PROMPT: "Jeff and Annie accidentally end up in the lover's suite at a hotel. They try to keep things platonic, but the room is basically designed for having sex."
GENRE: Is laughter-smut a thing? Fluff, I suppose.
NOTES: Season 5-6ish

This is the result of some back-and-forth comment ficcing from myself, oneofthemuses, and majorwesjanson. Thanks guys for being so awesome! I would never have written this much without you showing off your respective talents. Some alternate versions of the scene are still ongoing, so readers check it out when you finish here. I wrote the beginning, oneofthemuses and majorwesjanson contributed in the first third, and then from the meal on it's all me. Comments are treasured and welcome!

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The Orchid Suite

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"I'm sorry about sharing, but on the paycheck I get from Greendale, any discount is..."

Jeff's voice trailed off as he swung open the door to their room and was assaulted with the full visual impact of a rose-wine carpet, a blood red bedspread over pale gold sheets, and sheer red lace curtains. Three of the walls were painted a soft cream color, while the accent wall was painted in a floor-to-ceiling mural depicting four-foot-wide orchids. The vivid blooms were arrayed in various states of open, closed, and desperately asking for it. About the only thing recognizable was the hanging flat screen TV. There was just one lamp, also shaped like a flower, but the room made up for the lack of overhead lighting with electric candles affixed in permanent holders at key points around the walls. The mishmash of sexual symbolism and a lurid color palette should have made the room ridiculous, but the overall presentation managed to skip past terrible and right back into sexy.

He was distracted by the enormous round mirror above the even larger bed when Annie shouldered past him with her luggage. She stopped immediately, stared in equal silence for a while, and finally said, "Is that a stripper pole?"

Jeff jerked his eyes to the left corner of the room. His voice was a little rough when he cracked, "Well, it's probably not for responding to fires."

Annie licked her lips, and dragged her eyes from the decor to Jeff. "Um...I think you may have overestimated my enthusiasm for this trip."

Rolling his eyes at her glib tone, Jeff walked further into the room and tossed his bag onto a dark red love seat. Summoning his typical confidence, he said, "Relax, Annie, I didn't set this up. Obviously the coupon I gave 'em at the front desk caused an error in the reservation. We were supposed to get two adjoining rooms like everyone else. I'll fix it."

With his most reassuring Winger smile, Jeff pushed aggressively at the phone keypad hanging on the orchid wall, and tucked the receiver against his ear. Annie stood off to one side listen, but it was clear from the get go that the room they had was the only room they were going to get. Jeff hung up after about a few minutes of arguing, and leaned one shoulder against the mural. "Looks like it'll cost almost twice as much to switch rooms at this point, because they'd have to rearrange their cleaning staff and open a new wing. They're gonna bring up a futon, though."

With an exhale too loud to be completely genuine, Annie nodded and looked for somewhere to put her bag. Jeff watched her circle in place with her duffle clutched to her chest, as if interacting with the furniture would be conceding to it. When this got boring, he said, "Here," plucked it out of Annie's grip, and set it up on a wood chest beside the closet.

"Okay, this hotel is absurd," he said after he made the mistake of looking in the same closet. Annie gasped when she joined him, and Jeff nodded in consensus. The two shelves above the clothes rack were lined with a literal buffet of sex toys. Each item was tastefully marked with a price tag and a tiny pamphlet for instructions. From erect dildos to silk ribbons, it felt like half a sex catalog had been purchased for their personal evening delight.

Annie somehow got her wits before him, because she said in a high, falsely snooty voice, "Well, those probably cost an arm and a leg. Anything from a hotel room is charged at seven times its retail value."

Jeff chuckled, and closed the doors to the closet firmly. "You look at the bathroom," he said with a wink, "I bet you five dollars there's a jacuzzi tub."

"No way, too easy," she replied, but ducked into the bathroom anyway. She came back out with an awkward twist to her mouth. "There's a...well...let's call it a swing."

"In the bathroom? Seriously?"

Annie winced as she clarified, "Above the bathtub."

"How does that even—no, you know what, this is insane. Pierce is haunting us. We've angered his ghost and now we're victims to his psychological torment from the afterlife." Satisfied with having landed an incontrovertible theory, Jeff threw himself onto the massive bed in the center of the suite. For once, it eclipsed even his height. He stared at himself in the mirror, then added, "I'm sorry about this, really."

"I'll live," Annie replied, gingerly joining him atop the bedspread. She leaned back as well, and their eyes met through the reflection. "It's...kind of funny?"

He inspected the picture the two of them made in the overhead mirror and wondered if 'funny' was the descriptor he would've chosen. Jeff knew that Annie was probably trying her best to break any unwanted tension, but it was worth considering that perhaps she didn't need to. Maybe Annie really thought the situation was funny, and was totally relaxed about the whole scenario. He swallowed his sigh and forced himself to respond before he got lost in his head.

"You're right, it is funny. So what if we're stuck with the suite from Fifty Shades of Burgundy? We can be grownups about this. We're both mature adults. And it'll be a hell of a story to tell later." This earned a soft smile from her, reflected through the mirror.

"Exactly," Annie agreed. "Plus, we have a futon coming so it's no big deal. Not like we're gonna to descend into an awkward sitcom cliche." He rotated his head to stare at her directly, an eyebrow raised, and she flushed before huffing slightly. "Without Troy around, I may be spending a little too much time with Abed, okay?"

Jeff chuckled, his smile widening as he continued to watch her, and Annie grinned back. It was nice, even relaxing...so of course, that's when the phone rang. He made a face and Annie laughed as she watched him heave himself off the bed and pick up the receiver like it was a live snake.

"What? Why? You already promised us that—" Jeff could feel his stress levels, seconds ago next to nil, ratchet up with every platitude the person on the other end offered. He glanced over his shoulder, briefly made eye contact with Annie, and attempted a reassuring smile. It faltered as soon as he turned back to the wall and its garish orchid print.

"Okay, so, what then? What are we supposed to do?" He listened intently for a minute. "Fine. I guess we don't have much a choice. But you'll be hearing about this on Yelp." Apparently, thought Jeff, threats of bad Yelp reviews were the closest he was going to get to being a bad ass lawyer these days. Joy.

"—Yeah, it better be good." At odds with his parting words, he slammed the phone down, and felt a fleeting sense of satisfaction at the loud noise. He turned back to face Annie and wavered, unsure how to fill the subsequent silence.

"That sounded like a positive, productive conversation." Annie eyed him from her reclined position, a hint of a smile climbing her features and her brown hair splayed around her. God, she looked like a dream he'd had once. "What the verdict, Jeff?"

"So. We're getting free couples' massages tomorrow. And a romantic dinner for two with rich and sensual foods, on the house. But we're not getting a futon."

When it came, the table set-up was stunning. Candles flickered around the room to create a warm, low light, and the silk napkins were folded into decorative shapes. In the center of the food tray, a platter of steaming oysters was framed by trays of dipping sauces and three separate types of roast vegetable. In the corner, a bottle of champagne on ice added that final romantic touch. Jeff bit the inside of his cheek, aware that his casual jeans and Annie's cardigan were not the clothes the hotel's food designer had in mind for a meal like this. What the hell—a free caesar salad was a free caesar salad, right?

"Milady?" Jeff pulled out the chair for Annie to sit, despite the fact they'd agreed not to treat it like a dinner date. The courtesy was natural with a set-up this decadent, and Annie accepted it in good spirit.

Jeff took his seat opposite the small rolling table, and gleefully dismantled one of the napkin-birds while Annie inspected the oysters with a cautious fork. She poked one three times before successfully stabbing it, and glanced his way. "People actually eat these?"

"Yep." He slurped one out of the shell in demonstration, and she cringed. "People will eat almost anything if someone tells them that it will make their love life better." When Annie quirked an eyebrow at him, he added, "I, of course, don't need the help," and pushed the tray away. Annie just rolled her eyes at that, and tried the wine.

"This is really good!" she enthused, taking another sip. Jeff glanced at the label and took a drink himself, swirling it in the glass to observe the intensity of the bubbles.

"Better be, this stuff is almost a hundred bucks a bottle," he pointed out.

"That's more than my car's probably worth!" Annie sputtered, before composing herself. "I mean, it's not bad. Better than what I usually get." She turned her nose up and took another sip. "I suppose I'll have to ask Jeeves to look into my wine selection when we get home," she said in a posh accent.

"Well, someone else is paying for all this, so bottom's up," Jeff said. Their mutual grins met over their wine glasses, then Annie held hers up in a toast.

"To free food!" she toasted. They clinked their drinks together, smiling.

All in all, dinner was a treat, and Jeff forcefully cordoned off any stray thought about who would really end up paying for it. After the mythical futon, he didn't trust the management here not to change their minds. Of course, it was possible that for once the universe was trying to do something nice for him, and it would all be on the house. If he was being honest with himself—which Jeff only bothered to do when it was convenient—any bill was worth the memory of Annie tipping her head back to swallow an oyster then licking the butter off her fingertips. All shellfish tasted like the bottom of the ocean to him, but Annie's sweet, puckered mouth closing around her finger was a show he could watch for days.

"Oh my god, that was was good," she gushed after they had pushed their plates aside. The champagne bottle was down to two thirds, enough to get a pleasant buzz all around, but they seemed to have reached a mutual and unspoken decision not to get drunk tonight. With one hand to his full stomach, Jeff hauled his entire lumbering frame to his feet. He stretched, cracked his neck, then pushed the dinner cart to the far end of the room near the door. He checked back to see Annie sitting on the bed, ankles tucked under her knees in martial arts style. As she busily tapped at the screen of her phone, it occurred to Jeff that he hadn't checked his in half an hour.

This criminal oversight was easily remedied, and he rapidly tracked a group message about the whereabouts of their friends. They'd all been given different coupons by the Dean, split between three hotels. Shirley and Abed were having a wild time fighting a rival pair of travelers for the best rooms, and Britta and Hickey were chilling over a marathon of Elementary and free pizzas. As for their own circumstances, Annie had been remarkably cagey. Comments about the dinner ran past 600 characters, and there was a brief rant over the gaudy flowers, but not one word about the sex toy closet or the general debauchery of the place. The devil of intuition whispered in his ear not to overlook this; Annie had decided for the both of them that anything suggestive about their circumstances was to go unmentioned to their friends. Rolling his tongue against his teeth, Jeff turned his phone to airplane mode and shoved it in his deeper pocket.

Even so, he reminded himself this was nothing to be surprised about. Annie liked to maneuver around drama when it wasn't of immediate use to her, and she had a mastery over managing information and events so as to account for future damage control. In that way, she was leagues away from the Dean, who hand-waved absolutely everything, or Abed, who deliberately fostered awkward situations. As he joined her to sit on the bed, Jeff tossed a smirk Annie's way, held up the remote control, and began flipping channels. In front of them, a large flat screen hung on the wall between two enormous, pornographic flowers.

"Ooh, go to twenty-seven," said Annie. "Armageddon just started."

They made it an hour and a half through the epic space adventure before Jeff noticed Annie dozing against the gold and red pillows. Her hair had fallen into her face such that little strands of it puffed out with her breathing. He reached over, curled his finger around the soft threads, and tucked them back behind her ear. Her eyes drifted open just as he withdrew.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"Time to get ready for bed," he said. "Mind if I go first?"

She yawned and shook her head, so Jeff tore himself away from her sleepy smile and ambled into the bathroom.

After some creative jimmying to unhook the sex swing, Jeff relished in the minor satisfaction of shoving its bulk under the sink. With that out of the way, he let hot water and misty air envelope him until his head was completely empty. Showers were never a depressing place for Jeff; he couldn't contemplate being one of those sad saps in the movies who cried in a pile on the bathroom tiles. Showers were cathartic, the best thing besides an orgasm for clearing your head and making the world disappear. After a mental vacation from all things related to sleepy smiles or buttered fingertips, Jeff stepped from the bath pleasantly relaxed. His skin felt alive and sensitive under the cooler touch of the bathroom air, and he applied his moisturizer with a satisfied self-examination. He'd already brushed his teeth and was idly messing with his hair when Annie knocked. Before the shower, Jeff had grabbed a pair of long work-out pants, but that was it. A part of him wondered if he should put on a shirt, but the lazier half of his brain had already opened the door.

"Officer Edison," he greeted. "I have a complaint. I think this bathroom was robbed. Someone came in before me and stole all the worthwhile skin care products."

Annie made a production of rolling her eyes, but then she grinned, which ruined the affectation. "My turn!"

Going straight for the mirror, she jostled him over with her elbow, claiming the sink. Jeff's eyes followed the line of her bare shoulders to the narrow straps of her tank top, and on down to her green and white flowered shorts, which left more leg than he'd seen from Annie since the second paintball war. He could stand here picturing her changing clothes on the other side of the door while he was naked in the shower, or he could stop being a creep and let her brush her teeth.

With a dramatic sigh he gestured to the toothpaste, gave a half-bow, and conceded the territory. As he walked out, the door didn't swing closed with quite enough force to catch. Jeff turned back to see it hanging open a few tempting inches; inside, Annie rocked on her feet in front of the mirror. He examined the domestic picture she made, admiring how the bright light wrapped around her skin, then shook out his shoulders and turned back to the flickering television.

Nearly twenty minutes later found Jeff leaning with his nose and forehead against the wall, the room phone up to his ear, and all his verbal talents set on obtaining a wifi password. "You don't understand," he growled into the receiver. "I have a two gigabyte data limit. I need the—"

A hand closed on his bare elbow, and Jeff let his sentence hang unfinished as he glanced down to the freshly scrubbed face at his side. Annie's eyes met his beneath damp brown curls that stuck to her forehead in little strands, and this time she didn't smile. Yet she held him prisoner all the same, breathing in slow, steady inhalations that Jeff unconsciously matched.

/ Hello? / said the voice on the phone. / Are you still there, sir? /

Without looking, Jeff set the receiver back in its cradle. His stare dropped to see not just Annie's shape under the towel but his own bare chest, mere inches away from hers. The proximity was so all-encompassing it was almost bizarre: five years of idle daydreams and erotic yearning compressed to nothing but air. A trail of water that had gathered in her hair broke free to run down her neck, and when she brought one hand up to swipe it away Jeff beat her to it. He picked Annie up like she was a featherweight, swung her back against the mural, and trapped the drop of water with his tongue. She squeaked, but it turned into a moan as he began to nibble and kiss his way from her throat to the corner of her ear, then across her cheek.

Jeff smirked as he inhaled the scent of shampoo and clean female skin. He was just getting familiar with the underside of her chin—and the way her hips fit between his hands—when Annie grabbed him and pulled his lips determinedly to meet her own. It was a hot kiss, a wonderful kiss, and ended with his leg snug between her knees while she ground down on him.

"Do you want me, Jeff?" She breathed out the words as if they were a perfunctory question, just a matter-of-fact request. He had no idea why she thought it needed asking, given where his hands were at the moment, but if they were finally being honest then Jeff would be honest.

"Every day and every hour," he replied, and pushed her fully to the wall so that his entire body pressed on hers. One of his hands strayed up to dig in her loose, wet hair, and Annie responded by tugging on his with her own fingers. Her towel was still tied over her chest, but it had opened at the bottom, so that Jeff could feel her bare thighs and at their juncture, cotton panties creating the flimsiest barrier.

"Tell me," Annie urged. Her deft little hands were everywhere, somehow: his chest, his neck, his ass. "Tell me you want this."

It sent a shiver of disbelief through him that she didn't know this already. It was hard to conceive that his mask could've been that effective, when for the last year it seemed like everyone had a snide comment to make when he so much glanced her way.

Other people weren't Annie. With his heart beating a like a concert, Jeff tucked his hands under her chin and tilted her head till she looked him in the eyes. The hot and bothered version of her was stunning, all flushed cheeks and delicate eyelashes. One of her palms was flat against his back and her other dug into the fabric of his sweatpants. And she wondered if he wanted this?

"Fuck, Annie," he whispered, leaning in. "I want you so much, some days I think I'll die if I don't see you."

The kiss this earned him was hungry, almost animalistic. Jeff lifted her away from the painted mural and spun to the bed, setting her down on the mattress with his hand behind her head and his frame sliding between her legs. Annie tugged him down and their lips smashed together, all tongue and no patience. Wracking his brain to figure a plan of approach in the midst of intense distraction, Jeff broke off and began to mouth his way down her neck. The room spun and left him dizzy with all the new things he was learning about her: what made Annie sigh, what made her gasp. The towel had been trampled between the wall and the bed, so her breasts lay before him, rising and falling with her erratic breaths.

"I want you everywhere," Jeff said as he relished the sight. "In my apartment," his lips brushed her nipple, enveloping the tip then releasing it again to tease her, "in my car."

He shifted to her other breast, "In my office at Greendale, and in my shower," and let his hand encompass the one he'd left. "I really want you when we're in the group and you're pinning those stupid stars on the wall."

From higher up on the bed Annie snorted a giggle between gasping breaths. "You're lying."

"Nope, achievement totally does it for me." He kissed a circuitous path down her stomach, peeling off her underwear and tossing it in the general direction of their stuff. "I don't care who else is there. I imagine pushing you into a chair, taking the paper star out of your hand, dropping to my knees and bringing your leg over my shoulder, just like this."

As he said it, Jeff pushed her right leg up over his shoulder and brought his mouth against her clit. Annie almost lifted off the bed in reaction, but he gripped her legs to hold her writhing body in place as he began to work her over with his mouth. Whenever he stopped to take a breath he'd tell her more about his fantasies, enjoying the way his stream of words elicited visible reactions from her. He hadn't originally figured her for bedroom talk, but that was stupid, pre-hotel thinking—of course Annie liked to be talked up. Miss debate champion and study leader had an answer for everything. She'd want to know exactly what was in his head so she could write it down later, probably. Smirking, Jeff let a finger slip inside her while he spoke against her hot skin.

"I dream about you a lot, Annie. Sometimes it's like this, eating you out and listening to the sounds you make. Sometimes we're at Greendale, and you're in a stupid costume, but instead of fighting everyone you take my hand and pull me into the faculty lounge, or an empty classroom, and we lay down on one of the huge tables."

As he spoke he added another finger, bending them up in a curl and pumping them at a pace he gradually increased until Annie squirmed on the gold sheets and let out a gasping whine. "I'm inside you the whole time, and you're telling me to fuck you fast before anyone discovers us. You're supposed to keep quiet but you can't help making noise because I just keep pushing it—" as he said it he rubbed her clit, the moisture from her channel making his fingers slick.

"I always make you sc—" before he could get the words out Annie shoved his face back down over her crotch and arched her body upward.

Always one to take a hint, Jeff tongued her, at the same time thrusting his fingers in and out of her hot center. Annie didn't scream, but she let out a long, sensual moan as her muscles went tight beneath him. Jeff found himself caught between two rock-hard female legs as her body tried to chase her orgasm as far as it would go. Then she fell back on the bed, all loose limbs, sweat, and beautiful skin. Jeff extricated his fingers and crawled up the bed to see the results of his effort.

Like he'd hoped, Annie appeared breathless and pleased. He kissed her once before displaying his wet fingers for her to inspect. Her senses coming back, Annie gave his fingers a side-eyed glance, so to tease her he brought one sticky digit up to his mouth and licked it like a popsicle. When he saw her expression, Jeff couldn't help it. His cool broke and he had to turn away because he was laughing so hard his face hurt.

"What?" snapped Annie, sitting up on her elbows and looking back and forth from his hand, wet with her cum, to his open and smirking laugh.

"Jesus Annie, your face," he snorted. "You looked like I ate a live eel in front of you."

"Well, you know!" she sputtered. "It's all gooey. It looks gross when you just lick it like that."

"What'd you think I was licking when I was down there, a Capri Sun?"

She hit him semi-forcefully in his chest, so Jeff rolled over, still snickering. With a swing of her legs, Annie was on top of him and trying to pin his arms down to the mattress. He let her, because from this angle he could sneak glances of her backside in the massive mirror above the bed. It was hot as fuck and he planned to remember it forever.

"Okay, Jeff," she stretched out the consonants in his name with lofty confidence, "I may not be up to your 'culinary standards' yet, but I bet I can make you stop laughing."

"Sure," he chuckled, "You go and—"

In a quick slide of flesh Annie had him fully inside her, and Jeff's arrogant face went dumbstruck as he finished, "...try."

When she rolled a little bit to settle deeper onto him, Jeff grabbed her hips. "Keep doing that," he panted. "Just do that forever."

"So we're not laughing at Annie anymore?" she teased, and moved her weight again to grind down on him. "Nothing clever to say?"

Thrusting up as far inside her as he could go, Jeff said loudly and robotically: "I want you, I need you, please just do me, Annie Edison."

This made her giggle so much she lost her balance for a moment, but it stopped being a problem when he pulled her down to meet him in a kiss that was all fire and tongue. Everything seemed to fall together then, and they soon found a pace that had both of them too breathless for words. Instead, they locked gazes as they moved up and down, together and apart.

He wasn't much for heavy eye contact during sex, but there were a few times when Jeff had been with a woman in more than just a casual fling, and in those instances eye contact became a crutch he dreaded, but desperately hoped for. That final intimacy, that last barrier torn down: this was as close as they could physically be, yet he sought affirmation in her gaze. Did she really want Jeff Winger, the person? Did Annie see someone worth loving when she looked in his eyes, and inspected every vulnerable piece of him?

Annie never faltered. She never hesitated to meet his stare with her own or wordlessly urge him to give even more. He pushed himself into her as fully as he could, and relished the hope that she was giving back just as much.

When he was close to the edge, the physicality became too much for Jeff, and he broke their intense gaze to lean back against the mattress and position Annie fully upright. Her knees rested on either side of his ribs and she rocked backward. Sitting on his cock like this, every motion she made hit his sensitive flesh like an earthquake. Annie was riding it close, and she began to rock up and down on him. He helped her, lifting her ass until she was nearly bouncing, and within a minute she gasped and clenched her legs, her own hand reaching down to rub herself over the pinnacle.

Jeff caught the vision of it in the mirror: Annie with her head flung back, dark hair in a frizzy cloud around her shoulders as she frigged herself and he moved visibly inside her. He came then, more intensely than he had in a what felt like a century's worth of solitary nights and disillusioned encounters. The knowledge that the person with him now was Annie suddenly made all the difference, in a way he hadn't quite been prepared for. Jeff clutched her where they were joined and rocked upward, saying her name as he came apart.

She kissed the sound of her name from his lips, smiling and repeating his own back to him. Her long hair fell down around their faces, tickling him, so he rolled them both over and kissed her again from above. At last he pulled out and rolled onto his back, startled, for a moment, to catch their reflection in the mirror.

Beside him, Annie's mirror double found his gaze and made a righteously offended pout. "Don't stare at my boobs, you perv."

Jeff chuckled and sat up, blatantly pausing to look down at the real article. "Annie, cut me some slack. Your boobs have been the subject of my curiosity since sophmore year."

She sat up as well, pulled her hair to one shoulder, and raised her eyebrows. "Well, since the first debate," he amended. She held her stare until Jeff broke. "Maybe I noticed them the first day of study group. You are aware I'm a terrible person, right?"

"Oh, I don't know... You have some good parts," said Annie, then ruined her cool by chuckling at her own joke. It was adorable, and Jeff drank in the sight of her flushed cheeks and tangled, still-damp hair. She was a total mess, but knowing that he helped her look like that made it the sexiest mess he'd seen in a long while. Annie stretched, giving him another free show, then flopped back on the bed with her arms flung out.

"How do people sleep after sex? Between that and the shower I feel like I drank three cups of coffee."

"Power of youth?"

"Yeah, well...shut up."

"Ouch, that burn will stick with me for a while." Leering, he cocked his head toward the closet. "Wanna try one of the toys?"

Annie actually blushed, then tried to put on bravado: "Whoa, cowboy. I may be spontaneous and sexy now, but it's like, intermediate level sexy."

Jeff lay down so that his chin rested on her stomach. "You're the most rigorously curious woman I know, and you lived above a sex shop for two years. You bought something."

"A lady never tells," she informed him, smiling so big and winking so ridiculously that Jeff almost told her right then that he was in love with her.

"Hey," he said instead, "Remember when I said we could be mature grown-ups and not let this room get to us?"

"Yeah?"

"That was a dumb idea. I'm glad you ignored it." He turned his face into her stomach, and blew a raspberry. Annie giggled and batted at him for tickling her, but she didn't shove him off. Eventually, the hand that had been playfully hitting him turned to a soft caress. Her fingers carded through his hair, and the gentle massage soothed Jeff till his bones felt like water.

"I'm glad too," she added after a while.

"About what?" Annie pinched him on the arm. "Okay, yeah, I know. Just messing with you. Hey, what do you want to do tomorrow?"

Her whole tone flipped from contentment to instant concern. "What d'you mean, what do I want to do tomorrow? We're all going hiking, Jeff. I made an itinerary."

"Or we could not go hiking," he said, then followed it with an exaggerated wiggle of his eyebrows. In response, Annie's mouth became one determined line.

"I printed out full color maps of the trailhead."

Jeff hauled himself up the mattress in an impressive show of upper body strength, loomed until his body completely dwarfed hers, and said in a deadly quiet tone: "We all make sacrifices, Annie."

Smiling at him that gleeful way he was fast becoming addicted to, Annie whispered, "Jeff..."

"Yeah?"

She surged up, closing the minute distance between them with a kiss. There was nothing quanitifiably different about this kiss compared to the two dozen exchanged in the evening so far, but it was new all the same. Every kiss Annie gave him from now until forever would be a calling card for the memory of nights like this. Her lips were soft and he chased them as she pulled away, kissing her one more time.

"So you agree, then. Perfect."

"What?"

Annie's reply was smug. "You just promised to go hiking tomorrow."

"Uh, no I didn't."

"Ah-ahh. We all make sacrifices, Jeff."

He let out a great big breath, and dropped to the bed beside her. "Fine, we'll go hiking tomorrow. But the whole time we're slogging through the underbrush I want you to remember how much benefit we got from this room, and all the crazy things we could be doing in it."

Annie tucked her body into the space under Jeff's arm, and put one leg over his. She snuggled into her new spot like a particularly hands-y kitten, and told him that if it made him feel better he could text her about it while they hiked.

"I'm not that desperate," he said, reaching out his free arm to mess with the nightstand switch until the electric candles around the room dimmed into darkness.

"You totally are," she murmured, and arguing about it sounded like too much effort. The luxurious sheets of the bed and the warm shape of Annie beside him lulled Jeff into a doze, until, at last, he dropped off to sleep with the soft tickle of her breath on his chest.