The Cupid Touch

The Cupid Touch Chapter 15 - Ties

I'd expected to feel stupid, and wretched, and to want to run from him. It wouldn't have been the first time. When I'd first slept with Brad, a month into our relationship, I'd had exactly that reaction and had to pretend I'd forgotten about a tutorial in order to leave without hurting his feelings. And that had been after a month, not after the overwhelming lack of self control of going home with Joe after a first proper date.

But instead of feeling stupid, I felt peaceful lying against him as the sweat slowly cooled on me and he moved his hand up and down my back in erratic patterns. The incredibly slow thud of his heart was soothing, and just then, I didn't believe in it all ending disastrously.

Which didn't stop the note of melancholy that lay behind the calm, but it at least let me enjoy it.

"What are you thinking?" he asked me, after we'd lain in silence for a while.

"That this is actually quite nice," I said, a little bit wryly.

"You know what'd make it nicer?" he asked.

"What?"

"If you stroked my hair for me while I dribbled onto the pillow."

I laughed at him, but we shifted and I did it anyway, watching his face while he lay with his eyes closed.

"You aren't going to run out on me in a minute, are you?" he asked, sleepily.

"Wasn't planning on it," I said. "Which is worrying."

He reached out and squeezed my leg, with a grin, and then was quiet for a few minutes.

"You want to get some food in a while?"

It hadn't occurred to me to be hungry yet, but I realised that I was.

"What time is it?"

Joe-Moe reached his other arm out, eyes still closed, and batted it around until he found his cell-phone on the dresser. He squinted at it. "Almost nine."

"OK, so it's acceptable to say that I'm starving."

"Helena, it is always acceptable to say that you're starving," he answered, and then added, "What are we doing tomorrow?"

I couldn't help smiling at that. It didn't matter that I'd promised myself this was just for today. And then I sighed, realising that there was going to be a really big coding project waiting for me in the IT lab.

"I'm probably going to have my feedback on my project back, which means I'm going to have to work pretty much all day."

"Yup, good," he said, "so I was thinking we could take a boat out on the river."

I laughed. "I really do have to work. We could do something in the evening, though. Once my eyes are really red and I look like I haven't been outside enough."

"OK, evening it is," he said, and drew me down to lie next to him again. He wrapped himself over me, and kissed my ear. It made me shiver all over again. "I guess I'll just have to hang out in the lab and do my very important ear-chewing work during the day."

I turned to kiss him on the mouth instead.

"You know, you're kind-of cute after sex," I told him. "It's a little bit pathetic. What happened to the big manly footballer?"

"I think he went the same way as the prickly, mean, get-your-hands-off-me mathmo," he answered, giving me a look out of those green eyes. "But it's ok. I won't tell anyone. And in public, you can walk along in front of me and I'll carry all your things and say, 'Yes, Helena,' to everything you ask of me."