Ch 69 ~ Home Sweet Home

“You hungry, babe?” Jon asked over the roar of the car’s engine and the wind that was wreaking havoc on her ponytail. 

She blinked behind her over-sized sunglasses and turned to him with a smile.  Honestly, between the anticipation of seeing him, the apprehension over resolving the James drama, mentally arranging the
Europe-purchased furniture in the new house and a rampant case of horny, food hadn’t crossed her mind. 

“No,” she answered at the same moment her stomach growled and made her laugh.  “Well, damn.  My stomach seems to have different ideas.  I might actually have to eat before collecting the reward you promised me.”

A flash of pearly white teeth glinted through the wolfish grin he slanted her way.  “Smart stomach.  It knows as well as I do that we aren’t gonna leave that big-ass bed of ours until it's been good and defiled.  No matter how long it takes.”

She giggled, knowing that they possessed enough talent to ‘good and defile’ the monstrous beauty in five minutes flat, but she wasn’t opposed to repeating the process.  Ten or twelve times.   Or more, if necessary.  Her knees got a little shaky just remembering the day they bought it.

“Is the bed as sexy as I remember it being?”

“The bed… sexy?  Fuck me,” he snorted, blatantly offended.  “You’re supposed to think I’m sexy, not a piece of furniture.”

“Oh honey…”  She slipped a hand over the center console, dragging her French manicured nails through the masculine hair dusting his knee, all the way up to and under the hem of his shorts.  She was rewarded with a guttural growl and a shiver.  “You’re what makes that bed sexy.  Your hot, hard body sprawled across it – and me sprawled across you – is all I’ve thought of since we got it.  It might not be a four-poster bed, but I’m sure there’ll be something in it that’s hard as a post.”

With that little observation, she clamped a hand over his now twitching crotch, making him jump. 

“I think we’re going to have to stop talking about the bed,” she purred delightedly, “Or we won’t be going anyplace but home.”

He cleared his throat and adjusted his position in the seat, grinning at her unrepentantly.  “I don’t mind a little foreplay, but we’re definitely stopping to eat first.  I gotta do some hydrating and carb-loading for the sex marathon we’re gonna have.  I suggest you do the same, because you’re gonna be losing a lot of fluid.”  He clamped his own  hand over her crotch, much as hers was attached to his.  “A lot.”

She had just been trumped by the master.  And she liked it. 

“I…  I’m not responding to that, or we’ll crash your precious Chevelle,” she decreed, pushing his hand away as his belly laugh filled the air.  “Moving on to more neutral furniture…  I can’t wait to see those living room pieces we bought in London.  The armoires just screamed for a place on each side of the fireplace and the coffee table was a great find.  I hope they look as good in reality as they did in my mind.”

“Baby, there’s no neutral furniture, because I’m gonna fuck you on every single one of them,” he informed her a smug grin.  He showed zero remorse at dragging their conversation back to sex.

Somebody’s mind was happily entrenched between the sheets, with no desire to leave. 

Okay, if that’s how he wanted it.  That was fine.  If he wanted to toy with her, stoking the passion that sizzled in the open air, she’d be happy to throw another ‘log’ on the fire.

She reached for the waistband of his shorts with her own devilish smile.  “It hardly seems fair to christen the new furniture when your car hasn’t been given the same consideration.  You just sit still and let me take care of this.  Keep your eyes on the road though.  You don’t want to get us in an accident.”

“Ho, ho, ho, huh-uh!  You win!”  He batted her away, jerking the wheel to bring it back into the correct lane.  “I’m all for a good road blow, but not in the Chevelle.  If it was any car but this one, I’d forsake it, but not my baby.”

Rachel happily slumped back into her own seat, bearing a triumphant grin.  “I love winning, and I’ll take an extra orgasm as my prize, please.”

“You’re a cheeky broad, you know that?”

“Mm.”  She was because he made her that way.  The comfort they had together was like nothing else in this world.  She loved him, he loved her and they could and would work through anything together.  It was a very liberating feeling to know she didn’t ever have to censor herself with him.  “You like me that way.”

Eventually, they got around to the business of food and decided on burgers and beer at Dublin House, which they quickly inhaled before eagerly making their way to house they’d both begun to think of as “home”.  

And the bed within.

Passing through the front gates, however, had Rachel’s heart swelling to the point where it overshadowed her libido.  Adoration and appreciation for the man who had made all of this possible consumed her every time they drove through those gates, it seemed, and allowed her to love him for the first time all over again. 

It was a simply fabulous piece of real estate, but that didn’t impress her much.  She viewed, bought and sold far grander and majestic homes on a regular basis and, yet, she wouldn’t trade a single one of them for this plot and parcel on the banks of the Navesink River.

Why?

Because Jon had bought this place for her, and kept it for her in faith that she would be back and that the two of them would be back together.  That was what made it so special.

“C’mon.  This way,” Jon insisted, guiding her toward the house’s main front door rather than the side door they typically favored.

Slightly surprised and a bit bewildered, she nonetheless followed obediently along as he guided her to the oversized door that represented the entryway into the home.  He turned the handle and, as soon as they stepped into the foyer, Rachel understood quite clearly why he’d chosen this entrance.

She’d been expecting to find furniture sitting in clusters around the house, perhaps in the correct room, but certainly no more than that.  It was to be her job to fix up the house, not Jon’s, but he hadn’t stuck to that game plan.  Instead, everything was… perfect. 

The formal living room, which had always been bare and empty, was now filled and arranged – exactly as she would have done it – with the pieces they’d purchased in Europe.   They’d specifically shopped for and chosen these items. Together, as a couple.  This was their furniture.  Their living room.

A tidal wave of sentimentality threatened to overwhelm her, and Rachel brought a hand up to cover her mouth.

It’s the first place we’ve ever had that’s just ours.

“Is it everything you wanted it to be, Rach?” he asked from behind her.

“It’s… beyond amazing.  It’s beautiful and I love it more than I ever imagined,” she responded, sitting down on one of the pale green sofas.  “The wood in this house is so gorgeous. I can’t believe how all these pieces just fit so perfectly.”

Jon sat down next to her, slid his feet out of his flip flops and plopped them on the coffee table with a satisfied grin. At this moment, it wouldn’t matter if it were zebra prints and polka dots, because it was theirs, but something else mattered.

“John Francis Bongiovi!  I know you didn’t just put your grubby feet on our new furniture,” she chastised with a wide eyed blink.

“Rachel Leanne Braden!” he mimicked without a care.  “I’ll probably put your bare ass on our new furniture before the night is over, so my feet are the least of your worries.”

She staunchly ignored the warm tingling that his ribald words incited.

“Sweetheart…”  The endearment practically dripped with saccharine sweetness.  Rachel couldn’t help it.  They weren’t going to have sex on this furniture before anyone besides them had even seen it.  That was just tacky.  “I hardly think we need to tarnish the sofas before we’ve even had a chance for a family gathering.”

Jon rubbed the scruffy jaw on his chin and dropped his arm across Rachel’s leg.  “Seems like a good time to tell you we’re getting a new member of the family.”

Rachel tucked her legs under her and tickled the top of Jon’s messy hair, glad he hadn’t pursued sex on the couch.  Because, ultimately, he probably would’ve won, and it really was tacky.  Really tacky. 

She made a mental note to get it all Scotchgarded, just in case.

New family, Rachel.  Focus. 

“Hmmmm…”  She tapped her chin thoughtfully, re-directing and trying to imagine what new family member he could possibly be referring to.  It certainly wasn’t their forthcoming child, because Rachel was absolutely, positively not pregnant.  But another kind of baby wasn’t out of the question, she supposed, and with a new house, it might even be logical.  “You got a puppy, didn’t you?”

“You want a dog?”  He seemed surprised, so Rachel was going to assume that their new family member wasn’t a little ball of canine fur.

“I do if you got me one.  Did you?”

“No.  But if you want one I’ll get you a dog, horse, ostrich…whatever.  Right now I’m referring to Dorothea.”

Dorothea? New member of the family?  What?

“Ummm…  Jon, I like Dorothea and all, but I don’t know how I feel about her living with us.”

 He threw his head back with a boisterous guffaw.  “No and hell no, but thanks for the laugh, babe.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” she returned with a smile.  “So what new family member?”

Sobering a bit, he relayed, “When I dropped the kids off this morning, Dorothea told me she and Ted are getting married.”

Okay.  This could be very bad or it could be no big deal.  I’m hoping for no big deal.

“How do you feel about that?  You can tell me if it bothers you, you know.”

“Actually, yes, I do know that.  I don’t have to worry about censoring anything for you, and I consider that one of the greatest blessings in our relationship.  I know you’d support me no matter what my feelings, and that means more than anything in the world to me.”

He turned his head and puckered his lips inviting Rachel for the kiss she never failed to return. 

“Dorothea and I made each other happy for a lot of years.  And then we didn’t.  I think that finding a great love is a pretty rare thing in life.  I’ve been lucky enough to find it twice and, apparently, so has she.  So I’m as happy for her as I hope she is for me.”

And ‘no big deal’ it is!  Thank you Hay-Zeus!

“Well.  That’s quite a grown up way of thinking, baby and I’m glad you’re approaching it with that attitude.  Ted’s a nice guy and the kids are comfortable with him, so I think it’s great.”

“Yeah.   It still bothers me that I wasn’t able to give my kids an intact family, and that now some new guy will be living with ‘em.” He shrugged. “But whaddaya gonna do?”

Okay, so maybe just a bit bigger deal than I hoped.  Let’s try and fix this…

“I understand where you’re coming from, but you might try to see that, in spite of you and their mother divorcing, you’re both setting a remarkable example for them.  Even though you no longer live together, you’re still a family who loves and respects each other.  As a mother, I’m really proud of you – of all of us – for the way we always put the kids first.”

 “Thank you, baby.” He leaned in for a gentle kiss.  “You sure you don’t want to add our kids to the list?”

“Very sure,” she chuckled.  No, that was one decision she definitely had made peace with. “I can’t imagine trying to keep up with you, all these addresses of ours, plus your spawn running all over the place.  Insanity may find me all on its own, but I’m certainly not going to chase it.”

“So no regrets then?”

Rachel laid a soft palm against his cheek and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.  “Honey, the only thing I regret is not going straight to the bedroom when we first got here.”

The dirty little growl he immediately issued never failed to make her twitch, and this time was no exception.   “You only interested in my body, Rach?”

“Until it begins to sag.  Then I’ll see about enjoying your mind.”  Rachel teased before she stood and extended a hand to pull Jon up with her.

“My body won’t ever sag, baby,” he disputed as she did her best to drag him up the stairs. His ego was far too chatty, and she had waited too long to feel his hot, hard body naked against hers.  “But your once-tight little ass looks like it might be drooping a little.”

He did not just say that!

Rachel stopped dead in her tracks and looked over her shoulder and pinned him with a withering glare.  He was teasing, but he should know better than to even tease a woman about those kinds of things

“My ass is as high and firm as it was when I was twenty, mister.  You should probably take a look and re-evaluate your opinion if you want to get laid, don’t you think?”

He snorted, and those beautiful blue eyes twinkled like the summer sky when he countered, “I’m gonna need to do more than look, honey.  I’m thinkin’ a hands-on evaluation is in order here.”