BIG SHOUTOUT: to candy-pants on tumblr, without whom I may not have posted this.

My goal in writing this is to portray a conversation that my readers might be able to see themselves in, in bits and pieces. I feel that these topics I address are not easily broached in society and people who read fanfiction in particular tend to have unrealistic ideas about these things. So I put it in a form I found entertaining and significant.

"Sometimes, you look at me differently." Ben trailed off as he squinted at a road sign passing by, then attempted to regain his footing in the conversation. "I like to imagine I know your expressions quite well."

He smiled over at her in the passenger seat. His expression was kind, so Mal wasn't alarmed at his words. On the contrary, she was grateful for the darkness outside and the dim light the dash provided. Her face felt hot.

They were driving back from a winter meeting in Arendelle. It had been a short visit. They hadn't even been at the Arendellian castle – instead meeting in a tavern with a collection of local mayors to discuss funding some federal buildings and local projects. Arendelle was one of the faster-developing areas of Auradon and required more frequent visits to stay on top of things.

Mal had been invited, not as Ben's plus-one(though she was that too), but as someone who was good at resource arrangements. It had been nice to spend the middle of their workweek together. Their two-year dating anniversary had passed and just made the engagement ring on her hand seem even more surreal.

"What do you mean?" She asked. The conversation had fallen null as Ben navigated the mountain passes of Arendelle's northern range. These roads were safe to the smart and sinister to the stupid. Thick trees and tall slopes meant drivers needed to be focused. They were on their way to Evie's – her home – to drop her off.

Ben glanced over at her when a longer stretch of road appeared. He moved his left elbow to rest on the window, almost giving her the impressing he was angling towards her. She admired the slope of his forehead, tracing his nose and mouth, and then his chin before he spoke and she had to clear her thoughts. "I like to imagine I know your expressions quite well," he repeated, finding his train of thought from earlier. "You look… horny."

Mal's temperature shot through the roof. Her cheeks burned even brighter. "I can't believe I just heard that word come out of your mouth."

"Why? It's not a bad word."

She stared at him for a moment and he met her gaze for a fraction of a second before focusing again on the road. She felt like she was turning into a raisin – like his gaze was pulling all the moisture out of her body and leaving her thirsty. Thirsty like a man wandering the desert for days. Thirsty like a girl who was engaged to the hottest guy in the world and hadn't slept with him yet.

And sure, yeah, "horny" wasn't a bad word. "It's just… not a conversation I thought you'd be willing to approach."

He tapped his fingers on the door and a smile pulled at his lips. "I anticipate many more conversations after we're married."

"That's not what I meant."

"How is it any different now?"

Mal struggled for words. Sex felt almost taboo in Auradon. Mal was aware, through the grapevine, that chastity before marriage was the standard among royals. Ben had made it clear, the first time she'd been his plus-one, that she would have her own room every time they went somewhere together and they'd be making that fact obvious to both his parents and the media. She had taken the hint and had not asked Ben for anything that could be considered lewd. Nothing that would make good gossip. At the time, she'd been uncomfortable with the idea anyway.

Now… she didn't want to rush, but she wasn't uncomfortable anymore.

"I assumed," Mal began, leaning forward to turn her air on a little more before she could boil over, "Or, actually, I've noticed that sex is an uncomfortable subject in Auradon. I assumed you would not want to talk about it because it all seems very… hushed up."

"I understand your perspective."

She dared to glance over and met his eyes at the same time he stole a glance at her.

"And how is it on the Isle?"

A cave in the rock face of a cliff appeared in the distance before being taken over by trees again. The peaceful landscape made her feel calm despite the nerves that had been jittering inside her for months, when she first realized she wanted him.

"To be honest, I don't remember. Which sounds stupid, but… it wasn't important to me? Most people are clued in very young. But it all felt very normal. I don't remember a lot of jokes or teasing. I do remember people getting hurt because it was all very rough, but-"

"Have you had sex?"

If Ben using the word "horny" had been astonishing, "sex" rocked her landscape worse than if he'd lost control of the car.

"No."

He nodded once, thinking. "It wouldn't matter if you had. I was only curious what the experience difference between us two was."

"What about you?" She expected the answer to be no and wasn't surprised to see him shake his head immediately after the first word of her question was in the air.

"No. I did get close with a girl when I was younger – not Audrey. I was young and here, as I'm sure you noticed, it's a big joke when you're young. Some kids find out before others and they think it's a mark of maturity to talk about and make fun of. A little bit of a secret. I got caught up in that. But my parents noticed and pulled me aside for a chat." He drummed his hands on the wheel. "I'm grateful for that, because she was way older than me, and that could have been a hell of a mistake. Could have ruined my life."

The silence stretched out between them. Her mouth felt dry even though she could feel herself drooling. There was a pain underneath her tongue where her saliva glands were.

"You know, it's okay for us to have these conversations. Normal, even. I've personally committed to not having sex before we're married, but your thoughts… opinions… hopes… anything you want to share is on the table."

"Why did you bring this up?"

They rounded a corner and the car became so dark that she was imagining his facial expressions in lieu of seeing them. She pictured his cheeks turning red and beads of sweat appearing on his brow. But then the light from the moon came back and he wasn't either of those things. He was still wearing a soft smile, and now he was taking a hand off the wheel to search for her hand. "Two reasons," he said. "First, I've been trying to figure out a natural way to bring up the topic, and tonight I decided that there's no time like the present. I felt that talking with you, we could set some boundaries together… some expectations… yeah."

She took his hand and wrapped her fingers around the back of his hand. He had some sparse hair growing on the back of his hands, but it didn't seem gross to her. She found it just as hot as she found every other feature he had.

"And reason number two?"

"Because these expressions you have-" he looked over for a full second, "-are flattering. I've appreciated catching you admiring me because I like knowing that I'm desirable to you. Talking to you about it gives me the chance to confirm my suspicions and dig for additional gratification."

"You're putting an awful lot of words in my mouth."

"Then state your case. This a dialogue."

She couldn't refute though, and he had known that since the beginning. "This is new to me," she said. "Like everything always has been, I guess. Relationships. Crazy to think I only had to try it once to get it right." She brought his hand to her mouth and kissed the knuckle of his thumb, then touched her nose to the hair on the back of his hand. He smelt absolutely divine. The pain under her tongue increased. "You were always attractive – even when I didn't like you-"

"Was there ever such a time?"

"-and then after cotillion I spent a few months feeling the feelings get more intense and, one day, realized I really, really wanted you. It hit me like a train." She squeezed his hand and he squeezed back. "I didn't even know I could want sex until then, if that makes sense."

"Wasn't important," he said, echoing her words from earlier. "Unfortunately, I can't say the same. I gave you a once-over when you first got out of the car, straight from the Isle, and felt horrendously guilty afterward. I remember chastising myself later on."

"That soon?" Mal remembered seeing his face for the first time and recalled her first thought: "Pretty face". What was Ben's first thought? "I could tap that"?

Ben's once-overs always made her blush. She'd received several in increasingly short amounts of time the last two years and the warm feeling that would ignite in her belly always made her feel like her organs were being liquidated. Even though they'd never talked about sex, Mal knew Ben's feelings on her based on the twitches in his brow and smile. The slightly leaned-back stance he'd take when he was admiring her. She knew his expressions quite well, too.

Should she be uncomfortable knowing he'd admired her the first time he'd seen her? She wasn't, but should she? He hadn't acted on his feelings. Instead, he'd become her friend, given her space, let her decide, and was only bringing it up now – two years down the road. He said he'd felt guilty afterward – as if he hadn't even dwelt on the thought.

"I love you," she said.

He laughed and shook her out of her daze. "Did you tune out? I asked if you had any expectations for me."

"Oh, I guess I did tune out." The warm feeling returned to her cheeks. The air blowing through her vents wasn't doing anything other than freezing her fingers. She reached out and turned it down. Ben released her hand to take the wheel and, with his left, rolled the windows down. Mal's ears popped, but cool night air rushed through the car. "I was just thinking about the trust between us. Being involved in legal matters with you has given me perspective on how not everyone has a partner that they're attracted to, or one that they know will actively practice restraint and respect the way you do and the way that I'm trying to mimic."

He moved his hand from the wheel again but did not take her hand. Instead, he reached across the center console, found her upper leg, and rested his hand on it – a few inches above the kneecap. Her breath hitched, though it was hardly a sexual move. He had put his hand on her knee before. She leaned towards the driver's side, shifting her leg closer, and put her hand on his forearm, where she began tracing little patterns on his sleeve with her nail. Ben exhaled. "That's kind of you," he whispered. "You might not need me to say this out loud, but you should know that if you ever don't want sex or if you feel I'm not being a good lover, you can tell me and I'll back off or fix it. You don't need to worry about repercussions for being honest with me."

"Same for me," Mal said. Precedent with Auradon divorce cases told her that she was statistically more at risk than he was for being punished for refusing sex, but precedent with the Isle let her know that she could leave situations she didn't like and precedent with Ben let her know that she never would want to leave.

"A lot of women – dang, I almost said girls, and that's incorrect-" He shook his head, looking down a little.

"You're eighteen. All the females you know are on the border of being girls and women. You weren't practicing predatory speech – you were simply falling into a pattern of youth. You'll grow out of it."

"You're right, but I need to be careful picking my words. I am eighteen, but all my citizens like to think I've got the mindset of a forty-year old."

"Having met your cabinet and interacted with the current forty-year-olds, I'm very grateful that you do not have that mindset."

"I will someday."

"With your experiences, you'll be completely different from them."

He smiled at her, making her feel warm all over again, then looked down at his hand on her leg and her hand on his arm. Her fingers itched a little, but she didn't want to risk distracting the driver when they were almost out of the mountains. The air outside was becoming less soft – she could tell the countryside was coming.

"A lot of women are taught by previous relationships that sex is… a performance. Or an expectation. And I don't want to inflict that on you." His thumb rubbed a circle on her leg. Mal's breathing went shallow. "You have no previous relationships and most of Auradon's gender arguments didn't exist on the isle. I appreciate that about you, because you have no prior bias as to what you need to be as a woman, or anything. You are very good at just being you."

"Except when I'm running from politics off to the Isle." Her heart panged at that. She still felt guilty.

"We got through it." That thumb on her leg drew her back to the present. She tightened her grip on his arm. "I don't know if you've noticed this about Auradon sex culture, but there is a common trend of women being unsatisfied with their partners." Ben sighed, sounding disappointed. Mal kept her eyes on his face. The road finally opened up and they passed a field. The moonlight lit the car so intensely that she had to blink several times to clear her vision.

On the horizon were three castles. To the far left was Charmington. To the far right and much further off and very dimly lit was the Seaside castle. And in the middle – still a good hour away – was Beast's Castle. When Mal had first come to Auradon, it had been glittering every night. Brightly lit and shining. But it took a lot of power to run, and the surrounding communities didn't like the light pollution. As of two months ago, every castle was required to turn off their lights at night, unless something was happening. The skies were darker than ever. Only traffic lights dotted the horizon and tiny homes where citizens burned midnight oil. The new code applied to all businesses as well as the castles. Seaside was an exception because their light could serve as a guiding aide for incoming and outgoing ships.

"I wasn't aware," Mal said. "I never hear anyone talk about sex. Why is that a trend?"

"Have you ever heard a girl make a joke about how twenty seconds is a long time for some guys?" Ben asked. And now that he mentioned it, yes, Mal could recall having heard that joke before. "That's a sex joke about how a lot of men finish quicker than women. A lot of guys tend to treat girls – women, sorry - as a means to their end, and they don't focus on making it a mutually beneficial experience. So they tend to finish first. Not every guy, of course. My mom was very specific on that when I was younger. But enough that it's a noticeable trend." He moved his hand from her leg to rearrange his hair and when he replaced it, it was angled slightly more towards her inner thigh. The contact was hot to think about.

"Did your mom give you the sex talk?"

"Both of my parents did. Did your mom?"

"No," Mal replied. The heat had died down in her cheeks since Ben had rolled down the windows, but returned with the question. "Jay did. He was my only… gang member when I was seven or so. But like I said, it wasn't a hush thing on the Isle." She turned a little away, fanning her face. "Evie filled me on the cultural context of it later on in life. Before and after coming to Auradon. She explained things like husbands and wives and birth control-"

"Also an important topic," Ben interrupted.

Mal leaned over and put a finger to his lips to make sure he didn't start a thought in the middle of hers. He immediately put his lips together with a smile and a soft "sorry".

"To finish my thought, the anatomy and the purpose behind it is common knowledge and comfortable conversation on the Isle," Mal said. "No one will blush or stutter to talk about it and even schoolkids are aware that it exists. But Auradon has so many connotations and jokes and words… that's the bit Evie filled me in on."

"So when you said 'husbands and wives'…"

"The idea that sex has to happen in a marriage is an Auradon idea. One that I know you subscribe to and I'm okay being confined to, by the way. But I do remember Evie explaining that some places and people will look down on you if you weren't married first, and that surprised me. She explained it in the concept of children being born and royalty lines being messed with. Who knew that I'd end up in that situation, you know?"

There was a bit of silence filled only by Ben stretching his back against the car seat and Mal rolling her feet to get some feeling into them and eyeing Ben's hand on her leg. Then Ben said, "We should make sure we're on the same page about birth control."

"I've not got any," Mal said. "Because we're not-" She stammered off of the sentence and felt embarrassed for it. But it was Ben and she still, even though there was a very heavy rock on her hand, did not want to scare him off by saying something too risqué or presumptuous.

"You will be added to my insurance policy before we get married," Ben said, "And our salary through the palace will cover the cost of any birth control you want. I've always assumed that my wife would want birth control, but I don't want you to feel forced into anything." He looked at her then. The road was safe enough he could keep his eyes on her for a few seconds. A straight, lazy stretch and a low speed limit.

"You get paid a salary?"

"Yes. I take the median yearly salary of every citizen in Auradon." He took his hand off her leg again to navigate around a turn. "My father took something significantly higher, but I considered it extravagant. I felt that taking the median would be more than sufficient and would be a good message to everyone about my focus, and would encourage people to make sure everyone is paid fairly."

It took Mal a moment to remember what "median" meant. "So half of Auradon is paid more than you?"

"Exactly."

She leaned across the car and kissed his cheek. As she did, Ben replaced his hand on her leg. She finally grew impatient with it. "Do you feel comfortable moving your hand?" she asked. Ben understood the assignment. He moved his hand fully to her inner thigh, spreading his fingers out and rubbing his thumb back and forth. Mal exhaled, half sigh and half moan of relief, and leaned her head against his shoulder. "Honestly, Ben, I could go home with you right now."

He laughed, but there was an undertone. "Because I make less than half of the people in my country?"

"Because you're compassionate." She planted another kiss on his cheek. "How much is that, anyway?"

"Well, keep in mind that the range includes kids working high school and college jobs…" He trailed off, probably sinking for a moment under the weight of everyone's opinions of the economy, then finished his thought. "$48,000."

Mal was startled. "Aren't people in government usually paid triple digits?"

"I don't need to be paid triple digits," Ben replied. "My… house is paid off-" Mal laughed at the awkward placement of his vocabulary. "-I have no debt, my job is secure, and I have no dependents."

The angle Mal was leaning at to touch his skin began to hurt her side, so she leaned back into her chair. "And when you have children?"

"What's this you business?" Ben replied. "I can't have children without a partner. And speaking of, we didn't finish our conversation on birth control, whether you wanted it…. I don't personally want to have children in our first year or so of marriage. There are more options open to you for birth control than there are for me, but I'll do what I can if you don't want any."

"There are birth control methods for men?"

"Not many," Ben sighed and seemed dejected about it. "I wish there were more. I feel that a lot of men are irresponsible and leave it up to women to prevent children that you really need two people to create."

"I guess it's just more present in the minds of women because we're, y'know, the ones who get pregnant."

"True, but consider this," Ben said. "A woman with infinite partners can create one child per nine-month period. How many children could a man with infinite partners create in the same time frame?" He found her spare hand and kissed the back of it. "But going back to my original point, I won't push you into anything."

Mal hummed and squeezed his hand with her right. Her left hand was still around his shoulder, rubbing little circles on his deltoids. "You give me a lot to think about."

"So think about it." Ben released her hand. They were going to be coming up on her exit soon. "We have four months til our wedding. We have time."

"Four months feels like forever…" Mal leaned back in her chair and let her arms fall. Ben released her hand as she returned once again to her seat. The heat she'd been experiencing before had worn off during their conversation, but in the absence of her hand, Ben reached over and put his hand back on her inner thigh. His wrist lay only inches down her leg and the warmth of his hand began to heat her whole body back up again. "You called it earlier. I'm horny as hell for you. You have no idea."

"I might have some idea," he muttered softly. She put her right hand atop his, feeling his hair in her palm, and pressed him into her leg. Like some kind of branding iron that she could imagine would leave a mark she could admire later.

A road sign was approaching, announcing a fork up ahead that could take you to either Charmington or Beast's Castle. They were getting close. Evie's cottage lay right on the border of Charmington and central Auradon.

"Four months…" Ben muttered softly. "Did you mean what you said earlier? About going home with me?"

"I know you can't," Mal said. "Media and royal stigma and everything. Your parents would not be very happy with me, and you could lose some public trust that you need if you want to keep pushing change through."

"I mean, going home doesn't have to mean sex," Ben said, sounding as if he were mostly talking to himself. "And it wouldn't, in our case. Just a little less drive time for me and a little more kissing for us both."

"But you don't need to have sex for everyone to think you already have," Mal reminded him. "People talk. Bank runs happen when the bank hasn't done anything wrong." People talk when she wears his jersey from high school. The rumors won't care what room she's in. She could be in a broom closet on the opposite side of the palace from him and the papers would still print that she stayed the night at Beast's Castle.

Ben made a wounded sound in the back of his throat. His grip tightened on her leg. "Screw it," he whispered.

What did he say?

The fork was fast approaching, but Ben did not seem to be in any hurry to change lanes. He glanced at her to see if she had any protests, but her head was too full of fantasies of how nice it would be to make out with him before heading in to the palace to fall asleep. After about twenty seconds, the fork passed, and Ben eased on the accelerator and rolled the windows up. He removed his hand and they entered the highway.

"We're not going to have sex," Ben said, still sounding like he was talking to himself. "But I am already tired and you need to be to work early tomorrow anyway."

This was true. She had a meeting in about nine hours – at eight a.m.. He had one in ten, so the distance cut made sense.

"Fine," she agreed. "We're not going to have sex, but I want you to keep touching me the way you were, and I intend to get that shirt off of you."

Like they'd made a barter, he nodded. "You have clean clothes in your suitcase still," he said. "But if you want, you can have the shirt."

"I wouldn't wear it to bed, but I've been wanting to see your skin this whole drive and I'm so fed up I might tear it to shreds."

"You'd want another shirt, then?"

"Oh, yes please." Ben's jersey was hidden away at Evie's house, now out of reach. Soon she'd have two shirts of his. "Can I pick?"

"You were wearing some shorts this week," Ben said, by way of reply. "Cloth ones to sleep in. If I give you a shirt – which I know I won't have for another four months until you finally move in; I know that look when I see it – then you should wear those shorts again. Skin for skin."

As an added benefit to that, maybe he could touch her thigh again without her leggings. Sure, he'd be super careful not to turn her on to the point of hurting her feelings when they inevitably had to hit the brakes, but even just his fingertips… the fantasy dissolved into a cloud of happy feelings.

"Done, and when you drop me off at whatever room, can we do that against-the-wall kiss?"

Here, Ben paused. "I bet I could do you one better than that," he said thoughtfully.

She usually loved his ideas. "Like what?"

The exit for the palace was approaching. Ben held up a finger, both to focus on driving and to finish processing the idea he'd had. "If we're clear, and we're in agreement, and we're focused… I mean… maybe I won't drop you off anywhere."

There were two options. Either he was suggesting they stay in the car for the duration of the night, or- "Won't your parents get mad if I stay in your room?"

"We're not having sex," Ben repeated. "But we're both adults and we're four freaking months away from being married and I just want to touch you. What do you think? Should we stay in separate rooms?"

Hell no. "So instead of a wall kiss-"

They entered the administrative garage, which detected the license plate and admitted them without a problem. A parking spot was reserved near the elevator for them. Ben could hardly put the car in park fast enough. "I can't wait to see what your legs look like on my bed," he said. He leaned over and kissed her before she could form a response and the heat intensified. "I am going to touch them-" another kiss "-and kiss them-" his fingers found her hair "and bite them-" a moan from Mal cut the air "and then admire them again tomorrow morning."

She ran her hands down his chest – the way he was leaning made it easy - and started attacking the buttons on his shirt. She got about halfway down when he withdrew and opened the car door. "Come on," he said, and got out. By the time she'd undone her seat belt and gotten out, he'd already pulled her suitcase from the trunk of the car. He got his out as she summoned the elevator down, and then they both took one handle and each other's hand to head up. Ben had to put in a thumbprint for the elevator to go to his floor.

"Is there a reason you don't want to have sex before you're married?" Mal asked. "Other than the media?"

"We are close enough to getting married that I might consider it if I knew the media wouldn't go crazy, and if we both had protection," Ben admitted. "But, like you said… I need the public trust so that I can push change through. And a lot of Auradon still thinks you should be married. If we weren't engaged, I definitely wouldn't consider it. Too much risk of you breaking up with me and sharing my personal details with the media."

"I would never."

"That was my fear when dating Audrey."

The elevator dinged and opened up on a floor Mal had never spent more than five minutes at a time on. There had never been any need, before.

"The more I hear about your relationship with Audrey, the more I wonder how you lasted as long as you did."

"The more I speak about my relationship with Audrey, the more I wonder how we even managed to start."

His door was unassuming, as far as solid polished cherry doors with rose emblems over the black hinges went. It would be horrendously tough to guess which door the King of the country slept behind. Mal had only ever been here for small errands – to grab a swimsuit for a party(and borrow a hoodie in the process), to bring Ben a phone charger, and once to set up a surprise for his birthday. By the time she got dressed for bed, this would easily be her longest stay here.

He unlocked it and held it open for her to enter. She did and set her suitcase beside the bed. By the time Ben had shut the door, she'd made her way to his closet and opened the door to find something soft. She went by touch, feeling the array of blue materials, and pulled out the first somewhat silky short-sleeved shirt she landed on. Ben was removing his shoes by the door, watching her look. Under his gaze, she took the hem of the shirt she had on and lifted it off. He watched every inch of skin appear and then took the chair beside his personal desk to sit and watch. The angle he chose to sit at told her all she wanted to know.

"I don't normally sleep with my bra," she told him.

He didn't perk up, look down, or anything. Instead, he gave her one of those once-overs she loved. "You can leave it hanging on the hook behind the door if you want," he said. Bathroom is also open if you need."

She reached behind her back for the fastener. Ben stood back up. "Need a hand?" He was scarcely three feet away. Just as he was reaching behind her though, her fingers found their hold and the bra fell forward on her chest, almost like it was sighing with relief too. She watched his face but didn't meet his eyes. If they were making eye contact, then he was not looking where she wanted him to look.

She took it off and put it in his hand before he could return it to his side. Then she stood still, drinking in his expression with a smirk.

He understood the assignment once again. His eyes didn't leave her a single time as he stepped towards the attached bathroom and hung her bra by its strap on the hook over the door. Before he let it go, he rubbed the padding of one of the cups. "Purple," he said. "32C."

"Are you going to start picking out bras for me?" she asked, pulling his shirt over her head. The fabric ended right at the place Ben had been touching earlier.

"I want to know things about you so if you ever need me to do something, I'm not a dunce in the process," Ben said. "I want to know your favourite shampoo, your shirt size, your bra size. So if we're ever stuck somewhere overnight that we weren't expecting and you need me to run and grab you clothes, I can pick things out that will fit you and your tastes."

"I'm so in love with you," Mal said. She closed the space and kissed him. He responded with equal vigor and they stood still for a moment, tasting each other and gently touching one another's faces. Soon, though, Ben was drawing back.

"A deal's a deal," he said. "You got my shirt. Leggings, off, now please." He put his hands on her waist.

"Not so fast." Mal put her hands to his chest. "I told you I wanted you shirtless." Her fingers made quick work of the remaining three buttons. He shrugged off the rest of it and deposited it into a laundry basket while Mal admired his chest. His chest, she had seen before. And touched before. Many a swim meet and a pool party had been spent trying to memorize his physic. She traced the pads of her fingers over his pectoral and then circled his left nipple – the one over his heart – before pulling it a little. He groaned.

She hadn't realized before that he would be sensitive there, but wasn't surprised. She was, so why not him?

And he was a full head taller than her, so that his collarbone was almost level with her eyes, so…

She leaned up and kissed a spot on his neck that always made her dizzy when Ben brushed against it with his hands. Then another on the eleven o'clock position on his pectoral. Then she ducked her head just a bit and bit the nipple she'd just been touching, sucking his skin in between her teeth. Above her, Ben gasped. "Oh, sweet-"

It sounded like his face was towards the ceiling.

She sucked slightly, but his breast didn't give way the same way hers did. His body had built muscle where hers had built fat and lactation ducts. So she abandoned the one and went to the other, to bite and pull at it while she laid her palm flat on his stomach, over his abs, and admired the dips and crevices his muscles formed there. She neared his waistline and snuck her fingers underneath the band by a half inch before Ben took her face and pulled her away from his chest. He pulled her in for a kiss and let one of his hands leave to snake up the front of his shirt she was wearing, intent on doing the exact thing she'd done to him with her hands.

She didn't anticipate the shock that ran through her, causing an involuntary action that made her jerk her arms up. "Okay," Ben muttered against her lower lip. "You liked that. Okay." He did it again and Mal melted against him.

"Please, oh please, oh please," She wheezed. But Ben took his hand away. He instead leaned down and hooked his hand underneath her thigh and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around him almost instinctively and ended up pressed between a rock and a hard place. Ben settled her on the bed quickly, but not before she'd felt the issue he was dealing with below his waistline.

"Are you going to get changed?" Mal asked.

Ben shook his head. "Can't. If I take my pants off, there's no way I can keep myself off you."

The feeling was pretty mutual.

They spent a few minutes kissing and calming down. Deep breaths in between deep kisses. Ben touched her chest through his shirt twice, but didn't put his hand up it again. Eventually, the intensity dissipated and they touched their foreheads together for a moment. The lack of sleep was finally catching up with them, and Mal yawned.

Ben put a hand to her waistline and asked, "Can I take these off?"

"Go ahead," Mal said. "But I don't have shorts on underneath them."

"Shorts as in-"

"Actual shorts. I'm still wearing underwear."

"Why would you have been wearing shorts underneath your leggings?"

Ben peeled them off, then took his fingers and traced them up the length of her leg. Testing the curve of her ankle, then brushing the back of her knee where she was sensitive, and then finally finding the place he'd first touched in the car. He didn't go any higher than that. He leaned down and pressed his mouth to her knee and then four more kisses after that, each about an inch higher than before. On the last kiss, about two inches down her inseam, he bit the skin lightly and made her cry out. He was careful not to press too hard as he rolled the bit of skin he'd caught in between his teeth, but it was obvious to her what he was attempting. After about two minutes, a bruise formed over the area and he drew back, satisfied.

Mal sat up as Ben left her side. He was removing his belt and putting it on the bathroom door hook beside her bra. She watched as he removed his pants and left them in the laundry and then pulled out some pajama bottoms from a drawer in the closet. Finally, he dropped into bed beside her and formed a depression in the mattress that pulled her flush against him.

"You're going to be thinking about this for days," she said. Her eyelids were growing heavy. "And you're not the one with a mark between your thighs."

He hummed and reached down, settling one hand in between said thighs. "Four months," he muttered in her ear like a promise. "Then I'll really get to know all your expressions."