Page 8 of Defined and Defiled
I do not know if it's the lasting effects of being taken down by a lusty doodle, or genuine empathy, but I feel sorry for him.
“Let's look at what we've learned. We know that when I open you, your head stays on the cover.” I look at him, and he nods slowly.
“We know that I can feel when you touch my pages.” He adds, “Or rip them.”
I wince. He's really not letting that go.
“Yes, and we know that you can float.”
“Fly,” he corrects, but there is no bite in his tone. If anything, he seems to get more excited as we go through our list of facts. His 'S' starts to glow again, and he levitates out of my hold.
“And we know I have a doodle that makes us very, very,” He pauses, “warm.”
I feel my cheeks flush.
“Yes. Warm. That's what we'll call it. It seems stronger when you’re open.” I look down at Melon, who is still trying to bite the air where Richard was. “It seemed to affect Melon, too. Although her way of showing affection is with slobber, so you should feel lucky you missed out on that.” Melon barks at me, offended that I'd tell Richard the truth about her. She's quickly mollified by a scratch behind her ear.
“So the power works on humans, and there are aftereffects,” Richard adds.
“Aftereffects?” I reply.
He hovers for a moment before answering, turning himself away from me.
“Do you not still feel it?” He asks. “I still feel..warm.”
It's harder to turn my teacher's brain off than my horny one. I have to fight the urge to tell Richard to find a thesaurus and come up with a new synonym.
“You still feel lustful?” I ask slowly.
“You don't?” He asks.
I bite my lip to avoid talking about what this might mean or any of the other million questions bouncing around in my head. Do the doodles affect him more since they're inside him? What would it have done if it were a broken heart? Did C.H. and Z.B. end up together in the end? I want to try again, but that won't work if Richard is too embarrassed. What does it even mean to feel horny as a book? Doeshe want me to slide a thick, hard bookmark into his pages? Should I add some delicious annotations in his waiting margins or lay down some sensual tabs on his side? Would he throw on a dust jacket for some safe sex? It could be worth investigating all of the possibilities.
I reach out to grasp him, turning him around to face me.
“I may not be feeling overwhelmed with passion anymore, but I am more than willing to kiss. For science's sake.”
He blinks at me.
“Yes, yes. As an experiment. Just to see how the lingering effects work.”
I smile and look at him. His face doesn't seem to truly protrude from the book; it's more like it's behind a clear screen, floating in space. This kiss will take a lot more work on my end if I want it to be any good.
Under the watchful eyes of Melon and my ex-girlfriend’s ceramic goose collection, I pull Richard close to me. At first, kissing him is not that much different than when I would kissposters of a certain brotherly boy band in middle school. It's a little humbling to have my lips pressed against the cover, even if there is a man's face trapped on the other side of it. I wonder what Mike would think if he knew I turned down his date so I could go home and attempt to make out with a book.
Then something changes. There's a slight give to Richard's cover, and suddenly I can feel him pressing against the barrier. His mustache tickles my face, and I almost break our kiss, surprised that I can feel it. Then there's the tongue.
At first it’s about as sensual as someone sticking their tongue out through gum, and then there is a pop and I can actually feel him on my skin, and in my mouth. Perhaps, there were still lingering effects for me too, because what starts as tentative exploration soon morphs, as I find myself actually enjoying this kiss.
I find myself running a finger through his pages, hoping I don’t get a papercut. Half-hoping that I will so I can snap out of this. Melon makes the decision for me as she bitesdown on my ankle. I pull out of the embrace, panting.
The gold light of the 'S' on his forehead fades, and he settles into my arms. I didn't notice how much of his weight he was keeping off of me before. I look down on him. It would stand to reason that a kiss like that should leave you changed in some kind of way, but he doesn't look any different.
“So no changing back after True Love's kiss and all that?” I joke.
His eyebrows fly up. “True love?”
“True 'First-person-to-find you since It Takes Two went off the air' kiss, I mean.”
