Dream Lover

SEVENTEEN

While he addressed the rabbit, she told him most people considered them pets where she came from although plenty of people still hunted and ate them if they were wild. When he asked her what they ate, she told him a gruesome tale about mass produced chickens, cattle, and pigs. She told him it was allowed because most people only ever saw the neatly butchered, prepackaged, and half frozen product in stores where full rows were dedicated to one particular type of meat. What she described sounded similar to a library of food. Shelves and bins jammed with fresh fruits and vegetables, most any cut of meat. Cheese, wine, breads, other rows for fruits and vegetables preserved in cans so they could be stored for months even years. She claimed there was a row of spices, dried herbs, and oils from thousands of miles away and more isles of foods that weren't really foods at all but strange hybrid versions of food, most of it, she claimed was made out of products gotten by manipulating called corn and sugar.

She talked about her world all through the cooking process, the vegetables she cooked with the pig fat were very good, and went well with the rabbit, she drank wine, he had water. 

She confessed after her second glass that she had only been allowed to drink alcohol in her country for year. When he found it odd that there was a legal age restriction on alcohol, she told him there were age restrictions on personal transportations and s****l activity as well. When he seemed baffled, she tried to tell him how the laws came about. She stopped and started with different explanations then admitted she didn't know except to say the government often found a way to direct the morality of the country weather it was supposed to have that power or not. 

After that, she scanned through the major events in her world’s history. It seemed to be in constant conflict. She told him of the men who'd done fairly well in their attempt to take over the world and rule it at least for a time. There were fascinating though sparse stories about an Alexander the Great, Julius Cesar, and Adolf Hitler.

The current conflict was over oil. Her country used much more than the rest of the world and had to buy it from other countries as a result anytime one of the countries they bought oil from had a problem her country felt the need to be involved. Whether that involvement was for better or worse was a matter of some debate. There were other things; some worry over the weather changing because forests had been turned into cities or farmland, an epidemic of a disease they could treat but not cure that was most commonly passed from person to person during intercourse. She took offense when he asked her if she had the disease. Although it seemed to be a natural curiosity since she'd said it was an epidemic and incurable.

After they finished eating, she told him she wanted a long bath and invited him to get his bathing out of the way first. He told her to go ahead as he had bathed only two days ago and would be clean enough for another day. She seemed just as appalled at that as she had been when he asked her about the s*x disease. Then she insisted he increase his bathing habits to at least every other day. It seemed excessive, and he said so.

"Please," Elle begged, "will you go bathe, slough off the two days worth of dirt, dead skin, and fresh bacteria you've accumulated in the last two days?"

"Bacteria"

"It’s a nasty little single celled organism that multiplies at an alarming rate, it's the reason people are sick at least eighty percent of the time and the only reason they smell bad after a hard day’s work." She told him. He still looked unconvinced. "If you won't do it for yourself and the years it will add to your healthy lifespan. Will you do it for me and my sanity? There's a good chance I may not have it tomorrow when I wake up." Byron gave in, shoving off from the table, and pulling his shirt over his head on the way to the bathroom. "Thank you!" Elle called after him. He grumbled something in response as he shut the door behind him. 

Elle felt a tiny bit bad for stooping to the guilt trip. It was the absolute lowest form of coercion but it worked so well. She smiled to herself as the muffled sound of running water came to her ears through the bathroom door. She walked around trying to stretch out some of the muscles that seemed more and more like they would all stiffen up at the same time. She started to work through a few simple yoga poses but gave up a few minutes later when the muscles in her calves began to spasm in angry protest.

Ten minutes later, a stark naked, soaking wet Byron emerged. Elle had been in the process of rustling through his drawers to find another clean shirt to wear to bed when she heard the door open. She turned, smiling ready to say something like; 'don't you feel better?'

Instead, she was dealing with a serious hormonal reaction to Byron in all his naked glory. She'd been toted around enough today to suspect he was mostly muscle but she hadn't once expected it to look as good as he did. 

His short dark hair was wet, slicked back and away from his face, the rugged five o'clock shadow was gone, and somehow his eyes seemed even darker than their usual onyx. Tiny water droplets were luxuriating in the slide down his chest and stomach moving as slowly as they could manage. Elle couldn't help but to follow the lines the ridges of his muscles made down his chest, to the deep slope of his hips and lower. He couldn't have looked better to her if Michelangelo had carved him in chocolate. She was frozen for a second then she found a towel instead of the shirt she was looking for and took it to him.

Since she was doing such a good job at playing it cool with her first naked man, she decided she would push it a little further and try for another kiss from him. She opened the towel for him as she crossed the room; she even wrapped it around his waist herself. While his hands were busy adjusting the towel hooking it on his hips, Elle took a chance and reached up to bring his mouth down to hers "Really, thank you," she said just before she pressed her lips to his. 

It was like setting off fireworks in an enclosed space. She'd envisioned one of those soft sensual tease kisses that managed to make it into every teen movie where the cool kid finally plants one on the un-cool but loyal nerd. What she got was a swift kick a jolt to her system like nothing she'd ever felt before. 

Byron's hands hadn't been as occupied as she thought because one of them had snaked around and pressed her into him almost immediately. She broke the kiss, because she was pretty sure her heart was going to shake itself loose, what she didn’t know was if it would happen be before or after she became a case study for spontaneous human combustion.

She had to put her hands on his chest to steady herself for a moment while she let her system reboot. When she could form words again she said, “I pictured that going differently," which wasn’t at all what she should have said. Suddenly in a hurry, she retrieved her towel from foot of the bed and headed straight for the bathroom and escape. She came up short though because Byron hadn't moved from the bathroom doorway. "For the record,” she told him, eyes focused on the empty bathroom behind him. “I kissed you, said something sexy and flirtatious right before I left you here to deal with all my awesomeness. That's what was supposed to happen, that's how I'm going to remember it."

With that, she squeezed past him did a quick rinse of the tub, and then went about drawing her own bath.