Chapter Sixteen: Socks
Lisa heard JC come up the stairs. Since she had only just gotten into bed minutes earlier, she knew it was still too soon to expect him home. When he said he was getting together with the guys to discuss new music, she believed he wouldn’t be home until nearly morning. Once JC got involved with his music, he tended to forget about time or anything else. She didn’t know if his premature arrival was a good thing or a bad thing.
JC waited until the bedroom door was closed before he let loose with a string of epithets, turning the air in the bedroom a shade of blue. He continued to rage for several minutes then threw the yellow pad in his hand across the room. It hit Lisa’s vanity, sending the lamp, several picture frames and her brushes crashing to the floor. Lisa, not being able to see the fury, just hearing the aftermath, cringed against the headboard. Seeing her frightened reaction, JC got control of himself. None of this was sweet Lisa’s fault. “I’m sorry, honey. I wouldn’t ever lay a hand on you,” he told her. “Fuck, I’d rather cut off my own arm than hurt you.”
Relaxing, she asked gently, “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
“It’s just…” He broke off on a helpless sound of frustration.
“Come here.” Sitting up straighter, she held her arms out to him.
Maybe it was wrong, but he went to her, letting her cuddle and soothe him as she would one of the children. She stroked his hair, placed tender kisses on his forehead and made comforting ‘mom’ sounds. Ah, fuck the rest of the world, he thought bitterly, he had Lisa and their kids. “I think I’d die if I didn’t have you to come home to,” he murmured, nuzzling his face against her breasts.
“Oh, shush!” she scolded quietly. “Nothing is ever as bad as all that.”
“It’s all falling apart, Lise.”
“Specify ‘all’.”
“I guess if we could come back together after all this time, after everything that has happened…We were kidding ourselves. I mean I kept saying it would happen. We’ve been friends forever…But the whole dynamic has changed….”
Lisa didn’t even have to ask ‘why’. They had all smiled for the cameras, but there had been an awful lot of underlying tension in Miami. JC had voiced his disappointment at the lack of camaraderie and cohesiveness. JC was a team player, not letting his ego get in the way of the greater good. He wanted what was best for everyone. Not everyone wanted to be a team player. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I know how much they mean to you.”
“I walked away from you that first time for them,” he whispered, suddenly wondering if the fame and money had been worth losing Lisa and Scott for all those years. He opened the top few buttons of her gown and laid his cheek against her warm flesh, inhaling her scent. “Twenty-eight and washed up.”
“Joshua Chasez, what a terrible thing to say!”
“I know…I know…and I don’t really mean it. I’m just pissed. I got options. It’s just…” He sighed and tightened his arms around her. “I need you, Lisa.”
“We’ll get by. I have my trust fund…”
JC straightened and looked at her in amazement. “What?”
“I realize the children and I are a financial liability—“
“Lisa!”
“If things get tight—“
“You’re precious!” He laughed and hugged her. “No, honey, I saved like a miser. We’re set for life financially, I promise you that. I wouldn’t hafta work another day the rest of my life and we’d still be good.”
“Oh…”
He gave her a quick hard kiss. “That’s so sweet of you though. That’s not why I need you. You, our family, you’re my center now, my reason for keeping it together.”
“You’re mine, too.”
Him? He rated up there with the kids? “Thank you, Lisa.”
“So…As long as you are home early, why don’t you get into your jammies and come to bed?”
“I am not six and I don’t have ‘jammies’,” he reminded her teasingly. She stuck out her tongue and he laughed. “One of these days…” he threatened.
“You’ll what?” Lisa smiled.
“I’m gonna catch that tongue with my teeth.”
“Ya think?” She challenged saucily.
“So…If I get into bed…Think we can get in a little gropeage?”
“Only if I get to grope back.”
“Oh, hell yeah, baby!”
JC frowned when he came to the door of the bedroom he shared with Lisa. The door was uncharacteristically closed. Was Lisa mad at him? He couldn’t recall anything he’d done – and he’d called when he had realized he wasn’t going to make it home for dinner. She hadn’t sounded upset…Opening the door, he called, “Lisa?”
Her answer came from the bed. “Close the door.”
Doing as he was instructed, his eyes went to the bed. There in a dim pool of light cast by his bedside lamp sat Lisa against the headboard. She wore one of his white, racer-back tank tops, a pair of her white panties – and a bulky pair of his white sweat socks… A slow grin spread across his face as he went to stand at the foot of the bed. “Rock or romance?” he asked.
“You mean I can’t have both?” she demanded as if peeved, though her smile gave her away. “Hmm…I guess rock first and romance later.”
Laughing, he bent over to grab her ankles and pulled her towards him, effectively laying her flat on her back. He removed one sock and kissed the bottom arch of her foot. He repeated the gesture on the other foot.
“Umm…that seems like romance to me,” she stated.
“You can have both, Lisa,” he told her quietly. He stripped down to his shorts before joining her on the bed.
Feeling the fabric of his underwear, Lisa complained, “You’re wearing too much.”
“So’re you.” JC tunneled his hand under her hair to lift her into a soft kiss. “I love you, Lisa.”
“I love you, JC.”
His eyes brightened with delighted surprise. He hadn’t expected to hear that! “Really?”
“Really. I know I can love you and still remember Greg. I had to work that out.”
“I’m glad. I never wanted you to stop loving Greg, honey. I just wanted you to love me too.”
“I understand that now.”
“And you waited until you did to let me love you?”
“I wanted it to mean more than just hormones. I wanted it to be because I did love you.”
“Then it was worth the wait,” he told her huskily. Lisa loved him!
Lisa giggled. “But if I had put you out of your misery before, I don’t think you would have complained!”
He framed her face with his hands. “It still would have been love, honey. I would have been showing you my love.” He kissed her tenderly.
“Show me now and I’ll show you mine,” she challenged softly.
JC grinned. “You realize how that sounds?” He pushed himself to his knees and tugged her into sitting position. “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”
Kneeling in front of him, she ran her hands over his naked torso, feeding fires already burning out of control.
“You got some great hands, Missus Chasez,” he murmured as she made a very thorough inspection of his bared flesh from his neck to the waistband of his sport shorts.
“It’s how I ‘see’ you, through my fingers.”
He took her hands and placed them on his cheeks. “Then look at my face. What do you see?” he asked quietly.
Lisa let her fingers roam over the features of his face. The boyish softness she had known had matured into sharp features that could only be described as masculine beauty. “You have killer cheekbones, very chiseled.” Her fingertips ran lightly over his eyelids and lashes. “Still have those long eyelashes I woulda killed for I see. Do you still have changeable eyes? Bright blue when you’re happy. Smokey gray-blue when you’re turned-on. And muddy green-blue when you’re pissed?”
“Yeah. Guess what color they are now?”
She giggled. “Then there is this nose that should be all kinds of wrong for your face because it’s slightly too big. Instead it just keeps you from being too pretty.”
JC couldn’t recall anyone describing his nose in quite that way.
Her fingers glided over his firm jaw and his day’s growth of beard. “You’ve got some killer bone structure…” His face was leaner, as if he had lost the very last of his baby fat. He was all sharp angles now. “I bet you look sexy as hell a little scruffy.” Flattening her palms, she let his beard’s sandpapery texture scratch the sensitive skin. “I’d like to feel that other places,” she announced naughtily.
“It can be arranged.”
Lastly her fingertips reached his mouth. Sensual. Sexy. Kissable. Even his lips seem sculpted. “What can I say about that mouth?” she questioned dreamily.
Holding her fingers to his lips, he whispered, “I love you,” on her skin.
Lisa sighed happily. “You went from a handsome boy to a lean, sexy man,” she concluded.
“Do you miss it so much? Your eyesight. I mean, I know you do, but don’t you sorta get used to it?” he asked, truly wanting to understand her world.
“Sure I miss seeing the world around me, especially as the children grow. I would like to be able to drive…” She traced his bottom lip. “I’d like to see your face one more time…But if you’re asking me if I can be happy as I am…Yes, I can. I have gained other things. I have this intuitive sense of my family, because I can’t rely on my eyes. My other senses are sharper.” She smiled. “I could find you in a room of people by your scent alone.”
“I want you to be happy with me.”
“I am, JC.” She lifted her face for a long, tender kiss.
“Question…Why are you wearing my shirt?”
“I wanted something skimpy and provocative…naked was a little too blatant…And since I don’t have any slinky gowns, this was the best I could do on short notice.” She hadn’t wanted to come to JC in a gown Greg had gotten her. She wanted to start fresh for him.
“Honey, you’d be sexy in a gunny sack. But if you want some sexy lingerie, we’ll get you some.”
“For special occasions.”
JC reached for the hem of the shirt and tugged it off over her head. He loved her breasts, all ivory and pink, plump and generous. “Those are the most gorgeous tits I’ve ever seen,” he said on a sigh.
If anyone else had said such a thing, Lisa would have slapped him. Her husband had such a reverence in his voice that made the less than attractive term acceptable. “You aren’t too bad yourself, Chasez.”
He slid his hands beneath the waistband of her skimpy panties. She had a satiny perfect butt, too. “You have the sweetest ass…”
Lisa laughed. “Your romantic terminology needs work, fella. I swear if you say you’re gonna ‘fuck’ me. I am so outta here!”
JC had the good grace to look embarrassed. He’d forgotten Lisa didn’t appreciate such vulgar language. “I never have and never will fuck you, honey. With us, it’s nothing but pure love.” He pushed her panties to her knees. “But you do have gorgeous, sweet body parts.” He grinned teasingly.
“So do you, JC. All hard in all the right places.”
He urged her to lie back, stripping the last piece of clothing from her body so she lay naked and tempting. With him kneeling between her legs, she was open to him, revealing she was swollen and dewy and waiting for him. With this wife of his talking was just another form of foreplay. “Damn! You’re just too beautiful for words,” he stated in a hushed awed tone.
“Then don’t use words, sweetheart.”
Removing his shorts, he lay above her propped up on elbows and forearms. He could scarcely believe it when her soft hand found him, guiding him to her entrance. She then urged his hips down, joining them. “Lisa…” he groaned.
“Let’s make love, JC.”
“Oh, yeah.” His strokes were slow, strong and deep. Bending his head, he licked and sucked at her neglected nipples, letting his beard rasp her delicate flesh.
“JC…” she whimpered, wrapping her legs around him to draw him deeper.
His mouth left her body and he extended his arms. Arching his back, he moaned. He wanted to make it last, to draw out her pleasure, but if she kept doing things like that…
Lisa reached up to wipe the sweat from his face. Her hands remained, to read his changing expressions.
“I love you, baby, so much,” he whispered against the thumbs against his lips. His words were for her ears and her touch.
“I love you, husband,” Lisa answered softly. She felt his smiling response from the upward curve of his mouth and the crinkling at the corner of his eyes. Her smile echoed his.
“Wanna take a little trip to the stars?” JC could feel her begin to clench as he increased the tempo and lifted her into his thrusts.
“As long as you’re here to catch me when I come down.”
“I’ll do better than that. I’ll come with you.”
Her hands left his face. One caressed his sweat-slick back, feeling the muscles ripple with exertion. Her other hand urged his head down, so their mouths mated and they breathed each other in.
He felt the spasms of ecstasy grip her and tasted her cry of completion on his tongue. He soon followed as his entire consciousness exploded into bliss. Lifting his head, he cried out her name.
Wrapped in each others’ arms, they lay together in the warm afterglow, content and happy. JC massaged her lower back with his hand, unconsciously soothing any aches. Once in a while, they would nuzzle or kiss the other, communicating without the need for words. After a long while, he reached down to cover their cooling bodies, breaking the spell of silence.
“Feel married now?” Lisa asked as he brought her back into his arms.
“Lisa, I’ve felt married for some time now, practically since Greg died.” He thought he might have destroyed the magic of the moment with his unthinking reminder of Greg, but she merely burrowed closer.
“That’s when it felt like you became husband and father. I didn’t know if you realized it or not.”
“The next morning when I woke up and everyone as piled in bed with us,” JC confessed. “I knew it. I felt it. I owned it.”
She smiled up at him. “You certainly did.”
“And you didn’t start resisting until we actually were married.” He had wondered about that. Their arguments seemed to have started then, her sudden doubts.
“I’m sorry. I hadn’t worked it all out yet. It happened too fast…”
“It’s cool, honey. We came through it okay.” He put his lips to her forehead. “I know people thought I was nuts, but you, me, the kids…It felt so right.”
“You’re a natural mate and father.” Lisa toyed with his medallion, running her fingertips over the engraved lion. “JC, can I ask you something?”
“Ask away.”
“I know it’s gonna sound silly…”
“Don’t qualify. Ask.”
“Do you want more children?”
He had considered the idea. Several times. But what about Lisa? What did she feel about having more children? “I wouldn’t object,” he stated noncommittally.
“Hedging, eh?”
“If I say ‘yes’ and you don’t want more, I sound bad. If I say ‘no’ and you do, I sound bad.”
“Answer truthfully – and I’ll love you anyway,” she promised.
“Yeah, I’ve thought about it. I mean biologically Scott is my son, but I am his second dad. I know it may sound like some macho guy thing, but I’d like to have a child by you that I can father first…”
She grinned impishly. “I like even numbers.”
He chuckled and hugged her tight. “Okay, let’s try for two.”
“JC Chasez, father of six,” she taunted.
When JC stopped to think about it, it was unreal. “Fuck…” he said in wonderment. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined being married before he was thirty, let alone be the father of four! “Guess it’s good I made my money early and saved,” he said jokingly.
But Lisa was serious. “About that, JC…My trust fund—“
“Is your money,” he told her firmly.
“But you’ve taken on a huge financial burden—“
“End of discussion, Lisa. I am this family’s provider. I know you’re being sweet and I appreciate your concern. The money from Greg to the kids can go towards their college funds. I am cool with that. But the day to day shit, that is my responsibility.” He waited, expecting an argument.
None was forth coming.
“You’re a very honorable man, Mister Chasez.” Her smile made her glow with contentment. “But I would ask one thing of you.”
“What’s that?”
“Greg always discussed our finances with me. It made me feel less powerless…We made most decisions together. I know it probably goes against—“
“No, baby. I can do that for you. And since the sort of things we have to decide impacts everyone, I expected to get your input.”
Lisa squeezed him in an appreciative hug.” Thank you!”
Putting a hand beneath her chin, he tipped her face up for a kiss. Soon the kiss escalated to a clinging, wet mating of mouths. “Lisa?…”
“Oh, yeah!”