Kiara and Rafe's Guide to Dating

lesson 4:enhance your physical compatibility & boundaries with your partner pt.2

lesson 4: communicate and enhance your physical compatibility and boundaries with your partner in crime

(part 2)

Gasoline

Pretty pleaseI wanna get off
But you're such a tease

Gasoline - HAIM

She thought smoking would calm her down.

After the kiss yesterday and then going back to the hotel to sleep together—not in that way—was doing nothing to relive her of her tension. In a moment of deep desperation, she had downloaded Tinder but quickly deleted it after having a mini heart attack from the thought of Topper finding her profile on there.

It was a shitshow. How the fuck was she supposed to get laid without any help and everyone's eyes on her. There was no way to be stealth about it.

And smoking should've helped her ease that tension but she sat agitated, shifting back and forth against the wall.

Rafe takes a slow drag, letting the smoke out in an opaque tendril, his eyes glaze over lazily.

She can see the vein running down his neck and wonders what he tastes like there, her mouth is dry but it waters slightly. If she pressed her thumb to the base of his jaw, would his heartbeat be as fast as hers?

Kiara shifts again to physically shake the thought out of her mind. She cannot be this unhinged around him right now, it was dangerous.

"You okay Kie?" Rafe asks through half-lidded eyes.

"Mhm," Kiara squeaks and runs her hand up and down her thighs.

"C'mere," Rafe moves to meet her halfway and holds the joint to her lips, she tilts her head and takes a drag. He watches her full lips part around the base and her cheeks hollow as she pulls in. "Better?"

Kiara exhales the smoke and nods.

"You know, we failed our mission today," Rafe's back hits the opposite wall as he goes back to his seat with his legs outstretched.

The rain continues outside and echoes on the roof of their shelter. They'd been here for close to an hour now and no one had come by and the downpour had yet to relent. Without the flickering light on, the area was mostly covered in shadows.

"Hm?" Kiara stares at the dark wood of the roof. There's a small hole on the far side of the room where some of the rain trickles in.

"We were supposed to learn how to be less awkward around each other," Rafe leans forward and crosses his legs, "I don't think we got anywhere with that."

"I don't know, that last kiss was pretty convincing."

Rafe clicks his tongue, "Could've been better."

He had been thinking about it for a while now (a reasonable amount considering this was imperative to their mission) and wasn't satisfied with his approach. If Rafe acted however he wanted to whenever they kiss, it left too much room for an arbitrary response. He needed to find a way to reign it in and they needed to set up a system that worked for them. Something he could fall back on in the moment that was authentic but also pre-approved.

They needed a formula that they could follow.

He can feel the phantom of how plush Kiara's lips had been on his. "I want to try again."

"Okay," Kiara's head is far, far, away. Her mind is tangled up in fantasies that involve failing the Bechdel test and scandalizing even the most devout harlot. She's responding to something different in her head, his words are empty to her right now because she can't process them until—