The group headed back to
the hotel immediately after the concert to have their showers and get ready
before heading out for the evening. All of them except JC had planned on
hitting a few clubs since they had no commitments the following day. Spirits
were high and energy levels were at their peak. Laurie didn’t have much to say,
and she quietly walked to her room when they arrived at the hotel.
This didn’t go unnoticed
and JC made a mental note to find her later, now that he knew she wasn’t
joining the others when they left. He also sent up a silent ‘thank you’ that
apart from minimal security, that he and Laurie would be the only ones on the
floor until the wee hours of the morning.
After his shower, JC
could hear Laurie moving around in her room, getting ready for bed. He was
aching for her to spend the night in his arms again and he strode across the
room to the connecting door and lightly knocked on it. When she answered it,
she had her body tightly wrapped in the complimentary hotel robe and she didn’t
immediately look at him.
“Laur,” he said softly
and reached out to touch her arm. “I need to talk to you about what happened
earlier today.”
“What do you mean?”
“When Alexandria called
this morning, you just... left. You didn’t say goodbye to anyone.”
“I needed some fresh
air,” she responded and turned to walk back into her room.
JC wasn’t going to let
her get away so easily.
“Laurie come on, don’t
give me that. I know how you feel when Alexandria calls, because I feel the
same way when Craig calls you.”
Laurie slowly turned
around to face him. The expression on his face told her that he was being
sincere.
“I... I think it’s time
that I tell you something,” JC hesitated and gently guided her into his room.
He sat her on the bed and then kneeled in front of her with one hand on each of
her knees. “Laurie... remember when I said that you didn’t want to know what
the letter I had mailed you shortly after we left Europe contained?” She nodded
and waited for him to continue. “That letter...” he took a deep breath. “In
that letter, I told you that I thought this could be love. And now that we’re
together again, Laurie, I’m positive that it’s love. The circumstances in which
we became reacquainted were rather unfortunate, given that we were both on our
honeymoons, but I believe that it was destined to happen. I believe that we
were meant to be together and that it was fate that we met again so that I
could tell you this. Laurie, I love you and I think I always have. And I know
that I always will.”
During JC’s speech,
Laurie’s eyes were shining with tears but they had yet to fall. She took JC’s
face between her hands and brought him in for a kiss. Their lips touched and
she felt as if her life were almost complete.
“Josh,” she spoke softly
when they parted. “I love you too... and I feel so relieved that I’ve finally
told you.”
JC wrapped his arms
around her waist and kissed her. He got off his knees and laid her back on the
bed before lying down very close beside her. Their kiss became more intense and
his mouth moved from Laurie’s mouth down to her neck, trailing kisses along her
collarbone, while his free hand began to undo her robe. He realized what he was
doing and stopped almost immediately, burying his face into her neck.
“Laurie,” he said
quietly. “I’m sorry, I just got carried away.” JC began to remove his hand from
the waist of her robe and when he felt Laurie’s hand cover his own so that it
remained where it was, he looked at her with a questioning look in his eyes.
“You don’t have to stop,”
she told him softly. “I’ve decided that if you can risk it, so can I. I love you too much to not want to be with
you.”
A smile crossed JC’s face
and as quickly as it emerged, it faded again.
“Are you sure?” He asked.
“I don’t want you to feel like you have to do anything that you don’t want to
do...”
Laurie silenced him by
placing her hands on either side of his face again and kissing him
passionately. She then slid her hands from his face to the back of his neck and
allowed her fingers to run through his soft, clean hair. She felt him finish
untying her robe and then felt him move his hand inside and start caressing her
skin.
JC kissed her neck and
murmured, “I love you Laurie.”
He slid the robe off her
shoulders and down her arms so that he could have free access to her body.
Laurie felt self-conscious of being so exposed and automatically moved her
hands to cover herself and JC stopped her.
“Laurie,” he began,
looking at her as if he were staring into her soul. “You have a beautiful body,
please don’t feel like you have to hide it from me. If you want to stop, we can
stop. I’ll wait forever to hold you.”
“Josh... I don’t want to
stop.” She smiled and kissed him.
JC kissed her back and
one by one, the clothes he was wearing began to hit the floor. When the last
item was removed, he crawled up her body, leaving a trail of wet kisses, giving
some spots more attention than others. He kissed her neck softly and then ran
his tongue along her lips.
“Last chance to back
out,” he told her softly.
“Josh,” she breathed.
“Make love to me.”
**********
When Laurie woke the next
morning, she was filled with a feeling of contentment. JC’s arms were still
wrapped around her and he was breathing softly. Her heart felt so full of love
for him and she didn’t want that feeling to end. When she opened her eyes, his
cerulean ones were staring back at her and he smiled before softly kissing her.
“Good morning,” he said
and buried his face into her neck. “Let’s stay in bed all day.”
“That sounds like a good
idea to me,” Laurie murmured and couldn’t resist running her fingers through
his hair. “Your hair is so soft...”
“So are you,” he said
with a wicked smile on his face and trailed his fingers lightly over her bare
skin. He sighed happily and brought her closer to him. “I could stay like this
forever.”
“I...” Laurie was cut off
by a knock on the door.
“Shit,” JC muttered and
yelled, “Who is it?”
“It’s me,” Justin called
out. “We’re going to go hit some sites, do you wanna come?”
“No, I’m not done sleeping!”
JC hollered back. His breath suddenly caught in his throat as he felt Laurie’s
tongue encircle one of his nipples and her hand moving toward his nether
regions. JC swore under his breath. “Is that all you wanted?”
“Yeah, I’ll leave you
alone now,” Justin paused. “Do you have someone in there with you?”
Laurie continued her
ministrations and JC groaned.
“No.”
JC could hear Justin
laughing as he retreated from the door and he grabbed Laurie’s arm and pulled
her up so that she was straddling his thighs. She had a mischievous gleam in
her eyes when she looked at him.
“Are you trying to kill
me woman?” He demanded, but his hands were traveling up her thighs to her
waist.
“Was it working?” She
asked slyly.
“You tell me,” he said
and pulled her up even more so that she was straddling his hips and everything
in between.
“Ooo...” she said and
pressed down lightly. “Is all that for me?”
JC said nothing, but he
pulled her head down to brush his lips against hers. His tongue probed her lips
and she allowed him access to her mouth, savoring the warmth he was offering.
“Are you ready?” He
whispered.
“I’m always ready for
you,” she responded and pulled the covers over their heads.
(Shortly after Noon - Lunchtime)
“So,” JC said after they
finished their shower together. “Are you interested in grabbing some lunch with
me?”
“Are you on the menu?”
Laurie laughed.
“No, I’m actually hungry.
For food.” JC’s stomach growled on cue.
“Sure, I should probably
eat something. How are we going to do this? We can’t both leave your room.”
“No,” JC agreed. “Just go
back to your room and finish getting ready, then when I’m done, I’ll leave my
room and knock on your door.”
“Ok.” Laurie said and
pulled her shirt over her head.
While she was doing that,
JC had approached her and wrapped his arms around her waist and waited for her
to finish adjusting her shirt so that he could kiss her.
“I’ll see you in a bit,”
he said softly.
“Promise?” She teased and
pulled away a little.
“Nothing could keep me
away.”
**********
“Did you find her yet?”
Chris looked up as she entered their room and sat down beside him.
“No, and I’m starting to
get worried,” Michelle replied. “She’s not answering her cell phone, I don’t
know how many messages I’ve left with the front desk and she’s not answering
her door.” She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “And she shouldn’t
have gone anywhere by herself, just because the fans are beginning to recognize
her as working with us.”
“Is she down in the
pool?”
“No, I checked.”
“The gym?”
“Chris, I’ve looked all
over this hotel for her. So unless she has these magic invisibility powers that
I don’t know about, she’s not here.” Chris rested his arm around her shoulders
and muted the game he was watching.
“Shelle, she’s got to be
around somewhere... I mean, maybe she doesn’t want to talk to anyone... or she
could have gone site seeing with Joey, Lance and Justin... anything’s
possible.”
“Yeah,” she rested her
head on his shoulder. “You’re probably right. I didn’t even think about calling
one of the guys to see if she was with them.”
“So call one of them,”
Chris shrugged and unmuted the game. “Call Lance... he always knows what’s
going on.”
“Ok... what’s his number
again?”
“Use my phone,” he said
and hollered at one of the players. “Sorry... speed dial number four.”
“Thanks hun.” She kissed
his cheek and grabbed his phone off the table beside the bed. Lance picked it
up on the first ring.
“Hey Chris.”
“Not Chris,” Michelle
laughed. “It’s the other one.”
“Hey Shelle... what’s
up?”
“I was just wondering...
is Laurie with you guys? I’ve searched the hotel and she’s not answering her
cell phone.”
“Nope, sorry. Weren’t you
looking for her yesterday morning too?”
“Yeah I was.”
“How come you only ever
seem to look for her? Why not one of us?”
“Because I never want to
talk to any of you,” she laughed. “It’s nice having another woman around to
talk to.”
“And I don’t count?”
Michelle laughed again.
“Not until you grow breasts, Lance. If by some miracle, you happen to run into
her somewhere in Chicago, can you please ask her to call me?”
“Not a problem,” he
answered. “Joey and I are just showing Justin some of the places where we
filmed the movie.”
“Aww,” she pouted. “I
want to see.”
“You didn’t want to get
out of bed this morning.”
“Fine,” she huffed. “Hey,
ask Justin when Stacy is supposed to come out and join him... I haven’t seen
her in a while.” There were some quiet murmurs as Lance obviously covered the
phone. “She should be here tomorrow, but it depends on when she has to work.”
“Ok. I guess I’ll see you
guys when you get back?”
“Not if we can help it,”
he chuckled.
“You’re so mean to me,”
she whined.
“Yeah, but you love me
anyway.”
“No I don’t, I love
Chris.”
“Fine, you secretly love
me.”
“Whatever. In your dreams
Poofu.”
“Hey... ‘nuff with the
‘Poofu’ stuff.”
Michelle laughed.
“Sorry. Goodbye Lance.”
“Bye Shelle,” he was
still laughing as she hung up.
Michelle placed Chris’
phone back on the table and sat beside him again.
“Well?”
“She’s not with them,”
she frowned. “She’s got to be somewhere. Did you ask JC if he had seen her?”
“Didn’t even think about
that,” she scurried to her feet. “Thanks hun!”
As Michelle closed the
door to her room behind her, JC was just coming out of his and she ran to him.
“Are you that happy to
see me?”
“Have you seen Laurie?
You’re the only person I haven’t asked and I haven’t seen her anywhere and
she’s not answering her phone and...”
“Ok, Michelle? Breathe.”
He laughed. She glared at him. “I think I saw her earlier this morning, but we
didn’t really say much.” To himself he added, “That’s not exactly a lie.”
Michelle groaned and
banged her head against the wall.
“You’re not helping,” she
sighed. “Well, if you see her, can you please let her know that I’ve been
looking for her?”
“Yep.” He paused. “What
are your plans for tonight?”
“I think Chris and I were
thinking about going to a movie with Justin and Joey. I was going to ask
Laurie, but since I can’t find her... do you want to come too?”
“Ask me later, I might
want to hang around here and just chill.”
“Fine,” she stuck her
tongue out at him. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“If you can find me,” he
smirked. “You seem to have a tendency of losing people.”
“Shut up, I haven’t lost
her... I just... haven’t found her.”
“Yeah, yeah,” JC laughed
and Michelle returned to her room.
JC breathed a sigh of
relief and knocked on Laurie’s door. She answered it almost immediately.
“What took you so long?”
She smiled and closed the door behind her and they began to make their way down
the hallway.
“Michelle cornered me and
asked me if I had seen you this morning. I just told her that I had, but that
we didn’t say much... it’s not exactly a lie, we were too busy doing other
things to... talk.”
“You’re bad,” Laurie
laughed and they entered the elevator.
When the doors closed, JC
took her into his arms and kissed her.
“I missed you,” he
whispered.
“I was gone all of ten
minutes, you couldn’t have missed me too much.”
“I just like having you
in my arms again,” he smiled and she rested her head against his chest until
the doors opened.
They walked into the
hotel restaurant and were seated immediately, although it was already very
busy. They were looking at their menus when someone clearing their throat
caught JC’s attention and he looked up. When he saw who it was, his face paled.
“A-Alexandria,” he
stuttered. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought I would pay
you a surprise visit,” she smiled nastily and looked at Laurie. “Or is this a
bad time?”
“N-No, it’s fine.” JC
stood up and gave Alexandria a hug and a very chaste kiss on her cheek. “Have
you eaten yet? We were just about to have lunch.”
“No, I haven’t, thank
you.” She sat down and spread her napkin on her lap. “Aren’t you going to
introduce me to your little friend?”
“Alexandria, this is
Laurie, she’s here with Chris and Michelle, she works with them at FuMan.
Laurie, this is Alexandria. My wife.” JC almost choked on the last two words.
“It’s nice to meet you,”
Laurie said quietly, not meaning a word.
“Likewise,” Alexandria
gave her a cold hard stare.
Laurie had the distinct
feeling that Alexandria was anything but happy to meet her. Laurie cleared her
throat and stood up.
“You know, I’m not really
very hungry after all,” she lied, the hunger pains in her stomach becoming more
prominent. She would order something from room service if she wasn’t sick
first. “JC, I’ll see you later, Alexandria it was nice to meet you.”
And she was gone before
JC could say anything.