you're not perfect strangers; you're criminals.

The boys are back from vacation! The filth these two get up to when left unsupervised. It's long and dirty and very vocal, okay? 🌶

Hey bud! I need you to know how much anguish Jamie Reagan and Noble Sanfino are causing me right now. I have the doc with the next chapter of Under The Gun continuously open. I read what I have and I hate it and then I like it and then I add more and I stare at it. These things happen and I know it will pass.

Life feels right because these shorts are back in The Penthouse universe. No place more suitable for their comeback than the Reagan family beach trip.

Yessss!!! Thank you so much for messaging me. I was thinking something like this (and it's in Noble's POV!):

It’s nearly three a.m. when I key into the apartment I share with Jamie. After working a closing shift at the bar, this is about my usual hour to arrive home. I’ve gotten used to it. Any job in hospitality will screw with your sleep schedule, but I’ve always been a night owl anyway. Thankfully my boyfriend’s job has that in common with mine and together, neither one of us has a healthy relationship with circadian rhythms. 

One warm lamp shines from back in our bedroom, but otherwise the living room, kitchen, and entry are all dark. After getting rid of my keys, my jacket and shoes just inside the door, I head toward the lamp in the living room but stop short when I hear rustling and movement down the hall.

“Jay?” I call out through the quiet, but all that answers is a click that, if I'm not mistaken, sounds like a magazine being snapped into a pistol. More soft rustling. A zipper being pulled.

My pulse flares hot against my will and I forego the living room light to peer into the open bedroom. 

Jamie stands facing the bed with his back turned to me and my chest deflates a little in relief. I mean, I think it’s him. I recognize his silhouette from behind easily, but the outline of the baseball hat he wears I’ve never seen before, and when he doesn’t answer my Hey from the doorway, I have to squint in confusion. When I see from behind that he is indeed chambering a bullet in his nine millimeter, I can’t help but angle a step back. 

He holsters the weapon at his waist, then reaches for a phone that I don’t recognize and when he does, I notice the black ink tattooed on his hands. The hell? 

But that is his ass in those jeans, I have no doubt, so I don’t know what to think.

I move into the room a few steps closer. “Yo–”

Finally, he turns, the AirPod in his ear proving he didn’t hear me the first time. Oh shit– I damn near attempt to tackle the dude looking back at me before I realize it’s Jamie with an actual beard that changes the look of his whole face.

But then that damn smirk surfaces along the dark fuzzy plane of his jaw and there’s no mistaking him. “Hey baby,” he casually greets me, as if he doesn’t look like a borderline psychopath.

“What the fuck?” I exhale and grab the open edge of his jacket to pull him closer to me. “I was about to knock you out thinking someone had broken in.”

Jamie pulls the earbud out and leaves it on the bed. “Sorry. I was listening to some notes on my case. They wanna pull me in tonight,” he tells me. “Knock me out, huh?” he chuckles, reaching up to take off his hat before he tosses it with the rest of his stuff. “Let’s see it.” Then with fists at the ready just below his clear green gaze, he weaves a little in front of me.

I fake a jab up high before I get one in lower, right at his hip, then grab him at his ribcage to haul him into me. “So this is the final product, huh?”

With the arch of an eyebrow, Jamie attempts to glance up at himself. His typically short, neat hair has enough length now to be combed back and styled and it’s honestly… strange how different it makes him look. He’d been preparing for this assignment for a while and the inbetween stage of growing his facial hair had been very amusing to me. For the last several weeks, he had still looked like himself, but more like he pulled an all-nighter in college writing a paper, not this hardass slimeball he’s morphed into once the full look was put together.

“I told you I could grow a real beard,” he boasts, a serious line pinching between his brows before he offers me a smug little smile.

“See?” I scratch my fingers there along his face. “You can accomplish a lot in three months–”

“One month,” he insists. “It took four weeks. And I even had to trim some here–” he gestures to his chin. “To even it out.”

“Mm,” I hum, narrowing my gaze to humor him. “You sure did–” My teasing is cut off by my own scoff when my eyes fall and I tug away the hood at his neck. “What is this tattoo?”

“There’s another.” Jamie turns his head to look the other way offering me a view of each side of his neck decorated with a slithering black ink trail of a hissing snake.

“Sick,” I breathe out a stunned laugh as my gaze follows the detail. “I definitely hate it.”

He chuckles. “You’re supposed to hate it, Noble. I’d be concerned if you were really into it.”

“Well hang on a sec.” I urge him closer to me and drag my thumb at the edge of his shirt collar, peeling it down enough in search of more. There at his collarbone is the tattooed hilt of a sword, pointed down as if the blade pierces into his skin. “How carried away did they get with you?” I wonder.

Jamie looks down between us and pushes the hem of his shirt up his chest enough to show another – this one a knotted, Celtic looking brand right on his smooth pec.

“Oh-ho ho,” I utter a low, dark laugh and can’t help but touch it. “You’re a bad boy.”

“You like it a little,” he whispers. “Just say it.” His lips twitch playfully just before they capture mine. 

He lets go of his shirt to steady my head, but my hand’s still on him and I squeeze the firm muscle of his chest. The soft bristle of his hair tickles my lip. I swallow the slight moan of his, kissing him harder with an urgency I didn't realize I was harboring.

I knew any day now he'd be going deep undercover on an assignment he's been prepping for. Deep and risky to the point where I'd probably go days, maybe weeks, at a time without seeing him. 

We've been trying to find extra time together leading up to the case. Recently, we took off on a long weekend getaway to Miami where I knew Jamie could let himself fully relax. Miami has always managed to bring out a side of Jamie that's uninhibited and sexy as hell and we spent the weekend in a gorgeous hotel room near the beach, all over each other and only managing to put clothes on when public decency was necessary.

A needy groan rattles in my throat as my kiss starts to slip away. I hold him to me, keeping my eyes closed as my touch traces his heart.

“You leave tonight?” I check.

Jamie nods against my temple, his scruff prickling my skin. “I have a briefing with my Lieutenant and then my unit’ll have me moving into location after that.”

I drag in a deep inhale through my nose and ease back to look at him. I can't help but exhale a soft laugh through my nose at his drastic appearance. But of course it's still him when his gaze softens on me and he takes a moment to trail fingertips across my hair.

I swallow, sliding my hand down his side beneath his shirt. “Well I know how you get when you're undercover, so be careful alright?”

A gradual smile pulls at Jamie's cheek. “Yeah? How do I get?”

With an innocent glance aside, I clear my throat. “I mean, last time you had one simple assignment–”

“Uh-huh…”

“And you wound up falling in love with me, and saving my life and all this kinda shit when I was just innocently minding my business.”

“Damn,” Jamie whispers. “Rookie mistake, I guess.”

I shrug. “Well I was very distracting. Who could blame you?”

“You were very persistent.”

Even at the beach, you can't escape those Reagan family dinners. Noble learns a thing or two about his boyfriend at this one but really... who's surprised?

I don't think I've updated this fic since summer??? Oh gosh, I apologize.

This Charming Man has been updated again! Queue the Roxette song because we've got a lot going on here as these boys wrap up their little business arrangement. 🥺

Aw, I love their dumb asses in Miami! This is so cute. Those chapters are favorites of mine too. I'm so glad you go back to them!

If you forgot it existed, there's a Pretty Woman-inspired Joble fic I write sometimes! And now there's an update! Same dummies, different universe.

9. What is your favourite line/interaction in your fic?

Okay line, specifically, I don't think there's any way I could pin that down with how long this damn thing has become. For interaction, I think an all-time favorite is Jamie's first trip to Miami, he takes a nap in Noble's guest room, and then comes into the kitchen while Noble's making pesto and it's very tease-y because Noble had told Jamie to put the brakes on and that they were just friends. But we know how that turned out. All of that was a really fun moment in time.

14. What is your favourite relationship featured in your fic aside from the main couple(if you have one)?