Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
It was winter time in Salem and the snow fell blissfully outside as many Salemites started preparing for tonight’s tree-decorating ritual. All Salemites, except Marlena, who now sat with a sick Arianna on her lap as she listened to Kate drone on about another one of her oh-so-important business ventures. “The nurse said it’s probably just a virus and that we should keep her home so she can get some rest,” Will interjected, bringing the conversation back to the task at hand. Arianna was not feeling well, and Marlena had been called over, not as a doctor but as a grandmother.
“What!” exclaimed an overly dramatic Kate, “I have clients coming over from Japan and I can’t afford to get sick!”
Marlena rolled her eyes internally. She’d had enough and decided to cut her off. “You know, Kate, I’ve pretty much got it covered here. You can leave and I’ll take care of Arianna so the boys can attend the tree decorating.”
Will and Sonny both turned to Marlena, wanting desperately to accept the offer, but feeling bad that she would have to cancel any plans she has for the night. “Grandma, that’s awful nice of you, but you don’t have to do that. I’m sure you and J-“ he stopped himself, almost mentioning John, whose name became almost forbidden in the past year. He still couldn’t get used it. He tried to recover, “I’m sure you have something you’d rather be doing.”
Marlena smiled weakly, appreciating the effort. “No, actually. I can’t think of a better way to spend Christmas than with my sweet baby girl.” Marlena cuddled the infant closer, nuzzling her in. This was true. Marlena wanted to be with family. It sure as hell beat pacing the townhouse, waiting for John to not show up again.
“If you say so,” the boys tentatively accepted the offer. “We’ll try not to be back too late.” Will and Sonny gave Arianna a quick kiss before bundling up and heading out the door.
Marlena set Arianna down on the carpet and sat down. “Guess it’s just you and me, girl.” Arianna looked up at her great grandmother, unimpressed. Marlena scanned the room until she saw a puppet of a bunny. Perfect. She grabbed the toy and attempted to entertain the mini diva. Even her best efforts were met with a stoic face. Eventually she put the puppet down as Arianna switched her attention to her dollhouse. Marlena remained seated on the ground, lost in thought. In the past couple weeks leading to Christmas, she had tried her best to stay busied with work. She attended seminars, taught additional courses, anything to keep herself out of the house. Deep down, she knew she was just avoiding what she feared most, being alone at the townhouse around Christmastime.
Marlena was brought back to reality when she heard the doorbell ring. Who could that be, she wondered as she got up to open the door. She slowly opened the door to find a familiar face. “John!” she exclaimed, unable to hide the smile that spread across her face. He smiled, too, nervously as he fidgeted with his hands in his pockets.
“Hi, Doc,” he stated nervously. “I, uh, was walking around Horton Square and I heard I could find you here so I thought I would come and say Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas to you too,” Marlena responded. An awkward silence fell as they stood in the doorway, unsure of how to navigate their relationship. “You can come inside,” Marlena offered as John shivered in the door way.
“Thank you. I would like that,” John replied warmly as he stepped into the apartment and noticed a pair of big brown eyes staring at up at him from the carpet. “Hello, Arianna. Merry Christmas!” John crouched down, smiling at the sassy infant.
“You got here just in time, actually,” Marlena interrupted. “I could use your help. Miss Arianna isn’t too thrilled with any of her great grandmother’s jokes.”
John looked back up at Marlena, who stood awkwardly behind the sofa clutching a stuffed animal bunny. God, she looked beautiful, John thought to himself as he stared at her blonde curls which hung loosely around her face. “Really? I find that hard to believe. Must be a tough crowd,” he joked as he got up to take the animal from Marlena. “Let’s see what we got here.” He slid the puppet onto his hand. Marlena smiled and took her cue to scoop up the youngster and take a seat on the couch. John moved behind the couch and crouched down so that he was out of Arianna’s line of vision.
“Where did John go?!” Marlena asked Arianna, who now turned her head to look across the room. John quickly popped up from behind sofa, puppet in hand. “Peek-a-boo!” John exclaimed as Arianna squealed in delight.
“Sure, she thinks it’s funny when you do it,” Marlena joked wryly.
“Can’t help it. I’m a funny guy, doc,” John joked back while initiating another round of peek-a-boo by ducking back behind the couch. Marlena was suddenly in a daze, again. Something about the way he called her doc, the way they were laughing, the way they were taking care of a child again. It was too much.
John poked back up from behind the sofa, exclaiming “Peek-a-boo!” again, receiving a roaring laugh from Arianna, but nothing from Marlena who appeared a million miles away. John noticed this and decided maybe it was time for Arianna to go to bed. After all, it was getting late. He turned to Marlena and placed Arianna in his arms and began to lull her into a sleep, all the while, keeping a close eye on Marlena whose mood had gone south very quickly. Arianna succumbed to sleep quite easily after that rousing match of peek-a-boo, and John placed her into the basinet in the living room. He decided to focus his attention on Marlena, who had gotten up from the sofa and was now standing idly by the door.
“Doc?” John asked, confused as to what she was doing.
“Please, don’t call me that,” she cut him off coldly. Okay, this was going to be harder than I thought. He decided to try again.
“Okay, Marlena, I know we need to talk. I didn’t want to bring anything up because it’s Christmas and I didn’t want to upset you,” he began to explain, but it was hard to find the words.
“Maybe it’s better if you just go,” she suggested, trying to sound assertive, but John saw the quivering bottom lip, a tell-tale sign of a Marlena cry. It broke his heart.
“Listen, doc, I mean Marlena. I’m not sure what is happening here. I mean, you seemed happy to see me and really all I wanted was to spend time with you because I miss you and it’s Christmas and now you’re pushing me away and maybe I deserve that, but don’t act like you don’t care because you do.”
“No, you don’t get to do this,” Marlena snapped back at him. “You don’t get to walk in here and play with stuffed animals and take care of our great grand daughter with me and make me laugh and make me feel like you’re not going to up and leave again, which you will because that’s what you always do!” The tears began to fall and she stood planted by the door, dangerously close to opening it and demanding that he leave.
“Marlena, obviously you are angry with me and I get that. But I can assure you, I’m not leaving the time. I’m staying in Salem, for good.” Marlena was skeptical. She’d heard this before. She pursed her lips, and looked at the ground. John decided to take a risk and approached her slowly, placing a finger under her chin and forcing her to look up at him with tear-filled eyes.
“Why, John?!” She wailed, the tears falling down rapidly now. “How could you do this to me?! With Kristen, of all people!” She pummeled her clenched fists into his chest as John attempted to wrap his arms around her like a cocoon. She resisted, pushing harder against his chest.
“Shh, baby,” John attempted to lull her, similar to the way he was with Arianna moments ago. Eventually she grew tired and relaxed into his embrace. “I’m sorry, baby,” he continued to whisper apologies against her ear. He knew he probably shouldn’t be so turned on right now, but having her in his arms and smelling her sweet shampoo as he nuzzled his face into her neck was too much for him to handle. It had been so long since he had her in his arms like this. He dragged his mouth along the edge of her ear and heard that familiar catch in her breath. Maybe this was wrong, maybe he didn’t deserve to make love to her, but he’d be damned if he didn’t try. He continued to drag his mouth along her jaw until he reached her chin and eventually her lips. He began to kiss her slowly. He’d forgotten what it was like to kiss Marlena. Sure, he had memories of the thousands of times they’d kissed before, but his memories could not replicate what it is to kiss this woman. It was all-encompassing and he could feel it driving him crazy all over again. He’d tried to explain this to her before, how she has this power, this way, with men. Once you were with Marlena, nothing, literally nothing compared to it. He knew it, and Roman knew it. Suddenly visions of Roman flooded his mind. The way he tried to comfort her in the coffee shop that day. The way he found Marlena huddled in his arms. His kisses grew more possessive, more pathetic as he opened his mouth wider and sucked harder. His hands were in her hair and he found himself slowly pushing her toward the nearest wall.
Marlena was quickly losing the battle in her mind. The last thing she thought she would be doing this Christmas was making love to John in the middle of Will and Sonny’s apartment. In the last year by herself, sure she had been lonely but she also made great strides in rebuilding her life without John. She became a professor, on top of being a psychiatrist. She published research. She made time for friends she hadn’t seen in awhile. This was not how this was supposed to happen. She’d imagined it so many times, the day John would return to Salem. How she would show him that she could survive with out him. She did not, however, imagine being pressed up against a wall in the hallway of her grandson’s apartment with her sleeping baby granddaughter in the next room over. John’s kisses were drugging and as his hands moved down to tug at her hips, she realized how quickly this was escalating. She didn’t want to admit this to herself, but she craved this. And she wasn’t talking about the romance, or the intimacy, those things she wanted too, but in this moment what she really wanted was a good, hard fuck.
As John continued shoving his tongue down her throat and committing her every whimper to his memory, he began tugging at the the buttons of the oversized white shirt was wearing, desperate to see her breasts, a view he unfortunately had not seen in quite some time. As his tugging became more aggressive and sloppy, buttons flew from the shirt. Eventually the material gave and the shirt ripped open to reveal a lacy black push up bra, much racier than he was used to seeing Marlena in, especially for a quiet night babysitting. Suddenly, flashes of her wearing this bra for Roman flooded his mind. Were they planning on meeting up later? Was Doc really this desperate not be alone on Christmas?
He continued to stare at her chest before attaching his mouth to the side of her neck as he expertly maneuvered her arms from the sleeves of the shirt which quickly fell to the floor. As he dragged his mouth down the column of her neck, he listened to her moans and whimpers. She was wild with abandon. He’d seen this side of her before. On the plane. He sure was surprised to see it tonight, though, that’s for sure. Marlena had acted if she hated him as of late. Even going so far as to walk away from him in public. Tonight was different, he thought, as she continued to whimper.
“Take it off,” she slurred, sounding almost drunk as she attempted to arch her chest toward John, signaling for him to divest her of this aching push up bra.
“What was that, baby?” he asked, pretending not to understand what she said. He heard her alright, but he wanted to hear her say it again.
“You heard me,” she quipped back. He was not expecting such a sassy response. He decided to challenge her.
“Who’d you buy this bra for?” he asked, continuing to suck on the skin of her shoulder as she writhed beneath him against the wall.
“For m-,” she attempted to explain as John hit a spot that sent shivers down her spine. “For myself,” she finally managed to get out between moans.
“I don’t recall you wearing bras like this to babysit. Not as long as I knew you anyway,” he stopped what he was doing to look up into her eyes which were hooded as her head dipped back against the wall. Her pupils were blown, and her gaze was lusty. It took everything in him to stop what he was doing, but the Roman problem needed to be settled. Tonight.
“Sure it wan’t for Roman?” he asked, mentally preparing himself for whatever she would come up with next. He continued to pin her to the wall with his weight as his leg settled between her thighs. He stared into her eyes and she stared right back at him.
“Is this what you did?” Marlena asked, averting her gaze toward his leg between her thighs and his hands that were pinning her arms to either side of the door.
He didn’t understand the question. “Is this what, Marlena?”
“Is this what you did to Kristen when you decided you wanted to fuck her and not me?!” She yelled as she struggled to get her arms free.
John let one arm free and used his free hand to grab onto her face and force her to look him in the eye. “Stop it, doc. You know that is not true.” She attempted to look away again, but he held her face and her body still.
“You disgust me,” she seethed and he could feel her breath against his mouth. She continued to squirm, but his hold was relentless.
A few moments passed before Marlena spoke. “I didn’t buy this for Roman, by the way,” she said mysteriously. She could make him squirm, too.
“Who’d you buy it for then?” He asked, suddenly hit with the possibility that maybe Roman wasn’t the problem. He hadn’t considered this before, but he had been gone from Salem for awhile. “I believe I asked you a question,” he became more stern as moments when by without an answer.
“If you must know, I am seeing someone from work.”
This was his undoing. All of those times he bumped into her at the Horton Square or that time in the park and she had dismissed him so coldly. She acted as if she didn’t need him at all. And he attributed it to anger, or resentment, or loneliness and now he finds out there was someone else. He thought he’d worked through these issues. Three years ago, if you’d asked him about his jealousy issues or Roman, he would said that he trusted doc, that these issues were a thing of the past. But suddenly 30 years worth of jealousy rose to the surface and he could not take it anymore. Whether she liked it or not, Marlena was his and the thought of another man between those legs was too much to bare.
“Did you fuck him?” the sentence came out crude, and usually he preferred not to speak to Marlena in this way, but tonight was an exception.
“I could ask you the same thing,” she spat back. He was not used to this sassy side of Marlena. Sure, Marlena was witty, and sure she was smart. But this wasn’t the same Marlena of years ago. The old Marlena would cry and collapse into his arms and become like putty, much easier to deal with. Since the Kristen debacle, Marlena was different. She didn’t seem to care, or at least she was damn good at pretending not to. Her attitude left him stunned. He decided this conversation was useless and that needed to get back to basics, to what they did best, and that was to fuck.
Marlena was stunned at his pace when suddenly John attached his mouth to the parts of her breasts that spilled out of her push up bra as he reached behind her to find the clasp. The bra quickly joined her shirt on the floor and John began to suck on her nipple. As Marlena threw her head back, hitting on the wall but not even caring. John’s kisses became more and more possessive as he thought of this new man from work. Was he a doctor? Have I met him before? He continued to kiss her chest as she clutched onto the back of his hair.
“John,” she whimpered, tugging at his hair. “We need, mm” she could barely form an intelligent sentence, but she was intimately aware that their great granddaughter was a room over and she didn’t want this to happen here. “We need-I-“ John continued to suckle her nipple, ignoring whatever unintelligible pleas she was making. “John,” she whined again, tugging at him once more.
“What doc?” he stopped what he was doing, irritated with all the chit chat.
“Arianna’s in there. We can’t do this here.”
“Yes, we can. She’s asleep.”
Marlena rolled her eyes internally. John had always been optimistic when it came to the kids staying asleep. She knew better.
“No, here, there’s a guest room.” She grabbed John’s hand and led him into a small bedroom down the hall.
John quickly closed the door behind them and shoved Marlena onto the bed so that her upper body was on the bed and her legs dangled off the side. He stood over her, admiring the beauty that laid before him. Her hair was a bit longer than when he’d seen her last and she looked so beautiful, as always. He decided he would make her forget about Roman, and about this mystery man from work. After tonight, she would be his.
He knelt down before the bed and pulled her hips so that he was kneeling between her legs with her upper body laying on the bed. He quickly pulled her black pants off and left her clad in a pair of tiny black lace panties that matched the bra she was wearing earlier. Damn, he thought to himself. He’d missed this. He could smell the familiar scent of her arousal and inhaled deeply. He remembered all the times Marlena would blush when he did that in the past. He was sure tonight was no exception, but he was too turned on to look back at up her face.
He knelt forward enough to place a kiss on her lower belly just before the lacy trip of the panties. He continued to kiss his way down as his hands roamed the sides of her thighs. Normally, he thought panties just got in the way, but tonight it was really turning him on. He began to suck on her pussy through the lacy material and Marlena drew in a sharp breath.
“Oh God,” she began to clutch at the sheets. It had been awhile, and Marlena had forgotten just how good this could feel. It felt like 100 volts of electricity were just supplied to her most intimate area.
John smiled into her panties as he continued to suck, attempted to control her hips which were bucking wildly toward his face. “Settle down, baby,” he attempted to soothe her a little. She seemed anxious. Anxious because of him or anxious to cum, he couldn’t tell but regardless he wanted her to enjoy it.
Deciding it was time for the panties to come off, he grabbed the thin material and shimmied it down her legs and feasted his eyes on the unbelievable site before him, Marlena’s completely shaved pussy. He had begged her to do this for years. On some occasions, he would shave it himself in the shower but she always seemed skeptical. Tonight was a pleasant surprise. He wondered what the hell had gotten into her in the past year. The thought that this could’ve been for someone else made him sick to his stomach, but he decided to pay attention to the fact that he was the one getting to enjoy it and that after tonight her pussy wouldn’t want anyone but him.
He grabbed at her hips again and moved them closer to the edge of the bed and placed either of her legs on his shoulders and began to feast on the lovely folds before him. Marlena was so wet. He lapped her up greedily, almost unable to keep up with the rapid flow of her juices. Marlena was silent, to his surprise. He looked up to see her mouth wide open, in an “O” shape as her eyes slammed shut and she arched off the bed. She was clearly enjoying herself.
Deciding she needed more stimulation, he positioned two of his fingers at her entrance. She knew what was coming next and wriggled in excitement. John smiled. “You know what’s coming next, don’t you?” he whispered, his hot breath further stimulating her over sensitive mound. He used one hand to keep her lips spread and slowly pushed his fingers into her pussy. She was so damn tight. Marlena let out a guttural moan.
“Yesssss,” she hissed as John began to pump his fingers in and out of her. Her hips bucked wildly against his hand and John could feel the pressure from inside increasing as her pussy clenched his fingers. He dared to add a 3rd finger and initially she stilled, the intrusion painful. He looked up at her face for confirmation and saw her furrowed eyebrows relax as her hips became to gyrate once more. She started rapidly jerking against his hand and he knew she was close. He also knew exactly how to send her over the edge. He placed his mouth over her clit as he shoved his fingers into her with a final thrust, and surely enough she came all over his mouth and hand. He still knew her body so well.
Marlena was spent and her legs laid limply across John’s shoulders. She felt so damn good she could barely speak. John continued to rub her outer thighs as she relaxed. “Marlena, baby,” he called out to her sweetly. “You come to me when you need this, okay?” he asked tenderly and he wanted her to know this. Regardless of their problems, they always had this bond. And, as sad as it made him to think about it, even if they couldn’t work things out, he would take her in this capacity. He would have her in any capacity. He meant it when he said it 20 years ago when he drove her home from the 100k dance and he meant it now. Whatever terms, he repeated to himself. He removed her legs from his shoulders and swung them around so that she was completely on the bed now.
“Come here,” she commanded. He looked back up at her to find lusty eyes staring back at him once again. He wanted to give her a few more minutes to recover, but apparently Marlena had other plans.
“I said get over here,” she repeated, eyeing the bulge in his pants. John had been so wrapped up in his exploration of Marlena that he was still fully clothed. Marlena decided to take care of that and quickly divested him of everything, save for his black boxer briefs. Marlena licked her lips as his cock twitched inside his briefs. “Mmm” she moaned and John felt like he was going to explode from her reactions alone.
He grabbed her legs once again and spread them, propping each leg up on its knee. He then discarded his briefs and settled his hips between those long legs. Marlena stared down at his cock, now mere centimeters from her pussy and was taken aback by its size. It had been awhile, and she’d forgotten what it was like to make love to John. She felt like a school girl again and goosebumps travelled quickly along her legs.
“Are you nervous, baby?” John asked tenderly, noticing that her legs were shaking.
“A little,” she confessed, smiling weakly. John took her hand and laced their fingers. Sure, maybe this broke the rules of just fucking. But he was hoping for more than that.
With his other hand, John began to rub the tip of his cock between her pussy lips, causing her head to dip back and her mouth to make that “O” again. “That’s it, baby,” he edged her on, “get nice and wet for me.” His words were nearly her undoing and it took all she had not to cum again just from this. She needed the torture to end.
“Just do it already,” she commanded, exasperatedly.
“Do what?” he teased, continuing to watch the way her pussy lips stretched to accommodate the bulbous head of his cock.
“I want your cock inside of me,” flew out of her mouth to both of their surprises. Marlena liked to talk dirty, but he certainly didn’t expect it tonight. Neither of them did. Marlena felt out of control with desire.
Obeying her commands, John poised his cock at her entrance. Entering Marlena had always been a slow process, and it had been some time. He felt the resistance when he began to push his cock against that little hole. “Mmmph,” Marlena let out as her brows furrowed and one hand clutched the sheets as the other hand clutched John’s.
“You okay, baby?” He asked sweetly and Marlena thought to herself that she couldn’t remember the last time he called her baby this many times in one night. She nodded her head in approval, unable to find her voice.
John continued to push slowly against the resistance until he finally slid all the way in. He looked down at their joined bodies, entranced by their tight fit. How had he survived a year without this? It seemed impossible now. He began to rub her clit with his thumb, attempting to arouse her once more. This did the trick and he was able to slide back in and out of her with ease.
Marlena was now meeting him, thrust for thrust, as John leaned over her and kissed her on the mouth. Even though they may be pretending to just be fucking, they both knew it was something more. And at some point, a part of Marlena’s soul was handed back to John. They both felt it. This happened every time they made love and tonight was no exception.
John began to pummel deeper into her body, eager to rediscover all of her inner places and commit them to his memory once more. Marlena’s legs wrapped around him and she clutched at his shoulders, her nails digging into the skin there.
“John, if you don’t stop I’m going to-“ she tried to tell him, nearing the edge once again. She wanted them to cum together, but if he kept going at this rate, she was going to beat him to do it. John, however, had other plans and planned to make her cum not just once, but twice.
“Let it go, baby,” he coaxed her further toward the edge. At this point, they were both looking directly into each other’s eyes as they continued to thrust. “Give it to me, Marlena.” Something about the way he called her by her given name, Marlena, was so hot in this moment and only pushed her further. “I want to see you cum Marlena and I want you to look at me when you do.”
She stared into John’s eyes as she felt the wave begin to wash over her from her toes all the way up to her head and her pussy convulsed against John’s cock, her juices washing all over his cock and balls. Marlena had always been a squirter, but tonight she was beating her own best record. John smiled.
He continued to pump in and out of her, determined that that the next time they came, it would be together. Visions of her with Roman, and her being hit on by men at work, flooded his mind as he looked down at the naked beauty underneath him. He thought about the times Roman was there “comfort” her. About the time in the castle when he “comforted” her. He thought about a man from the hospital getting to see her in those black panties and suddenly his thrusts became wild. Marlena could barely keep up, knowing having came twice. She was surprised that she was somehow on edge again. She didn’t think she could cum again, but once again, John proved to know her body better than she did.
John felt her third orgasm building and adjusted his pace to meet her there. With a final thrust, Marlena gushed once again and John pushed himself as far up into her as he could, his cock spasming and filling her with his hot cum. He collapsed on top of her, spent. Marlena was speechless.
They stayed like this for a few moments, until John felt it might be best to get up. After all, he was a little confused what this encounter meant. As he began to move, Marlena tightened her arms around his back. “No, stay in me,” she commanded. That certainly threw him for a loop, but he wasn’t complaining.
Marlena felt so full and complete and didn’t want this moment to end. She felt tears escape the corners of her eyes. John noticed the change in her breath and looked up into a very sad pair of hazel eyes.
“What’s wrong, doc?” He suddenly removed himself from between her legs and covered her with a blanket. Suddenly, he was panicked that he was too rough with her in the last round. “I’m sorry. I got a little carried away. Did I hurt you?” He asked, panic in his voice.
“No, that was amazing,” she confessed. “That’s the problem. That was amazing. And now you’re going to leave. And we’ll go back to hating each other again and I’ll ignore you in Horton Square and you’ll ignore me at Common Grounds and I’ll pretend to be okay but I won’t be because I love you and everything is messed up.” The sentence didn’t really make sense, but it was honest and John understood because he felt the same way.
“Listen, doc, I know we have a lot to work on and I know this was confusing and as a psychiatrist you’re probably thinking this was wrong. And you know what? Maybe it was but we needed this. I will never stop wanting to make love to you, doc. It’s burned into my brain.” Twenty years later and they were still having the same conversations.
“Me, too” was just about all she managed to say before collapsing onto John’s chest. Marlena allowed John’s heart beat to lull her into the most peaceful slumber she’d had since he left. John looked down at the tousled mess of blonde hair and the beautiful woman draped against his chest. He didn’t know what the future would hold for him, but he knew he loved her and she loved him and that had to be enough.
The Jarlena Journal 