019

When Jon finally emerged from the room after the doctor left, he felt relieved, but still too sensitive not to feel vulnerable at the sight of June sitting on one of the armchairs by the wide window pane, cradling Stephenie on her lap and rocking her softly. The little girl slept peacefully and her cheeks looked pink and glowing like an apple. June lifted her head up and opened her mouth to speak but was overcome by Colleen, Dorothea's sister.

"So?", Colleen asked with a note of concern but felt reassured by Jon's calm expression. 

"Where's mom and dad?", he asked with a slight frown after surveilling the room with one quick glance.

"They went for a coffee, they should be back in a minute", Colleen replied.

Apparently ignoring Colleen's question, Jon silently approached June and bent over to kiss his daughter on the forehead. It wasn't until a few moments later that he proceeded to repeat the doctor's words, his gaze never leaving his daughter's peaceful face, as if taking refuge. "It's just a bad case of gastroenteritis, he's slightly dehydrated so they're gonna give him intravenous serum for the next couple hours. The fever's already down and we should be able to take him home tonight". A quick sigh of relief was followed buy a soft chuckle. "He even asked for strawberry ice-cream...thank God, he scared the shit outta me". He straightened up and settled his hands on his hipbones. 

A second afterwards, John and Carol made their appearance in the waiting room, repeating Colleen's question, which Jon replied with identical answer. In hearing her father's voice, Stephenie rumbled in June's lap and opened her eyes. "Daddy?", she spoke extending her arms up to her father. With a warm, loving smile, Jon picked her up and she surrounded his neck with her arms, then placed her cheek on his shoulder. 

"Can we see him then?" asked Carol eagerly, not completely convinced by Jon's explanation. 

Jon nodded silently, moving away from the door to allow his parents to step into the room. 

"I want to see him, too" a sleepy-voiced Stephenie said. 

Both Colleen and June stared at Jon questioningly, and he pursed his lips. It was obvious that it wasn't a good idea. "What about you, sweetie? You want some strawberry ice cream? Aunt Colleen can take you buy one". Jon spoke trying to convince her and looked at Colleen in search of her cooperation. When Jon felt the nod against his shoulder, he gently lowered his daughter until she was standing on the floor. 

Jon bent over, lowered his face and pointed at his cheek. "Give daddy a kiss".

"Come, sweetie, let's go". Colleen waited until the operation was completed and took the little girl's hand. In a matter of moments, Jon and June were left alone in the waiting room. 

"Are you alright?" June asked worriedly as she rubbed her hand along his upper arm. 

"Yeah", he spoke with a tired voice and placed a crooked index finger under her chin to take a long look at her fresh porcelain face and into her gaping green eyes. "Thank you for being here, babe". With the corner of his eyes he could see nurses, doctors and patients cross the corridor in different directions, some looked their way but none of them raised an eyebrow. However, despite the clinic's impeccable service and secrecy, it was never a bad idea not to push the limits. He was dying to kiss her, but his caution only enabled him to softly run his thumb against her lower lip. It tickled, and June immediately bit her lip, stifling a chuckle. Jon mirrored her gesture in complicity. "Wanna get a coffee? "

"Sure, but what about Do-?"

"Already asked her, she'll grab something later", he reassured by placing a hand on her shoulder, then letting it slide down to the small of her back before nudging her towards the corridor. 

...

Barely three hours later, June and Jon stood again in another corner of the labyrinthic corridors of the clinic. Jesse had been discharged, and Jon had decided to go home with them. If there was something that specially moved June about Jon was his love for his children and the way he protected them. "I wouldn't like it any other way, just give me a call to let me know how everything's going, OK?". 

"You bet", he clasped her head with both his hands and placed a soft kiss on the cheek, then pulled her for a warm hug. 

"Take care", June spoke after they pulled apart, then took three steps backwards before waving a hand and turning around to walk away.  

Jon watched her until she turned round the corner of the corridor and frowned in frustration: he hated having to hold back what he felt, and the way things were going, that's how they were going to remain, and what was happening between them would pass unnoticed to the rest of the world. He took pride in being good at keeping secrets, but it felt like a crime to keep something so beautiful a secret. Jon went back to the room. However, some place deep inside his mind, that part of him that didn't agree with having restrictions, started working.         

...

That night Jon established himself at the room of the house he'd designated for himself after the separation and went to sleep early, around 10 P.M. When he woke up he felt well rested, he crawled out of bed and brushed his teeth. After checking on his recovering son, he made himself a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich with eggs and sausage. He talked to his assistant on the phone, answered a few e-mails and noddled around on his guitar for a short while trying to solidified the song that had started taking shape a couple of days before. Despite Jesse's noticeably still not fully recovered energy, everything seemed pretty much normal. It was an overcast day in New Jersey and after watching cartoons with his children in Jesse's room, Jon went running with his trainer,  devoted to keeping his body in a state of perfection.  Before lunch he called June to brief her on the current state of matters. She was just back from an exhaustive meeting with her editor and doing some "paperwork" (the code-word she had chosen for "moving-to-the-other-fucking-side-of-the-world arrangements").

"So what are you doin' this afternoon?" he asked. 

"I guess a short nap is mandatory if I want to be able to cook for the gang", - which usually included John and Mimi, Diane and Phil, among others -, "they're are coming for a moonlight picnic".

"That sounds good".

June hesitated. "You wanna come?"

"Nah, you guys have fun, you know how I hate loosing at chess with Diane. I'm done being humiliated publicly, and you don't want me getting drunk with a lose tongue around John, trust me", he laughed in response to June's laughter on the other end of the line. 

"OK, see ya tomorrow maybe?", she asked finally.

"Can't wait".

Jon hung up and looked at the time: there was plenty of it for a surprise.  His lips curled into a smirk.

He and Dorothea had decided that whenever he was home, they'd both try to spend some time together with the children, even when it was still an awkward phase to adapt to, but they prided themselves in somehow being able to pull it off, for the sake of the children first and their own states of mind in the second place. Due to Jon's erratic schedule and constant traveling, it seemed normal for the kids not to have their father at home with them all the time, so they appeared to have easily adapted to the new circumstances, completely oblivious to the actual events.  

After the doctor's control visit early in the afternoon, he said goodbye to his children and got in the car. 

A little after an hour later he was parking outside June's house and approached the door. No music on only indicated one thing: June was sleeping. He first tried the front door. Locked. He went to the back and lifted the second flowerpot to the left of the door, retrieved the key and opened the kitchen door. The house smelled wonderful and it was much cooler than outside. It was fresh and clean, but a slight sting hit him when he noticed the changes that had taken place since he'd last been there, a week before. June had been packing: she had taken out everything that identified this house as hers. If he hadn't known better, Jon would have thought he was entering a stranger's house. 

After walking throught the kitchen door and closing it behind him, he took off his boots and left his wallet and keys on the kitchen counter. Walking out of the kitchen he turned left, heading for June's bedroom. The door was cracked open, so Jon gently pushed it until the space was wide enough for him to slide into the room. June was lying sideways giving her back to the door and the sheets only half covered her body so that Jon could see her back, clad with a bright red tank top that uncovered the space between her upper waist and the waist of her underwear. The position of the sheets barely allowed him to peak at the top of her thighs and hips. She was facing his side of the bed, one arm around his pillow. Jon's lips drew a satisfied smile on his face. After taking off his T shirt and circling the bed, he quietly lay by June's side, carefully removing her arm and placing it back across his waist. He lay on his side facing June, and tucked his right arm under his neck. She rumbled slightly at the movement but she was obviously deep in her sleep, her breathing heavy and her lips slightly parted. It was then when Jon heard her almost inaudible moans when she exhaled, provoking his blood to thicken and his groin to tighten in response. He curiously observed her for a few moments, wide-eyed and with a small smirk curling the tip of his lips, how effortlessly beautiful she was. 

Then suddenly her breathing became panting, and a deep moan escaped her throat. Jon's bulge pulsed inside his jeans. She rolled over to lay on her back, uncovering her stomach and exposing her navel. The tight fitting tank top perfectly hugged her firm breasts, her nipples pressing against the fabric. She moaned again and lifted her chin, making Jon feel how another rush of arousal thickened his blood. June squirmed and parted her lips to let out a whince, as she wrinkled her nose. Jon recognized that gesture, and it was all the teasing he could take.

He slid his arm under her neck and with the other hand on her hip, he rolled her back again on her side, pulling her face close to his for a kiss. Jon was surprised -and certainly aroused- by her quick response and hungry kiss. 

"Mmm...baby" he paused the kiss to speak huskily and immediately felt June gasp and tighten in his embrace. She pulled apart and half-opened her eyes in confusion.

Jon chuckled throatily in amusement at her baffled expression. "It's just me baby". He kissed her again. It took June a few seconds to wrap her mind around what was going on, but her body was telling her mind to shut the fuck up and just surrender to whatever she was experiencing, whether it was a dream or reality. Or both. 

"Why are your jeans still on?", she complained with a thick voice and a pout, eagerly tugging at the waist of his jeans. Jon snickered softly . Erotic as the situation was, he was still amused by her - cute and sexy at the same time - groggyness.

In a flash his jeans were on the floor.

"What do you want? Tell me what do you want me to do", he asked breathlessly as he pulled her tanktop over her shoulders, resuming the kiss immediately afterwards. 

June parted the kiss, and with one hand on either side of his face, she looked into his eyes, licked her lips and said "I want you in my mouth", as she gently moved for him to roll over with one hand, using the other to circle his now fully erect member with her index and thumb.

Jon groaned in response and obeyed turning to lay on his back. June first pulled her hair over one shoulder and straddled him, holding herself on her knees and arms so her torso hovered over his. With the tip of her tongue she drew wet circles all over his chest, placing a deeper kiss here and there, nibbing from time to time, provoking hisses of pleasure to escape Jon's throat.

"Sit" she ordered with steamy hot breath against his skin, and moved for him to sit on the edge of the bed, then kneeled in between his lean thighs, securing again her index and thumb around the base of his penis, and started pressing continuously, squeezing softly. She began by licking the head with a flat, still stroke, while Jon held himself up by means of placing both his hands on the bed behind him. With every charge of electricity, he threw his head back in surrender, but lifted it back up to take a look at the action. He gaped at June as she massaged his rock hard shaft up and down while paying diligent attention to the head.  Then suddenly she took it all inside her mouth, her velvety tongue swirling up and down. The stimulation made Jon's cock throb painfully.

"Jesus, June", a wave of pleasure made Jon throw his head back again and close his eyes. He unconsciously clenched his butt and carefully bucked his hips upwards to meet June's mouth as she surrounded his shaft with her full lips. From time to time she stopped to nib and lick hungrily the slick flesh as her fingertips lazily scraped up and down his inner thighs, sending the tickling feeling straight to Jon's groin. 

Changing his weight to only one arm, Jon used his free hand to grasp June's neck, then placed his thumb on the corner of her wet lips, encompassing the up and down movement of her head. "You're so beautiful bab- aagh!" he couldn't hold back a husky gasp of arousal when she once again took him deep inside her mouth and held it in for a few moments while she pressed with her tongue against the base. In an effort to control his panting, Jon closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then let it out in a sharp blow.  June proceeded to slid his cock slowly back out and started stroking it up and down with her hand as she spoke against the swollen purple head. "Do you want me to go on?", she queried teasingly while with one hand she slid her undies off. 

Jon let out a sharp chortle and pleaded hoarsely. "Gawd yeah".

June tilted her head up and saw his elongated neck, with his prominent Adam's apple and the perfect structure of his jaw bone. The magnificent masculine proportions made her inner walls clench. At that moment she was sure she could have an orgasm just by looking at him.

June smirked mischievously and as only answer, went back to her task, but this time, she slid one of her fingers in between her folds and started massaging her clit. 

When Jon felt June's moans against his shaft and how the throaty sounds vibrated against his flesh, he looked down, only to see June's hand wrapped around his shaft while she slowly and rhythmically took him fully inside her mouth. Seeing that with the other she was stimulating herself, automatically set off his orgasm. In a feeble attempt at delaying it, he cried. "Wait...June...OHHH!!!"

With blurred vision and through the waves of pleasure that washed over him, he could see how June kept stroking his penis while he emptied on her chest, then collapsed into her own orgasm, squirming, on her knees, eyes shut closed, nose wrinkled, a sultry pout on her swollen lips. Jon's arms faltered as he tried to control the quivering and involuntary contraction of his muscles. After a long minute and feeling completely spent, Jon let out a final groan of relief and dropped himself back on the bed. 

Once June recovered from her own orgasm, she took a tissue from the nightstand and wiped off some remaining semen off her mouth, chin, breasts and hands and discretely threw the evidence into the trash bin.

"That was friggin' wonderful" Jon breathed, staring at the ceiling, after June lay by his side on the bed, supporting her head with one of her arms. She started brushing the back of her hand against his sides, tracing the slight bumps of his rib cage. His skin was warm and slightly sticky. Still breathing heavily, she smiled softly and placed a hard kiss on Jon's blushed, warm cheek. Not satisfied, Jon hooked his arm around her neck and pulled her close to stamp a sound kiss on her lips. 

"You nap saboteur", June said while she proceeded to rest her cheek next to her hand on his chest and snuggle close beside him, despite the high temperature that had been raised inside the bedroom. "I thought I wasn't gonna see you until tomorrow".

"Well, that moonlight picnic stuff sounded nice after all". He smiled and craned his neck to place a kiss on her crown, then started drawing lazy circles with his fingertips on June's shoulders and back.  

"Diane knows", she finally told him in a neutral tone. "She knew I was up to something, then you called while we were having dinner last night and I guess she just put two and two together. Thankfully she waited until Claudia left to confront me. She wasn't surprised at all, she said that she noticed that something was brewing when we sneaked into the Jazz Festival, remember?", she chuckled softly, "apparently you're not smooth at all when you touch my butt". Jon chuckled throatily but let June continue. "She is surprised that nobody's found out yet...It was sort of fun though to kind of ... remember everything...How it began".  She replayed their dialogue in her mind, but thought it was convenient to leave out a certain part of it from her report. 

"I just wanted to hear you say it to my face, but I've seen you guys and seriously: no surprise here. Maybe John's blindness is just a product of his reluctance to accept that anything could ever happen between you and Jon but come on...the way you are around each other?...It's SO obvious". 

"But it's so unlikely nobody will see it comin'. OR ever will. I'm leaving in two weeks, in case you forgot"

"And how do we feel about that?"

"You know...if it's meant to happen..."

"...you'll find a way back to each other. Yeah, I heard that before: yawn. June, you can't be serious this time. You're screwing the brains out of a gorgeous man who also happens to be a good man, someone you trust, someone you care for, and no matter how you want to put it, it's perfectly clear you're pretty much into each other. If that doesn't do it for you, I wonder what will ever do. If you ask me, I think it's time you stop the bullshit and start thinking about how you're gonna make this work".

Jon, instead, realized that they had been so caught up in enjoying the present and trying not to think about the future, that they'd actually never engaged in the exercise of tracing back their steps. "And how did it begin, exactly?"

"Well, not exactly, but I sort of had a weird feeling when you called me for my birthday right after I came back from Asia..."

"You said you weren't gonna disappear and then I spent months without landing an eye on you", Jon spoke with mock reprimand. "Shame on you".

June chuckled and wrinkled her nose. "It was so strange…I was convinced you weren't the call-to-say-happy-birthday kind of person"

"I'm not", he said, leaving the implicit meaning unspoken. "But I'd just seen one of your interviews on TV and...I dunno, it just made me wanna listen to your voice".

"Then that bizarre e-mail came and I scratched my head for a couple of minutes, until I threw reason to the wind and decided to go for it" (The e-mail that notified her of the invitation included previous messages. In one, Jon told an assistant to make a reservation for “6.30 early dinner at Ciro's. 8p. Outside”). "Such a big part of your life is just about logistics that it actually felt normal in a way...".

"Whatever", he chuckled softly and grinned with satisfaction, "You fell for it". 

After sharing a soft kiss, they remained in silence for a few minutes.

...

June woke up in shock when she heard the telephone ring. She quickly composed herself and answered with the breeziest voice she could pull off. She exhaled in relief - though not completely - when she heard her brother's voice on the other end of the line, announcing that he was going to be late for that night's gathering. 

After stomping back into the bedroom and opening the cupboard in search of clothes and a towel, she mumbled to herself. "Overslept, overslept, overselpt".

Jon was still in a slumber, but he managed to emit some words. "S'alright...I can help you". A couple of minutes too late, though: June was already having a shower. But that night's schedule wasn't what occupied Jon's thoughts. Another clock was ticking, and Jon realized that except for the long weekend they had spent at June's cabin by the lake just after the stepped from friendship into whatever twilight zone they were in right then, the rest of the time they spent together was usually whatever was leftover from each other's busy lives. In a flash of lucidity, an idea sprung into his mind. 

…

"Remember when we went to your hut in the lake?" he said casually while he stood back to back with June, chopping green peppers on the kitchen island.

"Of course..." June couldn't hold back a soft giggle at the memories. "But don't even think about it, the couple that rented it for the summer moved in last Thursday".

"I wasn't, I was just wondering what your plans for the rest of the week were", he spoke keeping his eyes on the chopping board.

June stopped washing the vegetables for a second and stared at the ceiling, tilting her head to a side. "Well...Eddie said he took a look at the book and that it's sort of decent", she stopped when she heard Jon's soft chuckle and turned around to look at him. Since he was giving his back to her, she could only see him shaking his head while still concentrated on his task. That was one of Jon’s favorite modesty phrases. "So there's pretty much left for me to do here but wait and...just fuck your brains out". 

He stopped and placed the cutting knife back on the table. "Alright..." he nodded and, whipping his hands with a kitchen napkin, he turned around and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back against the island. "How 'bout doin' it someplace else?", he lifted his eyebrow suggestively and threw the napkin over his left shoulder.  

June mirrored his pose, "Doesn't the album come out on Friday? I mean, event, press con, bla bla bla?", then took a step forward and pressed her body against his. With seductive voice, she added: "Besides...someplace else...where, for example?"

Jon settled his hands on her hips. "The presentation is not until Friday and everything's ready so...if we leave tomorrow early in the morning we can be back by Thursday night". When he finished speaking his lips where scarce millimeters away from June's, his raspy voice just a whisper in his lips.

June let out a soft laughter at the realization. "You already arranged everything, didn't you?". 

Jon admitted with a brash grin before his mouth dropped to June's for a loud smooch.

"Will at least know where we're headed so I know what clothes to pack?". She smiled with defeat, she knew she was asking in vain: she would probably not learn where they were heading until the eleventh hour. 

"I'm planning on not letting you wear anything for three days so I'd say travel as light as you can, which I'm sure is not a problem for Miss Footloose here".

June stared at the ceiling again, mockingly pondering Jon's proposal. There was definitely never a dull moment with this man, and a rush of excitement ran through her veins. She also hoped he'd figured out how on earth they were going to disappear for three days without raising any suspicion. 

"Alright then..." she nodded with determination, stifling a smirk. She circled his waist with her arms when she began singing against his lips. "Take me to the moon...", but Jon silenced her by crashing his lips onto hers.