The Search for Fireworks (ONGOING)

19 ~ Open cards

Tyler opened the door to his apartment and stood aside as Reilly stepped in. The party was still raving when they decided to leave and Reilly couldnt help ut feel that they were doing things backwards. First having almost sex, then attending a party and now they're alone. Everything was muddled in her head.

"So..." he said finally.

"So..." Reilly countered awkwardly.

"Would you like some tea?" Tyler asked as he readied two cus for tea before waiting for an answer.

"Two sugars with milk, please," Reilly answered as she sat on a chair by the small kitchen island.

"Can I be blunt?" Tyler asked almost rhetorically before continuing, "That was probably one of the best almost sex scenarios I've ever had the pleasure to partake in. You are so beautiful and that saucy little tongue of yours did things to me that will forever be etched in my memory. No, don't pull away," he said as he wrapped his arms around her,

"It was so intense and so controlled, when you got to my zip I thought I might loose control. That is why I stopped you, not because I didn't want you to. God knows it would have been exactly what I wanted, but then I was on top of you and you responded so.. so... sexily, if that's a word, to every move I made. So, I went for it, all in... And I struggled to listen to your eyes and your hands when your hips insisted on lifting up, responding to me so beautifully, but I did. And I'm not upset or angry. I'm as disappointed as any man would be, just talking about it is making me feel hot and bothered all over again, but my point was that I loved all of it and I'm not mad."

"Are you done?" Reilly laughed. Her mind set at ease by his rambling.

"Yeah," he laughed, "I am."

"That was refreshingly honest," Reilly said, "I like that there is no cat and mouse games around what happened between us, as that can be very frustrating to deal with."

"That sounds like experience talking," Tyler interjected quietly, "Recent experience?"

"Uhm," Reilly hesitated, "Yeah, like a couple of days ago, recent."

She winced when she felt Tyler stiffen around her before he asked, "How many days ago?"

"Four to seven," Reilly whispered and sat very still waiting for a responses.

"What does that even mean?"

"Seven days since I last saw him and four days since I last hung around moping after him."

"That makes your birthday the day after the moping?"

"Yes, technically."

"Technically?"

"Technically my birthday is next week."

"Okay, fine, but we met while you were on rebound from mystery guy, right?"

"I won't call it rebound," Reilly sighed at the sour turn this conversation took.

"I'm just trying to understand?"

"Okay..." in excruciating detail Reilly went on the explain everything that has happened to her from the moment she decided to run away.

"Wow," Tyler laughed, but you could hear a slight amount of ice in the words that came next, "Fireworks, hey?"

"That's the thing," Reilly said keeping her hold on Tyler as he started to move away from her, "I left the house looking for fireworks and found them."

"That's nice," he pulled away as the kettle sang, so Reilly let him go.

He poured their tea without saying another word and tension filled the air like a thick smog. He stirred the tea and placed her cup in front of her. Reilly tried her best to read his body language, searching his stature for every clue. There was none.

"Tyler," she started and fidgeted with the spoon in her cup.

"Please don't," he interjected and stroked her fidgeting hand, coaxing it off the spoon and into his palm, "You don't have to explain any more. I understand."

"What do you understand?" Reilly whispered, unsure if he really understood quite what she's feeling.

"Maybe we can be friends," Tyler responded and Reilly's heart clenched.

"I thought we were already friends?" She responded, deliberately misunderstanding the implication behind his words.

"Then we can stay friends," he responded with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. Reilly's heart sunk deeper into her shoes. She looked around the room as if she was looking for a way to avoid digging herself deeper into this stupid hole.

"Tyler, I like you," she eventually settled on and continued before he could add something stupid like: 'but only as friends" or something equally untrue, "I didn't tell you what I told you to push you away."

"Then what was the intention?"

"Honesty. That's what I was going for. Like, this is me. This is were I come from. This is why I'm slightly confused about things."

"By things..."

"I mean sex. Attraction. This thing between us that I'm not sure what to make of."

"I already said... there doesn't have to be anything-"

Reilly interrupted his words with a kiss. She heard enough. She ran out of words to explain. All she had left in her arsenal was action. It does speak louder than words. And her actions were doing plenty of speaking.

Tyler stood stunned as Reilly pulled him into her. She pulled his arms around her waist before wrapping her own arms around his neck. He woke up from the frizzon of shock that wrapped around him and he kissed her back.

A slow, familiar warmth engulfed the pair as they stood holding each other... drinking each other in one baited breath at a time.

Tyler's hands caressed her sides. Slowly, they made their way up her back, then down over her bottom. Reilly's fingers dug into his shoulders as she failed to surpress a moan. That simple gesture was enough for Tyler to dismiss any reservations that he could possibly have had left. He matched her energy with a groan of his own when Reilly nibbled and then sucked on his bottom lip. The pleasure rocked him off his feet and he stumbled back and knocked one of their tea cups off the counter with a stunning crash.

They pulled apart and surveyed the mess before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"He can keep the fireworks... I have earth-shattering..." he whispered as he stroked a string of hair out of Reilly's face.

"It's not a competition," Riley retorted.

"I know, Rye," he frowned and gestured to the pieces of cup on the floor, "it was a joke."

Reilly took a second to study the broken tea cup and splattered tea before she looked up into the silver eyes of the man next to her. Her lips still burned with the fire that ignited with their kiss. A fire so calm. Almost soothing. So different from the fireworks.

Reilly felt the confusion wrap around her again. Tyler sensed the change of her mood withour her having to say anything.

"I'll walk you home."

She didn't argue. Her brain was over analysing every touch. Every breath. Every pause. She simply followed Tyler out of his apartment to Tianna's next door without a word.

"Here," he said when they stopped by the door, placing a helmet in her hands. She must have looked even more confused so he added, "When I come fetch you tomorrow night, you have one."

"Oh," she responded. He laughed then kissed her on her forehead before he turned on his heel and dissappeared back into his apartment.