A Little Like Heaven
It was a little like Heaven for Josh. In the morning, he woke with Brianne in his arms. If he awakened early enough, they made love. They made breakfast together, sharing the morning before he had to leave. At lunchtime, he’d call her, some times coaxing her to join him, some times not. In the evening, she was waiting for him; ready to massage aching muscles, listen to a new song idea he’d had or merely hold him. They would make dinner, sharing their day. At bedtime, they’d cuddle and share dreams. Life was truly beautiful.
At first, the guys had teased him about being an ‘old married man’ when he wanted to rush home at night – but even they could see the positive changes in their friend. His nervous energy seemed controlled, aimed in a more creative direction. Josh was content, if not totally blissed-out.
“So, you convinced Brianne to stay yet?” Joey asked Josh as they took a water break from the dance studio.
“She says she won’t commit until she goes home. She doesn’t want it to be ‘a vacation fling’ and ‘make a mistake’. Those are her words, not mine.”
“Even I have to admit, she’s made a change in you.”
Josh nodded. “I didn’t know it could be this way. I’ve always been on the giving end of a relationship. With Bree, it’s been mutual give and take.”
“Domestic bliss, huh?”
“Yeah.” Josh grinned. “Ain’t nothin’ like it.”
“Like what?” A soft female voice came from the doorway.
Both men swung their gazes to Brianne who stood at the entrance of the studio.
“Like having you to come home to,” Josh replied. Walking over to her, he brushed a kiss on her lips.
“Miser,” she murmured at the brevity of the kiss.
“I’m all sweaty, baby.” And he was. His clothes were soaked through from the morning’s dance rehearsals.
Brianne grinned. “I wash up pretty good.”
“And we have an audience.”
Grabbing him by his shirtfront, she pulled him into the deserted hall. One eyebrow rose in challenge.
With a lazy smile, he murmured, “Brazen hussy.” Then proceeded to back her up against the wall to kiss her thoroughly. When he finished her tee-shirt was damp and her eyes were hazy with pleasure.
“Mmm—much better,” she whispered.
“Glad to be of service, ma’am.” As long as she didn’t seem to care, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. His baby was not a touch-me-not girl and he appreciated her even more.
Brianne, despite the fact her clothes were becoming clammy as his, snuggled into his embrace.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” he asked against her hair.
“No reason. I was just out and about, so I decided to stop and see my favorite guy.”
“Your favorite guy is always happy to see his favorite girl.”
She sighed, “Guess I should let you get back to work.”
“I guess.” But he didn’t release her.
Brianne waited and when he didn’t remove his arms, she giggled. “Josh, I can’t move.”
“I don’t want to let you go, baby – ever.”
“Well, unless you’re planning for me to become the sixth member of the group, you’re going to have to let go,” she mused. “I can’t imagine you doing back flips with me attached to your chest – especially since your arms are occupied.”
“There you go again,” he teased. “Ruining a perfectly good fantasy with your practicality.” Loosening his grip, he kissed her softly, then released her completely. “I want to hold you forever, Bree.”
“Again, that makes the kind of choreography you do difficult.”
“Know what I love about you?” he laughed.
“My wit, my charm, my grace—“
“Besides all that.”
Brianne ran her hand up his chest. “What?”
“You are my playmate – and I’m not talking bunny ears and cottontail. You tease me, have fun with me.”
“I’m glad you like it, ‘cuz I can’t change it at this late date.”
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the rest return to resume rehearsals. “Looks like it’s back to work.” Josh gave her another soft kiss. “Can you stay for lunch?”
“Only if I get to watch.”
Grabbing her hand, he led her back into the dance studio. “Not a problem, baby girl.”
When they broke for lunch, Lance came over to give Brianne a hug. He wrinkled his nose. “New perfume? Smells like ‘eau de Sweaty Chasez’.”
Brianne laughed. “You got it!”
Josh came over, wrapping an arm around her waist to bring her to his side. “Trying to make time with my girl?” he teased his friend.
“Probably not,” Brianne mused. You, like so many other male animals, have marked your territory with your scent.”
“What?”
“Lance thinks I smell like you.”
“I’m outa this conversation!” Lance raised his hands in surrender and walked way.
“You mind?” Josh asked nuzzling the sweet spot on Brianne’s neck, making her breathless.
“No. Kind of smells like our bed when we’ve had a really good time.”
He chuckled at that. “Brianne, you are a wonder.”
“What do you wonder?”
“What happened to my shy, innocent, blushing school teacher?”
“Am I supposed to be ashamed you and I are intimate?”
“Hell, no! The very fact that you are so open is fantastic.”
Brianne licked the sweaty skin on his throat, teasing the pulse beat at the base.
“God, baby, don’t make me horny now,” he groaned.
“Do you mean there is absolutely no place at WEG we can do the big nasty without an audience?”
Josh grinned. “I can think of a couple of places.”
She whispered in his ear, knowing it was another thing that aroused him. “We only need one.”
He kissed her hard. “There goes lunch.”
“Know what I’d like?” Brianne asked one night, as they lay in his bed, nearly ready for sleep.
“What, angel? I’ll get it for you.” They had two more nights after this. He was desperate enough for anything to make her stay.
“Oh, Josh, it isn’t a ‘something’.”
“Then what is it?”
“I’d like a real club experience.”
“Ours wasn’t real?” It was real enough for him. Brianne had come into his life.
She shook her head. “I was there less than an hour. I got one slow dance – and I had three chaperones.”
“If you went, you’d still have at least one,” he reminded her. No other guy would be grinding with the woman he loved!
She traced his lips with a lazy finger. “You’d chaperone me?”
“Damn straight, baby.”
“You mean you wouldn’t get on the dance floor and grind with me?”
“I’d be the only one grinding with you.”
“Will you take me then?”
His grin was a little sheepish. “When it comes to you, I don’t say ‘no’ very well – just in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“Some times I have that same problem with you.”
“You’re much better at ‘no’ than I am – or I would’ve gotten you to say ‘yes’ to staying in Orlando by now.”
“Please, don’t,” she whispered, tears threatening.
“I’m sorry, baby.” He bussed her forehead tenderly. “I know I’m pushing and I know you have very logical, practical reasons for saying ‘no’; but that doesn’t mean the thought of you boarding that jet in a couple of days doesn’t scare the hell out of me. You’ll go back to your everyday life. Everything’ll be safe and sane. You could forget all about me here waiting for you.”
“Even if we never saw each other again, I’d never forget about you, Josh,” she stated honestly. Forget the man who taught her about love? That wasn’t going to happen in a million years!
“Let me buy you a ring before your leave.” He lifted her left hand to his lips. “If not a wedding ring or an engagement ring, how about a promissory ring?”
“That’s like going steady, right? Promising that we won’t see other people.”
“Something like that, yeah. Something that says you’re considering becoming my wife.”
“Would that really make you feel that much better?”
Josh smoothed her hair. It was a small concession to say the least and he’d be happy to get it. “Anything that gives me a real connection to you, that says you’re still mine after you leave, will definitely make me feel better.”
“All right,” she answered slowly. “On one condition.”
“That being?…”
“I get to go along and help pick it out.” She didn’t want some monstrous stone that would require a sling to keep her hand up!
“Sure, baby.” Then he would know her ring size and something about her taste in jewelry.
“Do I get my club night?”
He nodded. “You get your club night. I’ll see if anyone else wants to come along.”
“Okay.”
Josh tucked her against his body. “G’night, baby.”
“Night, Josh.”
“Bree?”
“Hmm?”
“Thanks for agreeing to stay here instead of at a hotel. It means the world to me to have you here, in my home, in my bed.”
Brianne snuggled closer. “Right now, there’s nowhere on earth I’d rather be than right here in your arms.”
“Thanks, baby.”
He should have told her ‘no’ was the first thought Josh had when Brianne came out of the bedroom before their ‘club date’. She was wearing the same short leather skirt as she had the first time, but the rather modest tank top was gone. She now wore a snug, mid-drift baring baby tee in hot red. His little baby sizzled with sex appeal.
“You make a man weak, Bree,” he muttered.
“I don’t look okay?”
“You look phat.”
“Fat!”
“No, baby girl.” He put his hands on her waist. “Phat. P-h-a-t: pretty hot and tempting.” The only thing that gave him any relief at all was the small sapphire and diamond ring on her left hand. He was now ‘going steady’ with Brianne.
Josh was dressed much the same as he had the night they met: a black wife beater and black denim pants.
“You look kind of sexy and dangerous yourself, baby,” she told him.
“I’m only dangerous to the guys who’ll try to hit on you.”
“Do you think that will really happen?”
“I hope the hell not.”
“And Lance and Joey will be meeting us there?”
Josh nodded. “If you aren’t with me, make sure you’re with one of them. Those are the rules for tonight.”
“I’m not a child who needs to be babysat.” Brianne bristled at the notion.
“No. You are a beautiful, sexy, vulnerable woman – and you’re mine.”
“I don’t dictate to whom you may dance with.”
“I’ll save you the time. Bree, you’re the only dance partner I’ll have tonight.”
“Why?—“
He laughed. “Because my one-eyed crotch monster is for you alone.”
Brianne giggled at his graphic description. “My very own one-eyed crotch monster.”
“Yep. He’s all yours.”
“Please, so me a favor. Don’t come up with any of your nicknames for parts of my anatomy.”
His voice was low and sultry as he rubbed his lower body against hers. “Your honey walls.”
“Josh—“
“The only way to tame my one-eyed crotch monster is inside you, baby. Inside you’re like a wet, hot, velvet fist.” He was seducing her with his sexy growl. "You’re so tight, you clench me,” he whispered against her neck. “It’s what he wants right now.”
“We can’t, Josh. Not now,” she whispered breathlessly.
“Later. Later you’d better expect to tame the beast for most of the night.”
Unexpectedly, she raised a hand to his cheek. “I love you, Joshua Chasez.”
For a moment Josh was too stunned to react. His heart did a flip in his chest – she’d said it! “Wow, baby! Thank you! You know how much I love you, Brianne.”
Josh watched as Brianne danced with Lance. Unlike most other couples on the floor, they kept a respectable distance between their lower bodies. Good thing. Bass singers who could dance well weren’t all that easy to come by.
“An engagement ring?” Joey asked as he sat across from Josh.
“No. She won’t commit to that. I guess we’re pretty much going steady.”
“Who’s idea was the ring?”
“Mine. I told her I wanted her to have something to make her mine.”
“I thought you’d put a large rock on her finger to stake your claim.”
“Bree wouldn’t go for it.”
“So, she’s either the genuine article or a good actress.”
“Bree’s genuine. If she wasn’t, when I told her all of Orlando was at her feet, to go shopping for clothes, she could have spent a fortune. Instead, she asked me where a local discount chain was, bought a few things with her own money, then did laundry at my house.”
“You’re sure you aren’t getting sucked in?”
“No, I’m not. Brianne is real. She doesn’t ask for anything. She doesn’t really care to go shopping. Her idea of the perfect evening is staying home, popping popcorn, snuggling together and watching a video on TV.”
“And you think that won’t change?”
“I know it won’t. Brianne isn’t the type.”
Josh rose from his chair when Brianne and Lance approached. “Having fun, baby?”
Brianne waved her hand towards the dance floor. “I’d be embarrassed to do that with a stranger.” She turned a soft smile on Josh and held out her hand to him. “One more dance, baby, then can we go home?”
Folding his hand around her much smaller one, he was relieved she wasn’t into closing the place down. “If that’s what you want, angel.”
“It is.”
Josh turned to his friends. “If we don’t see you before we go, thanks for coming out with us tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Night!” Brianne wiggled the fingers of her free hand as Josh pulled her along to the dance floor.
“If JC wasn’t so gone on her, I’d be tempted,” Lance muttered as he watched to couple move into each other’s arms.
“Naugh, Janie picked us,” Joey taunted. “She gave JC to Brianne.”
Josh pulled Brianne tightly against him. Just thinking about grinding into her got him hard. Leaning forward, he pressed his cheek to hers.
“Is that a one-eyed crotch monster I feel?” she asked teasingly, her warm breath tickling his ear. “Hey! That thing just jumped!”
Josh laughed, “Blow in my ear and he’ll follow you anywhere.”
“Well, did I behave to your satisfaction tonight?”
“It wasn’t your behavior I was worried about.”
“I’m not a total innocent lamb, Josh.”
“No. You’re mine and somewhere in that primitive male DNA, I still feel the need to protect what’s mine.”
“My caveman. Gee, a caveman and a one-eyed crotch monster. You are a man of many facets, Mr. Chasez!”