How to Tame a Cat (ManxMan)

Chapter Thirty-Five: Welcome Home

[AN: Oh, look - there's more sexual content! You know the drill by now. If you want to skip over the sexual content, go to the first '-------'. Enjoy~]

~Chapter Thirty-Five: Welcome Home~

I collapse face first onto Ryland's bed with relief, glad to finally be back in the familiar space of his apartment. "I missed you so much," I mumble into the neatly-tucked sheets. It is soft and smells like him, which is everything I could want in a bed.

From somewhere in the main part of the room, Ryland lets his amusement be known with an undignified snort of laughter. "We have only been gone for two days," he reminds me. The sound of our bags hitting a solid surface follow his words and it is only a few seconds later that the bed is dipping under his weight.

I turn my head to look at his sprawled out form. "Two days is a long time," I protest jokingly, only smiling when he rolls onto his side to look at me properly. "Especially when surrounded by a pride of hungry lions."

"Hungry?" He asks, eyes gleaming with unspent laughter. "I remember you complaining about there being too much food earlier."

Memories of our 'snack' come floating back, causing me to groan. "Your mother is a great woman, but she could scare off the Cardinal Sin of Gluttony with all the food she makes," I grumble, burying my face back into the blanket. Eating three full meals in five hours was a terrible idea.

"Without a doubt," he agrees, one of his hands sliding across the bed to brush my face. I lean into the touch, and then promptly turn my head and bite the closest finger. Instead of pulling back like I expected, he wiggles his finger around in my mouth, ignoring the scrape of my teeth, and presses a kiss to my forehead. "We're finally alone."

My eyes widen a fraction as I consider his meaning. After a few seconds of thinking, I releasing his finger and rolling onto my back. Almost instantly, he is kissing me. I smile into it, which prompts him to stick his tongue into my mouth. My smile vanishes as the kiss grows more heated and I grip the back of his head to make sure he does not try to go anywhere. His tongue slowly slides across the roof of my mouth and-

I pull back right as a sound resembling a giggle leaves my throat. Ryland's eyebrows shoot up as confusion sets in for us both. Experimentally, I lightly run my tongue along the roof of my mouth and suppress a shiver at the ticklish sensation. "What the hell?" I ask no one in particular.

At least I am not the only one with a ticklish mouth, since his own barely-repressed shiver indicates that he was trying it as well. His eyebrows crawl up even higher, which I did not think was possible. "It's odd that we never noticed this before," he mutters, eyes meeting mine. I am about to shrug it off as one of those weird, random things, when Ryland's expression darkens considerably with an evil smirk. "Is it true you're ticklish?"

The culprit behind this dangerous knowledge is obvious. "Dylan," I growl, even though he clearly cannot hear me. I shove off the bed immediately, knowing what will happen if I fail to escape. Even if I lie, he will still want to test it out just to be sure. To my regret, I was not fast enough and his hand catches my wrist before I can fully leave the bed.

After a great deal of struggling, cursing, and threats that we both know I will do my best to fulfill later, I end up in the center of the bed, seated between Ryland's legs with his ankles holding mine down. Somehow, in our struggle, he managed to pull my shirt most of the way off, leaving just my arms trapped in the fabric confinements behind my back, pressed between our bodies. One of his arms wraps around my upper torso to hold me in place, leaving his other hand free for the torture yet to come.