Deanna laid her head upon Will’s chest completely relaxed after their frenzied lovemaking. Her eyelids were heavy so she closed them, letting out a long slow breath. She concentrated on the beating of Will’s heart and took in a deep breath, released it, and did it again. Troi couldn’t remember the last time she felt such exhaustion and contentment all at once. Will clasped her hand and her eyes fluttered. She opened them to watch Will caress her hand with his fingers.

“Do you have to leave?”

“No” he replied and kissed the top of her head. Deanna closed her eyes again and began to feel the fuzziness of sleep over take her.

“I love you.”

Troi’s eyes popped open. She was uncertain whether Will spoke or if she had fallen asleep and dreamt it. She lifted her head to look into Will’s pervasive blue eyes and smiled. “Don’t say something you might regret later, Will.” She said and toyed with the lock of hair that fell upon his forehead.

Riker returned Troi’s smile and ran his hand through her hair, resting it just above her bare buttocks. “I already told you I wanted to fix our mistake. What else do I have to do to convince you?”

Troi bent down and kissed him playfully. “We haven’t gotten that far out of the Briar Patch, yet. For all I know we could both be reacting to the metaphysic radiation.”

Will returned the kiss before pulling away. “Nope. Don’t think so.” And he started kissing her neck.

Deanna let out a sigh of contentment. “Oh. Don’t get me wrong, Will. I’ve been enjoying the effects and everything that goes along with them, but I’m not going to delude myself that once they wear off you won’t be seeing other women.”

Will stopped the adoration of Deanna’s body and let out a soft chuckle. “You’re sure about that?”

“Yes.” Deanna said, giving him a no doubt about it stare.

“And when was the last time you saw me with another woman, outside of regular ship’s duties?”

Deanna thought for a second; “I don’t know.”

“That’s what I thought.” Will retorted and gave Deanna a deep passionate kiss. Deanna returned the kiss while she tried to figure out whom the last woman Will dated was.

They departed on Betazed on not so friendly terms when Worf’s and her engagement broke off. Will returning to Earth until the Enterprise - E was commissioned. Then they had a period of awkwardness while they reestablished the boundaries of their friendship on the new ship. He must have? Then there was the very unprofessional incident when they went back to the twenty-first century to fight the borg. Will took very good care of her while she recovered, never mentioning it to anyone else; nor did he ever bring it up since like he always does about crashing the Enterprise - D. And then…

Deanna pulled away from Will, breaking the kiss. “I remember!”

“Remember what?” Will asked in a husky voice, unsure why Deanna broke off a kiss they were both enjoying.

“The last woman you were with outside of duties.”

Will raised an eyebrow. “You do?” He asked, clearly confused because he hadn’t dated anyone in almost four years.

“Yes. It was me. Two weeks ago when we shared a chocolate sundae in Ten-Forward.” She said and jabbed a finger into his chest. “You don’t like fudge.”

Will looked down at Deanna’s finger. “I don’t?”

“No you don’t. You tell me that all the time, Will Riker.” Deanna looked up at him. “You’ve been courting me for the past two years.” She said matter-of-factly.

Will shook his head. “Deanna, I have no idea…”

“Yes you have and I haven’t realized it because you’ve been doing it under a very clever guise.”

“Oh. I have?” Will said. “And what would that be?”

“Friendship.” Deanna replied. “And it’s definitely going to cost you.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Deanna. You and I have a lot of duties to do together; crew evaluations, shifts on the bridge”

“Allowing the ship’s counselor to sleep in your bed.” Deanna cut in.

“Excuse me?”

“About four months ago when I was feeling stressed out from the work overload the war is creating, I came to your quarters to talk and you let me sleep in your bed.”

“But I slept on the couch.”

“Yes. You were quite the gentleman. If we hadn’t entered the Briar Patch, I’m sure you still would be. Afraid to confront your feelings, Commander?”

“It was the bed’s fault.”

“What?” Troi gave Will an incredulous stare. She asked him about his feelings and he spat out something about a bed.

“Yes, the bed. It was lonely. It forgot what it felt like to have a woman underneath its sheets."

Deanna shook her head. “You’re something else, Will Riker. Alright, I’ll grant you that lame excuse for that one incident, but what about all our other late night talks and the dinners we had together in Ten-Forward?”

“We’re friends, Deanna. Isn’t that what friends do?”

Deanna let out an exasperated breath. “Exactly why I didn’t realize what you were up to. You haven’t dated anyone because you’ve been spending too much time with me, on and off duty.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, except you weren’t doing it only as a friend, Will. You’ve been courting me for two years without even letting me know it. That’s a pretty serious offense.”

“You’re my friend, Deanna; why would I?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you were afraid I would put an end to it if I realized you were trying to renew our relationship.”

“Deanna, that doesn’t make sense. If, and I say if, I wanted to date you, wouldn’t I just”

“No, you wouldn’t; because I told you on numerous occasions we couldn’t while serving on the same ship.”

“So now you’re saying I found a loop hole and took advantage of it?”

“You admit it!”

“I’m not admitting anything. I simply asked you a question.”

“Yes. That’s what I’m saying and committing such an offense comes with a pretty hefty penalty.”

“I didn’t commit any offense, Deanna. I was only being a good friend.” Will retorted and then curiosity got the better of him. “What kind of penalty?”

“Life.”

Will let out a guffaw. “Life. That’s pretty harsh.”

“Well I told you this is serious.”

“I think I should get some leeway if I admit to this.”

Deanna looked into Will’s eyes. They were sparkling; he was having too much fun with this. But then again, so was she. “Nope. I’m not feeling generous.”

Will gave her his trademark grin. “I’m glad you’re not a JAG officer; or we’d have too many officers serving time for minor indiscretions.”

“I told you this isn’t minor, and I must warn you I have ways of coercing confessions, Commander.” Deanna said, smiling.

“I was just being a good friend, Deanna. Nothing you can say or do is going to get me to admit otherwise.”

Deanna ran a finger across Will’s chest. A devilish glint appeared in her eyes. “We’ll see about that.” She slid down Will’s torso and took him deep into her mouth.

Will let out a moan and bit his lip. He wasn’t going to talk. After a little while, Deanna stopped. “Would you like to say something?”

“No.”

Deanna shrugged and began her previous administrations. Will bit his lip again. There was no way in hell she was going to get him to admit…god, it felt good.

Troi stopped once more. She looked up at Will. “Maybe now you would?”

Will simply shook his head, too afraid to speak. Deanna took him into her mouth once more.

A couple minute later, Will burst out. “It was more than friendship.” Deanna slowly pulled off still sucking and then swallowed. She brought her face up to Will’s and smiled. “I told you I had ways.”

Will ran his fingers through her hair. “That wasn’t very fair.” He said and smiled.

“That’s why they call it coercion.” And she leaned down to kiss him full on the mouth.

After some time, Will pulled away. “Life still seems rather harsh to me.” He said with a twinkle in his eyes.

Deanna smiled at him again. “It won’t be. You’ve already spent two years of it without any ill affects. I’m sure the rest will go by as smoothly.”

Will smiled. “You think so?”

“Trust me.” Deanna replied and starting kissing him anew. In response, Will rolled her underneath him and began to adorn her body with kisses once more.