Darryl puts his hands on Abbie

Abbie stood still, patient, breathing deeply, feeling her body slowly pulse. She could feel her own heartbeat, steady, slow, and even.

After what felt like an eternity (to both of them), Darryl reached a hand out toward Abbie, and took a step closer. He lifted his arm slowly, and as he moved, Abbie had no idea what he had in mind. She kept her eyes on him, and a small smile crept around the corners of her mouth.

Darryl lifted his hand to Abbie's face, and gently rested his curled fingers against her cheek. As they made contact, Abbie closed her eyes and leaned into his hand.

"Do you like it if I put my hand on your face like this?"

"Mm," Abbie murmured, gently rubbing against him, almost cat-like.

Darryl took another small step closer. Slowly, he extended his other hand, this time toward Abbie's waist. He delicately slipped his fingers around her, tentatively resting his hand on the top of her hip.

Although his demeanor was relatively forward, and he was boldly making moves on Abbie, he was also taking his time and either a bit hesitant or perhaps teasing her.

"And this?" he said. "Do you like it if I touch you here?"

Abbie nodded. "I do."

Darryl more confidently stretched his fingers out, just barely feeling the shape and outline of her hip. He felt the texture of her dress against his fingertips, and little by little, rested more of his hand against her body.

Abbie was content with the game, trusting that he would, eventually, hold her more tightly, and that the tease only made the inevitable (or, what she hoped was inevitable) all the more appealing.

As his hold on Abbie's waist grew more firm, Darryl's touch on her face was soft. He idly swirled his fingertips along her cheek, stroking her face up and down, grazing against her hairline and the front of her ear.

"I'm not spelling something, if that's what you were thinking," he said, his voice breaking the intimacy of the moment.

Abbie let out a small laugh. "It wasn't."

"Because about halfway through that, I realized that it looked like I was drawing letters. I mean, how absurd would that be if I was drawing letters, like trying to spell a message in some kind of finger-face code." Once Darryl got rambling, he had trouble stopping. "Who would the message even be for? I mean, if it was you, why would I need to send you a secret message by, like, drawing letters on your face?" He began to trace shapes on her cheek again. "H-E-L-L-O-A-B-B-I-E," he said slowly as he touched her. " I mean, did you even think that's what I was doing?"

Abbie took a breath, stopping just short of giggling. "It's what I'm thinking about now."

"Great," Darryl replied in mild defeat. "Not what I wanted, of course. But I'm the one who brought it up, so another charmer of a move by me."

He resumed lightly touching her face, trying to bring back the energy he had broken. He trickled down to her jawline, her neck. He ran his finger along the length of her collarbone and watched the muscles of her neck tighten slightly as she inhaled and raised her head.

Darryl's finger traced back along her collarbone toward the center, and he lightly touched the small indent at the center of her neck.

"Does this feel good?" he asked quietly.

Abbie nodded very slowly, not wanting to break the sweet hypnosis of his touch, now that he had refocused his attention on her.

Darryl's fingers pressed into her skin ever so slightly, and he began to drag his finger down, first touching the top of her sternum, the center of her chest, just above the stitched line of her dress. As his finger dropped further, it landed on the dress, and the mild combination of the natural weight of his hand and the reality that he was doing all of this intentionally, led him to pull at her dress, tugging it downward about half an inch.

Nothing substantial was revealed by that half-inch, but the fact that Darryl took the initiative to pull on her dress that way, and the idea that he could just as easily pull harder, touch more of her, possibly even expose more (too much?) of her -- all of this gave both of them a quiver of excitement.