Morning with Chloe

I woke with a start. My first reaction was to groan as the headache hit me like a freight train. My limbs were stiff, causing me to huff and puff as I **** myself to a sitting position. I looked over to find I was alone in the bed. Without thinking, my Gift was already expanding to find her. As if it innately knew where she was, her noise danced from the other side of the bedroom.

I stumbled out of bed, struggling to stand. Each step was like lifting fifty extra pounds of weight, but I **** myself to move regardless. Chloe’s Gift was still sloshing around inside me, but a fair amount had dissipated. I paused to pull on a pair of underwear and sweats.

Opening the door, I found her in the kitchen. She was cooking—or making an attempt if the smell was an indication.

“You’re burning it,” I said in a raspy voice.

“Jake!” she said with a start, spinning around. Her eyes ran over me. “You look like shit.”

“Feel like it.” Concern ran through her noise as I shuffled to the table and practically fell into the nearest chair. I focused on her. She was wearing one of my shirts. From the little flashes I got as she moved around, that was the only thing she was wearing. Seeing her wearing was tugging at something in me. Satisfaction? Pride? Odd that it was so powerful that I could feel whispers of it.

“That shirt suits you.”

Her noise softened as pleasant emotions filled it. “It’s comfortable,” her face reddened slightly. “Smells like you too,” she muttered as she turned back to the stove.

“Seems a bit breezy,” I said, eying her legs.

“Maybe a little,” she said turning around. Again, she gave me an odd look. Reaching up, I found I was grinning. “Jake, is there something wrong?”

I was pushing at my face when she said that. Removing my hands, I found the smile was still there. “I don’t think so.” She was nervous, but she turned and attended to the food. I continued to poke and prod at my face as she set out two plates on the table.

“It’s a little burnt…” I took a bite and gave her a thumbs up. She was silent as I took a few more bites. The entire time she was looking at me with that funny look. “I’m sorry,” she said suddenly. “Something is wrong and I can’t help but feel like you are hiding something from me.”

I sighed. I blinked a few times, realizing I had felt a twinge of exasperation there. “I’m not a hundred percent sure on this, but while we were making love, you weren’t controlling your Gift. Instead, you were transferring it to me.”

Her eyes were wide. “I can do that?”

“Apparently.”

“A-Are you okay?”

“Tired, but yes, I’m okay.” The pesky smile was back. “It seems some of my emotions aren’t as suppressed as they normally are.” Desire was flashing in her noise and she was trying to put it aside as it popped up. “What?”

“Hmm?” she asked, feigning ignorance.

“You are feeling something. It keeps popping up.” I narrowed my eyes, watching her noise. “There! That one.” Her face was red as shame flooded her noise.

“I…uh…I was just thinking how…um…good-looking you are when you smile,” she finished weakly.

“Glad to know I look good occasionally.”

“Not everyone can be like me and look good all the time,” she said with a giggle.

“I find the messy version of Chloe to be quite nice to look at.”

She rolled her lower lip inward, her noise shifting in a noticeable way. “Well, I certainly wouldn’t oppose a certain someone messing me up…”

“And I would absolutely love to do that, but there is no way I’m up for that. Sorry.”

Disappointment grew in her noise before she remembered I could read it. Then she felt guilty and ashamed. I wondered if it was because she felt like she was putting too much on me.

“Don’t worry so much about what you are feeling.”

“But—”

“You having a negative emotion or two towards me isn’t going to change my feelings for you.” I winced as I shifted my weight in my chair. “But while we are on that topic, how was last night?”

“Last night was amazing. Well, before you scared the shit out of me by crushing me in bed.”

“We’ll have to be careful about that next time.”

She had a sultry grin, leaning forward against the table. “Next time?”

“I assume you would want to do it again.”

“Oh, I would like to do it again?”

I nodded. “And I am graciously allowing you to use my body in the process.”

“Now noble.”

“I know. I’m not even charging for it.”

She snorted. “How bold to assume people would pay for what you were offering.”

I was grinning. I couldn’t help it. I almost didn’t take it there, but I wanted to see if what I was seeing in her noise was real. Sure enough, there wasn’t even a flicker of negative emotions when I mentioned paying for sex. But there was something else. A tangible feeling of jealousy, not in her noise, but in me. It was still faint, but more than a distant whisper.

“You’re doing it again,” she said before sipping at her water.

“I can’t help it. Your noise grows more beautiful every day.”

“I wish there was a way to see what you do. It feels weird getting compliments on something I can’t see.”

Rubbing at my sore shoulders, I saw her noise light up. “Jake! I know what I can do,” she said as she hopped out of her seat. Before I could react, she was tugging at my arm. Rising out of my seat, I found myself being dragged back to bed.

“Chloe, I really can’t—”

“Get your mind out of the gutter,” she said with a laugh. “Lie down on your stomach.”

I did what she asked, feeling her move on the bed. Soon, she was straddling me, her weight against my butt as I felt her hands run along my back. She put a lot of pressure there, getting a grunt from me as she moved up to my shoulders and began to work the kinks out. The experience was heavenly.

“You may not feel emotions like everyone else, but we confirmed last night that you can definitely feel physical things.”

“This feels fantastic,” I said, closing my eyes. Already, I could feel some of the weight I was carrying fade away. As she worked out the tension I carried, she talked the entire time. It wasn’t anything important. Small talk to pass the time and feed our innate desire for social interaction. As I listened to her, I saw her noise in my mind and how it ebbed and flowed with the conversation. It was like a massage on its own as I experienced a moment of physical and mental relief.

As the conversation winded down and her hands grew tired, I tapped her leg to have her lift off me. Flipping on my back, she gently took a seat atop me. It was a good reminder that she wasn’t wearing anything under the t-shirt.

“Do you want to go to dinner with my family tomorrow?”

“With Sophie and Daniel?” I nodded. “I’d love to!”

She was grinning at me, but it wasn’t happiness—at least not the type it should have been. There was a sexual energy to her noise and I realized what the cause was. Sometime since I’d flipped over, I had started to run my hands along her legs and was currently inching farther and farther to what was barely covered by the shirt. Didn’t even realize I’d been doing that.

“I thought you said you were tired,” she said with a knowing grin.

“I am.”

“You should probably stop that then.”

“I should.”

Looking down at me, she bit at her lower lip. She took a deep breath. Then another. “You make it so hard to keep my composure.”

I continued to look up at her. “I’m afraid sex is out of the question.” Disappointment was there on her face. “But if you scoot up here, I think I know something we could do.”

Her face lit up at the same time as her noise. She wasted no time repositioning herself above my waiting mouth.

The way I had her calling out, I don’t think she was even trying to keep her composure.