I felt him grip my hand as we walked down the hallway of the hotel, he leading me down towards the elevator that led to the suites a few floors up.  He had been a bit quiet during the car ride here and even quieter as we walked the halls.  Granted, I knew it was nearing two in the morning, but he was pretty good at making small talk, even in the quietest of situations.

He paused, fishing out his room key and swiping it at the elevator, waiting for it to grant him access and use, the doors dinging, summoning the elevator back down.  Tugging his hand and bringing his attention to me, I gave him a curious look.  “Are you okay?”

He smiled, lifting our joined hands and kissing my fingers gently.  “Yeah,” he said softly, pulling me closer to him as he released my hand and wrapped his arm around my waist, tucking me into his side.  “Just feel kind of bittersweet about it all; I’ve got you, but I haven’t seen my baby girl in three weeks.  I feel like I’ve missed so much even in that short amount of time.”

I frowned, turning my head and kissing his shoulder tenderly.  “Well, you have days off coming up, right?”

He nodded, taking a step into the elevator as I followed.  “Yeah … I should have a bit of time off coming up.”

I gripped his side, turning my head so that I was looking at the side of his face.  “Then come home,” I replied, watching as he turned his head to look at me, smile growing.  “Come home and see your baby girl and watch her face light up when she sees her daddy.  And her own toothless grin that reminds me of yours.”

He laughed.  “She grins now?”

I nodded, pulling away from him so that I was facing him.  “It’s an all-out, open-mouthed grin that is usually followed by a squeal of delight.  Her entire body reacts to it.  She’s gonna be a dramatic one.”

“Like her mama.”

I smacked him.  “And like her emotional father.”

He leaned forward, grabbing the hem of my shirt and pulling me to him, hands caressing my face and pulling me into his space, mouth opening against mine.  “I love you,” he murmured, mouth still resting against mine as the vibrations tickled at my skin.  “I love you and I hate that you find the need to run and I miss so much between you and Kira.  How you end up being more beautiful is beyond my comprehension and my daughter going through milestones so quickly is baffling.”

I kissed him again, hands raking against his chest and scratching gently at the exposed skin on his arms.  “She is starting to be your little twin, Jace; right down to the feet.”

“Ugh, she’s got my finger toes, doesn’t she?”

I laughed.  “But she’s a baby, so they’re cute.”

“God, I hope they stay that size so they’re cute and pudgy when she’s older.”  He kissed me again, turning me as the elevator doors opened, the butterflies fluttering in my stomach as I thought of the surprise that I got his bodyguard Eric to sneak in before we arrived.  “I don’t think I can wait much longer to see her.  It was hell being away from both of you …”

I watched as he slid his key into the activation slot to open the door, all but one light off as he stepped into the foyer, holding the door open for me and shutting it behind us.  I laughed when he stood behind me, sniffing the air curiously.  “What are you doing, exactly?”

He sniffed again.  “I smell lavender,” another sniff, “and Jasmine.”  He sniffed once more, looking at me skeptically.  “Why does it smell like Kira’s bedtime lotion in here?’

I laughed, pulling him further into the room as my mom, God bless her soul, sat on the edge of the bed, Kira’s wide awake form staring intently at the space that JC and I had just filled in the doorway, her eyes lighting up and legs flailing as she gurgled, hands lifting up and down as she attempted to bounce in her grandma’s lap.  “Because it’s almost her bedtime, of course,” I smiled, watching as he took a sharp intake of breath, taking in his daughter that he had not seen in nearly a month. 

My mom stood, holding Kira underneath her bottom and resting her against her chest, watching as JC stood, just staring at her.  “Well, come get your daughter, JC; she missed you.”

He walked quickly at that, arms stretched out to take the infant who seemed to get even more excited at his acknowledgement of her existence, the grin that I had told him about covering her entire face.  “Hi baby,” he said softly, placing a kiss to her head and then to her cheeks.  “God, I missed you …”

My mom smiled at me, patting my hand gently as she left the room, heading down the hall to her own suite (courtesy of Eric, who ended up sharing a room with Rob … bless his soul).  I kept my attention to the grown man reduced to a fit of extreme excitement mirroring one of a four-month-old, he smothering her face in kisses as she still flailed about in happiness.

“You weren’t lying,” he said, finally turning his gaze away from her and at me as I walked towards them, taking her hand and kissing it gently as she fisted a bunch of my hair, tugging it in excitement that she had both of her parents within her reach.  “She’s already looking so different and she the happiest baby I know.”

“She always has been,” I chuckled, watching as he then put her to his shoulder, letting her body contour against his chest as he patted her bottom, wanting to calm her and get her back to sleep, her brown hair evident of her past sleeping cycle.  “If you just lay her down, she usually will put herself to sleep …”

“I just want to hold her for a minute,” he said, turning his head into hers and inhaling the scent of her and the lotion deeply.  “God, I missed coming back from her nursery and smelling this stuff.  Kind of drove me crazy at first because I smelt like a girl, but now … now, I don’t ever wanna forget it.”

I chuckled; running a hand up and down his back as he finally stepped away, pressing a kiss to our still slightly excited but very sleepy daughter’s forehead and lying her in the pack-n-play by the closet, turning his attention to me.  I raised an eyebrow, seeing the unreadable expression on his face.  “What?”

“You tell me,” he said softly, reaching for the light that had been on and flipping the switch to shut it off, letting the light from the moon and lights down below guide him across the room towards me.  “It’s been three weeks; I have not seen or touched you in that amount of time, save what happened earlier tonight; I have not been able to hold you every night and I sure as hell have not been able to make love to you for three weeks, either.  I’ve gotta say, those three weeks were a lot worse than waiting it out after you had Kira.  So you tell me, Lil … what?”

I met him halfway, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing a kiss to his chin.  “You really are gonna have to tell me,” I teased, pressing kisses across his jaw and down the column of his neck, sucking gently at the end of his neck and the beginning of his collarbone.  “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to kiss me,” he said softly, tipping my chin so that I was looking at him, “and while you’re doing that, I want you to undress me while I do the same to you.  And after that, I want you to let me make love to you like I’ve wanted to from the moment I spotted you from on stage.”

I grinned, standing on my toes as to be more eye level with him.  “I think I can arrange that.”

“Good,” he murmured, eyes dropping to my lips as I leaned forward, a mere whisper away from his mouth, “because if you couldn’t, I’d have to do it myself and I think I’ve earned the right to let you take the reins on this one.”

I shook my head, smiling as I leaned closer, pressing my lips hard against him.  He reacted just as I thought he would, wrapping his arms just-so around my body and pressing me harder against him, his mouth warm and moist as it danced against mine.

But just as quickly as I had started the kiss, he stopped it.

Startled by his sudden stop, I looked at him, confused by the concerned look on his face as he gripped my wrists, studying my face.  “Jace, what’s wrong?  Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I need to ask you something,” he said softly, his eyes darting back at forth between my eyes, trying to read the unreadable as I stood there, dumbfounded.  When I nodded, he released my wrists, sliding his hands over my palms and through my fingers, squeezing gently as he inhaled slowly and breathed out through his nose.  “Right before I left the stage, Rob was there with you.  I saw him walk away and I saw that look on your face.  Something wasn’t right; something isn’t right.”

I shrugged, not wanting to cause any more trouble between manager and client; though I think he already had himself a lot of trouble since his client seemed to be catching on to how shady he was.  “It was nothing, Josh,” I said softly, he looking past me at our daughter’s now sleeping form in her little playpen, he tugging me with him into the bathroom, closing the door and running the water to silence our murmurs from her.  “He was just being a jackass, as usual -”

He shook his head frantically, holding his hand up with a finger lifted, stopping me.  “I knew that look, Lily; I wanted to say something when I saw you but I got so caught up with seeing you that I pushed it aside.  What happened?  What did he say to you?  What did he do to you?”
I sighed, lifting my hands and letting them slide up his chest towards his shoulders, letting them rest behind his neck as I rubbed gentle circles into his skin.  “Nothing.  He just irritates me, is all.”

He sighed, letting the prying drop as he closed his eyes.  “Do you promise that?”

I felt the familiar heaviness in my stomach as I nodded.  It wasn’t worth the battle; not when there was already one storm had just ended and another was brewing, waiting to reach land and break into a hellish war.  I was lying to him again. 

But I was lying to him to protect him, right?  Well, maybe more than just him. 

“Lily, please,” he said, his touch to my face bringing me back from my thoughts as I studied his face, the worry etched into the creases in his forehead and his eyes.  God, he had aged so quickly within the last few weeks …

“Josh …”

“He did something,” he said matter-of-factly.  “I know you, Lily; I know that look on your face right now.  You’re trying not to cause any harm but you’ve gotta know: it’s not you he’s going after, all right?  I know it’s not.  He’s trying to destroy me.  I’ve already hired an attorney and I’m just waiting for the right time to strike.”  He held my face in his hands, pressing a kiss to my forehead as he sighed deeply.  “You’ve gotta tell me, baby.  What did he do?”

I sighed deeply, pulling myself away from him and sitting on the floor by the door, bringing my knees to my chest and resting my forearms on my knees.  “He didn’t really do anything … I mean, nothing really bad.”

“Lily –“

How was I supposed to tell my husband that his manager touched me inappropriately and stared at me a little too long in an area he shouldn’t have?  I mean, it is a man’s nature to look at woman, as it is with a woman, but how long is too long?  And how creepy is too creepy – because what I thought he did was beyond creepy and into the “oh my God, he’s a perverted freak”, category. 

Okay, so it was pretty bad.

“Lily, c’mon.” 

I looked up at him, his eyes set intently on mine, body squared to mine, almost as if he were ready to fight – maybe, in ways, he was.  He knew something was up and I wasn’t giving him an answer.

Yeah, he really did know me.

I bit my lip, looking up to the ceiling and rolling my head, easing the tension in it.  I felt him move closer to me, kneeling down and into moving into a sitting position so that he was facing me, legs on either side of my body as he closed in on me, wrapping his arm around my legs and tugging gently on my hair.  “Tell me.  Please?”

I frowned, letting my hand slide over his and gently scratching at his skin, playing with the brown hairs on his arm.  “How am I supposed to word something that could potentially be a pretty bad situation that I put myself into?”

“I highly doubt you put yourself into that situation,” he said softly.  “Whatever it is, Lily, I can handle it.”

I looked at him, nothing but worry and compassion written on his face.  My stomach hurt already from stressing from it, inhaling slowly and just letting it spill out without any thought.  “He got really pervy with the way he looked at me … let his eyes linger a little too long my chest and right before you got into view, he grabbed me.”

He froze, cocking his head to the side as if he had not heard me right.  “Grabbed you?  Grabbed you, how?  Where?”

I licked my lips, sighing in frustration.  What a predicament I had put myself into, apparently.  “He grabbed my belt loop and right before you came around the corner, as he was leaving, he grabbed and held on to my ass.”

“That mother fucker,” he snapped, startling me as he jumped up, swinging the door open and moving quickly, too quick for me to catch up right away as he slammed through the hotel room door, me scrambling to grab the hotel room key before the door shut.  “Jace, wait –“

“I’m gonna kill him.”

“JC –“

“Lily, go back to the room,” he said lowly, turning to look at me as he put his hand into my shoulder, pushing me backward gently.  “Check on Kira.”

“Josh, what are you –“

“Just go,” he snapped, turning quickly away from me as he stormed down the hallway, me backing up slowly, weary of his next move.  I slid the card through, waiting for the beep and opening the door, not before I heard him down the hall, demanding Rob open his door.  I shut the door quickly, not wanting to wake our daughter and crawled onto the bed, turning on to my side and staring into the playpen, watching her tiny chest rise and fall with her deep breaths, sleeping just like her father with one hand resting on her chest in a tiny fist and the other sprawled slightly above her head. 

At least she was at ease. 

There had been quite a ruckus down the hall for a good bit, but within ten, maybe fifteen minutes, it had quieted.  I heard a door slam and a few curse words as footsteps walked down the hall, nearing our room.  I scrambled up out of the bed, pulling open the door as JC stood there, cradling his hand.  “Jesus,” I breathed out, grabbing the hem of his shirt and tugging him in, shutting and locking the door behind us.  “Bathroom.  Now.”

He was silent as he followed me, cringing as I turned the lights on, not reacting as I gasped and saw his slightly bloodied lip.  “It’s not as bad as you think it is,” he murmured, watching me as I ran a wash cloth under cool water, wringing it out and pressing it to his mouth as he hissed, eyes dropping closed at the contact.  “You should see him.”

I shook my head, intent on cleaning up the dried blood and at least making him look slightly presentable.  “You shouldn’t have done that, Josh.”

He scoffed.  “He touched you, Lily!  What did you want me to do; stand there and let it happen?  I’ll be damned if some man touches my wife and gets away with it!  You are not some object, all right?  You are my wife and I will not let some fucker touch you and think it’s okay!”

I touched his cheek, shushing him.  “Stop, you’ll break open the cut,” I said softly, pressing it gently to his lip once more, reaching down for his hand and lifting it to the cloth as I led him to sit on the edge of the tub, tending to his already swollen hand.  It wasn’t as bad as it had seemed once I cleaned up the scrapes, the knuckles swollen from the contact but not broken.  “This isn’t like you, Josh.  This is really out of character –“

“I’m not gonna let it happen, Lily; I’m not a fighter but I swear to God if someone touches my wife or my child, I’m not having it.”

I kissed the undamaged part of his lips, silencing him.  “And I love you for that, but what if he presses charges?”

“He can’t, really,” JC chuckled, “I let him have the first punch.”

I rolled my eyes.  “God, I can’t believe you.”

“Hey, I stood up for what I believed in.  I stood up for you.”

I smiled weakly, shaking my head in disbelief.  “My knight.”

“In a beat-up t-shirt,” he chuckled, lowering the washcloth and tossing it to the sink.  “I’m fine, Lily.  I really am.”

“I just can’t believe you –“ I stopped, silenced by his lips as he pressed them to mine gently, hand resting on my hip and pulling me closer to him, holding me against him as he stood, hands resting at the hems of my shirt.  He broke the kiss as he lifted the shirt up and over me, doing the same to his own as I looked at his suspiciously.  “You really want to do this now?”

“I’m worked up,” he chuckled, “you’re my damsel in distress that is no longer in distress but looks really hot.  Oh, and I haven’t been able to do this for three weeks.  Of course I want to really do this now.”  He pressed his lips against mine again, fingers working the button on my jeans.  They fell to the floor in a heap, his hands at my hips and pushing me against the door.  “God, I’ve wanted to touch you since … well, forever …”

I laughed, wrapping my arm around his neck as my other reached up, gently caressing the cut on his lip, leaning forward and kissing him gently.  I pulled away, seeing the look he was giving me.  “… What?”

“I really do love you.  And I’d do anything for you, you know that, right?”

I nodded.  “I really do love you, too.  Even when you do things you think would make me look at you differently.  You could have done nothing about it and I still would have thought you were the most amazing man …”

“I did something because it’s my right as a man, as a husband, to stand up for my wife.  I wouldn’t have done anything differently.”

“Violence doesn’t answer things, JC …”

“No, but it sure as hell feels good when it’s a bastard that gets what he deserves.”

I frowned.  “Jace –“

“I’d stand up for you.”  He chuckled as I saw a fleeting thought pass through his eyes.  When I gave him a questioning look, he shrugged, pulling me closer to him as his lips grazed my ear, breath ticking my skin as he began to sing to me, sending chills down my spine.  “I’ll be taking up your time, ‘til the day I make you realize that for you there could be no one else; I’ve just gotta have you for myself.  Baby, I would take good care of you, no matter what it is you’re going through …”  He stopped, pulling away and smiling as he held up his hand, exhibiting his hand before placing his forehead to mine, mouth merely a breath away as he continued.  “ …I’ll be there for you when you’re in need – baby, believe in me … ‘Cause if love is a crime, then punish me, I would die for you; ‘cause I don’t want to live without you.  What can I do …”

I chuckled, shaking my head.  “You’ve got me; there wasn’t a need for “Selfish” … though I did enjoy the half-naked serenade.”

He rolled his eyes.  “There’s a line in there.  There’s a point I was trying to make.”

“You always try to make points that leave me flustered.  Should I bring up the “If I Don’t” scenario?”

He sighed, inhaling before he sang again, silencing me from any and all comebacks.  “I would die for you …”

“Oh.”

He grinned.  “Yeah, “oh”.”  He stepped forward, letting his hand slide across my jaw up to my cheek and into my hair, pulling me against him.  I stepped into his body, feeling the warmth of his skin against mine, smiling into his lips.  “I’d put my life down for you if need be,” he said softly, tone light, meaning serious.  “You and that little girl are more important than my own life.  I’ll be damned if you two are put in any kind of danger.”

“I don’t think it would ever happen,” I said softly, shaking my head.  “And don’t ever put your life down for me because I don’t think I could go on without you here.”

He nodded, kissing me again.  “I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it, either.”

I reached down, fumbling with the button on his jeans as he continued his assault on my neck, we both freezing as Kira’s cries echoed throughout the room.  I laughed, letting my head drop to his chest as he grinned against my skin, pulling away and looking at me as I placed my hands open-palmed to his scorching skin.  “I’ll get her.”

“No, I’ve got her,” he said softly, kissing me once more.  “It’s been three weeks; let daddy hold his baby.”

I nodded, watching as he redid the button on his jeans, leaving the room and hushing the crying infant across the room as I gathered my clothes, pulling on my t-shirt and following suite, smiling at him as he hushed her, letting her crying body lie against his chest, he rubbing soothing circles on her back while supporting her bottom.  Sitting on the bed and watching him, he flashed me a grin, eyes traveling to my legs as I raised an eyebrow.  “What?”

“So, our daughter has perfect timing,” he grinned, noting her proper judgment of her parents rendezvous.  “I guess I better get used to this, huh?”

I nodded, laughing slightly as Kira finally calmed, her eyes slowly fluttering closed as she fought back her tears, hiccupping a bit.  “She missed her daddy.”

JC pressed a kiss to her darkening hair, nodding against her skin.  “I missed her, too.”

I leaned back, lying on the bed and letting him continue to speak softly to her, smile forming on my face as I felt sleep come around, letting his calming lullaby take me into sleep.