Nothin' but fluffy goodness for Wen/Olivia and Stella/Ray. However, I have a REALLY hard time writing kissing scenes. I can't quite get them realistic and romantic but not romance-novel cheesy. So, forgive my clumsiness!

Just about maybe 2 chapters more, and the story will finally be done! Many many thanks for all of your support and kind reviews!

I don't own Lemonade Mouth.

Chapter 26

Elsewhere in town, Wen and Olivia took their leave of Mo and Scott outside of Dante's.

"You sure you don't want a ride?" asked Scott.

"We're good," said Wen. "I'll walk Olivia home, and my bike is there. It's a nice night. See ya!"

"Good night!" said Mo, taking Scott's hand and walking toward his car.

Wen took Olivia's hand, and they walked toward her house. Once they were away from Mo and Scott, Wen stopped. "Liv, we have to talk."

"What about?" That tone sounded a little scary.

"Your password…"

"Oh, Wen, it was a joke! Just like the username."

"Mrs. Gifford 1?"

"Ugh, don't remind me! I'm so embarrassed that everyone found it out, but especially that you did."

"Look, it's just that, young marriage was really bad for my family. The whole reason my mom left my dad was because she said she missed out on her 'young years.' As much as I love you, I would hate for you to ever resent me for that."

"You're reading way too much into this, Wen. I'm not expecting you to marry me any time soon, or even at all. I'm nowhere even near thinking about marriage. Remember, getting married and becoming parents too young completely destroyed my family. You certainly don't have to tell me about the perils of young marriage. But for the record, it doesn't happen for everyone. My Gram got married on her 18th birthday, and she had 60 incredibly happy years of marriage. But again, I was just joking. Just let it go. Please."

Wen was surprised to find himself disappointed at her reaction. He was so certain that he would have to talk her out of the idea of marriage, that it hadn't crossed his mind that she would agree with him. This gave him pause for thought. He took her hand and continued walking.

At the corner before they got to her house, he stopped again. "Liv?" He sounded nervous.

"What is it, Wen? Did it freak you out to pass a church on the way home? Or was it the florist with the 'wedding special' sign in the window? Don't worry. Not a single bell rang in my head either time."

Wen took both of her hands in his, and he faced her. "Olivia, I love you."

"Yes, Wen, and I love you, too."

He looked down at the ground between them, "Part of me is a little bit sorry that we're so young. Because if we weren't," he looked into her eyes, "I would ask you to marry me in a heartbeat."

Olivia made a small gasp. She smiled. Almost inaudibly, she said, "And I would say yes." At the embarrassment of this revelation, she looked down. Wen put his hand under her chin and tilted her face up to his. He looked into her eyes and smiled at her. Before he could lower his face to kiss her, Olivia stood up on her tippy toes to reach him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He held her so tight that her toes left the ground. Neither of them had ever felt this happy before, and they were both pretty sure that no one else had ever felt as happy as they did at that moment.

And in yet another part of town…

Ray took a detour on the way to Stella's home. He found a secluded place to park the car. Stella felt excited and nervous about this. She loved every form of touch from Ray: his hand holding hers, his arms around her, even just their knees bumping under a dinner table, all of that sent waves of warmth and electricity through her. And his kisses should seriously be made illegal. He was just the right combination of warmth and affection with intense and almost urgent, but never sloppy or pushy. She could seriously consider spending every waking moment kissing him.

And this frightened her. For one thing, it threatened clouding her better judgment on all the other things she ought to do in her day. But Stella was always good about keeping her priorities straight. As tempting as non-stop lip-lock with Ray was, she knew that homework, rehearsal, and family still need to take their precedence.

She had an entirely different worry that was beginning to creep forward. Ray was older and – she was guessing – much more experienced than she was. She was pretty sure that he was not going to go on quite as content as she was with just kissing. She wasn't completely sure how she was going to handle that confrontation when it happened. And she had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to happen soon.

Ray stopped the car. He ran his fingers up and down Stella's forearm. Her stomach and heart returned to the liquid state that was the normal result of Ray touching her. His fingers dragged their way up her arm and onto her shoulder. She was putty in his hands. She turned her head, leaned over, and kissed him. Or rather, she began to kiss him, and then he took over. She embraced him and ran her hands along his back, but she wanted to touch his skin. Her fingertips, then her nails, lightly touched his neck. He inhaled sharply at this. She pulled back and said, "Did I scratch you? I'm sorry!" He shook his head vehemently and said, "No!" as he placed her fingers back on his neck and went back to kissing her. Inside, Stella smiled that she could make him react like that.

Ray's hands dropped to her waist, like they had earlier in the evening after Stella's post-dinner kiss attack. Stella had an excuse to stop him that time. She wasn't sure how she was going to do it now. She waited to see what he would do before she acted. His thumbs traced back and forth toward the front of her waist, almost at her stomach.

Stella remembered her parents' words, over and over and over again. A gentleman will respect a lady's wishes. Any guy who doesn't is no gentleman. Stella had to turn this gorgeous, beautiful, incredibly good-feeling creature back into a gentleman. In her head, she cursed herself, but she had to do it.

And yet, she didn't have to. Ray stopped himself. "Sometimes, you are just too much woman for me." He ran his fingers though his hair, a now-familiar gesture to Stella. She knew he was trying to cool down.

Stella thought of many clever quips, but she said nothing. Something told her that Ray wasn't really joking this time. He grabbed his key in the ignition, but before he could turn it to start the car, Stella put her hand on his, stopping him. "Ray?"

"I don't want to have this conversation."

"OK," she said. She gave his hand a squeeze and then retracted her hand. Ray started the engine, and then he stopped it. He heaved a large and loud sigh. He scowled and stared at the steering wheel. "This isn't the kind of thing a guy talks about."

Again, Stella said, "OK."

Ray replied, "How is it that you always know exactly how to get me to want to talk to you? You always know when to back off, and that weirdly makes me want to talk. How do you do that?"

Stella reasoned that saying she got it from her mother was not the thing to say right now. Instead, she said, "You and I are a lot alike in that regard. I hate to be pushed to talk about stuff I don't want to talk about."

"Yeah…" He looked at her briefly, then back at his steering wheel. "Stella, ARGH!" He stopped himself again.

This time, Stella had no idea what to do. There was something he clearly wanted to say to her, but he couldn't seem to get it out. She said as much as she ought to by way of encouraging him. And she sensed that touching him was somehow out of line at this particular moment. She decided that he probably needed some warmth and perhaps even a term of endearment.

"Ray. Sweetheart. I have fallen irrevocably in love with you. I can take anything you have to say. But if you don't want to talk about it, then you don't have to."

"I think that this might be too much."

"If it's something that you think will affect us, then not telling me can't possibly be any easier, in the long run."

"You and your perfect logic."

Stella said nothing.

"All right." He faced her. "Last summer, I met a girl out on a gig. We went out for a little while, and we got pretty intense…physically."

"How…intense? Like…all…?"

"NO," he said emphatically. "But…well…a lot." He paused again. She couldn't figure out if his hesitation was due to embarrassment, shame, fear of her reaction, or a combination.

He continued. "There was one night that got pretty out of hand. Then…it was kinda ackward…and we broke up pretty quickly after."

Stella was starting to feel horrified, but she knew what she had to ask: "Did you push her further than she wanted…?"

Again, he said an emphatic, "NO." Then he was silent. He knew he had to tell her, but at the end of the day, he was still a guy, and this was just too humiliating. "Actually, she was more into it than I was."

Stella had to clarify. "Are you saying that she pushed you farther than you wanted?"

Wrinkling his nose in embarrassment, and taking a sudden intense interest in his lap, he said, "yeah." He wanted to disappear. "This is so stupid," he muttered.

After some silence, Stella finally spoke. "So…what's the problem?"

"Last summer taught me a lot about what I'm ready for right now. And I've been great at keeping things with girls where I want them. It helps that I break up with them before the physical stuff even needs to be a factor. But now there's you."

"Now here's me."

"I know this sounds really stupid because I'm a guy…"

"…and a guy with a womanizing reputation."

"Yeah, but I don't want to get too carried away."

"Neither do I."

"Sure doesn't seem like it."

"Well, Ray," Stella said, a touch irritated at his implication, "you're just so hot, I can't control my feeble womanly self around you."

"Oh, God, Stella. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way. ARGH!" he said again, smacking the steering wheel. "I can't get this right."

"Then, try again."

"That's it? You're not pissed?"

"Depends on how your do-over goes."

Ray gave her a small smile, appreciating yet again how he managed to find such a great girl. "What I meant was, you're so freakin' hot, and when you touch me, I can't think straight. It's not just that you and I have awesome chemistry, it's how you touch me. You just know exactly what makes me totally lose my mind. I'm not saying that you're some kind of animal attacking me. I'm saying that you touching me makes me feel like I could lose my self-control." He went on, "and because I want to be with you as long as possible, for as long as you're willing to put up with me, I don't want to do anything to jeopardize it." He concluded with, "I don't know if that makes any kind of sense, but I really hope that you understand that I had no intention of insulting you."

Stella was silent for several minutes. Ray was intelligent enough to wait in silence and patience for her to absorb it all and make her decision. He would rather gargle glass than to lose her, but he was not going to take leave of his dignity by groveling. Besides, she would hate that, and she would lose all respect for him.

At last, she spoke. "OK, here's the thing. First of all, thank-you for clarifying yourself. I'm no longer insulted. Next, I only do what I do around you out of instinct. You just kind of draw it out of me. You make me feel sooooo good, that I just try to do something that you'll like. But also, I like it. I'm glad that you like how I touch you, but honestly, selfishly, I like the feel of your skin, and your strong arms, and, well, everything. Guys don't own the market of enjoying sex, you know that. But you know what? I've been super scared about bringing this up. I thought you had all sorts of experience. You're two years older than I. And they're 2 kinda big years, in, um, human…physical…development and experience. Lately, I've been worried that you were going to want to start going further than I want to go. I didn't want to have this conversation, either. And I didn't want to be the no-sex police of this relationship. That's no fun."

She had been looking at Ray this whole time, but he had been looking at his steering wheel. Finally, he looked at her. "Damn, you're beautiful," he said.

"So are you," she replied. "And you're, to use your words, insanely hot. Good heavens, you don't have a single fat cell in your arms, do you? Seriously, you're just skin and muscle. And making out with you is like the teenager equivalent of a really great playground."

Ray smiled at that analogy.

Stella said, "But here, as much as I'm loath to do this, I'll say it clearly and out loud: I'm not ready for anything beyond kissing. Are you ok with that?"

"Yes, definitely," he said. "Now that that's taken care of," he leaned toward her, his lips less than an inch from hers. He asked, "slide or swing set?"

Stella placed her hands behind Ray's neck, said, "teeter-totter", and she kissed him.