She hadn’t expected the kiss so she wasn’t prepared for the electric surge up her arm and right to her center. Dammit, she hadn’t expected it, wasn’t prepared for it and certainly never would have permitted it. She flushed reached for another bottle, not certain she had it in her to reprimand him for the liberty and not sure she wanted to. The latter was so much worse somehow. 

He was speaking to her, talking about regrets and voices and bets and so much that was unspoken that the air was thick enough to choke anyone breathing it. That wouldn’t do. They were supposed to be getting drunk, they were supposed to be reading. For certain she was well distracted from her shameful performance earlier but this was not necessarily better. It might even be more dangerous. 

She took the book and looked up at him, leaned over to the small table and slipped a scrap of paper into the book to mark its place.

“It is too long for a fair bet, we should read shorter selections now that we have more in us. She stood, walking around him, careful not to brush him with her rose-clad thighs as she moved the small distance to a shelf over her work table. She pulled down two books, one moss green with gold lettering on the side and the other pale blue with black characters of a foreign hand on the binding. She handed him the green one and sat on the floor opposite him, facing him with the blue book. He had recited a poem, that had sparked in her a great curiosity and now having heard his reading voice she wanted to hear him speak more poetry and hear the way his mind framed the words. 

She flipped through the book and held it up showing him columns of black characters on one page and a small painting on the other with more of the characters worked into the painting. 

“Poetry.” She said. “It will level things out. Much easier to break up into turns. Or we can try mathematical theory if you prefer?” there was a hint of humor in her voice, just a hint and the softness in her eyes hid any clues on the matter. 

She didn’t wait for an answer but looked back to the book and began to read, her honeyed voice soft and careful as if she were holding in the sweetness, worried it might have been too much. Or perhaps it was the simultaneous translation that slowed the honey but even so it was still there, as unstoppable as the tides.

[i]“I will ride the winds and 
Surmount endless waves. 
Setting sail on the vast ocean, 
I will one day reach 
The distant shores.”[/i]*

She looked up at him after reading, nodded to encourage him and then took a long pull from the bottle at her side. 

*Li Bai -"The Difficult Path”