Chapter Six: Sexual Tension
JC helped the drenching, tittering Scott and Krista from the water ride while holding the equally wet but much less pleased Bess on his hip. Bess hadn’t wanted to get wet so she had chosen the largest of her companions to shield her. Unlike her taller, wider father JC had proven scant protection from the crashing waves of water. Digger hopped out from in front of Lisa. He had wanted to get the wettest and probably had. His curls much as JC’s had been plastered to his head. There didn’t appear to be one dry spot on his tee-shirt or shorts. JC grabbed the boy before he attempted to leap to the dock. As short as Digger’s legs were, JC had his doubts to his ability to make the leap successfully. “Whoa, dude,” JC halted the little boy as he started to leave the dock. “We’ve got to get Mom yet.” He set Bess to her feet next to her twin.
Lisa had received the same drenching as Digger. She too was giggling and soaked. JC was caught up in the sparkling sound of her pleasure and her bright smile. Those deep dark eyes of hers…He didn’t need water drown. All he had to do was fall into Lisa’s eyes. Tripping, as her shoe didn’t quite clear the side of the dock, she fell hard against JC. Catching her easily, he held her close to steady her. She smiled up at him, her mouth curved so temptingly. Suddenly, she was the girl he’d been madly in love with all those years ago. Before Scott. Before fame. Before her marriage to Greg and the children of that union. Before her blindness. If only love could be that simple again.
He was going to kiss her again. Lisa sensed it. Turning her head away at the last moment, she avoided his lips. That morning Greg had broken JC’s spell over her. Greg was still very much her husband and the only lover she needed. Yes, she was vulnerable to JC’s charm – she had been since her youth. But unlike the girl she had been, Lisa could control her impulses. She didn’t need to enlist JC as a weapon against Greg. She didn’t want to hurt the dear man she loved.
The chill between them had nothing to do with their recent soaking; JC decided when Lisa turned to avoid his kiss. He’d ended up bumping his chin against her wet hair
”C’mon, Dad C!” Scott called as he took off after Digger.
With the moment gone, JC turned his attention back to the children.
Once they returned to the house, JC was eager to put distance between Lisa and himself. She had been surprised when he declined to stay for the pizza deliveryman to bring dinner. Instead he said his good byes to the children and prepared to leave. It didn’t help when Lisa followed him to the door while the children headed to Greg’s room to tell him of their day.
“JC…you’re leaving?” Lisa questioned.
”Yeah.”
“You don’t want to stay for dinner?”
“I can order pizza in at my place.” He tone was a little harsher than he had intended and he could see the hurt in her eyes. “I’m tired.”
“You’ve never been a good liar. I don’t have to see your face to know it either.”
“Lisa—”
“I thought you had a good time today.”
“I did. It was fun. We’ll have to do it again soon.”
“But you are going home to an empty house rather than stay here.”
“I’ve more than fulfilled my Daddy C duties for the week haven’t I?” he snapped. Lisa looked as if she’d been slapped. JC cheerfully could have cut out his own tongue as she stood before him trembling and pale. Her lips quivered and tears sparkled in her eyes. He was being a moody, selfish bastard. He just couldn’t watch her with Greg knowing she would probably share her husband’s bed once the children slept. “See, Lisa? You don’t want me here. I’m in a shitty mood.”
“But why?”
Because I want you in my bed, he wanted to say. Instead of answering her, he brushed his lips against her temple. “I’ll call in coupla days, okay? Tell everyone I said goodnight for me.”
Once home JC dialed the number of a woman who was always ready for a party and good for recreational sex. He needed a release valve before he exploded. His heart and mind were being torn in so many directions he needed to forget the Castles if only for one night. As luck would have it, the woman was heading out to a club and suggested he join her. It sounded perfect. A night of dancing, grinding and drinks. He hadn’t been out like that in good long time — not since he’d become a ‘dad’. Time to reconnect with his bachelor days!
After their active day, the children were easily put to bed. After quick baths, nightly prayers and a hug, they climbed into their beds. Even Digger was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
Lisa prepared for bed and well. She exchanged her regular cotton gown for a satin one she hadn’t worn in some time. It had been awhile since she’d had to seduce Greg. Once Scott had been born, her husband proved he had desired her all along and his reluctance to make love to her was based on old-fashioned values. With a quick spritz of her favorite fragrance, she headed downstairs to Greg’s room.
Greg lay awake, staring at the ceiling. He wondered at JC’s hasty departure that evening. Neither Lisa nor the children acted as if something was amiss. By all accounts, everyone had a great time. But JC had taken off before dinner and hadn’t even said goodbye. Was it the sexual tension between JC and Lisa? Well, the sex part of the tension was more on JC’s part, Greg gathered. Lisa had seemingly wanted comfort from the man more then sex. The husband smiled; Lisa still wanted him. Her eagerness that morning had been a balm to his bruised ego. He really had no business being so damned pleased. He wanted Lisa to be with a man who would love and take care of her when he was gone – and JC Chasez was that man.
“Greg?”
He looked up to see Lisa standing in the doorway, looking unsure of her welcome. Oh, God, she looked so beautiful in the pale pink satin gown he’d bought on their last anniversary…
“Umm...Feel like sharing that little bed tonight?” she asked tentatively.
“I don’t mind, but I won’t sleep all that much.”
Her lips tipped into an impish smile. “Then we’ll just have to think of ways of entertaining each other.”
“Sweetheart, with you wearing that I got only one thing on my mind,” he warned teasingly.
“The same thing that’s on my mind?”
”If we’re both thinking naked and sweaty…” He watched as she approached the bed. With her uncanny sense of distance, she halted just short of the bed. Sliding the thin straps of the gown from her shoulders, one shimmy had her naked. Greg didn’t see the less than flat belly or the faint stretch marks from carrying four children. He saw the girl he’d loved for twelve years. And he longed for the strength to spend one last night loving her all night long.
“Greg?” She grew shy when he said nothing.
His voice was husky with emotion. “How do you get more beautiful and more perfect with age,” he asked in awe.
“I think it has something to do with love,” she whispered as she went to his arms. “I’m far from perfect. I never was.”
“You always were,” he corrected. “My beautiful perfect Lisa.”
“Greg, if you can’t …if you don’t want to…”
“Lisa, nothing is going to keep me from loving you tonight,” he assured her as his head lowered to begin loving her for probably the very last time.
Amber, her name was Amber, JC reminded himself as he grinded against the hot brunette with big boobs. He had a tough time thinking of any other female other than Lisa. Alcohol hadn’t helped. The grinding hadn’t helped. Instead of dulling thoughts of Lisa, everything seemed to intensify them. He could still fell the weight of her as she fell against him, the press of her breasts, her smile. The sweet tasted of her lips couldn’t be washed away by any amount of liquor. Lisa…Lisa…she wouldn’t get out of his head – and she probably hadn’t given him a second thought. By now she was asleep, well loved in her husband’s arms. Meanwhile JC was left to fight his desire with any means he had at his disposal – and if that meant burying himself in some Lisa substitute, he’d do it. “Let’s get out of here, mami,” he growled sexily against the woman’s ear.
With a speculative gleam in her eyes, she took his hand and led him from the dance floor.
JC had a policy of never taking casual sex partners to his home. If was easier to keep things detached when you did the deed in a bed other than your own. It worked well for him, no expectation of more.
The moment the hotel room door closed, he was on the woman like fly paper.
“Ooh, eager boy,” she teased.
“You got it, mami.” He slammed his mouth down on hers as he began to explore her lush curves with impatient hands. Moaning her pleasure, she tugged at his belt buckle. She didn’t know the half of it. He badly needed to burn off some of his sexual energy before he saw Lisa again. He didn’t know how or why he could still want her so much after all this time, when she was someone else’s wife. He’d been wild about the girl, but the woman…Sightless as she was, she still ‘saw’ just him, not being swayed by his celebrity, wealth or looks. She knew him to his very soul. He wanted her dammit – and who was to say she would ever come to him after Greg’s death as a woman not simply a mother of his child.
Frustration made him rough, but the woman didn’t seem to mind. Once the necessary clothes were shoved away and a condom was in place, he pushed her against the wall. He drove into her strongly and the sounds she made were those of pleasure not pain. Not Lisa…Not Lisa…It was like a mantra repeated over and over in his mind. Not his…Not his… He came quickly, but the turmoil that heightened his libido had not subsided.
The woman was obliging enough to go another round once they were naked on the bed. Mindless sex was rarely something JC enjoyed. And he wasn’t exactly enjoying this. He was using sex as a pressure release valve. He should feel guilty for using the woman beneath him – except she was getting what she wanted, a good hard fuck. If it had been Lisa in her place, he would be making slow, exquisite, tender love to her, cherishing every kiss, every caress. He would never be rough or impatient with Lisa. She was his beautiful fragile baby girl…
The woman cried out in rapture.
“Lisa!” JC called out mindlessly.
Rolling away to catch his breath and lose the condom, JC found the woman glaring at him.
“Who is Lisa?” she demanded angrily.
“Wha?…”
”My name is Amber. You called me 'Lisa'.”
He groaned.
“Well?”
He supposed he owed her the truth. “Someone I can’t have.”
“How sad for you,” she sneered.
“I’m sorry. I—”
The woman left the bed and gathered her clothes. She went into the bathroom and slammed the door.
Climbing off the bed, JC dressed. He couldn’t sleep in a bed smelling of sex with another woman. It felt like a betrayal of Lisa. He laughed ruefully at the thought. Lisa was probably sleeping in Greg’s arms at that very moment.
Greg couldn’t sleep. He didn’t know if it would be the last time he held Lisa like this – and he didn’t want to miss a single moment. Lovemaking had been satisfying if not explosive. It hadn’t been for the sex anyway. It had been a way of reassuring each other that their love was intact, something they had both needed. It gave him a reason to fight on. He hadn’t lost Lisa’s love to JC, though the seeds were there. For Lisa, Greg was sure she was saying good-bye to the man who had been her lover, her husband, her protector before she was forced to let him go.
Greg was torn. The reasonable, caring man in him was reassured and glad Lisa would not be alone after his death. JC would love her – JC still loved her and they had a child together. That was a strong bond. The lover in Greg was angry and jealous. He was being replaced easily enough. Had his devotion to Lisa meant nothing? He realized those thoughts were unfair. He needed to release her so she could go on with her life. That had been his plan since his diagnosis.
Lisa stirred restlessly.
“It’s okay, Lisa. I’m here.” Greg murmured, holding her closer.
With a soft sign and a little smile, Lisa settled, snuggling closer.
Lisa was still his – for how ever long he had left.