," said Willow, not totally convinced. She looked out the window of the car; there were so many things she wanted to ask Tara but she wasn't sure how to go about it. It felt weird to have been so intimate with someone and yet know so little about her. "Tara are you sure your friend won't mind me staying over?"

"No, they suggested it. It's my partner and his wife, they are great you'll love them; they are kinda like a second family to me," said Tara.

No extra pressure there then, thought Willow.

The both lapsed into silence for a while and Tara kept glancing surreptitiously at Willow, while she chewed on her bottom lip. She took a breath and decided she needed to breach the subject that had been banging about in her brain. "Uhm, W-Willow, uhm last w-weekend was I too rough? You know with you, when we, uhm you know..." Tara inwardly cursed herself for sounding like a bumbling teenager.

"Rough?" Willow feigning a puzzled expression, finding the blushing, stumbling cop quite charming. "No you were great... the best."

"Really?" asked Tara, a smile spreading across her face.

"I'll tell you next time," answered Willow playfully. "It might have been a one off."

"Sounds like a challenge," said Tara, her voice low and deep. "And I like a challenge."

Willow felt her throat go dry. She was hoping to make a witty retort but the words stuck in her throat.

Tara gripped the steering wheel, partly concentrating on the traffic and partly on the conversation with Willow. As much as she enjoyed the sexual banter and the feeling she got from Willow, she wanted to at least start the evening with some serious talking. Tara had done a lot of thinking over the last week and most of it had to do with the beautiful redhead who was sitting beside her. Chrissie had started her mind on the track that it was going on, but the bullet that had grazed her arm decided it for her; she was tired and sloppy and really needed some time off. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the thought would not have even occurred to her if it wasn't for the fact that she wanted time with Willow. Tara had spent too long in a dangerous profession not to trust to her instincts. Oh well, she thought here goes nothing. "Willow... I," she stopped; now she felt ridiculous. What could she say? I hardly know you, but we had great sex the other week, so on the off chance that you want to spend some time with me I took next week off work. Not like I even thought to ask her whether she could or even would want to spend time with me.

"Is there anything wrong?" asked Willow tentatively, feeling the conflict coming from the other woman.

"N-no..." a thought occurred to Tara. "Willow what do you do?"

"Oh, I am an engineer, I work at Structural Risk Management. We do multi-hazard risk assessment and mitigation, using mostly probabilistic techniques. I specialize in computational stochastic mechanics, finite element and boundary element techniques, stuff like that," said Willow, her voice starting with a fervent passion but tailing off as she realised she had lost her audience. "Okay, put it this way, I try to stop buildings and bridges from falling down because of things like terrorism and high winds."

"Uhm," said Tara, feeling intimidated by Willow and doubting if they were even on the same planet. She thought back to the redhead's beautiful apartment and compared it to her own cramped apartment in Brooklyn. She felt her confidence seeping away and found herself wondering if she should get out of this now before she got hurt.

"Oh it gets most people like that... I know I'm a geek, I can't help it. It must seem very boring compared to what you do... not that I find it boring; I don't, I love my job. It's just you might find it boring... not that I am trying to say that you're stupid, I'm not and please you should really stop me when I get like this; I babble when I'm nervous," said Willow breathlessly.

Tara wasn't sure if she felt better or worse after Willow's outburst but it was so cute that she couldn't help but smile. She decided tonight she would have a good time and enjoy being with Willow; after all she had spent the whole week looking forward to this. "It's cute."

Willow smiled and reached down and gently squeezed Tara's leg. "As long as you think so."

They seemed to relax a little and it wasn't long until they were pulling up outside Xander and Chrissie's house.

The party was already started, even at this early hour. Alex and his friends were playing in the yard and Xander was setting up the barbecue. Chrissie turned away from the action when she heard the car pull up. She went to the car, curious about the woman who had her friend in a spin. She watched the petite redhead get out of the car, she was slim and dressed casually in blue jeans and a long sleeved black shirt, her hair was shoulder length and shone beautifully in the sun. Tara grabbed a couple of bags from the back of her car and then whispered something into the redhead's ear that made her blush. They were a striking couple, Chrissie decided, and there was something about them that seemed to fit.

"Hey," said Chrissie, smiling pleasantly at Willow and offering her hand. "I'm Chrissie and you must be Willow.

Willow took the hand that was offered and smiled at the attractive black woman, there was something familiar about her that she couldn't quite put her finger on. "Hi, uhm thanks for letting me stay tonight.

"That's no problem. I couldn't let Tara be without you for another night," said Chrissie laughing lightly watching Tara squirm. "I mean you must have moved her for her to take next week off, I can't remember the last time that happened without her being ordered to."

Willow looked from the blushing Tara to Chrissie, a little confused.

"Willow, let's take these bags up to the room," said Tara sharply, hustling Willow towards the house.

Chrissie realised she had put her foot in it and silently mouthed sorry to Tara who had turned to look at her as she shut the house door. Tara shook her head as if to say don't worry about it.

Willow followed Tara up the stairs her mind racing over what was going on. Was Chrissie playing games? She didn't seem the type.

Tara opened the bedroom door and placed the bags on the bed. She almost didn't want to turn and face Willow worried that the she would see anger on her lover's face. "W-willow I am so s-sorry, I meant to tell you but then it didn't seem to be the right time and I didn't want to put any p-pressure on you. I have next week off but you don't have to spend any time with me... well I was hoping for a couple of dates but..."

Willow cut her off by kissing her softly on the lips, she broke off just long enough to say. "I've wanted to do that all week."

Tara relaxed into the kiss, her hands in Willow's hair, she pulled her close to her body, her heart roaring in her chest, this filled the ache she had been feeling all week. With regret she pulled away. "We should go downstairs, people will be arriving."

"I'd much rather stay here with you," said Willow, giving a pretend pout. "And by the way I have a few things that I need to get out of the way Monday, but apart from that I think I can be free to spend the rest of the week with you."

For a moment Tara couldn't believe her ears. "That's good... I mean that's better than good that's great. Are you really sure?"

Willow pressed her finger against Tara's lips. "Don't try and talk me out of it... I need to get to know you better. This might make you run for the hills but I feel something for you and I want to find out if we are as special together as I think we could be."

"You think that... I don't know... I m-mean really think that."

"Tara let's go and enjoy the party. I thought you had some celebrating to do," said Willow, pleased that she had articulated what was in her heart. "Could you pass me the bottle of wine I have in my bag?"

"Sure," said Tara, her earlier fears gone. "And this is going to be one hell of a night."

The early part of the evening had been spent eating and watching the neighborhood kids play. Willow was surprised how Xander, who she was expecting to be a tough cop, was absolutely shamelessly romping with his son and friends and still so very attentive to his wife. He seemed too tender a man to be in the job that he was in, but she smiled when she thought about it deeply; Tara was his partner and she was falling... no she couldn't think about that; it was too soon.

Despite his serious protest, Alex was put to bed and his friends dispersed to their homes. The squad got down to some serious partying. Willow couldn't believe how natural it felt, like they had been doing this forever and like she spent lots of time with these people all the time; the respect they felt for their Lieutenant transferring with ease to her "date". Eventually Willow found herself sitting on the back porch steps, right between Tara's thighs, who sat on the stair above playing with the redhead's hair and stroking her neck. With them were Xander, Chrissie, Dawn and Dawn's date, the latest line of endless stream of handsome well-muscled guys who always bored the young Summers after a couple of weeks. Willow felt buzzed and took another swig of the bottle of beer she was drinking. "God I don't think I've drank this much beer since I was at college."

Xander leaned over and clinked his bottle against Willow's. "But you're doing a great job of it."

"So Will, is it true you've got Tara so smitten with you that she has taken the week off?" asked Dawn, giggling. "For about the first time in living memory."

"Hey guys," warned Tara. "Don't."

"So it must be true, if you are getting so defensive about it," laughed Dawn, who ducked as Tara lobbed Alex's football at her.

"You've got to admit Maclay it is practically unheard of," said Xander, joining in with the fun.

"Hey, go easy on them, you two, " said Chrissie. Even though she was relieved that Willow and Tara had been so happy all night, she still felt a bit guilty from the earlier exchange when Willow had so obviously not had a clue what was going on.

"Oh trust the sober pregnant woman to put a damper on our fun," said Xander, playfully tickling his wife. "Come on I have been her partner for years and finally..."

"Xander shut up," said Chrissie.

"Anything you say, my darling," said Xander, kissing her on the top of her head.

"Wow, we can see who wears the pants in this house," said Dawn.

Tara relaxed, as the Xander became the topic of the groups' good-humoured banter. "Why don't we go for a walk?" she whispered into Willow's ear.

Tara got to her feet and gave Willow a hand up. "We are just going for some air."

"Is that what we call it now a days," said Dawn.

Tara gave Dawn a silent a glare in return.

The catcalls carried on as they walked from the group. Tara took Willow around the side of the house where she knew there was a little secluded nook between the fence and the shed.

"Sorry about that," said Tara leaning back against the fence.

"Hey, no need to apologize, they were having fun," said Willow, moving in on Tara until one of her legs was between the between the blonde's. "But this seems more fun to me."

They met in a hard burning kiss, Willow grinding her thigh into Tara and receiving a nip on her lip in return. They stopped for a moment breathless, the warm late spring air barely shifting around them, the chirrups of the insects beating in a rhythm with their heartbeats.

"I want you," said Willow with a simple statement of purpose.

"H-here," said Tara, scanning the surroundings, even with the knowledge that she picked this place because it was out of sight.

Willow could see the mix of fear and arousal in Tara's eyes. She started to unbutton Tara's jeans, as her lips went back to her hot mouth. She was surprised that there was little resistance from Tara; she slipped her hand inside. Willow felt her knees go week when she realised that Tara had gone commando, but she pushed her hand through damp curls until she reached her goal. She heard Tara take in a sharp breath as she rubbed 2 fingers over her aroused clit, before removing her hand. "I want to taste you."

Tara shuddered with hunger for the redhead.

Willow kept eye contact with the blonde as she sank to her knees. She pulled Tara's jeans down with her as she went.

Tara pushed the palm of her left hand against the fence behind her while the other wrapped in Willow's hair; she parted her legs as much as she could.

With difficulty Willow maneuvered her head so she could lap gently on Tara's sex. She used her hands to try and part the blonde's thighs so she could have greater access to that aching flesh she desired. She started to lick faster and harder urged on by Tara's hand moving to her neck and pushing her closer, to the point where to blonde was almost riding her face. Willow didn't feel any discomfort, just a desire to please Tara, to take her over the edge, the movement of her tongue now moving in a vibrating buzz. She felt the blonde's hand tighten even more on her neck and she heard her repeat her name over and over as she came hard and fast in her mouth.

Tara hauled Willow to her feet and backed her against the fence. She kissed her, her own taste on the redhead's lips making her dizzy with desire. Tara undid Willow's jeans while plunging her tongue into her mouth. Without much ceremony Tara entered Willow with two fingers, the mixture of alcohol and a heady passion making her movements firm but rhythmic, her thumb rubbed quickly over Willow's hard bundle of nerves. They were gone, moving now together; the darkness swirled around them, New Jersey had melted away leaving a burning that screamed to be sated. Willow cried and her knees buckled as release finally tore through her.

Tara held onto Willow not allowing her to collapse and wrapped her arms around her; she held her close until her breathing slowed. "Are you okay, baby?"

"I... I'm fine," said Willow. "Not quite where sure I am, but fine."

Tara started to laugh. "You are so cute and I think I should pull my pants up."

Willow nuzzled in close. "I don't know, I like you like this."

They straightened their clothing and then kissed tenderly both of them not yet willing to give up their private place.