Clearing things up

Marissa was just wiping the cleanser off her face when Jake walked in through the door and closed and locked it.

He just stood and glared at her.

"Jake. Get out of here."

"I think we have some unfinished business. If I'm going to lose my job over you then I think I should at least make sure it's been worth it and let me assure you that kiss this morning … was definitely not worth it."

"Jake you don't want to do this. It'll only make things worse." Marissa pleaded as she stood and turned around trying to see if she could some how make it to the door. But Jake was keeping him self in between her and the doorway.

"Worse? How much worse can it get? I've lost my job because of you. And for one lousy kiss." He shook his head. "I don't think so. I think you owe it to me to make it worth my while. You're not getting away with it that easily. You come to papa and I'll fix you right up." He said as he walked up to her and reached for her. She screamed and ducked out of his reach and tried to get past him and to the door. She heard the material of her blouse rip as he grabbed at her. Just as he was about to pull her back, Ryan came crashing through the door and grabbed Jake by the upper arms and shoved him against the wall.

"Get your hands off my girlfriend."

"Girlfriend? Ha...You know she's frigid right?" Jake said. "So what's that make you, Mr Big Shot?"

Ryan had been contemplating hitting him but the thought of him calling Marissa frigid was so ridiculous that he couldn't help but laugh. Ryan thought about the hot and horny woman he had spent the weekend with and realised that Jake really had no idea. Instead of wanting to hit him, he started to feel sorry for him. The man was an absolute moron.

He kept Jake pinned against the wall, while he looked at Marissa and smiled.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Nothing a new shirt can't fix." She replied holding her shirt together where the buttons had been ripped off.

J.B. came through the doorway with two security guards in tow.

"Take him away. The police should be waiting for you by the time you get to the main office." he instructed them. He looked at Jake. "I hope you have another occupation that interests you because you won't work in LA ever again. If Marissa decides to press charges maybe basket weaving or leather work might be more up your alley. Now get out."

J.B. looked at Marissa. "I'm sorry again. But this time you are definitely rid of him. Enjoy you're time off." He added as he followed the security guards out and closed the door behind him.

Marissa looked at Ryan. "So girlfriend huh?" she teased.

"Well yeah. Aren't you?" he smiled. "I thought we'd sorted that much out already."

"According to the paper, I'm your new accessory." She added and smiled.

"And a very necessary accessory as well, one I can't seem to do without." he added pulling her towards him "….Frigid huh?" Ryan asked smiling as he did so.

"Yeah. Hadn't you noticed?" She looked at him and raised her eyebrows.

"Let's get out of here so I can test that theory out." He laughed.

"Sure ... but could you just nick round to Summer and borrow a new shirt for me from wardrobe. I don't think this one is much good any more." Marissa pulled off the ripped shirt and turned round only to find Ryan still standing there watching her.

"Have you seen enough?" she asked grinning from ear to ear.

"No where near" he said as he made his way back to Marissa. He used his finger to trace a line from her shoulder down around the edge of her bra and he could see her nipples hardening beneath the sheer fabric, springing to life at his touch. He leant in and kissed her. "I'll be right back and we'll get out of here and take this further."

---

They got in the car and Ryan drove out of the studio parking lot. "So where to? If you don't want to go home with me where do you want to go?" he looked at her and added "We really need to talk. So we need somewhere we won't be interrupted."

"Have you really got the whole afternoon off?" Marissa asked.

"Yeah why?"

"Do you think we could go to Newport?"

"Um sure. Anywhere in particular?"

"Your place. If that's all right?" She didn't know why but for some reason she felt at home there. If they really were going to have a serious talk then she wanted to feel comfortable.

"Newport here we come." He looked at her again. "Do you mind if I ask why there?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Maybe because I feel comfortable there." She looked at him and smiled. Plus it didn't hurt, that she had felt so close to him while they where there on the weekend.

"Yeah. I know what you mean." When he had built the house at Newport, he had dreamt that it would someday be their home and that they would raise their children in it. So the fact that she felt comfortable there meant a lot to him.

They travelled to Newport in silence. Both lost in their own thoughts.

When they arrived Ryan drove into the garage and closed the door behind them. They both just sat in the car neither moving. They both wanted to delay this discussion as long as possible. They knew they needed answers. But they were both scared, that they wouldn't like them.

Eventually, after several minutes, Ryan removed the key and opened the car door. He couldn't help but remember the last time they had driven into this garage when they had returned from the Cohen's on Sunday. They'd both been in a state of undress before they'd even left the car. And Jake thought Marissa was frigid. Ryan definitely knew otherwise.

Marissa hadn't moved so Ryan made his way around to her door and opened it, holding out his hand to help her out. Marissa looked at him and he could almost see fear in her eyes. It broke his heart. Why would she be scared of him? Or was it because of everything that had happened today. He had to know.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Sorry I guess I'm……." she hung her head as she got out of the car, making sure that she didn't look him in the eye. She didn't want him to know just how petrified she was that somehow he would work out how much she loved him and then he would run a mile.

"Riss…? You know you can tell me anything."

It was obvious that she wasn't ready just yet, so he took her hand and led her into the house.

Once inside he turned to her. "Would you like something to drink?"

"A water would be good……. Thanks." anything to delay the inevitable she thought.

Ryan grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and they proceeded to walk over to the sofa and sit down.

Ryan unscrewed the top off his bottle of water and drank from it. When he had replaced the lid he looked at Marissa.

"Why is this so hard?" he asked.

"I guess because we both know it is really important."

Ryan nodded. He had to agree. "Should we just postpone it and let things go as they have been and we'll talk about it sometime later."

"Well that sounds good but I guess now that we've got this far we should probably just get it over and done with." She looked up at him and was scared that she would burst into tears.

It broke his heart to see her like this. He put his arm around her and pulled her in to him. "Please Riss. I don't want to upset you. We'll just do it some other time."

"No. We've got this far. Let's just get it over with." She said still looking down but gaining strength from the feeling of his arm around her.

"Okay….so how do we do this? I mean where do we start?"

"I don't really know." Marissa said and shrugged her shoulders.

Ryan pulled his arm away from around her. She felt lost without it there.

He turned towards her so that he could look into her eyes and took each of her hands in his … looking alternately at her fingers and then her eyes trying to sense what was going through her mind, since she wasn't saying anything. He took a deep breathe. "Okay….. I want us to be totally honest with each other."

Marissa nodded looking into those beautiful blue eyes that she had missed so much over the last 7 years.

"No matter what." He added.

Marissa nodded again. She didn't know if she could actually speak. She was scared that if she opened her mouth, that nothing would come out or that she might burst in to tears.

It was obviously going to be up to him to make a start.

"Okay, well how about first things first." He hesitated trying to decide did he really want to know the answer to this. He thought back to what Sandy had said and decided that he was going to have to deal with it sometime so it may as well be now. It wouldn't get any easier. "Do you still want to be with me?" he asked and looked into her eyes trying to find the answer there. She realised that he was feeling nearly as nervous as she was. She looked down at their hands linked together and noticed that he was shaking slightly. He was obviously just as unsure of her feelings as she was about his.

She looked at him puzzled. "Of course." She noticed his frown lighten and his whole face change. She added. "More than anything in the world. How could you doubt that?"

"Well….I mean… why don't you want to move in with me? I thought after…" he looked at her, a puzzled expression on his face. "I mean, I figured you must have been having second thoughts about what was going on between us. You seemed so reluctant to stay with me, even after everything that had happened."

"It wasn't that I don't want to move in with you. I was just concerned at what was your motivation for asking? I didn't know if you really wanted me there or if you were just feeling you should be my knight in shining armour and come to my rescue, after all the stuff with Jake. I didn't want you to think I was your responsibility and you HAD to take care of me. I needed to know that you really wanted to be with me."

Ryan smiled. "And here I was thinking the only good thing to come out of the incident with Jake was it gave me an excuse to ask you to move in? I wasn't sure how I could talk you into it otherwise. You seem so much more self assured and independent than a few years ago. It's the biggest difference I've noticed in you."

"Well, I'm a big girl now and I can look after myself." she said "At least as long as there aren't any Jakes around. Although you actually saved him from a knee between the legs that I was lining up."

"Maybe I should have waited a bit. I would have liked to see that." He leant in and kissed her. "So does this mean you will move in?"

"I don't know. Who's asking and why?" she gave him a shy smile to give him some reassurance.

"Marissa, since I have trouble getting through even one night without you, would you consider coming and staying with me?" Ryan asked.

"Is this in the guest room as you suggested earlier?" she smiled knowing full well that wasn't what he meant but she didn't think it would hurt to keep him on his toes.

Ryan did a double take. Had he misunderstood ….again. "Well not if I have my way. But if it's the only way you'll say yes, then anywhere you like. You know I only suggested that because I thought you wanted to slow things down and if that's the case then..."

Marissa leant in and kissed him cutting off his doubts with her lips. "Well, 'WE' could try out the guest room, if 'WE' get tired of doing it in the other rooms." She suggested making sure he understood that the most important thing to her was that they were together.

He smiled. "What exactly is 'it'?" he asked innocently.

She leant in and started to undo the buttons on his business shirt and then moved on to his belt. "How about I show you." She smiled.

"Hmmm… I like the sound of that." He said as he started to remove her blouse. "You do know we haven't finished out discussion?"

"Let's just take a short break then." She suggested as she undid the catch on his business pants and took down the zipper.

"Short?" he asked undoing her bra and letting it fall to the ground beside them.

"Well maybe long, but if I'm going to be staying with you, we'll have plenty of time to finish our discussion." She said as she stood up and grabbed his hand for him to join her.

He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. "Let's go try out this frigid theory." He chuckled.

---

"Well I think we dispelled the frigid theory once and for all." Ryan stated as they walked hand in hand along the beach a while later.

"Excuse me. What do you mean 'once'? I think it was a few times more than that." Marissa smiled.

"Yeah. Well what can I say. For someone that's reportedly frigid you look very hot to me."

"I'm not the only one" she said as she pulled his hand to stop him and reached up to kiss him softly on the lips.

"Although I was thinking that I should probably retest you from time to time unless you relapse." He smiled.

Marissa used her free hand to take a swipe at him.

Ryan caught it and said "And actually I think I have to confess something to you."

"What?"

"I lied before." Ryan hung his head and looked away.

"What?" Marissa started to panic. "What about?"

"When I said the biggest difference in you was that you're more independent."

"And I'm not?"

"No. You are. It's just that's not the biggest difference. The biggest difference is…. How should I put it?...your lack of frigidity?" he laughed.

"Aw. It's not just me. Thank you very much. I haven't seen you putting up much of a fight."

"It would be impolite. I was always taught to give a lady what she wants."

"Yeah. Well I want you alright. But just remember, I have exclusive rights. I'm not into sharing."

"I'm all yours." Ryan kissed her and laughed. "So when do you want to go back to town?"

Just then Marissa's phone rang. She pulled it from her pocket and looked at him. "It's the studio" she said as she opened the phone to answer it.

"Marissa Cooper."

Ryan watched as she talked on the phone. He took a few steps away to give her some privacy and picked up a pebble and threw it into the ocean watching it skip along the surface before it was engulfed by a wave. He looked back at Marissa and felt like his heart had doubled in size. She wasn't just special. He didn't remember exactly when it had happened. But right at that moment he knew he loved her. Maybe he had never stopped. It was too early to tell her. But he knew he would do anything to keep her in his life.

Just then Marissa closed up her phone and turned to him. "Well…it looks like I have a couple of days off. Whoever they are getting to replace Jake can't start til next week. So I have some spare time on my hands."

"Good. It means you can spend some time settling it to my.… sorry our apartment." Ryan smiled. "I like the sound of that." He raised her hand that was now linked with his and placed a small kiss on it.

"Me too." She returned the smile. She didn't think she had ever been happier in her life than she was at that moment.

"Actually, and you can come to San Francisco with me on Thursday. I have to go up there to a meeting. How about coming with me?" he asked.

"But what would I do? While you're at your meeting."

"Well... they do have shops there?"

"Hmm. I see you're point. I'm going to have to get used to that again."

"Sorry. I don't understand."

"Well. Believe it or not I haven't actually shopped very much in the last couple of years. A lot of the designers have actually 'lent' me their clothes to wear. So I'm a bit rusty. But if I'm going to stop modelling then I'll have to get used to buying my clothes again. So a bit of retail therapy sounds good."

"So will we go back to town soon then?" Ryan asked.

"I guess so. I just wish we could stay here the night. But I realise you have work in the morning. Maybe we could stay for dinner and then go back?" she asked, looking at him hopefully.

"Sure. Actually just let me check when I get back to the house. I can't remember having any appointments tomorrow morning. If that's the case then we could probably stay here tonight and go back in the morning. I would need to be at work by lunch time but. I've got some things that I have to finish up for the meeting on Thursday. What do you say?"

"You know I love it here. If we could stay that would be great. But I don't want you putting yourself out for me all the time. If we're going to make this work then you have to not neglect your business or you'll start to resent me taking you away from it."

"Let me assure you that will never happen." He put his arm around her and they turned and made their way back to the house.