Sorry it was a bit longer than normal for me to post this one. I couldn't decide if I wanted to change the direction of the story and start to make it more AU so I was re-working some of the chapters. I have decided to keep my original plan which is to keep it pretty close to the actual Season 1 to keep it more of a "this could have actually happened even though we know it didnt really" kind of thing. Once again, a girl can dream... (:

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! This chapter is actually my shortest one I think so I'm sorry and longer chapters are in the near future! As always, please write your thoughts and feelings, they really keep me inspired.

Chapter 4

"Well, if you change your mind, the offer stands. And hey, we gotta finish writing that song." Juliette flashed Rayna her biggest smile as she turned to leave.

Rayna, with a look of disgust and surprise on her face, turned to look at Deacon. "I can't believe she just said that in front of me. She's got about 500 miles worth of nerve."

Deacon smirked, "I'm just writing a song…"

"Yeah well I know where that leads. You and I used to write songs together too, remember?" She replied, looking at him in disbelief.

"Oh I remember." Deacon smirked as he walked into rehearsal, leaving Rayna standing in the doorway, confused and jealous.

Rehearsal was going badly. Rayna was not at her usual level during rehearsals. She was acting weird and distant. After only half an hour, she called it.

Deacon walked over to her as she gathered her things. "Are we okay?" He asked.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Rayna answered, not looking at him.

"Because you won't look at me. Rayna, I know you."

"You don't know everything about me. You don't know everything I am or everything I do. Just like I don't know everything you do…" She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow as she added, "Apparently."

"Ray, it's just one song, okay? Are you jealous about one little song?" He questioned her.

"I am not jealous." She responded, a little too quickly.

"Fine, if you're not jealous, then why are you angry with me, Rayna?"

"I'm not angry with you, Deacon." She replied, trying not to let him know he affected her so much.

"Good. Then come over for dinner tonight. Show me how good of friends we still are." He replied, trying to catch her.

"Fine." She rebutted immediately, not realizing what he said until it was too late.

"Fine." He added, smiling. He got her.

She grabbed her things and walked away, knowing he had won and gotten what he wanted.

Rayna walked into Deacon's house, already feeling a lot of emotions. She was still frustrated about the events that unfolded earlier in the day.

"Hey there, darlin." Deacon emerged, large spoon in hand. He approached her and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. She stiffened slightly.

He walked back into the kitchen, talking to her, "You a'ight? You were so fine earlier today." He said jokingly. He just wanted her to be honest about her feelings for him.

She followed him into the kitchen and stood behind him.

"Did you sleep with her?"

Deacon stopped. He was surprised. He expected her to be jealous that they were spending time together, but he never imagined she would have enough guts to actually ask him about their relationship. He turned to look at her.

He didn't say a word, but he looked at her to give his answer. In a moment of emotion, Rayna reacted viscerally and slapped him across the cheek.

Deacon accepted her slap and turned back to face her slowly. "Ray…"

Rayna cut him off, "Don't. Don't you call me that right now." Her face was flushed and she knew she was about to cry.

"I am risking my marriage for us and you are running off with little miss sparkly pants?!" Rayna let the tears form, blinking them back.

"Rayna, I…" Deacon started but Rayna cut him off again.

"Out of every woman in the world you chose the one whose trying to take over my career?!" Rayna was too upset to continue so she threw her hands in the air and turned around and placed her hands on the counter to steady herself.

Deacon let a moment or two pass, letting her work on returning her breath back to normal.

"It happened before anything happened between us." Deacon said to the back of Rayna's head, hoping she would believe him.

Rayna let out a huge breath. She turned around to face him again. The second she saw his face, she knew he was telling the truth.

"Tell you the truth, I've been trying to figure out what to do because I don't know how to tell her that I don't want anything from her now that I've got you back in my life." Deacon added, taking a step closer to Rayna. Her heart skipped a beat. "I was lonely, she was there. That's it." He took another step towards her.

"I saw you leave rehearsal with her." Rayna added, needing more reassurance.

"Nothing but writing since that day on the bridge." Deacon grasped her hand and squeezed it. She looked into his eyes. His eyes were so full of love, Rayna felt more tears beginning to form. She squeezed her eyes shut, but some of the tears escaped rolling down her face. When they did, Deacon pressed his lips to hers gently. Deacon kissed each teardrop that fell. He pressed two feather-light kisses onto her closed eyelids and then leaned his forehead against hers. He wrapped his arms around her, giving her a tight hug. She buried her face into his chest, never feeling as safe as when she was wrapped in his arms. He kissed the top of her head. "C'mon, Ray, you need to eat."

He led her to the table by her hands and sat her down. He brought a plate of lasagna over to her, followed by a glass of water and a salad. Rayna looked up at him in surprise.

"What you looking at me like that for? I told you I learned to cook." She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Alright, I bought it. But I heated it in the oven and it didn't burn so that's the same thing." Deacon looked at her, stifling a laugh. They both let out a laugh as they grabbed their forks and began to eat.

After the food was eaten and the dishes washed, they sat together on the couch, drinking coffee and reminiscing.

"Remember the time you made the bus pull off to a gas station at 3 in the morning because you were craving ice cream?" Deacon laughed.

Rayna chuckled and responded, "I also remember you digging a giant soup ladle into the container and eating most of it!"

"I couldn't find a spoon!" They laughed together.

"I'll never forgive you for getting ice cream on my favorite jeans after you lost control of your giant spoon." She laughed again.

"If memory serves me right, you forgave me about ten seconds after I took those jeans off you." He raised his eyebrows and smirked at her. Rayna faked a look of shock, "Deacon Claybourne, behave yourself." She giggled.

"Or what?" Deacon asked, grabbing ahold of her feet that were propped up on the couch next to him. He looked at her and she knew what was coming next.

"Deacon, you better not, I'm seriooooouusssss!" She screamed the last word as Deacon pulled on her legs pulling her towards him as he began to aggressively tickle her.

"DEACON!" She screamed, laughing hysterically. He pinned her legs down with his own and put all his body weight on top of her, showing her no mercy. She squirmed underneath him, still yelling at him, "I'm serious, Deacon!" It took her a minute to get out a full sentence because she couldn't stop laughing.

"Make me." Deacon stared down directly into her eyes, his breath on her face. Rayna became very aware of the fact that he was fully on top of her right now, she could feel his lower half pressed up against hers. She quickly was distracted though by Deacon's hands tickling her sides. She knew how to get him to stop. She reached up and grabbed his head and pulled it down to her own. She kissed him long and hard. His hands immediately stopped their teasing as he sunk into the kiss. She leaned back.

"Made you stop." She smiled up at him.

"Maybe I should tickle you more often." Deacon mused.

"Or you could just kiss me." Rayna offered, not wanting to get attacked again. Deacon smiled and did just that.

He leaned down and brought his lips to hers, excruciatingly slow. Rayna watched him as he got closer and closer to her. He stopped right as she felt his lips make contact with hers. He gave her a peck. Then another. And another. He pecked her nose, her cheek, her forehead. He locked eyes with her and stared at her for a moment. He wanted to savor this.

Sometimes he would be out somewhere and he would remember that he was able to kiss Rayna again. He, himself, wouldn't believe it, standing there. So he took this minute to look into her eyes and memorize this moment in his mind so he could revisit it over and over.

She hooked her arms underneath his and settled them on his back, feeling his muscles. Deacon, finally satisfied with his moment, leaned down and kissed her, really kissed her. He pushed his mouth against hers roughly and shoved his tongue in her mouth. She responded by moaning deep in her throat, a sound that has always made Deacon's heart pound harder in his chest. He let go of her mouth and began making his way down and started to suck on her collarbone.

Rayna came to her senses for a moment, "Don't leave a mark!" She said breathlessly. Deacon pulled his head back up to the side of her neck. "You mean like this one?" He kissed a faded red outline, barely visible anymore, on her neck.

"Yes, don't do that again." Rayna said again.

Deacon pulled his head back so he could look at her. "Did he…?" He gestured the rest of the question with his eyes.

"Maybe...I don't know." She replied.

"I'm sorry, Ray. I didn't do it on purpose, I…"

"I know." She cut him off, knowing he would never be that manipulative.

Thinking now of Teddy, Deacon kept his eyes on hers as he spoke, "It's okay that you were jealous of Juliette. But I guarantee you that I'm a whole lot more jealous of Teddy."

Rayna paused in surprise, looking up at him after his declaration.

"You chose him. You chose to share your life with him. You made a family with him. He gets to share a family with you and a home with you. He gets to call you his wife, something that I have only dreamt about. Does he understand how lucky he is? Does he know how lucky he is to wake up with you in his bed? Does he know how lucky he is to be able to kiss you anytime he wants? Damn, kissing you is pretty much the greatest thing in the entire world and he gets to do it." He ran a finger along her lips and Rayna's eyes flickered closed, "Does he appreciate how amazing it is to kiss you?"

Rayna knew he shouldn't be saying all of these things and they had always refrained from talking about her marriage for these very reasons. He wanted her to understand that there was no way that Teddy appreciated having her as much as he would.

She opened her eyes again and looked at him, "I did chose him." She said even though she knew it would hurt him to hear her say it. It did hurt him, and a flash of pain crossed his eyes. It was followed by a look of understanding as Deacon knew why she felt like she had to do it, back in those days.

"But right now, I'm choosing to be here…with you." Rayna added to reassure him.

He watched her a moment, and then he leaned down and kissed her to show her exactly how much he appreciated kissing her. He pressed his lips into hers deeply and passionately. Rayna let out a small whimper in response to his desperation. She opened her mouth to him and he graciously thanked her by slipping his tongue in to battle with hers. He grabbed her tongue with his teeth and sucked on it, hard. Rayna instinctively let her hips and lower back arch upward as she moaned deeply. When Deacon felt her lower half connect with his, he groaned in response and laid his hips down on top of hers to let their lower halves do some battling of their own. With both of them wearing jeans, the friction they were causing with their grinding was becoming unbearable for them both. That, combined with their heated kissing was becoming too much and they both broke to catch their breath, pausing their hips as well. They both sat up together and Deacon worked on pulling off her shirt while she did the same to him. Rayna's legs were straddling Deacon around his waist, resting on top of his legs. After the shirts were thrown to the floor, they embraced, kissing again. He tangled his fingers in her hair and she mimicked her legs by wrapping her arms around his neck. She leaned back and let them both fall backwards onto the cushions again, Deacon landing on top of her. Her legs and arms were still fastened around him and they continued their passionate kissing. They were both breathing really deeply and quickly. Rayna let her legs fall back down onto the couch so Deacon could lay his waist down and press his hips into hers again, this time roughly. They both moaned at the feeling of being pressed against one another but whimpered at the pants still blocking them from each other.

Deacon reached and easily removed her bra and he stared down at her breasts, heaving up and down as she breathed rapidly. "God, you're perfect." He smiled breathlessly and Rayna's heart flipped over in her chest. Deacon never failed to make her feel sexy and wanted. He lowered his head and kissed her right between her breasts. He moved over and let his mouth wander over her left breast. She could feel her breath increasing and she let her eyes close in anticipation. He found his destination and pulled her nipple into his mouth. First, he bit down on it gently, and she inhaled sharply. After, he continued his movements and gave it a flick with his tongue followed by another bite. His hand found its way to her other breast and began to massage it gently. Her breath was now shallow and rapid and she arched her back upwards as he bit down on her yet again, this time with a little more force. He paused with his biting to begin sucking on her nipple and she let out a moan and placed her hand on the back of his head to secure him to encourage him not to stop. He used his other hand to play with the button on her jeans and he popped it open and dipped his hand inside.

"Deacon!" A voice boomed through the air at the same time three loud knocks rapped on the front door. Rayna's eyes shot open and her and Deacon looked at each other with shocked and confused faces. Another knock followed by another, "Deacon? You here?"

"Coleman." Deacon said, pulling his hand from Rayna's pants and jumping off the couch, reaching for his shirt. Rayna stood up and grabbed her shirt and rushed out of the room while Deacon went to answer the door.

"Hey man, what's going on?" Deacon asked as he answered the door.

"You didn't come to the meeting?" Coleman asked, wondering why Deacon was only opening the door a little.

"I left you a voicemail to say that I wanted to switch meetings this week." Deacon replied quickly.

Coleman tried to peer into the house. Deacon was acting weird. "You know I don't check voicemails, man. You have got to learn to text." Coleman said, laughing.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll get on that….uh, is that all?" Deacon responded.

"Yeah…what are you all antsy for? You trying to kick me out?" Coleman laughed.

Deacon peeked his head back around to make sure the coast was still clear. "No, man. I'm good. Just writing a song and uh, you know, I think I've really hit a groove here. Don't want to mess it up."

"Yeah, alright. Guess I'll see you tomorrow then." Colemen said hesitantly.

"Yeah, see you then." Deacon said and quickly shut the door. Coleman walked away confused.

"Ray?" Deacon called out, trying to find out where she went. He walked into the bedroom. "Ray?"

"Was it Coleman?" Rayna asked, sitting on the edge of the bed, shirt back on and hair no longer disheveled.

Deacon sat down next to her, "Yeah, checking up on me. He's gone now."

Rayna got up, "I really should be going, I didn't realize how long we were…talking. I've got to get dinner on the table."

Deacon followed her to the living room while she grabbed her purse and jacket.

"A'ight. Um, we're okay still right?" He asked curiously to see if that was the only reason she was leaving.

She turned and placed a hand on his cheek. "Yeah, we're okay." She replied and left.