Joey relaxed, his momentary panic passed, his thoughts in a whirl as he digested what she’d said. Jonah was the closest thing she had to a father, and Joey knew what he’d do to any man who’d done to his daughter what he’d done with Luna, and Jonah knew so many more inventive ways to inflict pain, if even half the stories about the Hollister brothers were true…
Luna grinned and pushed Joey onto his back, sliding on top of him to lie along his chest with her face resting in the hollow of his neck.
“Baby, this was my choice, and Jonah respects that; he’s got nothing but respect and admiration for your mom, and he likes you too. People around here think he’s some kind of psychotic killing machine, and maybe he was, I don’t know, but that was then. He was a marine, one of the best, and that’s what they did, him and other men like him, and that’s why we live free.”
She grinned and tapped his chin with a graceful forefinger.
“But now he’s past all that; now he’s just the town handyman, my family, and he thinks you and your mom are family too. Did you know he used to babysit you? He told me how, after your daddy died, your mom was living here alone, and he used to look after you if she had to go someplace in a hurry; he’s known you since you were a baby, so relax, he’d be glad I finally found you. You’re the kind of guy he’s always wanted for me, and luckily, I happen to think so too…”
Joey pulled her closer to him, their lips almost touching as she lay on top of him, smiling down at him.
“That’s good to know. You’re really okay with… this, all of this? You know I can’t stay here forever, right? I finally found what Robbie told me to go look for. Now I have to go back to my little boy, so I guess I’m asking if you’ll come back to California with me…?”
Luna grinned at him, her forefinger pressed to her chin in an ‘I’m thinking…’ gesture.
“Let me think, Joey, in fact, why don’t you try asking me nicely?”
Joey smiled back, and slipped his hands down to gently squeeze her butt-cheeks.
“Miss Luna Hollister, will you please, please, pretty please with sugar on the top, come back to California with me?”
Luna pretended to consider his request, then grinned, her eyes dancing.
“Now why would I want to do something as crazy as that? The very idea! You actually expect me to go running off to the other side of the country with you, City-Boy?” she teased, then gasped and giggled as Joey squeezed and jiggled her buttocks, pulling them apart.
“Yes I do, because I love you, and you love me, and because I need you as much as you need me. That good enough for you?” he replied, nuzzling her neck.
Luna nibbled his earlobe and blew in his ear.
“That’s true, can’t deny that. Okay, I will. When were you planning on going back?”
Joey rolled onto his side, holding Luna tight and taking her with him, so they were now lying facing each other. Luna once more reached up and lightly tapped the end of his nose.
“Just so you know, I don’t plan on being some kind of summer girlfriend; you’re not some fling for me while you’re here; I think you’re the one for me and I have for a while now.”
She pulled herself closer to look into his eyes.
“I’ll give up all I have here to go away with you, because you asked me, and because I want to; but I need to know what you want from me, Joe Anderson. I want to hear you say it just this once, and I’ll never ask you again; do that for me, and we can go today if you like!”
Joey stared at her in wonder, astonished and humbled, but also deeply moved and excited at her declaration of the depth of her feelings for him. His hands caressed her as he framed a suitable reply.
“Luna, the first time I saw you I felt something, it felt like the start of something, and I tried to push it away, because… well, you know why. But it wouldn’t go away, and every day I saw you, I felt it more and more. I didn’t know how to deal with what I was feeling, because all I wanted was Karen, she was my whole world, and even thinking about you felt wrong, so I tried not to; I tried, but it didn’t work. Luna, I don’t know how, or why, or what happened, but I know one thing; I never thought I could have that feeling again, I thought you only ever once got it so right, and I’d had my chance, and she was gone.”
He paused to smile into the distance, his eyes glittering. Luna reached up and gently rubbed his eyes, blotting the single tear that ran from each eye. Joey looked back down at her and smiled, his eyes clear and direct.
“But I was wrong, Luna; I found you, and suddenly I found I could feel that way again, that perhaps, maybe, I was getting my second shot, the one I wasn’t supposed to have; somehow you found me, and I found you, and I never want to let you go. Come with me, please, be with me, we can have a good life, a family, everything the world has to offer; I have a good job, a nice home, family who love and care about me, and I know they’ll love you too. I can give you everything you want, just say you’ll come home with me and be with me forever!”
Luna raised herself up to look down into his eyes, her own eyes glittering as she smiled at him.
“Yes Joey, I will go home with you, and stay with you forever, and we will have it all, I promise you!”
Joey smiled up at her, then his expression became serious.
“There is one more thing; I love my son, he’s just over a year old now, and he’s the most important part of my family; he comes as part of the package, so will you still take me, knowing that?”
Luna smiled back at him, her finger gently tracing the outline of his jaw.
“I knew that Joey, and yes, I will take you both regardless; babies need a momma, and that little boy’s no different, so maybe I can be that for him, if you’ll let me; besides, looking after little Joe’s gonna give me some practice for when some more babies come along, right? I do promise you one thing, though; I will never be anything except his momma, and he will be our son, but he’ll always know that Karen was his momma first, and that she loves him too.”
Joey smiled and pulled her close, Luna responding by showering him with kisses. As she undulated against him, Joey could feel himself hardening. Luna felt it too, and her wriggling and grinding against him intensified as she kissed him even harder. Joey’s hands roamed over her body, touching, caressing, fondling and squeezing her lithe, tight body, heating her up even as his internal temperature rose at her nearness.
Joey rolled Luna onto her back as he reared above her, looking down into her eyes. Luna grinned back up at him and nodded, her lip caught between her teeth as he slid into her, her eyes closing tight and her mouth falling open as he slowly filled her, gently stretching her open all over again. Her breath came in a soft “aaahhh!” as he slowly pushed his way into her, and her fingers dug reflexively into his back as he buried himself once more in her tight warmth.
As he slid out of her again, as a prelude to slipping back into her, Luna lifted her hips, meeting him as he plunged back into her, and so they made love, their sexes joining and pulling apart as they pleasured each other, their breathing quickening as the need for release rose wild and unquenchable inside them.
Luna gasped out loud as she peaked first, tightening around him as orgasm blew through her in a blast of heat and excitement, her nerve-endings alight with sensation as pleasure radiated out from her center. Pulse after pulse thrummed through taut nerves and stretched tendons, her entire body humming like a power-line on a quiet day as the pleasure coursed through her, a prairie fire that burned without consuming her, bathing her instead in a glowing heat that warmed her through and filled her with a deep sense of satiation.
Joey gasped at the sudden constriction, the catalyst needed to push him over the edge, and he too gasped, shuddering with pleasure as jet after jet of sperm hosed from him, seemingly endless spurts of hot semen flooding her, splashing against her cervix as he gave way to his feelings and needs, the pleasure heightened for him by the knowledge he was making love with the woman who had promised herself to him.
Joey rolled over to lie silently next to her, his chest heaving as the raging aftermath of orgasm controlled him, his muscles twitching and rippling as the adrenaline from his recent exertions slowly dissipated within him. His blood thundered in his ears, a lessening drum-roll as his racing heart gradually slowed to normal.
He turned to Luna as she turned to face him, her eyes a brilliant, sparkling green in the bright Midwest morning sun, and once again a memory surfaced briefly, the certainty he’d seen those eyes, that smile, before, but yet again it eluded him.
“Penny for your thoughts, Mr. Anderson.” she murmured, her eyes dancing with amusement as Joey slipped his arms around her and pulled her closer.
“I was thinking I should go and talk to Jonah, then call my mom, then call Robbie. They’re all going to be so happy, well, maybe not Jonah, but he’s the least of my concerns right now. There was one thing I forgot to ask you, probably the most important thing.”
Luan looked at him quizzically, again that so familiar lift of her eyebrow, then her eyes widened as she realized what he was talking about. Joey took her hands in his, and looked into her eyes.
“Luna, I know I already asked you to come home with me, but I don’t just want you to live with me; I want more than that, and so do you, I think, so here goes. Luna Hollister, I love you, and I know you love me; will you marry me?”
Luna stared at him, at his eyes, reading him and seeing nothing but sincerity there, her serious expression slowly softening into a shy smile.
“Yes I will Joey, I would be honored to marry you and be your wife!”
Joey smiled, suppressing a sigh of relief; for a moment there he’d thought she was going to say no, that it was a step too far, too soon, but obviously Luna felt the same way he did.