Fic: RPS (Jared/Jensen): In It for Love [14 / 16] | R | 10180 words
Title: In It for Love [ 14 / 16 ]
Author: dragonspell
Fandom: RPS
Pairing: Jared/Jensen (and Jared/a slew of other characters including Misha Collins, Tom Welling, Mike Rosenbaum, Danneel Harris, Sandy McCoy and some OMCs and OFCs)
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: AU. Cheesiness. Fandom cliches. The usual drill.
Summary (fic): After a drunken dare, award-winning writer Jensen agreed to on a reality television show to vie for the attention of megastar Jared Padalecki who he's had a crush on for years. Only Jensen doesn't know how he's going to be able to tolerate all the other contestants and their widely varying personalities and he's pretty sure that you're not supposed to be able to get used to somebody filming you 24/7.
Summary (part): Jensen, Jared, and Sandy make it to Tahiti.
Word Count: 10,180
Disclaimer: Never happened, no affiliation.
Master Post: Master Post
A/N: Gah! Hopefully the next part will be smaller? IDK.
Part 13 | Master Post | Part 15
Episode 8 - First Half
Jensen stood on the deck of what was to be his new home for the next few days or however long Jared planned on them being here and just stared in amazement straight out into the rolling ocean. His lips were forming around a word but no sound was coming out because just wow. A couple hundred feet in front of him, ocean waves were crashing onto the sandy beach for as far as the eye could see. He gripped the railing in front of him and leaned on it for support.
Their new ‘house’ was a bungalow on the beach, one of the more private ‘rooms’ that the resort offered. Jensen had thought that setting down on the soil of Tahiti had been a trip but nothing had prepared him for the view of his new ‘backyard.’ He walked straight through the house and through the patio door, ignoring all the not too subtle cameras dotting the rooms. The deck was covered with a sheet of cream white gauze to try and filter out the sun and it came down on each side of the wooden deck in strips that gently blew in the breeze.
“Jared, this place is fantastic!” Sandy squealed. Jensen turned to look at her, stepping back inside through the sliding glass door. She was running from room to room, remarking excitedly over every little thing that she could find from the beds-there were two small ones for him and Sandy and then one large one in what Jensen presumed was the master bedroom and the implication made him have to fight down a small surge of arousal-to the small kitchen. She picked up a vase from a small table, turning it over in her hands as she bounced happily.
Jared smiled as he walked into the middle of the living, standing on the striped rug that covered the wooden floor. He had changed sometime during when Jensen had been staring in stupefied wonder at the ocean and Sandy had been squealing over everything else and Jensen felt his breath catch because he’d definitely seen this scene before. Jared, standing there in his khaki shorts and a white gauzy shirt bared open like he was a tropical poster boy was dressed exactly like he’d been before he’d started rolling around in the sand with Scarlett Johansson in Tropical Storm. Jensen glanced away to try and stop himself from remembering just how Jared had looked at the end of that scene, but it was already too late because images of Jared gasping and wet were already filling his head. Fuck.
Sandy was chirping something again and Jared was laughing but all Jensen could focus on was keeping his stupid dick from giving his thoughts away. Hardwired, indeed. He hoped that, after this was all said and done, he wouldn’t be losing his damn mind every time he saw Jared in a different outfit. This was getting ridiculous.
“-So you two should change into something a little cooler and then we can go get dinner.” Sandy took off like a shot, running to her bedroom while Jensen took it a little slower but only because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to get away with showing the same level of enthusiasm. He’d look ridiculous. She just looked cute.
“It’s a gorgeous view, isn’t it, Jen?” Jared asked, jerking his head towards the patio door and the veranda and ocean beyond. Jensen blushed-caught-but Jared smiled. “I think so, too.” Jared turned and walked out the still open patio door to stand underneath the white gauze. “Go get changed.”
Jensen didn’t run but it was a near thing.
“You have to try this,” Jared said and Sandy obediently opened her mouth for Jared to pop in the bit of yellow fruit. She moaned around it, her hand coming up to wipe up the excess juice and Jensen swallowed down his jealousy like he’d been doing all damn night because Sandy was apparently at the top of her game, all simpering smiles and impossibly innocent dirty innuendos. Jensen was beginning to wonder if the whole thing wasn’t just an act for her and that she really knew what she was doing. He couldn’t decide either way, all that he knew was that he really had to step up his game.
Jared picked up another piece of fruit and offered it out to Jensen and Jensen didn’t bother to think twice. At this point, the cameras could go take a flying leap because this was Tahiti and they were down to the final two and Sandy was out for blood tonight, flirting and giggling effortlessly like the pro she was. Like Hell was Jensen going to lose when he was so damn close. Anything with clothes on was fair game. He opened his mouth to take the fruit, the same as Sandy, but he one-upped her because no way was Jared getting out of this clean. Jensen made sure that his tongue licked up at Jared’s fingers, getting a taste of the juice before he even made it to the fruit, and wrapped his lips around Jared’s fingers, making Jared have to pull them out or not get them back at all.
Jared’s nostrils flared and he stared intently at Jensen as Jensen slowly chewed the chunk of food that Jared had put into his mouth. He smiled and swallowed, making sure to keep eye contact with Jared until Jared sucked in a harsh breath and finally looked away. Sandy was starting to pout on Jared’s other side and dug her nails into Jared’s arm. Jensen let her get away with it because, hey, he’d won that little round and she knew it. He reached for the plate and grabbed another piece of the fruit that Jared had just given him because Jared had had a point-it was damn good.
The sun had set hours ago, a ball of burning orange sinking into the ocean, and night had fallen. Not that it mattered, because they were sitting out on the patio of a closed down restaurant and surrounded by enough flaming torches that it was almost as bright as day. Not to mention all the flood lights that the crew had set around them. Every other table and chair on the patio had been shoved off to the side to make room for the lights and for the cameramen to move around freely. Jensen ignored all of them-it was scary just how adept he was at being able to do that.
He was pressed up against Jared’s side just as much as Sandy, trying to play her game but knowing that he was at a bit of a disadvantage. She had on what had to be one of the most peek-a-boo dresses that he’d ever seen. When you just glanced at it, it looked perfectly fine but all you’d have to do is kept watching and have her move and then you were certain that you were seeing skin. Except that Jensen knew that technically, nothing was showing.
Not that Jensen was a slouch or anything at being able to keep a guy interested-he just didn’t have all of Sandy’s…tools and experience. So far, however, Jared had consistently gone back and forth between them, not favoring one or the other and Jensen didn’t quite know how he felt about that. On one hand, it was nice that he wasn’t being ignored and that Sandy-despite her best attempts-was unable to hold Jared’s interest for long. On the other, it was rather frustrating that Jensen couldn’t seem to hold Jared’s interest for long, either.
Jensen set his teeth but kept his lips in a firm, fake smile while he desperately prayed that Jared wouldn’t insist on too many ‘group’ activities because he didn’t know how much more of this he could take. He really just wanted to tell Sandy to take a hike but a person couldn’t just come out and say that. Not when he knew that she had as much right to be here as he did regardless of how he felt.
“This place is gorgeous,” Sandy was gushing and Jared nodded happily.
“The island’s got a lot of attractions, too! We’re going to be able to see some of them tomorrow.” Jared squeezed Sandy with one arm while she squealed.
“Just you and me?” she asked, sliding even closer to Jared, though how that was possible, Jensen didn’t know. He had a worrying urge to slap her-what the hell was wrong with him?
Jared gave Jensen a squeeze, too, that made Jensen smile and stop glaring at Sandy. “Yeah, just you and me, tomorrow,” Jared said and Jensen felt his heart start to sink. “Jensen’s going to be on his own because he gets me all to himself the day after.”
Jensen liked the sound of the last part of Jared’s statement, but he didn’t know how he was going to be able to make it through the first. An entire day, he knew, was time enough for a lot to happen. But he smiled and nodded happily, murmuring how much he was going to enjoy his time with Jared. No one besides him needed to know just how much he was wishing that Sandy McCoy, America’s Sweetheart, would get eaten by crabs.
He was sure that the funeral would be quite lovely.
The wait staff were a bit puzzled by him. It made Jensen squirm to think about it but he just wasn’t used to being waited on hand and foot. He almost wished that he’d stayed in the bungalow. Almost.
He’d been going stir crazy back in the empty rooms of the small hut on the beach, unable to keep from imagining whatever it was that Jared was currently getting up to with Sandy. His imagination had been running away with him, dreaming up all kinds of lurid scenarios and, by ten o’clock, he’d been convinced that he’d wear a hole in the floor if he kept it up. He hadn’t even wanted to write because he knew exactly what kind of shit that he’d be putting down where just anybody could come along and read it.
So he’d wandered out on to the beach, only mildly surprised to find a cameraman outside his door, quietly sunning himself. The man sighed when Jensen stepped out and Jensen felt a little surge of guilt but it wasn’t enough to make him go back inside. When he finally got home, Jensen knew that he’d never be able to watch a reality TV show again without feeling sorry for the poor crew that constantly followed everyone around.
Jensen quirked an eyebrow as the man lumbered to his feet and picked up his camera. Not bothering to wait for him, Jensen jumped off the deck, heading straight for the path that Jared had taken him and Sandy down last night. He wasn’t going to run because he knew that that would just get him yelled at by Jeff later on, but he certainly wasn’t going to wait for the man to catch up. He could just get some nice shots of Jensen’s ass disappearing into the foliage surrounding the trail. Jensen heard the man bounding along behind him, cursing quietly when his camera was smacked head-on by a palm tree leaf.
Jensen swerved along the path, not deliberately trying to lose his stalker but not exactly encouraging him either. He figured that either the man would catch up or not and Jensen wasn’t about to care one way or the other. It wasn’t like he was with Jared or anything. This was just filler footage.
He eventually emerged onto the lawn of the resort proper, looking just as he remembered it from last night with the restaurant patio branching off to the left of him, with all of its tables and chairs back to their regular order and a couple of guests dining underneath the large umbrellas covering the tables. Directly in front of him, however, encased in glass was the inside dining room and it looked to be nearly empty.
It had been perfect-empty enough to give him the illusion of space but with enough people still circling around that he wasn’t going to go out of him mind. So Jensen had wandered up the slight hill and into the building, making a quick detour over to the gift shop to find something to read. Under the suspicious eye of the cameraman, he’d selected something perfectly within the rules (not a magazine or a newspaper and it hadn’t been published within the past two months), though he’d been more than a little surprised when the clerk had refused to take his money and instead had just waved cheerfully for him to shoplift. Jensen had glanced back at the cameraman, holding the book in one hand and his credit card in the other but the man had just shrugged slightly like this was hardly unusual. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, Jensen had exited the store with his free book and moved back into the dining room, sitting down at a small table next to the large windows, settling in to read as people passed him by.
Which led him to now. The wait staff didn’t know how to handle him, most likely, he thought, because they were used to waiting on guests hand and foot and Jensen seriously only toast and some coffee. No, he didn’t need a refill ever five minutes. No, he didn’t feel like bacon or turkey sausage or blueberry smothered pancakes or whatever delicate pastry they were offering him this time. Yes, the lighting was just fine and no, he really didn’t need any flavored creamer.
He knew that one waiter in particular was staring at him but trying not to show it, convinced that Jensen must be playing some kind of elaborate game. The waiter had told Jensen that anything that he ordered was on the house as per instructions but yet this information still didn’t make Jensen want anything more. Jensen quirked a small smile as he flipped a page. He must be confusing the Hell out of the poor man.
Jensen’s little stalker had settled in at a table across from him, the camera sitting on an empty chair, hidden underneath the table but Jensen refused to let it bother him. Instead he just kept trying to send all of the wait staff’s little treats towards the cameraman. Maybe he was hungry.
Jensen, at the moment, was far too busy with trying to keep his mind off of a certain potential Hollywood power couple. And, considering that he hadn’t hit the gym in ages, he really didn’t need to be eating all the little cakes that kept getting shoved his way.
A person stepped up the table, just looming over him and Jensen sighed a little as he looked up to tell the waiter one more time that he wasn’t interested. The person he saw, however, wasn’t the little waiter with the jet black hair. Instead it was a tall man with blond hair that curled around his ears dressed in Khaki pants and a white button-down shirt. Jensen blinked at him as his eyes traveled up the man’s torso (where he’d been expecting the waiter’s head to be), over his broad shoulders and straight up to his green eyes. “Hi,” the man said.
Jensen swallowed, wondering who the guy was. “Hi?” He shot a glance over at the cameraman who, besides pissily adjusting his hidden camera because the tall man was now blocking the shot, showed no sign of recognition. “Can…Can I help you?” The man looked a little like…
“You looked lonely,” the man replied with a shrug. “I was wondering if I could join you…” Jensen stared up at the man and he took it as an invitation, pulling out the chair opposite Jensen and sitting down. “I saw you across the dinning room and had to come over and introduce myself.” He held out a hand. “Jean-Claude. And you are?”
Jensen stared at the proffered hand, his face starting to heat. Jean-Claude. Jean-Claude looking like that. There was no mistake now-this had to be Jean-Claude Girard. The man was so internationally famous even Jensen who tended to be a bit of hermit at times knew his face-it was hard to miss being on the cover of all those magazines, after all. A world famous photographer and activist he’d even made the damn cover of TIME. Jesus…
Jensen’s hand was engulfed in a warm grip when he didn’t get the hint and Jensen flushed even more. Way to totally come off as normal-just freeze up on people. “Jensen,” he said as Jean-Claude began to shake his hand all on his own. Luckily, the man must have been used to people being a little starstruck around him because he just smiled.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Jensen. That’s an unusual name-I like it.” He had an accent but it was faint, nearly trained out and Jensen found himself straining to hear it. “Did you maybe care for something more to eat? I can get you whatever you want.” Jean-Claude winked at Jensen, leaning forward conspiratorially. “I have an ‘in’ with the staff.”
“Uh…” Jensen didn’t quite know how to tell Jean-Claude that, well, he wasn’t the only one. “No. No, that’s okay.”
“Are you sure?” Jean-Claude asked, raising his eyebrows.
Jensen shook his head. “I’m sure. Um…”
“Well, no matter. Maybe we’ll eat together some other time.” The man grinned and Jensen swallowed hard because apparently Jared didn’t have a patent on killer smiles like Jensen had thought that he did. There was no denying that the man in front of him was…rather attractive. Jensen felt his heart speeding up every second that Jean-Claude sat there, quietly smiling at him.
He also found himself blushing harder because…was he… Jean-Claude had yet to give Jensen back his hand and Jensen’s life got a little bit more surreal. Not only was he in Tahiti with Jared Padalecki with a 50/50 chance of walking away with a relationship with the guy but he was being picked up by Jean-Claude freaking Girard. Life, Jensen thought, really didn’t get much more fantasy-like than this. He was living a sorority girl’s dream…
Jean-Claude didn’t even blink when Jensen hastily yanked his hand away. “Uh-uh-uh…” How did you go about telling an internationally famous hunk thanks but you weren’t interested? “I’m actually, uh, waiting for someone…”
“Oh?” Jean-Claude asked, glancing around as if Jared might suddenly pop out from behind a bush or something. Maybe from behind the tiny waiter who was still staring at Jensen but nodding approvingly. Oh God… “I’m sorry. You’ve just been sitting over here by yourself, looking so lonely…”
“He’s, uh, he’s…out.” With Sandy.
“He must not be a smart man, then,” Jean-Claude said and when Jensen stared blankly at him, he grabbed Jensen’s hand again, holding it in the middle of the table. “To leave such a prize like you waiting by yourself where just anyone can snatch you up.” Jean-Claude unabashedly studied Jensen’s face now. “I would never leave someone like you unguarded.” He reached out to touch Jensen’s face and Jensen jerked backward, instinctively avoiding the touch even as his stupid dick roughly demanded to know just what he thought that he was doing. A person, his dick wanted him to know, does not turn down an offer from Jean-Claude Girard. Jensen shoved his thoughts down, reminding himself that just because Jared was out of sight, did not mean that he was out of mind, and he stood up.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, knowing that he was blushing fiercely and hating himself for it. He snatched his book off the table and fled, leaving behind a rather surprised Jean-Claude and a cursing cameraman.
The paperback book thumped against the wall, smacking flat into the wood before sliding down to the floor. Jensen sighed and dropped his head against the pillow. “Well that was pointless,” he muttered. Now not only was he bored but he also had to pick up the book before anyone else came in.
He had never realized, however, just how incredibly long a day could feel. He was, for all intents and purposes, trapped. Granted, he was trapped on a tropical island with every amenity he could ever want (except for the latest news or a certain movie star), but trapped was trapped. Lying on the couch of the main room, Jensen stared moodily out what he could see of the patio door. He knew that there was cameraman out there. It was a different one from the one that had followed him this morning because it was now nearing three in the afternoon and apparently the crew worked in shifts of about four hours. Jensen had already tried talking to the new guy-who he noted with a little bit of amusement was a little bit younger and more athletic looking than the previous crew member-but had been quietly rebuffed because those were the rules. It, frankly, sucked. And, after his embarrassing flight from Jean-Claude, Jensen had yet to have the courage to return to the resort.
He’d read the entire book and had considered starting over just for the hell of it but he just couldn’t bring himself to be that damn pathetic. “You suck,” Jensen told himself, pushing himself upwards. Here he was moping inside, pining over Jared when he had an entire ocean to himself. God, what a waste of space he was.
Deciding that he was through with pining like a princess in a castle, Jensen got up and grabbed his swim trunks out of his bag, changing into them in the bathroom (he was really hoping that the mansion’s rules on cameras in the bathroom translated to the bungalow as well) before striding outside into the brilliancy of the sunlight, the ocean glittering just a few hundred feet away. The cameraman that had been dozing in the corner startled upright. Jensen didn’t wait for the man to get on his feet before he was jumping off the porch and into the grassy sand.
He reached the ocean, stepping just into the water and feeling each wave as it crashed over his feet. Yeah. So much better than staying inside. He waded out into the water, stepping carefully and dipped below the surface, immersing himself in the pleasant chill before coming up soaking wet. He smiled and splashed at the waves, playing with them as they rocked against him. Yeah. Jared who?
“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” Jensen whirled, nearly tumbling back into the water. He pinwheeled his arms to keep his balance and stared back at the shore. Jean-Claude freaking Girard stood there, smiling at him like some kind of benign god. A sweaty, incredibly hot benign god. He’d ditched the country club clothes and was standing there in just a pair of running shorts and a whole lot of sunblock. Jensen swallowed, unable to keep his eyes from wandering down the man’s chest. Wow. That was at least three personal trainers right there. Had to be.
But Jensen had already known that Jean-Claude was gorgeous-he had People magazine for that. What he didn’t know was… “Are you following me?”
Jean-Claude laughed. Jensen felt himself starting to blush as Jean-Claude tipped his head back and shook with laughter but he forced it down. “I was just about to ask you the same thing!” he said. Reigning his laughter back in, he winked. “Or if not, if you were some enchanting merman emerging from the sea to fuel my decadent fantasies.”
It was a horribly cheesy line but Jensen couldn’t help but feel just a little bit charmed by it. Score one for Jean-Claude, then. Jensen ducked his head to hide his smile. “Very much an air breather,” he said.
“Oh, good,” Jean-Claude replied. “Then I won’t have to worry about you slipping back off into the ocean.” He ambled closer, his bare feet sinking into the water. “And you’ll be able to have dinner with me later.”
Jensen smiled ruefully at the water. And just where had Jean-Claude Girard been a few short months ago when the only thing that Jensen had had to look forward to was a little action from his own hand? Back before he’d spent weeks anticipating meeting Jared and then spent only a handful of days falling head over heels for the damn man? “You’re a little late,” he said, truthfully. “I’m still waiting for someone.”
“And I maintain,” Jean-Claude told him, moving closer-only a few feet separated them now, “the anybody that would leave you alone does not deserve someone as beautiful as you.” Jensen huffed a laugh at the line and Jean-Claude pointed a finger at him. “Ah! See, I made you laugh.”
On shore, Jensen could see the cameraman getting all of this on film and so, when Jean-Claude reached out to touch him, Jensen backed up again. This time, though, he didn’t flee, but he did point towards the shore. “I’m waiting for someone,” he repeated.
Jean-Claude quirked an eyebrow at the cameraman. “That’s who you’re waiting for?” he asked. He sniffed. “You could do better.”
Jensen didn’t know whether to be offended for the cameraman’s sake or not. The man wasn’t exactly bad looking, per se… Just…ordinary. He settled only for shaking his head because just behind the cameraman, he could see Jeff stalking down the beach.
“Oh. With that one?” Jean-Claude asked, pointing at Jeff.
“Jen!” Jeff shouted, his voice carrying. He jogged towards them. “Been looking all over for you!”
Jensen glanced over at Jean-Claude who was eyeing Jeff rather coolly. “Not him either.”
“Bodyguard?” Jean-Claude stated it rather matter-of-factly. Like, of course Jensen would have a bodyguard.
Jensen grinned. He imagined that Jeff would do quite well as a bodyguard. “Something like that,” he replied and waded in towards shore. Jeff stopped just before the spot where the waves were currently hitting the sand, waiting impatiently for Jensen to come completely out of the water.
“This part of the beach is supposed to be closed off,” Jeff informed Jean-Claude. “The resort assured us that we’d have complete privacy.” He crossed his arms and stared hard at Jean-Claude like he was expecting a fight.
Jean-Claude, though, grabbed a hold of Jensen’s arm, startling him as he leaned down to whisper excitedly, “Dirty movies?”
Jensen blushed from head to toe as an image of him and Jared filming a ‘dirty movie’ flashed through his head. Pathetically, he was pretty sure it was straight out of one of Jared’s movies and that Jensen was replacing the lead actress with himself. God, could he be any more cliché? “No,” he whispered back, moving away from Jean-Claude to stand beside Jeff.
“How about you go back to the house and get dried off, Jen?” Jeff suggested and Jensen opened his mouth to tell Jeff that he’d just gotten in the water and that he’d rather not but the look on Jeff’s face had the words stopping in his throat. Instead, he just nodded and headed meekly inside.
“See you later, Jensen!” Jean-Claude called, waving at Jensen before Jeff stepped in between them, cutting him off.
Jensen hoped that Jared made it back soon.
It took nearly an hour of enduring Jeff’s little ‘talk’ to convince the man that he wasn’t soliciting Jean-Claude’s attentions. Jensen had assured Jeff as earnestly as possible that he’d had no idea that Jean-Claude would be down at the beach and, yes, he’d only been talking. Feat had griped his heart the entire time because God, what if this was enough to get him kicked off the show? To come so close and yet be so damn far?
Jeff eventually backed off, though, and Jensen let himself breath a little sigh of relief. Jeff had even only given him ‘softball’ questions during the little interview that he’d apparently showed up to do when he’d found Jensen down on the beach and Jensen was willing to forgive him. The man was only doing his job, after all.
Jeff had stayed nearly two hours after that, talking cheerfully with Jensen, no doubt picking up on the fact that Jensen was going insane by himself. When Jeff had finally decided to leave, Jensen had wanted to wrap himself around Jeff’s leg like a three year old and beg him to stay. It was only a lingering sense of dignity that stopped him.
Which left him with hours to kill. He wandered down to the beach and splashed into the water, feeling just a little bit angry with himself that he was disappointed that Jean-Claude wasn’t there. Jensen tried to tell himself that he was only feeling that way because of the fact that he didn’t want to be alone at the moment and that he just wanted a friend but a treacherous little pang of his heart said otherwise. So instead he settled on ‘sublimation’ and left it at that. It was just him missing Jared.
He stayed in the water until after sunset, alternating between actually swimming and just floating, before he finally hauled himself onto dry land and plodded back to the veranda. “Hey,” he said to the cameraman (yet again another different one). The man smiled wanly but didn’t answer and Jensen sighed, walking into the house.
Dinner was waiting for him, already prepared without him having to order it, stretched out on the bungalow’s little dining room table and Jensen frowned down at it. Knowing that it would be rude if he didn’t at least try some of it but not really feeling like eating without Jared’s constant “you’ve got to try this!” Jensen picked at a bit of the food before putting himself to bed around nine.
He stared up at the ceiling and wished again that Jared would hurry up and come home. That he wouldn’t do something completely stupid like propose to Sandy or something-surely Jeff would kill him if he did that?-and that everything would be just fine. The more he thought about it, though, the more worse his fears became because that was a drawback of being a writer: too damn good of an imagination. He was even starting to picture the same scene out of Tropical Storm that he’d been daydreaming about earlier but instead of him as Scarlett Johansson, he was picturing Sandy. God fucking damn it. So he sighed and began to listen to the slow tick-tick of his bedside clock.
For being on a supposed vacation on a tropical island, today really had sucked.
Jensen woke to the feel of a light touch stroking through his hair. He instinctively leaned towards it and fluttered his eyes open, not at all surprised to see Jared laying beside him. Jared smiled. “Morning.”
“Mornin’,” Jensen replied. He glanced around for a clock before he realized that it was behind Jared. “What time is it?”
“Time to get up.” Jared rolled off of the bed to stand beside it, holding out a hand for Jensen. Jensen let his eyes trail lazily over Jared’s body, taking in the light blue t-shirt and the plaid covered shorts, stopping-just for a minute-at the slight bulge of Jared’s crotch. Jensen smiled to himself even as he told himself to get his mind out of the gutter. “We got a lot of things planned today.”
Jensen scrubbed at his eyes and took Jared’s hand, letting Jared pull him to his feet. “My turn?” he asked. He felt a small pang of jealousy but he kept it to himself. It was his turn to spend the day with Jared and Sandy could spend it quietly going out of her mind by herself.
“Yep,” Jared said, pulling Jensen to the middle of the room to stand on the soft blue rug that covered the wooden floor. “So hurry up and get dressed.” He dipped his head down to give Jensen a quick kiss at the corner of his mouth that Jensen was just a little too slow to respond to. Jensen turned his head, hoping for more, but Jared pulled away with a smile. “Get dressed,” he repeated and headed out of the room.
Jensen sighed. Fine. He’d get dressed. For a great deal of the things that he wanted to do with Jared, though, clothes were entirely optional. He dug through his suitcase, hoping to find something that would both be comfortable and slightly stylish. But it couldn’t look like he was trying too hard! And he wondered if he should wear his swim trunks. He knew that Sandy had definitely been wearing her bikini yesterday when she left-this kind of shit, he thought, had to be so much easier for girls. There were all kinds of options. Jensen glared down at his assembled clothes before just grabbing his swim trunks-already dried from last night-a pair of shorts that would cover them and a T-shirt. He was being ridiculous, obsessing over what to wear.
He ducked into the bathroom for a quick shower, popped in his contacts, and firmly did not spend a half hour in front of the mirror trying to get his hair just right. He spiked it quickly, glancing at it from a couple of different angles and hoping that it conveying that ‘casually confident’ look. Snorting at himself, Jensen left the bathroom, stopping by his bedroom to grab an overshirt and shrugged into it as he made his way out to the main room. He passed Sandy’s door which remained shut the entire time and Jensen couldn’t keep the smile off of his face.
He had an entire day with Jared. It was all he could do not to freaking skip.
“Just relax into it,” Jared said. “It’s easy. Breathe evenly and don’t panic. The horse will know if you panic, so just tilt back and ride down the hill.”
Jensen rolled his eyes. “When did you become the horse whisperer?” he asked, even if he did consider himself lucky that he’d even managed to get himself up on the horse in the first place. He was holding his own on the trail, though, not having managed to fall off once, so Jensen would take that as a win.
Jared had started out their day by taking Jensen to the resort restaurant for breakfast which Jensen had completely expected. Jared and food, Jensen had already realized, was a life-long love affair that was unlikely to ever end. What he hadn’t expected, however, was Jared taking him down to the far end of the resort and finding a couple of well maintained barns with two dark brown horses standing out in front, saddled and ready, held in place by a handler.
That had been where Jared’s ‘tips’ regarding horseback-riding had started and an hour later, they had yet to end. Jensen had no idea if any of it was true or not or if it was just straight up BS but he was taking each one of Jared’s suggestions. With a grain of salt, of course. It wasn’t like he minded them and, besides, apparently none of the cameramen knew how to ride a horse and film at the same time, so they were, for once, truly on their own and Jensen was over the damn moon about that. If the trails didn’t look so well traveled, he’d consider trying to convince Jared to... ‘make a quick stop.’ As it was, though, he didn’t think that he could risk it. Damn.
“I’ll have you know,” Jared replied with an easy grin, effortlessly swaying with the horse in a way that Jensen couldn’t quite seem to manage just yet, “that I was trained by some of the best.”
“I’ll bet,” Jensen replied. “Where are we going anyway?” he asked when they reached a fork in the road and Jared hooked towards the right.
Jared looked aghast. “You want me to ruin the surprise?”
“Oh, it’s a surprise, is it?” Jensen ducked his head, hiding his grin. “Well, then, maybe I can wait.”
“The good news is,” Jared replied, nudging his heels against his horse’s side to urge it into a trot, “that maybe you don’t have to wait anymore.” He slowed his horse down at the edge of the foliage, ducking under an overhanging branch of a palm tree as he waited for Jensen to catch up. Jensen narrowed his eyes suspiciously but let his horse amble over to Jared anyway.
When they emerged from underneath the palm tree, the carefully manicured ‘jungle’ around them fell away and dissolved into a sandy beach with a few docks jutting off into the water. Sailboats rocked quietly with the water, their white sails dotting the sky. “Was wondering if you’d like to go sailing with me?” Jared asked, reaching out to touch Jensen’s cheek.
Jensen turned towards him. “You know how?” he asked and Jared barked a laugh.
“Hell no. That’s what guides are for.” Jensen chuckled and urged his horse into a walk again, heading down towards the boats. “I’ll take that as a yes, then,” Jared said smugly and Jensen rolled his eyes again. As if Jared even had to ask.
“I give up!” Jared announced, finally sitting down, and Jensen laughed even as he was breathing a sigh of relief. He’d had visions of Jared toppling off the boat and into the water because Jared kept insisting that he could stand up but yet, in the hour or so that they’d been out on the water, he couldn’t seem to master the rolling motion that their tour guide did effortlessly.
“Wise choice,” the guide said, cracking a smile. He’d already had to catch Jared twice to keep him from going overboard. The man, a tall Frenchman who had introduced himself as Alphonso, pulled on a few ropes, bringing in the sail and, now that he no longer had to kept a firm watch on Jared, Jensen studied Alphonso’s motions as he puttered around the boat, memorizing details in case he ever could use it later. Catching Jensen watching him, Alphonso grinned again. “Perhaps you would like to try?” he asked, holding out a hand invitingly.
Jensen glanced quickly at Jared who waved him off with a smile. “I’ll be fine,” Jared said. “Just as long as I don’t move.” As if Jensen could resist such an opportunity. He pushed himself to his feet, dusting off the back of his shorts before he rolled himself over to where Alphonso was waiting patiently. As Jensen approached, the man moved back a little to give Jensen room to slide in front of him and study the sail. When Jensen was in position, Alphonso moved back in close and Jensen resisted the urge to retreat. Alphonso was a little…big.
The man handed Jensen a rope. “Mainsheet,” he said. “Trim the main just a little.” When Jensen stared blankly, wondering how he was supposed to do that, Alphonso huffed a laugh and set his big hands over Jensen’s, his skin looking pitch black against the relatively paleness of Jensen’s own. “Pull,” he urged quietly and Jensen nodded quickly, doing as instructed. “Ah! Not so hard! Easy. Easy, like you would touch a lover. Marie, she likes a soft touch.”
Jensen flushed at the thought of treating a boat like a lover but did as he was told as Alphonso’s hands slid over his. “You’re a natural.” Alphonso took the rope from Jensen’s hand. “Maybe I can give you a private lesson later,” he said. “You would probably learn a lot.”
Jensen smiled. “That’d be-”
“So I was thinking about heading back now,” Jared said, cutting him off. He was staring at them with narrowed eyes and Jensen blinked back, confused. Alphonso, though, took a step back, holding up his hands.
“You have an hour left of your charter.”
Jared shifted like he was going to try to stand again but wisely held himself in place. “No, I was thinking about taking Jen swimming. Wouldn’t that be fun, Jen?”
Jensen though that since he’d spent hours swimming by himself yesterday that sailing sounded better to him but somehow he knew that Jared hadn’t really asked him a question. Besides, this would be swimming with Jared and Jensen had quite fond memories of Jared being wet. He couldn’t say that he’d mind getting another good look. Or maybe a few gropes. So he nodded. “Sure.” When Jared held out his arms, too, like Hell was Jensen turning that down, so he happily moved back over to Jared, sitting down next to him as Jared wrapped him up in a hug.
Jared smiled and pressed a smacking kiss to Jensen’s temple. “If you wouldn’t mind, Alphonso.”
Alphonso shrugged as he set about taking them back into shore. “It’s your money.”
The water was warm around Jensen but it was nothing compared to the heat from Jared’s hands. Jensen gasped against Jared’s shoulder as Jared’s hands delved into Jensen’s shorts. Jared ducked his head, drawing Jensen into a series of short little kisses that left Jensen breathless. He clung hard to Jared and thought that perhaps they should move this whole thing possibly more towards shore before they both managed to drown because neither one of them could touch the bottom at the moment and Jensen was fast losing focus. He couldn’t concentrate on keeping himself afloat when there were other, more pressing issues demanding his attention-like the way that Jared was sucking on his bottom lip and the perfect way that Jared had of wrapping around Jensen’s dick.
Except this far out, Jensen knew, the cameraman back on shore could get jack, especially not with Jared’s back to him, and that was incredibly freeing. Jensen gasped and surged up against Jared, splashing water as he gripped Jared tightly. And this? Was way better than sailing. Jared possibly owed Jensen a sailing lesson or two to make up for what he’d lost but Jensen couldn’t complain about the trade. Jared tilted his head, biting underneath Jensen’s jaw and Jensen started to pant as he shoved his own hand down into Jared’s swim trunks. Holy fuck. It wasn’t really swimming but holy fuck.
“God, Jen,” Jared panted, nipping at Jensen’s skin as his hand jerked Jensen off steadily. Jensen bit back, sinking his teeth into Jared’s shoulder to keep himself from voicing all the pathetic little sounds that he was threatening to make. “So fucking gorgeous,” Jared whispered, kissing along the side of Jensen’s face. “So incredibly fucking gorgeous…”
Jensen moaned, unable to help himself because, Jesus, he didn’t think that he’d ever been this turned on in his life. The past few weeks of steady teasing was going straight to his head and he knew that he didn’t have a prayer of lasting. He didn’t even want to try-he just wanted to come as in yesterday. And the fact that it was Jared that was going to make him do it? Heady.
Jared’s dick was hard and thick in Jensen’s hand and he stroked it eagerly, listening to Jared’s breathing taking on an increasingly fevered pitch. Jared kept growling in Jensen’s ear about “hot” and “You drive me so fucking nuts” and “God, I want to fuck you...” and Jensen closed his eyes and shuddered as he came, biting back a scream and clinging to Jared to try and stay afloat. “God, yeah,” Jared whispered, stroking Jensen through it. He caught Jensen’s mouth in a rough kiss and for half a second, Jensen thought for sure he was about to drown despite the fact that his head was still above water.
Jared moaned, shoving his tongue inside of Jensen’s mouth as he finally let go of Jensen’s dick, sliding his hands back around to grab Jensen’s ass, squeezing as he pulled Jensen’s hips as close as possible. Jared ground himself against Jensen’s belly, getting himself off and Jensen just wrapped his arms around Jared’s neck and surrendered, letting Jared have at it.
Jensen felt it when Jared came-Jared slamming against him one last time, the water growing warmer around them before it was all whisked away in the current, and Jared’s mouth turning gentle as he came down from his climax. Jared finally broke the kiss to pant in Jensen’s ear while Jensen nuzzled happily against Jared’s neck, feeling like he could stay just like this from now until, say, the rest of eternity. He’d end up like a prune and possibly sprouting gills, but it would be so damn worth it.
“Fuck, I needed that,” Jared muttered, nosing Jensen’s ear and Jensen hummed his agreement. Clinging to Jared still, he wasn’t sure how Jared was managing to keep them afloat but Jensen knew that he could happily drift off now. His muscles were relaxed so much of his nervous tension was just drained away for the moment, unable to stay with the pleasure of his orgasm still buzzing through his body.
Jared sighed, his hands running up Jensen’s back to cup his head and pull him into another kiss. “We should probably get out now,” Jared murmured. Jensen just hummed again, too lazy to actually form words and Jared grinned. “Or we could just stay here for awhile.” Jensen was down with that, too.
When they finally did manage to work up the ambition to head to shore, dragging themselves out of the surf, Jared couldn’t seem to keep his hands nor his mouth to himself, hanging all over Jensen and sucking better than any vampire. As for Jensen, he had an extra swing in his step and not only did he know it but he also didn’t care who saw it, either.
Jared had ordered nearly one of everything on the menu. Jensen had been disbelieving when he’d first heard Jared start listing off everything that he wanted, sure that it was some kind of joke but no. There was almost more food on the table than the table could actually hold and it was all so that Jared could try to get Jensen to taste each and every one. Jensen was secretly wondering if Jared was attempting to get him fat.
They were sitting in one of the partially hidden nooks of the resort’s restaurant, their table tucked away from the rest of the dining room and up against a large window that looked out on to the inky blackness of the night and the slow roll of the ocean, waves rippling under the light of the stars. A warm glow had started somewhere in Jensen’s girly, girly heart the minute that they’d been walked to the table and it had refused to go away. Even if Jared was trying to stuff him like a Christmas goose.
Jared kept pushing random pieces of food at Jensen, asking each time, “How about this one?” or “You have to try this one” and Jensen really couldn’t say no. One, he didn’t have the heart and, two, it was really fucking good food. He just knew that he probably didn’t want to know what it was that he was actually eating. Along the way, Jared was also eating his fair share and, somewhere in between, he was sharing details about the next movie that he was thinking about doing. “Real tearjerker,” Jared said. “My agent wants me to do it; says that it’s ‘Oscar material.’” He leaned in and winked. “I think he’s living vicariously.”
Jensen hid a laugh behind his hand, turning his head to look at the wall. Jared, though, laughed openly. “He just wants to be name-checked during my speech again.”
Jensen chuckled, meeting Jared’s eyes again. “So are you-” Jensen cut himself off as he stared over Jared’s shoulder. Oh shit.
“Am I…?” Jared asked, prompting for Jensen to finish but Jensen was too busy watching the all-too-familiar curly blond hair coming his way.
“I said that we’d meet again,” Jean-Claude said, putting his hands over his heart in an exaggerated gesture. “It is truly fate!”
As Jensen stared, Jared frowned in puzzlement before turning in his chair to come face to face with Jean-Claude. Then a grin broke out across his face. “Oh hey!” Jared said. “Nice seeing you again, too.” He held out his hand to Jean-Claude, catching his attention. Jensen glanced back and forth between the two men as Jean-Claude quickly switched gears and shook Jared’s hand, wondering if Jared was assuming that Jean-Claude had been talking to him and not Jensen. It was, after all, only logical. As far as Jared should know, after all, he was the only one that had met the famous photographer and activist. There was no reason at all for Jensen to ever have met the charismatic man.
Besides the fact that Jean-Claude was apparently stalking him, of course. Jensen felt a small kernel of panic starting to grow because, God, it had taken him hours yesterday to convince Jeff that nothing had been going on between him and Jean-Claude and he didn’t want to have to go through the whole thing again with Jared. Jared and Jean-Claude were talking easily now but would that last? “So I haven’t seen you since the New Years Party,” Jared said.
Jean-Claude nodded. “No, I’ve been very busy.”
“I’ll bet!” Jared laughed. “Being a superhero’s a tiring job.”
“So’s being a high profile celebrity,” Jean-Claude said. He nodded over at Jensen. “But I see that you’ve managed to find some time for yourself.” Jean-Claude let his eyes wander over to Jensen and Jensen flushed, ducking his head.
Jared grabbed Jensen’s hand, holding it in the middle of the table. “Yeah,” he admittedly, strangely shy. “This is Jensen. Jensen, this is my friend Jean-Claude Girard. You’ve probably seen his work.”
Oh, Jensen had seen Jean-Claude’s ‘work’ alright. Not trusting himself to speak at the moment, thinking that he might blow everything, Jensen just nodded and Jared rubbed his thumb soothingly over the back of Jensen’s hand. “Jen’s shy,” Jared said.
“I got that.” Jensen dared a glance up at Jean-Claude who was giving him a rather weary smile. “So this was who you were waiting for.”
“What?” Jared asked. He glanced between the two of them like he was suddenly realizing that there was more going on than he’d thought. Then he settled on Jen, apparently deciding that he was the best one to tell the story though why Jensen didn’t have a clue. “Jen?” Jensen could have happily strangled Jean-Claude.
“Well. I suppose it is a good choice, then. I shall leave you two.” Jean-Claude bowed gallantly like he hadn’t just fucked up dinner royally and walked off, leaving Jared staring at Jensen and Jensen staring down at the table.
“Jensen?” Jared asked again.
Jensen pressed his fingertips against the top of the table and desperately hoped that Jared would take this all better than Jeff had. “I met him yesterday,” Jensen admitted.
“Oh,” Jared said, his mouth twisting into a frown.
“But nothing happened,” Jensen added in a rush. “We just talked.” Jared stared and Jensen felt himself flush again, wondering if he was too sensitive from Jeff’s suspicions, that if he’d just inserted weirdness into a situation that hadn’t had any. It was just that Jensen didn’t want to spoil what, so far, had been one of the best days of his life. He had sex in the ocean for fuck’s sake. This day had been awesome.
Jared suddenly stood, grabbing the cloth napkin from his lap and dropping it onto the table and for a horrible second, Jensen was sure that Jared was going to utter some horribly clichéd “I’m not hungry anymore speech” but, instead, he just held out his hand. “Ready to go?” he asked. Jensen hesitated before taking Jared’s hand but as soon as his fingers touched Jared’s, Jared surged, wrapping his big hand around Jensen’s and pulling him away from the table.
“Sir?” a waiter asked, running over. “May I get you anything else?”
Jared shook his head. “No, we’re fine.” He dragged Jensen even closer as he fumbled out his wallet, needing his other hand but apparently not wanting to let Jensen go. Jared pulled a bill out of his wallet and pressed it into the waiter’s hand. “Thank you,” he said and then hauled Jensen out of the restaurant as the waiter quickly pocked the cash.
Jensen stumbled along after Jared, not quite being able to see where he was putting his feet in the darkness despite the path being partially lit by lanterns. Behind them, Jensen heard a cameraman crashing after them as well. “Where are we going?” Jensen asked. Jared didn’t answer, just threw Jensen a quick smile over his shoulder.
He didn’t stop until they’d reached the ocean shore again, the sound of the waves crashing against the sand echoing through the otherwise still air. Jensen glanced around, wondering how they’d gotten so far so fast but Jared didn’t give him much time to think. Jared wrapped his arms around Jensen, pulling him close, and ducked his head for a kiss which Jensen readily gave up. Okay, yeah, sure, kissing sounded good to Jensen. Jensen moaned and grabbed a hold of Jared’s arms, trying to keep himself steady as his knees threatened to buckle. Jared broke off the kiss, licking his lips, and then he was back, rougher and more demanding and Jensen happily surrendered.
Jared shoved Jensen backward and Jensen panicked briefly as he felt himself falling but Jared caught him, using Jensen’s momentum to lay him out flat on the beach, lowering Jensen to the ground and pushing him flat onto his back. Jensen glanced around wildly as Jared straddled him, pinning him against the sand, and worked his lips up Jensen’s neck. His hands were wandering across Jensen’s body, smoothing across his chest and dipping down to shove up his shirt. “Jared?” Jensen asked. His eyes flicked over to the cameraman who was hard at work, zooming in on the scene and, God, that was creepy. Jared pushed a hand underneath the Jensen’s waistband and Jensen shoved hard at Jared. “Stop!”
Jared jerked his head up, staring down at Jensen. “What?” His hand was still moving, already in Jensen’s underwear and Jensen caught Jared’s wrist.
“I said stop, damn it.” He glared up at Jared, trying to get some air back into his lungs because while, yeah, this was still wet dream come true territory, it was also extremely sudden and, well, being filmed. Being filmed up close and personal.
Jared pulled his hand out of Jensen’s underwear and Jensen breathed a sigh of relief. Then Jared bent back over him, cupping Jensen’s face as he plunged his tongue into Jensen’s mouth. Jensen instinctively responded, opening his mouth wider to let Jared in even more before he realized what he was doing. Damn it! He grunted, pushing at Jared again. He wedged his hands underneath Jared’s shoulders and pushed, lifting Jared up and away from him. His knee curled upward, ready to hold Jared at bay, too.
Jared sat back, giving Jensen some space and ducking his head. “Sorry, Jen,” he muttered.
Jensen narrowed his eyes, not about to let Jared off with a half-assed apology like that. “What is your problem?” he asked, mad enough to cut through any of the usual bullshit.
Jared shrugged and glanced over at the cameraman. “Dude,” Jared said, irritably. “Do you think that you could give us a little space here?” The man took an uncertain step backward and Jared firmed his lips. “No, you know what? Call Jeff because I think you’ve gotten all the footage you need tonight. Tell him to give you the rest of the night off.” Jensen blinked up at Jared, still trying to figure out Jared’s newest mood swing, and Jared stood up, heading toward the cameraman. “Seriously, dude,” Jared said, lowering his voice as he forced out the rough edge. “Just call him up and tell him that I’m done tonight.”
Jensen sat up, watching as Jared continued to talk to the man, his voice to low to be heard now. The cameraman slowly lowered his camera, looking none too happy but he pulled out his phone and handed it to Jared, a clear message of ‘you do it.’ Jared brought the phone to his ear, his free hand gesturing wildly now and then before he finally handed the phone back to the cameraman. The man listened for a few seconds before nodding and taking the phone back. He shouldered his camera and started the trek back up to the resort as Jared jogged back over to Jensen. He plopped himself down in the sand beside Jensen. “Sorry,” he said, louder and more sincere than the last time. “I forgot about the camera.”
Jensen nodded. He understood. When a guy’s used to be filmed nearly every second of every day, it was entirely possible that he wouldn’t even be able to feel them anymore-just respond instinctively. But still. “Okay. But why are you going all caveman on me?”
Jared couldn’t manage to meet Jensen’s eyes. “I was…uh…” He sighed. “I’m stupid,” he confessed. “Forgive me?” When Jensen didn’t answer, Jared pulled his face into an exaggerated pout. “Please?” he tried.
And there was absolutely no way that Jensen could say no to that without feeling like he was kicking a puppy. Jensen sighed and rolled his eyes. Damn the man, anyway.
Jared smiled, knowing that he’d won. He scooted closer. “Let me make it up to you?” he asked. He grabbed Jensen’s hand, holding it between his. “Anything you want, Jen. Didn’t you say that you wanted a sailing lesson? We could do that. We could totally do that tomorrow.”
Jensen tilted his head, thinking over the idea. Yeah, learning how to sail would be pretty cool. Only he knew that he wouldn’t learn everything in just one lesson and, well… He glanced around at their surroundings on the beach with just the faint glow of the stars and a lantern from the path that they’d left. Now that the cameras were gone, there was something that he’d rather do. Something that he had to do. “Jensen?” Jared asked and Jensen blushed. God, he couldn’t ask for that-Jared would know.
He’d know just how big of a dork Jensen was. Jared was staring at him, though, puzzled, and Jensen just picked up all of his inhibitions and threw them into the wind. Jesus. He was in Tahiti with Jared Padalecki sitting on beach staring out over the ocean. It wasn’t like he’d ever get a better opportunity than this. “Actually,” he said, “I was thinking something about something we could do right now?”
“Oh?” Jared asked, a sly smirk spreading across his face. “And that would be?”
Jensen flushed even more. God, he was really doing this. “I want to be Scarlett Johansson,” he mumbled. There. It was out. It was only one of his biggest jerk off fantasies in the entire world and Jensen was a big, huge geek.
Jared blinked. “You want to what?”
Jensen scrubbed at the side of his face, trying to scrape away his blush, before he just decided to go for broke. He turned and faced Jared head-on and sunk a hand into Jared’s hair, pulling him forward. “Oh, you remember it,” he said. “That’s what I want.” Cheesy dialogue and all. Jared’s brow furled in puzzlement but he was following Jensen’s lead, leaning forward. “Tropical Storm,” Jensen clarified, swallowing hard. He darted his eyes over to the ocean and then back to Jared. “I want to be Scarlett Johansson.”
“Ohhhh!” Jared said, finally getting it. “Oh, you want to-!” Jensen didn’t let him finish the sentence, just hauled him down for the first kiss, just like he remembered. Jared stifled a giggle against Jensen’s lips and then happily pressed him back down into the sand. He raised a hand to hold it lightly against Jensen’s face, coaxing him into opening his mouth wider and Jensen moaned.
“Your daddy’s gonna kill me,” Jared whispered, unable to keep the grin off his face. That was okay. Jensen was having the same problem.
Jensen quirked an eyebrow. “Then don’t tell him.” Jared laughed as he pinned Jensen back down against the sand which totally wasn’t in the script but Jensen was willing to forgive him.
It was an awesome day. And, for the moment, Jensen was going to pretend that it could last forever.
Part 13 | Master Post | Part 15
Author: dragonspell
Fandom: RPS
Pairing: Jared/Jensen (and Jared/a slew of other characters including Misha Collins, Tom Welling, Mike Rosenbaum, Danneel Harris, Sandy McCoy and some OMCs and OFCs)
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: AU. Cheesiness. Fandom cliches. The usual drill.
Summary (fic): After a drunken dare, award-winning writer Jensen agreed to on a reality television show to vie for the attention of megastar Jared Padalecki who he's had a crush on for years. Only Jensen doesn't know how he's going to be able to tolerate all the other contestants and their widely varying personalities and he's pretty sure that you're not supposed to be able to get used to somebody filming you 24/7.
Summary (part): Jensen, Jared, and Sandy make it to Tahiti.
Word Count: 10,180
Disclaimer: Never happened, no affiliation.
Master Post: Master Post
A/N: Gah! Hopefully the next part will be smaller? IDK.
Part 13 | Master Post | Part 15
Episode 8 - First Half
Jensen stood on the deck of what was to be his new home for the next few days or however long Jared planned on them being here and just stared in amazement straight out into the rolling ocean. His lips were forming around a word but no sound was coming out because just wow. A couple hundred feet in front of him, ocean waves were crashing onto the sandy beach for as far as the eye could see. He gripped the railing in front of him and leaned on it for support.
Their new ‘house’ was a bungalow on the beach, one of the more private ‘rooms’ that the resort offered. Jensen had thought that setting down on the soil of Tahiti had been a trip but nothing had prepared him for the view of his new ‘backyard.’ He walked straight through the house and through the patio door, ignoring all the not too subtle cameras dotting the rooms. The deck was covered with a sheet of cream white gauze to try and filter out the sun and it came down on each side of the wooden deck in strips that gently blew in the breeze.
“Jared, this place is fantastic!” Sandy squealed. Jensen turned to look at her, stepping back inside through the sliding glass door. She was running from room to room, remarking excitedly over every little thing that she could find from the beds-there were two small ones for him and Sandy and then one large one in what Jensen presumed was the master bedroom and the implication made him have to fight down a small surge of arousal-to the small kitchen. She picked up a vase from a small table, turning it over in her hands as she bounced happily.
Jared smiled as he walked into the middle of the living, standing on the striped rug that covered the wooden floor. He had changed sometime during when Jensen had been staring in stupefied wonder at the ocean and Sandy had been squealing over everything else and Jensen felt his breath catch because he’d definitely seen this scene before. Jared, standing there in his khaki shorts and a white gauzy shirt bared open like he was a tropical poster boy was dressed exactly like he’d been before he’d started rolling around in the sand with Scarlett Johansson in Tropical Storm. Jensen glanced away to try and stop himself from remembering just how Jared had looked at the end of that scene, but it was already too late because images of Jared gasping and wet were already filling his head. Fuck.
Sandy was chirping something again and Jared was laughing but all Jensen could focus on was keeping his stupid dick from giving his thoughts away. Hardwired, indeed. He hoped that, after this was all said and done, he wouldn’t be losing his damn mind every time he saw Jared in a different outfit. This was getting ridiculous.
“-So you two should change into something a little cooler and then we can go get dinner.” Sandy took off like a shot, running to her bedroom while Jensen took it a little slower but only because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to get away with showing the same level of enthusiasm. He’d look ridiculous. She just looked cute.
“It’s a gorgeous view, isn’t it, Jen?” Jared asked, jerking his head towards the patio door and the veranda and ocean beyond. Jensen blushed-caught-but Jared smiled. “I think so, too.” Jared turned and walked out the still open patio door to stand underneath the white gauze. “Go get changed.”
Jensen didn’t run but it was a near thing.
“You have to try this,” Jared said and Sandy obediently opened her mouth for Jared to pop in the bit of yellow fruit. She moaned around it, her hand coming up to wipe up the excess juice and Jensen swallowed down his jealousy like he’d been doing all damn night because Sandy was apparently at the top of her game, all simpering smiles and impossibly innocent dirty innuendos. Jensen was beginning to wonder if the whole thing wasn’t just an act for her and that she really knew what she was doing. He couldn’t decide either way, all that he knew was that he really had to step up his game.
Jared picked up another piece of fruit and offered it out to Jensen and Jensen didn’t bother to think twice. At this point, the cameras could go take a flying leap because this was Tahiti and they were down to the final two and Sandy was out for blood tonight, flirting and giggling effortlessly like the pro she was. Like Hell was Jensen going to lose when he was so damn close. Anything with clothes on was fair game. He opened his mouth to take the fruit, the same as Sandy, but he one-upped her because no way was Jared getting out of this clean. Jensen made sure that his tongue licked up at Jared’s fingers, getting a taste of the juice before he even made it to the fruit, and wrapped his lips around Jared’s fingers, making Jared have to pull them out or not get them back at all.
Jared’s nostrils flared and he stared intently at Jensen as Jensen slowly chewed the chunk of food that Jared had put into his mouth. He smiled and swallowed, making sure to keep eye contact with Jared until Jared sucked in a harsh breath and finally looked away. Sandy was starting to pout on Jared’s other side and dug her nails into Jared’s arm. Jensen let her get away with it because, hey, he’d won that little round and she knew it. He reached for the plate and grabbed another piece of the fruit that Jared had just given him because Jared had had a point-it was damn good.
The sun had set hours ago, a ball of burning orange sinking into the ocean, and night had fallen. Not that it mattered, because they were sitting out on the patio of a closed down restaurant and surrounded by enough flaming torches that it was almost as bright as day. Not to mention all the flood lights that the crew had set around them. Every other table and chair on the patio had been shoved off to the side to make room for the lights and for the cameramen to move around freely. Jensen ignored all of them-it was scary just how adept he was at being able to do that.
He was pressed up against Jared’s side just as much as Sandy, trying to play her game but knowing that he was at a bit of a disadvantage. She had on what had to be one of the most peek-a-boo dresses that he’d ever seen. When you just glanced at it, it looked perfectly fine but all you’d have to do is kept watching and have her move and then you were certain that you were seeing skin. Except that Jensen knew that technically, nothing was showing.
Not that Jensen was a slouch or anything at being able to keep a guy interested-he just didn’t have all of Sandy’s…tools and experience. So far, however, Jared had consistently gone back and forth between them, not favoring one or the other and Jensen didn’t quite know how he felt about that. On one hand, it was nice that he wasn’t being ignored and that Sandy-despite her best attempts-was unable to hold Jared’s interest for long. On the other, it was rather frustrating that Jensen couldn’t seem to hold Jared’s interest for long, either.
Jensen set his teeth but kept his lips in a firm, fake smile while he desperately prayed that Jared wouldn’t insist on too many ‘group’ activities because he didn’t know how much more of this he could take. He really just wanted to tell Sandy to take a hike but a person couldn’t just come out and say that. Not when he knew that she had as much right to be here as he did regardless of how he felt.
“This place is gorgeous,” Sandy was gushing and Jared nodded happily.
“The island’s got a lot of attractions, too! We’re going to be able to see some of them tomorrow.” Jared squeezed Sandy with one arm while she squealed.
“Just you and me?” she asked, sliding even closer to Jared, though how that was possible, Jensen didn’t know. He had a worrying urge to slap her-what the hell was wrong with him?
Jared gave Jensen a squeeze, too, that made Jensen smile and stop glaring at Sandy. “Yeah, just you and me, tomorrow,” Jared said and Jensen felt his heart start to sink. “Jensen’s going to be on his own because he gets me all to himself the day after.”
Jensen liked the sound of the last part of Jared’s statement, but he didn’t know how he was going to be able to make it through the first. An entire day, he knew, was time enough for a lot to happen. But he smiled and nodded happily, murmuring how much he was going to enjoy his time with Jared. No one besides him needed to know just how much he was wishing that Sandy McCoy, America’s Sweetheart, would get eaten by crabs.
He was sure that the funeral would be quite lovely.
The wait staff were a bit puzzled by him. It made Jensen squirm to think about it but he just wasn’t used to being waited on hand and foot. He almost wished that he’d stayed in the bungalow. Almost.
He’d been going stir crazy back in the empty rooms of the small hut on the beach, unable to keep from imagining whatever it was that Jared was currently getting up to with Sandy. His imagination had been running away with him, dreaming up all kinds of lurid scenarios and, by ten o’clock, he’d been convinced that he’d wear a hole in the floor if he kept it up. He hadn’t even wanted to write because he knew exactly what kind of shit that he’d be putting down where just anybody could come along and read it.
So he’d wandered out on to the beach, only mildly surprised to find a cameraman outside his door, quietly sunning himself. The man sighed when Jensen stepped out and Jensen felt a little surge of guilt but it wasn’t enough to make him go back inside. When he finally got home, Jensen knew that he’d never be able to watch a reality TV show again without feeling sorry for the poor crew that constantly followed everyone around.
Jensen quirked an eyebrow as the man lumbered to his feet and picked up his camera. Not bothering to wait for him, Jensen jumped off the deck, heading straight for the path that Jared had taken him and Sandy down last night. He wasn’t going to run because he knew that that would just get him yelled at by Jeff later on, but he certainly wasn’t going to wait for the man to catch up. He could just get some nice shots of Jensen’s ass disappearing into the foliage surrounding the trail. Jensen heard the man bounding along behind him, cursing quietly when his camera was smacked head-on by a palm tree leaf.
Jensen swerved along the path, not deliberately trying to lose his stalker but not exactly encouraging him either. He figured that either the man would catch up or not and Jensen wasn’t about to care one way or the other. It wasn’t like he was with Jared or anything. This was just filler footage.
He eventually emerged onto the lawn of the resort proper, looking just as he remembered it from last night with the restaurant patio branching off to the left of him, with all of its tables and chairs back to their regular order and a couple of guests dining underneath the large umbrellas covering the tables. Directly in front of him, however, encased in glass was the inside dining room and it looked to be nearly empty.
It had been perfect-empty enough to give him the illusion of space but with enough people still circling around that he wasn’t going to go out of him mind. So Jensen had wandered up the slight hill and into the building, making a quick detour over to the gift shop to find something to read. Under the suspicious eye of the cameraman, he’d selected something perfectly within the rules (not a magazine or a newspaper and it hadn’t been published within the past two months), though he’d been more than a little surprised when the clerk had refused to take his money and instead had just waved cheerfully for him to shoplift. Jensen had glanced back at the cameraman, holding the book in one hand and his credit card in the other but the man had just shrugged slightly like this was hardly unusual. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, Jensen had exited the store with his free book and moved back into the dining room, sitting down at a small table next to the large windows, settling in to read as people passed him by.
Which led him to now. The wait staff didn’t know how to handle him, most likely, he thought, because they were used to waiting on guests hand and foot and Jensen seriously only toast and some coffee. No, he didn’t need a refill ever five minutes. No, he didn’t feel like bacon or turkey sausage or blueberry smothered pancakes or whatever delicate pastry they were offering him this time. Yes, the lighting was just fine and no, he really didn’t need any flavored creamer.
He knew that one waiter in particular was staring at him but trying not to show it, convinced that Jensen must be playing some kind of elaborate game. The waiter had told Jensen that anything that he ordered was on the house as per instructions but yet this information still didn’t make Jensen want anything more. Jensen quirked a small smile as he flipped a page. He must be confusing the Hell out of the poor man.
Jensen’s little stalker had settled in at a table across from him, the camera sitting on an empty chair, hidden underneath the table but Jensen refused to let it bother him. Instead he just kept trying to send all of the wait staff’s little treats towards the cameraman. Maybe he was hungry.
Jensen, at the moment, was far too busy with trying to keep his mind off of a certain potential Hollywood power couple. And, considering that he hadn’t hit the gym in ages, he really didn’t need to be eating all the little cakes that kept getting shoved his way.
A person stepped up the table, just looming over him and Jensen sighed a little as he looked up to tell the waiter one more time that he wasn’t interested. The person he saw, however, wasn’t the little waiter with the jet black hair. Instead it was a tall man with blond hair that curled around his ears dressed in Khaki pants and a white button-down shirt. Jensen blinked at him as his eyes traveled up the man’s torso (where he’d been expecting the waiter’s head to be), over his broad shoulders and straight up to his green eyes. “Hi,” the man said.
Jensen swallowed, wondering who the guy was. “Hi?” He shot a glance over at the cameraman who, besides pissily adjusting his hidden camera because the tall man was now blocking the shot, showed no sign of recognition. “Can…Can I help you?” The man looked a little like…
“You looked lonely,” the man replied with a shrug. “I was wondering if I could join you…” Jensen stared up at the man and he took it as an invitation, pulling out the chair opposite Jensen and sitting down. “I saw you across the dinning room and had to come over and introduce myself.” He held out a hand. “Jean-Claude. And you are?”
Jensen stared at the proffered hand, his face starting to heat. Jean-Claude. Jean-Claude looking like that. There was no mistake now-this had to be Jean-Claude Girard. The man was so internationally famous even Jensen who tended to be a bit of hermit at times knew his face-it was hard to miss being on the cover of all those magazines, after all. A world famous photographer and activist he’d even made the damn cover of TIME. Jesus…
Jensen’s hand was engulfed in a warm grip when he didn’t get the hint and Jensen flushed even more. Way to totally come off as normal-just freeze up on people. “Jensen,” he said as Jean-Claude began to shake his hand all on his own. Luckily, the man must have been used to people being a little starstruck around him because he just smiled.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Jensen. That’s an unusual name-I like it.” He had an accent but it was faint, nearly trained out and Jensen found himself straining to hear it. “Did you maybe care for something more to eat? I can get you whatever you want.” Jean-Claude winked at Jensen, leaning forward conspiratorially. “I have an ‘in’ with the staff.”
“Uh…” Jensen didn’t quite know how to tell Jean-Claude that, well, he wasn’t the only one. “No. No, that’s okay.”
“Are you sure?” Jean-Claude asked, raising his eyebrows.
Jensen shook his head. “I’m sure. Um…”
“Well, no matter. Maybe we’ll eat together some other time.” The man grinned and Jensen swallowed hard because apparently Jared didn’t have a patent on killer smiles like Jensen had thought that he did. There was no denying that the man in front of him was…rather attractive. Jensen felt his heart speeding up every second that Jean-Claude sat there, quietly smiling at him.
He also found himself blushing harder because…was he… Jean-Claude had yet to give Jensen back his hand and Jensen’s life got a little bit more surreal. Not only was he in Tahiti with Jared Padalecki with a 50/50 chance of walking away with a relationship with the guy but he was being picked up by Jean-Claude freaking Girard. Life, Jensen thought, really didn’t get much more fantasy-like than this. He was living a sorority girl’s dream…
Jean-Claude didn’t even blink when Jensen hastily yanked his hand away. “Uh-uh-uh…” How did you go about telling an internationally famous hunk thanks but you weren’t interested? “I’m actually, uh, waiting for someone…”
“Oh?” Jean-Claude asked, glancing around as if Jared might suddenly pop out from behind a bush or something. Maybe from behind the tiny waiter who was still staring at Jensen but nodding approvingly. Oh God… “I’m sorry. You’ve just been sitting over here by yourself, looking so lonely…”
“He’s, uh, he’s…out.” With Sandy.
“He must not be a smart man, then,” Jean-Claude said and when Jensen stared blankly at him, he grabbed Jensen’s hand again, holding it in the middle of the table. “To leave such a prize like you waiting by yourself where just anyone can snatch you up.” Jean-Claude unabashedly studied Jensen’s face now. “I would never leave someone like you unguarded.” He reached out to touch Jensen’s face and Jensen jerked backward, instinctively avoiding the touch even as his stupid dick roughly demanded to know just what he thought that he was doing. A person, his dick wanted him to know, does not turn down an offer from Jean-Claude Girard. Jensen shoved his thoughts down, reminding himself that just because Jared was out of sight, did not mean that he was out of mind, and he stood up.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, knowing that he was blushing fiercely and hating himself for it. He snatched his book off the table and fled, leaving behind a rather surprised Jean-Claude and a cursing cameraman.
The paperback book thumped against the wall, smacking flat into the wood before sliding down to the floor. Jensen sighed and dropped his head against the pillow. “Well that was pointless,” he muttered. Now not only was he bored but he also had to pick up the book before anyone else came in.
He had never realized, however, just how incredibly long a day could feel. He was, for all intents and purposes, trapped. Granted, he was trapped on a tropical island with every amenity he could ever want (except for the latest news or a certain movie star), but trapped was trapped. Lying on the couch of the main room, Jensen stared moodily out what he could see of the patio door. He knew that there was cameraman out there. It was a different one from the one that had followed him this morning because it was now nearing three in the afternoon and apparently the crew worked in shifts of about four hours. Jensen had already tried talking to the new guy-who he noted with a little bit of amusement was a little bit younger and more athletic looking than the previous crew member-but had been quietly rebuffed because those were the rules. It, frankly, sucked. And, after his embarrassing flight from Jean-Claude, Jensen had yet to have the courage to return to the resort.
He’d read the entire book and had considered starting over just for the hell of it but he just couldn’t bring himself to be that damn pathetic. “You suck,” Jensen told himself, pushing himself upwards. Here he was moping inside, pining over Jared when he had an entire ocean to himself. God, what a waste of space he was.
Deciding that he was through with pining like a princess in a castle, Jensen got up and grabbed his swim trunks out of his bag, changing into them in the bathroom (he was really hoping that the mansion’s rules on cameras in the bathroom translated to the bungalow as well) before striding outside into the brilliancy of the sunlight, the ocean glittering just a few hundred feet away. The cameraman that had been dozing in the corner startled upright. Jensen didn’t wait for the man to get on his feet before he was jumping off the porch and into the grassy sand.
He reached the ocean, stepping just into the water and feeling each wave as it crashed over his feet. Yeah. So much better than staying inside. He waded out into the water, stepping carefully and dipped below the surface, immersing himself in the pleasant chill before coming up soaking wet. He smiled and splashed at the waves, playing with them as they rocked against him. Yeah. Jared who?
“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” Jensen whirled, nearly tumbling back into the water. He pinwheeled his arms to keep his balance and stared back at the shore. Jean-Claude freaking Girard stood there, smiling at him like some kind of benign god. A sweaty, incredibly hot benign god. He’d ditched the country club clothes and was standing there in just a pair of running shorts and a whole lot of sunblock. Jensen swallowed, unable to keep his eyes from wandering down the man’s chest. Wow. That was at least three personal trainers right there. Had to be.
But Jensen had already known that Jean-Claude was gorgeous-he had People magazine for that. What he didn’t know was… “Are you following me?”
Jean-Claude laughed. Jensen felt himself starting to blush as Jean-Claude tipped his head back and shook with laughter but he forced it down. “I was just about to ask you the same thing!” he said. Reigning his laughter back in, he winked. “Or if not, if you were some enchanting merman emerging from the sea to fuel my decadent fantasies.”
It was a horribly cheesy line but Jensen couldn’t help but feel just a little bit charmed by it. Score one for Jean-Claude, then. Jensen ducked his head to hide his smile. “Very much an air breather,” he said.
“Oh, good,” Jean-Claude replied. “Then I won’t have to worry about you slipping back off into the ocean.” He ambled closer, his bare feet sinking into the water. “And you’ll be able to have dinner with me later.”
Jensen smiled ruefully at the water. And just where had Jean-Claude Girard been a few short months ago when the only thing that Jensen had had to look forward to was a little action from his own hand? Back before he’d spent weeks anticipating meeting Jared and then spent only a handful of days falling head over heels for the damn man? “You’re a little late,” he said, truthfully. “I’m still waiting for someone.”
“And I maintain,” Jean-Claude told him, moving closer-only a few feet separated them now, “the anybody that would leave you alone does not deserve someone as beautiful as you.” Jensen huffed a laugh at the line and Jean-Claude pointed a finger at him. “Ah! See, I made you laugh.”
On shore, Jensen could see the cameraman getting all of this on film and so, when Jean-Claude reached out to touch him, Jensen backed up again. This time, though, he didn’t flee, but he did point towards the shore. “I’m waiting for someone,” he repeated.
Jean-Claude quirked an eyebrow at the cameraman. “That’s who you’re waiting for?” he asked. He sniffed. “You could do better.”
Jensen didn’t know whether to be offended for the cameraman’s sake or not. The man wasn’t exactly bad looking, per se… Just…ordinary. He settled only for shaking his head because just behind the cameraman, he could see Jeff stalking down the beach.
“Oh. With that one?” Jean-Claude asked, pointing at Jeff.
“Jen!” Jeff shouted, his voice carrying. He jogged towards them. “Been looking all over for you!”
Jensen glanced over at Jean-Claude who was eyeing Jeff rather coolly. “Not him either.”
“Bodyguard?” Jean-Claude stated it rather matter-of-factly. Like, of course Jensen would have a bodyguard.
Jensen grinned. He imagined that Jeff would do quite well as a bodyguard. “Something like that,” he replied and waded in towards shore. Jeff stopped just before the spot where the waves were currently hitting the sand, waiting impatiently for Jensen to come completely out of the water.
“This part of the beach is supposed to be closed off,” Jeff informed Jean-Claude. “The resort assured us that we’d have complete privacy.” He crossed his arms and stared hard at Jean-Claude like he was expecting a fight.
Jean-Claude, though, grabbed a hold of Jensen’s arm, startling him as he leaned down to whisper excitedly, “Dirty movies?”
Jensen blushed from head to toe as an image of him and Jared filming a ‘dirty movie’ flashed through his head. Pathetically, he was pretty sure it was straight out of one of Jared’s movies and that Jensen was replacing the lead actress with himself. God, could he be any more cliché? “No,” he whispered back, moving away from Jean-Claude to stand beside Jeff.
“How about you go back to the house and get dried off, Jen?” Jeff suggested and Jensen opened his mouth to tell Jeff that he’d just gotten in the water and that he’d rather not but the look on Jeff’s face had the words stopping in his throat. Instead, he just nodded and headed meekly inside.
“See you later, Jensen!” Jean-Claude called, waving at Jensen before Jeff stepped in between them, cutting him off.
Jensen hoped that Jared made it back soon.
It took nearly an hour of enduring Jeff’s little ‘talk’ to convince the man that he wasn’t soliciting Jean-Claude’s attentions. Jensen had assured Jeff as earnestly as possible that he’d had no idea that Jean-Claude would be down at the beach and, yes, he’d only been talking. Feat had griped his heart the entire time because God, what if this was enough to get him kicked off the show? To come so close and yet be so damn far?
Jeff eventually backed off, though, and Jensen let himself breath a little sigh of relief. Jeff had even only given him ‘softball’ questions during the little interview that he’d apparently showed up to do when he’d found Jensen down on the beach and Jensen was willing to forgive him. The man was only doing his job, after all.
Jeff had stayed nearly two hours after that, talking cheerfully with Jensen, no doubt picking up on the fact that Jensen was going insane by himself. When Jeff had finally decided to leave, Jensen had wanted to wrap himself around Jeff’s leg like a three year old and beg him to stay. It was only a lingering sense of dignity that stopped him.
Which left him with hours to kill. He wandered down to the beach and splashed into the water, feeling just a little bit angry with himself that he was disappointed that Jean-Claude wasn’t there. Jensen tried to tell himself that he was only feeling that way because of the fact that he didn’t want to be alone at the moment and that he just wanted a friend but a treacherous little pang of his heart said otherwise. So instead he settled on ‘sublimation’ and left it at that. It was just him missing Jared.
He stayed in the water until after sunset, alternating between actually swimming and just floating, before he finally hauled himself onto dry land and plodded back to the veranda. “Hey,” he said to the cameraman (yet again another different one). The man smiled wanly but didn’t answer and Jensen sighed, walking into the house.
Dinner was waiting for him, already prepared without him having to order it, stretched out on the bungalow’s little dining room table and Jensen frowned down at it. Knowing that it would be rude if he didn’t at least try some of it but not really feeling like eating without Jared’s constant “you’ve got to try this!” Jensen picked at a bit of the food before putting himself to bed around nine.
He stared up at the ceiling and wished again that Jared would hurry up and come home. That he wouldn’t do something completely stupid like propose to Sandy or something-surely Jeff would kill him if he did that?-and that everything would be just fine. The more he thought about it, though, the more worse his fears became because that was a drawback of being a writer: too damn good of an imagination. He was even starting to picture the same scene out of Tropical Storm that he’d been daydreaming about earlier but instead of him as Scarlett Johansson, he was picturing Sandy. God fucking damn it. So he sighed and began to listen to the slow tick-tick of his bedside clock.
For being on a supposed vacation on a tropical island, today really had sucked.
Jensen woke to the feel of a light touch stroking through his hair. He instinctively leaned towards it and fluttered his eyes open, not at all surprised to see Jared laying beside him. Jared smiled. “Morning.”
“Mornin’,” Jensen replied. He glanced around for a clock before he realized that it was behind Jared. “What time is it?”
“Time to get up.” Jared rolled off of the bed to stand beside it, holding out a hand for Jensen. Jensen let his eyes trail lazily over Jared’s body, taking in the light blue t-shirt and the plaid covered shorts, stopping-just for a minute-at the slight bulge of Jared’s crotch. Jensen smiled to himself even as he told himself to get his mind out of the gutter. “We got a lot of things planned today.”
Jensen scrubbed at his eyes and took Jared’s hand, letting Jared pull him to his feet. “My turn?” he asked. He felt a small pang of jealousy but he kept it to himself. It was his turn to spend the day with Jared and Sandy could spend it quietly going out of her mind by herself.
“Yep,” Jared said, pulling Jensen to the middle of the room to stand on the soft blue rug that covered the wooden floor. “So hurry up and get dressed.” He dipped his head down to give Jensen a quick kiss at the corner of his mouth that Jensen was just a little too slow to respond to. Jensen turned his head, hoping for more, but Jared pulled away with a smile. “Get dressed,” he repeated and headed out of the room.
Jensen sighed. Fine. He’d get dressed. For a great deal of the things that he wanted to do with Jared, though, clothes were entirely optional. He dug through his suitcase, hoping to find something that would both be comfortable and slightly stylish. But it couldn’t look like he was trying too hard! And he wondered if he should wear his swim trunks. He knew that Sandy had definitely been wearing her bikini yesterday when she left-this kind of shit, he thought, had to be so much easier for girls. There were all kinds of options. Jensen glared down at his assembled clothes before just grabbing his swim trunks-already dried from last night-a pair of shorts that would cover them and a T-shirt. He was being ridiculous, obsessing over what to wear.
He ducked into the bathroom for a quick shower, popped in his contacts, and firmly did not spend a half hour in front of the mirror trying to get his hair just right. He spiked it quickly, glancing at it from a couple of different angles and hoping that it conveying that ‘casually confident’ look. Snorting at himself, Jensen left the bathroom, stopping by his bedroom to grab an overshirt and shrugged into it as he made his way out to the main room. He passed Sandy’s door which remained shut the entire time and Jensen couldn’t keep the smile off of his face.
He had an entire day with Jared. It was all he could do not to freaking skip.
“Just relax into it,” Jared said. “It’s easy. Breathe evenly and don’t panic. The horse will know if you panic, so just tilt back and ride down the hill.”
Jensen rolled his eyes. “When did you become the horse whisperer?” he asked, even if he did consider himself lucky that he’d even managed to get himself up on the horse in the first place. He was holding his own on the trail, though, not having managed to fall off once, so Jensen would take that as a win.
Jared had started out their day by taking Jensen to the resort restaurant for breakfast which Jensen had completely expected. Jared and food, Jensen had already realized, was a life-long love affair that was unlikely to ever end. What he hadn’t expected, however, was Jared taking him down to the far end of the resort and finding a couple of well maintained barns with two dark brown horses standing out in front, saddled and ready, held in place by a handler.
That had been where Jared’s ‘tips’ regarding horseback-riding had started and an hour later, they had yet to end. Jensen had no idea if any of it was true or not or if it was just straight up BS but he was taking each one of Jared’s suggestions. With a grain of salt, of course. It wasn’t like he minded them and, besides, apparently none of the cameramen knew how to ride a horse and film at the same time, so they were, for once, truly on their own and Jensen was over the damn moon about that. If the trails didn’t look so well traveled, he’d consider trying to convince Jared to... ‘make a quick stop.’ As it was, though, he didn’t think that he could risk it. Damn.
“I’ll have you know,” Jared replied with an easy grin, effortlessly swaying with the horse in a way that Jensen couldn’t quite seem to manage just yet, “that I was trained by some of the best.”
“I’ll bet,” Jensen replied. “Where are we going anyway?” he asked when they reached a fork in the road and Jared hooked towards the right.
Jared looked aghast. “You want me to ruin the surprise?”
“Oh, it’s a surprise, is it?” Jensen ducked his head, hiding his grin. “Well, then, maybe I can wait.”
“The good news is,” Jared replied, nudging his heels against his horse’s side to urge it into a trot, “that maybe you don’t have to wait anymore.” He slowed his horse down at the edge of the foliage, ducking under an overhanging branch of a palm tree as he waited for Jensen to catch up. Jensen narrowed his eyes suspiciously but let his horse amble over to Jared anyway.
When they emerged from underneath the palm tree, the carefully manicured ‘jungle’ around them fell away and dissolved into a sandy beach with a few docks jutting off into the water. Sailboats rocked quietly with the water, their white sails dotting the sky. “Was wondering if you’d like to go sailing with me?” Jared asked, reaching out to touch Jensen’s cheek.
Jensen turned towards him. “You know how?” he asked and Jared barked a laugh.
“Hell no. That’s what guides are for.” Jensen chuckled and urged his horse into a walk again, heading down towards the boats. “I’ll take that as a yes, then,” Jared said smugly and Jensen rolled his eyes again. As if Jared even had to ask.
“I give up!” Jared announced, finally sitting down, and Jensen laughed even as he was breathing a sigh of relief. He’d had visions of Jared toppling off the boat and into the water because Jared kept insisting that he could stand up but yet, in the hour or so that they’d been out on the water, he couldn’t seem to master the rolling motion that their tour guide did effortlessly.
“Wise choice,” the guide said, cracking a smile. He’d already had to catch Jared twice to keep him from going overboard. The man, a tall Frenchman who had introduced himself as Alphonso, pulled on a few ropes, bringing in the sail and, now that he no longer had to kept a firm watch on Jared, Jensen studied Alphonso’s motions as he puttered around the boat, memorizing details in case he ever could use it later. Catching Jensen watching him, Alphonso grinned again. “Perhaps you would like to try?” he asked, holding out a hand invitingly.
Jensen glanced quickly at Jared who waved him off with a smile. “I’ll be fine,” Jared said. “Just as long as I don’t move.” As if Jensen could resist such an opportunity. He pushed himself to his feet, dusting off the back of his shorts before he rolled himself over to where Alphonso was waiting patiently. As Jensen approached, the man moved back a little to give Jensen room to slide in front of him and study the sail. When Jensen was in position, Alphonso moved back in close and Jensen resisted the urge to retreat. Alphonso was a little…big.
The man handed Jensen a rope. “Mainsheet,” he said. “Trim the main just a little.” When Jensen stared blankly, wondering how he was supposed to do that, Alphonso huffed a laugh and set his big hands over Jensen’s, his skin looking pitch black against the relatively paleness of Jensen’s own. “Pull,” he urged quietly and Jensen nodded quickly, doing as instructed. “Ah! Not so hard! Easy. Easy, like you would touch a lover. Marie, she likes a soft touch.”
Jensen flushed at the thought of treating a boat like a lover but did as he was told as Alphonso’s hands slid over his. “You’re a natural.” Alphonso took the rope from Jensen’s hand. “Maybe I can give you a private lesson later,” he said. “You would probably learn a lot.”
Jensen smiled. “That’d be-”
“So I was thinking about heading back now,” Jared said, cutting him off. He was staring at them with narrowed eyes and Jensen blinked back, confused. Alphonso, though, took a step back, holding up his hands.
“You have an hour left of your charter.”
Jared shifted like he was going to try to stand again but wisely held himself in place. “No, I was thinking about taking Jen swimming. Wouldn’t that be fun, Jen?”
Jensen though that since he’d spent hours swimming by himself yesterday that sailing sounded better to him but somehow he knew that Jared hadn’t really asked him a question. Besides, this would be swimming with Jared and Jensen had quite fond memories of Jared being wet. He couldn’t say that he’d mind getting another good look. Or maybe a few gropes. So he nodded. “Sure.” When Jared held out his arms, too, like Hell was Jensen turning that down, so he happily moved back over to Jared, sitting down next to him as Jared wrapped him up in a hug.
Jared smiled and pressed a smacking kiss to Jensen’s temple. “If you wouldn’t mind, Alphonso.”
Alphonso shrugged as he set about taking them back into shore. “It’s your money.”
The water was warm around Jensen but it was nothing compared to the heat from Jared’s hands. Jensen gasped against Jared’s shoulder as Jared’s hands delved into Jensen’s shorts. Jared ducked his head, drawing Jensen into a series of short little kisses that left Jensen breathless. He clung hard to Jared and thought that perhaps they should move this whole thing possibly more towards shore before they both managed to drown because neither one of them could touch the bottom at the moment and Jensen was fast losing focus. He couldn’t concentrate on keeping himself afloat when there were other, more pressing issues demanding his attention-like the way that Jared was sucking on his bottom lip and the perfect way that Jared had of wrapping around Jensen’s dick.
Except this far out, Jensen knew, the cameraman back on shore could get jack, especially not with Jared’s back to him, and that was incredibly freeing. Jensen gasped and surged up against Jared, splashing water as he gripped Jared tightly. And this? Was way better than sailing. Jared possibly owed Jensen a sailing lesson or two to make up for what he’d lost but Jensen couldn’t complain about the trade. Jared tilted his head, biting underneath Jensen’s jaw and Jensen started to pant as he shoved his own hand down into Jared’s swim trunks. Holy fuck. It wasn’t really swimming but holy fuck.
“God, Jen,” Jared panted, nipping at Jensen’s skin as his hand jerked Jensen off steadily. Jensen bit back, sinking his teeth into Jared’s shoulder to keep himself from voicing all the pathetic little sounds that he was threatening to make. “So fucking gorgeous,” Jared whispered, kissing along the side of Jensen’s face. “So incredibly fucking gorgeous…”
Jensen moaned, unable to help himself because, Jesus, he didn’t think that he’d ever been this turned on in his life. The past few weeks of steady teasing was going straight to his head and he knew that he didn’t have a prayer of lasting. He didn’t even want to try-he just wanted to come as in yesterday. And the fact that it was Jared that was going to make him do it? Heady.
Jared’s dick was hard and thick in Jensen’s hand and he stroked it eagerly, listening to Jared’s breathing taking on an increasingly fevered pitch. Jared kept growling in Jensen’s ear about “hot” and “You drive me so fucking nuts” and “God, I want to fuck you...” and Jensen closed his eyes and shuddered as he came, biting back a scream and clinging to Jared to try and stay afloat. “God, yeah,” Jared whispered, stroking Jensen through it. He caught Jensen’s mouth in a rough kiss and for half a second, Jensen thought for sure he was about to drown despite the fact that his head was still above water.
Jared moaned, shoving his tongue inside of Jensen’s mouth as he finally let go of Jensen’s dick, sliding his hands back around to grab Jensen’s ass, squeezing as he pulled Jensen’s hips as close as possible. Jared ground himself against Jensen’s belly, getting himself off and Jensen just wrapped his arms around Jared’s neck and surrendered, letting Jared have at it.
Jensen felt it when Jared came-Jared slamming against him one last time, the water growing warmer around them before it was all whisked away in the current, and Jared’s mouth turning gentle as he came down from his climax. Jared finally broke the kiss to pant in Jensen’s ear while Jensen nuzzled happily against Jared’s neck, feeling like he could stay just like this from now until, say, the rest of eternity. He’d end up like a prune and possibly sprouting gills, but it would be so damn worth it.
“Fuck, I needed that,” Jared muttered, nosing Jensen’s ear and Jensen hummed his agreement. Clinging to Jared still, he wasn’t sure how Jared was managing to keep them afloat but Jensen knew that he could happily drift off now. His muscles were relaxed so much of his nervous tension was just drained away for the moment, unable to stay with the pleasure of his orgasm still buzzing through his body.
Jared sighed, his hands running up Jensen’s back to cup his head and pull him into another kiss. “We should probably get out now,” Jared murmured. Jensen just hummed again, too lazy to actually form words and Jared grinned. “Or we could just stay here for awhile.” Jensen was down with that, too.
When they finally did manage to work up the ambition to head to shore, dragging themselves out of the surf, Jared couldn’t seem to keep his hands nor his mouth to himself, hanging all over Jensen and sucking better than any vampire. As for Jensen, he had an extra swing in his step and not only did he know it but he also didn’t care who saw it, either.
Jared had ordered nearly one of everything on the menu. Jensen had been disbelieving when he’d first heard Jared start listing off everything that he wanted, sure that it was some kind of joke but no. There was almost more food on the table than the table could actually hold and it was all so that Jared could try to get Jensen to taste each and every one. Jensen was secretly wondering if Jared was attempting to get him fat.
They were sitting in one of the partially hidden nooks of the resort’s restaurant, their table tucked away from the rest of the dining room and up against a large window that looked out on to the inky blackness of the night and the slow roll of the ocean, waves rippling under the light of the stars. A warm glow had started somewhere in Jensen’s girly, girly heart the minute that they’d been walked to the table and it had refused to go away. Even if Jared was trying to stuff him like a Christmas goose.
Jared kept pushing random pieces of food at Jensen, asking each time, “How about this one?” or “You have to try this one” and Jensen really couldn’t say no. One, he didn’t have the heart and, two, it was really fucking good food. He just knew that he probably didn’t want to know what it was that he was actually eating. Along the way, Jared was also eating his fair share and, somewhere in between, he was sharing details about the next movie that he was thinking about doing. “Real tearjerker,” Jared said. “My agent wants me to do it; says that it’s ‘Oscar material.’” He leaned in and winked. “I think he’s living vicariously.”
Jensen hid a laugh behind his hand, turning his head to look at the wall. Jared, though, laughed openly. “He just wants to be name-checked during my speech again.”
Jensen chuckled, meeting Jared’s eyes again. “So are you-” Jensen cut himself off as he stared over Jared’s shoulder. Oh shit.
“Am I…?” Jared asked, prompting for Jensen to finish but Jensen was too busy watching the all-too-familiar curly blond hair coming his way.
“I said that we’d meet again,” Jean-Claude said, putting his hands over his heart in an exaggerated gesture. “It is truly fate!”
As Jensen stared, Jared frowned in puzzlement before turning in his chair to come face to face with Jean-Claude. Then a grin broke out across his face. “Oh hey!” Jared said. “Nice seeing you again, too.” He held out his hand to Jean-Claude, catching his attention. Jensen glanced back and forth between the two men as Jean-Claude quickly switched gears and shook Jared’s hand, wondering if Jared was assuming that Jean-Claude had been talking to him and not Jensen. It was, after all, only logical. As far as Jared should know, after all, he was the only one that had met the famous photographer and activist. There was no reason at all for Jensen to ever have met the charismatic man.
Besides the fact that Jean-Claude was apparently stalking him, of course. Jensen felt a small kernel of panic starting to grow because, God, it had taken him hours yesterday to convince Jeff that nothing had been going on between him and Jean-Claude and he didn’t want to have to go through the whole thing again with Jared. Jared and Jean-Claude were talking easily now but would that last? “So I haven’t seen you since the New Years Party,” Jared said.
Jean-Claude nodded. “No, I’ve been very busy.”
“I’ll bet!” Jared laughed. “Being a superhero’s a tiring job.”
“So’s being a high profile celebrity,” Jean-Claude said. He nodded over at Jensen. “But I see that you’ve managed to find some time for yourself.” Jean-Claude let his eyes wander over to Jensen and Jensen flushed, ducking his head.
Jared grabbed Jensen’s hand, holding it in the middle of the table. “Yeah,” he admittedly, strangely shy. “This is Jensen. Jensen, this is my friend Jean-Claude Girard. You’ve probably seen his work.”
Oh, Jensen had seen Jean-Claude’s ‘work’ alright. Not trusting himself to speak at the moment, thinking that he might blow everything, Jensen just nodded and Jared rubbed his thumb soothingly over the back of Jensen’s hand. “Jen’s shy,” Jared said.
“I got that.” Jensen dared a glance up at Jean-Claude who was giving him a rather weary smile. “So this was who you were waiting for.”
“What?” Jared asked. He glanced between the two of them like he was suddenly realizing that there was more going on than he’d thought. Then he settled on Jen, apparently deciding that he was the best one to tell the story though why Jensen didn’t have a clue. “Jen?” Jensen could have happily strangled Jean-Claude.
“Well. I suppose it is a good choice, then. I shall leave you two.” Jean-Claude bowed gallantly like he hadn’t just fucked up dinner royally and walked off, leaving Jared staring at Jensen and Jensen staring down at the table.
“Jensen?” Jared asked again.
Jensen pressed his fingertips against the top of the table and desperately hoped that Jared would take this all better than Jeff had. “I met him yesterday,” Jensen admitted.
“Oh,” Jared said, his mouth twisting into a frown.
“But nothing happened,” Jensen added in a rush. “We just talked.” Jared stared and Jensen felt himself flush again, wondering if he was too sensitive from Jeff’s suspicions, that if he’d just inserted weirdness into a situation that hadn’t had any. It was just that Jensen didn’t want to spoil what, so far, had been one of the best days of his life. He had sex in the ocean for fuck’s sake. This day had been awesome.
Jared suddenly stood, grabbing the cloth napkin from his lap and dropping it onto the table and for a horrible second, Jensen was sure that Jared was going to utter some horribly clichéd “I’m not hungry anymore speech” but, instead, he just held out his hand. “Ready to go?” he asked. Jensen hesitated before taking Jared’s hand but as soon as his fingers touched Jared’s, Jared surged, wrapping his big hand around Jensen’s and pulling him away from the table.
“Sir?” a waiter asked, running over. “May I get you anything else?”
Jared shook his head. “No, we’re fine.” He dragged Jensen even closer as he fumbled out his wallet, needing his other hand but apparently not wanting to let Jensen go. Jared pulled a bill out of his wallet and pressed it into the waiter’s hand. “Thank you,” he said and then hauled Jensen out of the restaurant as the waiter quickly pocked the cash.
Jensen stumbled along after Jared, not quite being able to see where he was putting his feet in the darkness despite the path being partially lit by lanterns. Behind them, Jensen heard a cameraman crashing after them as well. “Where are we going?” Jensen asked. Jared didn’t answer, just threw Jensen a quick smile over his shoulder.
He didn’t stop until they’d reached the ocean shore again, the sound of the waves crashing against the sand echoing through the otherwise still air. Jensen glanced around, wondering how they’d gotten so far so fast but Jared didn’t give him much time to think. Jared wrapped his arms around Jensen, pulling him close, and ducked his head for a kiss which Jensen readily gave up. Okay, yeah, sure, kissing sounded good to Jensen. Jensen moaned and grabbed a hold of Jared’s arms, trying to keep himself steady as his knees threatened to buckle. Jared broke off the kiss, licking his lips, and then he was back, rougher and more demanding and Jensen happily surrendered.
Jared shoved Jensen backward and Jensen panicked briefly as he felt himself falling but Jared caught him, using Jensen’s momentum to lay him out flat on the beach, lowering Jensen to the ground and pushing him flat onto his back. Jensen glanced around wildly as Jared straddled him, pinning him against the sand, and worked his lips up Jensen’s neck. His hands were wandering across Jensen’s body, smoothing across his chest and dipping down to shove up his shirt. “Jared?” Jensen asked. His eyes flicked over to the cameraman who was hard at work, zooming in on the scene and, God, that was creepy. Jared pushed a hand underneath the Jensen’s waistband and Jensen shoved hard at Jared. “Stop!”
Jared jerked his head up, staring down at Jensen. “What?” His hand was still moving, already in Jensen’s underwear and Jensen caught Jared’s wrist.
“I said stop, damn it.” He glared up at Jared, trying to get some air back into his lungs because while, yeah, this was still wet dream come true territory, it was also extremely sudden and, well, being filmed. Being filmed up close and personal.
Jared pulled his hand out of Jensen’s underwear and Jensen breathed a sigh of relief. Then Jared bent back over him, cupping Jensen’s face as he plunged his tongue into Jensen’s mouth. Jensen instinctively responded, opening his mouth wider to let Jared in even more before he realized what he was doing. Damn it! He grunted, pushing at Jared again. He wedged his hands underneath Jared’s shoulders and pushed, lifting Jared up and away from him. His knee curled upward, ready to hold Jared at bay, too.
Jared sat back, giving Jensen some space and ducking his head. “Sorry, Jen,” he muttered.
Jensen narrowed his eyes, not about to let Jared off with a half-assed apology like that. “What is your problem?” he asked, mad enough to cut through any of the usual bullshit.
Jared shrugged and glanced over at the cameraman. “Dude,” Jared said, irritably. “Do you think that you could give us a little space here?” The man took an uncertain step backward and Jared firmed his lips. “No, you know what? Call Jeff because I think you’ve gotten all the footage you need tonight. Tell him to give you the rest of the night off.” Jensen blinked up at Jared, still trying to figure out Jared’s newest mood swing, and Jared stood up, heading toward the cameraman. “Seriously, dude,” Jared said, lowering his voice as he forced out the rough edge. “Just call him up and tell him that I’m done tonight.”
Jensen sat up, watching as Jared continued to talk to the man, his voice to low to be heard now. The cameraman slowly lowered his camera, looking none too happy but he pulled out his phone and handed it to Jared, a clear message of ‘you do it.’ Jared brought the phone to his ear, his free hand gesturing wildly now and then before he finally handed the phone back to the cameraman. The man listened for a few seconds before nodding and taking the phone back. He shouldered his camera and started the trek back up to the resort as Jared jogged back over to Jensen. He plopped himself down in the sand beside Jensen. “Sorry,” he said, louder and more sincere than the last time. “I forgot about the camera.”
Jensen nodded. He understood. When a guy’s used to be filmed nearly every second of every day, it was entirely possible that he wouldn’t even be able to feel them anymore-just respond instinctively. But still. “Okay. But why are you going all caveman on me?”
Jared couldn’t manage to meet Jensen’s eyes. “I was…uh…” He sighed. “I’m stupid,” he confessed. “Forgive me?” When Jensen didn’t answer, Jared pulled his face into an exaggerated pout. “Please?” he tried.
And there was absolutely no way that Jensen could say no to that without feeling like he was kicking a puppy. Jensen sighed and rolled his eyes. Damn the man, anyway.
Jared smiled, knowing that he’d won. He scooted closer. “Let me make it up to you?” he asked. He grabbed Jensen’s hand, holding it between his. “Anything you want, Jen. Didn’t you say that you wanted a sailing lesson? We could do that. We could totally do that tomorrow.”
Jensen tilted his head, thinking over the idea. Yeah, learning how to sail would be pretty cool. Only he knew that he wouldn’t learn everything in just one lesson and, well… He glanced around at their surroundings on the beach with just the faint glow of the stars and a lantern from the path that they’d left. Now that the cameras were gone, there was something that he’d rather do. Something that he had to do. “Jensen?” Jared asked and Jensen blushed. God, he couldn’t ask for that-Jared would know.
He’d know just how big of a dork Jensen was. Jared was staring at him, though, puzzled, and Jensen just picked up all of his inhibitions and threw them into the wind. Jesus. He was in Tahiti with Jared Padalecki sitting on beach staring out over the ocean. It wasn’t like he’d ever get a better opportunity than this. “Actually,” he said, “I was thinking something about something we could do right now?”
“Oh?” Jared asked, a sly smirk spreading across his face. “And that would be?”
Jensen flushed even more. God, he was really doing this. “I want to be Scarlett Johansson,” he mumbled. There. It was out. It was only one of his biggest jerk off fantasies in the entire world and Jensen was a big, huge geek.
Jared blinked. “You want to what?”
Jensen scrubbed at the side of his face, trying to scrape away his blush, before he just decided to go for broke. He turned and faced Jared head-on and sunk a hand into Jared’s hair, pulling him forward. “Oh, you remember it,” he said. “That’s what I want.” Cheesy dialogue and all. Jared’s brow furled in puzzlement but he was following Jensen’s lead, leaning forward. “Tropical Storm,” Jensen clarified, swallowing hard. He darted his eyes over to the ocean and then back to Jared. “I want to be Scarlett Johansson.”
“Ohhhh!” Jared said, finally getting it. “Oh, you want to-!” Jensen didn’t let him finish the sentence, just hauled him down for the first kiss, just like he remembered. Jared stifled a giggle against Jensen’s lips and then happily pressed him back down into the sand. He raised a hand to hold it lightly against Jensen’s face, coaxing him into opening his mouth wider and Jensen moaned.
“Your daddy’s gonna kill me,” Jared whispered, unable to keep the grin off his face. That was okay. Jensen was having the same problem.
Jensen quirked an eyebrow. “Then don’t tell him.” Jared laughed as he pinned Jensen back down against the sand which totally wasn’t in the script but Jensen was willing to forgive him.
It was an awesome day. And, for the moment, Jensen was going to pretend that it could last forever.
Part 13 | Master Post | Part 15