While Tarin was in the kitchen, Lee made sure to eat what was left of her slice of pizza quickly so that there wouldn’t be any more delaying of dessert.

And she was just finishing her last bite when Tarin returned, standing next to the table as he informed her that the pizza had been put away. ”Excellent,” Lee said, grinning as she stood up.

Then stopped herself from stepping right up to Tarin for a kiss. That is what had been the ‘problem’ to start with. So instead, Lee grabbed Tarin’s hand and started walking toward the bedrooms.

And into her room, quickly closing the door once they were both inside. ”Now, about that dessert,” Lee whispered as she turned to face Tarin, her arms wrapping around his neck again as she stretched up to kiss him.

Lee stood up and Tarin couldn’t help but grin as she approached. Suddenly he didn’t feel awkward any more. Nope, Lee took Tarin’s hand and he happily followed her down the hall to her room.

Once they were inside and the door was shut, Lee was back in his arms and they were kissing again.

Tarin wrapped his arms around Lee’s waist again, wrapped them tight around her for a few moments and this time when his hands wanted to wander, he let them. Down over her hips they went, up her back, and back down to slide up the back of her shirt.

They weren’t in a common area anymore, after all.

The moment that Lee's arms were around Tarin's neck, she felt his arms encircling her waist, pulling her even closer against him.

Then his hands were moving, over her hips, up her back. Lee stepped slightly closer to Tarin, pushing herself into his body even more as her hand closed in his hair and she deepened the kiss.

It had started again as just a kiss, though a highly anticipated one. But the urgency, the pure need for Tarin was quickly returning.

And then she felt his hands on her bare back. A shudder ran through her entire body as she moaned softly into the kiss.

Her arm remaining tight around Tarin's neck, her other hand still clenched in his hair, Lee took a small step backwards pulling Tarin with her, then another. She didn't even know if she was moving toward the bed, but they had to get somewhere, anywhere other than where they were currently.

And just like that, they were right back where they’d left off.

The kiss deepened, and Lee’s hand was back in his hair and his hands were on her skin and God…it was almost a sensory overload how damn much he wanted her. His heart was pounding, there was a rushing sound in his ears, and Tarin was pretty sure that if they’d been still his hands would have been shaking. There was no way this was normal, not this level of absolute need.

Literally nothing else mattered and as Tarin’s focus narrowed to only him and Lee, he realized that she was moving them, pulling him towards the bed. That was probably good, Tarin decided and helped move them in that direction.

Along the way Tarin realized that they probably had too much clothing on for where this was headed, but Lee’s hand was still closed in his hair, and doing anything about it would have meant breaking the kiss. Tarin had made that mistake twice tonight and both times had lead to nothing good, so he just kept right on kissing Lee, letting his hands continue their roaming as they moved.

Lee wanted, no needed, to be closer to Tarin. They were already so close to each other, really only just the thin layers of clothing between them, yet it didn't feel close enough.

Her breathing was heavier than normal, her heart beating faster. And all they had done was kiss for a minute. She shuddered again as she felt Tarin's hands continuing to move over her bare back under her shirt. Or had the been kissing for an hour? Lee didn't know. Lee didn't care. Time didn't matter.

Suddenly, Lee's shoulder hit the wall at the same time her opposite leg bumped against the edge of her bed. Good. She could stop moving and work on the clothing that was somehow making it feel like there was so much space between them.

Reluctantly releasing her hands Lee dropped them to Tarin's waist, her lips not leaving his.

It took a couple of tries to get his jeans undone, her hands faltering as they shook slightly.

They’d stopped moving now and Tarin sighed against Lee’s lips as her hand loosed in his hair. They were at the bed and they were definitely on the same page as far as required clothing was concerned.

He had wondered earlier if things were always going to be like this with them, and it was hard to think anything else now.

Taking a quick moment to pull off his shirt while Lee’s hands weren’t in the way, Tarin’s hands quickly made their way back under Lee’s tank top. Thank god she’d kept her word about buttons, Tarin thought, pushing the shirt up and then pulling it over her head, breaking the kiss only long enough to accomplish his task before grinning at Lee and diving back into the kiss.

This was much better, Tarin acknowledged somewhere in a brain that was getting less and less logical by the moment as he pulled Lee back against him and sighed at the feel of her skin against his.

Yeah…he was definitely a dessert first kind of guy, even when pie was an option.

Tarin's hands moved away from her as hers were fumbling with the button on his jeans, and at first Lee was quite annoyed by that fact. But just a second after, the annoyance disappeared when she realized that he’d done it to remove his shirt. All Lee could do at that point was stare at Tarin, at his bare chest, his abs directly in front of her, her bottom lip between her teeth.

Lee’s feelings for the man in front of her had not formed because of his appearance, but damn...she didn’t think that she would ever get tired of looking at Tarin without a shirt on.

Thankfully, somehow, Lee finally managed to finish getting his jeans undone as he pulled her top over her head. And as she felt Tarin pulling her close again, Lee pushed his jeans down as far as she could as she dove back into kissing him.

When Lee looked at him like that it made Tarin feel like spontaneous combustion was absolutely possible for people who did not have fire abilities. He hadn’t ever worked out for this reason, but God it was turning out to be a hell of a benefit

Jeans were maybe just as stupid as buttons, Tarin decided as he did the thing where you step on the jeans to try to get them off without actually using your hands to get them off because…well…his hands were busy getting Lee out of the rest of her clothes.

Soon enough both tasks were accomplished and Tarin pulled Lee down into her bed with him.

Fade to dessert

Now that he could think again, and Lee was snuggled up beside him in that perfect little way that she always seemed to be at times like this, Tarin had to shake his head and chuckle a little as he dropped a kiss on her head, heart still beating a steady thud in his chest.

”If I’d have known that you liked baking thus much, we’d be overflowing in baked goods.” he teased, knowing for a fact that he had been every bit as responsible for what had just happened.

Every time that she and Tarin had been together, Lee thought as she lay curled up beside Tarin, her head resting on his shoulder, had been great. But tehre were times, like this one, like the night after the bar, that…just went so far beyond ‘great’ that Lee didn’t know the words to describe it.

Smiling as she felt Tarin kissed the top of her head, Lee let out a soft, happy sigh.

And laughed when she heard Tarin’s teasing. ”Why do you think I didn’t tell you before now?” Lee joked right back. ”We’d have nevr gotten anything else done.”


“Though honestly,” Lee continued, turning her head to kiss Tarin’s neck. ”If it’s like this every time I bake, I will definitely need to do it far more often.”

”Very fair point.” Tarin said, when Lee responded to his tease. There were only so many hours in the day, and the fact that he’d barely been patient enough to eat a single piece of pizza this evening suggested that she was right.

” Well, something would get done.” he said a bit cheekily, trailing his fingers up and down Lee’s side.

She kissed his neck and Tarin shuddered a bit as goosebumps spread down his shoulder and arm. That had been…something, almost like that first night after the bar.

”I…” Tarin started, then paused a bit awkwardly not knowing if this was the sort of thing you really talked about, ”Yeah, definitely…” he said instead of what he had been going to say. Not that he had vast realms of experience in the matter, but he’d never felt anything remotely this intense with anyone before.

Those were dangerous waters to tread out loud though, so instead he just tightened his arm around Lee and held her a little closer.

Lee couldn’t stop the giggle hearing Tarin’s words, or the shiver and goosebumps that spread across her body as his fingers moved along her side. ”Ok, true,” Lee replied, still laughing slightly. ”But considering we were barely able to eat earlier…I don’t think anything else would be getting done.”

It really was true. The only reason that Lee had managed to eat the whole single slice of pizza rather than continuing what they had started in the kitchen was that Lee had spent most of that time staring at her plate.

”I…Yeah, definitely…”

It didn’t sound like that was what Tarin was initially going to say, but Lee still smiled as she felt his arm tighten around her. ”Honestly, if you had wanted pie first, I was going to need a cold shower instead of pizza.”

Yeah food was important. Tarin supposed things like working and sleeping probably were too at some point. It was frustrating, but reality.

Tarin’s mind was still on his thoughts from before though, he’d had a perfectly average day and had come home in a perfectly average mood. Something had changed the second that Lee had kissed him though. What was it?

Lee couldn’t see him frown as he thought, but Tarin couldn’t figure out what had been so different why all of a sudden the only acceptable outcome had been being here as quickly as possible.

Lee spoke again and Tarin’s frown faded and he smiled contentedly, ”Well, this was definitely better than a cold shower.” he said, ”And for the record, pie was the absolute last thing on my mind…” he said.

”So much better than a cold shower,” Lee said as her hand started moving along Tarin’s chest. In the urgency that they had both been feeling, Lee had forgotten to turn her siphoning off, and while she was slowly finding herself able to stay still for longer with excess energy, she had limits.

And even a slight movement, like bouncing her leg or running her hand across Tarin’s pec and collar bone as she was at the moment, helped.

”And it was going to have to be a long cold shower, at that,” Lee admitted. It probably would have needed to be longer than it took Tarin to eat his pizza. Possibly his pie, as well…

”It surprised me, well, it would have if I had been thinking,” Lee continued, her voice a whisper now. ”How much I needed you once we started kissing…I mean, I knew we’d end up here, but that was…”

”Yeah, I don’t think anyone would have ended up happy in that case.” Tarin said. Cold showers generally did not lead to a good mood, at least in his experience.

Lee’s hand started moving and Tarin shivered again, squirming just a bit as her fingers traced his collarbone.

A moment later Lee spoke, and while her voice was very soft, she was saying pretty much the exact thing he had been thinking.

Pulling back slightly so he could look at Lee, Tarin nodded his head, ”That’s what I was going to say earlier, but I couldn’t figure out how to word what I was thinking.” he said, snuggling back down and running his hand through his hair.

”I literally couldn’t think.” he admitted with a sigh. ”At least not past getting you here, like this.”

Wincing a bit at how that had come out Tarin sighed again, ”That’s not weird, right?”

Lee smiled as she felt Tarin’s slight squirming as her hand moved along his skin. But then he was pulling away and the smile disappeared to be replaced with a frown. Until she heard what he was saying. That he’d just been thinking, that he’d felt the same earlier.

”I wasn’t caring where,” Lee admitted, her voice even lower as a blush covered her face. ”I just wanted you…”

Lee snuggled closer against Tarin, shaking her head where it rested on his shoulder when she heard his question. ”No, I don’t think so. It just…happens sometimes, right?” Lee said, her voice still quiet but a little louder than it had been. ”Though, it does feel like it’s happening more with you…”