A Bid For Love

morning."
    "Well, let's see it. I can drool vicariously, if nothing else." Roxanne took the bag with some care and peeked inside. "Oh, Asher!" She lifted the white mug with its print of the villa they'd seen from the sailboat. "It's gorgeous! If the whole city looks like this, I can see why you were tempted to stay." Her smile landed on Scott. "So where were you all weekend, that I had to cover for you both? Off on another of your secret missions for Homeland Security?"
    Scott's grin lit the bullpen and spilled out to the surrounding floor. "I had my own tryst going on, darlin'. Absolutely the most perfect weekend of my life. A lover who's pure sex appeal, kisses that are nothing but heaven, and enough passion to light Houston. Yeah." He mirrored Asher's stance, leaning back in his chair and going further to prop his feet up on the edge of his desk. "Better than a perfect eight-second ride at the Astrodome."
    "God, I hate you both." Roxanne's smile belied any truth to the statement. "Nice to know somebody's got a decent social life."
    "Oh darlin', this ain't a social life; it's a love life. An everything life!"
    Asher blinked again the glow radiating from Scott.
    "What's an everything life?" Noah strode into the room and paused to do a bit of blinking of his own. "Okay, what's with the grin, Scott? Even for you, that's huge."
    "Just a right perfect weekend, bud. Sorry I missed your call." Scott's lightning glance nearly burned Asher's eyebrows right off. "Was busy making the down time last as long as possible."
    Dark eyebrows rose and Noah's lips quirked a bit. "Hey, far be it from me to interrupt that!" His gaze slid to Asher. "Okay, you look as insufferable as he does. Don't tell me your blind date worked out."
    "Oh, I'd definitely call it a work-out, yes." He ignored the very poorly-covered snort from Eva, who regularly gave him hell about his revolving bedroom door."I haven't felt this...renewed in my entire life."
    Noah's gaze swung between the two for a moment and he gave the tiniest head shake. "Great. I'm going to get nothing useful out of either of you today. You're both going to be too busy daydreaming of your girlfriends."
    "Aw, ease up, Noah." Scott stood, straightening his tie. "We're the FBI. The white knights. And we got work to do. Come on, Asher. Let's go make the rounds on our snitches. Gotta be something stewing out there." He snapped a salute at Warren Forbes, the unit supervisor, who had just come in the door. "Back on duty, never better, sir."
    Warren's brows drew together. "What are you on? If it's not legal, I don't want to know." The knitted brows unraveled and flew apart, climbing high as Asher followed in Scott's wake.
    "Oh, definitely never better. As close to Nirvana as I've ever been." Asher couldn't resist clapping Noah on the back so hard the other man stumbled. "As Wyatt Earp here says, perfect. Just perfect."

Chapter 6
----

    Scott couldn't help but grin, watching Asher with one of his snitches. Pure poetry. Straight to the point, every time. Asher probably spent less on information gathering than any other agent Scott knew.
    "Danny, I'm only going to say this once."
    Man, those gorgeous blue eyes could go ice-cold when the situation came up.
    "Your job is to be my eyes and ears out here. If you can't handle that, I know a lovely little fifteen-by-ten cell with a roomie named Big Moe just waiting for you."
    The snitch tried to look tough--for maybe five seconds--before he wilted under that freezing gaze. "All right. All right. I'll do better. I promise." A world of impotent anger sparked in his drug-reddened eyes, but defeat slumped his shoulders. "Whatever you want."
    "Now see, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Asher brushed a bit of imaginary lint off the snitch's coat, ignoring the flinch his gesture caused. "I got you a second chance. Don't waste it. Now, what's the latest going on with the 'Cudas? Are they just lying low after we busted their top brass for weapons dealing or are they hiding because they're into something new?"
    Scott barely hid his chuckle as information spilled from Danny's lips. His baby really was the best at this. The bloom of pride that so glorious a creature belonged to him sweetened the very air Scott breathed.
    "Hey." The sharp tone of Asher's voice brought Scott out of his thoughts. Asher had one hand firmly on Danny's shoulder and the other holding a small packet of dark...something. "Take a night off from Miss Emma. You stay alive far better if you're