“Hello, gorgeous.”

Joey murmured a happy response as Pacey gently kissed the top of her head, fingers remaining a moment longer to ruffle her hair. With a smile, she twisted to look up at him, leaning her chin against him.

“Hmmm…” The sound was muffled by his chest, and grinning, she rubbed her nose against him.

Pacey raised an eyebrow, pulling back and dumping his bag on her coach. “Still working?”

“I’m always working.” Sighing, Joey shut the books, lifting out of her chair and stretching slowly.

Pacey watched her body, his breath catching as her top rode up, her arms high above her head elongating her figure, and a tiny sliver of skin peeking through. “Doesn’t look like it,” he offered, eyes returning quickly to her books.

“I’m still working. I have to work extremely hard with you around, you know Witter. It’s just that my focus has shifted from a less…” She grinned. “Academic nature.”

“Really? So what are you working on now?”

Joey’s smile widened. “Keeping my hands off you.”

“Very funny,” Pacey remarked dryly, shaking his head as he collapsed onto her couch.

“It’s true.” Moving to stand behind him, she let her fingers rest on the back of his neck. Briefly, Pacey wondered if she could tell he was holding his breath.

“Well keep those nimble fingers off me, Potter. You have work to do.”

“Yeah.” Tucking a finger under his chin, Joey turned his face around towards hers. “Stated by oh-so-academically-minded Pacey Witter.”

“I have an academic mind,” he argued, mock hurt lingering in his eyes, only countered by the light smile playing on his lips.

“You’re right,” Joey agreed sadly. “You’re a further Maths expert. What were you calculating today, Pacey, the number of girls you’ve been ogling?”

“Nope.” He grinned. “You know I don’t need to count above one on said account.” “One, huh? Who’s the lucky Neanderthal?” “And you know I don’t have to answer that,” Pacey remarked with a raised eyebrow.

“So what was it, the total time sex occupied your mind during the day?”

“I can’t count that high.” Ignoring her further mutters of protest, Pacey grabbed Joey around the waist and pulled her over the top of the couch. Grinning as she toppled forward, he caught her before she rolled over the edge and settled her against his back.

Sighing in satisfaction, Joey snuggled up against him. “That feels better.”

“It does?”

“Yeah.” Her smile was hidden from his view, but he sensed it in her voice. “It does. How do you feel about taking up the position of my permanent arm-rest?”

“Send me the job-application and I’ll think about,” he quipped, folding an arm around her stomach. Sensing a tightness in her shoulders, Pacey frowned, raising his other arm to touch the muscles of her back. “Christ, Jo, you’re tense all over. What is it?”

“Nothing.” Joey shut her eyes tiredly, kicking her feet up on the couch and leaning back further against her boyfriend. “Just this stupid Essay. You would think that there are only so many themes to analyse in Lord of the Flies, but you’d be wrong.”

“Lord of the Flies, huh?” Pacey’s voice was filled with amusement. He’d read the book. Slowly, he worked his hand around the back of her neck, kneading at the muscle in an effort to relax her. “It’s not exactly friendly bed-time reading.”

“What, the fatal flaw of man?” she replied dryly. “Brain food alright. She moved one hand to settle on his, and the other she wrapped back around his neck, missing the look on Pacey’s face. He winced, shifting beneath her, praying she couldn’t tell his erection was pressing into her leg.

“Don’t worry, Pacey,” Joey murmured reassuringly. “You’re my own personal Ralphie.”

“Ralph?” he exclaimed in protest. “He’s a wacko.”

Joey smirked. “Insanity is a desirable trait, Pacey. You should know that.”

Pacey nudged her gently. “Cheap, Miss Potter. Andie is doing perfectly well, thankyou.”

“I know, I know,” she replied with a grin. “At least I didn’t call you Simon.”

“You’re right,” Pacey replied with a mock disappointment in his voice. “My life is far too busy to worry about forest apparitions and dead men in parachutes.”

Joey laughed softly, tilting her head to the side as Pacey’s hand rose to stroke her neck, still working the tension in her muscles. “So how was Human Psyche?”

“Wonderful,” he replied dryly. “It turns out human sexuality comes after the rest of the syllabus- crime and punishment, the inner critic, parent and child, how our parents screwed us up and what not to do about it.” he paused. “Not quite the professor’s words.”

Joey laughed. “So you’ll have something to look forward to…”

“Joey, I’ll be dead and buried by then, hopefully before I can be analysed to death by someone who actually HAS a psychology degree. I doubt I’ll make it through the first weeks let alone the first semester, without pulling out my nails. In fact, I’d do it now, but it probably has some great psychological connotations that frankly, I’d rather keep hidden in the closet.”

Joey patted his hand affectionately. “Bet you wish you took the easy classes now.”

“That thought has crossed my mind, yes.” Pacey sighed, squeezing her shoulder gently and letting his arm drop to his side. “But I’ll survive. It’s ingrained in the Witter genes. Be a closet-case, be a loser, but always survive.”

Joey’s hand tightened around his. “You always have, Pacey. And something tells me you always will.”

“You have too much faith in me.” Sighing, Pacey raised his hand again, touching a finger gently to the tip of her nose.

“Have you spoken with him?”

“Who?”

“Don’t be obtuse. You’re not that stupid.”

“I am that stupid.” He grinned down at her. “Where were you the last eighteen years?”

“Falling in love with you.” Looking up, she smiled at him, planting a quick kiss on his neck. “Don’t change the subject, you suck royally at it.”

“I can’t get anything past you, can I?”

“Nope.” She ran her thumb in circles over the skin on the back of his hand. “How’s he faring now his youngest son is away at college, very much succeeding?”

“Oh, you know. I think he’d rather have a gay officer of the law than a straight psychologist.” He paused. “My father has issues.”

Joey’s fingers pressed a little deeper. “You know I love you just the way you are?”

“I know that.”

“Good.” Joey rolled over gently onto her stomach, pushing at Pacey’s legs so she could lie comfortably between them. She rested her elbows on his chest, face close to his. “Maybe there’s some way I could show you that,” she murmured, inching closer.

Something caught in his chest. “You don’t need to.” He smoothed his hand over her hair. “I think I already know.”

“You think…” Hesitantly, Joey placed her hand on his thigh, fingers curling around the denim of his jeans. She could feel the muscles contract under her palm, could hear his breathing, somehow harsher, quicker, in the silence of the room. She pressed her hand a little harder into him. “That doesn’t sound very convincing.”

“Well…” Pacey struggled to catch his breath as Joey’s hand inched higher. “I have it on good authority that I’m very…convinced.”

Joey grinned, running her other hand over his stomach and up, the tips of her fingers brushing his nipples over the material of his shirt. Pacey almost jumped at the feeling, his mind and body on sensory overload at the feel of her, pressed up against him, her hands on him…

He wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. He tried to remember the last time he’d felt this overwhelmed, and for some reason couldn’t place a time.

Joey lowered the hand on his chest slowly, letting her fingers slip underneath the cotton, splayed gently over his stomach, pressing her nails against the skin. She smiled in satisfaction as Pacey began to breathe deeper, and with increasing difficulty. She shifted slightly, raising up a bit and stopped immediately.

Her eyes shifted to his, his own completely still as he watched her, unsure. They had both felt him. Pressed against her, hard.

They both knew what that meant.

After a moment the surprise drained away from her eyes, and she smiled slowly, eyes still locked with his. Still watching him, she shifted hr hips again, watching him close his eyes as she moved on him, the insides of her thighs brushing against his erection.

“Jo…” Pacey raised a hand, placing it on her shoulder. “You have to…” He groaned aloud, throwing his head back as he felt her move again, this time with more intensity.

“I have to what?” she asked him, voice breathy, feeling a tightness in her stomach and an ache between her legs as she moved over him.

“You have to…stop,” he whispered.

Joey froze, watching his chest rising and falling, as he opened his eyes. “Why?” she asked him, her voice flat.

“Because…” Because, because. Pacey cursed himself inwardly. Because I don’t think we’re ready, because I’m not sure that you love me enough. Because if you touch me any more I think I’m going to lose it right here, roll you over and pin you, and have my dirty way with you before the hour’s over. Because our first time shouldn’t be like this, unplanned, in the heat of the moment, uncontrolled….Because we shouldn’t be about this.

Not just about this.

But he couldn’t say any of it, couldn’t find the words.

“Because I need to go,” he told her softly, pushing at her shoulders until she moved to the side. He stood quickly to his feet, turning away from her as he adjusted his trousers, willing himself to forget the arousal that had almost overtaken him.

His body wasn’t listening.

Sighing, he pulled his shirt down below his groin, turned to face her. He tried to ignore the hurt he could see on her face, the bewilderment, the confusion. He tried to ignore the little devil on his shoulder telling him what an ass he had been. No, not just an ass, an idiotic ass.

He had to get out of here.

Pacey placed a small, chaste kiss on her cheek before walking to her door. “I’ll catch you later, Jo. I should probably get my work out of the way….”

“Yeah,” she murmured dumbly, body still held in her frozen position, back pressed against the couch, hands gripping tightly to the edge, to the place where he had been.

She didn’t even look to the door as she heard it close behind him, but held her breath, tight in her chest, as if to hold back the tears.