Challenge, Accepted

“‘No’ is a dirty word,
Never gonna’ say it first.
‘No’ is just a thought that never crosses my mind.”
“S.E.X.”
Nickelback

Darcy was convinced that she had died and gone to Heaven. Because, how else could she have gotten so lucky as to have such a perfect specimen of male virility in her bed?

Steve smiled shyly up at her. In a total role reversal, he was laying on his back beneath her. Darcy had the whole magnificent, naked landscape of Captain America stretched out in front of her, willing for the taking. She wanted to swoon.

She also fought the urge to blush. It was practically obscene how flawless he was. Hard, ripped abs. Impeccably sculpted chest. Not a spot of body hair from navel to neck - although, he did have a faint dusting of blonde curls that teasingly drew the eyes south. His shoulders nearly took up half the bed on their own and Darcy knew from being wrapped in his embrace that Steve could sling her over those shoulders without a change of breath.

His skin was lightly tanned, mouthwatering. He had just a hint of a five-o’-clock shadow along his jaw. Clear, commanding eyes watched her constantly from beneath lashes that any woman would envy. His hair - usually so neat and orderly, like the rest of him - was tousled from their earlier romp between the sheets.

And from the waist, down? Oh, yeah. Darcy swallowed hard as she took in the sight of him - for the upteenth time - and felt a thrill shoot straight through the core of her body. He was already half-erect and getting harder the longer her eyes smoldered at him. He was so well-built that he could make her cum just by pushing into her. The thought made her feel weak. She would never, ever, get tired of having him inside of her.

“You’re gorgeous,” it was her turn to be shy, as she reached forward and curled her fingers around his cock.

She made it a point to look him straight in the eye as she said that. She didn’t want any confusion - it was imperative that he knew that she wanted him for more than what his body offered. Although, hell, his body offered a lot.

“I could say the same about you,” the words practically tripped through Steve’s teeth as he gritted them in sudden pleasure.

“Eh, I’m just the geeky intern girl next door,” Darcy dipped her head coyly and finally lost the battle against her blush.

She’d never get used to him calling her “gorgeous”. Ever.

“That’s what I’ve always liked about you,” his voice was a sensuous purr in the sex-drenched air.

He reached for her and Darcy came willingly. She stretched out on top of him, reveling in the feel of his unyielding ridges against her pliant curves. He was warm, so hot, and everything about him was a luxuriously wrapped sin. As she settled herself, tucking her head into the hollow of his shoulder, he bucked his hips.

He was her undoing.

She opened her mouth and gasped against his skin. Her tongue flickered past her lips, just for a second, to taste him. He was sweat, and soap, and decadent, decadent sex. He rolled his hips again and she could feel him grow harder against the softness of her belly. A rush of warmth unfolded between her legs and Darcy was so close to whimpering his name against his warm, salty throat…

“Darcy,” he moaned, tightening his grip on her.

They both began to shake, as he ground against her - slow, maddening strokes.

“Darcy,” his voice had the edge of command to it; she knew he wanted her to lift her head, wanted her to look him in the eye as she came against him.

He loved doing this to her. Making her come without any penetration, without any direct stimulation. He was a master at it - or, maybe, she was just that into him. He could make her cum just by sucking on her breasts, just by kissing her, just by grinding his hips against hers. It was maddening what this man could do to her. Unreal, almost, the sway he had over her body.

“Darcy! Wake up!”

It took a second for the words to register. But, then they did. And Darcy Lewis bolted upright, confused, dazed, and bright red in embarrassment.

“Steve,” she squeaked and fought the urge to hold the knitted afghan to her chest.

There was nothing for her to hide - she was fully clothed. Blinking her eyes owlishly, Darcy squinted at her surroundings, her glasses having fallen off while she slept. She was on the living couch, in Stark Tower, apparently having a sex dream - featuring Captain Freakin’ America - that she desperately hoped no one had witnessed.

She had good enough eyesight, however, to see the confused look on said Captain America’s face and the smug smirk that was slyly spreading itself across Tony Stark’s face as he hovered behind Steve. Darcy could feel her whole face light up like the Fourth of July.

“You okay, Darce?” Steve was all innocence and concern, as he pressed something hard into her hand.

Darcy squeaked...until she looked down and saw that he had just handed her her glasses. Humiliated, she let her unbound hair fall into her face as she slipped the glasses onto her nose.

Get a grip, woman, she told herself sternly in an attempt to cool the heat in her cheeks.

“Darce…?” Steve suddenly reached out and put his hand beneath her chin, forcing her gently to look up at him. “Are you okay?”

She thought she was going to die, caught in the crossfire of those earnest blue eyes. However, Darcy didn’t admit weakness, so she swallowed hard and said as steadily as she could -

“I’m fine, Cap. Any reason you woke a poor girl up from a perfectly good nap?”

She swatted his hand away, trying to be playful. Steve did not look convinced.

“You were moaning in your sleep. Nightmare?”

It was a perfectly reasonable question to ask, since half a year hadn’t even passed since the Dark Elves had decided to plow their mammoth spaceship into the University of Greenwich. Darcy could, at any given time, think of at least five times during the Convergence where she could have died. Jane had struggled with nightmares in the aftermath - especially ones that involved Thor dying in several gruesome and unavoidable ways. And yea...if Darcy was the sort of person to admit weakness, she’d be honest about the quality of her sleep in the last four months. Which was to say, there was no quality whatsoever. She’d woken up more than once tangled up in her sheets, covered in sweat and shaking with anxiety, momentarily unable to remember if everyone she loved was still alive.

She kept that to herself, though. Darcy Lewis played it cool and it would never due for anyone to find out that she thought of Jane as the sister she never had, of Thor as the annoying jock brother she never wanted, and of the Avengers as the dysfunctional family she could never do without.

“Ah...was I?” she decided it was best to admit nothing and chose to question Steve’s alarming revelation that she was moaning in her sleep instead.

“Yeah,” Steve was completely earnest in his lack of carnal knowledge.

She made the mistake of glancing over Steve’s shoulder at Tony; his grin was positively feral. Darcy fought the urge to whimper in defeat. She also really, really wished Steve wouldn’t sit so close to her on the edge of the couch. She could feel the heat radiating off of him and she was suddenly possessed with the mad desire to kiss him.

“Hey, Cap,” Tony apparently decided it was time to take over; Darce didn’t know whether to be afraid or relieved. “Why don’t you go find Jane and Pepper and let them know we found Sleeping Beauty here?”

Jane and Pepper were looking for me?” Darcy clung desperately to the life-line Tony had so casually tossed her way.

She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the couch - careful, ever so careful, not to brush up against Steve in the process. Darcy shook her head, letting her chestnut waves bounce with wild abandon across her shoulders, before reaching up and pulling them back against the nape of her neck. She grabbed the ponytail that she always kept around her right wrist and tried to bring some semblance of order to her sleep-tousled hair.

Steve was watching her; she could see him out of the corner of her eye, his brows knit together in concern. Darcy decided that he needed to be out of her personal space yesterday. The juncture of her thighs still tingled and the smell of the Old Spice aftershave he wore was slowly whittling away any form of sense she possessed.

Gods, she wanted to jump him.

“Yeah, they want to go Christmas shopping,” Tony leaned his hip casually against the corner of the couch and crossed his arms over his chest. “Jane thought you should be included. Thoughtful, that one.”

“Naw, she just knows that I know where all the good bargains are,” Darcy quipped as she finally got to her feet.

She had to move, she had to get out of Steve’s line of sight. He needed to stop staring.

“Please, if you ladies decide to pop some tags at Goodwill, leave me out of any thoughts of gift-giving,” Tony threw his hands up in mock horror and made a show of eying Darcy’s frumpy thrift-store sweater and bargain-rack scarf. “Unlike Macklemore, I don’t do your grandpa’s style.”

“I understood about half of what you just said,” Steve was finally distracted and he turned his gaze - thank GAWD! - toward Tony. “So, that’s about normal. But don’t knock Goodwill. They’re the only place with reasonable prices!”

Tony looked down his nose at Steve, just a smidgen supercilious. He crooked a dark eyebrow and then shook his head disparagingly.

“You leave yourself wide open for the grandpa jokes, Cap, I swear. Welcome to the 21st century, where the only thing you might get for under a dollar is a can of store brand green beans.”

“I don’t leave myself wide open for ‘grandpa jokes’,” Steve scowled, defensive as he always was around the junior Stark. “I’m not a grandpa. I’d have to have a wife and kids for that to happen,” he added with just a hint of bitterness.

“You’d have to have sex for any of the above to happen, actually,” Tony shot him a level look.

Steve got to his feet in a huff. He shot Tony a look that clearly communicate his desire to shove Tony’s face into the nearest surface and then turned stiffly toward the elevator door at the opposite end of the room.

“I’ll go find Pepper and Jane,” he nodded curtly toward Darcy, all concern now wiped from his face. “I’ll tell ‘em to meet you down in the atrium, Darce.”

With that, he marched stiff-legged toward the elevator and in mere moments had disappeared behind the smooth steel doors. He kept his back toward Tony and Darcy the entire time; she could tell he was secretly seething over Tony’s flippant words, by the tense set of his shoulders.

“What’s with you and the interest in Captain America’s love life?” Darcy couldn’t help but stick up for Steve; she scowled at Tony as she grabbed her woolen cap from the over-large coffee table that stood between the couch and the enormous living room fireplace.

“You know, contrary to popular belief, I’m a humanitarian at heart,” Tony pretended to look affronted and placed a hand melodramatically over his heart. “I’m merely looking out for the man’s best interests! He’s a walking cancer risk!”

“What?” Darcy squashed her cap on the top of her head and started looking around for her jacket.

She spared a moment to shoot Tony A Look.

“Ejaculation!” Tony proclaimed loudly and proudly; Darcy eyed him with a little bit of alarm. “It helps with that whole no prostate cancer thing.”

“Besides the fact that Steve is the prototypesuper soldier and incapable of getting any kind of cancer…You’re just gross,” Darcy decided out loud, with considerable conviction.

She didn’t need to think of Steve Rogers ejaculating. At all. In any context whatsoever. Nope. Nope. NO.

Tony’s eyes gleamed sadistically.

“Who was just having a sex dream on my Italian leather couch?”

“You’re also a shameless bastard,” Darcy started to make a desperate beeline for the elevator.

“Actually, the only bastard in the room is you, so…”

Darcy stopped as suddenly as if she’d run into a wall and took several calming breaths through her nose, even as her fists clenched instinctually at her side.

“You really know how to sweet talk a girl,” she finally shot him a sardonic look over her shoulder.

“So who were you dreaming about?” Tony was relentless; Darcy couldn’t possibly fathom what had gotten into him, but he was acting worse than usual.

Her right hand twitched, as if it wanted to reach for the inside of empty her jacket pocket. Where was her damn taser when she needed it?

“None of your business,” she tossed her head defiantly.

Tony gave her a look as if to say, “I think we both know who you were dreaming about.” Mercifully, he didn’t say it. She didn’t think she could bear to hear him say it. Darcy did eye Tony a little more carefully - he was such a playboy-philanthropist-billionaire that she often forgot that he was also inconveniently observant.

Was it really that obvious that she a crush on Captain America? Sure, she could never tear her eyes away from him when he strutted around in that damn skin-tight suit. And she was always cracking jokes and laughing when he was around. And she found every excuse under the sun to strike up a conversation with him. And she liked being around him. A lot.

“You want a suggestion about what to folks on the team want for Christmas?” Tony abruptly changed the topic yet again as he strolled by Darcy and hit the down button on the elevator.

“Sure,” she narrowed her eyes cautiously at him.

“Clint wants a traditional Hungarian longbow - for what reason, I can’t possibly fathom, except that he must be an avid collector of rare and ridiculously expensive archery equipment. Natasha wants something lacey and see-through - I think she’s trying to make some moves on birdbrain,” Tony waggled his fingers at Darcy and for a moment, she was tempted to laugh. “Bruce just wants socks, for some unfathomable reason. Thor could do with some high-end man-hair products. Jane wants a new Kindle Fire - which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it, because Bruce and I could build her something better from scratch. Oh, and I want my home back to myself, but I don’t think Fury’s ever going to buy the idea.”

Tony stopped and looked quite pleased with himself. Darcy, however, noted an absent name on the list and nearly grimaced as she knowingly stepped into the trap.

“And...Steve?”

“Steve?” Tony looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling and made a show of stroking his chin. “Steve should give up his virginity for Christmas.”

“Should he do that at Lent? You give things up at Lent. You get things at Christmas. Ideally, you could give up at Lent what you got at Christmas,” Darcy, who grew up Catholic, was quick on the quip.

“Allow me to rephrase,” Tony’s grin was wolfish. “Steve should get laid on Christmas.”

“And why are you telling me this?” Darcy knew from the gleam in Tony’s eyes that she was just digging her grave that much deeper.

And why was the damn elevator taking so long to open? Not that its arrival would do her any good, she mused. Tony would probably just follow her down, talking all the way.

“Because of all the ladies in our cozy little clique, you’re the most available one. And probably the most uninhibited one, come to think of it,” Tony pretended to look thoughtful again.

“Do I look like virgins are my MO?” Darcy made an equally convincing show of wrinkling her nose.

She wasn’t actually lying. She preferred a man who knew what he was doing. But...she could make an exception…

“You look like Captain America is your MO,” Tony smirked; Darcy just gave him her best poker face.

“If you want Steve to get laid so damn much, then buy him an escort,” Darcy was tiring of the conversation.

Where was the ever-loving elevator?

“You know as well as I do, he’d never go for that,” Tony snorted through his nose. “Not to mention, he stares at your chest as much as you stare at his ass.”

“What?” that got Darcy’s attention; she stared wide-eyed at her antagonist.

“You two are pathetic,” Tony rolled his eyes. “Really. Everyone except the two of you know that you should both just fuck each other and get it over with.”

“You and I usually get along just fine with the whole blunt thing, but I think you’re going a bit far now,” Darcy drew herself up to her full height - which wasn’t much - and seriously considered just punching Iron Man in the face.

Tony seemed to sense he was in danger, which only made his smile wider.

“I dare you, Darcy Lewis, to seduce Captain America.”

Oh, he didn’t.

Darcy ground her teeth in frustration.

I should ignore him. I should just walk away. He’s baiting me...he knows it…

She had never said “no” to a dare before. Ever. It just wasn’t in her nature.

Darcy Lewis, if you fall for this bullshit, so help me…!

“You think I can’t do it?” she couldn’t help herself; she narrowed her eyes in challenge.

“I think you won’t do it,” Tony got right into her face and the two glared each other down. “Because for some unholy reason, you turn into Little Miss Righteous when it comes to Captain Steven Rogers,” his voice dropped almost to a whisper. “Afraid you’ll like it?”

Actually yes, she was terrified that she would like sex with the glorious Captain America. And, that she’d get her heart broken because of it.

But, Tony Stark had no business knowing any of that. Darcy Lewis didn’t show her weaknesses.

“You dare me?” she jutted her chin out stubbornly.

“I dare you,” Tony affirmed with considerable conviction.

“Fine,” Darcy practically spat the word; the elevator dinged softly behind them and she moved to walk around Tony.

She needed to get away from him, before he could see how deeply he had rattled her defenses and how strongly he had ruffled her pride.

“You’ve got twelve days,” Tony spun neatly around his heel and waved sweetly to her as the elevator doors began to close between them. “And Steve Rogers better be late to Christmas breakfast, or I’m telling him what really happened on the couch this afternoon.”

Darcy didn’t think she had ever loathed another human being quite so much, as she did at that moment.

She was going to taser his ass. That’s what Tony Stark was getting from her on Christmas morning. Pepper or no Pepper, Iron Man was getting a good jolt in the junk.

Notes