off.
"What are you going to do with me now, Mrs. Landseer?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows at me.
I laughed and slapped lightly at his shoulder. "Shut up. Come lay with me. Let's kiss. Just kissing, alright?"
"Just kissing?" he asked. He lay beside me again, punctuating his question with a soft kiss.
"Yes," I said. "For now, at least. I want to kiss you. We don't always have to have sex all the time, you know?"
He laughed at that. "We don't have sex all the time."
"I know, but I wanted to make it sound like we did. It's kind of exciting."
"We had a lot this evening, though, didn't we?" he asked, more rhetorical and contemplative than anything.
I bit my bottom lip and nodded. "Maybe..."
"Did you like when I used your toy on you earlier?" he asked. He kissed my cheek, then moved towards my neck, making a trail with his lips towards my chin.
I lay there and basked in the gentle feeling of his lips on my skin. I answered him with a nod, no words.
"I'd like to do it again," he said.
"Right now?" I asked.
Both of his hands were under my shirt now. He smoothed them up my sides, holding me close. His lips kissed tiny circles around the hollow of my throat, then to the side and up my collar bone to my shoulder, then back again and towards my neck. Finally, he ended near my ear. He took my earlobe between his teeth and nibbled.
"No, not right now," he whispered. "Right now I'm kissing you."
I tilted my head to the side and kissed his cheek. He kissed mine, too. We moved our kisses until our lips connected and we were both kissing the same spot.
"I love when you touch me," I said, speaking soft words in between light kisses.
"I love touching you," he replied.
"Not just like this," I added. "I love holding your hand, too. I love when you're working and I come behind you and lean forward with my chin on your shoulder and you reach up and touch my cheek. I love when you put your hands on my hips and pull me towards you for a quick kiss in your office or mine before you have to go to a meeting. I love all of it, Asher. I really do. You make me feel so special all the time."
"Good," he said. "You are special. That's how I always want you to feel."
"Do I make you feel special, too?"
He nodded and our noses brushed together, up and down. "You do."
"How? Can you tell me? I just want to know. I know maybe it's a hard question to answer without thinking about it, but if you can..." I trailed off. I didn't know what more to say.
"It's not a hard question to answer," he said. "Not at all."
I smiled and kissed him again.
He kissed me back and said, "When we're at home and you're reading or working, I like to try and sneak pictures of you sometimes. I know you know I'm doing it, but it's exciting and makes me feel special, like I've found you all of a sudden and it's a rare event, like a pot of gold under a rainbow or a four leaf clover."
I laughed. "I make you feel special because you take pictures of me when I'm reading?" I asked.
He nodded. "I like when I just come upon you at home. When I see you suddenly, and you're doing something else, and it doesn't have to be anything in particular. If you're in our bedroom, in the bathroom, brushing your teeth, and I come in and see the light on, then peek around the corner and see you standing there, with your toothbrush in your mouth, looking into the mirror. I like that, too. I like coming down to the kitchen for breakfast in the morning and seeing you sitting at the table, eating. I like going to the library and seeing you sitting at one of the desks, reading. I like finding you taking a nap in our bed, or on a chaise in the library, or anywhere else."
"Why?" I asked.
"It doesn't seem real sometimes," he said. "The mansion is so large, that it doesn't seem real. It doesn't seem like you actually exist, and maybe I've just been dreaming the entire time. Every time I see you there, no
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