"There you are. I was looking for you."

JC walked into his studio to find Hannah lying on the sofa with a notepad in hand. It was only 6:30 a.m., but she looked ready to go for the day. She wore pale blue shorts with a navy tank, and her wavy hair cascaded over her shoulders. "I guess you didn't have a problem finding the studio."

She rolled on to her side and smiled when she saw him. His hair was disheveled, his cheeks had a smattering of stubble, his white T-shirt was rumpled and he wore the Minnesota Hockey sweatpants she had given him.

"Sorry, I've been up for...well, since I left your room. I took it upon myself to explore. I hope you don't mind."

He lifted her feet and took a seat at the end of the sofa, and set her legs down on his lap. He played with her toes as he spoke. "Of course I don't mind."

She giggled when his fingers brushed over a ticklish spot on her foot. "How on earth did you manage to fall asleep again last night? Seriously, you were only up for like a half hour last night. You practically had 12 hours of sleep."

"I needed it I guess. It was a stressful week. I'm surprised you didn't sleep more. You said you were already up for an hour when I got up. If you've been up since then, you only got like five hours of sleep."

Hannah set her notepad and pen on the floor, and sat up. She removed her feet from JC's grip, and adjusted herself so she was straddling his lap. He groaned as she held his face in her hands.

"I can't believe I said what I said last night. It is not at all like me to be so forward." She murmured, "But I'm so glad I did."

JC gently ran his hands over her back. "I'm glad you did, too. So what were you doing down here?"

"Just playing around on the piano. Finished writing that song I started the other day."

"Are you going to play it for me?"

"I think I could do that," She said before wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning her head against his shoulder. "Mmm, I'm so happy here."

JC tightened his arms around her. It felt so good to sit here with her and just be. "I'm so happy that you are here."

"I can't remember the last time I had a vacation. I work all the time. And even when I'm not working, I'm just upstairs so people usually come bother me. But to be here and not worry about the bar, or my problems with Jens, or keeping my mom company. Its heaven."

"I'm glad I could help you escape for a little while."

She snuggled into him and squeezed tighter. "Me too."

"What do you want to do today? Shopping on Rodeo? Lunch at the Ivy? Celebrity house tours? Whatever else it is tourists do when they come here?"

She sat up and looked him directly in the eyes. "Mmm, first, I want to do this." She leaned her forehead against his and nuzzled their noses together, as they both grinned. "And then this." Her lips met his in a lazy kiss. It wasn't hesitant and it wasn't passionate, just slow and languid and perfect.

"As for your suggestions, I really don't want to do any of those things, and I'm 100 percent positive you don't either. Um, this might sound silly but would you maybe want to go to an Angels game tonight?" She looked slightly embarrassed. "I mean, I don't know if you like baseball, but its just the Twins are in town and a friend of mine gave me tickets to the game and I thought maybe..."

"Of course we can go to the game tonight. I've never known a girl who was so into sports. I like it. I'm kind of indifferent towards baseball, but I would love to go. A friend of yours gave you tickets for a game out in LA? That's kind of random."

"He's um, on the team. When he heard I was going to be out here he hooked me up."

"He's a Twin?"

"Yeah, we used to date like, forever ago."

"Oh really?" he said playfully.

"Yes really, like, right after high school. He grew up in Minneapolis and was friends with my brother. We still hang out sometimes."

"Are you saying I'm competing with professional athletes here?"

"Please. It's not like he's Santana or something. He's a relief pitcher. Besides he's married. You have nothing to worry about."

"Who is Santana?"

"Oh my God. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." She leaned into nuzzle him again. "Anyway, what time does Eric's party start? I don't want you to miss it."

"Don't worry. Probably won't even really get going until like 12:30 or 1:00. I don't even know if I want to go."

"Why not? You don't want me to meet your friends?"

"I do, but I kind of just want to bring you back here. I said I didn't put out before the first date, I didn't say anything about after."

"Oh I see." She giggled as he gently nipped at her neck. "You think so, huh?"

He looked at her seriously. "I hope so."

"Well I think it is a definite possibility," she whispered as she began to lick and nibble his earlobe. She gently rolled her hips against his as she worked her way down his neck. His fingers hesitantly slid under the hem of her shirt and caressed her back as her lips finally reached his. For the first time their kiss was needy and urgent. And they couldn't get enough.

They didn't hear the footsteps down the stairs, or the turning of the doorknob.

"Hey Josh I'm..."

JC and Hannah pulled apart with a start, and turned toward the door both flushed and panting.

"...home."

JC was shooting daggers with his eyes and spoke through gritted teeth. "What are you doing here Ty? You are supposed to be in Vegas."

"I, um, Jen's dad had a heart attack, so Evan wanted to come back to be with her. I'm um, really sorry to interrupt."

“Oh my goodness, you’re Tyler?” Hannah exclaimed as she jumped off of JC’s lap and ran over to him. She held out her hand in greeting. “I’m Hannah. It is so awesome to meet you! I was bummed when JC told me you would be out of town this weekend.”

Tyler shook her hand politely and shot JC a questioning look. “Its nice to meet you too, Hannah.”

JC was mortified. He hadn’t told anyone in his life about Hannah, even though she had heard stories about all of them. And if Tyler said anything about the fact that he paid for Tyler and Evan to go to Vegas for the weekend because JC had to focus on work, any progress he had made with Hannah would come to a halt. He had to stop this immediately.

He walked up to Hannah and gently rubbed her back. “Han, would you mind giving me and Tyler a minute alone?”

“Of course not. I was thinking of taking a swim anyway. I’ll meet you up there.” She gave JC a brief kiss before grabbing her notepad and heading upstairs.

Tyler broke out into a fit of giggles immediately after she left. “Hard work in the studio huh? Since when do you kick us out just so you can get laid? And I must say, bro, she is quite lovely.”

“Shut up Ty. Hannah’s not…Hannah’s not just some girl. I’ve known her for about a month. Remember when I went to Minnesota?”

“Yeah.”

“I met her there.”

“That would explain the pants. I’ve never known you to be a college hockey fan. You met her in Minnesota and you asked her back for more? That’s not like you. She must be some lay.”

“Knock it off asshole. Its not like that. We haven’t even…She’s really special, Ty.”

"Oh. OHHH!" Tyler, exclaimed knowingly. "You really have it bad for this girl, don't you?"
 
JC grinned shyly. "Kind of, yeah. I honestly have never met anyone like her. She's incredible."
 
"Well I can't lie. I'm a little hurt you didn't tell me about her, but I'm glad that you are so happy."
 
"I just didn't want to jinx it. We were just friends. Nothing happened in Minnesota. And then we were e-mailing  back and forth for the past few weeks and it just turned out that she was coming to LA for a conference. Nothing remotely romantic happened until last night."
 
"Yeah, but you were planning on it happening or you wouldn't have sent Evan and I to Vegas for the weekend."
 
"I honestly wasn't planning on it, but I was hoping for it. Hey, do you want to have lunch with us today? I know Hannah would love it if you did. I would kind of like you to get to know her, myself."
 
"Meeting the family already huh?" Tyler beamed. "Of course I'll go to lunch with you guys. I need to meet the girl who got into my big bro's cold, cold heart."
 
"Just act like I already told you about her OK? She would be hurt if I she knew I was keeping her a secret." Ty nodded in response. "So how's Jen's dad?"
 
"He's going to be fine, but she really needed Evan to be there for her."
 
"Totally understandable. I hope she's hanging in there."
 
"She'll be fine now that Evan's here. Look, I'm going to go study. And you have a beautiful girl waiting for you in the pool. What are you doing down here with me?"
 
JC smiled at his brother with deep appreciation. "Thanks Ty. Lets plan on leaving around 1:00, OK?"
 
"Sounds good. Later man."

-------

JC and Hannah spent a few hours lounging around the pool before they headed up stairs to get ready for lunch.

"Hey Jace, when you're done getting dressed, come to my room for a minute," she shouted down the hallway.

A few minutes later he appeared in her doorway wearing a pair of loose fitting jeans, a navy Lacoste polo, and what looked to be a pair of brand new Adidas with navy stripes.

"Mmm, I approve. This is going to look so good. Close your eyes."

He looked at her skeptically before sealing his lids shut. He heard some rustling around before she finally said "Open 'em."

She held out a red baseball cap with a blue bill, featuring the Twins logo. "I thought you might need this for the game tonight."

He grinned as he slid it over his damp hair. "I love it."

"You look hot."

"Well then, I guess it stays for the day. Ready to go?"

She grabbed her sunglassed and purse off of the dresser. "Yes, I'm starving!"

JC, Hannah and Tyler arrived at a little sidewalk cafe about a half an hour later. The ride over was tortuous for JC, as Hannah would not shut up for a moment. She was fawning over Tyler, They were getting along so well that they had started teasing him, and it was annoying. But he was glad they were getting along.

After what seemed like hours, the waitress finally came to take their order. "I'll have the caesar salad with grilled shrimp. And um, a Corona."

Hannah looked at him with disgust as the waitress walked away. "Ew."

"You'll have to ignore my brother. He has the strangest eating habits."

"What is strange about what I ordred?"

"A salad and beer?" Hannah would not lose that tone of digust in her voice.

"Whatever it is good."

Despite the teasing, lunch was a success. JC could tell that Tyler adored Hannah almost as much as he did. The whole moment was relaxed and perfect. In fact the whole weekend was turning out to be. What would he do when she left?

"Did you family ever go camping?" Hannah inquired as she poked at the remains of her chicken salad wrap.

"We never really went camping as kids. We were always going to Disney to visit Josh."

"I wish we went to Disney as kids. All we ever did was go camping. No real family vacations. But still, camping is awesome. In fact, my family rents a cabin in northern Minnesota every Memorial Day weekend. You guys should come."

"Hell yeah!"

"Ty," JC warned.

"I'm serious. I know its only a few weeks away and you may have plans, but if you don't the invitation stands. It is great. My mom and I, my aunts and uncles and cousins all share one big cabin. Basically all we do is swim, go boating and drink. And sing around the campfire at night. Ty, you can bring a friend if you want."

JC couldn't help but smile as her face lit up while telling them about the cabin. He actually didn't have anything going on that weekend and couldn't help but think it might be the next opportunity to see her.

"That sounds great, Hannah." JC answered quietly while gently rubbing her knee under the table.

"Josh, when are you going to introduce her to mom. Mom is going to flip. Seriously, Hannah. Mom never likes Josh's girlfriends, but she is going to adore you." She blushed furiously as Tyler spoke.

"Ty, knock it off."

"Sorry," he grumbled.

Hannah reached across the table and grabbed Tyler's hand. "Ty, Josh is so lucky to have you in his life. My brother and I do not have a good relationship at all, and I yearn for the kind of relationship you have with Josh."

"Well anytime you need a brother figure give me a call."

They finished up their lunch and Tyler was a few paces ahead of them as they headed to the car.

"He is so smitten with you," JC whispered in her ear.

"He's awesome. But it doesn't matter, cause I'm smitten with you." She gave him a peck on the cheek and grabbed his hand as they made their way to the car.

-------

JC had never had so much fun at a baseball game in his life, nor had he ever met a woman so knowledgable about the game. She could spout off statistics not only from the Twins, but from the Angels as well. "You think this is impressive, wait until I take you to a hockey game," she'd said. JC found it ridiculously sexy. He also loved that it implied future outings.

The Twins ended up losing, but it didn't matter. They had a blast being some of the few people in their section cheering for the Twins. They sat in the row right behind the Twins dugout, so whey they cheered the players could usually hear them and would turn around to acknowldege them. They drank a few beers, ate hot dogs, shared some nachos and ended up with ice cream cones. In their matching navy shirts and baseball caps, JC couldn't help but imagine how many people in the country were doing this exact same thing tonight. He adored the sense of normalcy she brought to his life.

After the game her friend Pat sent her a text message asking if they wanted to go out for drinks. They ended up at a little dive bar not far from the stadium and they talked and joked over a few more beers. JC could tell that Hannah and Pat were close, but he definitely got a brother and sister vibe from them. Pat was a cool guy and JC was glad that they had a chance to hang out. He could definitely picture himself hanging out with him more often. He wondered if all of her friends were this easy to hang out with, because his certainly weren't.

It was about midnight when he finally pulled into his garage and was relieved to see both Tyler's and Evan's cars missing. Hannah yawned loudly as he shut off the engine.

"Oh no, you can't be tired yet," he said playfully.

"I've been up for almost 24 hours. I think I'm allowed to be tired."

"Well you're going to miss all of the fun tonight."

She turned to him and ran a hand over his cheek. "I guess I'll just have to have a Coke then."

"Come on. Let's go inside."

When they made it inside, JC headed straight to the kitchen to get Hannah a Coke.

"You mean business," she laughed, as she popped the top and took a big gulp. As she was setting down the can, he walked over and pinned her between his body and the island counter.

"You have no idea how sexy it is to hear you ramble off on-base percentages and ERAs." He started kissing her neck.

She let out a hearty guffaw. "Oh yeah, nothing sexier than that."

"I'm serious." His hands slid up the front of her shirt and tickled her stomach.

"Well you look ultra sexy in that hat." Her voice took on a husky tone.

"So do you." He reached up and slid her cap off and set it on the counter next to her Coke. His fingers picked at her hairband, slowly pulling it out. "You look sexier with your hair down though." He laced his fingers through her hair, which had gotten frizzy and curly in spots due to the heat. He took his hat off so the bill wouldn't knock her in the forehead and kissed her passionately, pushing their bodies together against the island.

"You're not wasting any time," she huffed between kisses.

"Do you want to waste time?" He panted.

"No. I've been thinking about this since the top of the first."

"Mmm, I love it when you talk dirty baseball to me." He grinned against her lips as she burst out laughing.

"C'mon, let's go upstairs." She took his hand in his as she led him up the stairs to his room. When they entered she shut the door behind them and they sat down at the foot of the bed.

"I want to thank you for today. I'm having such a great time out here. I'm not going to want to leave on Monday."

He rubbed the top of her hands with this thumbs. "Let's not go there right now."

"I know I shouldn't but I can't help..." She hiccuped a bit as she tried to fight off tears. She took a deep breath and started again. "I don't want this to sound corny, but I know it will. And I don't want it to scare you, but it may. It scares me. But I've never felt about any one the way I feel about you. I just can't imagine what it is going to be like going back to Minnesota and not seeing you everyday."

What she said did scare him, and he felt the same way. But he wasn't ready to admit it yet. So he showed her his feelings the only way he knew how.

He gently ran his palm over her cheek and she leaned into him. His other hand combed through her long hair as he leaned in and kissed her softly. She sat there passively as he continued to kiss her mouth and started to work his way down her chin to her neck. She moaned softly as he nipped and licked at the skin where the column of her neck met her shoulder. She arched her neck to the side to grant him more access. His hands slipped down to rub her stomach through her tank and her breath hitched when he slid his hand up to caress her breast.

Whatever playfulness they had in the kitchen was lost. The mood in the room was oddly serious all of the sudden.

He continued the assault on her neck and began to lift up the hem of her shirt.

"JC, look at me," she breathed.

His looked up and his eyes met hers. She grabbed his face and locked eyes with him. "I want this so much," she groaned before pulling him into a deep kiss. He moaned against her. The feeling of her tongue rubbing against his was amazing.

He continued to lift her shirt up and they pulled apart so he could get it over her head and toss it aside. They resumed kissing as he reached behind her to unclasp her bra. As he slid it down her shoulders he gently pushed her back so she was laying on the bed. He kneeled over her and looked at the sight below him. Her eyes were heavily lidded and she took deep breaths, causing her chest to heave. Her lips were swollen and wet from kissing. She looked beautiful.

"I can't remember the last time I was this turned on," she moaned.

He reached down to unbutton her shorts and he slowly pulled them down her legs. He could barely take the sight of her laying there in only her white boyshorts, on which he could make out a faint wet patch.

"Are you going to do something or just stare at me?"

"Staring is good." He slid his hand down to rub himself through his jeans. She groaned.

"Take your clothes off and get over here."

That was all he needed. He whipped his shirt over his head and fumbled with his pants.

"All of it." She demanded when he was down to his boxers.

He hesitated for a moment but pulled those off as well.

"Yes," she hissed as he crawled over her and kissed her hard. "Oh my God we should have done this sooner." She moaned between kisses.

"But then it wouldn't have felt as good. Not as much build up," he growled between kisses and slid down her body and took one of her nipples between his lips. She moaned as she arched her back of the mattress to lean into him. He continued his assult on her chest and gently rubbed his fingers over the wet spot on her underwear.

"Ahh," she nearly sobbed with pleasure. "This isn't fair. Let me touch you."

He ignored her request as he slid his tongue down her torso. He slid off the bed and knelt on the floor at the foot of the bed and pulled her forward so her legs hung over the edge. He leaned forward and very lightly ran his tounge over her underwear.

"Oh my God!" She moaned.

He pulled her underwear off and lifted her right leg to sit on his shoulder. He leaned in and placed a lazy open mouth kiss over her most sensitive of areas. Her leg tightened against his back in an attempt to pull him closer. He made his tongue taut and slowly slid it inside of her. He loved listening to her quickening breathing. He pulled back for a moment and slid a finger inside of her. He resumed his actions with his mouth and gently brushed her clit with his moistened finger.

"Jace, Jace stop!" She panted. "This isn't, this isn't how I want to..."

He finally pulled away and slid up her body and resumed kissing her. She reached down between them and rubbed him intimately.

"Nobody has ever made me feel that good."

"You say that to all the guys."

She used both hands to force him to look her in the eyes. "I'm not joking." She said in all seriousness, forcing them to maintain eye contact. "Only you," she moaned before kissing him again. After a few minutes of kissing JC pulled away and crawled over to his nightstand to grab a condom. After a few moments he slid it on, and looked down at her and ran a reassuring hand over her cheek.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Roll over though. I want to be on top."

He was going to make a joke about her being demanding, but he realized it was a sensitive moment and didn't. He laid back and she straddled him, slowly sliding down onto him. They both groaned.

"Sit up," she panted. He did so and she wrapped her legs around him, locking her ankles at his back. She moaned loudly with the change of angle. They slid their arms around each others' necks and rested their foreheads against each other as they slowly started their rhythm.

"Hannah, ugh," JC grunted.

She held onto him tighter as she rolled her hips against his faster. "JC it's so good. Ugh...I don't think anyone has ever been this deep before."

They kept like this for a few minutes before JC started kissing her. "I love kissing during sex," he mumbled.

"Me too. Why do you think I wanted this position?" she managed to squeak out between kisses. She moaned loudly with release when JC snaked his hand between them and rubbed her clit. Somehow through the quaking she managed to clench her walls around him and he followed shortly after her.

They sat there for a moment, taking everything in and kissing each other gently. Hannah rubbed her thumbs over his eyebrows, removing the sweat that had formed there. "Hannah, I've never..." he wasn't sure how to continue.

"Shh," she whispered. "Just hold me."