After their date Jenny had been
awake most of the night, tossing and turning. She couldn't find a comfortable
position, due in large part to her brain's high state of alertness. In the form
of her conscience it was working overtime, plaguing her with thoughts of Tom
that were proving almost impossible to reconcile. After rolling over for
possibly the thousandth time of the night Jenny had concluded that her life
would be so much easier if she had no feelings for Tom anymore. But that was
the main problem. She still had feelings for him. She had even told him she
loved him last night, for crying out loud! It's just that she also loved
someone else, albeit in a completely different way. With Tom she felt safe. Not
that safe was a bad thing, mind you. In light of recent events safe was in fact
a highly desirable feeling. It's just that safe was so--well boring. And Jenny
was feeling guilty over that little bit of self-confession that had come to her
in the wee hours of the morning.
Before The Games she would
never have classified her relationship with Tom as boring. Actually she had
never really given much thought to it at all. She had always felt like she was
supposed to be with Tom. And until Julian came along she never noticed if Tom
felt anything different. But Julian had shown her something she almost wished
she had never experienced. And damn his blue eyes to hell if she was ever going
to get over it.
Julian wanted her to be with him. He was willing to do whatever was necessary to make that happen, even walking the worlds for her. No matter what else Jenny had never doubted that he felt that she belonged with him. Unconditionally. She never doubted that he wanted her, and he never tried to deny or hide the feelings she stirred in him. In fact it was just the opposite. He was thrilled in his own response to her touch, and was just as lost in her eyes as she was in his.
Whereas in Tom's case he simply expected her to be there. And that was it, in a nutshell. It was probably due in large part to the fact that they had paired up so young. With both of their personalities forming alongside their relationship it was a case of their personalities and their relationship being completely meshed. Tom faired a little better than Jenny since he had sports to help define him as more than just Tom-and- Jenny. But until Julian Jenny had never thought about a need to have her own existence outside of Tom-and-Jenny. She had just gone with the flow doing whatever Tom wanted without question for so long. But now they were practically adults and it wasn't so easy to just go with the flow anymore.
While she hadn't come to a decision regarding what to do about Tom she had come to one regarding Julian. She decided that she wasn't ready to have him exit her life. Maybe someday she was going to move on and find a relationship like the one they could have had but she wanted to be with Julian now. And if her dreams proved to be the only way they could be together well she was going to have to take what she could get. She made a point of telling herself that when she fell asleep the next time she needed to call out to Julian. She wondered briefly what he would say, if he would even come to her seeing as they had decided not to have him visit her anymore for a while and it had been a whole what, 48 hours?
So it was thoughts of this nature that had tormented Jenny most of the night, with the end result being that she was nodding off while she still had a few hours to wait before getting picked up for Sarah's party. She was ready to go, sitting at her desk with her elbow helping to prop her head up. She just kept thinking she'd open her eyes as soon as she heard the doorbell, but she was asleep before she knew it, her head hitting her arm as she succumbed.
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Julian was amusing himself by
experiencing one of his favorite dreams. In it Jenny was asleep in her bed when
he appeared at the foot of it. He was there to answer her--she's been calling
his name out in her sleep. He loved the way her voice sounded in this dream--it
was very low and soft, almost like a moan. Incredibly sexy.
He calls her name softly and she wakes up to find him there.
"You rang?" he says
with a smile.
"What?" she denies
any knowledge but her blush suggests otherwise.
"You were calling out my
name," he teases, "was there something you needed?"
"I was dreaming,"
she begins, then stops abruptly as the dream invades
her memory once
more.
"Of me?
I'm flattered. What was this dream about?"
She shakes her head then ducks
her chin to her chest.
"No way!" her voice comes
out a bit muffled and presents Julian with the opportunity he's been looking
for.
"What was that? I'm
afraid I didn't quite catch that."
When she only shakes her head
again he climbs onto the bed and starts crawling toward her. When she feels the
mattress moving Jenny's head snaps up. Her mouth drops open and she whispers
hoarsely:
"What do you think you're
doing?"
"If you insist on speaking
so softly I'm just going to have to put myself in a position where I can hear
you, that's all."
Jenny isn't actually paying
attention to his answer, being too busy trying to find a way out. But seeing as
this is Julian's dream he doesn't have leaving the bed occur to Jenny as a
viable option. While she's distracted he whips his hand out and snakes it
around her ankle, pulling her down toward him. She ends up on her back with her
face level with his. He takes a moment to enjoy the view. She's wearing a white
sports bra and a pair of white and green boxer shorts that have ridden up
considerably, showing an edge of lace underneath.
"Where were we? Ah yes.
That dream of yours. What was it about again?" At her mute stare he
continues.
"Not talking, hmm? Well I
have ways of making you talk."
Then he bends his head toward
her lips, intent on having her cry out his name many times more before he's
through. Just as his lips brush hers he feels a pull from the real Jenny.
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AN:
I know people are waiting for this chapter so I'm just getting on with it
today! All I'm saying is thanks for reading and please note that the rating for
this has been moved to "R." I'm playing it safe, the only way to
play.
Disclaimer: Just the standard "I own nothing, please don't sue me!"