JC had barely heard the conversation between Ellie and her ex.  Okay… Who was he kidding?  He’d been just around the corner listening to the whole thing. 

It may have ended sounding true and good, but at this point JC trusted the guy about as far as he could throw him.  Considering James Sanderson was over 6 foot tall and probably 225 pounds, that didn’t say much.

A big part of him wanted to go in the room and shake her back into reality, because he could hear the scattered tone to her voice as she rambled on to the new assistant.  The other, more logical, part of his brain was hesitant to go into the other room BECAUSE of the new assistant.  Ellie had yet to witness a female freak out upon seeing him—or worse, totally hit on him.  Not that he was assuming that would happen, but it definitely could.  The best scenario would be for him to sneak out quietly, but he couldn’t do that without getting in a few words with her first.

He was just about to call her on the phone when she came scurrying around the corner, practically running into him.  She was flushed; and he wanted to grin over the fact  that she was STILL wearing the same dress as the night before.  Unfortunately he also found himself wondering if she’d at least thrown on a sweater when she’d met with her financial guy earlier that morning.

Damn… He didn’t want to have those type of feelings—already!

He shook the thought away quickly.  “I know you’re going crazy inside right now, but you need to get it together,” he told her.

“Was that the craziest thing ever?  Did you hear what he said?”  She was whispering, this giddy look in her eyes, like a five year old in a toy store.

“Don’t get excited until you see it in a legal document.  You need to call your attorney right away.”

The giddiness instantly faded, irritation replacing it.  “You just had to burst my bubble, didn’t you?”

He found himself grinning before he replied.  “I’ve been trying ever since you confessed to living in one for the past 5 years, or whatever it was…”

The irritation in her features disappeared in an instant.  “You’re doing a pretty good job with that,” she grinned sort of flirty like and brushed her fingers down his arm.  “I’ll go make that call.”

“Good idea.  Where is the new assistant because I’d like to sneak out without her seeing me.”

Her smile seemed to turn even more playful after hearing his words.  “Afraid she might be a lovesick fan?”

She may have been teasing, but that was exactly what he was afraid of.  “It happens more than you think.”

“Well that would be a problem, wouldn’t it?”

He nodded.  “So we’ll meet another time if that’s okay?”

Instead of answering, she stepped closer and inched up on her toes to kiss his cheek.  “I’ll go show her around so you can sneak out the front door, but only if you promise to come back tonight.” 

She was still close enough that he was able to lean in and kiss her full on the lips.  “I think I’m available,” he grinned.

After the tour of the property, Ellie found herself looking out the window to see if JC’s car was no longer in her driveway.  Of course she knew it wasn’t, but she still looked anyway. 

She got Daphne settled in the office—where she’d be spending the majority of her time—and put her to work on getting the room organized.  Then she went to the kitchen and sat down to call Mr. GQ Attorney.  Not surprisingly, he wasn’t available, so she had to leave a detailed message.

Next thing she knew she was dialing JC’s cell phone.  The sad part was she’d somehow managed to commit the number to memory—and she normally didn’t even dial it because it was stored in her phone. 

He answered after one short ring with a long, drawn out “Yes?”

It took half a second for her to be reminded how much the sound of his sexy voice made her smile.  She could talk to him for hours.  “I was thinking maybe I might cook dinner tonight,” she told him.

“Is that an invitation?”

“Yes, I think it is.”  She was still smiling.

“In that case, I accept, but it will probably be eight before I can get there.  Is that too late?”

Considering it had been 10:30 when they ate the night before, how could she say it was too late?  “No.  That’s fine.  I guess you’re not home, then?”  Maybe she was asking more than she should, but it had all come out before she’d had the chance to think about it.

“No, I’m on my way to meet my manager and then I have to do some work in the studio—not mine,” he added, “but I’ll be done before 8:00 and I’ll come straight there for dinner.  Sound good?”

“Yep.  Sounds perfect,” she told him.

“Great.  What are we having?”

“I haven’t got that far yet,” she smirked.

“Okay,” he sort of chuckled.  “I’ve gotta go.  I’ll see you tonight.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye.”

She’d also picked up a fairly nice bottle of wine.  She knew he liked that.

The thought hadn’t escaped her that as far as sex was concerned, she was sort of out of commission, but she’d be happy if they could just have a nice intimate and relaxing meal.  Besides, the past few times they’d been together they hadn’t done much besides have sex—not that that was bad or anything…  but she definitely didn’t want that to be all there was between them.

Of course, now she was thinking in terms of a relationship and as far as she knew, they didn’t really have one.  Maybe that was something they needed to discuss…

Nah.

Not yet.  Her brain was going just a little bit crazy with all the new emotions going on inside her body.  They were just friends—very friendly friends who enjoy having sex with each other—A LOT.  It would probably be best to keep it that way, even if it did look like her divorce would be moving along a lot faster than she initially thought.  Until JC said otherwise she’d do her best to keep that “friends” mindset. 

It was twenty after eight and JC knew he needed to at least text Ellie to let her know he was running late.  Unfortunately he was in the recording booth and his cell phone was not.  By the time he was finally able to break, it was 8:35.  He immediately went to check his Blackberry.

He was surprised when he found that he didn’t have a voice mail.  Instead there was a text message.  It said simply, Are you still coming over?  I burnt the food.

Instantly he was chuckling.  Shaking his head, he plopped down in the empty seat between Mac, who had shown up about a half hour earlier, and Steve, who was working with him on the track.

“What?” Mac was already asking.

JC felt the need to be completely honest.  “I think I’ve met my dream woman.”

Mac stared unconvincingly.  “Now what would make you think that?”

“I was supposed to be at her house at eight for dinner.  It’s after 8:30.  How would most women react to that?”

Mac shrugged.  “Pissed off.”

JC nodded.  “This is the message I got—Are you still coming over?  I burnt the food,” he read it off to them.

“Sounds like a trick if you ask me,” Steve chimed in.  “She’s just trying to make you feel guilty without getting too psycho.  Women are smart.  They know when it’s too early to get pissed off.”

JC didn’t think that at all.  In fact, he didn’t even respond.  He just hit the button to dial her number.  When she answered after only a couple of rings, she was practically groaning into the phone.  “I totally ruined dinner,” she said instantly.

There was no way he could hold back the smile, even if his friends were going to give him tremendous shit over it once he got off the phone.  “It’s okay.  Don’t worry about it.”

“The damn attorney called just as I started cooking and then I got stuck on the phone for half an hour.  Don’t these people believe in regular business hours?”

“Last time I checked, no.  How did that go?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here.  Are you still coming over?”

He wanted to say something that would let her know how much he couldn’t wait to see her again, even though they’d only been a part a few hours, but he knew it was a bad idea.  So instead he told her simply, “Yeah, we’re just finishing up.  Sorry, the session ran over.”

“I kinda had a feeling that when you said eight you really meant nine,” she remarked.

In his head, big flashing neon lights were sending major conflicting signals. Either she really was the perfect woman, or she was definitely too good to be true.  He hoped it wasn’t the latter.  “I guess you know me better than I realized,” he smirked.

Ellie started to tell him that really she just knew the type, but decided against it.  She didn’t ever want to refer to JC in the same context as her ex-husband, even if she did sense that same workaholic quality.  There was nothing wrong with working a lot.  That hadn’t been the problem with her marriage at all.  Besides, when she’d actually had a career—back in the day—she’d been a bit of a workaholic herself.  It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see how passionate JC was about his music.  The last thing she wanted to be was the annoying girl who got in the way.

“I guess I do,” she said after a brief pause.  “I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.”

She heard voices in the background and it donned on her that he wasn’t alone.  Not that she’d thought differently, she just hadn’t thought about it, period.  “Uh, yeah… I have a response to that, but I think I’ll wait to give it.”  He was sort of chuckling when he spoke.  “I’m leaving in ten minutes.  Do you want me to pick up some food?”

“Please.”

“Do you have a preference?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she told him.  “Whatever’s on the way.”

“You’re too easy,” he remarked lightly.

“You’re lucky I don’t take offense to that,” she shot back.  Of course, she was being completely playful.

“Shit…”  She heard him push a breath through his nose.  “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Ellie was giggling.  “Just hurry up.  I’m hungry.”

“You got it, baby.  I’ll see you soon.”

Chuckling, she said “bye” and hung up the phone.

JC knew as soon as his call ended that both men were staring at him.  “What?” he asked naively.

Mac just shook his head.  “Nothing.”

“I know.  I like her.  I can’t help it,” JC blurted out in his own defense, his arm flailing in defeat.

Steve chuckled while Mac shook his head even more.  “I haven’t seen you like this since—”

“I know,” JC stopped the man before he made reference to JC’s ex girlfriend.  “I know…” he repeated.

“It’s cool,” Mac continued.  “I hope it works out for you.”

JC did too.  The ex Mac had referred to hadn’t turned out great at all.  She’d fell in love with another man while they were still dating.  Now the two were happily married.  For once, though, he didn’t feel so bitter about that. 

Over the course of the next nine days Ellie saw JC, at some point, during eight of them.  As much as she was trying to keep her mind stuck on the friends label, things were feeling quite the opposite.  Especially since more and more he was calling her baby and sweetheart, and other little sentimental words of endearment.

Things were probably happening too fast.

Probably.

Did that mean she was doing anything to stop it?  Absolutely not.  He made her feel good—and not just in the obvious, physical sense.

It was just after two p.m. on a Friday and she was pulling up her driveway after a business lunch that had lasted longer than she would have liked.  Daphne had been alone at the house since eleven.  The two were growing a fairly decent trust, but Ellie had been burnt by employees before.  It would take a long time before she was no longer wary.

Funny, Daphne still didn’t know that Ellie was secretly rendezvousing with JC Chasez formerly of *NSYNC.  Chances were she wouldn’t care at all.  The girl had been in L.A. for awhile.  Surely she’d been around tons of different celebrities.  But at this point, it really wasn’t anything that Daphne needed to know.  She was usually gone by the time JC came over, or vice versa.

Gabby, on the other hand, was completely butt hurt over the whole situation.  She’d actually had enough nerve to corner Ellie when she was pushing the trash out to the street the day before.  Ellie had wanted to punch the girl for leaking them to the tabloids.  Luckily there hadn’t been enough interest to keep the photogs hanging around—for now—but still… it could have been a completely horrible situation.

But, back to the conversation with Gabby… The woman had actually had enough nerve to come straight out and ask if she and JC were sleeping together.  Ellie very calmly and bluntly told the annoying woman YES.

Frankly, she didn’t think Gabby had expected such a boldly honest answer.  The woman had looked sort of dumbfounded for about half a minute.  Then she turned and walked her over-enhanced body back across the street, disappearing inside of her house.

Ellie had felt extremely proud of that moment. 

Maybe Gabby would leave them both alone—at least for a little bit, anyway.

She’d barely turned off her engine when the vision of JC pulling in to his driveway across the street surfaced upon her rear view mirror.  An instant grin popped to her lips.  They had what you might call a date later that evening—a public date.  They were going to an event.  She was nervous and excited about it both at the same time.

When she got out of the car, she realized that he’d been doing the same and they instantly caught sight of each other.  Even from across the street she could spot his goofy smile.  He waved and then pointed to himself and then to her house.  She guessed he was asking if he could stop by.  She nodded and he was on his way.

She watched his entire short trek across the street.  He was dressed like he’d just finished working out—gray sweats, sort of baggy, and a standard white t-shirt.  When he got close enough she realized he probably had just finished working out.  He was kind of smelly.  The horrible thing about it?  Even his bad smells smelled good. 

Dammit.  That was a bad sign in itself.

“Were you at the gym?” she asked, stopping him with her palm flattening to his chest.  He was ready to walk right into the house.  “Daphne’s in there.”

Nodding, he leaned in and kissed her quickly.  “This is about as gross as I get.  Now would be as good a time as any for us to meet.”

Ellie outright chuckled at that.  “I am going to fully ignore how incredibly arrogant that was.”

JC sort of bobbed his head from side to side.  “That was a little cocky of me, wasn’t it?”

She got the feeling that he’d purposely chosen the word cocky because it instantly sent other images to her brain and he knew it.  She shook her head, trying not to smile, although she knew that she was.  “Let’s go inside.”

He raised his brow.  “I’ll follow you.”

They went inside and Ellie led him straight to the office where Daphne was working on the computer—hopefully sifting through endless emails that Ellie never had time to check.  The blond looked up with a cordial grin.  “Hi,” she said instantly.  “Stephen called.  He said to call when you got in.”

Her eyes instantly widened.  Since her weird encounter with her ex husband, they’d been having a heck of a time getting in touch with his attorneys.  She was trying not to get discouraged about it.  She knew she shouldn’t have been surprised.  But if he didn’t want to get it over with quickly, then she didn’t understand why he’d shown up at her door to begin with.  She planned to keep believing that he’d given her his word until she discovered otherwise.

“I’ll call him in a minute,” she told Daphne.  “I wanted you to meet my neighbor, JC Chasez.”

He stepped towards the petite blond and extended a hand.  “Good to meet you,” Daphne said.

“You too,” JC remarked.

“Okay.  I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.  You’re leaving at 4 still?”

Daphne nodded.  “Yes.  Unless you need me for something else.”

“No,” Ellie told her.  “That’s fine.”

“Okay.”

The two shuffled out of the office, Ellie leading the way into the kitchen.  JC helped himself to the refrigerator once they got there and pulled out a bottle of water.  Then he leaned his butt against the counter as he opened it and took a giant swig.

Sweaty or not, Ellie was having a helluva time keeping her hands off him.  He looked extremely touchable at the moment.  She really just wanted to drag him to her bedroom and have her way with him.

He noticed she was staring at him, a smile spreading to his cheeks as he tipped his chin down and removed the bottle from his lips.  “Are you ready for our date tonight?” he asked, looking ridiculously boyish and cute.

At that she did step closer to him.  Close enough to smooth both arms around his waist and catch him in sort of a hug.  “I am,” she smiled up at him as his hands locked behind her waist.

He tipped his head down again to catch her in a kiss.  “Good.  Want a preview?”

She giggled at his suggestion.  “Don’t tempt me.”

He was kissing her again.  “But it’s so fun,” he replied.

She laid her head against his chest.  “Is it bad that I don’t care that you smell?” She realized asking that was a bit risky, but more and more she was having a difficult time not expressing how much she was feeling towards him.

“Probably.” 

“Just checking.”

She felt his chest bounce as he let out a quiet smirk.  “I guess I should go shower then.”

“Probably,” she said this time.

He knocked the top of her head with his chin.  “I’ll pick you up at seven thirty.”

“You’re going to pick me up?  You don’t want to just meet me out front?”

“Pshh… what kind of a jerk do you think I am?  I will be at your door to pick you up at seven thirty… and I will not be late.”

“I’ll be ready,” she grinned.

He pressed one more soft kiss to her lips.  A minute later he was gone.

© BrandyRae 2008