"Please come back to bed," Sybil begged. Tom had got out of bed early to get in a morning run before work. He often ran before work, but just recently the summer had turned to autumn and the temperature had dropped enough that Sybil resented Tom every time he got out of bed and took his body heat with him.
"I won't be long," Tom said, as he pulled on his thermal running top.
"You won't come back to bed when you get back though, will you?" Sybil pouted.
"No, I'll do what I do every morning. When I get back, I'll have a shower and then get ready to go to work."
"Do you know how cold it is out there?" Sybil asked.
"Yeah BBC weather says twelve degrees."
"With over forty mile an hour winds," Sybil added. "You'll freeze."
"Well it's a good thing I'll be running to keep myself warm then, isn't it?" Tom teased, as he continued to get dressed.
Sybil moaned at this, trying desperately to think of ways to keep Tom by her side. But unfortunately, Sybil's mind wasn't at its sharpest in the mornings. Tom was a morning person and Sybil was an evening person and sometimes this difference between them got on Sybil's nerves. Unless Sybil had to be up for an early shift at the hospital, she tended to stay in bed for longer than Tom. Even on days when neither of them were working, Tom tended to get up at a time that seemed obscenely early to Sybil, regularly leaving her alone in bed for a few more hours.
"Surely you could skip one day," Sybil suggested, putting on her best persuasive voice.
"One day," Tom said. "That's how it all starts. It's a slippery slope from then on, love."
Sybil pouted at Tom.
"It's not the end of the world, love," Tom said. "Besides, me going on a run doesn't stop us from spending time together."
"Are you suggesting I come with you?" Sybil said. "Because you know as well as I do that isn't going to happen."
"No, love, I know you well enough not to suggest something quite so absurd," Tom said with a laugh. "What I mean is, normally when I go for a run before work, you aren't awake yet. What would be unusual would be if we did spend the morning together."
"There's a first time for everything," Sybil said.
"So you are going to come with me?!" Tom mocked.
"No," Sybil said with a patient smile. She knelt up on the bed and put her arms around Tom, who was standing beside the bed. "What I mean is," she kissed him fully on the lips, "I can think of better ways to keep you warm this morning."
"Can you now," Tom said, holding Sybil's waist gently in his palms, wanting so desperately to let him take her.
"You and I both know you want to," Sybil hummed as she cradled the back of Tom's head in her hand and nipped at his jawline with her lips. "So that do you say?"
Sybil knew what his answer would be. She knew that when her voice went raspy and she whispered by his neck, sending shivers down his spine, he couldn't resist her.
"Perhaps just one day without a run wouldn't do me too much harm," he said as he shifted onto the bed to join Sybil.
After all, it wasn't like he wasn't going to be doing any exercise…