Serum

-Thirty-Five-

I sat back down on the toilet, head in my hands. Well, hand. The other I kept curled. I could still smell Conner on it though, which suddenly hit me with a jolt of disbelief. Lemongrass and something sweet. Honey maybe? I wondered if he tasted that way as well. I knew his kisses tasted like chocolate with peppermint or citrus. I found myself inhaling closer to my curled fist until Conner groaned, making my head jerk up.

“Stop. Unless you want me to grab you right here and now. I can smell you, and feel how turned on you are in here.” He waved vaguely at his head, hunching slightly over the bathroom sink. I made a face.

“How painful is it, right now?” I asked him. Conner didn’t bother to look at me.

“The Dart is almost fully formed. My instincts are on overdrive.. When I’m near you I have a nearly permanent hard-on. Yeah, it’s getting about that stage.” Conner remarked, and I twitched again.

“Maybe we should just.. put some space between us for right now?” I asked, standing and walking towards the bathroom door. Conner slammed an arm across it.

“Please. Don’t go.” He begged weakly. “I’m fine, really. I can last for a little while longer. I just can’t stand the idea of you trying to avoid me.” He still wasn’t looking at me, but he sounded so pitiful, that there was no way I was going to be able to deny him his request.

“Ok. I’ll stay.” I told him. I slid a hand across his back and he tensed slightly, but when he otherwise didn’t move or pull away, I let my arms wrap around his waist, settling my head against his back, ear pressed to him with my eyes closed. In this position, his heartbeat was so loud it was like it was surrounding me. It slowed from a nearly frantic pace to a nice, steady beat that made me sigh, and I think we both relaxed at that. Eventually, Conner turned sideways into the hug and slid down the back of the door, tucking me under his arm and pulling me close as he sat on the floor. “What if one of the kids needs to go pee?” I giggled.

“Let ‘em go outside.” Conner grumbled and I laughed harder at that, but with Conner’s arms wrapped around me, breathing in his scent, I was quickly moving towards unconsciousness.

“Can we stay? Just like this for a little while?” I murmured against his chest. Conner’s arm froze here it was rubbing up and down my side.

“Yeah.” He answered quietly. “Yeah, I think we can.” And that was the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.

“Dude! You had her all to yourself last night, and you still didn’t-!” Daniel’s voice dragged me out of whatever dreamless sleep I had been in.

“Would you shut your perverted pie-hole!” Conner snapped. I giggled.

“Nice alliteration.” I mumbled sleepily, but I didn’t think they heard me.

“But look at you man! Can you even stand up straight anymore?!” Daniel scoffed. “What am I saying, of course you can, you’re just a walking boner if you do. Damn, you must really love this girl, I’ve never seen you suffer so much for one.” I found I wasn’t sleepy anymore. Love?

“Seriously?! Do you never shut up?!” Conner slammed something, maybe a cabinet door, then I heard him groan.

“That’s not going to work forever dude.” Daniel remarked. “Eventually, you’ll run out of ice.” Ah, so it was the freezer door. I had an idea I knew where that ice was going, and I curled my fingers into a fist self-consciously.

“Go away.” Conner grumbled.

“Would you guys shut up? It’s impossible to concentrate in here!” Tara’s voice rang out and I stiffened.  I’d nearly forgotten they were here. Sitting up, I realized I was in the cradle of two pews again, which meant Conner must have brought me in sometime after I fell asleep. He’d even tucked me in with a blanket, how sweet. It smelled like him too, which sent a tingle through my system. It was probably a possessive move on his part, but somehow it didn’t phase me too much. Maybe his Rut hormones were rubbing off on me.

“What are you guys doing?” I yawned as I looked around. The argument coming from the kitchen went strangely quiet, and Tara waved a cellphone at me.

“Internet. Tod keeps a charging cable in his backpack, so we charged these last night so we’d have something to do. Conner’s such a boring old man. Seriously, not even a TV?” Tara tsked. I laughed lightly. Even without it, we’d managed to fill every spare moment of time somehow, and I was just now realizing that.

“I didn’t even realize you guys had brought your bags with you.” I shook my head. How much had I missed because I had been so distracted by Lana’s little ‘biopsy’ stunt?

“Yeah, Lana made us. Told us we needed to keep up with our school work even if we were going to be out of school. She’s supposed to drop by every day to pick up the old stuff and drop off new.” Tara rolled her eyes. I internally grimaced at the thought. Yay, more Lana visits. My gaze drifted to Tod. I noticed he was very quiet and almost didn’t look up from the cellphone screen. In fact, I thought the only time I’d heard him talk was during the youth gathering while arguing with Daniel. “Oh, Tod doesn’t really talk much. He’s super-smart, but he’s like..autistic or has social anxiety or something. At least that’s what they say. He doesn’t do too well with stressful situations. I don’t know. He talks in here.” Tara tapped her head. “But don’t treat him any different. He’s probably the smartest person I know. He just doesn’t like to talk.” Tara crossed her arms defensively. I smiled.

“Point taken. But I have heard him talk, you know. He was arguing with Daniel about who won a race in the rain at the pool.” I winked at her and Tod’s head jerked around quickly. He smiled shyly at me and then went back to his screen while Tara gaped.

“Hey, leave Adrian alone. Tod likes her.” Daniel grumbled as he walked by me, heading towards the twins.

“That’s what he just told me.” Tara stared at her brother like she didn’t know him. “Wow. Just wow.” I laughed to myself and stood, stretching, to leap over the side of the pews and headed into the kitchen. Conner adjusted his position as I passed by him, removing his foot from a chair and kicking it out from under the table towards me. The move drew attention to the fact that sure enough, he held an ice pack at his groin. I winced. Whatever I had planned to say to Conner went right out the window.

“So I guess we have something to resolve.” I gestured between Conner and I. Well, mostly at Conner’s lap. He readjusted his position.

“I don’t think discussing it is going to help.” He gazed down at his lap disgruntledly.

“Then, fine.” I stood and stalked over to Conner, yanking him up out of his chair. The icepack fell to the floor as I crushed my lips against his. Shocked, he stood frozen for a moment, before crushing me to him, his tongue speared into my mouth as he shoved me backwards, driving me into the fridge. Every bit of him pressed up against my body, I could feel his erection throbbing between us.

“First one’s a freebie?” I panted, when he finally let me up for air. “Right?” I hoped he could sense what I meant through our mental link, the emotions zinging their way back and forth were so painfully strong and complex, I was drowning in them.

“Unless the dart breaks free.” Conner licked my lower lip like he couldn’t help himself. “Then you’ll be the one walking around here like a cat in heat.” He warned.

“But you’ll be comfortable?” I had to force my hands to stop roaming under his shirt.

“More comfortable physically, yes. More possessive, also yes. Also, the scent of you will still make all pants too small, but at least if the damn Dart is gone..” I pulled Conner further into the kitchen, interrupting him.

“That’s all I really needed to hear.” I murmured.