Jonathan is bewitched.
Drunk and giddy, Jennifer nonetheless holds him in her thrall. Her laughter, breathy and joyful, catches into a low moan of pleasure and the sound of it, liquid velvet, threatens to undo him. She is pliant in his arms, content to let him drive her to distraction, watching him beneath fluttering lids.
Her gaze, usually so sharp, is softened in pleasure and adoration. She licks her lips and he chases her wicked tongue, unable to resist the call of her mouth.
He cannot resist her.
She is the beginning and the end of his every day, his every thought.
He never envisioned himself marrying. He loved women, never suffered any shortage of companions, but he never believed there would be One woman who would stop his heart in its tracks. Couldn't conceive that she existed, let alone that he would find her and she would fall in love with him.
But she is in his arms, an elegant firebrand, effervescing with joy. She'd simply loped past his defenses, flashed him that staggering smile, and he'd surrendered without a fight.
He makes love to her desperately, his body thrusting with abandon, chasing her climax more than his own. He wants to give her everything she's given him and more.
She giggles again and he swallows the sound, sips on her happiness.
The sheets are satin, her skin is silk, his devotion is endless.
He loves her.
Jonathan is bereft.
He'd been fatherless and alone once, abandoned before he was old enough to know anything different. He'd grown up suspicious and careful, reluctant to connect with anyone outside of Max.
Jennifer changed all that for him and given him the family he'd never believed possible. She opened her heart not only to the man who would become her husband, but also to the man who had raised him as his own.
He doesn't know if it's fair to ask her to expand that love to one little boy - who is definitely not his son - but who so easily could be. He isn't sure their lives are right for him, in spite of what he believes they have to offer. He cannot guess if Jennifer would want to raise another woman's child, simply because he asks it of her. He suspects she would…for him.
The only thing that outstrips the beauty of Jennifer Edwards Hart is her capacity for love, and her devotion to him is staggering in its intensity.
Alone in their room, Jennifer cradles him in her arms, her palm pressing over his heart, fingers writing incantations against his skin. She draws the agony out of him with each calming stroke, tending him like a spooked horse. Her anger has dissipated into the ether without a trace, and instead she murmurs promises into the shell of his ear.
She loves him. They'll find the boy. Everything will be ok.
He turns in her embrace, seeking the guiding light of her eyes. They shine in the darkness, filled with emotion. She rains kisses over his face and he doesn't realize he is crying.
She loves him.
Jonathan is bewildered.
How could he forget? How could he forget her, the woman watching him so tenderly?
But he hasn't forgotten, not really. He hadn't known her name but there had been recognition. Something deeper and more mysterious than simple knowledge.
His head ached, his memory a vague watercolor blur…but when she'd appeared before him his heart skipped and he'd known her.
He isn't sure what had come before, but he knows he's never been so attracted to anyone as he is to her, sitting nervously beside him. He can't remember their wedding, or their first date, but he recognizes the taste of her when she opens her mouth and slips her tongue past his lips. He predicts her sigh when he massages her breast, brushing his thumb over the nipple. She is ticklish behind her knees; she'll shudder and mewl when he slips a finger between her folds. The hitch in her breath means she's close, he knows it even before she whispers to him, begging him to please, please, please.
He knows she'll feel like home, as he presses into her molten heat, a little sob escaping her when he stills and feels her muscles ripple around him.
He hadn't known her name. But he knows her.
He loves her.
Jonathan is bothered.
She is a vision on his desk, elegance personified in a pencil skirt and a feral expression. Impatience radiates off her in shimmering waves, like a heat halo, and Jonathan rushes to chase Stanley from his office. The accountant is still rattling off numbers when Jonathan shuts the door in his face.
The lock engages with a staccato click.
Jonathan crosses back to his desk in two long strides, reaching for his wife's needy body. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it also does a little something to the libido as well. Jennifer yanks him forward by his silk tie and her features blur as he tumbles into her orbit, drawn by a force that only grows stronger with age. He's helpless to resist her, especially when she licks her lips and cups her hand against his growing hardness.
He loves her like this, an uncontrolled burn of desire. When she takes her pleasure, matching his appetite and even surpassing it. When she communicates, with a single look, all the filthy things she wants to do to him.
She is bold in the bright daylight streaming through the wall of windows to her right, stroking him. Bold and hungry.
Her arousal is alive and urges him closer, his own need uncoiling in the heat of her gaze.
"Oh thank God," The breathy words are drawn from her, sticky and sweet, when he slips inside her. He cannot even recall how he'd gotten there, his pants around his ankles and Jennifer's nails creating deep crescents in his skin.
He only knows he never wants to leave and would happily stay lost in her for the rest of his days. Her sudden shriek of pleasure surprises him, her walls clutching desperately, forcing him to slow his thrusts. It is only the first of many, he silently promises into the perfumed halo of her hair.
"God, I love you," She hums against his throat, the tremors of her orgasm still rocking them both.
He doesn't answer, just rucks one pale thigh up over his hip and drives them both into oblivion.
He loves her.
END
In 2013 I wrote a piece called As Lovers Go about Jennifer. So 9 years later I decided to write its companion piece for Jonathan. I'm in this fandom for the long haul, I guess.