Music Lovers (Taennie Version)

9🧨

By the time Jennie kicks open the back door of the cottage, arms loaded with bedding, Tae has already got the tent set up in the meadow.

"You've done it. Maybe you are fit for a small town after all," she says.

"I camped a lot growing up," he reveals as he crouches inside the tent.

The two of them start unrolling the air mattress and for the next few minutes the air pump howls. Tae puts the bedding onto the mattress and Jennie hangs the paper-lantern lights, arranging them at regular intervals. When she catches a glimpse of him, the twilight has every sharp line of his face shadowed to black, his eyes more molasses than honey.

"Sleeping under the stars. I guess I've checked off everything on the list," Jennie says. The finality in her comment makes Tae look over his shoulder at her as she sits on the edge of the air mattress. "Except wear a plaid shirt. I'm not gonna buy something I'll never wear again."

"Take mine," he insists, peeling the shirt off his frame.

She takes it from him, appreciating the sentiment, something to remind her of him. Loving the way the cotton fabric smells so distinctively of Tae, she wraps it around her white, frilly dress, concentrating on how it hangs around her shoulders and starts to say, "I know- oh!"

Jennie shrieks, partly in surprise and partly because her heart skips a beat when she suddenly finds herself nose to nose with Tae. He's fixing one of the lights above her with one hand and catching her elbow, holding her back before they can fall, with the other. Based on the instant crush of heat that wells inside her, one would think they were smashed up to each other from mouth to thigh. 

"Light wasn't working," Tae says. Neither of them moves as an electric charge leaps off him, buzzing through her veins. "Fixed it."

He moves to the other side of the tent to tidy up the area now that they're done setting up, and immediately she misses his warmth. She decides to test out the air-filled mattress by leaning back, staring up through the mosquito-netted roof, a compromise that still counts as sleeping under the stars, and heaves a sigh.

"Tae, I know this isn't the answer you want from me. But tonight I just want to be..."

She thinks to herself, somewhere safe? Familiar? Comfortable? He looks at her expectantly, pupils blown out, waiting for her to continue what she's about to say. 

"With you," she finishes.

The mattress dipping under his weight breaks her focus and Tae appears above Jennie as he hovers, blocking her sight of the evening sky.

"I already told you, Jennie. I'm right here for you."

Leaning on his side, he runs his hands down her thighs then glides up her back, a light, soothing trail over her spine, and settles beneath her hair. The look he gives her lifts and swells her heart so she places her hand on the side of his neck, gently squeezing, feeling his pulse quickening under her fingertips. She watches him intently, drinking everything in fully, in case it's the last time.

Tae leans forward, softly kissing Jennie, his fingers fluttering over her jaw as she breathes in his minty breath and warm skin. When he draws back, his eyes are melted bronze, her nerve endings quivering under them. He pulls her into him, his arm coiling around her and chin tucking against her shoulder as he says quietly, like it's a secret.

"Let's get you naked."

At the sight of his parted lips and tongue poking out, she feels a wetness growing in her panties. Rising, he starts by removing his plaid shirt from around her shoulders. Using her core muscles, she sits up and says, "I can do it myself."