***

“How the hell do you manage to afford a place like this?” Jace asks wide eyed as he stared at house just before stepping inside.

I shrug “Murdering people pays pretty well.”

His eyes snap to me, gazing at me not only in shock at my words, but there was a flash of something that looked like sympathy?

I don’t bother over analysing the look. I was too tired to be honest; we had just dumped the bodies of the two a-holes, cleaned out the back of the car and driven 45 minutes to get back to the house. I needed sleep. If only I could sleep.

Chris walks into the hallway just as I’m taking my jacket off and hanging it on the rack. He has a smile on his face that is extremely forced, and he looks a little nervous. I look at him questioningly.

“What have you done?” I accuse.

“Um...Well you know what Connors like...” he drifts off, and I close my eyes inhaling deeply as I immediately know what he is getting at.

“Who’s Connor?” Jace asks, looking between me and Chris in confusion about what we were talking about.

“That would be me civilian!” Connor walks in holding his hands in the air and smiling cheerfully. He walks straight up to Jace, holding his hand out and greeting him in that man way which involves their hands slapping together and doing this weird shoulder hug thing. Men and their weird habits. “You must be Jace?”

Jace nods “Yeah, cheers for letting me crash with you by the way. I sort of don’t want to be killed by drug dealers.”

Connor laughs, and then turns to me while pointing at Jace “I like him already.” He puts his arm over Jace’s shoulder while leading him into the living room. “And don’t worry about crashing, any friends of Faith’s is a friend of ours.”

“He’s not my friend.” I mutter, apparently not low enough because Jace and Connor both turn to look at me. Connor looks amused and confused as he stares between me and Jace.

“Ohhh I get it, you two bumped uglys and now you want to kill each other?” Connor guesses, and I shoot him daggers “No offence mate, but if it came to a fight between the two of you, she would beat you like a bitch.” Connor laughs as he slaps Jace’s back. I smile arrogantly at Jace, who rolls his eyes and scoffs.

They both walk into the house, and I turn to Chris.

“Why is he like an excited toddler when he meets new people?” I ask Chris exasperated.

He shrugs “He was an only child; he takes all the company he can get.”

I scowl as I walk into the living room and see Connor handing Jace a beer while they both laugh like they have known each other for years. I knew Connor could make friends with someone instantly, but this is ridiculous. I turn to Chris ready for him to join in my glares at the new best buddies in the kitchen, but find he is not by my side anymore but walking over to the two while requesting a beer of his own. He cracks the lid off the beer, and shrugs while looking at me as if saying ‘hey, I like the guy.’

“Where’s Drake?” I question as I give up on Chris sharing my views on having Jace invade our house. I walk into the kitchen roughly snatching the beer out of Connors hand and sitting on the table. He glares at me, before grabbing another beer.

“Pissing.” Connor simply replies as I take sip of my beer.

“Lovely.” I comment dryly, suddenly not wanting the beer in my hand anymore. Chris looks at me with a sly smirk on his face, before lifting his eyebrows suggestively. I ignore his look, knowing very well what he is getting at.

Drake walks into the kitchen at this point, buttoning his jeans back up. He looks up into the kitchen, then quickly gives Jace the once over as if sizing him up. I think Jace felt a little uncomfortable, whereas the rest of us were used to this. Since Drake has been an agent for 6 years of his life, he did not trust people easily. Who could blame him.

“Jace, this is Drake.” Connor introduces them. He looks at Drake, shooting him a back off look “He’s not going to pull a gun out on us, he is an old friend of Faith’s remember?”

Drake relaxes a little as he remembers that I know Jace. I scowl as Connor once again refers to Jace as my friend, causing Jace to smirk at my reaction. Drake walks up Jace, and after a few agonising seconds of tense silence a smile spreads on his face.

“Pleased to meet you man.” Drake greets, doing the same man handshake/hug thing.

“You too.” Jace replies, but I can see he is still a little on edge by Drake’s presence. Drake was not the easiest person to get along with, unless you’ve known him for a while. “So, are all of you like assassins?” Jace questions suddenly.

He doesn’t beat around the bush does he?

“No, only me and Chris are. Connor is beautician while Drake here is an astronaut.” I reply sarcastically, and everyone but Jace laughs.

“Ignore her. She’s a bitch 95% of the time.” Chris chuckles and I flip him off.

“I’ve noticed.” Jace replies, smirking slightly in my direction. The guys all laugh again, including Drake much to my surprise.

“But yeah we all are. Drake’s my partner.” Connor points at Drake, who confirms this by raising his beer bottle slightly. “Anyway, how are you taking this? You know the whole people at your work being drug dealers and no longer breathing?”

Jace shrugs “It’s a fucking shock I can say that much. But no point in being like a panicked teenage girl about it, just get on with it really.” I cock my head as I hear Jace talk, quite amazed again by how calm he is about this. I can hear the boys mutter in agreement at his response. “Plus seeing her again alive and well after all these years eases you into the situation a little.” Jace adds, looking at me. I can feel myself melting a little at his words as a smile begins to play on my lips. Connor gives me a suggestive smile, while raising an eyebrow.

Connor and Jace go into another conversation when I feel someone nudge me. I turn to see Drake sat next to me on the table now cocking his brow and smirking.

“The civilian still has feelings for you.” Drake whispers, his tone amused. I scowl at him.

“No he doesn’t, you lot know what happened. He didn’t have feelings for me back then, and he doesn’t now.” I reply low enough that I knew only Drake heard me. Jace, Connor and Chris were still chatting away to pay any attention.

“You sure about that?” he questions, before leaning his face in closer and whispering in my ear “Because the daggers lover boy is shooting me right now proves my point.”

My eyes immediately avert to Jace, who was staring over at me and Drake with cold eyes. His jaw clenched slightly as he stared at a smirking Drake who was still leaning a little too closely. As he noticed my gaze on him, he turned back to the others and carried on talking, however his posture was still stiff.

I turn back to Drake, who was smirking smugly. “That doesn’t prove anything. He probably just doesn’t like you.” I state teasingly.

Drake nods in agreement “Probably, I mean I did just lean over and whisper sweet nothings in the ear of the girl he blatantly still has the hots for.” He replies matter of factly.

I sigh in annoyance at his response. Drake always seemed to have a response to everything, even if it was complete bullshit. Jace did not still have feelings for me. That would mean he had feelings for me to begin with and wasn’t just using me for one thing, which is exactly what he did.

***

After about another hour of the boys welcoming Jace into the house, I finally showed Jace where he would be staying. The boys seemed to get along with Jace really well, even Drake managed to have a conversation with Jace for about 5 minutes. Considering it’s the first night they have met, that is really impressive when it comes to Drake. Like I said, he had serious trust issues.

“This is where you’ll be staying. Keep it tidy or I’ll gut you in your sleep.” I inform him, waving my arm around the room he is now the proud owner of. He ignores my threat much to my annoyance, and looks around nodding in approval.

“Bigger than my room at home. I think I’m going to like staying here. Your roommates are legends.” He chuckles “Even the easygoing Drake.” He adds, and I can’t help but laugh at his sarcasm.

“Of course you would get along with them straight away.” I shake my head in amusement.

He smirks then shrugs his shoulders playfully “What can I say, I’m a great guy.”

I roll my eyes at his arrogance. I turn to walk out of the room, but he calls out my name and I turn to look at him. He is quiet for a minute and I stand there impatiently waiting for him to speak.

He sighs “Where’s your room?” he asks finally, but I knew Jace too well. This is not what he intentionally wanted to say to me. I didn’t push it because to be honest whatever he was really going to say, I did not have the energy to talk about.

“Opposite yours.”

He smirks slightly “Well if your that close then I can always pop by in about half an hour and you can make me feel even more at home?” he suggests, and I grit my teeth.

“Do you remember when I punched you in the nose?” I reminded him, and the smirk is wiped off his face “Come anywhere near my room the next thing I aim for is the eyes.”

The corner of his mouth twitches at my words, and again I find myself getting angry. Why the fuck is he not scared of my threats, anyone else would be. Everyone else has been.

He walks towards me slowly, his face amused. I don’t move away because I did not want to show any sign of being weak or intimidated. If anyone did the intimidating, it is me. He is directly in front of me now; staring down at me with that same curious expression he has been modelling the majority of the night.

“I preferred you brown, but I think the blonde is growing on me.” he states, and I’m a little taken back by his randomness. There I go threatening to punch him, and he brings up my hair colour.

“Glad you approve.” I reply dryly, and his smirk grows. A breath gets caught in my throat as he raises his hand, grabbing a strand of my hair and twirling it in his fingers. I do not move, and just stare at his fascinated face as he continues to lace my hair through his fingers. “Why did you change it?”

“Guess I wanted a change.” I reply, but my voice lets me down and comes out husky. He notices my tone, and his face lights up a little. He drops the strand of hair before tucking it behind my ear.

“You never needed to change.” He says, the smirk turning into a genuine smile.

My chest contracts at his words, and I find myself feeling the same things I felt 3 years ago. For about 10 seconds, then the last conversation me and Jace had before I was recruited comes flooding back to me, knocking me back to my senses.

I back away from his touch and his face falls slightly at my movement.

“Goodnight Jace.” I turn to walk out of his room, feeling his stares the entire way. I close the door behind me, shaking my head wildly as I keep trying to knock those thoughts out of it. I cannot allow myself to go there again, not with Jace. He fucked me over once and he will do it again. The curiosity of why he was acting like this was filling me though, I mean was Drake right; did Jace have feelings for me?

I shook my head at my own mental thought. There was no way, like I said that would mean he actually cared before. If he really did care about me he would not have been fucking me behind his girlfriends back.

I had more important things to think about anyway, like the mission I was currently on. I decided to go to bed and attempt to get some sleep, even though I knew that the night ahead of me would be one of tossing and turning, like it has been for the last few years.

Once I was in my room, I changed into my blue pyjama shorts and black tank top. As always, I took the Hollister hoodie that I just can’t seem to throw away off the corner chair and put it on, feeling instantly warmer and more relaxed. I pulled the sleeves down to cover my hands and looked at the material of the hoodie causing the many memories to flash through my mind again.

As always I did the only thing I knew how to do. I pushed these memories to the back of my mind and forced myself not to think about my old life. What’s the point of thinking about something you can’t have right?

I was in bed for about an hour staring at the ceiling knowing I was not going to be able to sleep anytime soon, when I heard my door open.

I warned Jace...

To my surprise, as I looked up it was not Jace who was at my door. I smiled slightly as I realised who it was, and judging by the smirk on their face I knew exactly why he was here.

“Can I help you?” I asked politely as I looked at him.

“In fact you can.” He replies, his tone playful. He closes the door behind him and walks over to the double bed, crawling on top of it and on top of me. He holds his weight up with his hands, staring down at me with that lustful expression I have seen many times.

“What can I help you with?” I quiz, even though I knew exactly what this was leading to.

“I have an itch that I need you to scratch.” He informs me, and I bite my lower lip at his words. My hand goes to his chest, sliding under his shirt and tracing the lines of his abs. I feel his stomach tense at my touch, and the stir in his lower body which was pressed up against mine.

“What are friends for?” I humour, causing the smirk on his face to grow. He leans his face forward and starts to trail kisses down my neck, making my eyes shut and a moan to escape my lips. His hands trail down my body, going down to the back of my knee and hitching it up over his hip. I quickly push him away before we go too far. He stares back down at me with a puzzled look “No strings attached?” I make sure before we continue, like I did every time.

He smiles, and then nods his head “As always Faith, No strings attached.” He confirms, grazing his lips against mine “You’re my friend. I care about you too much for there to be strings attached.”

As fucked up as it sounds, he was right. I cared about him too much as a friend to let this get awkward. We did this every now and again, but mostly out of boredom. As an agent you really didn’t have the freedom or privilege to go out to a bar and meet anyone for a good time, and relationships were out of the question, so me and him had resorted to fulfilling our urges with each other. It didn’t mean anything and it was never awkward, it was the perfect arrangement.

I crashed my lips against his and he eagerly responded, smirking against my lips as his hands began to remove each article of clothing that was in between us.

I guess I really wasn’t getting any sleep tonight.



===

A/N sorry for taking ages on this story, but i hope i made up for it!

Right guys, who do you think the mystery guy is then? Connor? Drake? Chris?

Does Jace really have feelings for Faith?

Tell me your thoughts people!

Thank you for reading and i love you all, pleasee vote and comment! :)