Lee was too close, and really too focused on Tarin's eyes and lips to see that he was blushing. Though while he didn't react as…strongly as she often did to compliments, Lee knew that he still reacted to them. Even when he was looking for them. So Lee was smiling against his lips as she spoke and kissed.

He saw her point, did he? "Good," Lee murmured even as Tarin was leaning in for another kiss.

Tightening her arm, Lee pulled herself closer against Tarin as they continued kissing, still just standing in the kitchen. As her other hand moved fully into Tarin's hair and she deepened the kiss.

Lee stopped saying nice things about him and that made it a little easier for Tarin to think…though honestly thinking felt pretty overrated at this point. Tarin was much more concerned with feeling and this just felt right.

How was it possible that when Lee put her arms around his neck like that she was right at the perfect height? Why did it seem like her body fit against his just perfectly when she stretched up like she was? Why did his arms seem to wrap perfectly around her to hold her there against him?

Why did something so simple as Lee’s hand sliding up into his hair send shivers down his whole back and cause goosebumps to break out pretty much everywhere a person could get goosebumps?

The answer seemed pretty obvious to Tarin. They were just so damn… compatible, emotionally, physically…everything just seemed to work.

And so, Tarin let his own hands slide up Lee’s back and into her hair gently holding her head as they kissed. Still right there in the kitchen.

As her hand slipped into Tarin's hair, she felt a shiver run through his entire body. Under her hands. Against her body.

It was amazing what such a small thing could do. And she loved it. The fact was, it was getting easier to get those kinds of reactions from Tarin rather than less frequent. The more time that they spent together and the better she got to know him, not just his body but him, the easier it was for her to get him to react almost any time she wanted.

Or, like now, it just happened. Her body reacting to his touch and in turn receiving whole body shivers because her hand moved.

Any conscious thought went out the window a moment later when Lee felt Tarin's hands sliding up her back. When she'd then felt his fingers moving into her own hair, a small sound escaped her, muffled by the kiss

If he was completely honest with himself, Tarin had hoped that eventually they’d get to this point tonight. Tarin kind of hoped they got to this point pretty much every night. Obviously that was unrealistic, but Tarin had been telling the God’s honest truth that night when he’d said that things with Lee just continued to get better. Every. Single. Time.

They’d talked, at length, about how Lee liked his hands in her hair, and Lee knew that he liked hers in his. It was like a switch flipped whenever Lee did exactly what she was doing and it short circuited the logic center of Tarin’s brain. Lee made that little sound and he was further lost as suddenly his hands in her hair wasn’t enough.

Down Tarin’s hands slid again and up under Lee’s shirt, hands smoothing over her back, loving how smooth and soft her skin was, how small but strong she was as his hands moved slowly up and down. This was better, definitely better.

They’d probably have to move sometime, but for now, this was exactly where Tarin wanted to be.

With both of his hands in her hair, Tarin wasn't able to hold her as close, as tightly as he had been even though his arms were still around her. So to make up for that, to keep her body pressed as close to his as possible, Lee's arm tightened around the back of Tarin's neck, her hand tightening in his hair as they continued kissing.

Except Tarin's hands didn't stay in her hair. Almost as quickly as they'd been there, Lee felt Tarin's hands sliding down, out of her hair.

That was not what Lee wanted him to be doing. Tarin's hands in her hair had felt so good. She wanted him to put at least one-

At that moment, Tarin's fingers slipped under the hem of her shirt, onto her bare back

Lee melted against Tarin with a shudder as his hands moved up and down her back. His hands in her hair was very good, but this…this was better.

But more skin would be even better. Letting her one arm fall from around his neck, Lee let her hand move down to Tarin's waist then up under his shirt. Her hand slowly moving up his side, her thumb running up his stomach.

Yup, this was much better

Lee’s hand tightened in his hair just that little bit and it was Tarin’s turn to melt. Why that particular little thing was always provoked such an intense reaction. It wasn’t like nobody had ever touched his hair before. There was just something about the way Lee did it, the suggestion that maybe there were times when she didn’t have every single thing completely under control. Or maybe it was the fact that whenever they got to the point that Lee was doing that it was a solid indicator that he was doing something right.

It was a moot point though, apparently when he’d moved his hands he had given Lee ideas of her own and if Tarin hadn’t already been melting when Lee’s hand closed in his hair then the moment her hand slipped up under his shirt, he was lost.

They definitely needed to get out of the kitchen. They’d done this several times before, to their peril, but breaking the kiss or letting go of Lee were both utterly unacceptable options. Surely they could at least make it to the living room without tripping, falling, or breaking anything.

Clothing wasn't much of a barrier. Not in terms of Lee's powers, at least. In terms of other things happening at the moment, clothing was a hugely annoying problem that Lee wished would just disappear.

But in terms of her siphoning it really wasn't much of a difference. Yet when Lee's fingers had slipped under the hem of Tarin's shirt, the amount of energy she felt flowing into her did increase a bit with the skin to skin contact.

And if Lee ever did something like this when she wasn't completely distracted by what else she and Tarin were doing, she might notice that slight increase one day.

Today was not that day.

Instead, she was wondering why they were still standing when there were much better positions that they could be in, and it took much longer than it should have for her to remember that they were still in the kitchen.

"We should…" Lee mumbled against Tarin's lips, barely breaking the kiss enough to speak. "Move…"

God she felt good.

So good.

And while Tarin thought that he could probably stand there all night doing exactly what they’re doing, there was so very much more that they could be doing if they weren’t impeded by all of these clothes and the fact that they were in a kitchen.

Lee was of the same mind, and eventually she had the wherewithal to speak and Tarin managed to nodd, ”I was just trying to figure that out….” he whispered, managing to maintain that little bit of distance, but not much more.

Very slowly, Tarin took a step back, taking a deep, shaky breath as he did so, his hands reluctantly leaving the back of Lee’s shirt as he grabbed her hand instead and pulled her towards the hallway. Unless Lee stopped him or had other ideas, they were heading for his room because honestly Tarin didn’t intend to leave again for a while…if at all that night.

Tarin was trying to figure that out? Right, because it never worked well when they tried moving far like this. There were varying degrees of bad that happened when they tried, like both of them literally falling through the bedroom door, but it was never good.

But that would mean moving further away than they currently were, which was not far apart, and Lee didn't particularly like that idea at the moment either.

For them to leave the kitchen, it was going to have to be one or the other; some temporary separation or risk injury to leave the kitchen.

It seemed that Tarin had come to a decision on that as he stepped back further. And pulled his hands out from under the back of her shirt. Slowly, Lee let her hand slide out of Tarin's hair as he grabbed her other hand and started pulling her out of the kitchen.

The walk to Tarin's room (or was it simply their room at this point?) was not long, but at the same time felt like it took forever because all Lee wanted to do was feel Tarin. But the only contact she had while they were walking was the hand Tarin held. The only point of contact energy was flowing through.

That was something that Lee needed to stop. She did want to leave Tarin's side until absolutely necessary the next morning, and she would not be able to stay in bed overnight if she continued siphoning.

Now that they’d managed to put a little space between them, Tarin thought that he and Lee were making excellent progress towards his room. All Tarin had to do was not think about how easy it would be to stop and turn, to pull Lee back against him right there in the hallway.

They’d made pretty good use of that doorway before they’d fallen through it that time. They’d also managed pretty well in the entryway…

Luckily, all of that thinking had taken long enough that they were now at the threshold of his door and Tarin practically pulled Lee through the doorway before dropping her hand and taking a second to remove his own shirt for a change.

That accomplished, he grinned at Lee as he kicked off his shoes, “We moved.”

They weren't running to the bedroom, but they were definitely moving faster than they generally walked together. Lee had to smile at that. Not that she had doubted it, not after everything over the last few months, but it was good to know that Tarin was just as eager to get into the bedroom as she was.

Then Tarin was actually pulling her through the doorway, and Lee just grinned.

This was so much better. They were in the bedroom now, the bed was right there. As Tarin dropped her hand, Lee started stepping closer to him.

But stopped as she saw him pulling his shirt off. Instead, Lee just stood there watching him, her bottom lip suddenly between her teeth. She hadn't been exaggerating earlier. She really was very grateful for all the years he'd worked out.

When Tarin spoke, Lee dragged her eyes up to his face and smiled. "We did," she agreed softly. "Now what should we do?"

Tarin was every bit as eager to get into the bedroom as he ever had been. He and Lee weren’t much for delaying gratification and the anticipation from the simple walk down the hallway was more than Tarin wanted to deal with.

As he dropped his shirt to the ground, Lee stopped moving and just looked at him across the short distance between them. She also started to bite her bottom lip and Tarin stepped just a little bit closer, looking down at Lee like he had on a night when they’d stood like this months ago.

Tarin was just about to ask her if there was anything else she needed as an echo of that night when Lee agreed that they had indeed moved and mused over what they should do now.

Shrugging casually, Tarin stayed right where he was, ”That…is entirely up to you.” he said softly, still smiling and standing his ground.

In a way, it felt so long ago that they had first stood here, in this room, almost exactly as they were now.

So long ago, but really just a few months. At the time, Lee had not let herself even think that she was developing feelings for Tarin. They'd really only known each other for a week at that point.

But as the anger waned that had driven her into the room, she had realized that Tarin wasn't wearing a shirt. Things had grown tense in a very different way, and if Tarin hadn't stepped back, if she hadn't left the room when she had, things quickly would have escalated.

And possibly have not worked out as well as they had.

This time, Lee didn't have to hold herself back, and she reached her hands out the small distance and placed them on Tarin's abs before running them up his chest.

,"Well, this is definitely a good start," Lee said softly as she took a tiny step closer, looking up at Tarin.

One day Tarin hoped he would be able to figure out what Lee was going to do and when she was going to do it. When he had dumped the proverbial ball in her court a moment ago, he had expected her to maybe do the thing where she punted it right back at him by suggesting some mundane activity or by simply turning the question back on him. This wasn’t one of those times after all.

What Tarin hadn’t expected was for Lee to reach out, still looking up at him And put her hands on his stomach and when she did and they started moving up, he shivered again as more goosebumps followed Lee’s hands.

”Yep. Definitely.” he said, reaching out his own arms and pulling Lee against him as he leaned down for a kiss.

Lee was looking up at Tarin as her hands moved up his torso, so she did not see the goosebumps appearing. But she could feel the shiver. As well as the muscles under her hands.

Then Tarin was reaching out himself, and as he pulled her close once again, Lee let her hands move higher and wrapped her arms around Tarin's neck as he leaned in to kiss her.

This might be the exact same thing that they had been doing in the kitchen, but it was so much better because Tarin's shirt was no longer in the way. Plus the knowledge that the bed wasn't far off.

Speaking of, Lee took a small step, then another in that direction, gently pulling Tarin along with her.