Trading Heartbeats

You know that feeling at the end of vacation when you just want to go home and sleep in your own bed? That's where I was.

Shep @afton
Someone needs a massage

I was basically laying on the back seat of my truck, window down, bare feet hanging out the window, constantly rubbing just above where my neck meets my shoulder. That was the picture Afton attached to her tweet and I, of course, immediately retweeted. James was driving and Jae was in the front. We were nearing home, and I was so, so happy.

I closed my eyes, folding my hands over my phone on my stomach. Sleeping here would probably not help the stiffness in my neck, but I was exhausted. I didn't get the chance, though. My phone pulsed against my hands.

I happen to know a massage therapist

Are you stalking my twitter

Maybe

When does this massage therapist have an available appointment

Depends. What are you doing tonight?

You hopefully

[Image]

I opened the text and laughed out loud at the picture of the Staples Easy button with the text THAT WAS EASY in bold across the bottom. Afton quirked an eyebrow at me.

"Niall?" she asked.

I shook my head. "Aaron."

Interestingly enough, Niall had quit responding to my texts the previous morning. At first I was irritated. He'd been in my face for two days, blowing up my phone for another day, and then when I mentioned getting together when I got home, he stopped. It seemed like a perfectly normal reaction for me to have. But then I thought maybe he just didn't want to commit to a plan. He did seem to prefer just showing up places.

Careful. Everything comes at a price

I'm good for it

I sent back a winking emoji and dropped my phone onto the seat next to me. Afton reached for it immediately, probably to read my text messages. "We were talking shit about you," I told her.

"That's exactly what I was checking for," she said without missing a beat. A second later she burst out laughing and handed my phone back to me. "That's amazing," she commented.

"Isn't it?" I replied, setting my phone on my stomach and clasping my hands over it again. I closed my eyes, desperately wanting to sleep.

"James, how long until home?" I asked. But he didn't answer. Instead he just turned up the music.

+++

Jessilynn Rae @neatojessi
Vacation is great but nothing beats home.

I tweeted a picture from where I sat of the purple flowers and the big rocks and the ocean. There was a gentle breeze, which perfectly complemented the warm sun on my skin. Endless blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds stretched above me. Waves bumped into the rocks in front of me.

We'd made it home in good time, most likely due to getting an incredibly early start. Afton and I had promptly fallen onto my bed for a nap. I woke up before she did, and she was still sleeping when I finished in the shower. I got dressed and threw my wet hair into a messy bun and headed out the door and she still showed no signs of waking up ever.

I had missed this. Everything about home was like something out of a dream. Colors were more vibrant here than anywhere else I went. The scene before me was just as I'd left it but also completely different. That was the best thing about it. I was never looking at exactly the same thing twice.

There was nothing unusual about the sound of someone navigating the rocks behind me. People had come and gone and come back in the time I'd been sitting there watching the world in front of me. I paid them no mind and they returned the favor. But something made me turn this time. I looked over my shoulder and tried to bite back the smile that pulled across my face.

"Are you stalking me? How did you know where I was?" I pushed myself to my feet as he made his way closer. "Oh my god, is that Pavel's?" I asked when I saw the box in his hands.

"I saw your picture," he laughed. He held the box out to me. It was Pavel's.

"And you knew where I was?" I stepped up onto a rock to ease the difference of our heights and opened the box. "Oh my god," I moaned at the sight of the chocolate glazed bomboloni and assortment of cookies. "Eclair or Bavarian cream?" I asked as I lifted it from the box.

"Bavarian," he replied. A smile played at his lips. I felt his gaze on my mouth for a just a moment before it flicked back to my eyes.

I grinned. "The superior of the two," I said. He nodded. I lifted the pastry to take a bite and then stopped. "I've never seen one of these after ten in the morning. Did you really get this for me?" I asked.

Now he was grinning. "Yeah, I really did," he said.

"It's still warm," I commented. "Wait. It's Saturday. Pavel's closed at three. How is this still warm?"

"Has anyone ever told you that you ask a lot of questions?" he asked, and I nodded. "Maybe instead you should just say 'Thank you, Aaron,' and eat it before it's not warm anymore," he suggested.

I considered it briefly and then took a bite. The pastry was perfectly chewy and the dark chocolate glaze mixed with the sweet custard for the perfect balance of flavors. I closed my eyes, savoring every moment of the bite.

Aaron was looking at me with a hint of amusement when I opened my eyes again. "What?" I asked, carefully setting the pastry back into the box.

He shook his head. "Nothing," he smiled. "You've just got a little," he gestured toward my mouth. I swiped at my lip where I thought he had motioned toward but came up with nothing. "Here, I'll get it," he offered. He reached out as he took a small step toward me like he was going to wipe it away but then dropped his hand and leaned in.

My bottom lip caught between both his lips, then a second later his tongue barely brushed against the corner of my mouth before disappearing. His lips stayed where they were, which I greatly appreciated. I kissed him back. Because why wouldn't I? We kept it brief, though.

"Smooth," I said when he pulled away.

"I thought you might like that." He took a step back so he was at a comfortable distance for talking. I felt his eyes travel over me, taking in my dark blue floral print dress that fit closely, but not tight, in the bodice and flared out at the waist. My skin had taken on a slight bronze glow from the entire week spent outside. "You look good," he said. "Vacation agrees with you.

I shook my head. "Home agrees with me," I told him.

"Works for me," he said. And then, "How's the neck?"

I shrugged. "You tell me."

He reached out again, this time around the back of my neck. My muscles all seemed to immediately surrender at the touch of his warm hand. All except the ones that were causing annoyance, of course. I heard the air he pushed out his nose and saw the smile pull at the corner of his mouth in amusement. But he couldn't understand the way it felt to be touched by someone who knows how to touch people.

His hand barely moved at first. But then I winced. A crease appeared between his eyebrows as he pressed down with his thumb on the spot that was most tender. I breathed in sharply and felt my face scrunch.

"Breathe," he said softly, flicking his eyes to mine and settling on my gaze. I let out my breath and then drew another one in. He released pressure and let his hand fall away from my neck. "What did you do?" he asked.

"Slept on a shitty couch for three nights," I said, reaching up to rub the spot he'd just been touching. He swatted my hand away immediately. "James slept on it for the first three and would've slept on it for the rest of the trip but I felt bad. It was way too cramped for him. I didn't realize how tall he is until I saw him on laying on that couch."

Aaron's eyebrows raised as I spoke and dropped when I finished. "He's definitely got your dad's height," he laughed. "That's going to take a little bit of work," he motioned to my neck. "I need to get all the muscles around it warm and loose before I can get that worked out."

I nodded. "Wanna go then?" I suggested.

"Were you done here?" he asked. I shrugged. "I can go if you're not. I wasn't trying to rush you. I just wanted to give you those," he motioned to the box.

I shrugged again. "You don't have to go," I told him. "Sit. Enjoy the view with me. Have a cookie," I offered.

He didn't need to be asked twice. He held out a hand, inviting me to sit first. I did, setting the box on my lap and opening it. Aaron settled next to me, one hand pressed firmly on the rock, leaning toward me to see his choices. Like he didn't already know what was inside.

Even after he chose a peanut butter cookie, he kept his hand on the rock behind me. I told him about vacation as we ate our goodies, purposely leaving out all things Niall-related. Well, mostly. He was aware that Niall had shown up at Disneyland. He knew we hung out. But he never asked about him. And it was surprisingly easy, as it turned out, because when I was talking to Aaron, I didn't want to talk about Niall.

Conversation dipped in and out after that. The box from Pavel's was sitting behind me, next to Aaron's hand. The ocean became more restless as late afternoon turned to early evening and the waves had started to crash against the rocks, rather than just bump into them. I became acutely aware of how much closer, physically, Aaron and I had gotten the longer we sat there, just from shifting slightly here and there. I watched him watching the waves during a lull in conversation. He was beautiful.

"Like what you see?" he asked without taking his eyes from the ocean.

"I feel like we established that awhile ago," I replied, not taking my eyes off him.

His jaw twitched and I knew he was smiling. He pushed off his hand so he was sitting up, and his arm hooked around my waist, scooping me onto his lap so I sat sideways with my shoulder to his chest. I looped my arm around his neck and leaned my head in, breathing in his scent. Clean laundry and ocean air and just a hint of spice. It was so pleasing. So familiar.

I breathed out a with a content hum. Aaron and the ocean and the sun and the breeze. Nothing beats home.

Aaron turned and dipped his head until his lips found mine. I straightened into a more upright position to make it easier on both of us. Sometimes I wasn't sure where our friendship ended and the benefits started. We kissed and we kissed and we kissed. I have no idea for how long but everything about it felt good and right in the moment.

His hand stayed on my hip where it had rested naturally after he pulled me onto his lap, and the other was planted firmly on the outside of my thigh. I had one resting against his shoulder and the other on his stomach. I loved feeling his muscles contract in response to what we did and feeling the patterns of his breath change the longer he and I stayed in engaged.

We were both breathless when he pulled away. I opened my eyes to look at him up close. He kept his closed.

"You doing alright?" I asked, still trying to catch my breath. He gave a tiny nod before resting his forehead against mine. "Baseball stats?"

"Throwing techniques."

I pushed a breath out my nose. Even better. I moved my hand from his stomach to brush my fingertips against his cheek, my eyes trained on his swollen lower lip. I captured it between mine briefly. It looked so tempting; I couldn't help myself.

Finally, he opened his eyes. For a minute he just looked at me, eyes going from mine to my lips to my chest and then back to my eyes. "You look really good," he said in a low voice. I flattened my hand against his face and let it travel to the back of his head. Our mouths met once again.

"Are you hungry?" I asked, pulling back just a little bit. "Because I could go for some tacos from Michael's right now."

He breathed out a laugh. "I could eat," he agreed.

Since we'd come here separately, we drove to Michael's separately. I insisted on paying for our meal since he'd paid for Pavel's. He wanted to argue, and did a little bit but I cut him off before he could get much out. I popped open both our Coronas when we sat down and shoved a lime wedge in each. We ate and talked like we hadn't just spent god knows how long kissing by the ocean. Or like it didn't matter that we had, maybe.

We went to his house when we finished eating. I stepped out of my flats immediately, leaving them next to the door, and followed him to his room. His back was to me when I reached up to unzip my dress. I pushed it off my shoulders and let it fall to the floor and stepped away from it, which left me standing in only a black lace bra and black lace boyshort underwear. I pulled my hair out of the bun and let it fall down in messy waves.

It seemed like forever before he turned around, but I was not disappointed when he did. "Oh, fuck, Jessi," he breathed out when he saw me. His jaw went slack and his eyes were glued to me. Aaron is a lace guy.

"That's what I was hoping for," I said, crossing the room toward him.

His hands were on my waist as soon as I was within reach and he lifted me into the air. My legs latched onto his sides and I grabbed his face, trying to catch his lips. But the next thing I knew, I was on the bed and Aaron was hovering above me, holding himself up with one hand firmly pressed into the mattress.

He dropped his head down, face centimeters from mine, like he was going to kiss me. "God, you look really good, Jessi," he said breathily. Then, instead of kissing my mouth, he dipped his head to the side and his lips found my jaw, my neck, my shoulder, collar bone, and then moved back to my neck.

I reached for his shirt and tugged on it, pulling it over his head when his lips left my skin for just a second. I threw it to the side and pushed my fingers into his hair, pulling gently on it when he nipped at my sweet spot.

But as quickly as it started, he stopped, pushing himself back up so he was hovering above me. I looked up quizzically at him. "Do I need to say something?" I asked. "Because, yes," I told him.

He breathed out hard and squeezed his eyes shut. Throwing techniques again. He shook his head, opening his eyes to look at me. "If we start now, I'm not going to stop," he said.

I stared at him, hoping my confusion was conveyed on my face. "I don't see the problem," I said.

"Your neck," he replied. "I'm concerned about it."

I pushed out a hard breath. "Right," I said, pushing myself up on my elbows. He made like he was going to get up but I was faster and caught his lip before he could get far. I felt his smile as we kissed. "Pretty rude to get me going like that and then stop," I told him.

"Just think of the massage as foreplay," he offered.

"That only works until the end when you hurt me like you did earlier," I said, pushing myself up into a sitting position.

A laugh escaped him. "Oh, it's going to hurt a lot worse than earlier."