Lee pressed even closer and Tarin tightened his arm to hold her there. Her hands ran up his sides again to his shoulders and Tarin’s whole body shuddered. They’d been on this path for a while, and now that they were finally here Tarin simultaneously wanted to speed things up and slow things down. Regardless, there was only one place this was heading and as Lee deepened the kiss, Tarin stopped trying to think of anything and completely let the baser part of his mind take over.

Some significant time later, with his heart still seemingly trying to claw its way out of his chest, still breathless and maybe just a little bit shaky, Tarin turned slightly and placed a kiss on the side of Lee’s head. She was laying with her head on his shoulder like she so often did at times like these and Tarin was idly running his fingers up and down her arm.

Running his free hand through his hair, then smoothing it back down, Tarin took a deep breath and then let it out slowly before chuckling softly, ”You think it’s always going to be like this?” he asked softly, knowing that ‘always’ was hyperbole but not having any better words.

Maybe it was, he mused as he waited for Lee to answer, maybe it wasn’t. It didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. This didn’t happen every time they were together as it was, and that was fine…but this did keep happening, often enough and for long enough that it could probably no longer be excused as the excitement of a new relationship. Regardless, Tarin was curious about Lee’s thoughts on the matter and it was best to ask questions on nights like these when he could think.

Lee was laying with her head on Tarin's shoulder, a happy little smile on her face as she tried to catch her breath. That had been exactly what she had needed.

Was it everything that she wanted? Well, no. Lee pretty much always wanted that with Tarin. But it was enough. For now.

The apparent hypersensitivity from earlier was gone, but goosebumps still appeared on her arm following the path of Tarin's fingers.

When Tarin laughed softly then spoke, Lee smiled wider for a moment as she thought. It obviously wasn't 'always'. Most days, they were able to function as completely rational adults and were able to control themselves when needed. That wasn't to say things weren't great when they decided to be intimate, normally after they had already headed to bed.

No, That was still always amazing.

But months after that first night at the bar, months after that initial sexual tension and months after the 'newness' of the relationship should have passed, things like tonight were still happening.

"I sure hope it will be," Lee finally said in a whisper.

Tairn couldn’t really see Lee as they laid there, but he thought she had to be smiling. How could she not be smiling? Tarin was smiling like an absolute fool as he continued to trail his fingers up and down, feeling the goosebumps rising on her arm with no small amount of satisfaction.

It took Lee a few moments to answer, but Tarin didn’t feel any apprehension. Sure Lee had wondered earlier if it was bad that they were like this sometimes, but she had definitely liked Tarin’s answer when he’d said that there was nothing remotely bad about it.

Then she whispered and because it was quiet outside of their breathing Tarin heard and nodded as he sighed a happy sigh, ”Me too…” he said softly.

That settled, Tarin kissed the side of Lee’s head again, ”Because I have never felt anything like it and I love it.”

Goosebumps were still trailing Tarin's fingers on her arm as his hand moved. It amazed her how such a simple thing, especially after everything else that they had done that night, could still produce this kind of reaction.

Tarin agreed that he hoped it would always be like this between them. Because he loved it. Lee smiled as Tarin kissed the side of her head, and she turned to kiss his throat a moment later.

"I love it too," Lee murmured against his skin. "Even if Kevin hates that it happens."

Even if it was inconvenient and inappropriate most of the time when it happened, Lee really did love it. It was always great with Tarin, but these times were just so much…more.

Lee closed her eyes and just lay there in silence for a few moments. "I may have to start being more careful about when I turn my siphoning off," Lee mused softly. "Especially if you're around but we can't do this."

Lee loved it too, and Tarin was still smiling as she turned her head and kissed his throat, which caused Tarin to shiver as a goosebumps spread down over his shoulders and chest, ”I think it’s a universal teenage experience to be horrendously embarrassed by the adults in your life.” he said, voice a little hoarse, ”Though, tonight was just funny.” It would definitely be a while before he forgot the look on Lee’s face when Kevin had interrupted her compliments. Clearing his throat, Tarin grinned a smug little grin.

”I can take the blame there though, if I wasn’t so distracting maybe you’d have noticed him coming out of his room.”

Lee said that she’d was going to have to be more careful about turning off her siphoning and Tarin laughed softly again, ”Between you paying more attention and Kevin’s promise not to put his shield up when he comes out of his room we should be okay.” if that was what she was talking about.

Kevin was embarrassed by her quite often, Lee thought. But tonight went beyond that normal level of embarrassment.

Tarin was also very right in that it had also been very funny. Not that that meant Lee wanted a repeat of what had happened earlier that night. At least not of anything before they had stepped foot through the bedroom door.

"Well see, there's the problem right there," Lee replied with a grin. There was really no point in denying it since it was the truth. ''You are distracting, whether you're trying to be or not. It's just normally I'm able to somewhat pay a bit of attention to my surroundings."

When she said that she was going to have to be careful about when she turned her siphoning off, Tarin laughed. And though that she was still referring to how Kevin had surprised them and been horrified.

"No, you're right, that should be good now," Lee said, then paused as she tried to figure out how to word this. While she thought, Lee reached a hand out to lightly touch Tarin's free hand.

"When I'm not siphoning, touching, and being touched, feels so…different," Lee softly explained as her fingers lightly traced along Tarin's. "And basically the only times recently that I'm not siphoning have been like this. I…I think my brain is starting to associate the two." Lee finished with a slight laugh.

It kind of ruined the whole smug teasing thing when Lee agreed with Tarin that he was distracting. Even when he wasn’t trying. Was he? It was one thing to know that Lee appreciated him and liked looking at him, but she was generally so self contained that when she actually put compliments and things like this into words, Tarin found himself at a bit of a loss as to how to respond. Non-verbal communication was so much easier. He also tended to ruin the whole smugly confident facade by flushing, which seemed so silly considering the fact that they were laying in bed together after what they’d just done.

“I didn’t know that” he said honestly, grinning a bit sheepishly at the compliment and tightening his arm slightly around Lee.

Apparently Tarin had interpreted Lee’s second comment wrong though, and as she reached out to touch his hand, Tarin watched and listened as her fingers traced over his. Lee had explained it once before, when they’d been laying in a very similar situation in the shop. It had been the night they were supposed to get Chinese and Lee had explained that she could feel the flow of energy from every point of contact. Further, when she actually touched someone the energy she could feel amplified exponentially. Turning it off, losing that extra sense…Lee had also explained, another time, that it was disorienting for her to not be able to feel the energy.

Tarin almost asked her how the touch and touching felt different, but he knew how it felt. It was how it felt for him. Lee kept talking though and as she finished her sentence she laughed.

Tarin chuckled too, moving his hand so he could entwine his fingers with Lee’s, lifting them to kiss Lee’s hand before bringing them to rest on his stomach, his other hand continuing its idle path on her arm. “That is an interesting problem to have. Then again, apparently all you have to do is bite your damn lip or touch my hair and we’re off to the races…so I might not be quite as sympathetic as I could be….” Tarin admitted. He could talk about this, but accepting a simple compliment was incredibly difficult…there was no explaining it.

Lee grinned as she heard Tarin speak as his arm tightened around her. Pressing her closer against his side. "Well of course you didn't know that, silly," she told him after a moment. "Most of the time, I'm able to hide how distracting you are."

Normally, the distraction Tarin caused her was nothing compared to how tonight had been, but it was still a distraction. She didn't even need to see him. Before he had even stepped foot into the apartment in the evening, Lee was paying attention to where he was from the moment that he could feel his energy. Aware of it and paying more attention than she typically did with others.

Lee watched as Tarin's hand gently closed on hers, their fingers entwining, and smiled as she saw and felt him kiss the back of her hand. An interesting problem. That was one way to describe it.

While Lee knew that her biting her lip or letting her fingers slip up into Tarin's hair while the kissed affected him, she would have had to be an idiot to have not realized that by now, apparently those affected him even more than she had thought. But she had definitely used both to her advantage before.

"I didn't realize they did that much to you," Lee said innocently, waiting to see Tarin's reaction. Even if she had no intention of doing what she was about to say. "I'll try not to do them anymore."

Well now that he knew that he was apparently distracting Tarin was definitely going to think about it, and that wasn’t going to do anything for anyone’s productivity. It seemed like whenever one of them started thinking in that direction, the other was able to catch on and that was what tended to get them in trouble. It wasn’t like it was the sort of thing that they could set boundaries about or make rules regarding. This sort of thing just seemed to happen, like a force of nature.

Lee was teasing now, she had to be, because she absolutely knew what she could do to him with those two simple things and more.

And she said she wouldn’t do them anymore.

”Liar….” he said softly with small smile, pulling back so he could see Lee’s face, ”I think you know exactly what you’re doing when you’re doing it…at least most of the time.”

Thinking back about all the kissing they’d gotten up to when they’d made it to his room, Tarin sighed a bit, ”And you’d better not stop.”

When Tarin pulled back, away from her a little, Lee lifted her head to be able to look up at him as well. And saw a smile on his face as he called her a liar.

"Liar?" Lee asked, the innocent tone still in her voice. "How can you say such a thing? I knew you liked me doing them, but I had no idea they did that much to do you."

Yeah, Lee may have overdid the innocent tone a bit.

Tarin continued looking at her, and Lee just looked back, trying to hold that innocence on her face. Thankfully, he sighed and spoke again fairly quickly, and Lee laughed before leaning in to kiss him.

"Good. I really don't want to stop," Lee admitted when she pulled back. "It's too much fun watching you squirm. Plus, it's always mutually beneficial."

Now Lee was going to play the innocent. Tarin gave her a look that plainly said he knew better. Because he did. ”Do I need to list examples?” he asked a bit archly. Because he had examples. His birthday for example. The day in the shop when Lee had run across the park to see him. Plenty of other times too. No matter what Lee said, or how cute she may have been while trying to pretend like she didn’t know what he was talking about…Tarin knew better.

Lee was holding on to the act though, and she was doing it well…at least until he openly said he didn’t want her to stop either of those things and then she laughed.

Thank goodness, he thought as Lee leaned up to kiss him and he spent an incredibly happy couple of moments thinking only about that until Lee pulled back and spoke.

She liked watching him squirm? Well, Tarin didn’t mind that at all, in fact, he liked it when Lee made him squirm. As for things being mutually beneficial, Tarin grinned and leaned in for another quick kiss. ”Well, far be it for me to spoil your fun…” he said softly, his own hand sliding from where it had been trailing up and down Lee’s arm, along the slide of her neck and cheek and up gently into her hair, ”Plus, you like it too.” Tarin pointed out before leaning in once again for a longer kiss this time.

A list of examples? What was it with lists today, Lee couldn't help but wonder. But did Tarin actually have a list that he could bring to mind? Right then?

When Lee leaned up to kiss Tarin, it lasted a bit longer than she had been expecting. But Lee was not complaining. Not at all. Lee couldn't even think of an example of when she would complain about kissing Tarin.

When Lee did finally break down and admit she knew exactly what she was doing, and did it to watch him squirm, Tarin grinned and Lee grinned in response. And he wasn't going to spoil her fun? Good, Lee didn't have any intention of stopping that. "Good," Lee said the thought out loud with a smile. That was very good.

Those thoughts died a moment later as Tarin's fingers moved from where they had been causing goosebumps on her arm, moving higher. Up her neck and across her cheek, causing a shiver to move through her entire body.

And into her hair, causing that shiver to turn into a stronger shudder.

New thoughts had not yet started to form in her mind before Tarin was leaning in to kiss her. Instead she simply moaned softly as she returned Tarin's kiss as an arm moved to wrap around him, pulling herself closer.

As it turned out, Lee might have liked Tarin’s hand in her hair just as much as he liked hers in his. She’d also rather liked the path his hand had taken to get to her hair if all of those shivers and goosebumps were any indication. They were kissing again now and Lee’s arm was wrapping around him and pulling him closer.

That hadn’t exactly been what Tarin had planned, but he wasn’t mad about it in the least now that it was happening. After an indeterminate amount of time though, Tarin let his hand drop from Lee’s hair and back to the more neutral territory of her arm as he pulled back a bit to grin, “Definitely mutually beneficial…” he said, “And very distracting.”

Had they previously been talking about something? It hadn’t been terribly important, Lee had said Tarin was distracting, he had pointed out she was equally so, they’d chatted about how they were sometimes absolutely feral for one another in a way that seemed more like a force of nature than anything else…

”I think I made my point though.” he said a bit smugly.

As they laid there kissing, Tarin's hand in her hair as hers often was in his, Lee couldn't remember what they had previously been talking about. Not that it mattered now, and not that she cared. They were kissing and that was what was important.

But then Tarin pulled back as his hand moved out of her hair, back down to her arm. And for a moment, Lee just blinked at Tarin as his words very slowly made their way into her brain.

When they did, she laughed slightly, leaning in to give him a very quick, soft kiss. "Extremely distracting," Lee murmured as she pulled back.

For a moment, Lee was confused. What had they been talking about other than him being distracting? Though this all very much proved her point.

"Your point?" Lee asked. "You mean that you're distractible?"

That look on Lee’s face as Tarin pulled back from the kiss made him want to just dive right back in. There was plenty of night left and they’d spent the entire evening chatting and waiting until they could be here, doing this. Right now Lee looked confused, a little tousled, and thoroughly kissed…why had he thought they needed to stop to talk?

Lee laughed and pulled Tarin from his thoughts as she gave him a quick kiss and agreed that it wasn’t just distracting, but extremely distracting.

Had his point been that he was distractable? Tarin didn’t think so, but at this precise moment he was having trouble remembering exactly what his point had been. Oh, right. ”No…but I definitely am.” he said, running his hand through his hair again, gripping it like somehow that would help him remember what he’d been trying to say.

”Oh.” he said, chuckling softly ”My point was that you like my hands in your hair too.” Tarin shrugged, ”It ended up being more of a demonstration though.”