Things Aren't Always What They Seem

Jon held Charlotte's hand tightly in his own until he escorted her back in the boat and to their private table. He walked her over to her chair, pulled it out for her and gave her a kiss as she sat down. When he sat down in his own chair he let out a deep sigh of relief, looked up at her and couldn't stop smiling.

As if on cue, the waiter came over and poured them each a glass of champagne. Jon lifted his glass in the air requesting a toast from Charlotte and she happily dinged his glass with hers. "To new beginnings," he said in a celebratory tone. This was a celebration to him-- he'd won the fucking lottery.

Charlotte's face turned a shade of red and she nodded her head in agreement before bringing her glass to her lips.

"So," Jon let out a sigh and looked at her. "Here we are. It's been a long time coming."

"I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all of this," she said with a little laugh. "How did you even know I'd come home to be able to set this elaborately detailed plan up?" to say Charlotte was flabbergasted would be an understatement.

Jon smirked before he answered. "I saw you that night in Jersey; I saw you standing there with that look on your face as we drove away that I've always hated to see. I realized then that you were miserable and I knew you'd come home." He shrugged as he thought back to that night, to when he had to watch them drive away from her. "I knew if you were happy you wouldn't have come to be with me. You forget sometimes that I know you."

Charlotte grinned at him from across the table. "You saw me huh?"

"I did," he answered with a nod. "And I knew you'd be coming back to where you belong."

"With you?" she looked at him a little more serious this time.

"Yeah," he said softly and nodded his head again. "With me."

"Jon..." she breathed out his name as it rolled off her tongue and looked at him a little more serious. "Why...why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Jon flickered his eyes down and bit his bottom lip. "Why didn't you?" he asked simply as he looked back up at her.

Charlotte smirked and realized she understood his point. "I was afraid you'd reject me. I never thought you looked at me that way."

"It hurts so damn bad doesn't it?" he asked her, his feelings genuinely raw and on display. No other feeling in the world could top how awful it felt to be with her night after night and not actually be with her.

"You know me, you know I wouldn't make the first move," she reminded him gently of something he already knew, and looking back he couldn't believe he'd been such a pussy. "I thought I made it clear over the years and I almost told you despite my better judgment but...I watched you go home with so many girls over the years...I couldn't take it."

"Is that why you agreed to take up with Kane?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I waited for you for so long that I gave up and tucked those feelings away."

"The funny thing," he started though deep down he didn't find it as humorous. "Do you have any idea how many times I would leave your place-- I'd walk out your door and stand there taking deep breaths-- I'd turn back around and put my fist up to pound on the door so that when you opened it I could just kiss you...but I always ended up cursing myself as I walked away."

Charlotte tilted her head and smiled at him-- it took his breath away watching her look at him with her eyes sparkling and right as she was about to speak soft music started playing and he gave her a sneaky grin. "Dance with me," he delicately demanded as he got up and made his way over to her where he extended his hand for her to grab. She happily did and followed him out to the empty dance floor.

Jon wrapped his arms around her and felt her do the same. He kissed the top of her shoulder and nuzzled his head into hers. "Do you remember the first time we ever came here?" Charlotte asked him breaking the silence.

Jon nodded and grunted his answer that he did.

"I meant it when I told you it was the best Valentine's Day I'd ever had. I was with you and I was so crazy about you." Her words were soft and sincere and Jon could feel her heart pounding a little harder as he held her tight to him. "I prayed all night that you looked at me differently-- that I wasn't just your friend. I wanted you to make a move so bad..." she trailed off and dug her fingers into him just a little deeper.

Jon had to laugh at the irony. "You have no idea how hard it was for me not to make a move. That's why I picked this place to aide my elaborate plan."

"How the hell did we go eight years knowing each other inwards and outwards and never realize what was right in front of us," Charlotte asked bewildered and amusing them both.

"I wish I knew. I mean, c'mon. Everyone makes sure to call me out on how serious I am, but with you...when we're behind closed doors, I smile more than I've ever smiled when we're not together." Jon shook his head slightly frustrated at his lack of common sense. "I spent all those years trying so hard to bury my feelings away because I was afraid I'd flat out lose you and the ironic thing is if I'd just done it, we could have spared each other so much pain."

Charlotte reached up and kissed him as they held each other and moved slowly to the romantic, wordless, music playing in the background before resting her head on his shoulder. After a few moments she felt him swallow which preceded his words. "Charlotte," Jon said her name as a question and she lifted her head up to look him in the eyes waiting to hear what he was going to ask her. "Why'd you leave? Why didn't you just listen to me."

Charlotte felt her stomach tighten when she heard his words and it took her a few moments before she could answer. "Jon it was the hardest thing I'd ever done."

"But you didn't need to leave." It was obvious how much of a sensitive issue that was to Jon, it still broke his heart.

"You didn't..." she let out a deep breath and inhaled slowly. "When we slept together, I melted into you so easily because I was so in love with you. At that time-- in that moment-- I thought you were just there in the heat of it all. That I was revenge for you to get on Patrick and Rose and it hurt. Thinking that and not knowing any better...all I could think was that our friendship would never go back to the way it was. I didn't want to stay here and not be with you, so I bailed."

Jon shook his head and exhaled loudly as he thought back to that night which was filled with the highest of highs followed by the lowest of lows. "I guess I didn't really handle that all that well."

She smiled up at him and shook her head. "No," she let out a giggle. "I guess not."

"I should have just told you that I'd been in love with you since we were kids. I just thought that my actions said it all, and believe me...to me, being with you like that..." he let out another deep breath. "Charlotte if I was insane over you before, I was completely ruined when we slept together. It was like eight years of foreplay finally coming to a head."

She gripped him tighter and kissed him hungrily. They'd been denying themselves for eight years, so there was a lot of missed time to make up for. When she pulled her lips away from his she pressed the tip of her nose to his. "So all that stuff you told me the night of the accident..."

"Shit," he sighed out. "No, I didn't mean any of it. It was so hard to say that to you." His words were desperately sincere. "I had been trying to push you away out of respect for your relationship with Kaner."

She gave him a sad smile and a little nod. "I understand. Doesn't make it hurt less though." She swallowed before continuing. "And Rose?" she nudged him. "That night I walked in on you before I got my memory back?"

Jon couldn't help but laughing a little at how ridiculous it seemed, the idea he was with Rose at that point in time. "That was her being a bitch. There was nothing going on. Nothing. I just...I couldn't tell you because we had to keep things normal and...I was stuck between a fucking rock and hard place since the moment you woke up. I was by your side the whole time you were in that damn hospital," he cooed as he thought back to that time-- it still made his heart ache. Jon was still holding her tightly to him as they danced together with no agenda to stop. "You have no idea how hard that was for me to see you there knowing it was my fault-- and then to be with you when you woke up but it wasn't really you. All the memories and emotions that we'd experienced I had, but you suddenly didn't. It made me sick every single day. If I ever lost you..." Jon trailed off unable to finish that thought. It was simply too painful.

"I knew when I woke up I belonged with you," she whispered with her lips grazing his. "Well, to be fair I guess I always knew that-- it just shined through more than anything else. I didn't know who I was or remember anything we'd been through together, I just knew I belonged with you, not the guy who's ring I had on my finger. You're never going to lose me," she reassured him before giving him a quick kiss. "We're past all that."

Jon kissed her forehead and then saw the waiter out of the corner of his eyes. He nodded his head over to their table causing Charlotte to turn her head to see what he was directing at her. "Our dinner is served," he grinned at her and she took his arm as he escorted her back to their little table.

"So I don't need to worry about Rose then," Charlotte asked playfully with a hint of seriousness as she put her glass of water back on the table.

Jon choked on his water due to his burst of laughter when he heard Charlotte ask that question. "No," he blurted out as he wiped his mouth. "No way. She never held a candle to you. I was never in love with her-- I never told her I loved her either, which was part of the problem I guess. I just needed a distraction from the pain, again, of seeing you with him."

Jon looked down at the table and took a deep breath. "Did you love him?" he asked as he reluctantly looked back up at her.

Charlotte pursed her lips and took a minute to organize her words. "After I came to the realization that you and me would never happen; that you'd never love me, I realized I needed to move on. When Pat came along I didn't really take it seriously and then he seemed really interested in me, you know? It turned into something more and there was part of me that really believed I loved him." She exhaled again and looked up at him. "But. The problem was, it never changed the fact that I was in love with you. I just loved him-- or I just thought I loved him just enough to be happy with someone since I couldn't be with the guy who always had my heart."

Jon gave a faint smile and nodded his head. He stood up from his chair and walked around over to her where he leaned down and kissed her passionately. Feeling her fingers caress his cheek and running his own over her skin set his heart on fire.

After they finished dinner and were ready to go, they headed back to Charlotte's apartment where Jon could barely contain keeping his hands off of her. As soon as her front door closed behind them Jon swept Charlotte up bridal-style into his arms and carried her down the hallway to her bedroom. The whole way Charlotte unbuttoned his shirt since his tie was already somewhere on the floor-- he'd loosened it up to the point where all she had to do was lift it over his head.

He placed her down on the bed and immediately fell on it next to her. He slid his arms around her and pulled her into him so tight he could feel his cock standing at attention and begging to be released from the confines of his pants. Charlotte shimmied out of his grasp and stood in front of him where she undid her shimmery deep blue gown and let the fabric fall to the floor. She was standing in front of him in nothing but her bra and thong and Jon was practically salivating as he sat up and grabbed her hand, pulling her back to him on the bed.

She finished undoing his shirt and pushed it off of him before getting to work on his pants--keeping her lips on his the entire time. Jon rolled her on her back and kissed down her long porcelain neck, ran his tongue down her cleavage and slid his hand over her flat stomach. He pressed his lips to hers again as he slipped her thong off her and traced down her mound into her moist pussy. Charlotte moaned out and responded exactly how he expected her to as he flicked her clit with his finger. He grinned to himself as she gasped for air and dug her fingers into his back. Jon removed his hand, much to Charlotte's disappointment, and focused on getting her bra off. When he did, he kissed her hard on the lips again and put his hand back to work in her pussy before making a trail with his tongue down her chest and landing at her erect nipple.

Charlotte arched her back and pushed into him, enjoying each ministration he gave her with his fingers and his tongue. He sucked and nibbled at her nipple before moving to the other and shoved two fingers inside her. Charlotte cried out as he finger fucked her before he put his attention back to her clit. It didn't take more than a minute for him to feel her body tensing and she let out a guttural moan as she came on his hand. She hadn't even finished riding it out before he positioned himself between her legs and pushed his dripping cock inside her, continuing making love to her.

Jon repeatedly slid in and out of her-- being with Charlotte was so different for him. His eyes rolled back in pure delight as he felt how good she was around him. He kissed her on the lips and moaned into her mouth and right as he was about to come he looked down into her beautiful eyes, "I love you."

Charlotte smiled and brought his head back down to hers where she kissed him as she felt him come inside her. When he finished riding out his orgasm Jon pulled back just enough so the tips of their noses were touching. She ran her fingers through his hair and rested her hand on the back of his neck. "I love you," she breathed out as she looked back into his eyes.