Chapter 57: At The Cottage

It was a quiet ride home. Tico and David were snoozing from the carbohydrate overload. Jon, who had an amazing metabolism, was energized and once again driving. He cast a look into the rearview mirror and saw Richie and Julianna cuddled up, talking softly and kissing gently. He smiled at them, glad to see they had worked things out. He smirked and said to them, “Hey you two, no fucking around while I’m driving, please.”

Julianna reached forward to flick the back of Jon’s head. “Such language!” she scolded. “For your information,” she continued, channeling her best grandmotherly tone, “what we do is not ‘fucking’. It’s ‘making love’.”

Richie gave a startled laugh and looked at her. “Now, darlin’,” he said gently, “I think what we did in the shower, and in the garden, and,” he met Jon’s eyes in the mirror, “in the limo was technically ‘fucking’.”

Jon chuckled from the front seat when Julianna blushed, then full-on laughed when she launched into a graphic lecture about syntax and semantics, and the technical difference between making love and “good old-fashioned fucking”. She had Jon and Richie in such hysterics that they woke Tico.

“What’s so goddamned funny?” Tico asked, yawning widely and stretching. He scrubbed at his face and pushed a hand through his thick hair, making it stand up. His accent was thicker, more sexy when he was groggy, Julianna noticed.

Julianna looked at Tico, and said, with a straight face, “I’m educating these two yahoos about the difference between making love and fucking. Apparently, the fact that the two are different is news to these two.” Tico burst out laughing, and reached forward to hit David on the back of the head. David’s head fell forward and the truck’s momentum around a corner had it smacking into his door’s window.

“Wake up D,” he said. “You’ve gotta hear this.”

Jon complained, “Now Teek, man, why couldn’t you have woken me up like that? Why try to suffocate me?”

“Because it’s fun to torture you,” Tico said to him.

David had woken up somewhat and half-turned to face Richie and Julianna in the back seat. He was rubbing the side of his head and scowling at Tico. “What do I have to hear? What the hell is going on? Jesus, man, I was having a helluva dream.”

Julianna sighed dramatically and launched into her lecture again, and had them all laughing so hard that when they pulled into the driveway of the house, nobody noticed the car parked across the street, watching. They all tumbled from the truck, laughing and carrying on, arms around each other, oblivious to the fact that they were having their pictures taken.

* * * * *

Later that night, Julianna helped Richie pack his things. Although she was feeling better, she didn’t want to tempt fate by sleeping there again tonight. Richie didn’t want to sleep without her, so he was packing to move to the cottage with her. Dave and Tico sat in Richie’s sitting room, complaining the whole time that she was taking away their cook. How would they survive? They kept up the banter and complaining, trying to make deals with her, and making her laugh so hard that her sides hurt. In no time at all, they had the room packed up. Julianna suspected they were keeping her mind busy so she wouldn’t be concentrating on where she was. Her heart squeezed a little at their thoughtfulness. As she passed, she trailed a gentle hand across their faces, and made eye contact with them, mouthing ‘thank you’ to each in turn.

When the pair returned to the cottage, they were suddenly shy. This was the first time they were really alone together since getting back from the city. Richie thought that they had gotten back to where they were before, but didn’t want to push. Julianna didn’t know if her advances would be welcome; she felt really stupid about the past few days. She sighed and looked at Richie, who was leaning against the door, watching her.

“Well, what now?” she said.

Richie looked at her, tilting his head to one side. “I’m up for whatever,” he said, shrugging.

Involuntarily, Julianna’s gaze traveled downward and she gasped. He was up for whatever. He just stood there, however, letting the decision be hers.

Julianna approached him slowly.

Richie straightened from the wall.

When she was standing toe to toe with him, she leaned in to gently kiss his lips. It took all of Richie’s control not to haul her against him and kiss her senseless. Instead, he threaded his hands into Julianna’s hair, and held her as he kissed her back, deepening the kiss and tilting her head to give him better penetration with his tongue. Julianna groaned against Richie, and wound her arms around his neck, pulling herself flush with him. Richie still caressed her head with his hands, his thumbs dampened by tears leaking from Julianna’s eyes.

“Rich,” she said to him, her voice a hoarse whisper.

“What is it, darlin’,” he answered his own voice a breathless shadow of itself. He had a tenuous hold on his control.

“I love you so much,” she said, a moment before she wrapped her arms around his neck, jumped up to wrap her legs around his waist, and tangled her tongue around his.

Richie groaned into Julianna’s mouth and turned them so he could lean her against the door. He ground against her until she ripped her mouth from his to scream his name, shattering against him. Richie leaned his forehead against Julianna’s, breathless with need, and said, “I love you too. So much it’s scary.”

“Can you forgive me?” Julianna already knew the answer, but she needed to hear the words.

“Darlin’, there’s nothing to forgive.” Julianna gave him a look, and he sighed. “Alright; all is forgiven, my love.”

“Thank you.” She kissed him deeply. “Thank you for not giving up on me and for putting up with me these last days. I know it couldn’t have been easy for you.”

“Julianna, to give up on you would be to give up on me,” Richie said. “I can’t say it any plainer than that. And for the record, I’m not gonna do that again.” He kissed her lightly. “You’re pretty much stuck with me for the duration.”

Julianna smiled. “I’m glad. So damned glad.” She mashed her mouth into his in celebration.

Julianna still clung to him like a monkey, and Richie walked them through the house to her bedroom – amazed that he didn’t crash them into anything. He brought her to the bed and laid her gently on it. He stretched out beside her, kissing her face and neck, running his hands all over her body. She was letting her hands roam too, re-learning the contours of her lover’s body. They slowly stripped each other, and Richie positioned himself over Julianna. Kissing her gently, he eased into her body and stroked slowly in and out of her. They locked eyes and watched each other go over the edge, eyes clouding with passion, reaffirming their love, never having said another word.