Ti Amo

Chapter 8

The fire raged in the ship's hold.

It's fine ... I will turn to ash with him ... the pain of the searing flames is nothing compared to the pain I will feel living without him.

Erina took her bridegroom in her arms. She pressed her lips to his and waited for the flames to overtake them.

But he shoved her away, telling her to live. She saw his beautiful face disappear behind an impenetrable wall of fire ... then she was in the ocean in a floating coffin.

The ship was already sinking by the time she looked back.

"Jojo ... I have something to tell you ... " The words left her trembling lips as she clutched someone else's baby and watched her dreams sinking to the bottom of the sea.

She had planned to tell him after dinner, when they would dance. She was wearing a red, ruffled gown, much more daring than anything she had worn before. Erina would tell him he was going to be a father, and a look of amazement would dawn in his blue eyes, and they would fill with tears ...

She had envisioned the scenario a thousand times.

But now the sea was still. It was like the ship was never there. It was like Jonathan was never there. She had nothing left of him.

Her eyes filled with tears and she screamed out over the empty ocean: "Goddamn you!! How DARE you tell me to LIVE when YOU died?!? JONATHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!!!"

No one answered.

Just as she knew in the bottom of her heart that he would never answer her again.

////

Joseph watched his grandma toss her head from side to side in her recliner. The TV was on, but only showed static as it was past midnight.

"N-No ... don't leave me ... my love ..."

Joseph placed his hand on her chest, just as he had learned to do as a young boy. Whenever she had a bad dream, placing his hand on her heart seemed to soothe her.

The twitching of her eyes slowed, the wrinkles on her brow eased. He gently wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of his hand.

Joseph looked at the book on her recliner's arm, propped like a tent over the arm of the chair.

"'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. Why are you reading this shit? It's giving you nightmares."

He didn't understand the popularity of the book turned into a movie only a year after it was published. Everyone was talking about it. He had heard his secretary saying she was going to see it. He had seen it with his now-lover in Rome, but he paid more attention to holding hands than he did the film.

He pulled her blanket back over her that she had caused to fall off with her thrashing. Joseph left to go home.

When Erina woke, she brought her hand to her chest. Jonathan had visited her again; she still felt his hand against her chest, the last time she had physical contact with him.

She pressed both her hands to the phantom handprint.

"Warm ... it's warm."

////

Suzi heard the door open. She heard Holly rocket to the door, heard her husband's happy voice, teasing their little girl.

"Holly, what have I told you about letting strangers in the house?"

"But you're NOT a stranger. You're my daddy!"

"Oh? How do you know?"

Suzi came around the corner. "Hey what are you implying? That I cheated on you?"

Instead of laughing, her husband winced imperceptibly. "That's not what I meant. I meant, what if I just look like Holly's daddy, but I'm someone else?"

Holly giggled. "That's un-possible. There's only one daddy."

Suzi said, "Good thing. I don't think this world could handle two Joseph Joestars."

Joseph smiled his regular roguish smile, and laughed. Just like that, everything was back to normal.

That evening, Joseph finished brushing Holly's teeth and he put her to bed. Suzi waited for him. It made her feel useless when Joseph took over all the bedtime duties. But he and Holly adored each other on an entirely different level. She wasn't going to interfere with that.

Her heart quickened as his heavy footsteps entered their bedroom. He sat on the bed, her body buoyed literally and figuratively by his solid mass.

He would lay down behind her ... grab her .. and then ... he would moan that deep moan of need ... push himself on her and -

"Goodnight, honey."

"G - goodnight? You don't want to ..."

"Lemme take a raincheck."

Raincheck? Joseph had never, and would never, take a raincheck on coitus.

"Can you at least hold me?"

"Sure, darling." His warm voice reassured her, reassured her until she realized he was reaching for a frame that was not hers, grasping for shoulders larger than hers, curling his body against a larger person.

Suzi was alarmed. She reached back, grasping his length. She would stroke it as he moaned, and then she would feel the sticky mess in her hand.

But he swatted her hand away.

"I'm just a little tired, that's all."

Joseph

Had

Swatted

Her

Hand

Away.

Joseph Joestar never turned down sex. She flashed back to when they were first wed, making love for the first time.

He had filled her to capacity, as he joyfully twisted and bucked. "Goddamn, this is better than sticking my dick in a vacuum cleaner!"

"J-Jojo ... did you stick your dick in my vacuum cleaner??"

"N-no ... m-maybe."

When they had made out on the bed, kissing and slurping, and he kept growing ... she wasn't sure if she could take all that. 

But her petite body was a vacuum cleaner, sucking him in up to the hilt, moaning as he rubbed against her.

"Oh shit – AAAHHHH!!!!"

He climaxed and she felt all of it, gushing inside her.

Even after they had Holly, he would bump his hips against her and grind while whimpering like a puppy.

"The doctor said - "

"I don't care what he said," panted her husband. "I need to be inside you."

The truth was, she had missed him inside her, too. She led him to the bed.

As he pumped her full, he bit her cheek with trembling lips.

"I want to have lots  of babies with you. Suzi. I love you."

She had felt she must  be already pregnant again after that. But she wasn't. No matter how much she tried, how many remedies, she couldn't conceive a second time

Every time she cried, he held her, reassured her that he loved her no matter what.

And she had believed him.

But now, she wasn't so sure.