Music to my Ears (Ben)

[karen2]

Ben smirked a little when Anna ignored his kiss, instead looking down at the guitar and playing first a C chord, and then a G. He was about to congratulate her teasingly when tears appeared in her eyes, and his eyebrows went up in response. Why was she crying? Not like he'd know what to do, even if he understood the reason behind it.

Whenever Marie had cried, he'd found some way to cheer her up. Anything that would get her smiling, even for a second. Because if you got someone who was crying to smile, you'd managed to get their mind off whatever had brought the tears on in the first place even if it was only for a little while. And so the question was, how to get Anna smiling?

It was then that Ben did one of the dumbest things he'd ever done, but with the best intentions behind it. "Hey, hey, hey, no waterworks," he said playfully, carefully setting his guitar aside before pulling his hands back to her waist. And then he tickled her.

Purposefully starting a tickle-war with Anna when she now knew that being ticklish was a major weakness of his promised to be entertaining. Ben evicted the the red-headed woman from his lap by dumping her side-ways onto his bed and then shifted so that he was leaning over her, continuing to tickle her and chuckling all the while.

[~ ADMIN]

Anna hadn't meant to start crying, and she chastised herself for it. Stop getting so flippin' emotional. It wasn't like he needed to see her tears, and he certainly didn't know what to do with them, she could tell when his eyebrows hit the ceiling. She was going to apologise again, but it looked like he was thinking, and that made her curious.

The guitar was lifted from her arms out of the way, and she watched completely unaware of what was about to happen. Anna let out a yelp as his fingers found her waist and began tickling. "No, no, no," she giggled, hitting the bed hard as he mercilessly attacked her ribs and stomach, her skin tingling with the sensation.

She kicked her feet as she squirmed, then weaved her hands around his in order to get at his stomach, tickling in return. He was just as ticklish as her, if not more. She knew he'd get his revenge, but hell be damned if she wasn't going to retaliate. He got the upper hand again, pinning her hands down with one large hand, tickling with the other. She started full on laughing, unable to stop herself. At least the tears had stopped.

While he was distracted, she managed to concentrate hard enough through the enslaught to move her legs up and around his back. Once her ankles were locked together, she tugged him forwards, breaking the contact of his hands on her adbomen, giving her some relief, but now their faces were barely inches apart. Her eyes flickered over his handsome face. She was so lucky to have fallen in love with this man.

Her eyes slowly closing as she did so, she reached up to touch her lips against his, her hand ticking his palm slightly as she entwined her fingers with his.

[karen2]

At first Ben's plan of attack worked. Any tears Anna had running down her face now were from laughing too hard. But, as he'd predicted, she took advantage of his own ticklishness and went for his stomach. Sucking in his stomach he choked back his laughter and snatched her wrists away from him, pinning her hands together.

He hadn't noticed when Anna had started moving, but quite suddenly her legs had tightened around him, pulling him down closer to her. Admitting defeat, he gave up tickling her and simply watched her face, so beautiful, as she stared up at him. Her hooded eyes seemed to be taunting him, luring him in, and before he knew it their lips had met in another kind of battle.

Ben wasn't good with emotions, that was true, but this was another story--this he could do. Kissing Anna was (as cheesy and cliche as the sentiment was) like tasting a little bit of heaven, or like getting a hit of some sort of drug he was completely hooked on. She'd always be able to bring him in for more, no matter what.

Noting that her legs were still locked around his waist, Ben pulled back a little to meet her eyes uncertainly. Considering her brothers and his... well, lack of experience, he wasn't sure if they were really ready to go that far, and since he loved her he wanted to give her the choice to stop this before it got any further.

[~ ADMIN]

Anna inhaled as he kissed her back, running a hand up onto his shoulder as she broke it free from his clasp. He may have taken the bait, so to speak, but as soon as their lips touched, she couldn't bear to pull them away. The taste of him made her head spin and her heart thump against her rib cage. It was insane how good it felt to be with him in this way.

As he pulled away, she tried to read his face, tell what he was thinking. They'd never been in this sort of position before. So far, all they'd done was kiss, very passionately, in many locations about the ship. Every time it had looked like they were going to go further, one or both of them had stopped it. Anna had been so anxious about a moment like this, and moment where they could potentially go further, because she didn't know how she or her body would react. Someone touching her body in any other place before had only ended up leaving her in pain. She didn't know anything else.

Ben seemed to be allowing her the chance to choose this time. He didn't look all too sure himself about moving forward, and as much as he didn't want to pressure her, she didn't want to pressure him either. Swallowing, she unhooked her legs, releasing him from her grip, letting her legs fall back against the bed. She touched his chest with her hand, looking down for a moment before looking back up at him again.

"I want you," she said softly, "I do. But I want it to be when we're both ready. And I want it to be perfect."

[karen2]

When Anna unlatched herself from him, Ben relaxed a little. At least neither of them were going to force the matter--not at the present. He nodded at her words, leaning down to steal one more quick kiss before rocking back into a sitting position. "And we've found yet another thing upon which we both agree. We're on a roll today, eh?"

Actually, it was good that they could agree on things. If they couldn't, they'd be a pretty dysfunctional couple, no matter the status of their relationship. Not that he could really picture himself arguing with Anna unless he had a very, very good reason to. And at the moment, such a reason was non-existent.

Once Anna was upright herself, Ben pulled her back into his lap, squeezing her once before bringing his guitar around in front of them again. Idly he played a few chords, humming them as he did so, and then he place Anna's fingers back on the strings. "So, C chord and G chord you've got. Let's move on to A minor..."