Joy is sure he knows his limits. If he needs a break, she’s confident he’ll tell her. But part of this includes being attentive to his needs too. She doesn’t want him to have to get to that point. She could keep going on forever like that, especially with him, but he can’t. Not without wanting more.

Fox touches her elbow, fingers dancing up her arm to her shoulder and then to her face, urging her from her hiding spot. “Joy,” he whispers. It doesn’t take much more to coax her back onto his lap and to kiss him again.

This time, Joy’s hands find their way under his shirt. She murmurs, “Lift your arms, please,” against his lips. He does, helping her take off his shirt. She presses her forehead against his as she looks down. His nose brushes hers, and he lightly nudges her head up to kiss her again.

Fox has a tattoo on the side of his rib cage—two words written in cursive. Joy traces them with her fingertips before making her way across and down the rest of his chest. Washboard. She gets it now.

“What’s so funny?” he asks, smiling like he can’t wait to know the joke too. His lips are swollen, a brighter pink than usual, and just as wonderful.

But Joy shakes her head. She moves her hands back up his chest and over his shoulders, down the curve of his biceps and forearms to his hands on her hips.

“I didn’t really notice you on the boat or even look at you in the hot tub. It’s just not something I care about looking at. Does that bother you at all? That the way you look doesn’t—”

“No.”

“But I do like touching you.”

“I can tell.”

Her fingers skip along his collarbone like she’s delicately plucking guitar strings. “Does that bother you?”

Fox takes a deep breath, pulling his bottom lip into his mouth, and just shakes his head. He’s patient, but she can see his eagerness too. She can see that he wants her to stop talking.

Joy’s hands fall to her sides, and she sits back on his thighs. “This is what it’s like with me.”

There’s the tiniest bit of strain in his smile. “I’m not complaining.”

“Please listen, okay?” She cups his cheeks and gives him a quick kiss. “I view sex very rationally.”

Joy is grateful for growing up the way she did, because her high school taught comprehensive sex education. They drilled it home that no matter how you felt or whom you were attracted to, deciding to have sex was a big choice for everyone to make.

Being asexual wasn’t a choice for Joy. Deciding to have sex would be.