Yorkshire, England – Present Day

John opened the door and stepped in front of Anna to hold the door back with his body as he led her into the small corridor. His hand left hers for the time it took to shut and lock his door and then immediately resumed holding it delicately. A little too delicately if the slight snort and shake of the head was any indication on Anna's end.

"What?"

"I'm blind, not breakable." Anna's fingers firmed on his, tugging him toward her as her other hand manipulated her cane to measure the distance to the wall behind her. The second she had the distance gauged adequately, Anna leaned toward it and used her grip on John's hand to bring him with her. A moment later, her back fully against the wall, Anna's hand left John's to smooth over the front of his suit coat, shirt, and tie. "And I want to see where this evening will take us."

"So do I." John could barely breathe, his response a whisper almost too quiet for his own ears even as the words vibrated up his jaw.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Anna's fingers traced over his tie before wrapping it over her hand to yank him within an inch of her lips. "Let's get started."

With such a blatant invitation, and the blood already rushing in his ears as his brain struggled to compute the basics of the encounter, John could do nothing but respond. His lips met hers, still a little hesitant as the distance could only be crossed from his end without smashing their noses together, but he softened after a moment. And in the next his hand moved to grace her jaw and the back of her neck to hold firmly there at the slide of Anna's tongue over his lips.

He did not open to her. Not yet. Instead he slanted his mouth slightly, altering the angle to give him the split-second advantage to taste her lips with his tongue. The hint of a moan Anna let vibrate from her lips to his gave John the opening he needed to run his tongue just inside the line of her lips.

But for whatever advantage John thought he might have, the combination of Anna sucking on his tongue and twisting her hand more firmly in his tie to bring his body against her proved him woefully unprepared for her. His gasp of surprise only gave way to a groan that fed Anna's hum of satisfaction as they continued to taste one another in the kiss. And the position she encouraged allowed her to align their bodies so almost every inch of them that could touch already did.

John's other hand found Anna's hip and he used the moment to step even closer to her, following the adjustment in posture Anna adopted to allow one of his legs to slip between hers. With the high heels she wore, the height difference between them presented almost no issues and John's hand found purchase on Anna's hip. A position he used to steady himself when Anna's hips gyrated as she ground herself against his thigh.

It stuttered their kiss a moment and Anna took her advantage in the second. Her fingers caressed the back of his neck, her nails scraping along his skin before the backs of her fingers drew over his skin to leave John shivering. And the shivers only increased when Anna used another twist of her hips to increase the friction of her center over his trouser leg. A motion that, for a second, had John fantasizing that he could sense the heat of her as she rode slowly against the material there.

Breaking the kiss, and hauling in breaths deep enough to send his chest pressing against Anna's hand, John stared at her. For a moment he wished she could see. Wished he could, even in the low light of the entryway of his home, read even a fraction of her thoughts through her eyes. Wished he could try and tell what she thought in that moment from the little hints his gaze might betray.

The emotions he knew his eyes signaled like neon... If only she could see them.

"You're thinking far too loudly."

"I'm… I'm not… I didn't…"

"And now you're lying." Anna's fingers loosened her grip on John's tie, trailing up to his collar to urge the fabric loose. "What's got you so distracted?"

"I'm…" John swallowed, "I wish I could know what you're thinking."

"All you have to do is ask."

"Not… That's not what I… I mean…" John bit the tip of his tongue.

"You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Stopping yourself saying something so you'll say the right thing instead of the wrong thing but, inevitably, not saying what you really want to say." Anna's fingers traced idly over the fabric of his tie and shifted toward John's neck. "What do you want to say right now John?"

"I want to say… So much."

"But what, specifically, do you want to say in this moment?"

"That…" John forced himself to swallow again. "That I want you to see me."

Anna's fingers slipped from John's tie and he kept his breaths shallow as he gauged the possible reactions that came from his admission. The press of Anna's chest against his, signaling the depth of her breaths, settled and her fingers played with the end of his tie. A soft sound, the careful brush of her calloused fingers against the silk of his tie, almost hid the barely-there whisper that Anna used to speak.

"Why do you want me to see you, John?"

"Because… Because I want you to see me as I see you. I want to see you."

"You can already see me." Anna let a huff of a laugh escape her nose. "Maybe not in the dark but, generally…"

"That's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean?"

"I mean…" John's words tumbled from his mouth almost faster than he could carefully manage to ensure his meaning was not lost in the barrage. "I want to know what you're thinking in the thousand of little ways that you'd tell me if I could look into your eyes and you could look into mine. I want to have you see so many things that I couldn't hope to have the words to actually tell you. I want to catch the flick of your gaze or the glint or the sparkle or the interest or the myriad of other emotions that all betray themselves when the soul shines through the eyes."

John let out a breath, almost deflating under the weight of the admission. "I… I want you to see."

Anna's fingers tracked their way back up his tie until she found his neck. In the silence between them after John's last comment, it was all he could do to still breath steadily as her fingers trailed up to his jaw and then found his cheek. She stroked there a moment before returning to his jaw so she could hold there. Her grip firmed and the slight tug of her wrist brought John's head back to her. And, with another twist of her wrist, Anna managed to alter their angle enough to bring their lips together.

For a moment John could only replicate the actions Anna instigated on her end. But when he went to respond to them, to give over to her urging, Anna took her turn to pull away. His mouth hung slightly open in the aftermath but Anna did not shove him away or even pull away as he expected her to. Instead, she rested her forehead on his shirt and hauled in deep breaths before speaking in the same whisper as before.

"I want that too."

"What?"

John's voice was barely higher than Anna's but part of him pressed that he imagined what she said. That the fingers she still had on his jaw would use the position to push him away. Or that the other hand, now almost crunching in the available real estate of his shirt, would flatten to shove him backward.

Instead she pressed her head harder against his chest for a moment and then pushed off to put their foreheads together, John giving over to the control of her fingers that still rested on his jaw. Fingers that relaxed when their foreheads touched and the angle left their chests filling at the same time. Fingers that then stroked back over John's face and lips as Anna raised her voice just enough for John to be sure she spoke and his imagination had not simply run away with his desires.

"I want to see you. I want to track your emotions as they pass over your face. I want to know what your eyes could tell me. I want to try and find out what color they really are as they shift and change. I want to watch them dilate when I excite you and wait until the last moment before they close when you come." Anna's callouses dragged at John's lips and he resisted the urge to let his tongue dart out to taste them. "Just like I want to see what you look like. What your face does when you smile, how your hair might be gray near your ears or if it's a solid color all the way around, or even how far your ears might stick out from your head."

"You don't need to know that."

"But I want to know that." Anna's breath stuttered a moment and John's fingers covered hers on his chest when the hitch in her voice betrayed the trembling possibility of tears. "I want to know all the hundreds and thousands of things people know just by looking at one another. The hundreds and thousands of things I'll never know. Can never know anymore. I want all the things I'll never have again."

Anna's forehead lifted from John's as her fingers left his lips. "But I can't have that. Not ever again."

"I know." John's fingers took their turn tracing Anna's skin as he mapped her hand on his chest. "I… I just wished you could, for a moment."

"I wish for it every day."

John took her hand from his chest and pressed a kiss to the back of it. "I'm sorry."

"So am I." Anna took a breath and her voice steadied. "But, in place of the vision I don't have, I'll rely on other things."

"Anything in particular?"

"Well," Anna's fingers shifted to hold at the back of John's neck as her lips traced over his, "I'm enjoying feeling you."

"I'm enjoying it too." John kept still. "I just wish I could offer more."

"You're offering me more than enough." Anna ground against him.

"That's not…" John bit the end of his tongue. "That's not what I meant."

"I know." Anna pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "And I know it's harder."

"I'm not afraid of it being harder." John closed his eyes. "I'm afraid I'll let you down."

"You couldn't do that."

"No?"

"No." Anna drew John into a longer kiss, ending it before he could press further. "But it does mean you'll have to try put words to emotions and instincts you've never quantified before. It'll mean you have to speak with the other senses that make us so vulnerable."

"That sounds terrifying."

"It is." Anna's words whispered over John's lips as she dotted quick kisses between them. "But it'll bring us closer."

"I know." John's forehead tipped down to rest on Anna's, bringing a break to their kisses for a moment. They breathed in sync with one another as their bodies stilled. "It's… It's frightening. And… Maybe I should be more afraid to say this but it scares me."

"Being vulnerable?"

"The idea of letting you down." John took another breath, "Of not giving you the world when you deserve so much more than that."

"I already said you can't do it."

"I think it's inevitable that, in some way, I'll let you down."

"Because you want to give me the world and you'll find that's an impossible task?"

"That and the fact that I want to five you so much more than the world because you deserve so much more and I…" John listed his forehead and wet his lips. "I'm not enough to give you what you deserve."

"Do you trust me?" Anna's hand firmed under his and John remembered that the warmth under his other hand was Anna's on his chest.

"What?"

"Do you trust me?" Anna drew back, "To know my own mind? To know what I want? To judge for myself?"

"Of course I do."

"Then trust that I can judge well enough in this to know I don't need the world. I don't need you to be perfect. I don't need you to be anything more than what you are and, by my estimation, what you are is more than enough for me."

John could not find the words he needed. Instead he set to dotting kisses over Anna's face. He kept them light and soft, each one landing sweetly on her skin. Anna soon breathed in time with him and he felt her check contract under his lips as her lips drew into a smile. At that John finally put their mouths together in a motion that allowed their kiss, like the others he left over her face, soft and sweet.

When he drew back, Anna stayed in place. "You're a lovely man."

"And you're… you're so far above me."

"John-"

"No, it's true." John let out a shuddering breath, "I know I'm not worthy of you."

"Then it's a good thing I think you're more than worthy."

"But-"

"No." Anna's hand left John's neck and she clapped it over his mouth to silence him. "If you trust me then trust that I'm an adult who can make my own decisions and responsibly chose for myself. Even if that choice is you."

John gave a slight nod and Anna's hand loosened, moving to his shoulder. They stood in silence until Anna spoke again. "Trust my competence in knowing how to choose for myself and knowing what's good for me."

"I didn't mean it as a-"

"As a dig at me?" Anna's fingers flexed against John's shoulder. "I know. But digging at yourself puts your confidence in me into question and I won't stand for that."

"Then I won't either." John let out a tiny snort. "What a conversation."

"If you trusted that I know my own mind and that I'm familiar enough with my own heart to know when I should or shouldn't give it to someone then this conversation wouldn't be necessary." Anna shoved slightly at John's shoulder and giggled with him. "I'm not afraid of this."

"No?"

"No." Anna shook her head and used her two hands to tug John closer to her again as her back thumped softly against the wall behind her. "I'm not afraid of what's mine."

"Is that what I am?"

"Considering I'm giving you my heart, I'd say so."

"That sounds more like you'd be mine then." John nudged at Anna's jaw, tracing kisses there as Anna shivered against him.

"I wouldn't mind being yours."

John paused at Anna's neck, his voice quivering as he left kisses on Anna's skin. "I don't want to break your heart and I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't."

"And if I do?"

"Then I'll only have myself to blame for having trusted you with it. But, again," Anna's hand moved from his shoulder to leave her fingers carding in the hair at the back of his neck. The same hair she used to pull him from her neck so she could bring their lips together again. She licked inside his mouth and pulled away to finish her comment. "I don't fear what's mine and neither should you."

"I'll try not to."

"No," Anna shook her head and relaxed her fingers slightly in John's hair. "I need you to trust me. To trust that I know you won't bugger this."

"I…"

"John," Her voice held on an edge and John did not dare to breathe. "Can you trust me far enough to give us tonight? To let us have this right now?"

"Yes." He breathed.

"Then trust me."

"I'll trust you forever."

"Good." Anna's hand shifted from his shirt and turned to take his hand in hers. Her thumb ran over John's knuckles and she altered her grip to bring John's hand to her mouth to kiss. "Then kiss me again so we can share more good things in this… entryway?"

"Well spotted."

"I'd hope so." Anna sighed as John's hand drifted from the back of her neck to her hip and kneaded there a moment. "I barely let us get in the door."

"I could show you more of the house if you want."

"Maybe in a minute."

"In a minute?"

"Yes, in a minute." Anna's hand at the back of John's neck brought their lips closer, "I think I want to kiss you a bit more here before we move forward."

"Do you?"

"Yes," Anna's voice, barely a whisper, left tingles over John's skin. "To drive away all the fears and cares you brought through the door with you. We'll leave here and not pick them up until tomorrow morning."

"If at all?"

"If at all." Anna agreed, "Now kiss me and we'll forget together."

John obeyed and reveled in the moan Anna immediately let out at the depth of the kiss he pressed to her lips. The kiss he intended to, as she suggested, to drown out all the doubts and fears. The kiss the left them both breathless and clawing at one another until John forced himself away.

"Let me show you the rest of it."

"Lead on." Anna's hand found her cane and her fingers interlaced with his. "Unless you want to simply allow us the animalistically dirty and delicious pleasure of having one another here in the entryway."

John shivered at the thought, and the image. "Maybe another time."

"I'll remember that." Anna's thumb ran over John's knuckles. "I'm ready when you are if we're continuing the tour."

"This way."

John guided Anna through his small home. His hand shifted over hers so he could guide it along the walls and the counters of his small kitchen. Keeping his pace equal to hers, John counted the steps between rooms and pieces of furniture. As they moved along, John described the necessary details for Anna to gauge the size and shape so her mind could form the map she might later need, all the while running her fingers over the textures so she could perfect the picture in her mind.

Eventually he reached the stairs, shifting to walk up them sideways so Anna could use her cane to judge distance on the ascent. Her other hand held the bannister and used it to reach the landing and then ran her fingers along the wall to the bathroom and then to the door of John's room. There they paused, John wetting his lips as he swallowed hard, and Anna smiled.

"You've given me the grand tour now."

"There's a guest room that's also my study but that's not really anything you'll need to see really."

"Because it's filled with books I can't read?"

"Because it's filled with boxes I've not unpacked from when I moved in here." John shuffled in place. "My mother's things, some of them, and then then things… The things you collect in life and realize, later, you don't really have a place for."

"Things from when you were married?"

"And a neurosurgeon."

"Plenty of awards?"

"There are some. Different accolades and…" John shrugged it off. "The stupid detritus you collect and can't really get rid of."

"Do you want to get rid of it?"

"I don't know what to do with it anymore." John's breath stuttered when Anna's fingers found the sleeve of his jacket and slid down it to his fingers to tangle there.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not that man anymore." John jerked his thumb back at the room, even if Anna could not see the motion. "It's… It's like a different person lives in that room."

"I know a little about that." Anna's fingers tightened in their tangle with his. "We're never the people we were."

"No, we're not." John brought their joined hands to his mouth and pressed a kiss to that back of hers. "Would you like to see that room?"

"No." Anna smiled at him, her other hand rising to run two fingers over John's cheek while the others held her cane. The leather strap on the end of it brushed over his skin with the motion of her fingers. "I don't know that man. I know this one, in front of me, and I want to move forward with you."

"Then let me show you the last room."

John led her into his room, counting the steps from the door to the bed and then from the door to the en suite before repeating the motion from the bed to the en suite. A perfunctory tour of the bathroom with its shower and toilet and vanity ended with John and Anna standing at the end of his bed. And, with the tour completed, John found himself almost paralyzed by the reality that there were no more delays.

In that moment John was sure Anna had a Daredevil-like sixth sense of his paralysis. Her cane tilted to rest along the end of the bed and she untangled their hands. Then, with both sets of artistically dexterous fingers, Anna found his tie and pulled the knot loose. The rasp of silk on the fabric of John's shirt almost distracted him and he could only breathe shallowly, as if afraid to make a noise and interrupt Anna's work.

With the tie loose, Anna slipped it from under his collar, the sliding noise almost making John jump in the otherwise silent space. For a second, in the dim light cast by the corridor's single bulb, John watched Anna wrap the tie around her hands and run it through her fingers. A moment later she reached up, finding his face with her fingers so the silk slid over his skin to leave him shivering at the touch, and placed the tie over his eyes. Her hands moved and John, almost on instinct, responded to bend down so Anna could tie the blindfold securely at the back of John's head.

Her fingers brushed through John's hair, leaving him shivering again, and Anna's voice broke the silence between them. "Now we're even."

"Even?"

"Of course." Her hands rested on his shirt, pressing there before drifting down to ensure the buttons of his jacket and waistcoat were loose so she could use a grip on his lapels to push both pieces of offending material from his shoulders. John all but sloughed them off as Anna spoke again. "We're standing as equals now."

"We're not equals Anna."

Her fingers stopped on John's buttons, the air sucked from the room. John regretted not speaking faster, not finishing his statement as Anna's touch lightened as if she pulled away and the quaver in her voice confirmed it. "No?"

He struggled to find her hands, not as adept at measuring distance without the use of his eyes as she was, but John caught Anna before she could retreat. Holding there, his fingers soft on her skin after making contact. "No. You'll always be far, far above me."

Anna's sigh of relief could not be louder as she rested her forehead forward on John's chest, trapping their hands between them. She laughed for a moment against him, pressing into him as John surrendered his hold on her hands to drift down her arms and find her shoulders. Then one hand moved to Anna's hip, brushing lightly against her breast on the way down, and the other found Anna's neck.

Using his thumb, John tilted Anna's head up and away from his chest. Carefully, still a novice in unaided motion, John bent his head and put his lips to Anna's. She gave into the kiss immediately and her unoccupied hands soon found their way to his neck to hold him in place as she tried to steal control of the kiss.

But John did not allow her that. Instead, he broke the kiss and trailed his lips over her jaw, nipped at her ear, and then moved to her neck. There he punctuated his kisses with slight sucks to her skin. He imagined he left little red marks that he hoped would fade by the morning but he could not be sure. Not until he found her shoulder, the material of her dress moving to the side as his nose pressed against it, and kissed before sucking hard enough to leave a mark.

Anna keened at that, her hands at the back of his neck grazing her nails over his skin before carding into the end of his hair there. John bent into the motions of Anna's fingers, giving over to the relaxing pressure there as he continued to move his mouth over Anna's collar bones to her opposite shoulder. The process almost reminded him of Anna's 3-D printer as he matched the texture of her skin with his lips to the sight of her that lived in his mind. The sight that acted as his map while John moved up the other side of Anna's neck.

A slight sting of pain brought John away from his teething at Anna's neck and he realized her nails still dug into the skin at the back of his scalp. But the moment of pause allowed Anna the lead and she brought their lips back together. For a second they clacked teeth but Anna's dexterity and experience softened their kiss enough to allow their lips to meet before they lost their breath trying to steal it from one another. And, when Anna turned them in place, John lost his breath and broke the kiss from the shock of Anna managing to shove him down to sit on the bed.

Even after giving Anna a tour of his own home, and living there, John could not honestly answer the question of dimensions. The fact that Anna, after one tour, could gauge the distance enough not to land him on his ass on the floor blew him away. But he only had a moment to revel in her impressive ability before her knees were on either side of his hips and she took her position on his lap.

That did require John to take the lead for a second. With one hand at the small of Anna's back, earning him a soft sigh as Anna shivered at the contact of his skin on hers, John used the other to pull him further onto the bed and reduce the risk of dropping either of them off the edge of it. The practicality of it required Anna to adjust her position and pull the skirt of her dress up a moment but it only gave them a second to giggle together over the unromantic motions required to not end up in an undignified heap.

"You're very good at this." John's other hand moved to Anna's hip at his first hand caressed up her spine, running his blunt nails there while Anna arched into his touch.

"I've had more practice."

"All the same," John's hand flattened between her shoulder blades and held there as he took a breath. "What do you want me to do, Anna?"

"I want you to trust your instincts." Her fingers ran over the tie still covering John's eyes. "They'll tell you what to do next."

John obeyed.

Bending his head back to her neck, he set to work kissing there while his hand resumed its trek over the exposed expanse of Anna's back. His other hand held at her hip for a moment before Anna's shift caught some of the material in his grip. Taking the hint, intended or otherwise, John slowly rucked the material up until it hung over his hand and his fingers could touch the exposed skin of Anna's thigh and hip. Skin that occupied him for a time until he found the line of elastic that delineated the start of her knickers.

This line John followed, moving his mouth back to Anna's as a distraction of sorts. Or simply a response to the little whine she gave in time with the clack of her nails against the buttons of his shirt she managed to undo. For each one she loosened, the pads of Anna's fingers taunted their touch at the skin of his chest. John brought Anna closer, his hand flattening on her back to practically slot their hips together, and his fingers dared under the line of elastic that covered her core.

Anna keened at that, breaking their kiss to suck for air. John waited only a moment before he leaned forward and went for the side of Anna's neck again. For a second he had been tempted to try and kiss at the underside of her chin but the image of Anna's head coming back down and cracking the bridge of his nose by accident as they tried to seduce one another in their blinded states was enough to warn him off. Instead he took his lips over her neck again and finally dipped his fingers fully into her knickers.

The pressure of her weight on his lap lifted in time with the mattress depressing under him. John paused, worried he did the wrong thing. But when Anna gyrated her hips, to try and force John's fingers lower, he resumed his motions. Resumed his hand at Anna's back, his lips on her neck, and slid his fingers forward to run through the growing dampness between her folds.

Sighs escaped Anna's mouth now and John adjusted their position slightly, shifting to grant his hand a better angle, and he brushed his thumb over Anna's clit. Her whine only escalated as John continued to add pressure and tested different strokes until he found the one Anna preferred. It proved enough to allow his fingers to slide further and he slid one inside her. Immediately Anna's vaginal muscles tightened and John paused to wait for her to relax. When she did, he resumed his efforts between her legs but kept his other hand still at her back and his kisses light on her neck.

Soon Anna's hips worked faster against him, her body undulating into her knees to work up a rhythm that would meet the efforts of John's fingers. Efforts only improved when John added another finger and crooked both inside her. Anna's mouth came to John's neck then, her teeth breaking through the kiss she haphazardly placed there. But no further kiss came from her as Anna's first hand gripped the back of his neck and her other hand held firmly to his shoulder to give herself the leverage she needed to maintain her momentum.

A momentum only broken when her muscles clenched a final time and she reached her climax. A climax that left her quivering and trembling where she perched over John and he held her steady until her forehead lifted from where it fell to his shoulder. Her fingers loosened their grip on his shoulder and she smiled into the skin of his neck as they drifted down to finish the buttons on his shirt.

"That was lovely."

"It was my pleasure."

"Was it?" Anna's teeth nipped at the skin of John's neck and he jerked at the motion and then bucked his hips when her hand, finished with his shirt, drifted to the tent in his trousers. "Because it feels like I've not gotten that far yet."

"There's time."

"Yes there is." Anna kissed at his neck and pulled back. "All the time in the world."

"Maybe not that much time." John could not help the grin that stretched his cheeks as he released his hold on Anna long enough to find the cuffs of his shirt and undo them so he could toss it to one side of the bed. "But we've enough for me to kiss you more."

"I want more than that." Anna's hand moved back to his chest, flattened, and pressed hard enough that John leaned back onto his forearms. She exerted a bit more pressure and John submitted to laying back fully on the bed. He only lifted his head long enough to adjust the tie so the knot at the back of his head now sat just behind an ear instead of pressing into his skull. "Much more."

"I'm at your service."

"Good." Anna trilled, and John forced himself to keep still as Anna's weight lifted off his lap entirely.

He tracked her motions by sound. Not quite as adept as she was, moving in unfamiliar space, but John tried to guess the motions of her movements by the sounds of material hitting the floor. He jumped slightly when she loosened his belt and then shivered at the sound of its leather snap. And when Anna's fingers tickled his ankles as she found the cuffs of his trousers to tug them from his hips, John almost laughed at the rush of conflicting and complimentary emotions running through him along the lines of adrenaline already coursing through his veins.

But when skin ran against his, the slight roundness of when he suspected were Anna's knees bringing her up the length of his body to hold herself just over his lap, all the laughter in John died in the moment his breath left him. Left him as Anna's hand ran over his chest and up to his face so her palm could fit itself along his jaw. Her forehead touched his and then their lips met.

Anna controlled the kiss, spun it as long as she wanted before pulling back. For a moment her teeth ran over his lower lip, threatening to bring it with her, but she released to leave kisses over John's cheeks and neck. And her work distracted John long enough that the thrust of his hips surprised even him almost as much as the jump of his arousal when Anna's hand wrapped around him.

Thankfully she only spent a moment there with her hand and John gave a sigh of relief. A sigh he immediately regretted when Anna pressed forward so her wet core ran along his erection. Her weight pressed John's arousal along his stomach and she ground down before taking on a slow roll of her hips to leave him almost apoplectic at the way it hardened and thickened him.

"Anna. Anna. Anna, I-" John's hands blindly found her hips and he tried to hold there but he could only throw his head back into the mattress and arch his neck as his body thrust against her in instinctual response to her motions.

She slowed and John's fingers firmed at her hips as he blinked against the darkness behind the tie over his eyes. A moment later she slid in his grip, her skin sliding under his fingers as she shifted, and John caught his breath when Anna's lips ran next to his ear as she whispered to him. "Do you have condoms?"

"Bedside table I think."

"Good." Anna's weight shifted on him again and John tried to breathe steadily as he imagined the image of her stretched over him, the glisten between her legs catching the inadequate light from the corridor's bare bulb through the open doorway. But the image was quickly supplanted with one John wished he could see but also was partially glad he could not because the idea of seeing Anna roll her fingers down the length of him would finish him in a second. And that thought, if anything, saved John embarrassing himself in reality as Anna's fingers pulled away from her work.

A moment later, Anna's knees notched against John's hips and the slight heat of her core sitting just above where he waited erect for her, she spoke again. "Are you ready?"

"No." John's fingers flexed on Anna's hips at the tremor of pause that ran through her at his words. "I'll never be ready for you. I could never be ready for someone as wonderful and-"

She did not allow him the dignity of finishing his attempt at a compliment. Instead she sheathed him in a second. Or, attempted to. The steady slide of her motions, almost like a piston working into place during the first run of a machine, only brought their hips fully together on the third thrust but it was enough to steal all the air from John's lungs.

He gasped, trying to fill them, and could only flex his fingers against her hips again. Focusing there, trying to distract himself from the tight, wet heat of her, John forced air into his lungs. But the shudder that ran through Anna's body, the slight rake of her nails against his chest, and the whimpers she released at the feel of him, forced John to move. Forced him to work through the artless rhythm until they rolled and moved together.

It was not much of a dance. The attempts at finesse threw off their motions and they stuttered and stumbled together. But, eventually, they managed to find what they needed. Anna, with a hand between them that brushed against him between the work she performed on her clit, used her leverage on John's chest to alter their angle and reach the spot inside herself that allowed the most glorious of noises to escape her. John held to Anna's hips, moved his legs behind her to offer himself a degree of improved leverage for their motions, and even risked a basic mapping of the rest of Anna's body.

But when they came, Anna managing hers a few seconds after John could no longer hold his back, they slumped together. Their hands and legs shifted as they tried to find more comfortable positions and John worked the tie from around his head. Blinking against the light, weak though it was, John rolled off the bed and disposed of the condom in the bathroom before wetting a cloth for Anna.

As he returned, trying to rescue some of the clothes to leave them hanging instead of piled in heaps on the floor, John caught Anna's hand to press the cloth there. She smiled and used her other hand to bring John's with her as she set to cleaning over the mess they made of her. And perhaps it was her intent, when she brought John along for the movement, but John could not stop himself kneeling on the floor next to the bed and putting one of Anna's legs over his shoulder to put his mouth where Anna's fingers had been moments before.

The now familiar feel of Anna's nails on his scalp still rang new and different from their position on his crown instead of the back of his neck. But the carding motion gave him a rhythm to follow until sharp tugs and subtle moves led John to guide his tongue and then his fingers where Anna wanted him. But he found the same spot inside her with two fingers and crooked there while his tongue wrapped and then sucked at her clit. A clit tasting slightly of the tang of the two of them but then only of her when Anna's thigh trembled over his shoulder and she quivered with her finish.

John sat back, stretching his jaw and using the cloth to wipe the taste of Anna his tongue could not reach. He managed two swipes of the cloth against her newly dampened skin, Anna's hand wrapped his wrist to stop him continuing. And where he might have, in past interactions, have taken a hint from the meeting of gazes, all John could do now was following the tug of Anna's hand on his wrist to bring him back to the bed.

The second time they moved more slowly. Partially because John needed time to ready himself again but also because he wanted to see her. Wanted to track his lips over her skin from her neck to her ankles. Wanted to run his hands over every available part of Anna that stretched under him. Wanted to bask in the pleasure of her sounds when his lips and teeth found her breasts to press and lavish affection and attention there. Wanted to leave her absolutely shattered when his mouth and fingers brought her to a fourth finish by the time John could no longer ignore the hardening of his own rising arousal.

He managed the condom this time, Anna still breathing through the aftermath of her fourth finish. But she tugged him closer, her nails digging new holds in his side and the skin of his back as John thrust forward. Keeping the pace slow, basking in the next position and new possibilities of exploration, John learned Anna's sounds and matched them to motions.

Learning how to kiss her or knead her breasts when he thrust forward. Or how to hold her thigh to his hip and grind against her as when her nails scraped at his shoulder. Or even how to alter their angle by holding the crook of her knee with his forearm so he could hitch inside her to find the spot his fingers managed before. And, finally, where to press and how hard to use his thumb against her clit to leave her shattered and clawing at him when she finished before he did.

This time, when John went about leaving them a little cleaner than before, neither of them had the energy to consider another round. Instead he tucked himself next to Anna. She maneuvered next to him, conforming to his shape as her fingers ran over him as if mapping his exact position.

John matched her motions, leaving his fingers trailing over her arm and through her hair as he sighed. "Thank you."

"Shouldn't I be saying that to you?" Anna smiled and John shrugged into his pillows.

"I don't know."

"Me either." Anna tucked herself closer, carefully moving her head under his chin and onto his shoulder. "But it was lovely."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it."

"You say that like it was a carnival ride."

"Or a trip to a museum?"

Anna grinned wider and shook her head against his chest. "It was… Better than I dared hope, I'll be honest."

"You thought I'd disappoint you?"

"I didn't think we'd make it this far." Her fingers moved from his chest to find his lips. She pressed just enough to tip his chin down and then tracked her hand to flatten against his cheek so she could hold him in place while she kissed him. When she pulled away, Anna's tongue ran over her lips. "I'm glad we did."

"So am I." John let out a breath, his fingers running through her hair. "But now you've had your way with me."

"I rather did, didn't I?" Anna laughed with John as her fingers traced his features.

"I'm not complaining."

"I didn't think so." Anna took a breath, "But I'd like to do this again."

"You'll have to give me a minute."

"Not now," She nudged her body into his shoulder. "But… The whole… All of it."

"All of it?"

"The date, the dress, dinner…" Anna shrugged. "I like you."

"I should hope so." John took his turn to smile, "I brought you home."

"I'm being serious."

"So am I." John adjusted and laid his hand over Anna's. "I want to do this again too. I like you, very much, and I… I want to continue doing this with you."

"Well," Anna leaned forward, touched her forehead to his and then used her fingers on his chin to adjust him so she could bring their lips together. "Let's keep doing this then."

John could only smile and kiss her again.