Completed in May, 2000

They woke before the sun, determined to steal the morning together.

It took him such a short amount of time to get ready and drive to her house that he was surprised to find her outside waiting for him. She took his breath away. Dawn barely reached her where she sat on the front steps, knees drawn in to her chest. When he arrived her face was hidden behind a curtain of dark hair, but when she looked up at him, the light in her eyes and the smile on her lips stunned him. He was so in love with her.

She seemed to walk toward him in slow motion, everything about her hitting him full force and sinking deeply inside of him. He couldn't wait for her to reach him. The truck door creaked loudly as he opened it and stepped out, not bothering to shut it behind him. By now she was so close he could reach out and touch her, but he moved just a little closer instead.

"I've missed you," he told her, reaching up to toy with a piece of her long hair. He threaded it through his fingers, resisting the urge to pull her toward him.

"Pacey," she drew out his name. "You just saw me six hours ago. It might not have even been that long."

"I don't care, Jo." He moved closer to her, stepping into her space but still not embracing her.

"Me, either," she answered, resting her forehead against the solid plane of his chest. She sighed and his arms went around her, holding on just tight enough that she knew how much he was holding back.

They stood that way until the sun crept up and rested above the trees.

"We should get going," he said, rubbing his cheek against the crown of her head.

She looked up at him and nodded, but didn't make a move to leave the circle of his arms. Raising on her toes she placed a soft kiss on his lips, no more than a whisper, really. His heart jumped into his throat at the perfectness of that one simple caress.

"Let's go then," she told him, stepping away and sliding behind the truck door, scooting over only enough to allow him inside. He closed his eyes and released a shuddering breath before turning to follow her.

*-*-*-*

She leaned against the railing at the dock, watching him wipe away the dew that had settled on True Love overnight. He had never looked so proud of anything before this. Just as he had never looked so content before them. She only wished it could last.

Joey pushed aside the encroaching doubts and stepped up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her cheek up against his back. The damp cloth thudded to the deck of the boat as he dropped it, covering her hands with his own and shifting back against her.

"She's so beautiful, Pacey." Her voice hummed against him. "I remember when you found her, so beaten by the storm. You've brought her back to life."

He wanted her to continue, wanted her to see how easy the comparisons worked for her own life. He knew he had in some small way saved her, just as she had him. But she didn't continue and he was left wondering if she even saw it.

"This whole christening thing makes me nervous. What in the hell am I supposed to say?" He looked down at his watch, noting with pleasure that they still had two hours before everyone else was set to arrive.

"No one can deny the amount of work and love you put into this. It won't matter what you say." She was still tight against his back, her breath warm through the fabric of his shirt, and her thumbs were rubbing circles on his wrists.

"No matter what I say, it can't be the truth Josephine. No one coming here today is ready to hear that you inspired me to do this. Whether it was the frustration of waiting for you or the intense desire to prove something to you, this happened because of you."

Her fingers stopped their rhythm and she attempted to pull away, but he held her tight, turning to face her. He could see the fear in her eyes, knew that he made her nervous with every heartfelt declaration. But he couldn't stop making them, because all the words had been building inside of him and he never thought she'd be around to hear them.

"You named her long before we�" Joey bit her lip and looked up at him through her long eyelashes. She couldn't possibly know how that mesmerized him.

"That's funny," he told her. "I really can't remember a time before we�"

"Stop it, Pacey. You're not supposed to be like this." If her voice hadn't sounded so lost, he would have been mad.

"Like what, Jo? I'm not supposed to tell you that suddenly I wake up at night thinking of sappy poetic things to say to you? That I've had so long to think about them that I've perfected each turn of the phrase?"

He kept his voice light and low, almost teasing. His intent wasn't to scare her, to pressure her. She had to know, though, just how far he had fallen.

"I guess I never imagined we would be like this. You and I. Together. I mean, I've dreamed that we were together." A blush crept into her cheeks and she bit her lip again. "But I guess I never knew you'd be so�"

"Charming? Engaging?" He finished for her and began dancing her in circles around the dock. She threw her head back and laughed, the sparkle returning to her eyes. He stopped the twirling and slid his arms up her back, tugging her gently toward him until they were cheek to cheek. "Truthful? It is the truth, Jo, no matter how sappy it is."

He bent his head and kissed her just below the ear, then traced a pattern to her lips with his fingers and closed his eyes. He was able to find her lips with his own even in the dark. They kissed softly, gently, once again swaying to an imagined tune. She broke away with a final brush of her lips and stepped back.

"We shouldn't be doing this here." She glanced around her warily, but did not let go of him.

"You're right." He raised his eyes at her and suppressed a sigh. Of course they shouldn't be doing this here. He grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the boathouse. "Well, not in the open, at least."

She giggled despite herself and followed him up the slope.

*-*-*-*

He pulled her into the small building and shut the door behind them, pressing her against it. This time there was no hesitation in his kiss. She clung to his shoulders and kissed him harder, opening her mouth to his tongue even as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Nothing had prepared her for the power of this.

She confessed to him once that his touch made her feel alive. That was only half the truth. The feeling of him pushed her beyond herself to some firey place where every nerve ending tingled, someplace she wasn't even sure was real. He was the only one to ever take her there, and truthfully she would have been terrified of it with anyone else.

His hands had moved down to her hips and he was holding her tight against his body, his fingers gripping her belt loops and slightly pinching the skin beneath. Joey gasped at the sensation and he answered her with a groan, tugging her already-swollen bottom lip between his teeth and biting it gently.

"Pacey, please," she rasped out the words before she had time to think about what they meant. Her words reached something primal in him and he brought his hands up to the rough wood behind her head, pushing himself back and away from the heat of her body.

"Please, what, Jo?" He caught a breath between every word, his chest heaving in an attempt to regain control. Like that was ever possible with her so close.

"I, um, don't really know, it just�"

He bent his elbows slightly, allowing himself to get a few inches closer to her.

"Please. What. Jo?" Each word pulsed with an unspoken dare, punctuated by the blackness of his eyes as he loomed over her.

"Come on, Pacey, don't do this." She reached for him but he pushed back again, evading her hands.

"Don't do what? I want you to say it," His eyes softened enough for her to see that he was serious. "I need for you to say it."

Joey took a step toward him, her eyes downcast. "This is so embarrassing," she murmured, moving one step closer.

"I'm sorry you had to lower your standards to take a chance on me, Potter."

"This is not about you!" She straightened up to her full height and took his face in her hands. "I'm sick of the self-pity, Pacey. This is about how I'm not used to feeling so overwhelmed that I can't think of anything to say. This is about me wanting things that I've never wanted before."

"What do you want, Jo?" His voice was so low she barely heard it.

"You, Pacey." She reached above her and pulled his arms away from the door, bringing his hands to her waist. When he didn't make a move to touch her in any other way, she guided his hands just beneath the cotton of her shirt, shivering at the warmth of him on her chilled skin. "I want you."

*-*-*-*

Pacey heard the words echo in is head and felt the softness of her skin beneath his hands, and suddenly he couldn't decide what he wanted to do first. He wanted to swing her around until they were both dizzy. He wanted to kiss her senseless. He wanted to call all their friends and tell them to stay home, and then he wanted to take her below the deck of his boat and explore every precious inch of her.

But he didn't do any of those things. Instead he stepped back and took her in, devouring her with his gaze. The way her skin pulled taunt across her collarbones, the blush that still lingered in her cheeks, the incredible grace with which she stood before him.

"It's amazing," he mumbled to himself.

"I'd hardly call it that, Pacey. There are dozens of explanations for why�" Joey paused when she saw something shift in his eyes. She absently wondered when she had learned to read him so well.

"There's only one that matters, Jo." He placed two fingers across her lips, rubbing them back and forth. "But we don't really need to talk about that right now. We're running out of�"

"Time," she finished for him, closing her eyes and parting her lips at his touch. If only their time together was infinite, she would be able to savor him so much more.

Pacey slid his fingers away from her lips, trailing them over her chin and down her neck until he ran out of skin and continued to move over her shirt between her breasts, finally settling on her flat stomach. In just minutes he was going to have to face a group of people who had no knowledge of them, and he would have to pretend he didn't know what it was like to touch her like this. And he was wasting time.

Slipping one finger into the waistband of her shorts, Pacey tugged her toward him, catching her lips with his own as soon as she was close enough. Joey immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed herself against him, not caring that her actions were propelling them backwards. They both became lost in the urgency of their embrace, lips and bodies clinging together in a fervent need to get ever closer.

Joey was entranced by the sounds they made together�the shallow breathing, the soft moans of her own pleasure and the low growling that purred from deep in his throat. No matter what happened, she would always be able to recall the sensation of knowing just how crazy they made each other. He curled his large hands against her back and she whimpered, answering him by digging her fingernails into his scalp.

The sound of laughter barely penetrated Pacey's concentration on the woman in his arms, and he thought momentarily of pretending he hadn't heard it. The others could wait. He just needed five more minutes with Joey�just five minutes more of her skin and lips and fevered little sighs.

But she had heard it too, and she pushed herself reluctantly away from his body, saying his name like a mantra as he sought to hold her to him.

"Pacey�Pacey�We've got to go outside," Her eyes were still dark with wanting him, and he could not let her go. He brushed his lips against her cheek and chin, moving to her neck and smoothing his tongue across the hollow at the base of her throat. Joey shivered and her head fell back.

"Just. Five. Minutes," he begged her, taking advantage of her bared skin. She clung to him tightly and did not argue.

The end.

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