Page 39 of Markets & Mooncakes

"I need a moment," he whispers, his voice hoarse and full of something I don't recognise.

"Is something wrong?" I ask as panic sets in. Have I made a mistake I don't know about?

"No, not wrong."

"Then what?"

He groans, and from the rustle of the sheets, I assume he's rubbing a hand over his face. "You're going to make me say it, aren't you?"

I frown as I try to make sense of his words. "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."

He clears his throat. "Kissing you is quite intense," he responds. "And there are natural reactions to it."

"Other than you kissing me back?"

I can feel the hesitance rolling from him, but he hasn't moved very far away from me, so I'm sure that I've not done anything too bad.

"I'm hard, Evie," he murmurs.

"Hard?"

He takes a deep breath. "Yes. As in..."

"Oh!" It hits me what he means. "Oh."

"Mmhmm. So just give me a moment, and I'm sure that I can get it under control."

"Is it uncomfortable?" I ask curiously.

"No," he assures me. "It's just that you were kissing me differently than usual."

"You felt that too," I muse.

"Yes."

"How do you intend to get it under control?" I ask.

"By thinking about something that isn't you," he says. "And preferably something unpleasant."

"That doesn't sound very nice."

He chuckles. "Well, the alternative is making you uncomfortable, and I'm not about to do that."

"I'm not uncomfortable," I assure him. "Surely there's a better way to deal with it."

"Only one, and that's not exactly possible right now."

I don't know how I feel about that. Except that I do. I don't want him to think about unpleasant things. And I certainly don't want him to suffer. "What if I helped?" I whisper, both hoping that the darkness will swallow the words and not at the same time.

"I can't ask you to do that." His voice comes out lower than before.

"I'm offering. You're not asking."

He's silent for a moment, only shifting slightly in the dark.

"I'll tell you if I feel uncomfortable," I promise.

The sound of him swallowing hard does funny things to me, like knowing the reaction I'm causing in him changes something within me.