Song Title: We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off by Jermaine Stewart
Rated: T
Disclaimer: I own nothing, but this is in my top 3 favorite 80s dance songs of all time. Love it!
Not a word, from your lips
You just took for granted that I want to skinny dip.
A quick hit, that's your game.
But I'm not a piece of meat, still you like my brain.
Night is young, so are we.
Let's get to know each other better, slow & easily.
Take my hand, let's hit the floor.
Shake our bodies to the music.
Maybe then you'll score.
So come on baby, won't you show some class
Why you want to move so fast?
We don't have to take our clothes off
To have a good time, Oh no
We could dance and party all night
And drink some cherry wine, Uh huh.
We don't have to take our clothes off
To have a good time, Oh no
We could dance & party all night (all night)
And drink some cherry wine, Uh huh
Just slow down if you want me
A man wants to be approached cool & romantically
I've got needs - Just like you
If the conversation's good
Vibrations through and through.
So come on baby, won't you show some class
Why you want to move so fast?
We don't have to take our clothes off
To have a good time, Oh no
We could dance & party all night (all night)
And drink some cherry wine.
"I can't do it, Jesse. You know as well as I do that my fathers won't allow it." Rachel sat thumbing through her music collection on her bed as she spoke with her boyfriend on her cell phone.
"It's one night, Rache. Tell them you're sleeping over at Tina's. How many times have you ever broken their trust? You're seventeen years old. It's time to live a little… get your heart racing," he whispered at the end. Jesse St. James had never been easy to resist by anybody, and he wasn't above taking advantage of that knowledge when he truly wanted something. Tonight? He wanted to sneak his girlfriend out of her house to go dancing in Akron.
"I don't know…" Rachel was biting her bottom lip, and Jesse could picture her perfectly as she sat on the bed playing with the hem of her skirt with her free hand, trying to distract herself as she contemplated the repercussions of lying to her fathers. "Let me think about it, okay? I'll call you back within an hour, I promise."
"Okay, but first – trust me on this, Rachel. My parents out of town and we'll have the house to ourselves. Tina has already agreed to pick you up in the morning and take you back to your parent's house. There's no way anyone would ever find out. Plus, we can scout some new dance routines at the club for upcoming glee performances." Hook, line, and sinker – Jesse knew he'd won her over. He had intentionally saved his best line for his conclusion, and if he knew Rachel Berry at all, he knew that she would do anything to further her glee club's chances in competitions. New Directions' choreography had always been sub-par, at best, and it was a sensitive topic for Rachel.
It only took a matter of seconds for her to respond. "Okay, I'm in. I'll have Tina drop me off in a couple of hours."
"I'll be playing your favorite showtunes in anticipation," he responded. Jesse was gloating, and Rachel could hear the enthusiasm despite her boyfriend's attempts at keeping a neutral tone.
"But one last thing," she continued, hoping not to come off as a naïve child who knew nothing of the outside world. Jesse was currently searching through his musical selection to find the perfect song for Rachel's arrival, but her protest caused him to pause just as his hand had landed on the Les Mis soundtrack.
"Yeah?" he asked, thumbing the hard case of the CD.
"What does one wear to a dance club?"
"I'm nervous, Jesse. What if they don't let us in?" Rachel was lightly bouncing up and down as they waited outside in the line that had formed along the brick wall of the club. Yes, Jesse was old enough to get into the club, but it hadn't donned on Rachel until they arrived that she was underage. Reason #243 of why I shouldn't be doing this, she thought to herself. She took a deep breath and stopped bouncing, trying unsuccessfully to calm her own nerves. She had never had a reason to doubt Jesse's abilities before, and she wasn't about to start.
"Don't worry about it," her boyfriend responded with a wink. She met his eyes and instantly became relaxed. There was something so soothing in those pools of blue, and she smiled up at him as the rest of the world momentarily faded. "By the way," he continued as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "have I mentioned how deliciously stunning you look this evening?" he whispered into her ear as he pulled her closer. Her heart instantly began to race at the close proximity their bodies had taken, and she blushed slightly at the thought of someone finding her "delicious."
Truth be told, Rachel currently held the eyes of every male in the line that evening. She had borrowed a particularly revealing button up black top from Tina, and Jesse had given her a pair of red stilettos that he had taken from his mother's collection. Paired with a short black pleated skirt, slightly heavier eye makeup, and bouncing waves of hair and Rachel could have easily passed for a college student. Granted, she felt the red heart stockings she'd been wearing earlier matched perfectly, but Jesse had convinced her to leave them at home. Her argument that they had fit perfectly inside the stilettos was trumped when Jesse pointed out they would more than likely be too hot inside the dance club. Just as well, she had concluded, as it was a particularly warm August evening in Ohio.
As they made their way to the front of the line, Rachel's nerves began to take over again. Jesse removed his arm from her shoulder as he leaned into the bouncer, whispering something that even she couldn't hear as his hand made its way from his pants pocket to the bouncer's hand. Rachel knew immediately that he had slipped him some money, and when Jesse stepped back to stand beside her once again, the bouncer looked her over from head to toe. A nod of the head was all that the extremely large man gave them, but it was enough. Jesse directed Rachel into the club with a smile of achievement.
"How much did you give him?" she whispered as they walked through to get their hands stamped.
"Not as much as I could have, but more than I should. This club should be paying us to have you in here. Your looks combined with both our dancing skills?" He asked the rhetorical question as they made their way hand-in-hand through the seedy hallway, and Rachel's ears were already thumping from the loud music playing in the room they were quickly approaching. She had never been to a dance club before, and her eyes were momentarily blinded as they finally entered the main room. Lights were flashing from every direction, and there was a large bar located at the back with patrons lined up waving money to the employees mixing drinks behind it. There were two open cages lifted a few feet above the ground, and one was currently occupied by what appeared to be a group of sorority girls trying desperately to attract the attention of the males in the room. Rachel peered up at Jesse from the corner of her eye, the tiniest bit of jealousy suddenly coming over her, and she smiled when she realized he was staring at her in her incredibly tight attire. She raised her chin slightly as she continued looking around the room. Eat your hearts out girls, she thought to herself.
Just as an overly suggestive Rihanna song came on over the loud speaker, Jesse grabbed Rachel's hand and led her through the crowd to the center of the dance floor. She stood temporarily paralyzed as she watched her boyfriend's exquisite dance moves. Every person in the county knew that Jesse had a voice to match the greatest singers in history, but his dance moves followed as a close second in his book of talents. While Rachel wouldn't be winning any dance contests in her lifetime, she could find a tempo and follow it easily enough, and she soon found herself following Jesse's lead as the lyrics blasted from every direction around her.
With each passing second, Rachel was becoming more and more comfortable with the situation at hand. With the thought of broken rules and indiscretions behind her, she suddenly let loose for the first time in her entire life. Jesse grabbed her closer and their bodies began grinding to the sexualized voice of the singer from Barbados, and it only took moments for Rachel to feel that their close contact was having a direct affect on her boyfriend. Stemmed from an audacity she hadn't realized she possessed, she found herself spinning around and grinding her bottom into a heated friction with his hard-on, and Jesse groaned over her shoulder into her ear as his hands grasped at her waist.
Jesse was stunned as his girlfriend continued to gyrate against him. Where did these moves come from?, he wondered to himself before quickly dismissing the question with an unanswered appreciation regardless. As the lyrics continued, they began tracing the words with their own movements, both finding a secret pleasure in the fact that the majority of eyes were now on them.
Buckle up, I'mma give it to you stronger
Hands up, we can go a little longer.
Tonight I'mma get a little crazy
Get a little crazy, baby
Rachel threw both of her hands straight in the air as Jesse began outlining the contours of her body from her fingertips to her thighs as they continued to sway. Suddenly, they both realized that tonight was a night of breaking boundaries, and Jesse decided to push his luck as his hands made their way to her hips and he dipped them ever so slightly into her waistband, grasping the skin of the spot that had forever been foreign to him.
Rachel gasped for only a second before picking up the pace exactly where she'd left off. Her body had always been off limits before, but after eight months of dating, Rachel had trusted Jesse not to take advantage or push her into doing something she didn't want to do. The fact of the matter was… Jesse's fingers felt good on her skin, and she admitted it to herself as she continued to let him keep them in their current location as they danced. Her hips were on fire, and she wondered for a moment what other feelings Jesse could elicit from his fingertips as they bodies continued to rock to the music.
After what seemed like hours of foreplay disguised as dancing, Jesse and Rachel made it back to his parent's house. As Jesse pulled into the garage and shut off the engine, Rachel noted that it was nearly two o'clock in the morning. She couldn't remember where the night had gone, but she did remember the nonstop make out session she'd had with her boyfriend in the middle of the dance floor. She was beginning to like this new Rachel, and from the previous moans coming from her boyfriend, she assumed Jesse liked her as well.
They sat in the darkness of the garage in total silence, neither of them wanting to address the giant elephant in the room. If they went inside, they would more than likely go straight to bed. His bed. When Rachel had agreed to stay with him, she hadn't even considered the fact that she would be sleeping over. Her only thoughts were on finding new dance moves for the glee club, but the entire drive home from the bar had been spent with her sitting quietly as she went over her options on how the rest of the evening would be spent.
"So…" Jesse began, and Rachel noted that he was nervous. She smiled into the darkness when she realized that she was probably the first girl in Jesse's history that had made him uneasy, and she appreciated the fact that she could extract those feelings from him. "… would you like to go swimming?"
Rachel laughed out loud, obviously surprised at his request. "Swimming?" and she could see the silhouette of his nod as his curls danced in the shadows. "I don't have a suit," and it dawned on her for the first time that she hadn't brought anything other than pajamas with her. She'd either have to wear her current outfit home tomorrow, or walk into her fathers' house with bunny-clad pjs. She was absolutely horrible at breaking the rules.
"You don't need one," he responded before jumping out of the SUV and rounding the front to open the door for Rachel. As he held her hand to allow her to step easily from the vehicle, he continued. "The water temperature is regulated and the area is fenced in. We'll have total privacy. Plus, underwear covers the same amount as bathing suits."
Rachel's eyes grew as she secretly thanked the heavens that she had opted for her red panty-bra combo instead of the monkey-clad one she had put on earlier in the evening. For some reason, she just couldn't expose those poor innocent monkeys to the underground Akron dance scene, so she had changed right before she'd heard Tina honking from the driveway. Now, she and Jesse had already made their way out of the garage door and halfway through the backyard before Rachel paused. "I'm not having sex with you tonight," she blurted, instantly blushing at the boldness of her statement. She heard Jesse chuckle as he turned to face her, and he squeezed her hands tighter in an attempt to calm her nerves.
"I never considered that you would, Rache," and he was being totally honest with both her and himself. He'd only had to wait minutes with every girl he'd ever slept with before, but Rachel was different. With Rachel, he was willing to wait a lifetime.
"But I thought… I mean, your parents aren't home, we're about to go swimming in our underwear… I just thought…" and Rachel could no longer find the words to describe her contemplation. They had talked at length over Rachel's desire to wait, and Jesse had never once pressured her into doing otherwise. Why would she even consider that those facts had changed?
"Rachel," Jesse started as he wrapped his arms around her waist and bent his knees slightly, matching her height level as he continued to speak, "I promised you months ago that you deserve epic romance. We've only been together eight months. I don't expect you to go back on a promise that you made yourself years ago. I'm willing to wait as long as you'd like," he whispered before reaching in for a kiss. Her body relaxed against his as she raked her fingers through his curls, pulling him in closer to deepen the kiss. Both of their hearts began to race from the heated textures of one another's lips, and Rachel released a low sigh as Jesse's hands curved around to the small of her back. As they broke contact for a moment to catch their breaths, Jesse continued his previous declarations. "But I don't want you to feel pressured, Rache. If you'd rather watch a movie, that's perfectly fine. I just bought an anniversary edition of Hello, Dolly."
"No no, that's fine. I'd actually like to cool off in the water after sweating so much in the club. They certainly don't show the heat of all those crammed bodies in the movies…" Rachel answered as they continued on their path to the pool.
They both paused as they reached the edge of the water, and Rachel gasped at the sight. She had rarely been to Jesse's throughout the duration of their relationship, and she had certainly never seen the pool area at night. There were white lights lining each row of the fence that was currently cutting them off from the remainder of civilization, and below them a hazy blue was being cast atop the waters from the floor lamps eliminating the colors. While Rachel was taking in the bushes of numerous different flowers, she suddenly heard faint music coming from behind her. She turned just in time to see Jesse messing with the radio that was built into the pool's sidebar, and she smiled as she rolled her eyes. So this is how the wealthy live, she thought inaudibly.
"Mood music," Jesse whispered as he returned beside her. She giggled slightly as she heard the radio station playing from the stereo, the lyrics of the songs dancing along the vibrations in the air. "Have to keep it low though," Jesse whispered into Rachel's ear. "Don't wish to disturb the neighbors," and any words Rachel considered making were lost on her tongue as she saw Jesse begin to remove his clothing.
He started with his shirt, and the color of Rachel's cheeks deepened a shade with each button Jesse unclasped. As he pulled the tail of cotton out of the top of his jeans to undo the last button, she found herself tilting her head, suddenly curious as to what Jesse looked like without his clothing on. The furthest they had gone in their previous trysts were heavy kissing and the occasional grope, but all clothing had always remained permanently on their bodies. She reminded herself that tonight many rules were being broken, and she allowed herself to take in the sight of her boyfriend as he removed the shirt from his shoulders, the light from the fence tapping along his torso as he turned to face his girlfriend.
"Your turn," he whispered, and he listened as Rachel both drew in and released a heavy breath. She turned her body to a position that would allow her his full attention, and her hands began to shake as she undid her own buttons of Tina's borrowed shirt. Considering the plunging neckline, she only had a handful of buttons to undo, and she did them at a painstaking pace to allow herself more time to settle her nerves before the remainder of their clothing was removed. After her fingers played with the last plastic knob, slowly pushing it through the allotted hole in the fabric, she slid the shirt over her shoulders, pulling her long locks behind her back along with it. She stood with her eyes closed for a moment as she felt Jesse taking in her body. "Just as I assumed," she heard him say, and she opened her eyes with raised eyebrows. "Perfection," and she smiled the secret smile that he knew was reserved only for him.
The rest of their clothing came off with a bit more ease, with Rachel blushing only once more as she took in Jesse's black boxer briefs. The darkness concealed a lot in their surroundings, but the flickering lights certainly allowed the outline of a particular body part belonging to Jesse to be showcased through fabric. It had caused Rachel to gasp for the second time that evening, and never again would she wonder how Jesse had previously been so lucky with the girls in his life. If Jesse were as talented with that as he was with his voice, Rachel excitedly looked forward to their future together.
While she hurriedly looked through her purse for a clasp to clamp up her hair, she heard a splash coming from the deeper end of the pool. Seconds later she saw Jesse's head break the seal of the water as he came up for a breath. "Come on in," he quietly called, "the water is incredible," and it was all the convincing that Rachel needed. With her hair safely pinned to the top of her head, she waded in through the steps of the shallow end, allowing Jesse an admiring view as the shine from the moon played with shadows along her curves.
Jesse spent the time it took Rachel to submerge by swimming to meet her in the middle, and they both paused at the location where the two separate depths merged together as one. The somewhat safe, secure shallow end with the dangerous and slightly mysterious deep. They stood immobile as the light ripples of the water danced along their bodies, and the warm texture was intoxicating as they took in each other's appearances. Jesse's chest was gleaming with the water that had been fortunate enough to land there, and Rachel could almost hear the appreciative grown from the tiny little droplets. Jesse was too busy filling his own eyes to notice Rachel's exploration of his body, as he too was suddenly jealous of the water that clung so closely to his girlfriend's skin. "You look astonishing wet," he whispered, and she giggled before their lips met in a kiss.
Every single kiss between them was new and even more exciting than the one before. They straightened their postures as they both stood up, the top half of their bodies now no longer submerged in water as Rachel draped her arms behind Jesse's neck, allowing him to pull her closer. The slickness of their forms rubbing against each other was more than either could handle, and an odd feeling came over the lower part of Rachel's belly.
As Jesse deepened the kiss by slowly dipping his tongue inside of his girlfriend's mouth, they lowered themselves deeper into the water, and Rachel wrapped her legs around Jesse's waist as her body floated slightly above his. Her fingers tugged hungrily at his wet curls as his fingers played with the skin of her back, causing light bumps to pop up in their path. As they continued to bob in the water, Jesse broke the kiss to attack Rachel's neck, and she moaned into the side of his head as her eyes rolled back into her hair. This will never get old, she thought to herself.
As Jesse nibbled at her collarbone, Rachel allowed her hands to explore the front of his body, raking her short nails slightly over his chest and abdomen. In the privacy of the pool, they were allotted the chance to explore one another's bodies, and neither of them wanted to miss the opportunity. As Jesse's hand slowly came up to cup her wet breast from the safety of the outside of her bra, Rachel lowered her own hands, finding the outline of the "v" to Jesse's lower waist.
In the heat of the moment, Rachel suddenly pulled away, noticing an unfamiliar song on the radio. "This is beautiful," she whispered. "Do you know the name of this song?"
"It's Aicha," he whispered, kissing her collarbone lightly once more before pulling back and looking her in the eyes. They both paused for a moment as the haunting lyrics came over them.
So sweet, so beautiful
Everyday like a queen on her throne
Don't nobody knows how she feels
Aicha, Lady one day it will be real
She moves, she moves like a breeze
I swear I can't get her out of my dreams
To have her shining here by my side
I'd sacrifice all them tears in my eyes
"It's an amazing song," Jesse said as the chorus picked up. "It originated as a French melody, and it's been translated into dozens of other languages. It holds a pretty powerful message… delving into so many different cultures and customs. But it's always strong."
"What's it about?" she whispered.
"A woman longing for love but afraid to let go. Sometimes it changes to a woman who has lost a love, but it always centers around a man secretly promising to do anything to be with her, to love her… to show her the beauty of the world." Rachel felt his thumbs play at her waist, and she smiled as he looked deep into her eyes.
"You've shown me so much beauty, Jesse. I hope you've recognized that. I hope you know how much you mean to me. How important you are to my life," she stated. She knew she was only a girl of seventeen years old, but for the first time in her life, she didn't doubt her feelings. She was currently wrapped around the man who opened her heart, and she wasn't about to hold her tongue for fear's sake.
"I love you, Rachel" Jesse whispered as he placed his hand behind her left ear, stroking his thumb along her cheek bone. "Adolescents tend to throw that word around so often it begins to lose it's meaning, but I do love you. With every fiber of my being," and suddenly Jesse realized his heart was racing - not due to the close quarters his body shared with that of his girlfriend's, but because he was being totally honest with another person for the first time in his life. "That's the first time I've ever said that to anybody," he chuckled, trying to break the tension.
"This night has come with a lot of firsts," she whispered back. "I don't doubt your love for me, Jesse, just as I've never doubted mine for you. The only thing I fear anymore are my own actions around you. It's getting increasingly difficult to control my urges," and she blushed as she looked down, breaking eye contact with him.
Jesse placed his hand on her chin, lifting it slightly to meet her eyes once more. "Rache, we have the rest of our lives to experience firsts together. There's no point in rushing," and she smiled her secret smile once again before reaching to meet his lips with hers. Tonight had been enough, for they both realized now that they had a million tomorrows to share with one another.
I am sooo sorry for the long break. My vacation and subsequent return to work were a bit overwhelming, but oy… I sure do love these two characters.
Thank you guys sooooo much for the reviews. I honestly cannot express how much they mean to me. You guys are angels! *muah*