"You want me to get away from here for the weekend?" Jess reiterated incredulously later that night over tea. "Is there a catch to all of this?"

Karen shook her head. "No catch whatsoever." She made to gather all of their empty plates. "I just think it'd be nice for you to get away for a bit and not have to worry about anything for a few days. That's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?"

"Well, no." The redhead admitted. "I just don't understand. Now that I've got a baby, it'd be normal for you to want me to stay here and look after her."

"I'm giving you the chance not to do that for once." She explained. "I know how tiring it gets looking after a little one, and so spending a few days away from that will help you."

She slowly nodded. "Ok." She drew in a small sigh before getting down from the table.

At the same time at his place, Chris settled down with Clara on the sofa. "How do you feel?"

She moved into a more comfortable position against him. "A bit better."
She glowed inside as he wrapped his arms around her protectively. She nestled closer into his body, finding him so warm and soft. She could've fallen asleep like that as she felt so secure.
For a small person, he didn't half make her feel safe.

"You wanna sleep?" He noticed her breathing had slowed against him and she was snuggling up to him more. They were telltale signs that she was getting tired. "If you do, I can take you to bed."

She nestled her had against his broad chest. "But you feel so warm and cuddly…"

He smiled to himself and pulled her closer against him. He had to admit that even he felt warm inside at the closeness between them. He relaxed a little more when he felt her hand rub him over his flat stomach. He pressed his lips to her forehead, taking in the relaxing yet fresh scent of her hair.
"I hope you don't mind," he started hazily, "but I was going to go to Karen's place after work tomorrow."

Clara closed her eyes, feeling the afterglow of his kiss. "I know what for." She smiled. "Don't let me stop you."

"Oh, no. No…nothing like that." He smirked a little. "I offered to help out with something, that was all."

"We both know what that is." She teased some more.

After work the next day.
Karen took her and Chris back to hers and then opened the boot of her car. "Well, lucky for us these went unnoticed." She accentuated 'these' by tilting her head towards the several cans of paint that they bought together earlier that day during their lunch hour. "You think she'll like the colour?"

"Sure she will." He didn't know why she was so unsure at the last minute. They both decided on a colour between themselves after much squabbling, so why wouldn't the baby like it? "You should learn not to worry so much."

"You'll be pleased to know that the house is completely kid-free." She noted insinuatingly. To her, that basically meant they had the place to themselves and so they could get up to anything they wanted.

He didn't catch on to it. He either didn't catch on to that or was keeping his own thoughts to himself. "So we'll do it in no time then."

They both got into the house with the very heavy cans of paint, placing them down on the floor of the baby's room.

"Now what?" She wanted to know.

"Now," Chris started, "we take her somewhere she won't get high on paint fumes." He lifted the little one out of her cot, wrapping her up in his arms as she started to cry.

"Did you scare her?" Karen joked, watching him try to get her to settle again. Although she knew there was nothing scary about the young male.

He ignored her joke, rubbing her down her back and holding her close to him. He knew that close contact would get her to relax.
Within a few more seconds she went back to sleep and he set her down on the sofa, placing her in a secure position.

She moved everything else from the unpainted room into hers, leaving the place completely blank.

He came back into the room and unfolded the ladder. "When do you wanna start thinking about eating?"

She looked to him incredulously. "Don't tell me you're hungry already?"

"Well…my tummy does feel a little empty."

She smirked playfully, after hearing it rumble angrily. "Your tummy's always empty."

"I can hold on for a bit," he admitted, "but I don't wanna go the whole night without eating anything."

"I can always go out and get a takeout later if you want."

"If that's ok…"

Karen went out before the pair of them got too dirty, and came back a few minutes later. "I didn't want us to end up feeling too full up, so I went out to the chippie. We can share it between us."

The sight she was met with almost made her lose it.

Chris had taken off his long-sleeved top in an attempt to keep cool. He wore a t-shirt underneath, so it wasn't as though he'd rendered himself half-naked.

What set her off was the fact that she could see his slender yet very powerful-looking arms, and if that wasn't bad enough, she could make out the defined contours of his shoulder blades under the t-shirt's dark fabric.
He didn't exactly make a start with painting as such, but he merely took his t-shirt off in anticipation of getting warm.

"You didn't have to start without me, you know." She managed to regain her composure from the tempting sight, and set about getting some forks.

"It wasn't any trouble." He reassured her, prising open one of the cans of paint. "It was going to be very hard work opening these, anyway."

She came back with two forks. "So you're saying I would've struggled to open things like that, are you? I'd be careful what you say in future."

"Well, sometimes these can get quite stiff."

Karen smirked to herself. If she probed certain areas of his body, she could've said the same about that! "And that'd be no problem for a person of your abilities." She commented, taking hold of his nearest bicep and squeezing the soft yet firm flesh at the muscle. Boy, how good did that feel.

She had to be careful she didn't touch him like that again, else who knew what'd be going on between them!

"Thanks for going out to get us something." Chris noted thankfully. "I wasn't sure for how long I'd be able to manage without eating anything."

"Of course," she smiled softly, "you're going to have to keep your strength up as you're a growing boy, aren't you?"

He smirked at her as if to say 'very funny'. "I guess one of us does the top and the other does the bottom." He waited for a comment from her. "And don't get any ideas, you dirty girl."

"We can do that much later." She winked.

Once they finished the takeout between themselves, he volunteered to take on the top half of the walls and he got on the uppermost step of the ladder.

Karen stole a few looks up at the young male, allowing her gaze to move up under his t-shirt when it came away from his leant-over position. She half-expected there to be a small spare tyre from what he'd eaten, but he was working so flat out that the fat simply burnt off him.

It certainly answered her question when Chris had to stop at one point and peel off his t-shirt – right in front of her.

Her eyes almost popped out of her sockets at the overwhelming sight. She watched him drop the sweat-laden top onto the floor from his height, only for it to fall into a less than tidy heap. Her gaze fixed onto the toned pelvic muscles, which sat above the waistband of his trousers and slightly below his flat stomach.

"Don't think I can't see you." He continued moving his brush across the blank wall. "I hope you haven't got a certain activity on your mind, Mrs Fisher."

Oh, how he was tempting her like that! How could she not look? How could she not want to touch him? Surely one touch wouldn't hurt…
She slid up behind him, as he was only right next to her. She placed her hands on his backside, taking in its firmness.

"I knew you were feeling like that." He smirked, not at all put off by the fact that she was groping him in such a way. "I could have you done for assaulting a member of staff, you know."

"Outside of work hours?" Karen assumed, smiling naughtily. "I don't think that'd wash with the board somehow."

"I hope it wasn't down to something I did." Chris winked, tilting his hips to one side in a provocative manner. "Once this is all done, we can maybe do something together."

They were both on the last wall together and she was trying to focus on nothing more than the painting – which was very hard to do when she had such a young, fit, athletic male a few inches next to her.

She noticed he was sweating. Not overtly so, but enough for some of it to catch the ceiling light in the room. She could make out a considerably sized bead of sweat slide down the middle of his chest, past his flat front and then descend into the shallow recess of his navel. She couldn't help but think how lucky that bead of sweat was!

"Well, despite your perving over me," he stated eventually, "we managed to get the first coat done in one night. So I think now we should leave that to dry…"
He made to dismount the ladder when he noticed Karen at the bottom of it.
Her eyes had a naughty glint to them.

"I know what we should do now." She suggested huskily, placing her hands on his hips and sliding her thumbs over the sides of his waist once he reached the penultimately bottom step. "Now that we're done with this room for now, we should take this to another room…"

She allowed him to fully get down from the ladder but then took hold of his arm and towed him into her room.
She pushed him down onto her bed, sliding herself on top and pressing her lips to his.

"Have the paint fumes made you a bit high?" His joke was finely cut off when she slid her tongue up along the length of his crab ladder. He drew out a submissive whimper and she closed her eyes at the adorable sound he made. She knew she was exciting him and that in turn excited her.

She started to unbutton his trousers, sliding her thumbs under their waistband and allowing them to graze the sensitive contours of his pelvis. "If you hadn't have tempted me like that, I may not be doing this with you."