Amanda, Manuel - Wednesday afternoon
Jun. 29th, 2005 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xp_daytripper posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsA bit of silliness. It's a nice day, they're both in good moods and there's ice cream to be had. 100% angst-free. Some innuendo, but not actual smut.
Manuel sat in his room with all the windows open. The sun felt _glorious_, and he was luxuriating in something he felt all-too-rarely in his life.
He felt _good_.
The sun felt good, his mood was light and airy, and for once nothing was really wearing on him. He felt so good, in fact, that he decided that he absolutely _had_ to share.
Picking up his cellphone, he punched in a number long-since-memorized. "Amanda? Hey, it's me. If you've got some time today, come on up and see me, OK? Yeah, call me. Later." he said, then flipped the phone off. While he waited for her to return his call (or just show up) he put on a CD and grinned as the unholy mixture of styles blasted out from his speakers.
Meanwhile, down in the library, Amanda was handing her most recent English worksheet to Shan and collecting her books. Free at last, or at least for a few hours. Meggan was with Kurt, doing something-or-other, and as was her wont, she checked her phone for messages regarding her 'little sister'. Nothing from Kurt, but she did have a message from Manuel. A happy-sounding Manuel. Amanda checked the link, and yep, he was definitely happy. Infectiously so - impulsively, she decided to head to his room via the kitchen and the freezer, where she liberated a small tub of peach ice-cream. It was an ice-cream sort of day, and peach was Manuel's favourite.
Manuel opened his door extravagantly and struck an outrageous pose when he felt Amanda at his door. "Ahhh, senorita, you come bearing luscious frozen love for me?" he said, deliberately thickening his accent almost to a lispy caricature. "Today, we do the dance of _love_!" he said, wishing at that second for a rose he could clench between his teeth. "And then we shall eat ice cream."
Giggling, Amanda shook her head at him. Well, more at the music that was filling the hall. "What the hell are you listenin' to?" she asked, stretching up and planting a swift kiss on his mouth. "An' let me get this in yer fridge first, or it'll be luscious soup love for you."
"No, the love _must_ stay frozen!" he giggled. "And this is a little side-project that absolutely has tickled my fancy. My two favorite things combined! Some mad bastard has remixed Kraftwerk - you remember then, the pioneers of electronica? - to the music of my homeland, and what the bastards in the Americas have done to it. Come dance with me, share my passion!" he said, and as soon as the minifridge door closed he grabbed Amanda and twirled her into his arms, dipping her outrageously and stealing a kiss from her at the same time. "So tell me, my sexy senorita, do you dance?" he asked her teasingly, in his Smokingly Hot Bedroom Voice.
He'd apparently gone insane, but Amanda was enjoying it. Both of them had been so busy and stressed lately, a bit of silly fun was _perfect_. Laughing as he lifted her back upright, she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Gen'rally I'm better at the horizontal type of dancin', but for you? I'll try anythin'."
Manuel waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively. "Ahh, but why jump to the end when you can enjoy the journey?" he said, and began to dance with Amanda. He kept it simple, for her sake, but he'd always been an excellent dancer and he was in something of a madcap Mood. He kept the steps in time with the salsa-fied techno blaring from his speakers, and he made absolutely sure to hit all of Amanda's sensitive spots - the little things she liked, the looks and the light teasing touches. The attitude and the posture.
It was certainly different from the kind of dancing she was used to, and there was as much tickling and laughing as there was actual movement. Throwing dignity out of the window, Amanda relaxed into his mood, letting him take the lead - and sometimes her entire weight as he spun her around in the air. She hadn't laughed so much in ages, and rarely so much Manuel. It was probably a good thing John was off to wherever he'd taken to going most of the time, as their dance lead them around several circuits of Manuel's room, then out into the shared lounge area and around the couch.
Manuel laughed along with her - he had not felt this _free_ in ages, and letting all his cares and worries go just felt _good_. In his mind, he felt Charles poke his head in inquiringly, then withdraw with the mental equivalent of a smile. "Ahh, my darling, you dance _wonderfully_ for an English girl." he said with another belly-laugh. "God, it feels good in here today. Can't tell you why, but I think my brain decided that I need this."
"I'm glad it did," Amanda replied, squealing like a little girl as he picked her up bodily and swung them both around. "You've got a nice laugh - it needs airin' more often." Manuel kissed Amanda again, then gently placed her in front of the TV set. "Dancing is fun, but I think we need to rot our brains and watch some telly. Got a preference as to the flick?" he asked, walking back into his room for a moment.
"Um, somethin' good-moody?" Amanda suggested, flopping onto the couch a little breathlessly. Her ribs ached slightly from laughing, but in a good way. "Death an' mayhem an' explosions don't really fit with today. Maybe a comedy, if we can find somethin' we both find funny?" She was teasing him - their senses of humour were rather different, and she tended to gently mock his pie in the face ideas of what was funny.
Manuel hrmmed. "My blood is too hot. I was thinking of something romantic. A grand film - something epic. Passionate." he said with a laugh. "I want to see a love so profound it shook the pillars of Heaven. Sound good?"
Okay, romantic wasn't really her thing usually, but it was a nice afternoon for air conditioning, and she felt like being a normal girl for once. "Anythin' particular in mind?" she asked, half-turning so she could peer over the back of the couch at him. "Not 'Troy' - that was bloody awful."
Manuel rolled his eyes. "Please. Don't be ridiculous." he said. "My collection of films is still quite limited, and I want to stay in here. Hrm." he said, studying his meager DVD collection. "I keep hearing about this old movie that is supposed to be absolutely wonderful. Have you ever seen _Casablanca_?" he asked her curiously.
"Well you don't get much more epic in the romance department than the face that launched a thousand ships," Amanda replied, sticking her tongue out at him playfully. Then, surprisingly, she added: "Humphrey Bogart an' Lauren Bacall. Of all the bars in all the world, she had t' walk into his." At the surprise down the link, she snickered. "All that time spent recoverin' last year from this, that an' the other? I watched a lot of telly. Includin' the classic movie channel. Chuck it on - I like that one."
"Maybe not, but she was _ugly_." he said with a scrunched-up face. "And yeah, let's do that." He could feel her surprise and pleasure at the idea, and making her feel good naturally always lifted his mood. Not that it needed lifting, but he wanted to _savor_ this while it lasted. He brought the DVD and the ice-cream with _a_ spoon into the shared commons, then started the movie before snuggling up close to Amanda.
Like a cat, she sprawled herself across his lap, pouting a little at the one spoon. "No ice cream for me?" she asked, but with a certain twinkle in her eyes that implied she wasn't serious. "Haven't I been good enough?"
Manuel laughed, scooped out some ice-cream, and deposited it on the end of her nose. "Of course you get some ice-cream." he said with a wicked grin. "And you're always good - when you remember I'm here. I know, I know, you've got a lot on your plate, but I miss you sometimes." he said
Attempting to look at the blob of ice cream on her nose was making her cross-eyed. "I'm here now," she said, looking up at him with big soulful blue eyes. "An' my nose is gettin' cold."
Manuel leaned down and licked the ice-cream off her nose. "Why so you are!" he exclaimed with a grin, and then fed her a scoop of the peach ice-cream. "This is good. Buy this more often." he said absently as he took a bite for himself and savored the taste of the frozen dessert.
"I'll put it on the shoppin' list more often, you mean. The trick is t' get to it before some other blighter makes off with it." Amanda leaned in and stole another mouthful from literally under his nose. "Yum. It _is_ good," she said with a naughty grin.
"I can guarantee that. I think. Horrible punishments await those who would deny me this simple pleasure in my life." he said, absently groping Amanda with one hand while he held the ice cream with the other.
"I wonder if a ward on the freezer'd count as selfish uses for magic?" She wriggled as his fingers worked their way past the waistband of her jeans, tickling her back, and dipped a finger in the ice cream before smearing it across his lips. "Who needs a spoon when I've got you t' eat off?" she giggled, leaning in to lick the sticky sweetness off.
Manuel laughed as she licked the ice-cream off his lips. "Seems I'm not the only one in a good mood today." he said. "That's good." He turned absently to watch Bogie work his film magic - and not coincidentally providing Amanda with many more opportunities to use him as her own personal ice-cream scoop.
"It's contagious," she told him, reaching to grab the spoon from him. "An' any way, me make-up work's goin' well, I'll be goin' for me drivin' test next week, Strange is actually likin' some of the stuff me an' the boys have been doin', the sexiest boy in school is me boyfriend..." As she was talking, she was digging into the ice cream carton with the spoon. "'S a bit hard t' find an excuse t' be miserable lately. I'll have t' try harder." She lifted the spoon to his mouth so he could take a bite, and then managed to contrive to tilt the spoon so the rest dropped onto his chest, taking shameless advantage of his habit of wearing his shirts unbuttoned. "Oops," she said, not sorry at all.
"Good! I'm due to take my driving exam any day now. As soon as I can shake some time free - I've got to make up for some lost time so I can graduate and move on." he said. He casually leaned back as far as he could, to present as much of his peach-ice-cream-coated chest for her licking pleasure.
She didn't need encouragement, sticking the spoon back in the carton and leaning forward, pushing his shirt out of the way. "I could get used t' havin' ice cream like this," she said with a wicked grin, before running her tongue up his chest in a long, lazy stroke. She had a pretty good idea how this afternoon was going to finish up, but she wasn't in a hurry - she wanted to savour the whole being in a good mood thing. "Only, I think the little kids'd have a few tricky questions if we tried this at the dinner table."
"Probably." he said with a grin as she licked the ice-cream off his chest. The cold of the dessert and the heat of her tongue plus the very familiar lust boiling in both of them made for a very, very happy empath. "Just remember, turnabout is fair play." he murmured.
Amanda had no intention of letting him get away without doing his share, but again with the not being in a hurry. She took her time licking up the spilled ice cream before leaning forward to kiss him firmly on the mouth. By now they were both getting sticky. "But I like this shirt," she murmured. "Wouldn't want it t' get ice cream all over."
"Can't have that." he said, and slowly, achingly, unbuttoned the rest of the buttons to shrug out of the shirt playfully. He took a quick second to Look at her, to try to gauge what she'd like most right then. Smiling, he reached out and ran a fingertip along her earlobe before letting it trail down her neck. "I love you." he told her simply. "Being with you makes me feel complete. Whole. Like I'm not some kind of monster who's one slip away from making everyone his devoted slave." he told her. "You balance me, complete me, bring me back to the light."
She'd never get tired of hearing him say that. The shiver that went through her was more than physical, and she tilted her head and closed her eyes, savouring the light touch. The carton of ice cream managed to get set next to them on the couch safely before she opened her eyes again and moved forward, straddling his lap and winding her arms around his neck. "You say these amazin' things 'bout me sometimes," she said with a soft, almost wistful smile. "You make me feel... I dunno. Like this incredible person. An' it's just... I can't explain it. No-one's ever felt like this 'bout me before." Her smile turned a little impish. "Better watch out, I'll get a swelled head."
"Your head has quite a bit of room to grow before it will be swelled. Besides, isn't mine the swelled head around here?" he said with a grin, grinding himself upwards to emphasize his point. "I think I need more cuddle time." he said wistfully to the wytch in his lap. "Definitely. I've missed this."
"So have I," she said with a sigh, leaning her forehead against his and focussing on the feel of him underneath her, his hands on her hips, the link warm and wide-open and alight with what could only be described as warm fuzzies. "Not enough of me t' go 'round, sometimes. But I'll try harder - Meg's sleepin' better now, I should be able t' spend the night sometimes once I explain to her."
"Spending the night is fine, but sometimes I think we need to go _out_ more. Do fun things Out There, rather than stay locked up In Here," he said musingly, dabbing a smear of peach ice-cream on Amanda's earlobe and then taking his sweet time licking it off. "Not that I mind the sex at all..." he said with a leering smile.
"Goin' out? Just see me argue with tha..." Amanda began to say, but the rest of it was lost in an incoherent noise of pleasure. He _knew_ that was one of her spots. "Wstgfl."
"I'm sorry, what was that? I didn't quite catch that over the cooing of pleasure." he smirked. Hot Damn, he _loved_ doing that. And she was usually so obliging with being verbal. Warmed his heart.
Amanda poked her tongue out at him and took the ice cream back off him, dipping her finger in it and then putting her finger slowly in her mouth, sucking off the ice cream with deliberate care. And not a little innuendo, no, not at all. "I was just thinkin' of things we could do," she said with mock-innocence, sticking her finger in the ice cream again. "Stuff we haven't done yet..." With a slow, wicked smile she offered him the ice-cream coated finger. "Ice cream?"
Manuel laughed as she made such a production out of cleaning off her finger. Returning like for like, he cleaned the ice-cream off her finger with quick lapping gestures of his tongue before doing as she did to finish the job off right. "What sorts of things did you have in mind, love?" he asked innocently. "Something risque, something a little dangerous?"
She thrilled a little at the pet name - Manuel didn't use them out loud that much and it always turned her to putty when he did. Especially that one. Strange how the word they'd both been terrified off was now the personal favourite. "Isn't that usually what we do?" she teased, dabbing a blob of ice cream onto his nose. "If we really wanted t' do somethin' different, we'd have t' go the other way." Leaning in, she licked the ice cream off his nose, the movement not coincidentally causing her breasts to brush against his chest. She was wearing a halter top today, something she never would have considered even half a year ago, but the hot weather was overcoming any residual issues better than anything else. "Sounds borin', tho'."
Manuel grinned at Amanda. She was clearly In A Mood, and the residual silly had some them _both_ a world of good. "What, something secretive? I suppose we could, but that's not much fun..." he said musingly. "Do you have any fantasies left?" he whispered to her before sliding both his hands under her halter. "Anything that gets you hot, that makes you want to scream?"
"See, that's the problem with bein' all unrestrained an' the like," Amanda replied with a throaty chuckle, arching back as his hands slid upwards. "You run out of kinks - been there, done that, got the handcuffs an' the novelty vibrator an' the candlewax t' prove it. Face it, love, there's not a lot of fantasies we _haven't_ tried." A distinctly puckish expression crossed her face. "Unless we go really conservative an' you ask me t' marry you or somethin'. Now _that'd_ be dangerous." From anyone else it might have been considered fishing for a hint. But Amanda? She wasn't even remotely serious.
Manuel could tell that she wasn't, so he paid her comment as little mind as he was intended to pay it. "Wouldn't _that_ just be the scandal." he murmured. "Maybe we should, just to shock everyone." He mused. "It would be funny to watch Nathan swallow his own tongue."
"Poor bugger's got enough grey hairs, between the baby an' this business with his dad." Amanda considered the tub of ice cream, and then Manuel. "Y'know, we've got a set of handcuffs, an' there's this ice cream goin' all melty… You said somethin' 'bout turnabout bein' fair play?"
Manuel purred for a second as he stopped to consider that. "I like the way you think." he said with a smirk. Looking at her for a second, he stole a long, hard kiss. "Bedroom's thataway, Miss." he said in his best Official Voice. "And you've been a very, very naughty girl."
Manuel sat in his room with all the windows open. The sun felt _glorious_, and he was luxuriating in something he felt all-too-rarely in his life.
He felt _good_.
The sun felt good, his mood was light and airy, and for once nothing was really wearing on him. He felt so good, in fact, that he decided that he absolutely _had_ to share.
Picking up his cellphone, he punched in a number long-since-memorized. "Amanda? Hey, it's me. If you've got some time today, come on up and see me, OK? Yeah, call me. Later." he said, then flipped the phone off. While he waited for her to return his call (or just show up) he put on a CD and grinned as the unholy mixture of styles blasted out from his speakers.
Meanwhile, down in the library, Amanda was handing her most recent English worksheet to Shan and collecting her books. Free at last, or at least for a few hours. Meggan was with Kurt, doing something-or-other, and as was her wont, she checked her phone for messages regarding her 'little sister'. Nothing from Kurt, but she did have a message from Manuel. A happy-sounding Manuel. Amanda checked the link, and yep, he was definitely happy. Infectiously so - impulsively, she decided to head to his room via the kitchen and the freezer, where she liberated a small tub of peach ice-cream. It was an ice-cream sort of day, and peach was Manuel's favourite.
Manuel opened his door extravagantly and struck an outrageous pose when he felt Amanda at his door. "Ahhh, senorita, you come bearing luscious frozen love for me?" he said, deliberately thickening his accent almost to a lispy caricature. "Today, we do the dance of _love_!" he said, wishing at that second for a rose he could clench between his teeth. "And then we shall eat ice cream."
Giggling, Amanda shook her head at him. Well, more at the music that was filling the hall. "What the hell are you listenin' to?" she asked, stretching up and planting a swift kiss on his mouth. "An' let me get this in yer fridge first, or it'll be luscious soup love for you."
"No, the love _must_ stay frozen!" he giggled. "And this is a little side-project that absolutely has tickled my fancy. My two favorite things combined! Some mad bastard has remixed Kraftwerk - you remember then, the pioneers of electronica? - to the music of my homeland, and what the bastards in the Americas have done to it. Come dance with me, share my passion!" he said, and as soon as the minifridge door closed he grabbed Amanda and twirled her into his arms, dipping her outrageously and stealing a kiss from her at the same time. "So tell me, my sexy senorita, do you dance?" he asked her teasingly, in his Smokingly Hot Bedroom Voice.
He'd apparently gone insane, but Amanda was enjoying it. Both of them had been so busy and stressed lately, a bit of silly fun was _perfect_. Laughing as he lifted her back upright, she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Gen'rally I'm better at the horizontal type of dancin', but for you? I'll try anythin'."
Manuel waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively. "Ahh, but why jump to the end when you can enjoy the journey?" he said, and began to dance with Amanda. He kept it simple, for her sake, but he'd always been an excellent dancer and he was in something of a madcap Mood. He kept the steps in time with the salsa-fied techno blaring from his speakers, and he made absolutely sure to hit all of Amanda's sensitive spots - the little things she liked, the looks and the light teasing touches. The attitude and the posture.
It was certainly different from the kind of dancing she was used to, and there was as much tickling and laughing as there was actual movement. Throwing dignity out of the window, Amanda relaxed into his mood, letting him take the lead - and sometimes her entire weight as he spun her around in the air. She hadn't laughed so much in ages, and rarely so much Manuel. It was probably a good thing John was off to wherever he'd taken to going most of the time, as their dance lead them around several circuits of Manuel's room, then out into the shared lounge area and around the couch.
Manuel laughed along with her - he had not felt this _free_ in ages, and letting all his cares and worries go just felt _good_. In his mind, he felt Charles poke his head in inquiringly, then withdraw with the mental equivalent of a smile. "Ahh, my darling, you dance _wonderfully_ for an English girl." he said with another belly-laugh. "God, it feels good in here today. Can't tell you why, but I think my brain decided that I need this."
"I'm glad it did," Amanda replied, squealing like a little girl as he picked her up bodily and swung them both around. "You've got a nice laugh - it needs airin' more often." Manuel kissed Amanda again, then gently placed her in front of the TV set. "Dancing is fun, but I think we need to rot our brains and watch some telly. Got a preference as to the flick?" he asked, walking back into his room for a moment.
"Um, somethin' good-moody?" Amanda suggested, flopping onto the couch a little breathlessly. Her ribs ached slightly from laughing, but in a good way. "Death an' mayhem an' explosions don't really fit with today. Maybe a comedy, if we can find somethin' we both find funny?" She was teasing him - their senses of humour were rather different, and she tended to gently mock his pie in the face ideas of what was funny.
Manuel hrmmed. "My blood is too hot. I was thinking of something romantic. A grand film - something epic. Passionate." he said with a laugh. "I want to see a love so profound it shook the pillars of Heaven. Sound good?"
Okay, romantic wasn't really her thing usually, but it was a nice afternoon for air conditioning, and she felt like being a normal girl for once. "Anythin' particular in mind?" she asked, half-turning so she could peer over the back of the couch at him. "Not 'Troy' - that was bloody awful."
Manuel rolled his eyes. "Please. Don't be ridiculous." he said. "My collection of films is still quite limited, and I want to stay in here. Hrm." he said, studying his meager DVD collection. "I keep hearing about this old movie that is supposed to be absolutely wonderful. Have you ever seen _Casablanca_?" he asked her curiously.
"Well you don't get much more epic in the romance department than the face that launched a thousand ships," Amanda replied, sticking her tongue out at him playfully. Then, surprisingly, she added: "Humphrey Bogart an' Lauren Bacall. Of all the bars in all the world, she had t' walk into his." At the surprise down the link, she snickered. "All that time spent recoverin' last year from this, that an' the other? I watched a lot of telly. Includin' the classic movie channel. Chuck it on - I like that one."
"Maybe not, but she was _ugly_." he said with a scrunched-up face. "And yeah, let's do that." He could feel her surprise and pleasure at the idea, and making her feel good naturally always lifted his mood. Not that it needed lifting, but he wanted to _savor_ this while it lasted. He brought the DVD and the ice-cream with _a_ spoon into the shared commons, then started the movie before snuggling up close to Amanda.
Like a cat, she sprawled herself across his lap, pouting a little at the one spoon. "No ice cream for me?" she asked, but with a certain twinkle in her eyes that implied she wasn't serious. "Haven't I been good enough?"
Manuel laughed, scooped out some ice-cream, and deposited it on the end of her nose. "Of course you get some ice-cream." he said with a wicked grin. "And you're always good - when you remember I'm here. I know, I know, you've got a lot on your plate, but I miss you sometimes." he said
Attempting to look at the blob of ice cream on her nose was making her cross-eyed. "I'm here now," she said, looking up at him with big soulful blue eyes. "An' my nose is gettin' cold."
Manuel leaned down and licked the ice-cream off her nose. "Why so you are!" he exclaimed with a grin, and then fed her a scoop of the peach ice-cream. "This is good. Buy this more often." he said absently as he took a bite for himself and savored the taste of the frozen dessert.
"I'll put it on the shoppin' list more often, you mean. The trick is t' get to it before some other blighter makes off with it." Amanda leaned in and stole another mouthful from literally under his nose. "Yum. It _is_ good," she said with a naughty grin.
"I can guarantee that. I think. Horrible punishments await those who would deny me this simple pleasure in my life." he said, absently groping Amanda with one hand while he held the ice cream with the other.
"I wonder if a ward on the freezer'd count as selfish uses for magic?" She wriggled as his fingers worked their way past the waistband of her jeans, tickling her back, and dipped a finger in the ice cream before smearing it across his lips. "Who needs a spoon when I've got you t' eat off?" she giggled, leaning in to lick the sticky sweetness off.
Manuel laughed as she licked the ice-cream off his lips. "Seems I'm not the only one in a good mood today." he said. "That's good." He turned absently to watch Bogie work his film magic - and not coincidentally providing Amanda with many more opportunities to use him as her own personal ice-cream scoop.
"It's contagious," she told him, reaching to grab the spoon from him. "An' any way, me make-up work's goin' well, I'll be goin' for me drivin' test next week, Strange is actually likin' some of the stuff me an' the boys have been doin', the sexiest boy in school is me boyfriend..." As she was talking, she was digging into the ice cream carton with the spoon. "'S a bit hard t' find an excuse t' be miserable lately. I'll have t' try harder." She lifted the spoon to his mouth so he could take a bite, and then managed to contrive to tilt the spoon so the rest dropped onto his chest, taking shameless advantage of his habit of wearing his shirts unbuttoned. "Oops," she said, not sorry at all.
"Good! I'm due to take my driving exam any day now. As soon as I can shake some time free - I've got to make up for some lost time so I can graduate and move on." he said. He casually leaned back as far as he could, to present as much of his peach-ice-cream-coated chest for her licking pleasure.
She didn't need encouragement, sticking the spoon back in the carton and leaning forward, pushing his shirt out of the way. "I could get used t' havin' ice cream like this," she said with a wicked grin, before running her tongue up his chest in a long, lazy stroke. She had a pretty good idea how this afternoon was going to finish up, but she wasn't in a hurry - she wanted to savour the whole being in a good mood thing. "Only, I think the little kids'd have a few tricky questions if we tried this at the dinner table."
"Probably." he said with a grin as she licked the ice-cream off his chest. The cold of the dessert and the heat of her tongue plus the very familiar lust boiling in both of them made for a very, very happy empath. "Just remember, turnabout is fair play." he murmured.
Amanda had no intention of letting him get away without doing his share, but again with the not being in a hurry. She took her time licking up the spilled ice cream before leaning forward to kiss him firmly on the mouth. By now they were both getting sticky. "But I like this shirt," she murmured. "Wouldn't want it t' get ice cream all over."
"Can't have that." he said, and slowly, achingly, unbuttoned the rest of the buttons to shrug out of the shirt playfully. He took a quick second to Look at her, to try to gauge what she'd like most right then. Smiling, he reached out and ran a fingertip along her earlobe before letting it trail down her neck. "I love you." he told her simply. "Being with you makes me feel complete. Whole. Like I'm not some kind of monster who's one slip away from making everyone his devoted slave." he told her. "You balance me, complete me, bring me back to the light."
She'd never get tired of hearing him say that. The shiver that went through her was more than physical, and she tilted her head and closed her eyes, savouring the light touch. The carton of ice cream managed to get set next to them on the couch safely before she opened her eyes again and moved forward, straddling his lap and winding her arms around his neck. "You say these amazin' things 'bout me sometimes," she said with a soft, almost wistful smile. "You make me feel... I dunno. Like this incredible person. An' it's just... I can't explain it. No-one's ever felt like this 'bout me before." Her smile turned a little impish. "Better watch out, I'll get a swelled head."
"Your head has quite a bit of room to grow before it will be swelled. Besides, isn't mine the swelled head around here?" he said with a grin, grinding himself upwards to emphasize his point. "I think I need more cuddle time." he said wistfully to the wytch in his lap. "Definitely. I've missed this."
"So have I," she said with a sigh, leaning her forehead against his and focussing on the feel of him underneath her, his hands on her hips, the link warm and wide-open and alight with what could only be described as warm fuzzies. "Not enough of me t' go 'round, sometimes. But I'll try harder - Meg's sleepin' better now, I should be able t' spend the night sometimes once I explain to her."
"Spending the night is fine, but sometimes I think we need to go _out_ more. Do fun things Out There, rather than stay locked up In Here," he said musingly, dabbing a smear of peach ice-cream on Amanda's earlobe and then taking his sweet time licking it off. "Not that I mind the sex at all..." he said with a leering smile.
"Goin' out? Just see me argue with tha..." Amanda began to say, but the rest of it was lost in an incoherent noise of pleasure. He _knew_ that was one of her spots. "Wstgfl."
"I'm sorry, what was that? I didn't quite catch that over the cooing of pleasure." he smirked. Hot Damn, he _loved_ doing that. And she was usually so obliging with being verbal. Warmed his heart.
Amanda poked her tongue out at him and took the ice cream back off him, dipping her finger in it and then putting her finger slowly in her mouth, sucking off the ice cream with deliberate care. And not a little innuendo, no, not at all. "I was just thinkin' of things we could do," she said with mock-innocence, sticking her finger in the ice cream again. "Stuff we haven't done yet..." With a slow, wicked smile she offered him the ice-cream coated finger. "Ice cream?"
Manuel laughed as she made such a production out of cleaning off her finger. Returning like for like, he cleaned the ice-cream off her finger with quick lapping gestures of his tongue before doing as she did to finish the job off right. "What sorts of things did you have in mind, love?" he asked innocently. "Something risque, something a little dangerous?"
She thrilled a little at the pet name - Manuel didn't use them out loud that much and it always turned her to putty when he did. Especially that one. Strange how the word they'd both been terrified off was now the personal favourite. "Isn't that usually what we do?" she teased, dabbing a blob of ice cream onto his nose. "If we really wanted t' do somethin' different, we'd have t' go the other way." Leaning in, she licked the ice cream off his nose, the movement not coincidentally causing her breasts to brush against his chest. She was wearing a halter top today, something she never would have considered even half a year ago, but the hot weather was overcoming any residual issues better than anything else. "Sounds borin', tho'."
Manuel grinned at Amanda. She was clearly In A Mood, and the residual silly had some them _both_ a world of good. "What, something secretive? I suppose we could, but that's not much fun..." he said musingly. "Do you have any fantasies left?" he whispered to her before sliding both his hands under her halter. "Anything that gets you hot, that makes you want to scream?"
"See, that's the problem with bein' all unrestrained an' the like," Amanda replied with a throaty chuckle, arching back as his hands slid upwards. "You run out of kinks - been there, done that, got the handcuffs an' the novelty vibrator an' the candlewax t' prove it. Face it, love, there's not a lot of fantasies we _haven't_ tried." A distinctly puckish expression crossed her face. "Unless we go really conservative an' you ask me t' marry you or somethin'. Now _that'd_ be dangerous." From anyone else it might have been considered fishing for a hint. But Amanda? She wasn't even remotely serious.
Manuel could tell that she wasn't, so he paid her comment as little mind as he was intended to pay it. "Wouldn't _that_ just be the scandal." he murmured. "Maybe we should, just to shock everyone." He mused. "It would be funny to watch Nathan swallow his own tongue."
"Poor bugger's got enough grey hairs, between the baby an' this business with his dad." Amanda considered the tub of ice cream, and then Manuel. "Y'know, we've got a set of handcuffs, an' there's this ice cream goin' all melty… You said somethin' 'bout turnabout bein' fair play?"
Manuel purred for a second as he stopped to consider that. "I like the way you think." he said with a smirk. Looking at her for a second, he stole a long, hard kiss. "Bedroom's thataway, Miss." he said in his best Official Voice. "And you've been a very, very naughty girl."
