Wonderland

At the time, she didn't understand. But when she crossed over to his body to wake him and he didn't, she knew he had left her. He was gone. There would be no more stories.

*****

Hearing the door open brought her back to the present. She looked up into Dan's eyes and she just wished he would hug her. How needy does that make me? she thought. He stood in the doorway he had changed his outfit and his clothes were still damp, sticking to his skin, suggesting he hadn't dried himself properly.

"You okay?" he asked, taking in her pale skin and the sad look in her eyes. Did I do that to her when I left? Did she think I'd abandoned her, he thought, feeling like the dick she had called him. Nah, she was fine when I left. Then why...

"I'm fine, just tired."

He ran his hand through his damp hair, moving from the doorway to sit on the bed with her., he lifted her hand that lay limp on the bed. He lifted his other hand and tipped her chin up so her eyes were level with his. "You sure you're okay?" he asked again.

"I'm fine, Dan. I just need to sleep," she snapped at him, then felt terrible. "I'm sorry," she said quietly and squeezed his hand in reasurance.

"I'll keep waking you up to make sure you're okay. Night, Alice," he said standing up. He couldn't resist kissing her on the forehead. He smelled her hair. Coconuts, he thought. He slid his hands through her hair and kissed her, nipping her lips, with bite type kisses he shaped her face with his hands. It was a short kiss, but enough to make breathing difficult and a part of his anatomy hard. He quickly slid his hands away, turned, and walked out, closing the door behind him.

"'Night, Dan," she said softly when the door had closed. She got up turned off the light and crawled into bed.

*****

Dan was tidying the kitchen and living room while Alice slept, trying to get his mind off the kiss... well, kisses. We didn't even use tongues, he thought, frustrated. The phone was ringing when he came in from taking the rubbish out. He walked into the living room and snatched the receiver up.

"Hello... Alison? Oh, you mean Alice. She's sleeping, can I take a message?" he asked, listening to the woman on the phone.

"Her fiancé... Sure, I'll tell her. Okay, bye," he said.

Fiancé. She's engaged, he thought as he put down the phone. Well she's beautiful, feisty; why wouldn't she be engaged? But then why would she come home with me, and what was her fiancé like? he wondered.

The woman on the phone had asked him to remind Alice -- no, Alison -- that her fiancé had booked a restaurant for tomorrow night at eight. She didn't act like an engaged woman, he thought. Not that he really knew how engaged women should act, he realized.

"Well, they're not supposed to stay with strangers or call them heroes or kiss them," he grumbled to himself. He tried to think about it rationally. Why was she here? She had said it was because no-one could look after her at home. But if she was engaged, then what the f... His thoughts were getting him nowhere, so he went upstairs to ask Alice herself. He had to wake her up anyway, he rationalized.

*****

When he knocked on the door she called for him to enter. He didn't realise how enchanting she would look in his clothes. The blue of his t-shirt brought out her eyes which still seemed to sparkle. She was sitting cross legged on the bed, plucking away at the shirt causing it to rise show a slit of skin.

"Hey," she said, smiling up at him, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears, her lips still plump and swollen from there previous kisses. His reason for needing to stay away from her and the reason he came to talk to her disappeared, and in five steps he had her in his arms.