This was better. Lee was just as close to Tarin as she had been before, but now there was no offending shirts in the way. From her waist up, everywhere that she was touching him, she was able to feel his skin. Her chest pressed close against his. Even more energy flowing into her from every single point of contact.

She definitely needed to stop that if she wanted to have any chance of sleeping later, and she had definitely had enough run together sleepless days in the previous month to last her a long time.

As her focus shifted for a moment from Tarin and the kiss to shutting off her siphoning, Lee's…enthusiasm in the kiss may have waned for a moment, but the moment she felt the flow of energy stop, Lee dove back in with just as much passion and need as she had had before.

Then Lee felt one of Tarin's arms wrapping around her waist, his hand on her opposite hip. Pulling her even closer if it was possible, holding her tighter against his body. Tarin felt so good, so amazing pressed up against her.

But it also wasn't enough. Not nearly enough.

Lee's fingers dug into Tarin's shoulders a bit as she tried to pull herself even closer to him.

Still not enough.

Letting go of Tarin's shoulder and hair, Lee moved her hands down to his waist, pushing into the nonexistent space between them, to start working on undoing his jeans.

Okay, so they weren’t going anywhere.

Lee seemed to pause for a moment though, and Tarin almost broke the kiss to ask if everything was okay, but then she dove back in and he lost that train of thought along with pretty much every other thought in his head as she pressed against him even closer.

Nope, they weren’t moving an inch from right where they were. Not right now anyway…not with the way Lee was pressing against him, not with the way that her hand was clinging into his hair, her fingers digging into his shoulder. God it felt good, she felt good.

His arm was tight around Lee now, pulling her tight to him, but her hands moved once again from his hair, from where her fingers had been digging into his shoulders. Again, Tarin was about to ask if everything was okay when her hands worked their way between them and started to work at the waistband of his jeans.

The couch was going to work against them again here, Tarin vaguely realized, even as his breath caught and his heart jumped into his throat. He’d help in a minute, right now it just felt too good to hold Lee like he was and the way her fingers kept brushing his stomach was making him kind of want to die in the best way possible.

Lee was trying to focus on undoing Tarin jeans. She really was. But it was a really hard thing to do right then; focus. With the kiss, and the way that Tarin was holding her, the feeling of his hand still in her hair. She really was trying hard to get those jeans undone, but her hands kept slipping and fumbling, her fingers brushing up against his stomach.

That only added to her difficulties. Lee knew that Tarin was in shape, but unlike a lot of guys, such as many who went to her gym, who worked out for strength, most of Tarin's muscles were not obvious through clothing. They, and the hard definition of his abs, most certainly were obvious each and every time Lee's fingers brushed against his stomach.

And her hands frequently stopped moving altogether for a moment or two when she touched his stomach like that.

After a while, part of Lee's barely working mind realized that she was likely not going to get Tarin's jeans undone while they were kissing. But at that moment, not kissing was not an acceptable option, so she just continued fumbling along.

Well.

If Tarin had thought he might die before, he was almost certain it was going to happen now. Between the kissing, the lack of space between them, the lack of visibility and the fact that Lee kept stopping whatever it was she was trying to do with his pants, Tarin was breathing mostly in strangled little gasps that just weren’t all that effective at getting oxygen to his brain. Sure, there were other contributing factors to that condition at present, but if Lee didn’t stop…or keep going…or…

Groaning in frustration, Tarin broke the kiss and pushed Lee back just a little bit, mild desperation clear on his face.

”You’re killing me.” he said, eyes on Lee’s as he continued to breathe heavily, grinning as his hands settled on Lee’s shoulders and then ran down her arms to help her quickly accomplish the task that she’d been struggling to manage.

That done, Lee’s hands in his, Tarin moved them from his stomach and to her sides, still holding them lightly as he leaned forward again to kiss her before it was his turn to kiss down her jawline and down her neck.

”Here or your room.” he managed to say in the midst of this very brief moment of coherence.

The kissing, Tarin holding her, attempting to undo Tarin's jeans. That was all too much for her to try and focus on which was why she was having so much trouble with the jeans. So Lee didn't even notice the change in Tarin's breathing until she heard him groan and push her back.

Lee's own breathing was heavy as she looked back at Tarin in slight concern turning to confusion before understanding slowly crossed her face as Tarin's hands slid down her arms to help her with undoing his pants.

"Your abs," Lee said as she tried catching her breath. "Very distracting."

Tarin was much quicker at the task than she had been, and then he was pulling her hands toward her sides as he leaned in to kiss her again.

But even that didn't last too long as he started to kiss along her jaw and then down her neck.

A hard shudder ran through Lee's entire body, followed by a moan as her head fell to the side, exposing more of her neck.

Then Tarin was asking about there or her room. That in itself was unusual, almost always they ended up in Tarin's room.

Lee's response was even more different. "Too far," she whispered with a shake of her head. "Here." Then she turned her head to kiss Tarin again.

Lee always thought he was distracting, and that was so very incredibly gratifying. The thought that Lee thought that he, his body, anything about him was distracting was enough to make Tarin’s head spin just a little and any word he might have been wanting to say withered away.

The look on her face, the way she was breathing just as hard as she was. It made Tarin almost shake with need as they kissed again.

Tarin still had Lee’s hands in his, ready to let them go if she pulled them loose, but keeping ahold off them all the same as he worked his way down Lee’s neck, smiling against her skin as she shuddered.

Lee’s room was too far. Of course it was, what had he been thinking when he had even suggested otherwise? She turned her head and Tarin met her lips, kissing her deeply and purposefully as he released Lee’s hands.

In all this time, Lee had really taken the no buttons and skirts request to heart and God Tarin had grown to love skirts and as they kissed, his hands came to rest on Lee’s legs, sliding upward, pushing that skirt with them until he could hook his fingers in the waistband and start working it down the other way.

Sure, Lee would have to move at least a little to accomplish this particular goal, but that was, again, inevitable and despite the fact that a skirt had undeniable benefits. It needed to go. At least this time they shouldn’t have to stop kissing.

Tarin was still holding her hands as they started kissing and Lee just leaned into him as she returned the kiss. And as he kissed his way down her neck.

The last time she had tried to actually do anything with her hands it had been too much. Both for her to focus on and for Tarin to handle, so Lee just let her hands stay there, by her sides, as Tarin held them.

But when she turned her head to kiss him again, he let go of her hands. Almost instantly, Lee's arms lifted, wrapping around Tarin's neck again and pulling herself closer.

Even as she felt Tarin's hands on her legs. On her bare legs. And they started to slide up, under her skirt. Moaning into the kiss, Lee shuddered. She wasn't thinking about what it was Tarin was doing, or what he might be trying to do. She was simply loving the way his touch felt.

It didn't take that long for him to reach the waistband of her skirt. Though her skirts did tend to be longer than they had been when she was younger, few of Lee's skirts were all that long. However, it did take Lee a little longer than that to realize what Tarin was attempting to do

When she finally figured it out, Lee's hands moved to Tarin's shoulders, pulling herself up slightly, shifting on Tarin's lap a bit, to make it easier for him to pull her skirt down.

Well, things were certainly moving right along now.

Lee shifted in his lap as she caught on to what he was doing, and Tarin thought he might die again for a moment. It was okay though, because that little movement enabled him to continue the very important task of ridding Lee of the rest of her clothing.

That mission accomplished, the decision made that they were staying right where they were, there was now only the matter of those silly jeans to content with.

With the way she’d pulled herself up, Tarin took advantage of the opportunity and space to rid himself of the rest of his clothing, all the while never breaking the kiss.

Finally there were no more barriers, nothing to keep him from getting every bit a close as he’d wanted to get to Lee, and his hands made their way back up into her hair.

Fade to black

Lee was still breathing heavily as she lay there with Tarin on the couch, eyes closed with her head on his shoulder. Almost from the first kiss, everything had been intense. So much more so than Lee understood how it could be. To the point that they hadn't even made it to either of their bedrooms.

The couch had worked out, though. And as always, it had been absolutely incredible.

"I wasn't lying earlier," Lee ended up murmuring as a hand ran down Tarin's chest until it came to rest on his stomach. "These abs of yours…Very distracting…"

And they really were, as she just lay there, her hand resting on his stomach feeling the muscles under the skin.

"So," Lee said softly after a good minute had passed. "How do we keep this going and turn the best six months of your life into the best year?"

Tarin’s eyes were closed as he laid there on the couch with Lee, heart still pounding in his chest, arms wrapped around her as she laid there with her head on his shoulder.

In retrospect, it was wild that they’d ended up here. They’d watched the game, Tarin had been stunned that the Mets had won…had embarrassingly chosen that moment to declare that the last six months had been the best of his life and then this had happened.

Things almost always tended to be intense between him and Lee, but this had been another level entirely. They hadn’t even made it off of the couch.

Lee moved and as her hand trailed down his chest, Tarin shuddered, squirming just slightly as her hand traveled lower to his stomachs.

Distracting. There was that word again. ”Gonna have to start wearing sweats when we’re alone.” he said, voice low and still a little rough.

Lee got quiet again then and Tarin just relaxed as well as he could with Lee’s hand on his stomach like that. Eventually though, she spoke again and Tarin smiled and tightened his arms around her a bit.

“Just be you…” he answered, ”Keep telling me you love me…” he added, then thought for a moment as a slow grin spread across his face. As embarrassing as it was, those words had stuck with her and that really mind if meant something.

”Plenty of this wouldn’t hurt either… he added.

Lee bit her lip slightly as she smiled when she felt Tarin squirming a bit as her hand moved. Even after everything that had just happened, it was good to know that with as distracting his abs were that just touching them got this reaction.

When Tarin spoke, though, Lee laughed. "That would make things quite a bit easier," she agreed.

Lee had thought that Tarin might take a little longer to answer her question, but when he spoke, a blush started to spread. Just be herself?

"Well, that will certainly make things easier," Lee replied, a smile on her face as she laid there. "Because I can't think of a single reason I'll stop saying I love you…And I don't think we could stop this…"

At least, Lee really hoped that that would never change. Yes, it could be a little overwhelming or inconvenient at times, but it was also amazing.

"Then we can work on best two years," Lee continued in a whisper. "Then five…ten…twenty years…"