Thursday, February 17th, 2005.

Ellie was woken by knocking on the front door of her apartment. Linus jumped onto the back of the couch as she rose from her sleeping position. She stretched before standing up and answering the door.

JC stood with his back to the door as he surveyed the hallway, taking in the plaster work along the hall's ceiling.

"Hey," Ellie said as she leaned into the doorframe.

JC turned to face her, smiling. "Hey," he responded.

 "You can come in." She gestured into the apartment. "I've got the apartment to myself. My roommates decided to stay a few more days in the Bahamas. I just woke up from a nap, so I need a bit of coffee. Do you drink caffeine this late?" She checked her watch as he followed him inside.

"I prefer tea, with a little bit of honey."

Ellie stuck her head out of the doorway leading into the kitchen. "Normal tea or sweet tea? I'm Louisianan, so I'm just checking."

"Hot tea," he replied. "Who's the psychology student?" he asked as he picked up the books on cognitive learning and learned helplessness.

"From his size, we think he might be a Maine Coon crossbreed. He's far too large to be a domestic tabby," she answered, mishearing him.

JC turned his head slightly to the left as he paused in thought. "Wait, what?"

"Linus, he's far too large to be a domestic tabby," she said as she walked out of the kitchen. "Let me take your coat."

JC opened the belt of his navy blue overcoat to reveal a grey sweater and a pair of jeans underneath.

"This freak cold snap has really been doing a number on my jet lag from this past weekend's trip," Ellie said as she put JC's coat into the closet by the door. "I should really thank you for Sunday night."

He glanced around the apartment. "Who's Linus?"

"Oh, he should be..." She paused before getting down on her hands and knees. "Just a minute... Hi, baby. You want to come out and meet Jace? Come here, baby." Ellie patted the floor with her fingertips. "He's hiding under the couch."

She stood up and brushed off her black sweater and pants. "I know." She walked into the kitchen and came out with a bag of cat treats. She rattled the bag before calling out in a high pitched voice. "Baby, num nums... Pavlovian conditioning," Ellie finished in her normal tone as she poured the cat treats in JC's hand.

"This is how Derek got Linus to like him, by making him associate him with food. Linus, baby, come here. Squat," Ellie commanded as JC bent down. Linus ran out from under the couch as Ellie rattled the treat bag.

JC did as she said and asked, "Derek's the psychology student, and his girlfriend?" 

"That's Claire. We grew up together. We kinda all planned our post college careers around Derek's Master's degree."

"What school is he going to?"

"Columbia. What school did you go to?"

"*NSYNC formed when I was 19. The MMC ended when I was 18. I spent some time in L.A and Nashville in 94-95. I went back to Orlando with Justin when Chris asked us to join the group."

"MMC?" Ellie stared at JC dumbfounded.

"Mickey Mouse Club."

"Oh, I fucking loved that show. JC was so...cute." She stopped as she realised what she was saying.

He looked up at her, Linus picking the last of the treats from his hand.

"You were so cute. I know where I knew you from." She ran into the kitchen, trying to avoid him.

"You don't recognise me from *NSYNC?" he said as he stood up, following her into the kitchen.

She leaned against the counter, her head in her hands. "No. I just thought you were some guy from some boy band; I didn't pay much attention to any of the boy bands of the late nineties. I was too far deep into the Beatles and George Harrison."

He walked up to her.

"I never realised you were a Mouseketeer. I had the biggest crush on you when I was 12...Your Justin is the little dweeb that joined in the sixth season, isn't he?"

"Yeah. He turned into a royal cunt." JC slowly lifted his hands to hers and wrapped his fingers around her hands, lowering them to her sides. He then brushed his thumbs across her cheeks as he held her head in his hands.

She refused to look at him, her cheeks flushed and her eyes welling up with tears of embarrassment.

He wiped away her tears as he started softly singing, half whispering, half growling, "Something in the way she moves, Attracts me like no other lover, Something in the way she woos me. I don't want to leave her now, you know I believe and how."

Ellie raised her arms, putting them around his neck, stretching up as she pressed her mouth to his.

A few hours later, JC lay naked on top of Ellie's bed, his firm ass in the air, trying to eat a bowl of cereal whilst trying to push Linus' face out of it. "So, why George? Why not Paul or John?"

"Why not Ringo?" Ellie replied as she appeared in the doorway in a similar state of undress. "I found some condoms in Claire's vanity." She placed the small bundle on her bedside table. She lay opposite him, taking a spoonful of cereal. She continued as she swallowed her mouthful. "If this becomes a regular occurrence, I'm going to have to go on the pill."

"You're not scared of getting any diseases?"

"We'll keep using condoms. It's just in case. I'm too young to become a mother." She turned over onto her back.

"Come on! You're at least 23!" he exclaimed.

"26, 27 in June. Far too young."

"At your age, I had sold 25 million albums."

"But you didn't have a kid, unless there's something you have to tell me?"

"Yes...there is..." he whispered, beckoning her to come closer to him. "I think Linus is just fat."

"You asshole!" She pushed him away from her, getting off the bed. "I'M going to take a quick shower. You can join me if you want," she teased as she left the room to go into the bathroom.

She turned the water on, letting her hair down as she waited for it to reach a comfortable temperature. She waited awhile, staring into the empty hallway, waiting for him to join her.

"I guess not," she said to herself as she climbed into the tub. She started to wash her hair as she came to face the wall with her back to the shower curtain.

"Hey," JC said as he popped his head in between the two shower curtains.

"AH! FUCK!" Ellie screamed, jumping against the wall. She playfully hit his chest with the heel of her hand. "Don't do that!"

He climbed into the shower and brought her body to his as he softly kissed her lips. "I'm sorry, I won't do it again." He ran his fingers through her hair as he started rinsing the shampoo out. "You never answered my question, Why George?"

"My ex-fiancé Miles was the biggest music snob ever. Well, a snob about pretty much everything: music, film, literature, politics - fierce, fierce Democrat. Seriously only attended LSU because James Carville did."

"James Carville?" JC asked as he wrapped his arms around her stomach.

"President Clinton's campaign strategist thingy. Anyhoo, Miles had such a boner for John and Paul's solo work that he used to constantly give these long speeches on how superior their solo work was to George's and Ringo's that I started saying that I preferred George's work just to annoy him. Of course, to get back at me, Miles bought me all of George's albums. I don't know why, but they were the only thing I kept after we broke up."

"What happened?" JC asked as he lathered up his hands with soap, slowly starting to wash Ellie's stomach and breasts. "What happened between you and Miles?"

"When I moved to New York to start my internship at Clefnotes, he stayed in Baton Rouge to work as an intern for a democratic state senator. Of course, the dick started fucking around on me the moment I left the state. Please don't do that." Ellie squirmed as JC started rubbing soap into the lips of her vulva.

"I'll make up for it," he said, slowly starting to run his soapy hand over her back and ass.

"You've already fucked me three times. I can't possibly think of anything else you could do to make it up to me."

He inched his way towards the showerhead, washing himself down. "I'll think of something. You finish up here, and I'll meet you in the bedroom." He stepped out of the bathtub.

She watched him through the gap he had left in the shower curtains as he dried himself off and went into the bedroom, only to return to the hallway a few moments later carrying Linus into the lounge room.

She was taken aback as she came to the realisation. "No! I'm going to have to suck his dick."

JC was lying on his left side, his head resting on his left fist, hair wet and slicked back. He gently ran his right hand up and down the shaft of his penis, waiting for Ellie to return from the bathroom. Knowing what he was probably going to do to her, she had lost all semblance of confidence. Forgoing the nudity of before, she had completely wrapped herself in a towel and was now inching her way into the doorway, the right side of her body revealed in his line of sight, her left side hidden in the darkness of the hallway.

"If I don't want to, I can say no? Right?" she nervously asked.

"Sure. If that's what you want," he said in a forced relaxed manner, knowing that she had closed herself off to him again. "If you want me to go, I'll go."

"No, stay."

"Are you sure you want me to stay here, sleeping in your bed, naked, with no pajamas or anything?"

"I'm OK with it." She looked down and stepped into the doorway completely as she watched him wrap his fingers around the base of his penis and slowly run them up the shaft, giving himself a slight tug when he reached the head.

"Why are you touching yourself?" she asked as she grasped onto the towel hem, trying to cover as much of her body as she felt herself become aroused again.

"You make me so hard. I can't help but do it. Just thinking about you sets my skin on fire. Do I make you feel the same?"

Ellie slowly stepped into the room as JC rose on the bed into a kneeling position. "Yeah," she replied.

"Let's play a game then. You lay down next to me, and then I'll kiss you. If you like it, say yes. Then I'll move on to another body part. If you say no, I'll stop, and we'll go to bed. If you're feeling really uncomfortable, I'll be happy to leave." He reached out both of his hands out to her.

"Sure, I'll do it," she said, a little surer in tone as she reached her left hand out to his right.

He wrapped his arms around her as he kissed her again. He ran his right hand underneath her towel, placing it onto the small of her back as he pulled her closer to him. As their lips parted, Ellie took a step back and guided his hand to the bottom hem of the towel.

"Pull it," she told him as he slowly pulled down, revealing her left breast, then leaving her completely naked again as it fell to the floor.

He watched her as she sat on the bed. He then scooped her legs up into his right arm and placed her on the bed so she was lying on her back. He lay back down on his left side next to her. He softly kissed her mouth.

"Yes," she said as he then softly kissed her cheek. "Yes." He then softly kissed her forehead. "Yes."

He then placed his thumb on her chin, slowly pulled her lips apart, then kissed her hard, flicking the tip of her tongue with his.

"Mmm, yes," she tried to say as he withdrew his lips from her.

He started to run his left hand up and down the side of her right thigh. He turned her face away from him and pressed his lips against her neck, softly sucking on the skin.

"Yes."

He softly bit her and then moved down, his head now above her shoulders. He traced his tongue along her right collarbone, softly kissing the middle. "Yes."

He rose back up off the bed into a kneeling position again; he then took her legs and moved her further onto the bed, making her center. He opened her legs and laid down between them, adjusting himself until his face was hovering above her breasts. He cupped her left breast in his hand and slowly ran his fingers up it until he grasped the nipple between his lower thumb and forefinger, squeezing it softly, before gently pulling on it. He kissed her in between her breasts.

"Yeah." She squirmed, moving her arms from her sides and placing them above her head. He slowly exhaled a flush of hot breathe onto her right nipple before licking it. She grabbed the railing of the bed head and pulled herself upwards in pleasure. He pushed himself forward, then slowly took as much of her right breast into his mouth as he could, sucking it until he needed to inhale, biting it as he took in air. Without removing his mouth, he slowly started flicking her nipple with his tongue.

"Fuck," she moaned, digging her ass into the mattress.

He looked up at her. "Is that a yes?"

She nodded and bit her bottom lip. She pushed his hair back as his blue eyes stared up at her. She lifted his left hand to her mouth and softly kissed the middle knuckle. He smiled before pressing his tongue to her stomach, before kissing her again.

She bit down softly on the pinkie side of his hand before he moved further down to kiss her pelvic bone as he ran his fingernails down her right side. He wrapped his arms around her thighs as he slowly pulled them open.

He looked up at her. "Yes?" he asked, his cock becoming harder as he smelled her sweetness.

Ellie let out a long exhale as she tightened her grip on the railings. "Yes," she gasped, nodding.

He parted her lips before softly kissing her at the entrance of her vagina. She shuddered as he ran his tongue up her perineum, continuing along the folds of her pussy until he stopped, lightly flicking her clit with his tongue. He repeated this numerous times, teasing her as her breath shortening in between ecstatic moans. He watched as she placed her middle right finger on her clit and started rubbing, bringing herself to climax.

I'm going to explode if I don't get to fuck her soon, he thought to himself as he watched her let out a soft cry.

She lifted her hand and grabbed his hair, pulling it softly to beckon him upwards. She leaned forwards and pressed her mouth to his, tasting herself on his lips. She groaned softly as she pushed his chest, guiding him into a kneeling position. She leaned further forward as she took his cock into her mouth, deep throating him several times before he took a large bundle of her hair and pulled hard.

"No!" he growled sternly. "I want to fuck you." He pulled at her right leg until she was on her side, trying to flip her. "Get on your hands and knees," he commanded as she followed it. He pulled her ass towards him as he rammed his cock into her pussy.

Ellie let out a sharp cry as he started thrusting into her. "Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me," she yelped as he pounded into her.

He dug his fingernails into her thighs as he started grunting with every thrust. "Mummy," he growled through clenched teeth.

"Fuck me, Daddy," she whimpered as she flipped her head to look back at him.

She grabbed at his right hand, tearing it away from her thigh, and guided it underneath her, placing it on her clit again, signaling him to pleasure her as he did himself. She pulled a pillow to her face as she started to climax again, starting to whimper in harmony with him as he started coming. His thrusts became slower but harder. Finally, he pulled her up to him as he ejaculated into her until she was sitting on his lap. She turned her head to look into his eyes as he rested his head on her shoulder, wrapping his arms around her. She reached her hand up to his head, stroking his hair as she pulled him in to kiss her. He slowly rotated his body until he pulled her down onto their sides.

"Thank you," she whispered as he buried his face into her neck.

He started kissing her along her shoulders as she placed his right hand on her belly, rubbing his thumb with hers.

After a moment, he asked, "Why is your bedroom pea green?"

"I honestly don't know." She giggled in response.

He paused before saying, "I need to tell you a few things. If you don't want to call me JC, I would prefer it if you called me Josh, or Joshua."

"OK," she replied.

"I should have told you this earlier, but I've got a bit of a cold."

"Now you tell me."

"You wouldn't have had sex with me if you knew."

"I'm not sure about that."

"I'm not too sure either."

"If it was any other disease, it could be illegal if you didn't tell me."

"I would have told you if I was HIV positive. I'm not. I'm not HIV positive. I don't have herpes, nor any other sexually transmitted diseases."

"Neither do I."

"Good, my parents adopted me when I was five. My mother was a teen mom. Though she tried her hardest, she couldn't take care of me, give me the life she wanted me to have, so she asked her foster parents to take me."

"My roommates are coming home tomorrow. If I get you out of the house by 10:30 in the morning, we should avoid them."

"My middle name's Scott, and you still owe me a blow job."

"Rosemary, now or later."

"Sleep now, blow job later."

"OK, one last kiss," she said as she turned her head to meet his.

"Goodnight, Elizabeth Rosemary."

"Goodnight, Joshua Scott," she said as he settled down, pushing his legs up in between hers as he fell asleep inside of her.

Over the next few hours, they faded in and out of sleep, playing with each other's hands and softly kissing each other. They were awoken at 10:47 am by the apartment door opening followed by Linus's loud crying.

"ELIZABETH ROSEMARY ARGYLE, YOU WILL NOT FUCKING BELIEVE WHAT- HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Claire yelled as she stormed into the apartment. Her look of shock turned into a wide, devious smile as she looked into Ellie's open doorway, her eyes darting from JC to the bundle of condoms on the dresser.

"My, My, My, what a fine man you've got in your bed this morning, sweet Elizabeth," she said in a put on Cajun accent, slightly thicker than her own. "And good for you for using protection." She pointed at them.

"What?" Derek asked as he slid past her to put their luggage in their bedroom.

"Ellie has a man in her bed, and he is fine," Claire responded.

Ellie sat up, trying to wrap the quilt around her. JC placed a pillow over his crotch as she stood up from the bed.

Derek came to the doorway. "Hello...that's the dude from *NSYNC."

"No! It's not!" Claire exclaimed.

"No, it is. It's the guy she interviewed in August. The one that dropped her off at the hotel."

"Seriously?" Claire look at Ellie, "Is this Jace? Did you bring him home from L.A.?"

"JC," JC said under his breath as Derek corrected Claire.

"There's no Jace, or Jason in *NSYNC. There's a Justin, a Joey, Chris, Lance and the other one," Derek continued as he walked back into the lounge room.

"JC," JC said in a louder voice.

"That's it, JC," Derek replied.

"I'm JC," he called after Derek.

Derek emerged back at the doorway. "Well, I'm Derek, and this is my fiancé, Claire."

"Fiancé?" JC and Ellie said in unison as Ellie sprang up from collecting their clothes from the floor.

"Don't you want to tell her our news, Claire-bear?"

"Oh, we knew you were going to propose, but THIS," Claire said as she made a circular motion with her finger at JC and Ellie, "This is some goddamn news."

JC coughed into his hand as Claire placed the cup of tea in front of him. She returned to the kitchen to attend to her pot of grits, passing Ellie as she was on the phone.

"I'm coming down with a bit of a cold. I must have caught it on my trip to L.A." Cough. "I'm just so fatigued. I slept way too late this morning. I pretty much finished everything I was assigned. One day won't hurt." She paused for a few minutes. "Thanks, Maurice, I'll see you on Monday." She hung up the phone and kissed JC on his temple as she went down the hall.

"She likes you," Derek said to JC.

"I like her, too." JC replied.

"Marry her."

"Claire!"

"What? He should. There is no other person who will love him more."

"What Claire is trying to say is that Elizabeth is a funny little thing. She's very quiet, closed off to most of the world. But she's a nice girl: sweet, smart, funny. She'll open and shut herself off on you at first."

"I know," JC said as Derek took a sip of his coffee.

"But once she loves you, she will open herself up to you completely. She will do anything, anything for you. She would move the Appalachians for you, grain by grain, and the Mississippi, drop by drop. But she has a line. If you cheat on her, you're gone. She made that mistake once. She's not doing it again. She gave six years of her life to that piece of shit..."

"Miles," Claire called out of the kitchen.

"Yes, Miles." Derek nodded and continued, "If you hurt her even a fraction of a millimeter as much as he hurt her, we will track you down and fucking kill you."

"Got that." JC nodded.

"No, I don't think you do," growled Claire, placing her hands on the dining table. "If you hurt her, I will track you down, skin you and wear your pretty skin as a fucking trophy. If you hurt her, we will fucking kill you."

"I'm out!" JC said as he got up from the table. "I've got things to do, appointments to keep."

"Baby, what's wrong?" Ellie asked as she followed him as he got his coat from the closet and walked out of the apartment.

"The Blonde, she is fucking scary," JC said as he pointed towards the closed apartment door.

"That's just Claire," Ellie said.

"And you have no problem with that." JC pulled his coat on.

"It's just something we say about our kin. We don't mean it most of the time. If this goes anywhere, you'll probably hear it a lot. I swear that the only one who will actually do it is my Daddy," she said, trying to comfort him as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Where's Miles, what happened to him?" JC asked in a fretful manner.

Ellie reassured him, "He's in Baton Rouge, doing what he was four years back, getting coffee and typing letters, only getting paid now. Dumbfuck ain't going nowhere without his Daddy's help, and his Daddy's ain't doing shit for the Democrats."

She looked up at him. "He only married his wife ‘cause she's his boss's assistant's daughter. I need to tell you something; Miles and I were never exclusive. Well, I was, but he wasn't.  We were homecoming king and valedictorian whilst he fucked around with the whole cheerleading squad-- well, everyone except Claire. I literally put up with it for six years. I denied it, pretended it wasn't true. But it was.

"When he proposed, he said he wouldn't anymore, and I believed him. And I was stupid for that. It is the stupidest thing I have ever done. But I thought he was supposed to be my husband. So I just took it. But I won't anymore. I won't take it from you. I don't care how rich you are, how famous, how many records you've sold or awards you've won. I'm not doing that again. If you decide to call me again, no more. Nothing. No groupies, models, shitty actresses. No one. Nothing.

"If you want to go now, I'm ok with that. I'd rather it end now than in six years because you're fucking a filing clerk."

JC thought for a moment. "I want this, I want you," he said as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

"I want this, too," she replied.

He bent down to kiss her. "Baby steps though, please."

"Sure," she said as he pressed his lips to hers.

"I need to be somewhere at one." He pulled away from her. "One last kiss," he said, kissing her again.

 She walked him down to the front door of the complex, her hand in his. "You come back now. I owe you a blow job."

He smiled a wide grin as he kissed her again before stepping out into the late February morning. She watched him as he hailed a cab and waved to him as he looked back at her before he got in and drove away.