Well since I've got them that far, I may as well continue. We all know this can't last forever – so let me try to let it live the course of its natural (or unnatural) life. There will be at least one more chapter.

Please review – I do like knowing what my readers think. Criticism (constructive preferably) welcome.

And thanks to all of you who have already posted reviews – some of them awesome. I am touched. Please keep 'em coming.

DISCLAIMER: Fox owns everything; I own nothing; please don't sue me.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3: The Julie

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" asked Ryan, rummaging through his discarded clothes until he found the cigarettes. He lit two, handed Julie one. "Although I'm not sure I want to know."

"Luke was such a boy," she said, eyes closed as she inhaled. "Just so... enthusiastic, wanting to try everything. Eager to please. Oh, don't get me wrong, he was good. But you – you're quite something, Ryan Atwood. You're really not like a seventeen-year-old at all..." She looked up at him then, and although her tone was mocking Ryan could tell she really meant it. Which made him want to blush. Way to loose the edge there.

"When you turned up, earlier – what if Theresa had been there?" he asked suddenly.

Julie looked sly: "I swung by the bakery on the way. I'm not that reckless." He had to smile at that. She had planned this all right.

Oddly, Ryan felt comfortable there sitting on the floor with her, smoking with his back resting against the kitchen counter. They were shoulder to shoulder – not quite touching, but sharing a sort of relaxed post-coital intimacy. Somehow all that was wrong about their fucking didn't matter right here, right now. Maybe it was because they were in Chino. Or maybe because they had both needed it so much. Besides, on a purely physical, carnal, level, he and Julie were perfectly matched.

As for the rest, well, better not think about it. Better not think about Marissa and how she would react if she found out her mother had slept with another ex-boyfriend of hers. Better not think about how Caleb would react to his new bride cuckolding him with his foster-grandson. God, that sounded even worse, thought Ryan. What is it with Caleb's women anyhow that they want to end up in bed with me? Good taste in women though, the old man.

"Can I take a shower?" asked Julie, yawning like a cat and stretching her arms above her head. "I can't very well go home like this." She looked, it had to be said, like a woman who'd just been fucked good, all smudged makeup and messy, sweaty hair and lips puffy from too much kissing. She was still flushed and Ryan almost got hard again just looking at her.

"Sure, go ahead. I've got to leave for work in half an hour, though."

She looked surprised: "Are you going back to Carter's? I thought..."

"No! No, I bus tables at a regular restaurant a few nights a week," he muttered, embarrassed. He didn't want to go into details with her, expose the sordid reality of his day-to-day life, the long hours, the job juggling, the penny-pinching. He didn't want to risk being on the receiving end of her pity, because being pitied by Julie Cooper – that would be too much.

Maybe she caught on quick, because she didn't say anything, just picked up her clothes and went to the bathroom. She even left him time to shower before he had to go. He was surprised to see her still in the living room when he came out, hair damp, half-dressed.

"How are you getting there?" Julie asked. "You don't have two cars, do you?"

"Bike. It's not that far." And he was used to it.

"I'll drop you off. You can put the bike in the back," she said casually, and he knew she'd probably been thinking this over for the past ten minutes, trying to sound offhand but wanting to be nice to him.

He shrugged. "Okay." He was feeling pretty tired after all the exertion. If Julie wanted to be helpful, fine.

On the ride there they made small talk. He showed her the construction site where he worked days and the high school he used to go to. She said it reminded her of where she grew up. They didn't mention what had happened, or what it meant, or what impact it would have on the people in their lives if they found out. But he did kiss her when they stopped a block away from the restaurant and he climbed out of her SUV and took his bike out of the back.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three days later, around about the time he knocked off from his construction job, he saw her car cruise slowly past and park a hundred yards up the road. He debated briefly with himself whether or not to go to her but it wasn't much of a fight.

"Hey Julie. Back in the 'hood?" he smirked when he rode up to her window.

She smiled: "What can I say Ryan – I like slumming it." And the look she gave him then was enough to make him forget any notion he had of playing it cool. He stashed the bike in the back and climbed in. Somehow, he reasoned, the fact that they'd already done it made it okay. The taboo had been broken already. This, well, this was just icing on the cake.

"Theresa home?" asked Julie, not at all innocently. She let her hand stray onto his thigh. Ryan closed his eyes and inhaled slowly.

"She will be." He hesitated for a second, then: "There's a halfway decent motel nearby – it's not the Mermaid Inn but it's okay. For Chino. If you're into slumming, it should do you fine."

"Actually, that'd be your job," she shot back. Ryan grinned. It was far easier to relax with her than he'd ever thought. Once she dropped the attitude, and the chip on her shoulder she carried in Newport, Julie was all right, really. Just as long as he forgot who she was.

And the sex, god, the sex was mind blowing. She was without a doubt the hottest chick he'd ever fucked – and that was saying something. They had perfect chemistry together. The old enmity between them only heightened the sexual tension and gave an extra edge to the proceedings as they vied with each other to impress the other.

When he came home that night Ryan was exhausted. Theresa was back, but having a nap, as she often did when she came home from work. Thankful, he slipped into the shower. No explanation needed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It started happening more regularly. Julie never called or made firm appointments. Just some days, as he left work, he'd walk or cycle up the road and her car would be parked in the same spot or nearby. Once or twice se turned up on a night he had to go to the restaurant and they ended up having a quick fuck in the car in an abandoned yard before he rushed home to change and go out again. Occasionally, Julie would even turn up at the end of his restaurant shift. Their motel room saw plenty of action that summer.

Theresa never asked him where he'd been, never commented on his tardiness, never said a word. It was part of their deal. But Ryan knew she suspected there was another woman, or many, and that made her unhappy. He felt slightly guilty, but not enough to stop.

He slid easily into the routine of their affair. He found that when he was with Julie, he forgot about the shittiness of his life. The sex was short-circuiting his brain. And he much preferred that to thinking about his future. He did sometimes wonder whether Caleb was going to find out, but Julie assured him that he was away on frequent trips these days, frantically trying to save the Newport Group and his own ass. Luckily, she confided, he had plenty of money salted away in offshore bank accounts and she for one wasn't risking anything. But she did laugh bitterly at her poor choice in men.

"I don't know what's wrong with me.... My first husband plea-bargained his way out of a jail sentence, the feds are desperate to get my second husband locked up, and even my lover's done time in juvie," she said one evening as they were recovering after a particularly energetic bout in the motel. "I must have a thing for felons."

"Yeah well, you can't help it. You can take the girl out of Riverside but you can't take Riverside out of the girl" murmured Ryan into her hair before pulling her onto him. "Besides, girls always fall for the bad boys."

"Hmm, I can just imagine you in a jumpsuit," she mused. "I don't suppose you'd want to model one for me, would you?" She laughed.

Ryan raised an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, no. Not actually that cool to wear, you know, Julie. And juvie hall? Not the most fun place to be either." If he hadn't been so bonelessly relaxed he would've tensed up at the memories. "Anyhow if we ever get busted, you might be finding out a bit more about prison life than you've bargained for. I mean, technically, you're the felon here."

"Don't I just know it," sighed Julie. "But I keep forgetting you're underage."

Ryan smiled. "Yeah, I bet that'd sway the cops. Wanna give them another chance to catch us?" he suggested as he let his hands roam over her body. He didn't bother waiting for an answer and started kissing her hungrily. She never said no.

Of course, he knew it couldn't last. They both knew. But neither of them could have predicted the end.

(tbc)