Sean chuckled once more as Claire spent the next several minutes waiting for him to recover while she propped her chin upon his chest. She looked down at him with a guilty grin while he remained laying on his back, not moving much more than to push a loose red-blonde lock from his face.

Catching her expression, he couldn’t help letting out another laugh. “You know, I’m going to have to change my pants now,” he teased.

“You poor thing,” she added with a giggle and another blush.

He just scoffed with a smile, finally forcing himself back up onto his elbows once more, “This would be me, attempting to get up to do that,” he added in the same playful, though slightly awkward manner.

“Oh, sorry, did you want me to move?” she continued to feign that innocence in spite of her previous actions, and the fact that she still didn’t move back from him.

“Is that a trick question?” he asked her as he furrowed his brow above the remaining grin.

Claire just chuckled again. She finally moved from his chest to lean back upon her own elbows atop the bed. Though she still didn't move her eyes from him for even a moment. Sean chuckled again as he managed to push himself up from the bed, only half-turning back, their eyes meeting again.

“My clothes are in here,” he offered with the same amused grin, gesturing slightly to that worn bag that now rested on the floor next to his bed.

“Don’t let me stop you,” Claire offered mischievously. Now that she knew exactly what effect she could have on him, without him even trying to dissuade her from doing so; it strengthened her confidence, and her desire, that much more.

Sean couldn’t help his own blush returning to already flushed skin as he shook his head with equal parts disbelief, and amusement. He finally moved toward the bag and searched for a clean pair of pants, considering the state his current ones were now in. And it was all thanks to the very hands of the woman who never failed to pleasantly shock him again and again.

Upon locating the pants, he set them on the edge of the bed she still reclined upon. He cast her one more look to see her eyes remaining glued to him, while she wore that same mischievous smile. Sean shook his head once more and took a deep breath before turning away from her. He awkwardly began to undo the dampened front of that incredibly thin material that easily allowed him to be shaken so thoroughly by the feel of each of her caresses only moments earlier.

Claire continued to watch as he stiffly undressed, almost seeming afraid to turn back to her while doing so, in spite of her previous attentions. He quickly turned partially towards her once again, long enough to reach for those unsoiled pants, before turning even more quickly away to slide them up over that perfect behind of his. Claire's eyes moved over him for those brief moments that he was exposed to her before being once again hidden beneath a new layer of clothing.

After hurriedly dressing once more, he did finally manage to turn back to her. Sean shook his head at the way she had been taking in every inch of his briefly exposed flesh. The way in which she appeared to be jarred from her appraisal of his body once he faced her again, couldn’t help but amuse him further, despite the awkwardness he had seemed to display while undressing in front of her.

“You know,” he began with another teasing smile as he took the seat next to her again, “you keep up this behavior, and you’re going to cost me a fortune in clothing, alone,” he chided.

“If it’s any consolation,” she began bravely, moving to place her own soft kiss over his lips, “my under things are soaked too,” she whispered to him pointedly. Sean blushed even brighter then as he tilted his head back, trying to swallow his huge grin. He simultaneously tried to focus on the roof long enough to come up with some response to that confession.

“Ok, should I have left the pants off?” he chided, attempting to sound like he was joking. But he honestly wondered if she would take the comment quite literally, and order him right back out of his clothing, demanding that he please her right then and there. Marriage vows be damned.

“Come on now, would a good girl ever demand such a thing?” she teased.

“Why? Is there one here?” he returned her jibe, pretending to look about the room. Claire just smirked and gently nipped at his neck, wrapping her arms around his narrow waist again. Trying not to forget how to speak, considering the entire morning, Sean bravely continued, “Ok, I’ve got to ask you something that any other woman would smack me for, if not worse, but, as you stated, I’m a brave man” he began.

“Well, you’ve got me curious,” she smiled. “So ask away, please.”

Sean moved away only slightly, buying one more moment as he pushed another long, now loose, lock from his eyes. He looked downwards and took another breath before continuing, “You know that no matter what you say, I’m still completely smitten with you. But just to satisfy my own curiosity, considering a couple of the other girls I’ve wandered across in the clearing where we met, and all…” another breath, “I’ve just gotta know, exactly how much have you done, you know, with a man” he asked softly as he looked over at her again, seeming just a bit fearful of her reaction to such a question after all.

Claire couldn’t help looking down as she let out her own awkward laugh before speaking up, “Well, there was this one boy who lived up the road. Well, one day he asked me to marry him, and I thought, well, he is pretty easy on the eyes, so I may as well. Then I followed him to his house the next day and rubbed him, down there, until he couldn’t take it anymore. Then, after he changed his pants, he apparently was so pleased by the way that I touched him, that he was convinced that I wasn’t a virgin after all,” she relayed the morning’s events to him with obvious sarcasm, though still wore the grin.

“Very funny,” he told her as he shook his head again. “But honestly, you do seem to have a whole lot in common with Ana, and Chan, and Mr. Torrence, with all the crazy shit in the woods and all. So, considering what I’ve seen them do with each other out there… It’s not that odd of a question, really,” he told her, voice dropping a bit as he finished the sentence. Though he sounded like he felt guilty for even asking her, but still couldn't help his need to know.

“Actually, it is, Sean,” she corrected him, though gently, “I mean, think about it. What other guy in the entire colony would ever interest me, or tolerate me? Let alone both?”

Sean took another breath before allowing himself to state the one suspicion that did worry him slightly. Now that he knew how truly willing and able she was to please him; behind closed doors, anyway. The suspicion was only strengthened by him knowing that Chantarell had greatly involved Claire in their strange Pagan activities over the last few years: The same activities that Mr. Torrence willingly engaged in with the other two women as well.

Sean couldn't help thinking over all of the facts he did know. These coupled with knowing that he and Mr. Torrence did indeed have the same interest in women that were both young and beautiful, but also patently unconventional. There was also the fact that he knew that Claire had been friends with Chantarell even longer than he had known Claire himself.

All of those very facts combined to force him to ask, “What about Mr. Torrence?”

“What?” she asked, finally seeming shocked, herself.

“Well, he’s always out in the woods, doing things with the other two girls who no one else in town accepts… And I know you’re out there a lot too, so….” his voice trailed off.

“Mr. Torrence?” she scoffed, “You can’t be serious,” she laughed to hide her own confusion at the idea that Sean seemed to be proposing.

“He does like women who are a hell of a lot like you. He likes them a lot,” he smiled, though still spoke unsurely.

“Other than the fact that he’s already got one extra mistress," Claire began wryly, “isn’t he a little old to be attending to three different women?” she asked innocently.

Sean then just had to laugh, “You’re not serious, are you?” he nearly echoed her earlier comment, “I almost look older than him,” Sean pointed out with his own confusion.

“The Mr. Torrence that Chan works for?” Claire replied skeptically.

“Yeah, that’d be the one,” Sean smiled. “You mean you’ve never met him once in the three years you've known Chan?”

Claire just shook her head, not immediately answering his question, “But Chan said that her father worked for him, too,” Claire restated, obviously quite puzzled.

Sean shook his head with a gentle disagreement, trying not to show any other obvious emotions at the mention of his own father. “She had to have meant that ou---her dad worked for this Mr. Torrence’s father. This Mr. Torrence is just about the same age as me,” Sean informed.

Claire thought on the words a moment and shook her head, “Well, if she did mean that her dad worked for his dad, and he is just your age…” another shake of her long black, slightly disheveled, locks. “Guess it makes a lot more sense that she and Ana sleep with him now,” she smirked again at the thought, then remembered his previous question. “And no, I’ve obviously never met him, or even Ana.. Usually Chan comes to see me, or I see her in the forest,” she added.

“I guess he really is quite the recluse,” he smiled, then remembered the original reason why the conversation had even moved to his strange employer. “So, you’re a virgin, and still that, uh, good with your hands? You are a witch,” he teased.

Claire just rolled her eyes at the statement before responding, “I guess I will admit that I did get quite a few very detailed pointers from our favorite redhead,” she confessed. “But now it’s a lot less difficult to imagine the activities that gave her knowledge of all that valuable information she’s shared,” she allowed another wry smile.

“You actually mean to tell me that you got pointers, detailed pointers, from Chan?” he asked, his eyes only slightly widening at the thought.

“Who else?” she teased.

“And Chan didn’t wanna know why you were suddenly so eager for all that carnal knowledge?” he asked, slightly uncomfortable despite the smile he still wore.

“I’m pretty sure she knew it was because of you, dear,” Claire teased.

Sean just slid forward to the edge of the bed with an even more awkward smile, “So she was telling you all the things to do, to make a man happy, knowing that the man in question was me?” he replied with a more pointed shake of his head as he ran his hands through the long loose locks that hung around his beautiful face as he leaned forward upon his hands, where his elbows were now nervously propped on his knees.

“Who else?” she repeated, still amused, though confused, by his reaction.

“That’s just…” another shake of his head, “just…” he didn’t bother trying to find the word to finish the statement.

“Why are you so worried about it? I mean, she is my only friend. And you are the one man I wanna please. And she obviously knows how to please a man… So who else would I talk to about it really?” she still wore the soft smile as she moved a hand to run her own fingers through his hair as well.

“But Chan, telling you what to do to please me? Me?” he just shook his head again.

“What? You thought I should have talked to my mother instead?” she returned smartly, causing him to look back quickly at that thought.

“No, you’re right: Even my sister is better than that,” he scoffed as he rose from the bed, though still managed a slight smile.

“Your who?” she asked, thrown by the comment as she narrowed her eyes.

He sighed and finally repeated with defeat, “My sister.”

“Aren’t you an orphan?” she asked, finding yet more confusion in the strange morning.

“Yes, but before he died, my father got another girl pregnant. Besides my mother. And that girl had Chan, I guess,” he admitted.

“Wait…what…Chan’s your sister?” she repeated loudly.

“Apparently,” he told her as he looked back at her once more. Though he still stood, rather than joining her on the bed. Logical conversation would be near impossible if he crawled onto that bed next to her again.

“So… you and Chan’s dad; he worked for Mr. Torrence’s dad? And you and Chan, and your dad’s other lover, all work for Mr. Torrence, now? And now, this Mr. Torrence is sleeping with your dad‘s daughter, and his lover, too? That‘s way too confusing for me,” another shake of her head.

“Wait, how did Chan’s mom get into this equation?” Sean asked, his own eyes showing their confusion.

“Um, she does live there too. You know, Mr. Torrence’s other mistress? The one we mentioned not five minutes ago?” she teased him, further confused by his question.

“What? Ana’s his other mistress,” Sean returned.

“That’s what I just said,” she told him with another small laugh.

“You said Chan’s mother was his other mistress.”

“Yeah, Ana: Chan’s mother,” she replied matter-of-factly.

“Ana can’t be Chan’s mother,” Sean denied as he moved closer with another shake of his head.

“Trust me, I’m not confused on this one. I had the ‘you mean you and your mom sleep with the same guy’ conversation with Chan myself. Ana is definitely Chan’s mother.”

“Uh-huh….” he stated nearly inaudibly, looking like he was deep in thought once more. He then remembered how truly upset Ana had been when he had originally come looking for he and Chantarell’s father. Ana was quite clearly shaken by the reminder of his father’s death. Her lover’s death. The father of her own child’s death. “Um, I have to get back to the house,” he finally stated absently as he quickly moved from the bedroom, leaving Claire behind, more than a bit perplexed by the entire day; and especially by his quick departure.