Three Little Words

“Put on your dancin’ shoes, baby!” JC called Clare at 10:23 pm to announce he had just laid the last track on what was to become his solo CD.

“What sort of dancing?” she inquired, pleased at his cheerful tone.

“Club. Waltz. The minuet. Hell, I don’t care. I just want to celebrate with you, honey.”

“I don’t have the right shoes for a minuet, but waltz and club I can find.”

“I know clubs aren’t your scene but—“

“I’ll come out and celebrate with you, JC,” she announced softly.

“I adore the hell outa you,” he sighed happily. “How long will it take you to get ready?”

“Are you going in what you’re wearing?”

“I might throw on a different shirt.”

“I can be ready when you get here.”

JC felt a possessive pride in the way other men reacted to Clare. Even in her demure little ruffled dress she was a hottie. The fact no man could lure her from his side even added to his male ego. Clare had made her choice – she had chosen him. Other men didn’t even exist for her.

Clare landed on JC’s lap as he tugged her down. The club was crowded, but there were chairs… “Hello, Mr. Chasez. To what do I owe this seat?” she asked teasingly.

“This is the seat saved for the most beautiful girl here tonight.”

“Little ole me? Sir, you are a flatterer.”

He shook his head. “No, Clare. It’s the truth. You sparkle like a diamond among paste.”

“You’re pretty special yourself.” She ran her fingers through his dark hair. “You’ve been wonderfully patient with me.”

“You’re more than worth it, honey.” Their lips touched and for a moment they were lost in each other. A bright flash interrupted the perfection of it. Turning towards it, they saw a little man scurrying away. “Fuck! I’m sorry, Clare—“

She put a hand over his mouth. “It certainly doesn’t hurt me. The people who hire me rarely see me. Does it bother you?”

He took the hand over his mouth and kissed the palm. “I don’t like the fact it happened, but it isn’t a problem for me.”

“Then let it go.”

JC smiled. “Just another reason to love you.”

“How many do you have so far?”

“Too many to count.”

“Baby, why don’t we grab the bottle and go celebrate at home?”

“Will you drink with me then?” Since she had declared herself the designated driver, she had not joined him in the bottle of Cristal he had brought to the table.

“Of course, I will.”

“Then let’s go!”

After grabbing two champagne flutes from the kitchen, the couple made their way down to the beach to sit just out of reach of the surf. JC uncorked the bottle expertly and poured the champagne while Clare held the glasses. He set the bottle in the sand, using it like an ice bucket.

“I propose a toast,” she said as she held her flute up. “To the completion of your record. May it show you for the true talent you are.”

They clinked their glasses together then took a sip.

“Thank you, honey. You’ve been so fantastic about this. I’ll have to put you in the liner notes.”

“As what? To Clare who gave me great sex?” she taunted.

“Clare,” he scolded. “You’re more than that to me and you know it.” Sometimes she slipped back into her ‘only sex’ façade. It was frustrating, but at least these times were few and far between.

She leaned in to kiss him lightly. “I know. It was a joke that went flat.” She was aware of the many days and nights they didn’t have sex. They slept together for the comfort of each other’s bodies. She’d never known that was possible. JC had taught her so many things were possible in life. With a contented sigh, she laid her head on his shoulder.

For the longest time, they sat there in silence, sipping champagne and listening to the surf. Occasionally, JC would nuzzle her. Tonight, he felt so close to her and wanted her close to him. Eventually, the glasses were refilled and they lay back in the sand to watch the moon and stars. They chatted about things, important and menial. They shared dreams and hopes. JC decided Clare was a featherweight when it came to alcohol. She hardly ever drank more than one glass of wine with dinner or in the evening with him. It seemed that several glasses of the bubbly had gone straight to her head; she was tipsy. But tipsy for Clare meant soft, sweet and vulnerable.

Clare leaned up on one elbow. She looked at the incredibly beautiful man who had brought so much into her solitary existence. Sometimes, in the middle of the day, she would simply go up to the loft and gaze at him in awe while he slept. JC had dared to make himself memorable – he’d gone beyond memorable. JC Chasez was unforgettable. “JC?” She barely spoke in a whisper.

But he heard her. “Yeah, babe?” He mirrored her position. Seeing the sudden uncertainty in her eyes, he touched her cheek. “Tell me, Clare.”

“I-I was going to say…going to tell you…”

“Tell me what?” he asked gently.

“I-I love you.” She dropped her eyes shyly. She had never uttered those words before. They were so foreign.

Tipping her chin back up, he commanded, “Say it again, Clare. I need to hear it again.”

With a timid smile, she repeated her declaration. “I love you, JC.”

“I love you, honey girl.” Burrowing his hand under her hair, he rested it on the back of her neck. He pulled her close for a slow, tender kiss. When he lifted his head, he smiled. “I’ll never get tired of hearing you say you love me.”

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Clare toppled him into the sand, spilling both glasses. “I love you…I love you…I love you…I love you…” Each pronouncement was punctuated with a kiss.

“Nope. Not tired of it yet.”

Giggling, she retorted, “That’s plenty for one night.”

“Yes, it is.” Sitting up, he held her close. “Babe, maybe we should head to bed.”

She shook her head and stood up. “Shower first.”

Rolling to his feet, JC laughed. “Works for me.”

The next morning, Clare woke to a muzzy headache and a queasy stomach. She groaned, pulling her pillow over her head. She had never consumed that much champagne in her entire life! Let alone one night!

“Clare?” JC’s voice was muffled.

“Kill me now,” she muttered. “It would be kinder to just kill me.”

“Umm…hangover?”

“Uh-huh…”

“What can I do for you? How can I make it better?”

“I told you; kill me.”

“Babe, I can’t do that. Beyond the fact that it is immoral and illegal, I love you.”

Colorful expletives came from under the pillow.

He chuckled. “Okay…now I know not to ply you with champagne.”

“I don’t drink.”

“I guess I know that now.” Which made him wonder about the wonderful declarations of love she had professed the night before. Had it been the wine talking? “Clare?”

“What?”

He didn’t much like talking to the pillow. Gently, he removed it from her face. “Can I ask you something?”

“If it involves numbers or formulas, no.”

“No. Last night…”

“I was an idiot?”

“No…you said you loved me.”

“I did?” She grimaced. “I’ll say it again if it’ll make you feel better – if I live through this hangover.”

“You will?” His smile was bright.

Clare grabbed her pillow and put it over her head once more. “Jeeze, Chasez, blind me why don’t you!”

Chuckling, JC bounded from the bed. “Some dry toast and a couple of aspirin is what you need.” He stroked Tonto’s head. “C’mon, girl, I’ll let you out while I make toast.”

“Don’t burn down my kitchen!” Clare warned from under the pillow.

“Where would you like to go?” JC asked Clare as she finished the last of her work. She’d promised to clear her calendar for two weeks and had kept that promise. “Anywhere in the world.”

“Problem there, Chasez. We have a dog.”

He liked the ‘we’ part. “We could kennel her.”

“No.” She stroked the dog’s silky head. “I’m not gonna do that to my baby unless forced.”

Grinning, he asked, “Got into your heart, did she?”

“Yeah, kinda like the guy who bought her for me.” She smiled up at him.

It still thrilled him to hear admissions like that. “So…where shall the three of us go?”

Clare shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“You said you liked the Carolina beaches…”

“I am not putting Tonto in a cargo hold either.”

“I’ll charter a flight.”

“JC, those places are booked well in advance.”

“Honey, if that’s where you want to go, we’ll go. I can take care of the details.”

“Do we have to go anywhere?”

“I promised we would.”

“Can’t we just take like day trips or something – or are you tired of the house?”

“No, I just thought you might like a change of scenery.”

“I like my scenery just fine.” She looped her arms around his neck. “You, Tonto and the ocean are good scenery.”

“My beautiful baby girl…” JC kissed her softly. “We’ll just lock the door to your office for two weeks.”

“Hmm…if I want to get email guess I’d better grab my laptop before you lock it.”

“Who would email you that wasn’t work?”

“No, you cannot make me go cold turkey. I’d die.”

He laughed. “Okay, the laptop.”

“So when do we start?”

“Today is good.”

“What shall we do?”

“Well, I’ve missed a lot of movies while I was holed up in the studio. We could rent some DVD’s, turn off the phone and watch videos till our eyes fall out.”

“You go get the movies, then I’ll make the popcorn.”

They made an evening of it. They pulled the mattress from the bed in the spare room to make a comfortable place to stretch out on the floor. They ate popcorn and later called for a pizza. JC couldn’t think of a better way to spend a lazy evening. Clare was snuggled against him and Tonto lay at their feet. It was a perfect moment in time. He wasn’t too surprised when Clare’s eyes drifted shut. She’d put in some brutal hours clearing up all her assignments so they could vacation together. It seemed she was as committed as he was to being a couple. It was awesome. She’d come such a long way. Her love was worth all his patience. Burying his face against her neck, JC closed his eyes and followed Clare into slumber.

“We’re a couple of livewires!” Clare mused when she woke and found both of her companions asleep. The dog opened her dark eyes and wagged her tail gaily. Clare noticed the screen was now black. Searching for the remote, she found it beneath her, having dropped out of JC’s hand. Letting him sleep, she got to her feet. “Want to do your night time duty?” she asked Tonto and then let the dog into the yard.

Going back to the mattress, she knelt next to JC. “Hey, handsome, want to wake up enough to go to bed?” She called softly, “JC…”

JC’s eyes blinked open. He offered a sleepy smile. “You’re better than any dream I could dream up.”

“Sweet talker.”

“It’s true, honey girl. You’re my dream come true.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“You bet. Anything.” He leaned up on one elbow and yawned.

“Umm…is love always like this?”

“Like what?”

She shrugged. “You and I are so different, yet it works so well between us…and it seems pretty effortless. I mean we make allowances for each other without giving much thought to it. Is it always this way?”

“Mostly. It’s supposed to be. We’ll argue, because we are so different, but we’ll get passed it.”

“You were only supposed to be a fuck buddy,” she reminded him.

“Sorry, Clare?”

“Hmm…not so far.” She smiled and dropped a kiss on his lips. “Go to bed, Chasez.”

JC rolled to his feet and assisted her up. “So what do you want to do tomorrow?”

“I thought we could sleep in as late as we want, then stay in bed as much as we want.” She winked at him as she moved to allow Tonto in. “I’ve been considering a pet door…”

He came up and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Back up…’Stay in bed as much as we want’…what does that entail?”

“You’re a smart boy. Figure it out.”

“Sleep. Make love. Sleep. Make love. Sleep…Make love…”

“That’s basically the idea.”

“And to think I though vacations meant travel…”

“Oh, we can go places without every leaving the bed…”

Even though Clare convinced JC that vacation meant ‘no work, no travel’, he found he did want to make a trip to Orlando. As promised, he chartered a flight so Tonto wasn’t ‘baggage’.

“There is nothing remotely edible in this fridge,” Clare announced as she inspected JC’s Orlando kitchen.

“Tyler is gone right now,” JC offered.

Opening the cupboards, she was equally dismayed. “Jeeze, what a pathetic kitchen.”

“Two bachelors that don’t cook—“

She put out her hand. “Car keys.”

“What?”

“I am going shopping.”

“Honey, we’ll only be here a few days. We’ll eat out.”

Clare shook her head. “Breakfast is not an ‘eat out’ sort of meal in my book. And you like coffee.”

JC gave up the keys. He loved her coffee. “Got your cell in case you get lost?”

She snorted derisively. “I’ve driven in New York and London, darling. I’m certain I can handle Orlando.”

“How about Planet Hollywood for lunch?”

Clare looked up from her laptop. “Where is it?”

“In the Disney complex.”

Here eyes went wide as a child’s. “You mean Disney World?” she asked a little breathlessly.

“Umm…yeah.” Her reaction wasn’t lost on JC. Thinking of her less than wonderful childhood, he decided she probably had never been to a place like Disneyland. “Wanna go?”

“To Disney World?”

“Yeah.”

“I-I’ve never been to a theme park. Do you mean we can really go on the rides?”

He grinned at her little girl hopefulness. It was great to give Clare little things that made her so happy. “You betcha! If my honey girl wants to get shaken up and turned upside down, then that’s what we’ll do.”

The laptop slid to the sofa cushions as Clare jumped up to throw her arms around his neck enthusiastically. “Thank you, darling!”

It was worth it just to see the love in her eyes. “Just don’t wear a skirt,” he told her with a laugh.

No one seeing Clare would guess she was a computer genius, sometimes government hacker and a self-made millionaire. At Disney, she was more like an over-excited, high-on-sugar child. She giggled when she got off dizzying rides, leaning against JC until the world stopped spinning. She would grab his hand to hurry him along when she spotted the next adventure. What amazed him most was her wide-eyed awe. Clare could very probably analyze everything to take the magic from it. Instead she chose to see the magic though child-like eyes.

“Can we come tomorrow?” she begged JC when he announced it was time to leave. “Please?”

Chuckling, he hooked an arm around her waist to pull her close. “Didn’t you get enough?”

“No. Please?”

“What’ll you do for me if I do bring you tomorrow?”

Clare frowned. “What do you want?” she asked suspiciously.

He dropped a kiss on her nose. “Just seeing you this happy is more than enough reward for me, Clare.”

She squeezed his lean waist. “You make me happy,” she announced with a bright smile.

Who would have believed a trip to Disney World would make Doctor Clare ‘CG’ Gatlin happy? JC realized she’d never had much of a childhood. The dog she always wanted. A trip to Disney World. He was giving her the youthful things she’s never had, had never been able to ask for. “I’m glad, Clare. I want to make you happy.”

It was the last day of their vacation. JC reflected on the wonderful time he had spent with Clare. They had grown even closer; their bonds were much tighter. He saw a future with her. That meant it was time to introduce her to his circle of friends – and then his family. He didn’t know how that would go with a loner like Clare. But maybe she had been a loner simply because she had never been shown how to create real, lasting ties with people. Her foster families had made it clear they didn’t want to keep her, so by the time she was a teenager she didn’t know how to connect. He had to smile. Clare had gone from a sexy enigma to a sexy lover to a perspective life partner. That was so awesome.

“Penny for your thoughts.” Clare echoed a scene from their early days. She had said those words while he lay on the deck chaise as he did now. What had been added were the dog and the love.

JC reached out his arms to her. “Keep your pennies. I’ll tell you for free.”

She readily went to him. “You were smiling.”

“Thinking about you makes me smile.”

“Me?”

“Sure. You’re one of my favorite things to think about.”

“And just what about me?”

“How you’ve changed from the brazen girl who kissed me after fifteen minutes of acquaintance.”

“I told you. The ‘Girlfriend’ video made me curious about your mouth. And as I recall, you were the one who decided on hot seconds.”

He stroked her lower lip with the tip of his fingers. “You tasted like more.”

Clare nibbled on his finger. “You still do.”

“Now, don’t be seducing me, Clare,” he warned.

Fluttering her eyelashes innocently, she asked, “Would I do that?”

“Oh, yeah…”

She snuggled close, her head on his shoulder.

“I’ve been thinking…”

”Dangerous, Chasez. I’m the brains of this outfit,” she teased.

Chuckling, he swatted her rump playfully. “Let me finish, smart mouth.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “I’d like to have a get together for my friends I haven’t seen since I went into the studio…and for those that helped me with the recording. Sort of a ‘thank you’ and ‘meet my lady’ thing.”

“And?”

“I was hoping I could have it here.”

She shrugged. “We could do some sort of outdoor thing, I suppose.”

“So I can have it here?”

“JC, darling, this is your home too.”

Definitely time to introduce her as his lady.