Sorry for the loooong wait you guys! I have just been stuck in a little "funk" I guess you could call it. I was stuck in my story plot, but now I think I know where to go. Please, read and review thanks! Don't flame!

Chapter 11:

"Clarisse, darling! I have been waiting for what seems like

forever! Could you please hurry up in there?"

Joseph shouted outside the bathroom door.

"Joseph, you have waited for some odd amount of time now, it won't hurt you to wait five more minutes!"

Clarisse yelled from inside the bathroom. Joseph couldn't wait to see what she looked like in the silk pajamas he had bought her. Joseph loved to look at her small, feminine figure. She was so slim, and tall and gorgeous. He could look into her lovely blue eyes and get lost in them forever! Joseph was hopelessly in love with the woman of his dreams.

He patiently awaited for his gorgeous wife to step out of the bathroom and when she did, his heart skipped a few beats. Clarisse took a few steps out into the room and spun in a small circle.

"Well, how do I look?"

"Absolutely beautiful. Darling, beautiful is an understatement."

Joseph took his wife into his arms and gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. Clarisse's cheeks blushed at the sight of Joseph in that manner. She loved this man. That was all she could think of at the moment. She was utterly, completely, and positively in love. More than she thought she could ever be again. After her husband died, she had been in denial and told herself not to dive in and get attached to anybody else, but with Joseph, she couldn't help it. She took one small glance at him and she was gone. There was no self - control when it came to the couple.

"Joseph, I need you. Please, kiss me again!"

Clarisse demanded. Joseph complied and gave his wife not only a kiss on the lips, but also a small smack on the bum. Clarisse jumped a bit and he told her to go lay on the bed. Clarisse did as she was told and climbed up into the bed and pulled the blanket up over her chest.

"Aren't you coming?" she asked.

"Oh yes, but first, I have some business to take care of."

Joseph went over to the bedside table drawer and got out a few small tea candles.

"We are going to light these candles…"

"And burn the house down."

Clarisse said in a jokingly manner. She always knew what to say to make Joseph laugh.

"Do I look grossly incompetent to you?"

Clarisse just shook her head no and Joseph looked at his wife with the most passionate look and climbed up in the bed.

"Joseph, I don't know if I have told you this yet today, but I love you. So much!"

Clarisse looked up into her husband's eyes and began to cry.

"My dear, Why in the world are you crying?"

"Because, you have done so much for me, and I have done nothing to repay you. I don't know how. You have kept me safe all these years when I didn't have a man around the house. You love me no matter how much or how bad I mess up. And I thank you for that, darling! I love you more than you will ever know! Thank you so much for putting up with me all of these years."

Clarisse rested her head on her husband's shoulder and he took her chin in his hands and lifted her head.

"Clarisse, look at me! You are beautiful inside and out. I love you and always have and always will. You can mess up royally and I wouldn't care. It wouldn't distort the image I see in you. I see in you a beautiful person who needs just a bit more self confidence and someone who needs to learn who she is as a person. Not as the Queen of Genovia. Clarisse, my love, don't put up those walls again. I love you just the way you are. Don't ever forget that."Clarisse just nodded and almost drifted off to sleep. Before she dozed off into a deep slumber of peaceful dreams, she had to let Joseph in on the big secret and tell him why Justin was following her wanting vengeance.

"Joseph, are you still awake?"

"Yes darling, but why are you?"

"Well, Joseph darling, I have something to say that I think you must know."

Clarisse hung her head in shame as tears began to fill her eyes again as she told her husband everything that had happened and what Justin was all about.