Chapter 10: Arms, neck, back, thighs

The woman swiftly took it from him and made him hold the plastic jar of melatonin instead, turning the camera off and wordlessly ignoring the concerned look he gave her as they stood in front of their own room. She took out her room key to open the door, holding the device close. None of their items left in the room were moved or gone, all items still present.

"Sorry if I tugged you too hard." The man said as he let go of her wrist.

"You didn't, it's alright." The woman walked over to the nightstand in-between the two beds and placed down her camera. 

He had nothing else to say yet he couldn't help but stare at the woman who flopped down into the bed on the left.

Her shoes were slipped off and lay at the floor by the foot of the bed while she crawled back until her hand reached the pillows, and she fully laid down. She reached her arms above her head, her hands held and pulled against each other tightly as she attempted to stretch whilst laying down, her back arched, knees in reaction, Roman had the perfect side view of her arching body. He set the melatonin down on the nightstand between the beds, unintentionally staring.

"Got a knot?" He asked as he slipped his shoes off.

"I think, or it could be that my back is simply in bad shape." She sighed and stopped stretching, and it was like she was just in a five-second euphoria for when she finished stretching, her entire body seemed to fall back into the bed. 

Roman took his copy of the room key of his pocket, probably for some sort of comfort as it's rather sharp, while his pants were well fitted around the lap parts of his legs so leaving them in his pocket wouldn't be comfortable. He started doing a bit of his own stretching, one hand grabbing onto his shoulder as he rotated his shoulder by his bicep. His neck was also moved as he pushed his shoulders up, the neck side to side, cracks could be heard, and a couple of pops. His eyes never left her, and with his sitting position on the bed beside hers, he was fully facing her.

"Do you work in an office during the day?" 

"Yes, I sit and look at a screen, although there are times where I have to crouch as well, some of the models at my company are sometimes near to the floor."

"Ah, so your legs as well." 

"No, they're better than my back."

"Would you like some help with it?" 

The woman turned her head to look at him, still lying down, just turning on her side to lazily face him. Her head rested on her hand.

"I was not actually planning to take those." She looked at the little jar on the nightstand. "They don't really work for me."

He chuckled, a small smile almost reaching his lips, like he was wordlessly agreeing to her, giving a side eye glance to the sleep aid.

"No, like a massage. I can give you a massage." He implied with a gentle smile. 

His eyes were soft again, and they only ever seemed to soften when he was alone with her.

She lifted her head up, tired face shifting into a surprised one. 

"You're a masseuse during the day?" 

"No, teacher, but it can be a stressful job, so I learned to do self-massages during free time, and sometimes I help my coworkers with their knots, so I can do the same for you." 

She shook her head, looking at him serenely. 

"I couldn't ask that of you, let's just sleep for now."

"Now? You're not going to shower?" 

"Not tonight no, when I shower, I think about the past, and I'm not in the mood for that tonight."

"Do you have trouble sleeping too?" 

The woman slowly nodded with a shrug, it was her normal, to not fully sleep as her mind kept her occupied with so many thoughts that she imagined on the ceiling of her bedroom, or when she's sometimes glance at her door or the window through the dark. Sometimes the moonlight will shine through the window, and on rare times, it wouldn't.

Roman stood up and walked slowly to her bed, she was about to sit up until he made a hand motion, signaling for her to stop as he also froze above her. 

"Let me help you, if even just a little. I can't bear to see you more uncomfortable than you already are." He leaned over her, but he kept his hands folded and above his stomach where she could see them. He made no move to get any closer, just showing the sincerity on his face.

"If my being like this bothers you, I suppose." She agreed. "I'll give you one back so that we can be equal."

He grinned and watched her turn over on her stomach, folding her arms to tuck under her head, laying it back down to stare off to the side. 

"Any places you don't want me to touch?" 

"Anywhere it might hurt, other than that, hands above the waist." She said with humor. 

"Alright." He replied with a grin. 

He moved closer and his warm hands, which were bigger than hers might I add (just to correct the imagination, they could easily grab onto a neck singlehandedly, but instead they laid gently onto her back). He brushed his palms over her spine and shoulder blades, it made the woman shiver a little, but she stayed silent. He was looking for a certain spot, and when he found it, his palms slowly pressed down on that spot, right by one of her shoulder blades. The sudden pressure made her give a sudden groan and flinch, one of her hands clenched onto the pillow. 

"Sorry, did that hurt?" He asked gently.

His voice hovered over her as he leaned down to her ear. 

She shook her head, keeping her eyes to the side. 

"I was surprised. I don't normally get massages, so this feeling is still foreign to me." 

"Let me know if it gets uncomfortable." He responded, and then continued. 

It seemed that most of her stress had built up in her back shoulder area, because that's where his palms kept pressing down, like he could feel the stress, she slowly started to let out satisfied groans, sighs, her eyelids falling shut as the tension was leaving her. It startled her at first, she eventually started to adjust to it, not fighting it.

"When Gavin was at your place," He asked out of the blue, but quiet enough to count as a whisper. "Did he notice all this tension in your shoulders? You have so many knots." 

"I didn't even notice I had this many." She breathed out, though the friction from his hands on her back almost made it sound like a groan disguised into her words. "I doubt he would've noticed either." 

"I also feel like he wouldn't." He huffed. "Sorry, mind if I kneel above you? I can't get a good enough footing for this one knot between your neck and shoulder." He asked, sliding his hand over the back of her neck. 

The woman flinched at this contact, feeling how he was purposefully caressing her in the spots she gave permission for, all she responded with was a simple nod as her face was half buried in the pillow. Despite the intentions she was feeling, she still felt comfortable with him.

Roman planted one knee on the bed, beside her body, his body shifting as well so his shoulders could align better with hers. He still had his hands on the spot between her neck and shoulder, almost looking like he was trying to shift a bit of muscle there. He pressed the tips of his fingers further in.

"Ah!" She jolted. 

Her shoulders spiked up, Roman quickly took his hands away as she shuddered off the feeling she got, pushing herself up to process it. Her breathing was hitched and slowly pouring out in gasps, reaching up to grab her shoulder. 

"I'm sorry, did that hurt?" He asked in a nervous tone. "I may have gone a bit overboard." 

His steady hand was pressing gently on her back that was rising and falling, she didn't respond, only making shuddered out breathing sounds as he wondered what to do, his other hand was compelled into rubbing her shoulder into calming down. 

"Would you like me to stop?" He asked in a low whisper. The odd rumble from his low voice, like it came from within his chest. Like a pleasure growl that dogs make.

".... Yes." She said, slowly turning around in place to look up at him. She leaned back on her hands she looked up at him, her breathing pattern was going back to being regular. 

"Was it bad?" He tilted his head. 

"No, no, it was relaxing." She sat up and put a hand on his shoulder, pushing him a bit back and giving herself space. "It was just too new for me to get comfortable with."

He leaned away and sat back, watching as she adjusted herself back to normal, shaking off the sudden reaction and clearing her throat. Her fingers nervously combed through her hair that slipped over her shoulder before she looked up to face him again, the shocked or awake expression, fading back into her blank one.

"Let me return the favor, please." It was like she was trying to change the topic away from herself.

Roman had this skeptical look, shifting to a wide-eyed response as both her hands were planted on his shoulders, and tried to pull him closer to her again, further into the bed. He simply gave in and let her, but with an unanticipated move; he moved to the middle of the bed, still sitting up, but then instead of laying on his stomach, he took her by the hips and beckoned her to straddle him instead, the most forward thing he's done. She stared down at him, startled. 

"I'm sorry." He stuttered out. "It's just, I feel relaxed when I see your face, and, this way, you can reach me better. Is this alright?"

Noemie, who held kept her hands to her chest, began to rest them down on his shoulders, examining the look in his eyes. 

"Oui."

His tensed-up shoulders slightly rested, and his worried face relaxed.

Her hands tested him, caressed around his neck, gingerly and slowly, kneading some spots on his shoulders as he stared at her, sitting up and at a loss of what to do with his hands, between using them to help him sit up while leaning, or to hold her waist with them. If only he had more than two.

"Where are your sore spots?" She asked, not avoiding his eyes. 

He cleared his throat, the touch of her fingers on his chest, shoulders, and neck were making him act nervous in a way, though it only showed in the sound of his heartbeat and the shaking of the rise and fall of his chest.

This would normally be a pretty bold situation for most other people, but I suppose she was simply comfortable enough around him, that and drowsiness mixed with a tired spirit gives for an odd amount of laidback courage. It's not like this expression she was seeing in front of her was new, normally it would've made her uncomfortable, but she trusted and liked him.

"Did, did you and Gavin do something like this together?" He asked with a bit of humor in his voice, trying to form a smirk to cover the nerves.

"Massages?" Noemie asked back, tilting her head. 

"No, getting in positions like this together."

Noemie paused, thinking back to the night before. 

"We did, I pinned him down because he was lecturing me." She answered honestly, it brought a bewildered expression out of him. 

"He was lecturing you?" 

"When you began wondering about my decision to let him over at my place, you actually reminded me a bit of him for a bit." 

Roman began to frown.

"He pestered me about being too relaxed around him, so I had to push him down." 

Roman hummed as he listened, and was frowning, although an idea was sparking in his eyes.

 "Do you want to lecture me then?" He asked out of genuine curiosity as his free hand that was confused from before, finally decided to rest on the dip of the woman's hip. 

Noemie frowned in confusion. 

"Why would I lecture you?"

"I-I meant, like, do you want to push me down like you pushed him down?" His eyes were almost shaking, but not out of fear. 

Noemie was still confused and tilted her head at him. 

"Push you down into the bed?"

His hand pressed a little firmer onto her hip, and her eyes went from furrowed, to a surprised and then curious look. Her hands lay on his shoulders as she tilts her head. 

"Show me what you and Gavin did last night, I guarantee you I can do it better." He finally let in firm whisper.

Noemie fell silent, and her eyes started to look more at the parts of Roman she had brushed off before. The few loosened buttons of his collared shirt that could be seen through the V-neck of his sweater vest, his sleeves that were rolled up, the trembling of his legs as his knees rose higher, almost causing her to fall into his chest as his one hand was the only thing keeping both of them from collapsing together on the bed. 

"Roman." Noemie whispered, a sorrowful expression on her face. "Is this scenario what you were after this entire time?"

Roman's throat could be seen pushing a silent gulp down as he looked her in the eyes, a glint in his eyes. His hand that was planted on her hip slowly brushed up her side, moving to the small middle of her back, pulling her just a bit closer. 

"No! No! Not at first, it's just..." Roman whispered back in a panic. "That night you let Gavin spend with you, it was because of one of the heads you had to chop up, right?"

Noemie made no reply to this, she didn't respond, just kept staring as the breathing in the air was just starting to become more tense. It was like she was wanting to frown but also wanting him to continue.

"I wanted to comfort you, but Gavin was there for you instead. I'm sorry for that." 

"Don't apologize. We weren't really close enough." 

"But I wanted to be, I wanted to make sure I didn't make any choices that could give the manager another idea to toy with my head, I wanted to find a way to keep you from that sardonic man." 

His hand moved to her hair, one finger catching some of her dangling locks in it, softly curling it and brushing it out. 

"How am I to believe you're not lying to me just to have your way with me?"

"I'm not, please believe me, I'm not lying. Now that I know what you're attempting to do, I feel scared to lose you, I want to spend time with you, before that man ends up getting you both hurt." 

"I can't help but be bothered by how you keep insulting the person I chose to be intimate with." Noemie frowned as her legs gave out, and she let herself plop down to sit in his lap, her face contorted as her eyes widened for a moment, feeling something. 

He grunted at the contact, swallowing some sort of bubble in his throat.

"How could I not? Before you arrived, he would crack jokes with the others with the excuse of lifting the mood, some laughed while others didn't. I could never get the image out of my head, a mortician entrusted with prepping the dead for funerals during the day, cracking jokes about dead bodies at night."

Noemie had no response to this, what was there to respond with? It's not like she believed Gavin to be truly considerate to most things, but he did make things less uncomfortable for her. Sure, he didn't act considerate when others almost puked at the sight of chopped corpses and freshly picked organs, but he did stop making as many jokes after Noemie showed her discomfort in his humor. He became more serious when he realized it made his butchering partner feel safer with him, compared to her squeamish nervousness caused by his foul language and dangerous talking, that or he just started to feel more protective of her.