Almost, nearly, not quite Christmas Day 1998

Aisling stepped out of the ladies bathroom and straight into Eddie's chest. Almost.

He twisted his body at the last moment and caught her around the waist as she wobbled, righting her and continuing to hold her with warm hands after she no longer needed him to keep her upright.

"Sorry, I thought maybe..." He smiled gently in the dim light of the hallway. "Never mind." His head turned towards the noise from the bar, the music and raised voices, and he puffed a lungful of air into his cheeks before exhaling it all in one go. "Actually, do mind!" Both hands released her waist and one dropped to her fingers to stroke over them, sparking a little tingle that ran up her arm, before he encased her hand in his. "Come with me?" More a question than a command, and the tug on her hand was tentative too.

Aisling pursed her lips, a little smirk forcing its way onto them despite her nerves. "... if I want to live?"

He grinned at that. "You really are such a massive nerd!" His head tilted and he jerked his chin towards the far end of the hallway. "I know someplace quieter."

She bet that he did. All that confidence and charm, sure fingers and an expressive mouth. She bet he knew a lot of quiet places to take women and make them have to work at staying quiet for him.

She sighed out a breath, suddenly happy and nervous and excited all in one go. She didn't care how many women he may have taken to this quiet place before her. She wanted to be touched and made to feel good, if only for a little while. And so, she allowed herself to be pulled down the hallway. Eddie pushed a door open and poked his head inside to look around. Apparently satisfied with the location he had found, he flipped the light switch and drew Aisling into the room after him.

"This used to be the green room when I played here… Or as much of a green room as a place like this ever had. Just a storeroom but there was a couch in the corner back then."

Aisling gave the room a cursory look. It was still a storeroom, but the couch had been removed at some point. Her view of the room was cut off when Eddie turned to her and stepped closer. He leaned forward to push the door shut behind her, crowding into her space in a not entirely unwelcome way that made her step back until she was pressed against the wooden panel behind her. Eddie continued to stand in front of her, just inside her personal space, too close to be considered simply friendly but close enough for her comfort. She could feel the heat radiating off him. If she took a step forward, she'd be pressed against him and while the temptation to do just that was strong, so too were the nerves and they won out. Aisling stayed put with her back against the door.

"Aisling…" Eddie lingered on her name, drawing it out again, surely aware by now of the effect that had on her by the heat that was rising in her cheeks. He sighed. "I was going to ask you out last night…"

Her eyes widened.

He was?! She wasn't sure she believed her ears.

"But when I came back to the bar, you had disappeared. And I had this whole thing planned out… It was going to be very smooth."

She decided truth was the best policy here. "I needed to escape that bloody barman… and I thought you weren't interested."

Eddie tutted, a sharp little noise. "Not interested…?" He leaned further into her space, bending his head, and his long hair brushed the curve of her breasts as she felt his breath ghost across the overheated skin on her face. "I just needed the opportunity to escape Chatty Arthur. He's a nice aul fella but he never shuts up… Like your barman, I guess."

"Ugh, not mine!" Aisling was quick to deny.

Definitely don't want you to get the wrong idea on that front.

Eddie grinned at her response, clearly buoyed by the lack of competition, at least in the form of handsome young barmen straight off the boat from the home country.

"What was your thing that you had planned?" she challenged, not willing to let him get too comfortable in his knowledge that she wasn't head over heels for the first man she saw who could pull a decent pint of stout.

"Oh… I was going to take the stool next to yours and strike up a conversation."

"Hmmm…?" Aisling hummed. I recognise that plan… "What was the conversation going to be about?"

"Not a clue but I'm sure I would have thought of something in the moment," he teased. "Maybe I would have asked you what you had bought at the comic store. And you would have said…?" He trailed off to let her answer him as if they were having this conversation right now.

"I would have said Sandman."

His eyes widened almost comically at that. "The Lord of Dreams, huh? Are they still putting that out…?" His voice was curious, the question sounding genuine rather than simply part of an elaborate chat-up scene.

Aisling shook her head. "Matt found some back issues for me. But there are rumours that there may be a new series coming. Us Sandman fans will just have to wait and be patient. Engage in a little delayed gratification…"

He watched her parted lips closely as she said the last line and chuckled. "How long?"

"Will we have to wait for the new series…?"

He cut her off gently with a shake of his head. "How long has it been since your gratification wasn't delayed? Since you had someone take good care of you, Aisling…?"

She swallowed and as she did so, his gaze dropped to her neck and his eyes darkened. "Uh… six months," she muttered.

Longer than that and you know it, girl.

Kevin wasn't overly interested for the last year or so of their relationship. She had put it down to the pressures of work, which in a way, it kind of was…

Eddie bent his head further, placing his lips mere inches from hers as he whispered, "Let me be good to you, darling. Let me take care of you…"

She rankled at that, her posture stiffening, and his eyes flickered to hers. It was too close to being treated like she was helpless and needing a man to take care of her, to make her decisions for her, to think for her.

He shook his head once sharply as if he could read her thoughts through the set of her shoulders. "Not like that. Not controlling you. Just making you feel good…" But despite his words promising pleasure, he pulled back, straightening his back and putting a couple of extra inches between them. He cleared his throat, marking an end to the heated exchange and Aisling almost growled in frustration. "Anyway, after I had wooed you with nerdy conversations about comics, I figured I'd ask about your plans after Christmas… maybe even ask for your number."

Aisling grinned at that, once again willing to play along. "I would have given it to you."

"Oh yeah…?" He puffed out his chest like he had won something. "And then, if I was feeling particularly brave, I had this little mistletoe trick…"

She squinted her eyes and nibbled on her lip. Keeping her voice light, trying to keep the tremble of arousal out of it, she asked, "What mistletoe trick…?"

At some point, he had stretched his arm up above her head to lean his hand against the door and now he tapped his fingers on the wood. "Look up," he whispered. She leaned her head back to find him holding a little sprig of mistletoe above her, the green shoot grasped casually between his finger and thumb.

She barked out a laugh. "Walked into that one, I guess."

He was grinning at her with amusement when she dropped her gaze back to his face. "Yeah… kinda." He leaned forward again, nudging her hair aside with the fingers of his free hand, and whispered in her ear, "May I kiss you?"

Aisling shuddered as his warm breath spilled out over her neck and she nodded, too lost for words to do much more than moan out a little pleading "Please..." before he traced his lips over the curve of her ear and placed a soft closed-mouth kiss on her earlobe. She pressed one hand to his chest and the other hand snaked around his waist, one gently pushing, the other barely pulling, as she fought between the warring desires to press herself to him and keep some distance so she could continue to breath. He laid little nibbles down her neck and his tongue crept out from between his lips to lick once at the dip between her collarbones. At that, her back arched towards him and she felt her breasts brush the strong wall of his pecs. With a sigh, he dragged his mouth slowly up the column of her throat, grazing his teeth along the skin. By the time he made it to her mouth, she was practically panting but when he ghosted his lips across hers, she took charge and kissed him deeply, parting her lips and easing them over his. Her tongue lapped at him playfully and when he opened his mouth to accept it, she tasted beer and the faintest hint of mint and something dark and meaty underneath it all.

The hand that wasn't holding the mistletoe found her waist and he splayed his fingers across it, his hand large enough that while the little finger was almost at her hip, she could feel the pad of this thumb slide across the underside of her breast. She moaned into him and he sucked on her tongue, letting the tip of his tickle hers in a way that set the nerve endings on fire. In a brief moment of uncontrolled wantonness, her brain decided to fixate on whether he liked to use that clever little appendage elsewhere, if he liked to suck and lick and hold his conquests down with one strong arm slung across their hips, while the other held their thighs open to allow his mouth access.

She distracted herself from that thought by moving the hand pressed to his chest upwards to play with the neck of his t-shirt. When she dipped under it, she felt the slightest tickle of chest hair brush against the backs of her fingers. Between that and the thick line of the happy trail she had glimpsed yesterday, she wondered how much body hair she was dealing with. Her mouth watered at the prospect of finding out, wondering where she might find the soft little naked stretches of skin that she could press her lips to between the hairier parts of him.

Her hand continued its exploration, gliding upwards to feel the bob of his Adam's Apple and the hard line of his jaw before reaching his cheek. His mouth, which was still teasing hers, was soft. That was no surprise. Anyone with eyes could tell from one glance at him that his full lips would be soft and receptive, but the real treat was that the skin on his jaw was soft too. He had shaved recently, and moisturised. She slipped her fingers across his cheek and teased them up over his ear, finding three small rings through the cartilage above his earlobe. He gasped when she played with them gently, his hips pressing forward momentarily only to pull back again as soon as he came into contact with her stomach. She took pity on him and abandoned his ear for the hair at the back of his head, to find the waves springy and conditioned. She was somewhat surprised that he took care of his appearance to that extent. His look was so rough, she expected to find him rough with it.

Slipping her fingers through his hair, it felt like a thick cloud and she grasped a handful and tugged without thinking, not hard but enough to elicit a reaction. His hand skipped up from her waist to cover her entire breast and squeeze gently. She heard a whimper as he pulled back, ending their kiss. At first she didn't know if the sound was from him or her, but one look at him answered that question. He was dazed, his eyelids drooping over blown pupils as she pulled on his hair gently.

He really likes that…

His hand moved from her breast back to her waist to hold her against the door again. Glancing down between them, she could see the bulge in his jeans in the space he had maintained between their bodies. She realised that he was trying to be a gentleman, trying not to press himself to her, as good as she was sure that would feel for him. She wondered idly how long it had been for him since someone took good care of him, her fingers twitching at the thought of being able to do that for him.

He was still looking dazed when she looked up at his face again and she released his hair to caress his jaw. "Open your mouth." He complied with no hesitation, parting his lips and she tightened her grip on his jaw, drawing his face to her to lick inside his mouth. She ran the tip of her tongue just inside his lips, feeling the entire silky circle of his mouth, grazing the back of her tongue over the surface of his teeth. They were slippery against the sensitive flesh of her tongue.

Eddie breathed into her open mouth, filling her with the air from his lungs, and groaned. She felt something drop into her hair and when she released his mouth to look up again, she saw that he had crushed the small piece of mistletoe to pieces between his fingers, the heel of his hand pressed hard against he door above her head to stop it shaking. She blinked, surprised at the effect she was having on him. It was intoxicating, this level of bodily attraction. Something she hadn't experienced in years. Her brain suddenly jumped ahead, supplying fantasies of heat and love and a long-term relationship… until he drew her out of the fantasy by whispering, "Darling."

This is ridiculous. You've only just spoken to him for the first time tonight. And you have no idea what he wants!

With that sobering thought, she pulled back, closing her eyes momentarily, only to open them again to find him staring at her with such desire that she wanted immediately to go back under, to lose herself in him, to find a comfortable spot to strip them both naked and invite him into her. But that would be doing them both a disservice, especially if he was as interested in her as she was in him. She sighed and banged the back of her head against the door as if to knock some sense into it.

"Eddie. I have to ask. I know it's stupidly… early isn't even the word I'm looking for, because it's not like anything has started yet, really. But, do you have children? Or want children?" His eyes widened in surprise and he stiffened, and a little part of her died in disappointment.

He does…

She may as well get this over with now. At least, it would be done with quickly. "Because I don't. Have them or want them… I never have. It's a major red line for me. And what we're doing is fantastic, but I'm not good at not getting emotionally attached early on… so it would probably be best if we didn't do anything more."

Fuck, it killed her to say that!

Why couldn't she just have some fun with him and let go of it afterwards like a normal person? But she knew she couldn't. She wasn't built that way. This hurt but it'd hurt less than the alternative.

Eddie pulled back and shook his head, and she readied herself as much as possible for the inevitable. "No kids. And I got a vasectomy about ten years ago, so no chance of having them."

Ohhhh, wow! A vasectomy.

Her jaw dropped, and Eddie kept talking, "It's usually my second date topic. Get it in early so as not to get my expectations up, or hers. Break it then, and… well, usually there's no third date."

"There'll be a third date with me!" She almost squealed with happiness at his admission. "I guarantee it!" Sudden joy was replaced by bumbling insecurity for a moment. "If you're interested, that is…"

But then he grinned and leaned in for another heated kiss, and her heart strained against her ribcage with excitement even as her lungs protested.

When he pulled back, she was almost swooning and he laughed kindly at her, holding her up against the door, apologising softly for kissing her until she almost passed out. After a minute, he ran his fingers through his hair and leaned his shoulder against the wall beside the door, giving her space once again while he held her hand and brushed his thumb over the skin in calming circles. "We should probably go back out before they send a search party." He glanced down at himself and then back up to her face. "Well, we might both need a few more minutes…"

He was still tenting the front of his jeans, and Aisling was aware that her lips were probably as swollen as his were right now. Nothing she could do about the lips but… "Want me to help you with that?" She reached forward but drew the line at touching him until he consented. Instead he took her hand again and raised it to his lips to kiss the palm.

He shook his head. "Nah. I don't want either of us to come for the first time with each other in a shitty storeroom at the back of a bar. I want to take you on dates and wine and dine you, treat you like a lady." He grinned wickedly. "And one thing you should know about me, Aisling, is that I'm big on that whole delayed gratification thing you mentioned… I'll want to take you to the edge a whole bunch of times before I let you come apart for me, darling."

She flushed at that and pressed her knees together to try to gain some control over the rush of heat that erupted between her thighs. "Bloody hell…! Alright. I don't, um… I don't have to wait until the second date for that, do I?" She wasn't whining with need at his suggestion, but she wasn't far off.

His grin softened and he shook his head. "No. Once we're both back in the city and no longer sleeping in families' guest rooms, we can get started on that…" His gaze darkened deliciously again. "And you should know, Aisling, I'm real easy. Happy to put out on the first date… for the right lady, of course. Just want to do it in a comfortable bed where I know I can take care of her."

"But not let me come?"

Whiplash, he was giving her whiplash! In the best possible way, her besotted brain reminded her.

He winked. "Maybe if you're good... and after I've had my fun with you."

She giggled and wrapped her arms around her waist to squeeze herself. She was almost tempted to pinch herself to make sure this was real. "Best Christmas present ever!"

He glanced at his watch and raised an eyebrow at her. "Not Christmas yet, darling. It's barely even eleven. And you can't open your presents until Christmas Day, you know…"

She shook her head. "It's Christmas Day at home. It's about three in the morning there."

"Oh…?" he asked, and she nodded. "Oh well…that's a convenient excuse, I guess. For the Irish." His grin widened and he took her hand, reaching for the door handle. They had both cooled down a bit now and while she had no doubt that the others at the table would have a good idea of what transpired, they weren't not so obviously turned on that the whole bar would know.

He squeezed her fingers gently, like a promise. "C'mon. We better get back. And see if we can borrow a pen so I can finally get your number!"