Chapter 15: Unfinished Business

“Have a seat,” she gestured to the bench. Before she could fold herself onto it, Richie grabbed her hands and pulled her to him.

“Not so fast, sweetheart. We have some unfinished business to take care of, remember?”

“We do?” she teased. “What business?”

“This.” His eyes darkened, his arms tightened, and he dipped his head, capturing her mouth in a kiss. Julianna wrapped her arms around his waist, bringing him in close. She could feel the hard length of him along her thigh as she pressed in. The heat pouring from his body excited her, fueled her passion. Her lips parted even before his tongue touched them. When Richie’s tongue dove into her mouth, Julianna groaned, and ground against him. Richie made a guttural noise in the back of his throat, reveling in the sheer pleasure of losing himself in a woman. He let his hands wander; one to settle on her tight ass, the other to cup one small, perfect breast. As he kissed he kneaded, making Julianna’s pulse race and her legs go weak.

After a minute, Julianna broke the embrace, and stepped back, exhaling sharply. “Jesus, Sambora, you sure know how to make a girl go stupid,” she said with a wry grin. “Look, I mean you’ve gotta know that I’m more than a little attracted to you – hell I’ve been half in love with you, or the idea of you, for the better part of twenty years.” She took a step back and sat down hard on a bench. “But, shit, I can’t believe I’m actually saying this. I -- ” she stopped when she saw the look on his face. He had a mixture of sadness and relief showing in his eyes.

Richie completed her thoughts. “You were going to say you don’t want to rush into something, right?” He saw the answer in her face before she had the chance to speak. “Darlin’, I’ve been agonizing over the same thing since I dropped you off here last night.” He sat down across from Julianna, and leaned forward, lacing his fingers together and resting his forearms on his thighs. “I don’t know how much of what happened between me and Heather you read about – I guess it was all over the tabloids.”

“I have read some,” Julianna admitted guiltily.

Richie nodded. “Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret. This time, they weren’t exaggerating. Just about everything you read was true.” He sighed. “It’s been a rough bunch of months.”

Julianna’s eyes went wide. “Oh my God! I’m so sorry. That’s awful. How’s your daughter coping?”

“Thanks for asking, she’s doing OK. We tried to shield her from most of it. She’s learned not to take what she hears in the media about her mother or I seriously without talking to us first. We’ve been really careful to make this as easy a time for Ava as we could.” He sighed deeply. “You can see now why I was a bit relieved, frankly, when you started to say you wanted to take things more slowly." He looked Julianna square in the eyes. “For the record, in case you didn’t notice, the attraction is there for me too.” He grinned slowly, shifting uncomfortably on the cold, hard bench. “Big time.”

Julianna blushed and smiled, and cut back into the dialog, “So I’m clear, you’re saying you also want to try to get to know each other better first, and see what happens? Not just jump into something physical?”

“Yeah,” Richie said. Just talk to me baby, ‘til we ain’t strangers anymore. “That’s what I want.”

Julianna’s face lit up. “Thank God! I thought for sure that you’d be upset with me, at my hesitation, and this – whatever it is – wouldn’t have a chance.”

“Julianna,” Richie replied. “We don’t really know each other. We can make all sorts of assumptions and guesses about each other and get them wrong, or,” he said, standing and holding out his hand, “or we can learn about each other like regular people, and see if there’s any substance behind the sexual attraction.”

Julianna took Richie’s hand and stood. “I would love to get to really know the man behind the persona. I promise, I’ll do my best to not have any pre-conceived notions or make any assumptions. You be honest with me, and I’ll be honest with you.”

“Agreed.” Richie smiled, feeling completely relaxed, and unbelievably lucky. Julianna appeared to be operating on the same wavelength as he was. “So what now?”

“Well, either you can go back up to the house, or, if you want to, or we can have our first official date here. I figure that any celebrity would have issues ‘dating’ out in public like regular people – especially someone with a child who just went through a very public divorce. And,” she looked down at her attire, “I’m not really dressed to go out.”

Richie laughed. “For the record, I think you look fine, and yes, you’re right, regular dating is tough, but it’s doable. I’d love to hang out here for a while, and talk, maybe over a couple of beers?”

“Alrighty then, follow me.”

* * * * *

She led Richie up to the porch, and pushed him gently into one of the rockers. “Stay,” she said, then disappeared into the house. Richie took advantage of the time to send Jon a short text message. “We talked, on the same page. Deets tomorrow.”

Julianna came back a few minutes later dressed in well-worn jeans and a tank top, her feet bare, and her hair pulled back in a high ponytail. She handed him one of the bottles of beer she snagged on the way back outside. She clinked her bottle to his and said, “Here’s to getting to know you.” She settled into the chair next to him. “So, tell me something about yourself.”

And they were off. They lounged around outside until the night became too chilly, then they moved inside to the library. Richie looked around and whistled. The room was floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and they looked full. Circling the room, he read some of the titles. There was a wide mix of genres – Stephen King along side Stephen Hawking; coffee table books about different operas shared shelf space with steamy romance novels. One shelf was devoted to the Bermuda Triangle and the Lost City of Atlantis. “Wow, have you read all of these?” he asked.

“Yep, and most of the ones up at the main house, too. I love to read, and as you can see, I’ll read anything. What about you? What do you like to read for fun?”

“Honestly,” he answered, “I don’t get much time to sit and enjoy a good book.” He laughed. “Or a bad one for that matter. I’d have to say, though, if pressed, I’d prefer to read some sort of Sci-Fi fantasy story. There’s enough reality in my life, thank you very much. I could stand to get lost in a fantasy for a while.”

Julianna smiled, and crossed the room. She pulled a volume from a low shelf, and dropped it in Richie’s hands. “Don’t know if you’ve ever read this one,” she said, “but it’s one of my favorites. Take it. Read it when you can, and tell me what you think.”

Richie looked at the book in his hands. It was a first edition Heinlein, “Tunnel in the Sky”. He arched an eyebrow at Julianna. “Really?”

“Really. It’s like a sci-fi ‘Survivor’ season. Try it. You may like it. There are other things up at the house you may enjoy if this one doesn’t float your boat.” Her stomach chose that moment to grumble loudly. She giggled self-consciously, and glanced at the clock. It was nearly eleven. “I don’t know about you, but apparently, I’m hungry. Interested in a late-night snack?”

“Absolutely. I can always eat,” Richie answered.

“C’mon into the kitchen. I can whip us up an omelet. Do you do eggs?”

“Yeah,” he said, sitting at the table, watching her bustle about in the kitchen. He watched her crack the better part of a dozen eggs into a big bowl, and add onions, peppers, mushrooms, milk, cheese, and dash of Tabasco, before whisking it all together. The motion made her ass shake enticingly, setting his pulse racing. He gave himself a mental shake, down boy, and asked what he could do to help.

Julianna checked the stove. “Eggs’ll be up soon. There’s juice in the fridge if you want to pour us some, and some bread in the box to toast.”

They passed the next several hours eating, laughing, talking – feeling like they’d known each other for years instead of days. They talked about their families, touched briefly on their failed marriages, their childhood dreams, their work – nearly every aspect of their lives. They traded secrets, swapped anecdotes, and were stunned when the sun started to peek in through the windows.

“Where’d the night go?” Julianna asked, suddenly exhausted. She yawned and stretched. “I don’t know about you, but if I don’t get at least a couple of hours’ sleep, I’ll be useless for the rest of the day.”

Richie stood, the yawn contagious. “Me too. I should go.”

“Alright,” Julianna said. She led him back to the library to retrieve his book, and gathered him in for a long, close hug. “Hey,” she said, pulling back slightly, “even if we weren’t taking things slow, I don’t put out on the first date.”

Richie laughed hard at this non sequitur. “What are you talking about? I don’t . . .”

Julianna arched an eyebrow, interrupting his denial. “Really, then there must be a banana in your pocket.” She looked down, reassessing. “Or maybe a zucchini.”

“Jesus, Julianna!” He blushed furiously and kissed her soundly. Her sense of humor was another facet of her personality that he found intriguing. “I’ll talk to you soon, OK?”

Julianna smiled. “Of course. Here,” she fumbled in her desk for one of J. Frances’ business cards. She wrote her home and cell numbers on the back. “I’m always at one of these numbers. Although, if I’m working in the studio, I probably won’t answer the phone.” She slipped the card into the back pocket of Richie’s jeans.

Richie chuckled, and grabbed the pen from Julianna’s hand, and a pad of paper from the desk. He wrote his cell number on it, saying, “I usually have this on me, and ditto on the I-ignore-it-when-I’m-working thing.” He folded the piece of paper and slipped it into Julianna’s back pocket. He kissed her gently, savoring the moment. “Until next time,” he said.

“Good night, Richie, and thank you; I had a wonderful time tonight.”

“Me too, babe. Talk to you soon.” He dropped another kiss on her lips and was out the door. Julianna watched him cross the yard to the gate and slip through. With one backward glance and a jaunty salute, he was gone.