'Mmmmm', Joe murmured as he turned over in their warm bed. He reached his arm across to wrap around his wife's beautiful body but found nothing. He groaned, opened one eye and discovered he was alone in their bed. He groaned again and flopped onto his back, throwing his forearm across his eyes, the events of the previous evening flooding his mind.
He groaned aloud. All he wanted on this trip was to snuggle with Jill, enjoy their vacation, have sex in the warm Italian heat, hang out together, relax and cuddle up whenever they wanted, let hands and lips wander wherever to savor each other. Instead they ended up in the middle of an international conspiracy with kidnappers and spies and double agents vying for their time. Not to mention rogue photographers.
He thought about the video. Thought about the way he had been last night. Decided he needed to man up and figure a damn way out of this and not be such an idiot. He may have let Jill down but there was no way he was not going to try to fix this. Somehow, he thought with a sigh. He closed his eyes for a moment before throwing off the bedclothes and preparing for the day ahead with a new sense of determination.
'How long have you been up?' his voice behind her made her smile. 'Hours. Hi lazybones', she replied standing up, glad that he had slept well. Stepping towards him she fitted every element of her body against him. He wrapped his arm around her waist and held her tightly to him, his body responding to having her so close by. They kissed. Slowly and hungrily and greedily. Both savoring the other.
'You're feeling better', she said looking into his eyes. He nodded a little wearily, knowing she deserved so much better from him. 'Yeah, I am', he agreed, 'I'm sorry about last night I ...' his words were lost in a loving kiss. 'It's ok, there's a lot going on. We can make up for it', she said quietly with a smile, looking at him from underneath her eyelashes. 'Yeah. We sure can', he agreed with a little grin, feeling his shoulders relax somewhat.
She turned to get him some breakfast. He followed her, wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her neck. 'I love you Jilly', he said, his tone achingly sincere. Making up for not actually saying it last night. It was her turn to nod in agreement. 'I know you do', she assured him.
'What's all this?' he asked, indicating the pages and the books open on the table as he sat at the place she had laid for him. 'I decided to get working on the job you asked me to do', she said. 'I got Donatello to suggest some books and Glen collected them for me, I've just glanced through them so far though. I've also been onto Brigitte and I'm expecting her to call me back soon', Jill said her eyes gleaming. Delighted to be working on two important tasks for Joe. He grinned, 'you're a marvel, you know that?' he whispered. Her answer was lost as their lips came together again.
'Is that yours or mine?', Joe called to Jill as a phone rang out a while later. She shimmed to the table, 'mine, it's Brigitte', she told him before answering. 'Hmm, yep, sounds good. I'll check with Joe and you just confirm with Emmanuel', Jill said before signing off and concluding the call. 'Great news', Jill said, 'the dates we suggested are suitable for the Macron's to visit so you can get onto whoever you need to and start making arrangements. I'll call Louis next and tell him that we need his help to curate the exhibition and then you need to talk to Emmanuel directly, outline what you need from him', Jill said happily, feeling that finally they were perhaps getting ahead of the myriad of complications that were thrown at them this past week. 'Ok great', Joe said. Pleased that things were beginning to progress.
But the knowledge of the video was still gnawing at his insides. He had yet to tell Jill about its existence. He was hoping that he could fix the problem without her ever having to know about it but in reality he knew that he would tell her.
He would tell her because he would probably have to anyway but more importantly because she had a right to know.
He just wanted to explore a couple more avenues first.
