Apparently I could hurt it a lot. He gasped, a sort of hiss, between gritted teeth, and quickly pulled away. He turned away from me, muttered something about the toilet, and took off.

I reassembled myself, redid my hair, got a bottled water from the attendant, folded the blanket, and waited for Teddy to reappear so I could apologize for whatever I'd done.

He returned about five minutes later, looking flushed and abashed, and sat down next to me. He put his arm around my shoulder, turned to me, and said "Look, I'm sorry," at the same moment that I said, "I'm so sorry."

"Why are you sorry?" he asked me curiously.

"Well, I assume I must have hurt you pretty badly for you to react the way you did," I stammered. "Actually, I'm a little embarrassed, because I'm not exactly sure what I did. I—I don't know enough to know what I did wrong," I admitted. Fuck. This sucked.

"So this would be the down side to being with someone with no experience, I guess," I said.

"Well, for a genius who's working on her PhD and whatnot, you've certainly got the wrong end of the stick," he said, giving me a friendly squeeze and kissing my temple.

"So you're saying I didn't hurt you?" I asked.

"No," he said emphatically. "In fact, quite the opposite."

"The opposite?" I asked. "You acted like I poked you with a cattle prod! You jumped out of your seat and ran to the bathroom faster than the speed of light! So how is that a good thing?"

"Oh, this is embarrassing." He shook his head and looked down at his lap. He turned his head and looked at me, eyebrow cocked. "When we were kissing, making out, I guess, when I was touching you, it was very exciting, I was very excited. So when you went, uh, south of the border, I was already in quite a state of arousal, shall we say. And when you actually went for the touch, I almost shot my load right in my trousers. Nothing like that's happened to me since I was, like, god, maybe never. I mean, except maybe when I used to have dreams way back at the beginning."

I was staring at him. "I'm not sure how to ask this," I said, my embarrassment maybe equal to his. "Um, is this, normal for you?"

"No." His answer was emphatic and confused at the same time. "I mean, not to brag or anything, but I'm actually kind of known for my stamina and endurance where women are concerned." He heard his own words, and we both started laughing. "Oh, fuck, I'm such an asshole."

"So is it, um, because it's been awhile?" I asked tentatively. "You haven't been with anyone during the whole five weeks of the tour. I mean, have you?" I looked at him.

He shook his head.

"So could that be it?"

"I don't think so." He shook his head.

"So why, then?" I looked at him.

"Honestly?" he looked at me. "I think it's just you."

I stared at him. "What are you talking about? You mean because I'm so, um, sexy and seductive and stuff?" I couldn't keep the laughter out of my voice.

"Oh, Birdie, don't talk about yourself like that," he said, looking at me, stroking my cheek. "It makes me so upset when I hear you talk about yourself in that tone of voice." He leaned forward and kissed me, slowly, and leaned back. "You are pretty and so, so, sexy." He smiled, nodding. "Yeah."

I sat up slightly. "What do you see when you look at me?" I asked wonderingly. "How can you possibly date those thin, gorgeous models and think I'm sexy?"

"Yeah, you're awful looking," he responded with a snort, and he was so obviously being sarcastic that it shocked me.

"Jesus, Birdie," he continued in a whisper, "You're so wonderfully curvy and soft, how can you not see how beautiful you are?" He dropped a kiss on my nose.

Oh. My. God.

I took a deep breath. "Is, uh, that what happened when I, um, did the thing to your ear?" I asked. "Because I've never done that before, and I assumed I fucked it up too."

He nodded. "You did that just fine. It felt incredible, nearly lost my mind."

I smiled. "Well, this is all good to know, I suppose, if I ever find myself in a position to nibble somebody's ear again."

"Hey, listen," Teddy said to me, drawing me in. "I know you're not mine in any sense of the word, but please don't talk about being with other guys around me. Not even jokingly. I can't stand it. Maybe later I'll get used to it, but for now, I still want you for myself too much. Is that too much to ask, I mean seriously, is it a weird thing to ask for? Or could you do that? Hmm?"

I looked at him. "Not a problem. I mean, you know I don't have a past, and I'm not really looking for anyone at the moment." I thought about the boys and laughed, shaking my head.

He nudged me. "Share."

"It's nothing, truly."

"If it's nothing, then you won't mind sharing, right? Come on." He kissed the top of my head.

"Okay, okay. But it kind of goes against what you just asked me to do a minute ago. Still? Okay. I was just realizing that, as of last night, because of Ronan being such a darling and asking me out on that date, every single guy in UK Crush, the biggest selling band in the world, has asked me out and kissed me on the mouth. I'm probably the only girl in the universe who can say that." I smiled at Teddy. "And I think that's kind of cool, given how fabulous these four particular guys are." I leaned on his shoulder.

He moved his shoulder until I lifted my head, and he stared at me.

"What?" I asked.

"What do you mean, 'what'?" he demanded. "You know very well 'what'."

"Huh? No, I'm afraid I don't," I told him.

"All of us?" he asked. "All four of us?"

Oh. "Yes. All four of you." I smiled at him. "Does that surprise you?"

"Fucking right that surprises me," he said self-righteously.

"Why? You boys were very isolated, in a country where you didn't speak the language, and I was the only girl your age within your orbit, I think it would be a natural sort of thing to happen," I said reasonably.

"So tell me how it happened," he said, settling back into his chair with his arm around me.

"What do you mean, each time?" I asked incredulously.

"Well, yeah, we've got six hours left in the flight, are you saying that's not enough time?" he asked me.

"No, I guess not. But really? You want to know? After you said you didn't want to know about me and other guys? Does this mean you want to know about how Josh Hammond from the swim team tried to feel me up when I was in high school?" I asked with a smile.

"No, I—What? Who's Josh Hammond?" he asked, turning to look at me.

"No one," I answered, laughing. "Just some guy who tried to grope me on a dare or something on a bus while I was sleeping." At the horrified look on his face, I patted his arm, "It's okay, it was no big deal, the other guys stopped him, we were on our way home from a meet. Half the team was asleep; it was some dumb game. Relax."

"Anyway, back to the lads, did they really all come on to you?" He sounded amazed. "The cads. Unbelievable."

"That's rich, coming from the guy who came to my room with three condoms on his person," I said, shaking my head.

"That was different," he said.

"Are you kidding me? How?" I asked.

"Well, for one thing, I told everyone," he said. "They did it on the sly. There was definite subterfuge involved. It was disingenuous of them," he nodded.

I laughed. "Disingenuous, I see."

"You're laughing at me again," he said with a frown. "This is getting us nowhere. How about this. I'll just ask you two questions, you'll answer them honestly, and we'll consider the topic of you and the lads and their scandalous behavior toward you closed forever. How's that?"

I shrugged. "Works for me, if you can let it go. You're the one having issues with it, not me. I'm not bothered by what they did at all. It was rather nice, to tell the truth."

"Don't tell me, don't tell me," Teddy said, covering his ears. "Okay, can I ask my questions now, or do you want to wax nostalgic some more about how wonderful it was to make out with my mates?"

I waved my hand. "No, no, go ahead, ask away."

He cuddled me up some more. "Okay, first question: Did you ever consider accepting their advances? You know? Saying 'yes' to them?"

"Absolutely not." I answered emphatically.

"No hesitation on that one, I like that, Birdie, good answer, good answer." He grinned and kissed my temple. "Okay, now second question: When they kissed you, or when you kissed them, rather, or, hold on, when the two of you kissed, yeah, that's better, did you, um, have ice cream?" He gave me a piercing gray look.

"No. No one had any ice cream." He sat back and smiled, relief on his face. "No, wait, I take that back," I said, and the look evaporated. "I think Gethin had some ice cream. I did not, though. The only person I've ever eaten ice cream with is you," I smiled at him.

"Damn that Geth. Always getting what he wants." He hugged me and whispered in my ear, "You didn't have to tell me that, you know."

I hugged him back and whispered, "But you wanted me to be honest, didn't you?"

The rest of the trip passed uneventfully. I kept to my seat at mealtimes, and when the seatbelt sign was on; otherwise, Teddy and I shared his seat and watched movies or talked and napped. We were able to keep the making out to a minimum, though I was in a heightened state of awareness of him, constantly in tune to where our bodies were touching, where his hands were on me. He was messing with the hair at the nape of my neck constantly, and I don't think he was aware anymore that he was doing it. If I was in reach, his hand was there, wandering over to wrap the curls around his fingers, driving me crazy.

I wondered how I was going to survive six months of living with him.