Spoilers:Pretty much spoilerific if you haven't seen the season 3 finale... it's been really hard holding onto this for the weeks that I have...

They were somewhere off the coast of Connecticut when she finally leaned over and kissed him. Up until that moment, they had been wandering the deck awkward around each other, neither one knowing exactly what she was doing there but happy at the outcome. He sat with his hands on the steering wheel even though he didn't need to -- there was comfort in thinking that he had some control.

He never felt in control when she was around. He'd told his brother that she gave him butterflies, but it was so much more than that. The things in his stomach felt the size of hummingbirds, or eagles, or jet planes: flying in circles and knocking him around.

Joey, on the other hand, just felt nervous. Everything had moved so quickly in the past few weeks that she hardly knew if she was coming or going. Well, that wasn't true anymore, since there was nowhere to either come or go on this boat. Nowhere at all.

He'd wanted her to ask him to stay and when she hadn't, he'd went back to being the loser in this battle; Dawson the Golden Boy wins again. And when he'd honestly thought that the last rope would be untied from the dock and he would sail away from her, she'd announced her intention of coming with him.

Maybe they needed time on their own to see if things could go further between them. Maybe they needed to be far away from the influences of Andie and Dawson and everyone else. Maybe they needed to be on one hundred percent neutral ground before they would ever know what there could be between them. They weren't giving up on each other; they were giving in to each other. And as weird as it felt, it also felt fantastic. The stuff that fantasies are made of.

But then, nothing in this was practical in the least.

When he felt her body near his, he turned in to her and brought his hand to her face, her eyes locking with his. This was what Dawson never understood, and yes, sometimes it had everything to do with Dawson. What Dawson never comprehended was that during all of that time that he was not noticing Joey's beauty and too caught up in himself to see how their relationship had changed, Pacey was pining in the same way Joey was.

No, not in the same way at all. Pacey let his hormones work overtime first, it was different. The idea of loving Joey had only made itself known in the recent past. The very recent past. And when Tamara came along, he felt himself fall in love for the first time even though he had no idea what it felt like. And when Andie took his heart, it was in an entirely different way. And maybe that was love too. He surely thought it was. But this? This confused him. Which was why he didn't go near it for so long and why when it finally came to a head he thought that he might burst.

With her eyes set to his, Joey read every inch of his face and brought her lips to his again slowly running her tongue across them. None of this made too much sense to her either, but following her heart tended to sound like a good idea this time out. It felt so right; Pacey had said that to her at the disaster of a prom, his husked voice tearing into her heart. He had been so right though. And for all intents and purposes, Dawson had given them his blessing. For all intents and purposes... Though she had a feeling that although his intentions were the best they could have ever been, in his heart he never really expected her to go back to Pacey. Did she love Pacey? She had no idea. It felt nothing like the familiar comfort Dawson brought her and that she had always assumed was love.

Pacey made her tingle. She'd never felt that tingle before. And Pacey surprised her at every turn. Dawson hadn't surprised her in a long time, not until the moment when she watched his lips tell her to go to Pacey. That was more than a surprise, she was totally floored. And so she went, and here she was. The sun had begun to rise and they hadn't slept yet; the ocean air chilled her hands.

"You're cold... you should go below and get warm. Do you want me to make you something warm to drink? Tea? I have tea."

"Pacey Witter brought tea?" Joey looked both amused and astonished.

"Ummm, not really... it was one of many suggestions from Dougie. Dougie brought the tea." He smiled at her and stood, taking her hand and leading her to the galley below. Every moment that passed between them he was more and more amazed that she was with him. Somehow, he must have done something right.

When they were downstairs, he rubbed her hands warming them between his. "Are you tired? You must be tired... let me show you where all the things are, okay?" She nodded and he led her around the tiny rooms opening cabinets above and below. Strange how you could fit so much into so little space... there was so little space, she noticed again and again.

"Pacey?" She came out from the bathroom in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top.

"Yeah?" He followed her voice to the bedroom, her face was scrubbed clean and her cheeks were pink, she looked gorgeous.

"Do you really think that we're doing the right thing? I mean, really? I mean, all of the people that we've hurt by taking off together, do you think it will be worth it... all the friendships that will probably be over. Was it worth risking our best friends? Do you think they'll ever be able to look at us ever again?" Joey's voice was shaky and she looked as if she might cry, but she didn't. She held her eyes to Pacey's, unwavering.

He joined her sitting on the bed and put his arm around her shoulders, flashing to the night that all of this had really began, the night of the party at Dawson's house when his best friend had asked him to look after Joey, to take care of her for him and be there for her. He had rowed up to her dock and found her there with this same look in her dry eyes. That time she had allowed them to finally fall. This time, he hoped that there wouldn't be any tears.

"I don't know, Potter. But you knew that... And maybe we need to give ourselves a chance before we think of anyone else. That's really all I can do. I think we deserve a chance together. I know it's selfish, but this thing between us has always been selfish." He brought his hand to her chin and turned her face up to his and dropped his lips to hers again and again. Soft, soft kisses.

Joey felt that little shock again when he kissed her and she arched her back against him, his hand trailing down her neck and resting above her breasts. Every time he touched her she remembered why she was there. What had brought her there in the first place. He was right, they did deserve a chance together. She felt her head tip backward and her mouth open up to him, her fingers twisted in his short hair.

They broke apart when the kettle steam whistled through the small boat like an alarm.

"Do we pull ashore tomorrow morning, Cap'n?" Joey said, following Pacey into the galley.

"Why? You ready to jump ship already?" Pacey was kidding, but in his heart he knew that this was going to be strange for both of them and that it was entirely possible that she could flee at any time. He kept his tone intentionally light.

"Yup. All the way to the closest shopping center. I didn't exactly have time to get anything I'm going to need for this trip," Joey wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him close, his neediness reminding her of her own. "You're not getting rid of me so quickly, Pacey. So stop worrying." She was saying it to herself as much as she was to him.

Truth be told, they were each both terrified and thrilled. Pacey looked forward to spending nights on the top deck staring out into the dark sea with Joey in his arms and he feared that in one split second she would change her mind and realize that his were the wrong arms. Joey was afraid that this relationship would end in the same crash and burn disaster that they all did and that she would never know what she was ever thinking. And she looked forward to testing the waters and figuring it all out. With her lips at his jawbone, she nibbled at him and ducked out of his arms.

"Make me that tea and put me to bed," she giggled and moved towards the small bedroom less than their arms lengths away. When she pushed through the door, she let her hand drop from his.

"Better watch what you say about the bed, Potter." Pacey grinned at her.

Joey blushed and looked towards the floor. This particular situation hadn't come up yet, even though she had thought about it on more than one occasion. Well, it wasn't coming up right now either, not at all. She closed the door between herself and the kitchen and undressed, slipping on one of Pacey's tee-shirts and a pair of boxers. Sliding between the covers, she yelled out to him.

"OK, I'm decent."

He brought the steaming mug to her and placed it on the small shelf above the bed. "I'm going to go back up and make sure that everything is on course. I'll be back in a little while... get some sleep." He dragged his fingers though her soft hair and pushed her gently into the pillows.

"Pacey?"

"Yeah?"

"It's not just about sex, is it? The way we feel about each other isn't just about being horny, hormonal teenagers, right?"

"It's never been about sex with you, Potter. I not going to lie and say I haven't thought about it, I'd have to be dead not to... but, it's not the reason behind all of this. Sex wasn't the catalyst and it isn't what's important now."

She smiled awkwardly. Sometimes Pacey, for all of his tactless shortcomings, had exactly the words she wanted to hear.

"Dawson said you would expect it." As soon as the words issued from her lips, she regretted saying them and winced. Pacey's face fell.

"What?" That prick, he thought to himself with a note of sadness. Dawson had not the slightest idea about the way that he felt about her. He'd just happily assumed that if Pacey was involved, the only thing anything involving a woman could be about was sex. As if Pacey had no heart, as if Pacey was only capable of thinking with his dick.

"I shouldn't have said that. He didn't mean it, Pacey. He said it when he was angry."

"But you listened, and you've been thinking about it..." He sat on the bed beside where she lay, his back turned to her. "Jo, in the past year, if there's one thing that I've learned about you it's to never expect anything. I never expected to feel this way about you, and I certainly never expected that you might feel it as well. The last thing that I would ever expect is that you would leap into bed with me on some whim. That's just not you. And this has never been about sex." He turned around to her and laid his hand on her cheek. "I hope you believe that."

"Never doubted it." She smiled. "Dawson said a lot of things, and I've just been trying to weed out the things that stuck with me. I still can't stop seeing his face before I thought he knew about us. And even though it was before... everything... things are different now. I know that. I'm just going to have to put everything out of my mind for a while so we can concentrate on us..."

"Yeah, I'm just trying to do the same... I know I keep saying this over and over, but everything's gonna be all right. And if it's not, we'll deal with that too... Go to sleep, Jo, and think good thoughts. I'm going upstairs to lock us down and I'll be down in a bit." He kissed her lightly on the forehead and tucked the blankets in around her.

When she closed her eyes she could see Dawson in her mind, hear his words from the wedding ringing in her ears. If he really meant them, and she really believed them, then she had done the right thing. The right thing for all three of them, she hoped. In many ways, she knew that Dawson would never truly be able to forgive her for this. This road probably didn't lead back to him. This road might not lead anywhere at all. But the important part was that she was there to find out and there wouldn't ever be that moment, years from now, where she wondered what might have happened between them if she had given them a chance.

They had to give each other a chance. Wasn't that what everything was about? She drifted off to sleep pushing the memory of Dawson from her mind and replacing it with Pacey's eyes, the way that they looked in that second before he'd pulled the truck off to the side of the road and yelled at her, leading into the kiss that changed everything.

Everything was changed.

When she awoke, Pacey was asleep beside her in the small bed, his eyelids fluttering rapt in dream. She propped herself up on her elbows and watched him, the way that his chest slowly rose and fell with each breath, the way that his mouth turned up at the corners, the fact that he wore loose sweatpants and nothing else. Joey had to resist the urge to run her hand over his bare chest. This had been the first time they had spent the night together in the small bed and she felt a pang thinking that she had for the most part missed it.

She was trapped behind him, no way to get off the bed without climbing over him and waking him from the dream that fluttered his eyelids. So, she rested beside him and watched, wondering what visions passed through his head in sleep that created that goofy smile and made his eyes roll around behind his lids. When she could lay there no longer, the urge to get to the bathroom too great, she gingerly swung a leg over him and started to go.

Pacey's eyes opened with a shot as Joey's legs straddled him. Her gaze focused on the door, she didn't notice him wake until he clasped his hands behind her back and pulled her down to him. "Where do you think you're going?" he said with twinkling, sleep-filled eyes and smiling face his thumbs strumming her ribcage slowly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to wake you..."

"Don't be, there's nothing better than waking up with your wo-- ummm... with you climbing over me," he saved.

Joey settled, resting her weight on top of him and ran her hands over his chest. She'd been wanting to do that. Pacey's skin was soft, the muscles of his chest sinewy and hard. His fingers played at the small area of bare skin in the small of her back. Smiling, she weighed whether this was the way it felt to be in love with someone even though she knew that she had been in love before. As much as she tried not to parallel every moment with Pacey to Dawson, it was proving itself impossible. Every new emotion made her question everything that she had once known.

"C'mere..." he said, pulling her body down to his and nuzzling his face into her hair. Her breasts crushed to his chest and her soft neck smelling of soap and moisturizer made his head reel. He moved his hands over the curve of her ass and down her legs, pushing her over him and onto her back as she kissed him with a fervency he hadn't experienced before. Pacey had to pull back on himself, slowing them both down and bringing his hands to her face, his thumbs running over the line of her jaw.

She opened her eyes, glazed over, and realized why he had pulled away. He lay beside her now, trying to ignore the pulsing between his legs and not really succeeding. So sweet how he thought he needed to protect her from himself, Joey thought. She moved his hand from the top of her hip and climbed over him again.

"This time, I'm going to make it to the bathroom. Should I make something to eat? Are you ready to wake up?"

"As ready as ever, I suppose. I'll make breakfast..."

"No, let me..." she said through the small door of the bathroom.

Pacey laughed. Would this be their first argument aboard the 'True Love,' over who would get to do more for the other? He hoped that the worst was this. He could hear her changing in the bathroom, the water running in the sink, the tap of her toothbrush against its side. She hummed something he didn't recognize as she dressed.

When she emerged, Pacey was already preparing them a breakfast feast in the galley. She stomped her foot at him.

"You suck! I was going to do that!"

"Well, I beat you, so you can try to make dinner tonight. Actually, Jo, do I want to eat something you've cooked? The idea of that sorta scares me... it has gotten better since the Icehouse, right?"

"Screw you. My cooking is just fine. And yes, I do know how to make something other than pancakes." She quirked her brow at him and went upstairs to sit in the sun on deck. Towards the top of the stairs she turned her head back to find him watching her take them. "Perv," she called down to him.

"Sexy... I'll bring up breakfast in about ten."

When he emerged, he found her lying on the hot deck baking in the blazing afternoon sun, her tee-shirt bunched up to just under her breasts.

"Damn... Jo."

She sat up and looped her tee through the neckband, when they were about eleven that had been her total look. Pacey laughed as he sat beside her and handed her a cup of coffee, placing the large tray between them.

"What's so damn funny, it's hot up here." She was right, without any shade, it was about 100 degrees up on deck, but there was a light breeze that blew through their hair.

"Not funny, cute... you look really cute wearing your shirt that way, it reminds me of being young again, reminds me of when we were all young."

The words hit her in a way that they hadn't been intended, bringing back her massive insecurities about being on Pacey's boat, with Pacey at all, in the first place. How could she have just taken off when in her heart she knew that Dawson, her best friend, would never be able to think of her in the same way again. His blessing was heartfelt, but she knew that he never believed that she would go when he said it. It was exactly what she needed to hear though. The most selfish act of selflessness, maybe? She remembered their strained conversation:

"What you said... did you mean it?"

"Every word." And he paused as Joey pondered their true meaning. "Which is why you should turn around and go. To Pacey."

"What?" She couldn't believe him, or understand what he was saying to her. Dawson wanted her to be with Pacey? It made zero sense, just days earlier he had been so happy that they were going to try their relationship out one more time.

And then he spoke again, explaining himself as only he could do. And making all the sense in the world. "Listen. Last year. You had a chance to go to Paris. To study. And because of me, you didn't --"

She had interrupted him then, in an attempt to take that age-old blame off him, where it never did belong. But he resumed, and shifted the blame back. "--Let me finish. It was my fault. Because I should've made you go. But I was selfish. I wanted you to stay here. With me. I refuse to make that mistake again. I can't keep you through some kind of emotional blackmail, Joey."

She argued with him, told him that she wanted to stay, that it was her choice. What she really wanted was to make sure that he would always be in her life, no matter what their relationship was. Being with Pacey couldn't be the choice that he wanted her to make; it wasn't reasonable and it wasn't Dawson Leery. Still, he forced the issue, and in the end, she knew what she wanted and she turned around and went to Pacey.

He noticed the change in her dark eyes when she averted them over her coffee cup. He moved towards her, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

"Y'know, Joey, everything really is going to be all right. By the time we get back to Capeside no one will even remember that we've been gone. You did the right thing, babe. For both of us... and I'll count my blessings every night that you're here with me, because I know that we deserve this." He spoke his words slowly. Maybe it wasn't the best thing he could have said, but the unsure look in her eyes made him want to crack. The only thing holding him together at all was her happiness.

"I know that you don't want to hear this, especially now. But Joey, Dawson will eventually get over this, you and he will always be friends no matter what happens between you. And he'll get over being hurt. He and I may never get back to the place that we were before, but you... you're--" He thought of the best way to say this, to convey what he really thought without using words that would change her mind about him. "You're the best friend he's ever had, you two will always be close." They probably weren't the right words, but ones like "soulmate" and "inspiration" just were not to be issued from his lips.

And who the hell was Dawson to decide who his soulmate was anyway? And who said that one person's soulmate couldn't be destined to be with someone else? And what about unrequited love, it existed for a reason, right?

She leaned in closer to him, placing the mug on the deck beside her and resting her head on his chest. "I know you're right, Pace. But it still feels terrible..."

"I know..." He stroked her hair with one hand and her back with the other.

Everything would be okay with them, she thought to herself feeling the depths of his heartbeat against her. It felt so right between them, unlike anything she had ever felt before.

Breaking away, she pressed against him, driving his back against the stubbled deck and climbing over him. He succumbed easily to her advances, and when she held his arms over his head and laid her lips over his, he sighed into her mouth.

Joey felt a moment of weak power when she had him in this vulnerable position, her lips twisted into a wry smile and she sat up to look into his eyes filled with glazed craving. They could have breakfast later; she pushed aside the tray and bent to kiss him again. Pacey had a passion that Dawson never had, wrought with abandon and unguarded fervency. She didn't think of Dawson or Capeside or any of them when she kissed him. She only thought of him and what he made her feel, what she'd thought she was incapable of feeling.

There were those fireworks. The ones they thought didn't exist.

She lay atop him, releasing his hands to use her own. They wrung through his hair and dragged over his neck, their tongues invading each other's mouths. Fireworks. His fingers worked the skin beneath her tee shirt and it turned to goosebumps, they ran over the sides of her bare breasts and she let out a hiss of air from her lungs pressing against him tighter. Fireworks.

Pacey never knew when far was too far. They hadn't had very much time together like this, kissing was as far as anything had ever went. Most relationships start out with night after night of frantic making out and before a couple can even put a coherent thought into the matter, they're almost there. He wondered for a second how far she'd gone with Dawson, or Jack, or College Boy, then pushed the thought from his mind. None of that mattered, they'd get wherever they were going with enough time to spare, and soon enough. But the thought invaded his brain each time she wriggled against him and he questioned the placement of his hands on her body.

She guessed that he wanted to protect her, but she didn't need that. Not right now when all she could see were the little explosions in her eyes and earthquakes in other places. She urged against him deeper and arched her back, reaching to her shirt to pull it over her head and toss it aside. His eyes widened as he lifted his palms to her breasts, running over them delicately before wrapping his arms around her waist and sitting up against her, their bare skin coming together for the first time. His teeth played at the vein in her neck and when she moaned into his ear he knew, definitively, that she was supposed to be his.

Were those fireworks?

When her hands wandered aimlessly over his body, he tensed. He never wanted her to think of Dawson's harsh words again, never believe that he would pressure her towards anything that she wasn't ready for, or didn't want with him yet. They were still wearing what could only be described as bedclothes, Pacey in a pair of loose sweats and nothing else, she in the same. Her body too close to him, he felt the familiar rise between his legs and got nervous. When they made love for the first time, if they made love at all, he didn't want it to be in some random moment on the deck of his boat, her back scratching painfully against the non-skid coating. No. If they were going to make love, ever, he would make it perfect for her. For both of them.

Their mouths did not leave each other's and their hands went towards places that they hadn't ever crossed the lines of before. She could feel his heart flutter madly in his chest, pounding into her rhythm. Sitting up, she placed her hand over it.

"Do I make you nervous?" She breathed headily staring into his eyes.

Pacey put his hand over hers and he could feel his own beat beneath her fingers. He twined his through. "I don't know..."

He didn't know, but then, he did. It was her, everything about her. That morning, lying next to her in what he now could only think of as their bed, he didn't sleep at all. He lay beside her watching the slow rise and fall of her chest and the way her eyes moved beneath her lids when she dreamt. He wondered if he was included in those dreams. When he finally drifted off, the images in his mind were all her.

"Your heart is racing, Pacey..." She whispered into his ear, her warm breath permeating the air between them. And she moved in closer, aware of the quickening in her stomach and egging it on. "So is mine." Lifting his hand from hers, she moved it beside her bare breast.

"I feel it..." Wild eyes, taken.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into them, closing the empty space between them. Covering her mouth with his, he let his tongue lap at the roof of her mouth and tangle with hers, massaging against it. There was a static heat through them both, he stopped dead when he felt her hands reaching through the waistband of his pants.

"What's wrong?" Confusion took her face.

"Not here, Jo. Not yet..."

"What are you protecting me from, Pacey?" She sat up and pulled her shirt on over her head, the mood had been broken and there was no way in hell she was going to have this conversation with him topless. "Don't you think I'm capable of knowing what I want?"

Pacey looked wounded, he never meant for her to be upset. He only wanted to keep things in perspective between them. There was no doubting how madly he felt about her or what it would mean to him to be with her so completely, but he wanted it to be like a fairytale.

"God... you think that's it? That I don't want to make love to you because I think that you're not ready? Or because I want to prove Dawson wrong!?! Joey, there's nothing more that I want to do than to make love to you, but when we do, I want that moment to be everything it should be... for both of us. I'm completely and spastically in love with you, and it should be exquisite and pure and fantastic. Don't you want that too?"

She did want it to be wonderful, she had always dreamed that it would be, but then she had never thought of her first time being with Pacey. "I do..." She moved in to close the gulf between them and laid her head on his bare shoulder. He wondered if she would ever tell him that she loved him too.

The boat was small, so very small, she thought to herself sitting on the edge of the bow and sketching in a small book that she'd picked up on their last trip to shore. They tried to make it to dry land every few days; neither of them particularly suited to floating completely aimlessly for days on end. Pacey had a navigational plan, but they hadn't entirely stuck to it. As long as they always knew precisely where they were and had some clue where they were going, everything seemed fine. They were right on course.

She had her hair piled high on her head and the sweat dripped down her neck in long rivulets. She swatted at her back to wipe at it, not reaching their ending. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt his hand rub up her spine.

"Shit! You scared me."

"I thought you could use some help there..." She leaned into his hand and tipped her head back to look at him, shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun. "What are you drawing?"

"Oh, nothing... just doodling. Shouldn't you be mapping out our next plan of attack in the Captain's Log... or something?"

"If I didn't know better, Potter, I'd think you were trying to get rid of me." He smiled and leaned down to plant a light kiss on her forehead.

"Clearly, you don't know better." Joey smiled to lighten her tone. "I'm sorry, Pace, I'm just doodling in the sun, trying to be alone for a little while... you can understand that, can't you?"

"Of course, I'll give you some space, babe... Come check me when you're hungry, I'm thinking about making some lunch." But the thing of it was, he really didn't understand because he absolutely never felt the same way. The only thing Pacey ever wanted to do was be near her, and that need was constant.

He receded beneath the deck and lay back on the bed. It was degrees cooler down there and he felt the sweat dry under his tee shirt as he ran his hands over his chest. He did understand her need to have alone time, of course he did. He just didn't feel it himself. But whatever it took to make her happy, he would do his damnedest to abide by, no matter what he thought about it. But laying there alone, all he wanted to do was go back upstairs to be near her, he was at peace when he could at least see her from the corner of his eye and know she was still there. There were times when he thought maybe everyday was part of an extended dream.

Not long after, she crept below. Her intention had been to get a cool drink, but when she glanced into the cabin and found Pacey staring up to the ceiling, his eyes fixed on nothing, it reminded her what she was doing there in the first place. She had come to be with him and they had sailed off into the sunset, they should at least be trying to live that style of fantasy. She should be trying; harder.

"Hey, Pacey." She said with a light breeze in her voice.

He didn't turn towards the sound. "Hey..."

Joey was reaching into the small fridge, she came out with two bottles and walked towards him on the bed, laying one next to him on the bed. His eyes never veered from their spot, but she could still see how they had changed. They got that dark glitter back. When she could see they way she changed his mood just by entering a room it brought a lump in her chest. She gulped at it, trying to force it down even though she had started to identify that feeling with the way it felt when he touched her. She had told him, the first time she admitted that their relationship was changing, had changed, that he made her feel alive, but it was different than just feeling alive. It was as if she were alive and dying at the same time.

"Does it ever seem like you can feel what's going on inside someone else's body?"

Pacey turned to her, rolling onto his side. He never knew what was going on in anyone's body, could hardly understand what was going on in his own. But if she was talking about feeling her nervous stomach and the stinging in the back of her throat when her thoughts drifted to Dawson and everything back home? Yeah, he could feel that too. He had just to glance over at her at the wrong time so far, and he could feel it. And he felt it inside himself as well.

"Sort of... yeah."

"I'm sorry I pushed you away upstairs, Pacey."

"No. Don't be sorry, I have to learn how not to crowd you or we're going to spend the bulk of this trip at each other's throats. And not in a good way," he smiled at her. "It's okay... I can deal."

"I felt bad." She felt awful. When she saw the dejected look on his face and watched him skulk away from her, his shoulders hunched and his fingers going nervously at the hem of his shorts, she knew how he had felt in that moment. Then she'd let it go, figuring that he would get over it and she did need seconds, minutes, alone. Then, she'd seen the look on his face as he counted the paint bubbles overhead, and she felt it again. She felt his heart ache.

"I know... it's okay though. We shouldn't have to walk on eggshells with each other, you need to get away, you tell me. I need you near me, I tell you. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Then come here..." Wrapping his fingers around her wrist, he pulled her close and she folded into him. They lay for a moment in each other's arms. The smell of her hair, of apple shampoo and sea salt air, spiraled inside his lungs and he took it in deeply, allowing it to waft through his nostrils and take his body. Joey rolled in towards him and licked at his lips, nipping at them until he opened them to her.

"Mmmmm... didn't we go over this already? You don't know what you do to me..." His hands cupped her face and the strength under his light touch sent her spinning. Just the tiniest touch could bring that tingle back to her skin and make her aware of every single blood vessel running through her. "I felt that though, Jo... I felt your blood rush through your arteries and pump through your heart. Is that what you meant?" His words were a jumble of ecstatic murmur and shallow breaths.

"Yes. Yes. That's what I meant."

She was ready, she finally realized. It was a hot morning four weeks after they had set sail, she awoke in his arms and felt his breathing on the back of her neck, the hairs pricking up under his heated breath and the familiar pulse between her legs. She had felt his hands there a few times by that moment, in the place where only her own had gone before then, and they had caused a coasting through her entire body. She wanted more, more, more. Closing her eyes again, she pushed her back against him firmly but slowly, knowing enough about his responses to know what it would take.

In his dream, in that short morning moment, he was making love to her. Joey's dark hair fanned out against the mint green pillowcase, her tanned legs wrapped around him urging him deeper inside, she took him in slowly. When his eyes opened she had his hand in hers, holding it hard to the pit of her stomach and pressing her ass against his midsection. She only wore his tank top and a pair of panties, his body betrayed him--rock hard and throbbing. Sex in the morning had always been his favorite.

"Morning, Jo..." His tongue lashed out at her earlobe and flicked at the sensitive spot behind it as he curled his arms tighter around her waist.

They were used to each other by now, four weeks were a lifetime when the only people that exist on the planet are your lover and yourself. They weren't lovers yet, but they loved. He could feel it, even from her. In the soft way that she ran her fingers over his shoulders when they made out, in the way that her body molded to his hands when he pressed them into her. The first time he had made her come, she had watched his eyes wildly.

She didn't let up the pressure of her back stroking him, and he didn't push her away, at least they had gotten past that point. When his hands slid into her panties, she curved her backside and tipped her head back onto his shoulder urging them to find their place. They twisted through the damp, curled hair there and the side of his thumb stroked her, her breath caught in her throat.

"Lay back, Jo..." He said climbing over her and tracing his tongue over her collarbone, his thumbs hooking the waistband of her small underwear and slipping them over her thighs. Joey kicked them off her feet and pushed them off the bed. Her nudity didn't make her uncomfortable for the first time in her life. The light sheet was still over them both and his hands traveled smoothly over her body, his mouth closing wetly over a hardened nipple and nipping at the soft skin of her breasts as it made its way over her body.

"You're gorgeous, Joey... so beautiful... god..." His whispered words as his hands floated over every inch of her.

Sliding both hands under her ass, he urged her legs apart with his chest and bent his head to her sex, breathing lightly over her and tilting his eyes to look up to her, biting lightly at the soft skin of her stomach. He waited for a disapproving look, something to tell him that he had already gone too far, that she had changed her mind, something to let him know that she was uncomfortable with impending ministrations. She was too far gone already, waiting impatiently for what she knew was coming and welcoming it. She arched her pelvis up to him, seriously considering pressing her hands to his head to force him closer.

Snaking out his tongue, Pacey lapped at the juncture where her thigh met her crotch before repeating the motion on the opposite side; she didn't know what to do with her hands. Pleasure and disconcertion washed over her: expectancy, heat, and a small amount of embarrassment at having him so close. A long moan escaped her lips as he closed over her, his tongue running her length before slipping inside, twisting and returning to its source. He reached up and took one of her hands into his.

Had anything ever tasted so sweet under his lips? He sucked and lapped at her, rapturous feeling her body respond to his tender laving, her hips pressing up to his face and her hand finding a place to rest on his shoulders. When he circled her clit, flattening his tongue against it, he felt her tense beneath him and her nails dig into his back. He backed off and sunk inside her again and she raised herself off the mattress to get nearer to him, her moans becoming deeper, her breathing shallow and quick. The soft sound of waves lapping against the sides of the 'True Love' echoing the sounds of the tiny bedroom.

He felt her orgasm mount against him, the fingers of her free hand drilling through his skin, her cries loud and guttural and her body finally relaxing. Joey's hand touched his cheek as he rested it against her inner thigh. He could lie there, breathing between her legs and holding her hand, for the rest of his days on this earth.

Her charcoal voice broke the breathy silence.

"Come here."

He hardly moved, his eyes moving up to meet hers, but she pulled at him, urging him up to her where she could taste herself on his supple lips. She pressured him on, sucking his tongue into her open mouth and biting at it, her hands frantically grasping at any piece of bare skin she could find.

"Pacey, now... Now, Pacey."

Pacey, now. Now, Pacey. His cock raged against his shorts and her hands spiraled into them. She needed to feel him, to have him inside her, to feel everything he had inside him inside her. She was ready, and she felt him hesitating. Pacey, now. Now, Pacey. She wasn't sure if the words issued from her lips but they repeated themselves over and over in her mind like a mantra. Her lips wrapped around them again like her fingers around his shaft.

"Now, Pacey." She said with more force, pushing his shorts over his hips and twisting her legs around him. "Please... god, Pacey... you have to know how I feel, I want you to feel it."

All reason went to dust as she hooked her ankles around his and released her hand from his cock. Maybe perfect wasn't candlelight and soft music in some unfamiliar hotel; maybe perfect was just being with the person who set your heart on fire wherever you were in the moment when everything was right.

Lying there, his cock so close to her entrance, he was scared of sex for the first time since the first time. His hands shook slightly and he felt a knotting in his stomach as she looked to him expectantly. Placing his hands on her face, he mustered up voice from his lungs.

"Are you sure?"

"Aren't you?"

"I love you, Potter."

"I love you too... this is right, all of this. I want us to make love. I'm sure... Pacey, there couldn't be a more perfect moment than this one, just because we're together. So, I'm sure. Make love to me."

"Then stop talking..." He laughed softly and bent to close her mouth with his. Their lips embraced, tongues pressing against each other and massaging. She could still taste herself inside his mouth.

He reached between them rolling on a condom and guiding himself into her so slowly, the tightness of her slick walls accepting him and shaping around him. Joey took in a sharp breath and he stopped pushing against her, she urged herself against him instead.

"I love you." He said, stretching his arms up to look into her face charged with electricity and fire. He felt the tension inside of her release as he broke the last barrier tenderly and she relaxed beneath him after a sharp breath. "Are you okay?" he breathed into her ear.

"Better than okay..." Her smiling face and her arms wrapped around his back. It was worth every fight to have her in his arms and know her so entirely. "I love you, Pacey." The only words he ever wanted to hear.

She had thought it would hurt more than the microscopic wince of a sharp pain she felt before her body stretched to accommodate him, that she would be uncomfortable and scared and a million other things that she wasn't. The only thing that she felt was loved and loving as he moved languidly inside of her and she faded into him, his lips placing delicate kisses all over her face. He spoke continuously, telling her how much he loved her and how flawless every moment between them was; his words disappeared into her hair, but he kept speaking gently.

He held his motions unhurried and quiet, matching the rhythm she gave him, not wanting to rush the momentum between them. She moaned low, wrapping her legs around him and lunged against him harder, her body willing to accept him deeper and with more force. Her entire body urged him into her, vibrant nerves pulsating and staggering. Their voices mingled in low, hushed groans and breaths, his unceasing speech that comforted her and swelled her heart. Joey wanted him, she wanted him over the same edge he had sent her and she wanted to meet him there. His smooth stream of words bringing them there over and over again forever as their rhythm sped and rocketed and plummeted, her hands on his hips pulling him in tighter.

This was love, she was sure of it.

He felt himself breaking. His chest ground into hers and he brought his hands to her beautiful face, the flushed skin of her cheeks warm under his fingertips. He told her he loved her for the millionth time and released into her as her hips charged against his. "I love you..."

The throb inside her quickened and slowed as he breathed into her lungs, filling them both. When he finally relaxed against her, she kissed him again and returned his words. She never wanted this time to end, never wanted them to disconnect. Her arms held him close and he could feel his own heartbeat in her mouth.

Rolling beside her, he lay looking into her. There were no words that he could think of that could express how he felt with her; nothing had ever felt this way before. Smiling, astounded, enraptured, he kissed her again and again. The air around them felt heavy and scented of the two of them, finally one.

"Let's pull in tonight and go out, whaddaya think?"

"Where are we? Are we close to somewhere good?"

"I could have us to Georgia, ummmm... Jekyll Island, in about four hours, if I've got it right. We could go into town and buy you something nice to wear and then go out to dinner or something. Maybe try that dancing thing again?" He dropped the atlas to the floor and moved closer to her. Anything to hold her in his arms continuously.

"You're a terrible dancer, Pacey." Joey pricked him in the ribs, beaming up into his eyes.

"Yeah, whatever... I haven't heard you complaining too much. So whaddaya say?"

"Sounds great."

"Then it's a plan. Let me go change course and head towards land." He sat down on the deck with a pencil and compass and figured their path towards shore. It had been some time since they'd been on dry land, over a week at least. The morning's monumental event warranted some sort of unspoken celebration.

Joey stood at the bow, the wind whipping her hair out behind her and caressing her face. She felt like a new person: the old Joey taken with her virginity, leaving behind the same woman with new resolve and assuredness and incomparability in her bones. Old and new combined to create something completely identical but entirely different, if that made any sense at all... She could still feel him between her legs and hoped the feeling would never disappear. It would never leave her heart.

She looked so radiant and dazzling standing there with the breeze in her body, he thought to himself as he watched her from his seat behind the wheel. Pacey never wanted to let her go ever again; what they had shared, what they shared in every second of every day was something so intrinsic to his living these days.

They really had something, he realized. Not that he hadn't known that from the minute outside of Aunt Gwen's house when she had taken his hand and kissed him for the first time, but it was different now. He had found her and lost her and cried for her and fought for her and then she had come back to him, and even then he hadn't been sure how she felt about him. It was only now, watching her stand at the very front of the boat, that he could see past his own insecurities and understand that she did love him. All of the cards might have been stacked against them, but they were all the right cards.

"Come on, Jo... How many of these damn things are you going to try on before you decide?" Pacey had sat outside of the dressing room for way too long already, and he was beginning to get a little more than impatient. Of course, every time she emerged in another dress, looking even more beautiful than in the last, he settled back again. But now it was starting to get out of hand, she would be perfect in anything she decided on.

"Don't you want me to look nice on your arm?" She purred at him from behind the curtain, sticking out a lithe hand and curling her fingers towards him.

He cast a furtive look towards the saleslady before taking her hand and letting her pull him inside.

"You'd look nice on my arm in whate--" His words stopped short as she stood before him in the sexiest thing he'd ever seen in person. Joey spun around slowly, letting him drink it all in. She wore a matching bra and panties set in a deep maroon color that accented her eyes and contrasted the black garter belt and stockings that topped the whole thing off. "Damn..." He could hardly contain himself.

"I thought I might wear this underneath this dress..." She moved her hand slowly over a soft, black dress that hung on the curtain rod.

"You wear this and you'll never get that dress on..." He slid his hand into the silken panties and she arched herself against him.

"Mmmm... That's exactly what I thought you might say." Joey pushed him away from her and out of the fitting room. The saleslady coughed at him loudly as he almost fell back into the store. Joey held out the dress on a hanger. "Ma'am? I'll take this one, and I have a few other things as well. I'll be out in a moment." Her voice sounded all official and whatnot. Pacey blushed to his chest.

They paid and grabbed a cab back to the boat to get dressed. He could barely keep his hands off of her, the old-style streets of Jekyll Island flying past them as he pawed her in the back seat. They had already sorted out a restaurant after they pulled into the port and checked in with the dockmaster. Their reservations were set for eight o'clock. More than enough time for an embarrassing gropefest below deck.

Suddenly everything that she did seemed to have this phenomenal effect on Pacey, and she liked it. From the corner of her eye she could see him watching the tracks of her fingers through her hair, a glint in his hazel eyes. Maybe it had already been like that, but making love to him had brought on this overwhelming feeling of... she didn't know exactly. It did bring out the sex kitten in her though, and she liked it. She liked the way that he made her feel: so sexy and wanted, unlike she'd ever felt before.

When they headed below he could barely contain himself. They made love again, shopping bags strewn across the floor and clothing tossed everywhere from the deck to the bedroom. When it was over, both of them laying in a frantic, sweat-covered heat, he bent his head towards hers and professed his love again and again. It was perfect between them, he realized, and it actually might last.

They feared the moment when 'True Love' would return to Capeside and all of the things that were wrong with their relationship but, until that moment, they would take every second as it came and for what it was worth. True Love.