Pulling out of his arms, she went to the door and held it open. “Not today you don’t, I’m starving.”

They went to the house and ate dinner, relaxing on the couch in his bedroom watching television. Viper laughed at her complaints about the different varieties of green beans and ignored her suggestions of taking it down to one variety. That way, if she earned that particular punishment again, the less to organize the better. Tired, Winter stretched out beside him. Noticing her movements, Viper took her hand pulling her to her feet.

“Bedtime for you.” Winter leaned against him, unable to prevent herself from wincing. Viper leaned down and lifted her into his arms. He carried her to the bathroom, turning the shower on until the room filled with steam. Helping her remove her clothes, they silently took a shower. After drying off, Viper helped her to bed and reached for the ibuprofen on the nightstand. Handing her the bottle, he went to the small refrigerator to retrieve a bottle of water. Taking the pills, she laid back down and was pulled to his chest.

“Take it easy tomorrow, you did too much today,” Viper advised.

Winter nodded her head in his shoulder. “I’ll be fine.”

“Yes you will, pretty girl,” Viper promised.

The next day Winter took Viper’s advice. Taking it easy, she caught up on his reports and then decided to read a book. Hungry, she went downstairs to find Rider and Train cooking lunch. It didn’t involve much cooking other than placing the frozen pizza in the oven. Deciding to forgo the pizza, she made herself a sandwich. Taking a bottle of water, she started to leave the room.

“If you lay the pizza directly on the wire rack, it will cook the crust better with it being frozen.” The men thanked her for her suggestion. Winter hummed as she went back upstairs to finish her book. Viper brought dinner up to her later that night; afterwards they had a quiet night together before going to bed.

Viper was still sleeping when Winter got out of bed early the next morning. Dressing in her workout clothes, she went down to the weight room to do her exercises. She missed having Donna there when she worked out, but they had agreed she no longer needed her every day, instead now coming by once a week.

When she finished, she went upstairs and took a seat at the kitchen table, slowly drinking a cup of coffee. She heard a few sounds upstairs, aware that the others would be getting up to get ready for work. The kitchen door opened and Shade walked in. He looked tired and irritable. She watched as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He still didn’t speak to her, but she wasn’t upset by it. Winter had learned he wasn’t much of a talker. After he took a few sips of his coffee, he moved towards the stove. Opening the oven door, he stared at it several minutes before closing it.

Shade went to the kitchen closet. She noticed he was gathering cleaning supplies and then filling a bucket with soapy water. He went to refrigerator opening the door and within seconds he was slamming it shut. Turning green, he hastily moved away to lean on the counter.

Winter took another sip of her coffee. “The punishments are a bitch, aren’t they? I thought mine was bad, but at least I don’t have to clean that oven or the fridge,” she remarked conversationally.

Shade looked back and forth between the offending appliances. Winter knew he was trying to figure out which one to start with.

“I would start with the oven. Give your stomach time to settle, it’s a little early to clean something that smells so bad.” Winter stood up to freshen her coffee and watched as he stood debating in front of the oven.

“Of course, I could help you with your problem.” He turned to face her, his eyes narrowing in on her innocent expression.

“I could clean the oven, fridge, and pantry for you.” His eyes went to the pantry door, but he made no move to see what condition it was in. Everyone knew it was a close second to the seeds in punishments.

“What do you want?” He said grimly.

“It’s going to take me at least a couple of hours to scrub that oven down. In case you didn’t know, that’s cheese on the bottom. The fridge is even worse, it smells like Armageddon, and the pantry has an ant infestation,” she said, taking another sip of coffee.

“What’s your price?” He repeated through clenched teeth.

Winter faced him squarely, looking him straight in the eyes and she told him exactly what she wanted.

“I want your vote. Look at it this way, it’s going to take several hours of work to clean this mess up. If we had sex, it would take ten minutes. You’re getting a better deal, besides we both know that you’re not going to vote me in with sex anyway.”

Shade stared at her, before shrugging. “It’s all yours.”

Winter frowned that he had given in too easily, but she wasn’t going to question her luck. She started to go into the pantry to begin as Shade reached into the cabinet.

“I’ll have to tell Viper that he must be getting old if you think sex lasts ten minutes.”

Her poor choice of words was going to piss off Viper and the bastard knew it from his smug grin.

He poured himself a cup of coffee as he started to sit at the table. Winter went to the refrigerator and opened the door. He was out the door before she had finished the movement. Reaching inside, she took out the leftover sauerkraut, placing it in the trash bag before carrying it outside the backdoor to the trashcan. When she came in she lit a candle and opened a box of baking soda. She was busy cleaning the fridge when the members started coming in for breakfast.

She was almost finished when Viper came in for breakfast. He watched closely as she closed the door to the refrigerator. “Why are you doing Shade’s punishment?”

“I decided to give him a helping hand.” Viper fixed himself a bowl of cereal. Winter noticed him glancing at her in speculation a couple of times, but she ignored it and kept cleaning. That night in bed she was almost asleep when Viper brought up Shade.

“He told me he gave you his vote.”

“Yes.” She curled closer to his side.

“I didn’t know we had an ant infestation.”

“We don’t,” Winter confessed.

“You’re a dangerous woman Winter Simmons.”

***

Winter knocked on Ton’s door. It opened several minutes later to a bleary eyed Ton with a sour expression on his face.

“I brought your groceries.” Winter gave him a bright smile.

“Beth never comes until after ten,” Ton grouched.

“I’m an early riser.”

“I bet Viper loves that,” Ton said snidely. Winter blushed at his remark. Viper was not an early riser. He worked hard, but he did like sleeping in the mornings. Unless he had a meeting, he never got out of bed before nine.

“The groceries are in the car,” Winter told Ton. Beth had warned her he would take it as an insult if she packed the groceries inside.

Winter hastily moved out of the way of the screen door. Ton stomped to her car lifting out the box of groceries. She followed him inside uncertainly. Ton put the groceries on his table while she was wondering why Viper hadn’t just brought them himself.

“Do you need anything else while I’m here?” Winter offered.

“No, since I’m up, do you want a cup of coffee?”