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Alex steps out of the bathroom and draws in a deep breath, taking in the heady yet relaxing mix of lavender and cherry blossom that fills the air courtesy of the pink and purple candles gently burning in a few spots around the apartment - the desk, the coffee table, her nightstand. Aside from the nightlight by the bed, they’re the only source of light in the room, their soft glow making the place seem like something out of a dream, an image completed by the tall figure leaning against the couch, naked except for blue plaid pyjama pants.
“Whoa,” she says out loud.
“Um…do you like it?” Ryan asks in that shy, earnest tone he always takes on when he can’t quite read her reaction.
“You didn’t have to do all this,” she smiles incredulously as she gestures around the room at the candles, the lighting, the stereo playing serene instrumental music that in any other circumstances she’d think was twee, almost vom-inducing, but here just seems to slot in perfectly.
“Not an answer,” he says, but her smile seems to satisfy him as his face lights up to mirror hers. “And I had plenty of time. I thought you were going for a quick shower?”
“I’m injured,” she says, affecting a pained tone.
“Not for long,” he smiles a little wider. “Um…I hope, anyway.”
“Ah yes, I hope. The two words every girl wants to hear before a massage.”
“What else am I meant to say?”
“I don’t know,” Alex shrugs, then wishes she hadn’t. Pain shoots through her right shoulder, making her wince noticeably enough for a few strands of flickering purple to start forming around Ryan, visible even in the low light. “I’ve never had a massage before,” she says, keeping calm in face of her boyfriend’s rising worry.
“I’ve never given one,” Ryan admits.
“So we’re both doing something new today,” she smiles before crossing the room to where he stands, reaching up to cup his face in her hands, running her fingertips through the soft blond hair of his beard as she draws him in for a kiss.
She’s kissed a few people in her time. None of them even came close to the man she’s kissing right now. Most guys - most guys Alex has kissed, anyway - get very assertive and tonguey as soon as their lips meet. Ryan, though, is different; he keeps it soft and sweet every time, until she gives him the signal to start dialing it up, which he’s also amazing at when the mood takes him. It’s no wonder she’s spent so much of the past six months doing exactly this. When she pulls away, both of them are grinning like idiots and the purple halo around his head is replaced by a warm aura of light gold.
“Um…massage now, please?” Alex says.
Ryan nods as if the kiss has rendered him temporarily unable to speak. As if on cue, his hands find the hem of her oversized t-shirt to pull it up and over her head so she can wiggle her arms out without putting too much strain on her injured shoulder. She isn’t wearing anything underneath and she’s sure the golden glow around him intensifies when she’s standing naked in front of him.
Like he hasn’t seen it all before.
She walks over to the bed, which Ryan’s helpfully covered with a big white towel to keep any stray oil from staining the sheets. It’s soft against her skin as she settles on her stomach to wait for him. She shuts her eyes and listens for the gentle steps of his bare feet on the floorboards, drawing closer until she can tell he’s standing right over her. A surprise kiss brushes her bare shoulder.
“I’m going to put some oil on your back now,” his voice comes soft and low, close enough to feel his warm breath on the side of her neck. “It might be a little cold.”
“Mm-hm,” she nods as best she can with her head on its side like this.
He’s right about that. She almost has to suppress a shudder as the slippery, not quite lukewarm substance drizzles onto her skin, but then she hears him set the bottle back down on the nightstand, and a second later a pair of strong hands, warm and callused from hard work, start to spread the oil over her back. She’s always loved his hands; it might have been his eyes that first drew her to him, or his smile, or the fact he was just the sweetest man she’d ever met - and still is - but his hands, and the things he could do with them, have definitely done their fair share of work in their relationship. As they go to work on her back muscles, her mind drifts through a few especially fun memories involving those hands.
“All good?” Ryan asks from above her.
“Shiny,” Alex beams. She can feel his aura without having to turn her head to look or even open her eyes. The joy he gets just from touching her is infectious.
“I’m gonna go to work on your shoulders now,” he says. “Tell me if it hurts too much.”
“Okay,” she whispers.
He gives her back one more stroke, long and lingering, from the middle of her ribs all the way down to her hips, before his hands retrace their path upwards. His fingers curl lightly around her shoulders, rubbing lightly across the tops so as not to cause pain. He’s nervous, he knows she’ll flinch the second he gets into that pulled muscle, but it needs to happen so she makes a little soft noise to let him know she’s fine, and after a few more seconds of gentle caresses, he finally goes to work in earnest.
“ Fuck, ” Alex gasps.
“Sorry!” Says Ryan’s suddenly panicked voice. “Was it too much? Alex, I’m really sorry…”
“N-no,” she says, doing her best to banish her own pain through sheer force of will. “Just…just keep going, I promise I’ll say if I really need you to stop.”
“Okay,” he says.
She hears the worry in his voice, feels it in the air between them. It’s a creeping, prickling sensation she’s never quite gotten used to, his nerves seeping into her skin, but when she fights her way through it, she feels where that fear comes from as well. He cares about me. He loves me. Nobody else in her life has ever been that bothered by the idea of hurting her, whether on the outside or the inside. When Ryan’s calm again, and his fingers press back into her sore spot, she lets out another soft groan of pain. This time, he doesn’t stop.
“You’re doing great,” he whispers. Alex shuts her eyes and hopes he knows what he’s doing.
He does. He takes his time, some noises come out of Alex’s mouth she’s never heard herself make before, and slowly but surely Ryan works all the stiffness and soreness out of her muscles like it’s what he was born to do.
“You’re magic,” she sighs.
“Um…thanks?” he says, breaking from that husky whisper into his normal voice.
Alex rolls onto her side to look up at him still standing over her, his hands shiny with oil and his face slightly flushed.
“My magic man,” she grins.
Sometimes when she says something to him, something sweet or romantic or sexy, he gets this confused, dazzled look like he can’t believe what he’s hearing and doesn’t know what to say back, so he acts out what he can’t put into words. He bends down to kiss her, harder than before, and she kisses back passionately. The bed sinks a little under his weight as he kneels to lean over her, and she rolls onto her back to get more comfortable instead of propping herself up on her side. One of his hands sits next to her head, supporting his weight, while the other comes to rest on her bare stomach, low enough to set off a few sparks somewhere lower down. She wants more of his touch, needs it. She wraps an arm around his neck to pull his warm body closer. His chest hair feels scratchy on her sensitive skin, but it doesn’t bother her. She wouldn’t change a thing about this moment for the world.
When Ryan’s lips finally come away from hers, a small whine of protest escapes her mouth completely by accident, making him chuckle softly.
“Good massage?” he asks.
“Mm,” she nods and leans up to peck at his lips again. “So…you gonna do anything with that hand?”
“Oh, um…” he glances down at his hand on her belly. “Do you want me to?”
She giggles. Even after six months together, sharing a bed almost every night, he’s still sweet enough to stop, ask and wait for permission every single time he wants to move things beyond making out. She pulls him down for another kiss and that’s all the answer he needs, because a second later she feels his hand slide down a little further, fingers brushing the neat patch of black hair between her legs.
“Fuck, ” she whispers against his lips.
If this was any other guy, and she was lying under him, naked, legs apart, she’s sure he’d just dive right in. Not Ryan. He’s always slow and gentle at the start, taking the time to appreciate every inch of her body like pleasuring her is his favorite thing in the whole world and he wants it to last as long as possible. His strong fingers move past her mound, skimming right over where she really wants them to stroke along the inside of her thigh and god, the tease drives her wild. To get back at him, she buries her face in his neck and peppers kisses along it, letting him feel her teeth, something that never fails to get a moan out of him.
“I’ve… ah… I’ve got work tomorrow,” he groans.
“Don’t care,” Alex whispers, biting another small mark into his flesh and smirking at the thought of sending him off in the morning covered in her little signatures.
The tip of a finger presses into her, right where she’s most sensitive, and it gets a lot harder to attack his neck with her mouth suddenly falling open in a long, low moan of pure bliss.
“ Fuck, that’s it, right there…” she urges him on.
Her hips lift off up the bed, her back arching towards his hand as he rubs her in small circles. His touch, once gentle, becomes firmer as her arousal builds up, driving her closer to her peak. First the massage, now this… fuck, getting close…
“I love you,” she whimpers into his neck.
“I love you too,” he says, his lips against her ear.
The fingers against her clit stop drawing their circles, but before she can even complain they’re replaced by his palm, pressing lightly, massaging her there just like he massaged her back earlier. That alone would almost be enough to tip her over the edge, but then she feels a finger at her entrance, pushing slowly past her wet lips and inside her, and it’s almost too much to bear.
Gonna cum…
She doesn’t last more than thirty seconds with his finger inside her. Her eyes slam shut, her mouth falls open again and every muscle below her waist clenches tight as her orgasm hits like a lightning bolt, and Ryan stays right on top of the action, stroking her hair with his free hand and kissing all over her face as she rides it out.
She’s not sure how long she lies limply under him, eyes closed, chest heaving. When she finally catches her breath enough to move a little, she finds him lying by her side wreathed in golden light, gazing intently at her flushed, sweaty face as though she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.
“Hey there,” he says with a smile.
Alex says nothing, just rolls over to bury her face in his warm chest. His strong arms wrap protectively around her, and she closes her eyes as a soft haze of love and joy settles over them both. If people walking by could see what Alex sees, they’d think she’d stolen the sun.