Dating a Tortured Artist│18+ ⚠️

15. saying controversial things just for the hell of it.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did."

"Dan."

"Yeah, sure, what's up?" He asks, pulling his face up from my stomach to look at me.

I run my fingers through his hair, staring at him, biting my tongue before blurting out, "Is there a reason we've basically become an old married couple?"

Dan smirks, brows furrowing as he asks, "What do you mean?" He clasps his fingers together over my ribs before resting his face on top of them.

"I mean," I begin, "haven't you noticed anything different with us?"

"Like, what?"

"Like..." I bite my lip, unsure of how to tread forward on the topic without offending him. When he keeps looking at me, waiting for me to go explain, I sigh, "With our sex life."

"Different? How so?" Dan quirks up a brow, intently looking at me now.

"I mean, you're less— Well, you're slower. And you handle me like I'm some sort of a delicate China doll or something. You're not rough with me, I mean..." I look at him, stroking his cheek to assure him that I meant none of this as an insult, "I miss the fucking. Like, actually fucking. The whole animalistic experience of it... And I really miss that freak in you that would come out to play on your particularly stimulated nights. I miss the way you practically mauled me the second we were alone. Also miss how spontaneous we were..."

"We're not spontaneous now?" He asks, smirking again.

"We just had sex in a hotel room two nights in a row, that hardly counts as spontaneity. Although I will say that last night was quite...interesting."

"We went a long week without sex and then there was the bit where I thought I'd made you mad enough to want to leave me, soooo," Dan shrugs, grinning, "of course it was interesting."

I must have looked lost in thought because he drums his fingers against my skin, wanting my attention.

"Sorry," I apologize, "was just thinking about how we've changed so much to the point where we now call our normal 'interesting'."

"Yeah, I don't know," he breathes in, shaking his head. "Reckon I just don't want you to think it's about the sex all the time. I suppose in a way, through being softer, gentler, whatever you want to call it, I just wanted to show you that I do care about you. I thought you'd have expected a different feel now that we were together. Is it not working?" Dan scrunches up his face, shaking his head again in question this time, anticipating my response.

"Noooooooo..." I laugh at what he's said, "You are so strange!"

"Heeeey..." He whines. "I didn't know how to make it feel like we were actually together. I thought this was how you wanted it now that we're dating, I don't know."

"You're definitely strange," I nod, running my fingers through his hair. "I miss when you used to grab me by the throat, I miss the way you'd bite every inch of my skin, God!" I groan, burying my face into the pillow next to me as I mumble, "I'm getting turned on just thinking about it..."

I can feel his hands rubbing up and down my sides as he sighs, "I didn't realize you liked all that stuff." When I look at him again, he's not smirking or even remotely smiling anymore. His eyes meet mine for a fraction of a second as he scratches the back of his neck, saying, "To be perfectly honest uhm...a lot of the times we had sex prior to getting together was in states of when I was borderline senile about you. Out of my insane aggression and frustration over how I felt about you and not knowing whether it was reciprocal." He bites his bottom lip looking at me as if to make sure I was okay.