Takumi kissed Eri and pulled her closer, but then he stopped and examined her with a worried expression. "Have you done this before?"

She winced and asked, "If I say I haven't are you going to stop?"

"No," he replied firmly. "I already warned you I wasn't going to stop if you were serious," he reminded her and then kissed her again.

She didn't have the words to describe the pull his kisses created within her. And she felt like complaining that his actions weren't matching his words when he stopped again to ask seriously, "Why did you decide you want to all of a sudden?"

She could only respond laughingly, "I don't know? Maybe it's from kissing you so much?"

He abruptly slid his hands under her shirt and started to pull it off. "I'm not going to stop," he warned her again.

She grinned and replied, "Okay."

"You're sure you want me to?" he asked as he removed the next piece of clothing.

"I want you to," she agreed.

"Gods you're beautiful," he whispered as he looked at her.

She shook her head and replied shyly, "I think you're way prettier than I am."

He started removing her jeans and replied with a wry grin, "If you tell me you think you're fat, I'm going to laugh at you and make you cheesecakes."

She gasped and said, "I'm really tempted to tell you that I think I'm fat now."

He bent and kissed the tops of her feet as he slid her socks off and told her, "You are lovely from head to toe, and you can have cheesecakes if you want them."

Eri glanced toward the windows and said, "We're missing the sunset."

Takumi slid his hand behind her head and assured her quietly, "I'm not missing anything. I'm watching the light on your skin."

She glanced down and blushed, and he followed her gaze and grinned. After a moment she whispered, "Protection?"

"I won't forget," he promised.

Eri stopped being able to think clearly after a while as the intensity she felt from his kisses was written across her body, but Takumi kept his promise.

She stared at him wide-eyed when he withdrew a while later, and he asked her a little anxiously, "Was I too rough? I wasn't able to hold back much."

She laughed, and he glanced at her with surprise. "It did hurt a little, but it was amazing, no wonder people like it so much," she replied when she'd stopped laughing.

He smiled and leaned down to kiss her again.

Then he got dressed, filled the tub for her, and cooked supper while she bathed. She dressed and came out, and then watched him as he arranged their plates. "Are you a chef?" she enquired after a moment.

He laughed and told her with a grin, "No, but my father taught me to cook, and my mother's uncle is a chef and I worked for him a little during some summers. Do you cook?"

She shrugged and replied, "A little, but not as prettily as this."

He smiled and said, "I like to cook as long as I don't have to do it every day."

"What do you do for work?" she asked curiously.

He glanced at her and replied a little warily, "I'm a business accountant."

She blinked and told him, "You don't look like an accountant."

He laughed and then asked teasingly, "What does an accountant look like?"

She shrugged and replied, "Well the stereotype doesn't wear red leather jackets and ride motorcycles?"

He grinned again. "It's probably a defensive reaction to our parents jobs. My little brother is a lawyer."

She gazed at him questioningly and he explained, "My mother is a musician and my father is a manager at a publishing company. Neither of them have ever had the same schedule for two weeks in a row. They somehow managed it so that one or the other of them was always there whenever we had a school event, or got sick, or anything… but you could never guess which one would come, so both of their children chose predictable boring careers."

Eri pondered for a moment and then said, "One of my uncle's is a lawyer, I'm not sure boring or predictable is a good description for his job. How is a business accountant different from a regular accountant?"

He shrugged and replied, "It's not very different. It pays a little better. Since it's mostly dealing with accounts at a corporate level there are a few differences in which government schedules we file under and such, but it's still pretty similar to the accounting done on smaller scales."

"Why did you choose accounting?" she asked after a moment. "Do you really like math?"

Takumi laughed and then replied cheerfully, "Most of the math is done by computers. I chose my career by looking up jobs that paid enough to go on the kind of vacations I wanted and gave enough time off to do it. Then I just selected the one that seemed easiest." Then he shrugged again, and asked, "What do you do?"

Eri replied reluctantly, "I'm still in college, and even though I'm already in my third year, I have no idea what I really want to do."

"Your parents are paying for it?" he asked curiously.

She nodded and replied, "Yes." She was embarrassed about it though, so she added quickly, "But I don't make them pay for anything else anymore. I've taken jobs during the summer and I work a few hours each Saturday."

He asked a little hesitantly, "Are you just going because they want you to?"

She shook her head, but then admitted, "They do want me to, but I'm going because I promised Chisa that I'd go with her." She glanced down at her plate and added, "But she doesn't really need me there anymore, she loves it now, and has made a lot of new friends. She also belongs to a couple of clubs, besides taking classes."

Takumi asked neutrally, "You haven't made any new friends or joined any clubs in your three years?"

Eri shrugged without meeting his eyes. "I've met a lot of people, and during the first couple years I joined the same clubs as Chisa. But I didn't really enjoy it, so this year I refused and didn't join any." She glanced at him and added quickly, "But I do have a hobby."

"Oh?" he enquired with interest.

She blushed as she admitted, "I play a keyboard. My mother's elderly musician friend arranged a couple of background music recordings that I actually got paid for while I was a teenager, but it's really just a hobby."

He suggested, "You could turn it into a job?"

She shook her head again, and then met his eyes as she told him seriously, "I tried taking some of the music courses at our college, and I hated it. I don't think I want to try to make it into my job if it means playing becomes a chore."

"OK," he replied easily. She looked at him with surprise, and he said with a grin, "That's exactly how I feel about cooking. I like it, but I don't like doing it as a job." And then he stood up and collected their dishes.

She stood up and said, "I'll help wash."

He gave her a searching look and asked, "Are you feeling OK?"

She looked at him blankly and replied, "I'm fine? Why? Did you poison our supper?"

He laughed, and set down the dishes before he pulled her close and whispered, "Down there, I meant, are you in any pain?"

She blushed and shook her head. They washed the dishes together, and then sat on the edge of the bed closest to the balcony and watched the city lights.

"It's a beautiful view," she complimented after watching for a while.

He reached over and ran his fingers through her hair and replied, "Not as beautiful as you are."

She glanced at him and suggested, "Or you've just become used to it?"

He pouted at her and asked, "Why do you dislike being complimented?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, it's uncomfortable."

He slid his hands around her waist and asked, "Does that mean I should keep complimenting you until you get used to it, or stop?"

"I don't know," she replied as she leaned into him.

He kissed her and then asked, "Are you spending the night?"

Startled, she withdrew and asked hesitantly, "Do you want me to?"

"Absolutely," he replied firmly.

"You want to do more?" she guessed.

"I do," he agreed and leaned over to kiss her again. "I want to sleep beside you too, and you could stay even longer than just one night."

"You don't even know if I snore yet," she pointed out grumpily.

He grinned and informed her, "I don't plan to find out for hours yet either."

She couldn't help smiling, and he leaned in and kissed her, and then ran his hands down her back. When he slid his hands under her shirt again, she told him, "Wait a minute,"

"Okay?" he agreed curiously.

Takumi grinned at her without saying anything as Eri called her parents. She quickly told them that she was not coming home, and then blushed and glanced at Takumi as she added, "Maybe not until Sunday."

She listened for a moment and then she looked up at him again and asked, "What's the address here?" He told her and she repeated it to her parents. Then she turned even redder and answered firmly, "I will."

After she ended the call Takumi asked, "What will you do?" Eri just looked at him with her cheeks flaming and didn't answer. "Use protection?" he guessed.

She looked at him in surprise and nodded. He shrugged and she leaned over and started to take off his shirt. He grinned at her and slid his hands back under her shirt.

After a moment she stopped him and requested, "Can you turn off the light first?"

He kissed her again before asking, "Why? Are you feeling shy now?"

She shrugged and looked at the windows and told him, "With the lights on, people can see in."

"I don't care," he told her laughingly.

"I care," she protested.

He grinned and stood up. He pulled back the covers on the bed, moved the pillows and shut off the lights.

They didn't sleep until several hours later.