Pacey knocked on the door to Joey’s room. He was dressed in black slacks and a tight blue shirt. A dark jacket stretched across his wide shoulders.

Joey opened the door a few seconds later wearing a simple, black, spaghetti strapped dress that ended right above her knees. She smiled faintly. “Hey.”

His mouth fell open slightly as he took in the vision of her. “Uh,” he cleared his throat and licked his lips to remoisten them. “You look...”

“Oh...Should I change?”

“No,” he shook his head, seemingly struck dumb. “You look...”

She laughed nervously. “What?”

He opened his mouth to speak and nothing came out.

Her cheeks flushed, “I can change?”

“No, You look breathtaking,” he finally managed.

“Thanks.” Her cheeks colored faintly. “You don’t look half bad yourself.”

He looked down tugging at the ends of his jacket, “What, this ol’ thing?”

She smirked. “How about if I do us both a favor and forget you said that.”

He laughed, “Sure thing.” He held is arm out to her, “Ready?”

“I think so.”

“I just like the idea that with my writing I have the power to reach people. Even if it’s just letting someone see something from a different perspective or maybe just to make them think about things they normally wouldn’t have thought twice about.” She smiled embarrassedly and dropped her gaze back to her plate, moving the food around sparingly. “I’m probably just boring you.”

“No,” Pacey shook his head, smiling warmly at her. “Not at all. I’m glad you love your work, most people aren’t so lucky. They don’t care about it the way you do.” He took another bite of his pasta. After asking the concierge for suggestions, he’d decided on a small Italian restaurant called Moriana’s that was five minutes from the hotel.

“I’ve always liked to write.” She blushed faintly. “Promise not to laugh but when I was in high school my friend Mea had me convinced to be a romance novelist to fuel her addiction. It was horrible. I’d write these pathetic stories just so she could read them.”

He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from chuckling, “I knew there was a romance novelist deep down inside you somewhere.”

“There is not.”

“You just told me otherwise,” he teased her. “So tell me, how *in depth* were these romance stories?”

She laughed. “I can’t believe you just asked me that.”

The corner of his mouth turned up in a sexy smile, “I’m just curious.”

The corner of her mouth turned up in a crooked grin. “They were typical romance novels with cheesy clichés, and that’s all I’m going to say about it.”

“How can I tease you about euphemisms for penis if I don’t know which one you used?”

Her cheeks flushed. “I am not going to tell you that.”

“Well,” he leaned back in his seat, “That answers my question from before.”

“What question?”

“How in depth you went,” he smiled. “Mea must have been very happy.”

She bit the inside of her cheek. “Oh be quiet.”

“So, how’d you get into journalism?” He asked taking a sip of his wine.

She shrugged. “Junior year of high school, I needed an extracurricular activity and my English teacher suggested the newspaper and the rest is history.”

“Teachers have a way of influencing your life,” Pacey commented. “My math teacher was actually the one who thought I showed good promise on the field.”

Joey just nodded raising her wineglass to her lips. “Oh.”

“Yeah, my coach didn’t really think I had what it took.” He smirked. “Guess I showed him.”

She smiled. “Obviously.”

He shrugged shoulder, “So, Ms. Potter. You care to dance?”

“I don’t really dance.”

He stood up, and held out his hand to her. “Neither do I.”

“So then I guess I should mention that I like my toes right where they are.”

He took her hand and pulled her to her feet, “I promise, your tootsie’s will be safe.”

“I’ll hold you to your words then.”

“Wouldn’t it be more fun if you held other things?” He murmured as they walked to the small dance floor where two other couples were swaying in time with the slow music.

Her eyes were light with amusement. “If this is where you start using clever euphemisms I’m out of here.”

“No,” he shook his head as they reached the dance floor, “No clever euphemisms from me.” He slid his arms around her waist, “I’ll leave that to you.”

“You know now you have to tell me something terribly embarrassing from your past so we can be even,” she said wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Hmmm,” he made a thoughtful face, “You know...I really can’t think of anything embarrassing.”

She smirked. “Try harder.”

“Well,” he smirked, “Once, at band camp...”

“Haha, nice try.”

“Okay,” he grazed his fingertips over her spine and bent his head near hers, “In high school, I think it was my sophomore year...I got caught masturbating in the locker room. By my coach.”

Her eyes widened in surprise and she laughed. “You can’t be serious?”

“Afraid I am. The senior cheerleading squad was practicing outside, and they were just a bit too much for my fifteen year old libido.”

She raised an eyebrow thinking back on Tamara. “I can just imagine.”

“There, is that embarrassing enough for you?”

She smiled. “It’ll do.”

“It’ll do? You’re not thinking of printing that or anything, are you?”

She giggled. “Oh yeah, front page tomorrow.”

He stuck his tongue out at her.

“I’m sure it’ll draw in tons of readers.”

“Potter, Don’t even think about it.”

“I’m sure everyone would be interested.”

“You wouldn’t do that to me, you love me, remember?”

“Nope.” She shook her head. “I don’t. I remember thinking you’re annoying but nothing else.”

“You’re so cruel,” he stuck out his lower lip as he spun her around once in his arms.

“I’m not cruel,” she said simply.

“Uh huh,” he said doubtfully. “So tell me, what have you written about me that makes newspapers nation wide want to print it?”

“Well, I obviously couldn’t have said the truth.”

“Yeah? And what would the truth have been? Aside from my habit of being exceedingly annoying to you.”

She tilted her head thoughtfully. “Well, I could have mentioned your excessive ego.”

He rolled his eyes, “Which is not nearly as excessive as your boy AJ’s.”

She ignored him and continued. “I could’ve mentioned how bad you are in bed.”

“Didn’t we already establish that you were lying about that?”

“I wasn’t lying.”

He smirked, “Oh, yeah? Then do tell, what part of that night was so utterly horrible?”

“All of it.”

“Hmm, really?” He mumbled huskily in her ear, his hand moved down her back to cup the curve of her ass. “I didn’t hear any complaints when I was down on my knees at your feet.”

She bit her lip, her legs growing weak. “I was trying to be nice about it.”

“Hmm, and when we moved to the bed and the buttons of my shirt went flying across my room...I suppose that was all for show?”

She nodded solemnly, her body slowly infusing with warmth. “Of course.”

He smirked, and dipped her almost to the ground, his strong arms holding her precariously. “And when you gripped the headboard so hard your knuckles were white, that was because you were so bored, yes?”

“Yes.” She bit the inside of her cheek.

“I suppose, when your mouth fell open in the most erotic way,” his tongue slipped from his mouth to lick her lower lip, “And you arched your back as your legs tightened around my waist, that’s because you just couldn’t wait for it to be over, huh?”

Joey gasped softly and nodded her head stubbornly. “I was already at home thinking of the table cloth I had to change.”

He stood her up straight. “You are the worst liar,” he murmured in her ear.

“I am not lying.” She pursed her lips together.

“You are too,” he ran a hand through her hair, swallowing hard at the softness.

“I am not.”

“Are too,” he tightened his hold on her, leaving no space between them as they swayed on the dance floor.

She could hardly breathe. “I know it’s hard for you to believe given your ego, but my friend Dawson? He’s gay and he’s better than you are.”

The corner of his mouth turned up, “I’d love to hear the story of how you ended up in bed with a gay man.”

“Long, complicated story.” She brushed it off.

“You want me and you know it,” he said, purposefully being annoying.

It didn’t matter that she was lying; there was a principle to the thing. “I do not want you.”

He arched his eyebrow, and leaned in to whisper in her ear, “Your nipples tell me otherwise.” He punctuated the sentence by biting lightly on the lobe of her ear.

Her cheeks colored half in embarrassment and half in anger. “You--You’re insufferable.”

He moved his hand from her waist to tilt her chin up so he could kiss her. The kiss was firm but gentle, reaching deep inside her to touch a part of her that had been cold for a long, long time.

Her arms tightened around his neck, her mouth opening to his instinctively. Kissing him was something she feared she could never grow tired of; it was scary and exhilarating all at once. Her heart pounded heavily with the realization that it was something she that she didn’t want to grow tired of, it was something that she could quite possibly do forever.

At some point they’d stopped dancing completely and stood in the middle of the dance floor kissing. Pacey pulled away for a moment, his eyes remained closed as he leaned his forehead lightly against hers, feeling dazed and confused by the whirlwind of emotions stewing inside him.

She swallowed panicked, not wanting to think about what it all meant. “I-I just remembered. I have an early deadline I should probably go.”

Pacey opened his eyes, “You just now remembered?”

“I just can’t afford to slack off now.”

“Yeah, okay,” he pulled away and took her hand as they walked back to the table where the check awaited them. This was probably for the best anyway, what had he been thinking taking her out on a date anyway?

“Um, thanks for dinner.”

“No problem,” he gave her his lopsided half-smile, “You deserved a celebration.” He moved around the table to help her on with her jacket.

She shifted uncomfortably after she had her jacket on. “Um, thanks again.”

“Why so quiet all of a sudden?” He wondered as he counted out money and tip for the check.

She shrugged. “I guess I’m just tired.”

“Okay,” he took her hand as they left the restaurant and hailed a cab.