Had he not seen the number on the call display, Dennis might well have let the call simply go to voicemail. He was exhausted and every inch of his body hurt – although it hurt in a very good way.
"Hi honey," Dennis said to the caller as he tried to keep the exhaustion from showing up in his voice. "It's great to hear from you. Where are you?"
"I'm about 20 minutes away and I can't wait to see my guy," Jessica's voice came across the cordless phone, loud and clear. "I just hope that so-called best friend of mine left some of you for me."
"How the heck does she
always
know?" Brooke asked as she rolled over in bed. Yelling out, she said to Jessica "Hey bitch, it was your idea for me to keep him company, remember?"
"So other women wouldn't lead him astray, I didn't suggest that you ruin him for me," Jessica teased back. There was no jealousy between the two women, only implicit trust. Jessica hadn't wanted her husband "doing without" while she was away filming her latest project. Brooke was only too happy to play "fill in wife" because she adored Dennis almost as much as she adored Jessica. The three of them were family – a crazy, somewhat-incestuous family, but a family they were.
"How did the shoot go?" Brooke wanted to ask. "What about the new girl? Was she as cute as Brad promised?"
Dennis laughed to himself, loving the interplay between his wife and their lover. There were often times when the two girls would get together and almost forget he was there. The loving banter between them always made him smile.
"Oh God, the new girl," Jessica sighed over the phone. "You had to see her babes, skin like chocolate and that body ... why do we always do this?" She laughed as she recognized the pattern she and Brooke often got into. "I'll tell you about her later, is my husband still conscious?"
"Barely," Dennis joked. "So, the new film turned out okay?"
"You'll love it," Jessica told him. "I enjoyed making a girls-only film, I hadn't made one of those in a while."
"Don't I love all of your films?" Dennis smiled. "There isn't a woman on film that is as sexy as my gorgeous JJ."
"Sure, sure," Jessica continued with their banter. He was one of the few people in the world who experienced the
real
woman hidden underneath the glam of "Jessica Swan". Dennis had fallen in love with JJ Vaughn and Jessica had been a happy bonus. "Then why do you keep falling into bed with my best friend? If I hadn't called, I'm sure I would have come home and found you fucking the shit out of her." JJ wouldn't have minded that, in actuality. She would have simply stripped out of her clothes and jumped in between them.
"Oh darling, sweetie," Dennis teased, really laying it on thick. "I know that I shouldn't, but you know Brooke. She needs it so bad and she keeps coming over in these really slutty clothes ..." Brooke squealed and hit him with a pillow while he continued talking to his wife. They all knew that Brooke was a clotheshorse and thankfully, the studios often let her keep some of her wardrobe. Had they not, Brooke might well have gone broke because she lived to shop for shoes, lingerie and the shortest skirts and dresses known to man.
"I'll be home soon and I will expect a proper welcome," Jessica told him with a mock-stern tone to her voice. Dennis felt happy to know he would see his wife soon. Despite how much he cared for Brooke, it had been love at first sight when he met JJ. He hadn't played coy and acted like he "discovered" her life as Jessica Swan, porn star. He knew right away and he told her so. It made her trust him all the more and the relationship blossomed. Brooke had seen it right away, she told JJ to hold on to this guy. "He's 100% real," she counseled JJ. In fact, Brooke liked Dennis so much that the twosome was, more often than not, a threesome.
Dennis knew that he had time to take a quick shower and wash the aroma of sex from his body. "I'll clean up a bit and change the sheets," Brooke told him. "Damn – if she was further away, I'd join you. You know how much I love shower sex!" That was true – they all did. Dennis hugged Brooke and she gave him quick peck on the cheek as he ran off to shower and change for Jessica's homecoming.
Brooke puttered about the kitchen, getting a cheesecake from the freezer and making coffee. She wasn't going to stay because she knew that Jessica would need alone time with Dennis, even if she insisted otherwise. With their years of friendship, the two besties could almost read each other's thoughts. Brooke also didn't want Jessica questioning her about
Blake Young
, as she didn't think that she could answer those questions just yet.
When she heard Jessica pull up in the driveway, Brooke called up to Dennis. He yelled back that he would be right down. Jessica entered a minute or so later, all smiles, obviously happy to be home. She hugged her best friend and tried to convince Brooke to stay for coffee, with no success. "You need a reminder as to why you married that handsome stud of yours," Brooke smiled as she headed for the front door.
Jessica swatted Brooke's derriere playfully. "Okay, but if you don't have this gorgeous ass of yours back in our bed tomorrow, I'm going to come looking for you – and I'll spank you for being disobedient," she grinned.
"Has someone forgotten that I like getting spanked?" Brooke retorted.
"Do I ever forget anything having to do with sex?" Jessica shot back.
"Come to think of it, no," Brooke laughed as she closed the door behind her. She saw Dennis coming into the room and gave her best friends their privacy. Dennis grabbed Jessica around her waist and spun her around as she squealed with delight.
"Happy to be home, babe?" Dennis asked as he put her down.
"Yes, very much so," Jessica looked at him with adoration showing in her beautiful brown eyes. Every time he looked at her, Dennis had to remind himself that he was the luckiest man on the planet. How he had snagged someone as unique and wonderful as his JJ was a mystery to him. He saw that she was glowing, she always had a look about her after completing a film. She had once explained to him that making a movie always exorcised some of her demons. "I fuck them away," she once said with a laugh. Watching Jessica on screen was indeed similar to watching a professional athlete. She had an energy about her when she was fucking, girl or guy. Her loving husband always had a remarkable time ready for her when she came home. It was yet another part of Jessica that made her unique – after a number of weeks having some of the wildest sex imaginable, she came home even
hornier
than when she had left. "I want to
make love
to the people I love," she told him and Brooke together. Dennis and Brooke understood that completely, they might have been the only two who did. To Jessica, her husband and girlfriend represented home and stability. Prior to Dennis, that was a word that Jessica understood not at all.
"Let's go upstairs," Jessica said eagerly. "I have some ideas ..."
"Whoa gorgeous, slow down," Dennis laughed. When she returned home, she was always like a horny teenager, nothing else mattered but getting into bed and fucking like rabbits. Affecting a fey persona, he lisped "Besides darling, my hair's still wet." Jessica laughed, her usual melodious way as her husband added "I see that our little playmate has made coffee and she bought that cheesecake you like," he told her. "You've been traveling for a few hours, aren't you hungry?"
Jessica
hadn't
been until she saw the coffee and cheesecake. After that, she was ravenous. "No fair using my appetite against me, you rat. Okay, pour me a coffee and cut me a tiny slice – no, make that a
big
slice, I worked it off – of the cheesecake and come and keep your poor, neglected wifey company."
He did as she asked, but kept teasing her. "You, Mrs. Forrest, are neither poor and you certainly are not neglected," he said as her brought her coffee to the table. "If I ever was insane enough to leave you, there'd be a lineup of admirers for blocks."
"Oh, maybe I'd have to get police protection," Jessica kept up the banter. "I always
did
a thing for a man – or woman – in uniform, you know?"
Dennis nodded and sat down beside her, taking her hand in his, just happy to be able to touch her again. He
did
know, he knew everything. "God, you're gorgeous, Mrs. Forrest," he almost sighed. "It is so good to have you home again."
"It's good to be home," Jessica smiled as she took a mouthful of Brooke's
wonderful
coffee. It was one of Dennis' few failings, he couldn't make decent coffee, so she or Brooke always made it. "You don't look so bad yourself,
Mister
Forrest," she grinned happily. Many modern women did not take their husband's last names and Jessica was the exception. Although she continued to be Jessica Swan professionally and kept her marriage somewhat-secret, she loved being Mrs. Forrest and all their "other" friends referred to her that way. JJ Vaughn was very happy to be JJ Forrest because a tiny part of her had never believed she would be Mrs.
anything
. Dennis didn't know
she
knew that he felt he wasn't worthy and there was no truth – none at all – to those thoughts. He was everything she had ever wanted in a partner and so much more. When Dennis proposed to her, she kept her composure but a large part of her wanted to break out crying from happiness. Her husband had given her everything she treasured and she was holding on with all of her might.
"Did you even take a
breath
between bites?" He asked as he looked at her empty plate. The first few bites of her favorite dessert had been wonderful and after that, the memory was vague. She had been on auto-pilot, just thinking about how happy she was to be back in her home -
their
home. JJ had never been a "they" before. She couldn't imagine life as a single woman any longer. She felt as if her husband and Brooke had filled in the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of her life.
"I'm going to get fat," Jessica groaned as he gave her a second helping and poured her more coffee. "I can see it now – 'Has success ruined Jessica Swan?' and 'Jessica Swan – more like Jessica Flock of Seagulls', that's what the trades will say," she said, although not refusing the second helping.
"I'd love you at any size," Dennis said, squeezing her hand and look right at her. There wasn't any hint of deception, no little white lie to be found in his words. He meant it and she knew that. This was the guy who stood by you through everything. He took his wedding vows seriously.