Laying beside Pacey, well, more like on top of him, Joey wondered what the hell she was thinking getting herself involved with him again. Scratch that, she thought as she brushed her lips against his bare chest, she knew exactly what she was doing.

She was making love with the only man she'd ever been in love with. Knowing him as she did, she knew she was torturing herself. But she couldn't bring herself to turn away from him. Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, right? So the quote didn't quite fit. She had loved him, and she had lost him and part of her felt like she would have been better off never loving him at all.

Then there was that other part of her that was laying in his arms that very moment, hearing the deep thump of his heart beat, that wanted nothing more than to stay there forever. The rational part of herself told her she shouldn't get to close, and that's what she planned on doing. Except, Pacey wasn't complying.

Instead of rolling over right after and falling asleep, he held her instead. The very tips of his fingers tailed up and down her spine, illiciting pleasurable shivers he didn't once try and untangle his legs from hers, or brush her hair away from his face, or give any kind of indication that being with her was the last place he wanted to be.

Which of course, made keeping herself from falling in love with him again all that much more difficult. She couldn't fall in love with him. Not when he could be leaving any day. And he would leave, she had no delusions about making him fall in love with her again and him declaring his desire to stay in Capeside with her. It just wasn't going to happen. He had a career, hell, he was scheduled to start filming his next movie in two weeks.

She and Pacey just weren't meant to be. That had been easy enough to accept, she could come to terms with that. Except he kept touching her; soft, slow caresses like he was trying to memorize the feel of her skin and the shape of her curves. How did he expect her not to fall in love with him if he kept doing that?

She listened to the rain patter against the the window, it had only stopped raining once since the first night she'd shown up there. It ashamed her that she hadn't managed to resist him for even twenty-four hours, never mind that she hadn't even wanted to resist him. Hmm, maybe if it just kept raining, they'd never be able to leave?

"Potter?" Pacey's voice interuppted her thoughts.

"Hmm?" she snuggled deeper into his arms.

"When did you get a tattoo?"

She looked up at his face and giggled at the shock on his eyes. "I'm surprised you didn't notice it until now." The tattoo was on her shoulder blade, low enough so that she could hide it if she wanted to, and display it if she desired to. Which was almost never.

He shifted, pulling his body away from hers enough to prop himself up on his elbow to get a better look. He traced the outline of a red heart, surounded by three coils of barbed wire with his finger. A tattoo didn't fit Pacey's image of Joey Potter. Certainly not a tattoo like this one, the barbs of the wire seemed on the verge of cutting straight into the heart. "Why?"

She turned her head, watching him through the slits of her eyes, did he seem hurt by the fact she had a tattoo? Why would he even care? "Jen talked me into going to a tattoo parlor with her in college." She smiled, "She got a rose on the small of her back. I didn't plan on getting one."

"But?" He turned his eyes to her, the dark blue pools asking her why she'd get something like this permantently etched into her skin.

Her smile was sad, "This design just...spoke to me. I had to get it."

"Do you regret it?" He lay his head back on the pillow, and Joey noted his mask of indifference was gone. Leaving behind his curiosity. She hadn't imagined he'd be this curious about her life.

Feeling chagrined, because she should have known he'd care, she answered him honestly. "No. It's a physical representation of how I felt for a long, long time," she lowered her voice, "how I still feel some times."

He didn't ask what made her feel like her heart was ensnared by barbed wire, didn't want to know if he was the cause. Even worse, he didn't want to know if he wasn't. If some other man had hurt her so badly that she felt the need for pictorial proof of it to mar her body, he felt certain he'd hunt them down and mar them far worse than the small tattoo on Joey's shoulder.

She sensed him withdrawing slightly and wracked her brain for a change of subject. "Do you think the weather will let up?"

"Anxcious to leave?" He teased, glad to move to a lighter subject.

She smiled, "Not particularly. I kinda like where I am right now."

"I like having you here," he placed a gentle kiss on her lips, and Joey forgot to breathe for a moment.

Her eyes fluttered slowly open, "You do?"

Her eyes were searching his for something he didn't want to relinquish. "Well, of course," he kissed her jaw, "You've always been the best sex I've ever had."

"Hmmm," she sighed as his lips brushed the skin of her neck. His plan to distract her seemed to be working. "I was?"

His mouth was warm and moist on her skin. "You were."

She arched her body closer to his, feeling his arousal come back to life, "You're insatable, you know that?"

"Yeah," he chuckled as he rolled them over, "I know, you complaining?" She answered him by claiming his mouth in a deep kiss.