How had a plan that seemed so simple earlier in the evening � get Donna, make her see reason, drag her to the balls, broker world peace, get her safely home � turned into something so complicated?

It's not like he'd been asking for a lot. Just a little time with his assistant. Okay, so maybe he'd wanted more than just a little time with her � after all, she was a beautiful woman and this was their crowning political moment � but, you know, an apology and a dance hadn't seemed like a lot to ask for.

So how, Josh wondered, had he wound up here?

He knew exactly how - it was all because of the coat.

The coat and maybe some sort of divine retribution from above.

Okay, definitely some sort of divine retribution from above. But he wasn't going to think about that right now. Oh no. He was going to think about the coat instead.

~~~~~

"Toby said they're done with the written statement and that CJ's got all the information she needs," Donna announced from the doorway. "I've distributed everything to the congressional and senate offices, there're memos in all the staff boxes, and I need a raise."

Josh looked up to find her leaning against his doorjamb, a tired but playful smile on her face. His lips quirked up into a half smile at her hopeful expression. "You really want to play the raise card tonight?"

She nodded vigorously. "Yes. In payment for the Wild Thing� thing."

She frowned in consternation at the poor excuse for a quip and he immediately decided to take pity on her. Standing, he grabbed his tuxedo jacket off the back of his chair and shrugged it on. "C'mon. Let's go."

She eyed him suspiciously as he came around his desk. "Where are we going?"

"The Sit Room. Admiral Fitzwallace wanted to get your opinion," he deadpanned, placing his hands on her shoulders and turning her around until she was facing the bullpen.

She twisted her neck to get a look at him over her shoulder and that's when he saw it -- that unique way she had of glaring and pouting at him at the same time. And he was never quite sure if it was the narrow gleam in her eye or the outward thrust of her lip, but it never failed to turn him on whenever she did it. "That's not funny. Where are we really going?"

"Home."

Her eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Really. Go finish up and I'll walk you."

"You don't need to walk me," she protested as she went to her desk to turn off the computer. "I'll be fine."

He leaned against her cubicle wall and watched as she shut everything down. "It's late - or early, depending on how you look at it � and there's a faulty intercom at your front door. I'm not letting you go home by yourself. Besides," he said, pulling his key chain from his pocket and dangling it in front of her. "How exactly did you plan on getting back into your apartment, Ms. 'I ran out of the house without a coat or keys'?"

"I would have managed," she said, making a grab for the keys.

"Nuh-uh." Pulling them out of her reach, he took his overcoat from where it was draped over the back her chair and pulled it around her shoulders for the second time that night. "C'mon. I'm walking you home."

"Okay, this is ridiculous," she protested as they headed for the exit. "If you're going to walk me home, I can't steal your coat, too. You'll freeze."

"I�m a hearty man from Connecticut, Donna. I have my scarf." He twitched the end of it at her. "I have a beautiful woman by my side." And here he waggled his eyebrows at her. "I have my wits and my charm. I'll be fine."

~~~~~

And everything had been fine. They'd walked home, laughing and talking the entire way. He'd even managed to pull his thoughts away from how cute she looked in his too-big coat. And how good she looked without it.

What he hadn't managed to do was push away the question of why she'd been so willing to lie for Commander Wonderful. Which is why, when they reached her front steps, the words came tumbling out.

~~~~~

"Why didn't you just call me the other night, instead of waiting to call CJ after the story had already broken?" he asked. There was a hint of desperation in his voice and he hated how it made him sound, so he turned away and started pacing back and forth in front of her. "We were all at Iota. Toby, CJ� I called you. Twice. Was covering for Jack really more important than talking to me? Explaining to me?"

"Not if you consider that I was busy breaking up with him," she muttered under her breath.

Josh froze and slowly turned in her direction, sure he must have heard her wrong. "What?"

"It wasn't just the quote. Or the reassignment," she continued quietly, a mixture of sadness and consternation in her voice. "They were just the last in a long line�" She sighed and looked up, blue eyes wide and earnest. "Honestly, Josh, if I had thought for even one moment how my actions would have reflected on you, or the administration, I would never have�"

He reached out, almost touching her, but not quite trusting himself to actually do it. "Donna. You don't have to - Agghhhh!"

~~~~

Cold, wet, slushy snow, fell off of the eave above her door, landing in a massive heap on top of his head.

Leading him to exactly where he was now.

~~~~~

He blinked away the icy cold crystals, still not quite understanding what had happened.

"Oh, my God, Josh! Are you okay?" Donna asked, wiping the snow from his shoulder.

"I'm wet," he complained, shaking the snow from his head. It slithered uncomfortably down his neck. "I'm wet and I'm cold. What the hell is wrong with this place? The buzzer, the door, the� the� thing that's supposed to keep the snow from falling on you!"

"Shhhh. It's three a.m. You need to keep your voice down," she warned, firmly but quietly. She studied his wet tuxedo and dripping hair. "You can't go home like this. You'll freeze."

"I'm already freezing, Donna! Ten tons of cold, wet snow just fell on me!"

"Hardly ten tons," she scoffed. Taking his arm, she tugged him towards the door. "Come upstairs. You can take a hot shower to warm up while I find something you might have left here that's dry and warm and suitable for wearing outside in the dead of winter."

He raised his eyebrows. "I have clothes here?"

"It's possible I may have squirreled some away after the last time you decided that showing up at my place in the middle of the night was a good idea." She tugged at his arm again. "C'mon."

He glanced at her door and then back at her. Tempting, but no. Especially not after all the things he'd been trying not to think about tonight. Things that taking a shower at Donna's place might not help with. "I'm not sure �"

"Well, I am. You're coming in."

Three minutes later, he was dripping onto her bathroom floor and she was bustling around, finding him towels.

"Here, take these," she said, pushing a couple of fluffy blue ones into his arms. "And help yourself to any of the soap or shampoo you find in the cabinet. I'm going to look for some dry clothes."

"I can just�" He left the sentence hanging as she closed the door behind her, the sound of her heels clattering down the hall. Great. Not only was he cold and dripping wet, but now he was alone in Donna's all too feminine bathroom. Just� great.

"You know, I can just go home," he said again, his voiced raised in the hope that somehow she could hear him through the closed door and layers of wall between them.

His suggestion was met with silence. Resigned, he figured he might as well do as she asked, because once Donna got something like this set in her mind, there was no going back. And she was bound and determined to get him warm and dry before she sent him back out into the freezing cold.

But there was one thing he wasn't going to do - he wasn't going to go looking through her cabinets. There were mysterious womanly things in there, and he was better off not knowing anything about them. Besides, she probably had a dozen different soaps already in the shower.

He pushed back her shower curtain, expecting to see a veritable army of bottles lined up along the rim of the tub. It was surprisingly bare, except for one lone bottle of shampoo and a little tin, holding what looked like a bunch of little colored paper dots from a hole puncher. Huh. Why would Donna keep these in her bathroom? Or at all? Then again, why did Donna do half the things she did?

He shrugged and started to undress, stripping down to his boxers and t-shirt before deciding that he really couldn't take a proper shower without some soap. There was nothing to do except look in the cabinet as she'd suggested. Cautiously, he opened the door. Perfume, makeup and other assorted oddities stared back at him from their neat little rows.

Soap, he reminded himself. He was only looking for soap. Nothing else.

He picked up one mysterious box, saw the words bikini and wax together on it, and quickly put it back. No thanks. He wasn't going to think about Donna or her bikini area No. Absolutely not.

He picked up another, more innocuous-looking item � body butter, the jar said � in the hopes of distracting himself from images of what Donna would look like, all smooth and� No. He wasn't going there.

Toothpaste, dental floss, a container of something that said eye cream -- he picked each item up before putting it back and continuing his quest for soap. Maybe it was towards the back.

Oh holy hell. That was not what he thought it was. It couldn't be. Only� yes, yes it was. He gulped and stared at the long, smooth plastic object that had been hidden behind a bottle of mouthwash. The bikini wax had been bad enough, but now� Now he was left face to face with �

He couldn't even think it. Donna had a� a� a personal massager? Yes! That was the safe way of thinking about it. Nothing at all wrong in thinking about her with a� personal massager. Only -

No! He wasn't going to go there. He was /not/ going to think about Donna naked, thighs splayed, pleasuring herself. Or the sounds she would make, the look on her face� No!

He was not thinking about that. He'd find some damned soap, take a shower, and then go home. All without thinking about what a lush, naked Donna writhing in pleasure would look like. Or sound like. Or --

Pushing the bottle of mouthwash back into place, he slammed the cabinet shut. Screw the soap. He'd just take a cold � okay, warm, he wasn't /that/ much of a masochist �shower, accept whatever dry clothes she offered, and leave.

He would not - absolutely would not - in any way think about Donna, naked or otherwise.

Turning back to the shower, he leaned over the edge of the tub and twisted the tap for the shower's hot water.

Nothing happened.

He tried again. Same result. He stared at it, puzzled, and then shrugged. He probably needed a cold shower right now anyhow. Twisting the tap for the cold water, he heard a loud banging noise. Two seconds later, a rush of icy water poured down onto his head --causing him to yelp in surprise -- and then stopped as suddenly as it had begun.

He shook his head, water droplets flying every which way, and jerked away from the shower, to be confronted by Donna, rushing back into the bathroom with a concerned look upon her face. "I forgot to tell you that the shower�"

"�is broken. Yeah, I figured that out," he grumbled, moving away from the shower curtain to glare at her.

"I'm sorry! I completely forgot that the landlord was coming tomorrow to fix that and �"

"You look amazing."

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. But there she was, flushed from embarrassment, her loopy curls piled on top of her head in a haphazard bun, still wearing that blue dress that clung to her curves in all the right places. And even if he hadn't been thinking all the things he'd been thinking, how could he not think she looked amazing?

"I�"

"Really, really amazing," he whispered, taking a step closer to her. "Incredibly, amazingly amazing."

She ducked her head shyly at the compliment, a becoming pink blush coloring her pale skin. And that was all it took. He wanted to kiss her, /needed/ to kiss her.

Lowering his mouth to hers, he kissed her, softly and gently at first, then with more passion. She returned his kiss, eagerly winding her arms around his neck and opening her lips to his persistent tongue.

He pulled her closer, needing to feel more than just her arms, needing to feel her body along the entire length of his. Through the chill of his wet underwear, her heat scorched him, and he kissed her harder.

She retaliated by biting at his lower lip and he grunted, surprised at how much it turned him on. And when she swept her tongue over his lip to soothe it, his knees went weak.

No other woman had ever made him feel quite this way.

She did this to him. Her. Donna. Made him crazy, made him desperate. Made him forget about things like their jobs and propriety and the press. All he could think about was her - her lips, her tongue, her hands in the hair at the nape of his neck. How, if he slid his hands from around her waist, up between her shoulder blades to the tiny sliver of silver zipper at the edge of her dress, he could give it one little tug and her dress would come slithering down, off her shoulders, past her breasts, over her hips and�

He groaned against her mouth and pulled her even closer.

Want� want� want� It was an endless tune thrumming through his brain. Want. Full of longing and need and --

She pulled away from him and he frowned, his brain taking precious long seconds to process that fact. She was no longer in his arms. She was no longer kissing him. She /was/ inches away from him and giving him such an inscrutable look that he squirmed uncomfortably.

What did the look mean? Did she like it? Not like it? Hate him for daring to actually kiss her, when she'd looked so magnificent that he couldn't help but -- Did it matter?

No.

Okay. Time to do some damage control. He opened his mouth, ready to stutter some sort of apology, when she cut him off with a quick hard kiss and pointed to the bathtub.

"Get in the tub, Josh," she ordered.

He stared at her, more uncertain than ever, especially when she reached past him to turn the hot water on. "Uh� what's happening right now?"

"I�m running a hot bath," she answered calmly.

"Yes, but�" He squinted at her and ran a hand through his sopping hair. "I'm missing something here, aren't I?"

"You, being, well, you, are missing many things right now, but I can assure you that I, being me, am not," she informed him smugly, glancing down at his boxers which had a very noticeable bulge in the front. "Get your ass in the tub, Wild Thing."

And then she did the most amazing thing of all. She reached behind her back and tugged at the zipper of her gown, now all but ruined from the water spots he'd made on it. It did exactly what he'd imagined it would and slithered off her shoulders, past her breasts and her hips, down those long, long legs and�

He gulped. The woman he'd been fantasizing and dreaming about for ages, the woman he desired more than any other, was now standing before him almost completely naked, with only a flimsy pair of silky underwear standing between him and�Oh, God.

He gulped again and tried to speak. Nothing came out. But it didn't matter, because Donna's lips were suddenly on his again and she was kissing him and holding him and� oh holy hell, he was about to make love to Donna Moss.

With a desperate moan, he wound his hands through her hair and grasped the back of her neck, pulling her in for a long deep kiss.

Moving her lips close against his ear, she whispered in a throaty voice, "Get in the tub, Josh."

"But� we� you�"

She grinned and stepped out of the puddle of blue material at her feet. "You think we can't do that in a bathtub?"

He arched his eyebrow and grinned back at her, a stunning picture in thigh high stockings, tiny bikini underwear and nothing else. "I think we most definitely can, but� Really?"

She nodded, rolling down her stockings and slipping off her underwear. "Really. Do I have to say it again?"

He tore off his boxers, ready to do anything she said, and climbed naked into the tub, only to jump up again when his bare behind hit the hot water. "Agh! Donna! Are you trying to scald me to death?"

"It's just a matter of adding some cold water, you big baby," she said, stepping into the tub by his feet and adjusting the tap, giving him a wonderful view of her breasts, all round and pale and tinted with the lightest smattering of freckles. His mouth went dry as he imagined kissing each individual freckle. And all the spaces between the freckles. Ignoring the heat of the water, he sat back down and pulled her into his lap. "Josh!"

"Donna," he mimicked mockingly, kissing her and cutting off any reply she might have made. She tried to pull away, but he held her in place, his tongue teasing hers until she capitulated, giving herself entirely over to the kiss.

"I like this," he said softly when the kiss ended.

She cocked her head to the side. "Bathing?"

"With you," he clarified, palming her breast and skimming his fingertips across the puckered nipple. "Bathing with you."

"Oh." She gasped as he rolled her nipple between his fingers and he grinned at her.

"Is that for the bathing thing or this?" he asked teasingly, pinching lightly at her nipple and making her gasp again.

"What do you think?" she sassed back, ducking her to head nip at his shoulder.

He chuckled, and she retaliated with a bite at his throat, which had him groaning in both pleasure and pain. It was while she was licking a path up to his earlobe that his gaze fell on the jar of paper dots he'd seen when he'd been poking around her bathroom. The words came tumbling out before he could stop them.

"Donna? Why do you keep dots from the hole puncher next to your tub?"

She pulled back to glare at him. "You're asking me that now? When I'm wet and naked and about to have sex with you for the very first time?"

"No?" he squeaked out.

"No," she confirmed, leaning into him to kiss his neck and chest. His arms went back around her, tracing the line of her spine, but his attention kept straying to the jar perched precariously on the rim next to her shoulder.

"So�?"

She sat back up and he cringed as her full weight settled uncomfortably on him. Punishment, he was sure, for his inattention. "Oh, for God's sake, Josh, it's bath confetti. You sprinkle it into your bath water and it smells good and makes your skin soft and �"

He smoothed his hand down her arm, from her shoulder to her wrist. "I like the way your skin feels. It's all soft and smooth and creamy."

She made a face at him. "You're just trying to distract me."

"Yes," he confirmed unapologetically, leaning forward and sucking gently at her earlobe, then tracing his lips down the side of her neck to her shoulder. "Is it working?" he asked hopefully.

"If I said it was?" she asked.

"Then I'd have to do some of this, too." He dipped his head even lower, taking her puckered nipple into his mouth and swirling his tongue around it, making her shudder. "And maybe some of this," he added, moving to her other breast and giving that nipple the same treatment. "Josh�"

"You, Donnatella Moss, are absolutely �"

"Amazing?" she asked, with a wide, lopsided grin.

He frowned. "I have a much better vocabulary than /that/, Donna. I was going to say� Exquisite. Incredible. Extraordinary." He straightened and captured her lips in another long kiss. "Stunning."

She sighed contentedly and circled her arms around his neck. "I think I like amazing best."

He stroked a finger down her cheek and across her lips, then leaned in for another kiss.

"Amazing."

~THE END ~