Sail Away  by  Agnes Joseph

Author's note : Just a slow, hot day on board True Love
PWP - NC-17
Because I'm sick of American television portraying all women as either Madonna's or Jezebels, either sluts or virgins. Look, Morons That Be, if I'd had something as hot as Pacey Witter as my boyfriend when I was seventeen, it wouldn't have taken nine months, comprende?

This was just going to be a smut story, but then they started talking. Geez!
 
 
 
 

Two hours ago he'd told her to go down below, to have a little nap while he took care of the important stuff. In true Potter fashion she'd raised a mocking eyebrow at him, her eyes crinkling along with her crooked smile.

"Are you trying to tell me I look worse for wear, Pacey?"

As a sigh escaped him he'd shaken his head in mock exasperation, squinting against the bright sun as he gazed up at her. "Jo, if you want to stay up here and fry to a crisp, be my guest. I just thought I'd do the attentive boyfriend thing and suffer selflessly while you retire to the blissful coolness of the lower deck, but hey, if you insist on bringing this puppy into harbour while I take a nap, I got no problem with it."

He hadn't failed to noticed her face light up as the word 'boyfriend' passed his lips and it had only turned his own smile even wider. His left hand had clutched the rudder tighter as his eyes had travelled along those long legs encased in the skimpiest jeans shorts, across her upper body only covered by a rectangular piece of cloth that miraculously stayed in place by two strings tied across her naked back, to finally settle on the sparkling brown eyes above the lopsided smile and he'd felt the groan escape from deep within him. It just wasn't fair that she could affect him so much, just standing there before him, doing nothing more spectacular than breathing and smiling.

A pensive look on her face, she'd finally shaken her head. "No. Though you're an excellent sailing instructor, I don't feel quite confident enough to sail her by myself yet."

Pacey'd nodded, the same feigned seriousness in his own expression. "And as much as I have confidence in your newfound sailing techniques, I'm not quite prepared to leave my baby in your hands unsupervised."

Even though she'd nodded in agreement, that of course hadn't been the end of it. Finally, after another fifteen minutes of banter and arguing she'd agreed to take his advice. After all, he only had her best interest in mind. The sun was beating down mercilessly and if it hadn't been for the fact that they were only a few more hours away from The Keys he would have joined her in a quick nap, as sleeping was the only sensible thing to do in this heat. But who knew how long this soft breeze was going to last? He needed to take full advantage of the little wind he was given, before they were forced to bob around aimlessly. Especially in this heat that was not an option.

Fortunately the wind had even picked up a little and now, hardly two hours later, he'd brought both his True Loves into harbour. After securing the boat to the dock, he crept down the stairs below deck, careful not to startle her. As he opened the latch and peeked inside, his feet suddenly stopped moving. Rooted to the spot his mouth opened and his heart stopped beating.

There she lay in the bottom hammock softly swaying with the motion of the tiny sailboat. One foot was dangling out of the hammock, her long leg arranged along the edge gracefully. But that wasn't the sight that made his mouth go dry and his breath catch in his throat. Somewhere along the line the heat had made her chuck her top and shorts, as she was lying in the hammock wearing nothing but her panties.

Gazing at her only one thought made it into his suddenly fogged up brain. She was gloriously beautiful. Unselfconscious in her sleep, she exuded a vulnerable sensuality that she would never have had awake. Awake she would be too busy hiding her insecurities about her nakedness by spewing venomous diatribes at him for leering at her so openly. But then of course her propensity to argue loudly and hotly with him about every subject under the sun was what he liked most about her. Still, as he watched her sleeping, her chest softly rising and falling with each breath, he had to admit that there was something serene about a quiet Joey Potter.

A slow smile appeared as he remembered the first time he'd done that, just sat up all night watching her sleep, that night when he'd discovered to his own horror just how far he'd fallen for her. The smile slowly faded, when he watched her move in her sleep. He didn't want her to wake up and find him here slobbering all over her. Even if she was naked perfection, with her long tanned legs and her perfect round breasts...

He shook himself hard before that thought could continue. He could already feel himself growing hard just watching her, and suddenly he felt gripped with a shame and guilt that threatened to suffocate him. There was no reason to feel this way, there was absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to sleep with the woman he was in love with. Then why did he suddenly feel like pond scum?

But then you're only interested in women you can save or screw, right Pace? As Dawson's voice filled his mind, he remembered. He'd swallowed a hell of a lot of self-righteous crap from his so-called best friend, but those words were the ones that had sealed their friendship forever. What was so great about being a seventeen-year-old virgin anyway? Not that Pacey thought there was anything wrong about it either, but Dawson Leery brandished his virginity around like a weapon.

Pacey had often wondered, after Joey broke up with him in order to save her friendship with Dawson, how much Dawson had filled her head with stories about him. Did she, just like Dawson, believe that he only wanted girls, only wanted her for sex? Did she too believe that it was a bad thing for a seventeen-year-old to be sexually attracted to the opposite sex? Would she go running back to Dawson in a panic, listening with a bowed head to his self-righteous "told you so" speech if he so much as dared to touch her inappropriately?

In that instant he hated Dawson with a passion he'd never known possible; for treating this gorgeous, wonderful woman the way he had all his life; for sticking her with a low self-esteem and insecurities about her looks that no one this beautiful should ever have to feel, but most importantly for making her believe that she was so unlovable that only the charitable Dawson Leery could love her for herself and not just as a sex-object.

A soft sound startled him out of his reverie and he looked up to find a sight that almost stopped his heart. Still in the throes of sleep, she was moving her hand along her stomach, right up to her breast, to leave it softly resting on top of her nipple. Pacey had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from making a sound and still he couldn't keep the soft groan inside. He knew he shouldn't be watching her like this, but he couldn't seem to tear himself away, his feet rooted to the floor and his eyes glued to the beauty before him.

And still it wasn't the end of his torture. As his eyes were still devouring her in awe, her hand moved back and she cupped her own breast for just a split second before she slowly caressed it around her now hard nipple. This was too much. He couldn't keep his reaction inside to save his life.

"God, Jo."

The instant the growl escaped his mouth, he cursed himself. It had obviously awoken her, as she moaned and started to stir. The sound finally unglued Pacey's feet from the floor and as he scurried for the stairs he vowed one thing. He was going to keep his hands off her if it killed him. The last thing he wanted was to prove Dawson Leery right, that he was nothing but a walking, talking penis.
 
 

She knew he was there the moment his eyes settled on her. The immediate impulse to grab something to cover herself suddenly vanished as she heard his sharp intake of breath and it sent a shiver of arousal down her spine. She knew how she affected him and she'd grown to love this newly found power, something she'd never known, something she'd never have believed could give her so much pleasure. Once she'd asked Dawson if he thought she was sexual. She never needed to ask Pacey that question. Just looking in his eyes she could tell how much he wanted her, their blue depths utterly incapable of hiding how much he had to restrain himself from grabbing her and kissing her and loving her every time he so much as looked at her.

Just the knowledge that he was devouring every inch of her body with his eyes made her own heartbeat accelerate, that by now familiar ache centring between her thighs. Keeping her eyes closed, she decided to have a bit of fun with him. Pretending she was still asleep, she lifted the hand which had been resting on her stomach and slowly trailed it up her body, in a featherlight caress upwards until it rested on the tip of her breast. The groan he emitted turned the nipple below her touch into instant hardness.

The groans, those did it to her every time. Not before Pacey had she ever had anyone moan into her kisses. Knowing that just her lips on his, her tongue caressing his, could do that to him, had often made her wonder just what reaction anything further would elicit. The hot summer day's languidness made her bold enough to try and find out. Just out of curiosity at how far she could take this game, she slid her hand back down until it cupped her breast, leaving it there for a moment before she moved it back with torturous slowness to caress her hard nipple. The agonized growl rumbling from deep within him sent more shivers of excitement coursing along her spine.

"God, Jo."

It took all her self control to keep a straight face at the husky whisper, at the effort with which he tried to keep quiet and failed miserably. Pretending the sound had woken her up, she allowed a soft moan to escape her lips. Elaborately stirring and stretching lazily, she couldn't keep the smile off her face as she heard him scramble back up the stairs.

A moment later he returned, making as much noise as he could by stomping below deck. Long before he was down the steps and in the cabin, he announced his arrival loudly, giving her plenty of time to quickly grab something to cover herself up.

"We're here, Potter."

Here. The smile froze on her face at the word. Their end destination, the Florida Keys. Somehow it suddenly turned her incredibly sad. There was only one way to go from here, back home.

As he entered the small cabin, she again caught the sharp intake of breath as his eyes settled on her nakedness once more, yet he wasn't the only surprised one. To her own surprise she didn't grab the out he'd given her, but instead daringly remained just as she was. Anxious to discover his reaction and turned on beyond belief, she slowly opened her eyes, fixing them on the young man standing just inside the cabin. His eyes were averted, but in the weeks they'd been sailing the East coast together in his sailboat she had learned to read him effortlessly. What she could see of his face revealed how astonished he was that she hadn't rushed like mad to cover herself up, his body language confirming her suspicion that this was the last thing he'd thought to find.

Just briefly she too wondered why she was acting so out of character, why she didn't feel awkward or shy at his obvious discomfort, but the thrill of power she knew she had over him soon overrode any other thought. This and the strange sense of loss that was sweeping through her, knowing that they'd reached their destination, that soon they'd be heading back home, where they'd be forced to step out of their happy bubble, where they'd be forced to deal with Dawson and Andie and the rest of the gang, drove her to hold on to this moment, to mark its significance with a special celebration.

"Pacey?" she whispered at his reluctance to look at her, hardly recognizing her own voice.

The unexpected sound startled him and out of reflex, she suspected, his eyes flew in her direction, to immediately snap back anywhere else. But even in that briefest moment that his eyes had locked with hers, the raw desire in them shot straight through her like an arrow, making the ache in her body intensify tenfold, an answer to a question that had formed inside her mind but which she had until now refused to ask.

Not anymore. She knew she wanted something from him and she finally knew what it was. A slow smile spread across her face at the knowledge.

"Pace?"

He didn't look up this time, just started answering her in a whisper, his feet already moving towards the steps, "I'll wait for you on de...", but she didn't allow him to finish.

"Look at me."

He froze, halting in his tracks. Joey held her breath as, almost in slow motion, he turned around, his eyes finally settling on her full naked form. First they locked onto her eyes, as if he was afraid to look anywhere else, worried that this was a trick and she would scold him if his eyes dared to wander. The look in her eyes must have told him the truth. His grew wide in wonder and disbelief, the fierce darkness of arousal in them shaking Joey to the core, making her shiver in excitement.

It seemed like an eternity that he stood there, just looking into her eyes, until finally he took a deep steadying breath, swallowed hard and allowed his eyes to stray. The tingling of her body multiplied as his eyes swept across her shape, the look in them so intense that she could feel it across her skin like a caress. He put one foot in front of the other in her direction, but stopped himself immediately. The grin across her face spread even wider. Despite his experience and his blustering bravado, he was just a seventeen-year-old, just like she was. Why did she just realize that? She'd been so wrapped up in her own insecurities that she'd completely failed to notice his.

If encouragement was what he needed, to know that she wasn't playing with him, that she was sure about this, she would give it to him. "Come here," she whispered, not even sure herself how far she wanted to take this. Further than she'd taken it before, of that she was certain. As if in a trance he walked closer, until he stood right next to her hammock, but still he didn't move to touch her. Almost growling with impatience she finally reached out to him, snaking her hand around his neck and pulling him towards her for a kiss.

That finally seemed to snap him out of his daze and his arms wrapping around her naked back he pulled her tightly to him, as his tongue immediately swept into the warm cavern of her mouth to devour her completely. It made her lightheaded, the sensation of her hard nipples scratching against the fabric of his tacky Hawaiian shirt fuelling the fire even further. Her hands clutching into his thick mop of hair, her tongue in combat with his for the upper hand, she tried to sit up, to get even closer to him, to get a better hold on him.

The hammock swayed dangerously and tipped over. Fortunately his arms around her prevented her from falling out of the hammock. Unfortunately he snatched at her so quickly and so desperately that he lost his balance and the both of them went tumbling to the floor. Landing on his back, he took her full weight on top of him and he yelped as his head hit the wood hard.
 
 

"Fuck," he exclaimed in pain, before he could stop himself. Realizing it a little too late, his eyes grew wide in horror, but a grin slowly reappeared when he saw the expression on the face hovering above his and the pain instantly forgotten, he felt an overwhelming need to pinch himself.

This couldn't be happening. There was just no way on earth that he could be lying here on the hard wooden floor of True Love with a, for all intents and purposes, naked Joey Potter on top of him. A naked Joey Potter who wasn't hitting him or screaming at him for finding herself in this position, but who had initiated the whole encounter and was now staring down at him with such an intense wildness in her big brown eyes that it took his very breath away. A naked Joey Potter who was lowering her head towards his and slowly, torturously so, was licking his lower lip.

There goes your Ice Queen reputation, Potter, flitted through his brain before all other thought became impossible. Her fingers were entwining themselves in his hair as she pressed herself closer. He gasped at the feeling of her hard nipples through his shirt and she took advantage of that moment to stick her tongue in his mouth. If he'd ever entertained the thought of practising some kind of restraint it had now completely vanished from his brain. One hand snaking in her long soft hair, the other pressed her to him in the small of her back.

He'd been hard the moment he came into the cabin and found her naked, but now he felt about ready to burst out of his shorts. As they continued to rake their tongues together and kiss each other with a growing passion, she'd planted her knees on either side of him, her hot center pressed against his cock. As if that wasn't bad enough, she kept pressing herself into his hardness urgently. God, did she know what she was doing? Did she know what she was doing to him?

He knew though. He knew what she needed, what she wanted. Even if she couldn't put it into words, or even into thought herself, her body was doing all the talking. Moving his hand across her back and feeling her body shiver under the caress, he cradled the back of her head tenderly, before he started to flip her over, careful not to let her head bounce against the floor the way his had. He was even more surprised that she allowed him to settle on top of her, gazing up at him with nothing but complete trust and just maybe a smidgen of insecurity in her eyes.

"Do you....?" He cleared his throat and tried again when it came out as a croak. "Do you want me to get something to put on the floor?"

"I'm lying on the floor?" she asked breathlessly and he noticed, mischievously. He couldn't help chuckling at her words. That's how it always was between the two of them. The moment they touched each other the world around them disappeared. Even way back, when they first got together, during their first make out sessions, they'd be too wrapped up in each other to notice anybody else. He forgot he owned a boat. She didn't even notice she was lying on a hard wooden floor.

As a slow smile appeared on her face, the crooked one that always went straight to his heart, she told him to stop worrying about her comfort and start kissing her, by tugging his head down and his mouth onto hers again. They moaned into each other's mouths as his hand started to snake lower and finally cupped her breast. She fit perfectly, like they were made for each other. Her mouth left his and her head fell back with a moan, as he caressed his thumb across her hard nipple, so he took the opportunity to trail his mouth down her cheek and into her neck. Lower still until he found his head resting on one breast while gazing in wonder at the dark and hard bud rising defiantly from the soft pink flesh of the other.

"God, Joey, you're so beautiful," he couldn't help mutter with reverence.

She whimpered slightly and swallowed hard before she replied. "You make me feel beautiful."

Something inside cheered in victory at those words. That was what he wanted to give her right here, right now, to show her just how beautiful, how sexy, how wonderful she was. He raised up just slightly to look at her face, but when he didn't find any doubt there at all, he lowered his head and slowly started circling his tongue around her nipple. Her whimpers turned into moans and sliding a hand behind her back he pushed her up and right into his mouth.

"Pacey," she begged, flinging her head back, her hands gripping his hair and clutching him to her as he sucked her breast. Her hips were bucking into him, again asking the question that her lips couldn't. But when he slipped his thumb underneath the soaked crotch of her panties and barely touched her swollen clit, she cried out loudly. Her head snapped up and he gazed up at her, her wide eyes for the first time showing something resembling fear and doubt.

Without hesitation he immediately pulled his thumb back. His hand slid up across her side in a calming gesture, while he bent down to kiss her. "It's okay, sweetheart," he finally mumbled into her mouth. "I won't do anything you don't want me to."
 
 

She knew that. It wasn't him she was doubting, it wasn't him she wasn't trusting. It was herself. She didn't know what she had expected, but she hadn't expected to feel so out of control. It wasn't like she had never touched herself, but the sensations she was able to coax out herself hadn't prepared her for the shock of intense pleasure coursing through her entire being when Pacey had just barely touched her. She was still gasping into Pacey's kiss, still trying to regain her breath that had been knocked out of her with just one flick of a thumb.

It finally registered in her scrambled mind that although he was still kissing her, his caresses had slowed down. His hands were still stroking her sides, but were now even avoiding her breasts completely. Realizing that he feared he'd gone too fast, she gently slid her hands down from his hair to cup his face and pulled him away from her so she could look in his eyes.

"Pace," she whispered, willing every ounce of courage and sincerity into her eyes, "I want you to."

His eyes widened slightly, turning dark blue with desire as he swallowed hard. To put emphasis on her words, her hands lowered and started unbuttoning his shirt. It was a little ridiculous that she was naked and he was still fully clothed. One hand grabbed her wrist to halt her, bringing her eyes back from the task of unbuttoning his shirt to looking into his eyes.

"What more do I have to do to convince you that I'm ready?" She didn't even try to keep the exasperation she was starting to feel out of her voice.

He smiled at her sweetly. "What if I'm not?"

Suddenly all her insecurities slammed into her full force. Suddenly she was that too tall, gangly, figure like a boy fifteen-year-old again, who nobody in their mind would find attractive.

"Don't you want me?" she asked, her voice as small as she felt.

He closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath, before he opened them and looked at her. The intensity in his baby blues shook her to the core, chasing away any insecurity she might ever have felt.

"Trust me, Potter," he finally spoke, his voice a deep rumbling sound, "that's not a flashlight in my pocket."

It was just like Pacey to say something like that, to lighten the mood, to alleviate her fears that she didn't know whether to kiss him or smack him. She settled on the former, pulling him towards her. As they indulged in a slow, unhurried kiss, he slowly started to roll them over again, so he was on his back and taking his weight off of her. When she lifted her head to look down at him, he pinned her with a hard stare. It looked like he was hesitating whether or not to tell her something. Reaching a decision, he inhaled deeply and launched into an explanation.

"I slept with Andie way too soon, before either of us was ready for it." He averted his eyes, unable to keep looking her in the eye. "I wasn't in love with her," he finally admitted and Joey felt like kicking herself.

Once again she'd been so busy focussing on her own insecurities that she'd completely ignored his. Her fear was that she would always be that too tall girl from the wrong side of the creek. His was that he would forever be the boy who'd brought scandal on the town by having an affair with his teacher. His admission that he hadn't been in love with Andie when he'd first slept with her wasn't as big a surprise to her as he might have thought. Thanks to Abby Morgan the whole school had known when Pacey and Andie had started sleeping together. But there wasn't a single doubt in Joey's mind that he had loved her in the end. She had been the one to pick up the shattered pieces of him when they broke up.

"Pacey," she started, but before she could add 'none of that matters now', he interrupted her, finally looking her in the eye and stopping all thought at the love and intensity she could read there.

"Jo, I'm so in love with you I can't see straight. I'll never forgive myself if I screw this up."

She didn't doubt his words for a second, the love he had for her could be read in his eyes twenty four seven. Racking her brain for an appropriate response, to alleviate his fears, to assure him that he wasn't going to screw this up, that she wouldn't allow him, she realized it was her turn to lighten the mood and she started giggling softly. For a moment he almost looked offended that this was her reaction to his heartfelt confession, but then a slow grin started to spread across his own face.

"What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking about the guy with the brown hair and the throbbing neck muscles."

"Jo," he groaned with embarrassment, trying to hide by pulling her towards him and burying his face in her neck.

Still giggling, she touched the back of his neck tenderly. "Just promise me one thing, Pace."

"Anything." His voice came out muffled, as he kissed up her neck, before nibbling on her earlobe.

"Promise me that my first time won't be captured on film."
 
 

Pulling away from her earlobe he gazed at her in surprise. Did she just tell him that she definitely expected him to be her first? If not now, someday? Judging from the beaming expression he found on her face, she'd just told him someday soon.

"I promise," he whispered before he pulled her towards him and kissed her hard. Within seconds they were back where they'd left off, kissing with ever growing urgency. Only the two of them, it flitted through the part of Pacey's brain that could still think. Only the two of them would get turned on by banter.

She looked at him with a puzzled frown when he carefully rolled her on her back again and moved away a little to take off his shirt. Rolling it into a ball, he gently lifted her head and put his shirt underneath it as a pillow. She was still giving him that confused look.

"Pacey, I don't under..."

He silenced her by putting a finger to her lips. "I just want to make you feel good, Jo. Will you let me?"

The way she swallowed was enough indication at how nervous she still was, but there was so much trust in her big brown eyes that it made him feel humble, and very grateful to have this wonderful woman's love. He watched in fascination as she reached out a hand and softly placed in on his now naked chest, right over his heart.

"You always make me feel good, Pacey." Her soft words were spoken shyly, as her eyes followed her hand, which had now started running random patterns down his chest with wonder. When it started sliding a little too low, he halted her again by grabbing her wrist. He'd vowed that this was not going to be about him, but that vow would immediately be forgotten if he allowed her to follow that path.

Lifting her hand to his mouth, he pressed a gentle kiss to the palm, before he bent down and kissed her. The hand he'd been holding slid automatically across his shoulders and into his hair, her other hand digging into his naked back. As he rolled on top of her, her legs immediately fell open to accommodate him and feeling her hot core through his pants he remembered why it was a good idea to keep them on. At this moment he'd give his soul to be buried deep inside her. But not now, not yet.

His mouth soon started to trail down her chest and as he sucked her entire breast into his mouth, she moaned his name, the sound seeming to come from deep inside her, her hands still entwined in his hair. He took his time, lavishing all the attention she needed on one breast, then on the other, before his tongue trailed a path from the valley between her breasts right down to the hem of her panties. Running his tongue all along one side of her belly to the other, just at that edge where her panties hid her most intimate secrets, he smiled in satisfaction at her loud gasp, her hands pulling at his hair.

Her panties were completely soaked and hooking his thumbs on either side, he pulled them down and off her long legs, already overcome by her heady, intoxicating scent. Turning back and gazing down at her beauty, the magnitude suddenly came crushing down all around him and overwhelmed, he rested his head on her mount just for moment, savouring the feeling of the coarse hair against his cheek, breathing in her essence. He took one last breath and gazed up at her. Her head was flung back against his shirt and her chest was rising rapidly in shallow breaths. Her legs were already twitching in anticipation of what was to follow.

She'd waited long enough and he wasn't going to make her wait any longer. Lifting up one leg he started kissing down her inner thigh from her knee right up to the center. As he reached the spot where the two met, she cried out and he grinned against her skin.

Hold on, Potter, we've only just started, he thought as he hooked her leg across his shoulder and turned to the other.
 
 

Oh god, what was he doing to her? He'd barely touched her and she was already jumping out of her skin. What would happen when he finally...?

"Fuck!" The word was torn out of her at the mere touch of his thumb across her clit and the sharp pleasure ricocheted through her entire system.

As his hands grabbed her behind to lift her towards him, she heard him chuckle. "Virgins. Too easy."

"Paaayccee!" she gritted out, knowing full well that he was just kidding, but the sound turned into a gasp of wonder as she felt him part her lips with his thumbs and the next moment his tongue just barely flicked across her aching clit. If she'd been able to think clear she would have thanked Pacey for putting his shirt underneath her head, because it snapped back violently, her breath stalling in her throat. Her hips shot up at the sensation and from what appeared like a far distance she could hear him shushing her.

She tried to calm down, but as soon as the sensation started to ebb away and she could breathe again, he sucked her entire clit into his mouth and started sucking. Forgetting all about restraint, she screamed his name with abandon. He kept sucking her and flicking his tongue against the sensitive nub and just when she thought she couldn't take anymore he thrust his tongue inside her vagina.

"Oh god," she screamed as she thrust her pelvis into his face. "Oh god, Pacey! Pacey!" Her hips were moving in synch with his thrusts into her, or maybe it was the other way around, but he only let up to return to her clit and suck it into his mouth again. He was relentless, building up the sensation, higher and higher until she could only pant desperately, until she couldn't even remember where she was, what she was doing. She wanted to beg him to stop, she couldn't take any more of this torture, this pleasure. All she could feel was the pounding of her blood through her veins, the thunderous roaring in her ears and the harsh sound of her own panting. If he didn't stop soon her head was going to explode or she was just going to suffocate because she'd forgotten how to breathe. Her fingers were tugging at his hair so violently that if she'd been able to think clearly she would have known that she was hurting him, but she was too busy focussing on remembering how to breathe. She'd lost the ability to form words long ago, now just concentrating on breathing. One... two... three....one pant after another, every flick of his tongue sending her higher and higher and ... Then she felt something burst and little sparkles exploded all across her skin.

A warm glow spread along her entire body and she blissfully let herself float off on the sudden cloud that had miraculously appeared to carry her to higher atmospheres. When she finally came down she found herself with her head pressed into his shirt and her mouth hanging open unattractively as the ragged breaths still shook her body. Looking down, she found his head resting on her pelvic bone, his blue eyes gazing up at her with such adoration that it took her breath away all over again.

"Come here," she whispered, desperate to feel his mouth on hers, desperate to show him how much she loved him. That lazy grin on his face that always got to her in the worst possible way, he slowly slid across her body. Sweat was pooling between her breasts and he lapped it up with his tongue on his way up. The moment he was close enough, she grabbed his head and yanked him towards her, her mouth crushing his in a hard kiss.

So that's what I taste like? she wondered briefly, noticing a different taste in his mouth, thrusting her tongue in deeper to catch more of it and he chuckled at her hungry enthusiasm. Letting him up for air, her hands still holding his head, she started cleaning her juices off his face with her tongue and lips, and he closed his eyes at the sensation.

"Are you?" she finally asked softly, unable to form the words, but he immediately shut her up with another loving kiss.

"I told you, Jo, this is not about me."

Rolling onto his back, he pulled her with him and she put her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her. She knew what this was about and this time she was going to address it.

"You're not, you know," she whispered into his shoulder. Not moving her head from its resting place, she lifted her eyes to find him frowning at her in confusion.

"I'm not what?"

"That person Dawson thinks you are."

She saw him suck in a breath in shocked surprise, but then he shook his head in denial. "This has nothing to do with Da..." His voice trailed off as he noticed the determined look in her eyes, the one that told him that she wasn't taking any bullshit. Averting his eyes, he whispered, "How did you know?"

Her own voice came as a whisper when she replied. "Because he told me the same thing."

His eyes shot back towards her, wide and dark with uncontrollable fury. "What?" he snapped.

Now it was her turn to avert her eyes, not wanting to see the anger rise in those blue eyes as she spoke her next words. "He asked me if I just wanted to sleep with you, if that was the reason I was with you."

"That motherfu...," he started, but he managed to restrain himself before the word completely left his mouth. When she still didn't look at him, too busy trying to collect her thoughts and make what she was about to say completely clear, he sighed. "I'm sorry, Jo. It's just sometimes he makes me so mad."

Realizing that he'd completely misinterpreted her silence, she rose up on one elbow and with her hand under his chin turned him to face her. "That's when I knew, Pacey. If he can be that wrong about me, somebody he claims to know so well that he calls her his soulmate," she flinched at his reaction to that word, but continued nevertheless, "then how wrong did he have to be about you?" His eyes were practically begging her to tell him how wrong Dawson was about him and it broke her heart. How could she tell him? How could she make him understand the reasons she was here on his boat, sailing the East coast with him and not back in Capeside with Dawson?

Then a slow smile spread across her face. As she noticed his puzzled look, she simply leaned over and kissed him. Kissed him until she was running out of breath, until one of his hands started to entwine in her hair and the other lazily ran down her back, until she could feel the ache he'd just satiated start to build up again. Both out of breath, she finally whispered against his mouth. "I love you, Pacey."

A sob tore through him at her words and he clutched her to him, kissing her forehead as she rested her head on his chest. "I love you, Joey. God, how I love you."