It takes several moments for my brain to launch itself into gear. Although I'm very happy where I am, I'm not getting a lot of oxygen, until some part of me remembers to relax and breathe deeply through my nose. And now his tongue's inside my mouth and his fingers are in my hair and it's all I can do to stay upright. I want to just flop down and surrender and let everything else drift away, and perhaps I will and there will be no offices, no shrieking employers with birthday cakes, no demands for overtime pay or fragments of bullet lodged in soft tissue.

My less conscious self needs no instruction. My jaw is working softly against his and I'm pressing up against him. I'm bony, so it might be a little uncomfortable. Guess that's one of the many little details that we'll unravel over time.