XX

Rory kissed softly down Jess's throat. He had rolled her over with him and she was propped up on his chest. "You're wild," she murmured.

Jess turned his head to look at her. He smiled. "What?"

"I said you're wild!" she shouted.

Jess laughed. "And look at you." He raised his arm weakly from the mattress and gestured to her tousled hair. Rory reached one hand up to smooth it and he knocked out the other she was balanced on, causing her to fall back against him. "Spaghetti arms."

"Well all us prodigal sons can't return years later with a body that looks like that." Rory stroked her hand across his chest. "Check your messages. You probably missed a call from Dorian Gray asking how you perfected his technique."

"Perfected it?"

"Yeah. Instead of just looking the same years later, you look even better."

"And I haven't even murdered anyone."

Rory grinned. "That's good. You should definitely put that in the infomercial when you start mass producing the wonder product that led to your startling transformation."

"I've already got a good name for it too: 'Boredom'." Jess put a hand under his head to prop it up.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Because if all this—" she ran her hand from his chest down his defined abdominals "—screams anything, it's 'laziness'."

"Nah, I didn't say lazy, I said bored." Jess was trying to focus on her words rather than the location of her hand.

"Oh, I'm sure the up-and-coming author had nothing better to do."

Jess smoothed the hand not supporting his head up Rory's back. "Not without you there."

"Dirty!"

"Come on, Rory. I was trying to be romantic."

"Sorry, try me again." Rory shook her hair back and looked at him intently as if resetting the scene.

Jess moved his hand to her face. "Not without you there."

Rory put her wrist to her forehead, fluttered her eyelids, and flopped back away from him in a mock swoon.

Jess rolled over to face her and levered himself up on his elbow. "Was that supposed to be you taking this more seriously?"

She broke her swooning pose. "I'm sorry. I just… you really missed me, huh?"

"Yeah." Jess tucked his hair back behind his ear. "It's funny, but I guess I still feel the way I did the night I showed up at your dorm at Yale."

Rory looked away from him. "I was terrible to you that night."

"Rory, I don't want you to apologize. If you had come with me then, neither of us would be where we are now. I wouldn't have wanted to be the one to make you drop out of Yale."

Rory exhaled loudly and looked pained. "No, that was a mistake I needed to make all on my own."

Jess looked down to clear his head, then looked back up when he realized he was staring directly at Rory's chest. "Man, this is coming out wrong. I promise I'm not trying to make you suffer through those memories. My point is that it's still true." She looked up at him. "That I knew the day I met you that we were meant to be together." His eyes locked on hers, which were becoming a little teary.

"How?" she asked a bit thickly. A tear rolled out the corner of her eye, down her temple, and into her hair.

He reached out and wiped the track away with his thumb. "You got me to stay." He shrugged. "With a few words you broke my habit of running before trying."

Rory raised her eyebrows.

"Not for everything, I know. But you had an effect on me right away. Within minutes of meeting you." Seeing how emotional she still looked, Jess made to shift the mood. "It was that… and your bookshelf."

Rory's eyes flickered down to look at her chest. "DIRTY!" She grinned.

"What? As if I didn't catch you out there—" he pointed in the direction of the living room "—checking out my bookshelf. And the next thing I know, you're all over me. I mean, your little trick with the dress there…" He rolled into her, buried his face in the duvet, and groaned. "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me."

Rory felt his erection strengthening against her hip. "And it was so effective we didn't even make it into the bed. Poor bed." Rory thumped the duvet with her hand, then rolled fully towards Jess. "I think we may need to huddle together for warmth."

Jess lifted his head. "Ok, come on. We can get under the blankets."

"Me want fire!" Rory whacked the bed with her fist.

"You know, I'm beginning to feel like I brought a Neanderthal home. First I satisfy your need for sustenance—" "Coffee good!" Rory broke in. "—then I put up no resistance while you have your way with me—" Rory dropped her chin and stared at him incredulously. "—and now you want me to prove to you that I'm intelligent too. That I'm up to date with the hottest technology. Please don't tell me you're waiting to call in a leopard you want me to fight."

Rory laughed. "Relax, Tarzan."

"I would actually build a fire, but I haven't checked the fireplace out yet. Probably something I should get Luke's opinion on, but then he'd always be holding that over me. Plus, letting him in leads to that whole scenario I was talking about before with the ladder."

"And the belt sander."

"And the screwdrivers."

"So many screwdrivers!" Rory smiled at him. "By fire, I really just meant candles."

"Those I have." Jess struggled into a sitting position, then looked down at Rory. "You probably want some poetry to go with those though, huh?"

"Yes please."

"Ok, start digging." Jess pointed to a small mountain of cubes in the corner of his bedroom. All labelled 'Books'.

It was Rory's turn to press her face into the covers and groan. More cardboard boxes.

Culture references in this chapter:

Dirty Dancing directed by Emile Ardolino

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The Graduate directed by Mike Nichols

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs