Read my mind | Van McCann

3.

Y/N spends her three days with him and is the happiest she's been in years.

Between her own meetings she spends time at Van's studio making phone calls, organizing albums, buying albums, and editing. Y/N and Van don't act any differently around his friends; Y/N wants to keep this thing between them. It's better that way. Uncomplicated.

She becomes comfortable though. After high school, before the sex began, she'd always been slightly hesitant around him, fearful of the chemistry between them. This physical connection, this raw sexual attraction that always seemed to vibrate throughout her body when she's with him, begging for the two of them to act. Then, after the sex began, before they discussed it, she was worried about giving him the wrong idea.

It's impossible not to touch him now.

She pauses a movie and climbs onto his lap. When they hit play again they're naked and under a throw he keeps on the couch.

She strokes his shoulder as she walks by him, grabs his hand. She comes home from work and kisses him sweetly on the lips before walking away to order takeout. Y/N plays with the boundaries of intimacy and romance, sure there must be rules. In three days, she finds none.

Returning to work is easy. It consumes every aspect of her life for months on end leaving no room for anything else. She misses Thanksgiving and Christmas at home and there still seems to be no end in sight to her work. It feels like forever before she finds herself in London again.

"Take me out," she tells him. "Pick somewhere nice, make a reservation. I want to dress up and go out."

She's daring in her exhaustion and need to be wined and dined.

"Things were a lot easier when the only thing you wanted was Philly cheese steak," he says, fixing the collar of his dress shirt, fitting his blazer to his chest. And, oh, he looks good. So, so good. She almost regrets her initial plans. Almost.

Smoothing down her dress, a little black number that hugs her curves in just the right places, she enjoys the freedom of dressing up for something other than work. She slides on her shoes before sauntering up to him and grabbing on to his blazer. "But it is nice sometimes - to dress up, go out, show off..."

He rolls his eyes.

"There's also something to be said about-" Y/N presses even closer, her lips next to his ear. "-anticipation..."

He narrows his eyes, smiles.

They go out for Mediterranean. It's a nice restaurant, her dress isn't out of place but she spies a few people in casualwear as well. It's perfect.

It's fun in a way she's never enjoyed with Van: drinks, appetizer, dinner, dessert, playful banter over the table, inappropriate touching with hands and feet underneath.

By the time the check comes she's imagining dragging him to a bathroom.

By the time they get to the car she can barely keep her hands off of him. She mouths at his ginger stubble, bites at his ear before forcing herself back in her seat while he starts the car. His hand strokes her thigh and he presses down on the gas when he discovers her lack of panties.

They barely make it into the apartment, throwing their jackets to the ground, high off the urgency and lust between them. He lifts her up and she wraps her legs tightly around his hips, the wall cool against her skin. She grabs at his shoulders, his arms, hastily pulling at the buttons on his shirt, kissing and licking at the skin she can reach. His hands move away from her for a moment and she doesn't register what he's doing until suddenly he's so close and he's pushing deep, deep, deep. As he moves inside her, Y/N wraps her arms tightly around his shoulders, her hand gripping his hair.

It's intense. It's always intense with Van. Exciting and maybe a little frightening but always bringing her back for more. When her feet are back on the ground and they separate, he holds her face in his hands and kisses her deeply. Later, they lie in bed and listen to their albums, occasionally quoting a fragment or discussing the artist.

It's probably the best date she's ever had.

(The next time she sees him he takes her to a punk concert and it's like the old days, except for all the ways that it's not. She dances against him, hot, sweaty, high off the music and his body against hers. They don't make it to the apartment. He takes her in his car, right there in the parking lot.)