Though I stay away from writing straight smut, the second half of this chapter contains sexual language, nudity and suggestive themes. Reader discretion is strongly advised. Also, the story picks up from this chapter. You'll have a clue of what Hyde spoke to Pam about, though the actual scene between Hyde and Pam is in the next chapter. That's where you'll also find out why Hyde agreed to marry Jackie. Lastly, this chapter (mainly the second half) was hard to write for me as a JH shipper, so apologies in advance if it makes for hard reading.

Jackie lay on her bed wide awake and worried. The clock on the wall showed it was almost midnight and yet her husband had not come home. She turned to look at the side of the bed Steven usually occupied and a tired sigh left her lips. There was something going on with him, if only she could figure out what it was.

Jackie didn't understand why he had gotten so busy all of a sudden. His business was always demanding and she knew he was working on a new project but he never stayed out so late since they had married. But in the past week or so, she would be lucky to get a few moments with him before he was busy rushing to office or locked up in his study working. But the thing that really bothered her was that he was acting quite aloof with her. She could understand being busy but even when they had a few moments together he didn't hug her or kiss her or do anything that he used to do before. She had initially put it down to tiredness but she had an uneasy feeling there was more to it than that. She remembered he had been his normal self up until the last weekend; in fact he had even given her a patient listening when she had whined about her mother dropping in to ambush her at the club. He had even promised to take her out to dinner that night but that was when everything had suddenly changed.

Jackie had been waiting for him that night, dressed in the new emerald dress she had bought. He hadn't told her what time he would be home so she had dressed and sat waiting for him to get home. When it was 8 and he still hadn't come she had rung his office only to be told he was in an important meeting and couldn't be disturbed. She had left a message to have him call her but was very surprised when she got a call back an hour later not from her husband but from his secretary saying he had been caught up in work and shouldn't be expected at home all evening.

She had reluctantly taken off her dress and wiped away her makeup, but instead of going to bed she had waited up for him. The next thing she knew she was being carried to her bed by her husband. She hadn't even realized she had fallen asleep. She wanted to talk to him about his day but before she could say anything he had laid her on the bed and walked towards the bathroom. Unfortunately, Jackie had fallen asleep again and when she had woken the next morning, Steven had already left.

She couldn't help but be reminded of her mother's warning to her. Was Steven tiring of her holding back intimacy from him, had she done anything to anger him? What would she do if her were having an affair. She had been so wrapped up in her lingering feelings for Michael she had been unfair to Steven, and now he had turned to some whore to give him what she wouldn't. 'Oh God, now what was she going to do'.

As if her thoughts had summoned him, she heard Steven enter the house and she rushed out to the hallway to greet him.

"Hey" Jackie stood up immediately and took a step towards her husband, but stopped midway when instead of the usual welcoming smile he'd give her he was in fact frowning and pressing his temple.

"Steven, are you okay, do you have a headache? "She walked towards him again but she was rebuffed when he walked towards the bedroom instead.

"Yeah, I think I am just going to go to bed. I'm exhausted."

Before he could close the door though, he felt Jackie's hand pushing against it and he let it go with a sigh. Taking a glass of water he downed the tablets while Jackie just stood at the end of the bed looking at him.

"Steven, I know you are tired but I thought we could spend some time together, I haven't really seen much of you in a few days."

"I'm sorry Jackie but now is not a good time. My head feels like it is splitting open."

Instead of feeling rejected, Jackie smiled at his statement instead. "No problem, I'll massage your head. I used to do this for my dad all the time."

She moved towards Hyde and before he could react she had his head resting on her shoulder while she gently massaged his temple. She could smell the beer wafting off him and wondered what kind of office allowed one to drink that much.

Steven felt rigid against her at first but as she continued to massage his temples, he relaxed and let himself put his weight on Jackie.

"You know Steven, my daddy loved my head massages, and he said it made him sleep well. Sometimes he'd ask me to massage his head even when he didn't have a headache just so he could fall asleep."

Steven smiled lightly at that which lifted Jackie's spirits. She was going to get to the bottom of his odd behavior and she was going to do it today.

She continued pressing his temples and then slowly moved towards his shoulders, letting his head rest on the headboard. She slowly undid the buttons on his shirt, nervously looking to see if he made any move to stop her, he didn't.

She pushed the shirt off him while she continued massaging him shoulders. Steven's eyes were closed but she could see he was enjoying the massage.

"Does that feel good Steven? She asked and was met with a slight nod from her husband, though his eyes remained closed.

She continued her massage; all the while looking towards Steven's face to make sure the massage was relaxing him enough to let his guard down. She had been moving closer to Steven and she finally stopped when his lips were mere inches from his and suddenly she was met with the startled sky blue eyes of her husband.

Before he could say anything though, she had cradled his face in her hands as she spoke sincerely to him "Steven, I've missed you." She then placed a sweet kiss over her husband's lips, swiping her tongue over his mouth asking for entrance.

Instead of granting her entrance though, Steven pushed her off himself slowly. She could sense his guard had gone up again.

"Jackie, I am really tired. Please can we do this tomorrow? I just wanna get some sleep."

Jackie may have not known much, but she did know that her husband was hiding something. But she didn't want to push him.

She pecked his lips once more and said "Ok, you go to sleep. We'll talk in the morning. Goodnight Steven."

"Good night Jackie".

Jackie lay awake for the next few hours, tossing and turning in her bed next to her sleeping husband.

Just when the sun had started to paint the sky red, she heard Steven fidgeting in his sleep. He was mumbling something incoherent and shaking his head from side to side.

Jackie immediately cuddled into his side to calm him down, which seemed to work as his mumblings disintegrated into a few random, still incoherent words.

Looking down upon her sleeping husband, a rush of possession she had never felt before overwhelmed her and before she knew what was happening, she had her lips on her husbands and was rewarded when a few seconds later his lips started moving in tandem with hers.

Deciding to just not overthink for once, she started pulling on his shoulders to get him closer to her.

Steven, who was still in between sleep and wakefulness eventually woke up to find his lips glued to his wife's while his hands had somehow made their way to her ass and were pulling her closer to his pelvis.

As if zapped by a sudden bolt of electricity, he harshly pushed her away from himself and sat up.

Jackie couldn't stifle her gasp as she felt Steven push her away. She looked at him in confusion only to suddenly get scared by the angry expression on his face.

"Jackie, what did you think you were doing? God, I am not in the mood to make out okay."

"Steven, I'm sorry. I know I've withheld sex from you all this time so I know you're probably irritated. But I was thinking maybe today we'd go all the way" she offered with a hopeful, nervous sign.

Steven snorted "Maybe huh, It always has to be according to you doesn't it. It's always what Jackie wants and Jackie loves. Nobody else is important but that whom Jackie loves isn't it?"

Jackie couldn't understand what Steven was talking about but she was seriously hurt by his tone of voice. He had always been patient with her and now she was even surer that he had found someone else to fulfill his sexual desires and was therefore no longer interested in her.

A very unfamiliar feeling of jealousy and regret brought tears to her eyes and she averted her face so Steven wouldn't see she was crying. Unfortunately she couldn't help but sniffle which caught her husband's attention.

Steven Hyde was just trying to cool himself down when he noticed Jackie discreetly trying to dab her eyes and heard her sniffle. He immediately felt guilty. That bitch Pam had caused all this, driven a wedge between them that had made him turn away from his wife, whose only fault was not being strong enough to stand up to her mother.

He said quietly "Jackie, I'm sorry I didn't mean any of that, it's just work stress I'm taking out on you."

When she didnt say anything nor turn to face him, he gently pulled on her hand and though she initially resisted she eventually let him pull her onto his lap.

Forcing the images which had been torturing him from a week away, he pushed the hair off Jackie's face and wiped her eyes dry. "I'm sorry Jackie, none of that was about you. Please believe me. I don't want to hurt you Grasshopper."

Hearing the familiar nickname in the gentle tone of voice her husband always used for her brought forth a fresh round of tears from the brunette. This time instead of averting her face though, she pushed herself against her husband's chest and started sobbing.

Steven Hyde felt guiltier than ever. He hadn't meant to make her cry. He hadn't realized what his behavior was doing to her. Scratch that, he had known what his behavior was doing and he had reveled in her confusion and hurt, thinking she deserved it for keeping him in the dark. But he had finally realized it wasn't really Jackie's fault after all. He held her tight against himself while he tried to gently rock her to sleep. He was so tempted to kiss her with all he had. He wanted to be inside her more than anything, but after what had happened earlier tonight and what he had found out from Pam a week ago, he knew he didn't deserve her, not till he had come clean to her at least.

Earlier that Evening

Steven sat at the bar he used to frequent as a penniless teenager. Nobody would recognize him here. He tried to concentrate on the Zeppelin playing on the radio but his mind was elsewhere, like it had been every day that week. All he could see was Jackie standing in her bikini, talking to a guy whose face was indistinguishable. Fast forward to Jackie ice skating while the same no faced guy looked at her from the margins. Jackie drinking hot cocoa with the guy, Jackie telling the guy she loved him, Jackie making love to the guy.

He slammed down his beer. The alcohol was not working. He had already drowned a six pack but the images of Jackie with the so called love of her life were still swirling in his brain, making him want to seriously hurt somebody.

He was distracted when he felt a hand brush past his and swipe his beer. He turned to look at the foolish person begging to be punched and smirked when he saw who it was.

"Hey Tracy, long time no see". Tracy was his pot supplier's girlfriend and his occasional sex buddy. He hadn't seen her in a few months though.

"Indeed, maybe that's because you've stopped coming around here Hyde. Heard you got hitched to the mayor's daughter. She as good as me at giving head?" Tracy rasped, shoving her ample cleavage in Steven's face.

Steven smirked, suddenly realizing there was a great way to distract himself from the running collage of Jackie and her no face boyfriend.

"You know what, I'm not sure. It's been a while since we've got it on. You want to refresh my memory" If a little voice inside him told him that this was very wrong, he told it to go fuck itself and held his hand out to Tracy.

Tracy took a hold of his hand and led him to the back of the bar where there were a few cheap motel style rooms for people who were too drunk to go home or didn't want to.

Steven Hyde obediently followed Tracy, though his pesky conscience was getting louder with each step he took. Fuck loyalty, he thought to himself. He had tried to be a good guy and look where that had got him; it was time to go back to the basics.

He made himself comfortable on the bed while Tracy locked the door. She turned to face him and made to remove her cap off but he asked her to keep it on. With the cap on, he could pretend she was blonde, a redhead even. He didn't want to see any brunette locks tonight.

She obliged and walked towards him, stripping her tank top off before she could even get to the bed. Hyde forced himself to pull her towards him, kneading her breasts through her bra while she worked on stripping him of his shirt.

He felt around Tracy's back and opened up her bra before throwing it off and pulling her on top of him, tonguing her relentlessly.

The voice in his head was now blaring loud and consistent like a damn ambulance siren but he was determined to block it out. Running out of patience and just wanting the images in his head of Jackie with another guy to stop, he rolled Tracy onto the bed and pulled down her pants, hastily slipping off his own pants, taking his boxers with it as well.

"Hey, you got any rubbers with you?"

"Yeah, they're in my purse on the nightstand."

Steven crossed the room to look through Tracy's purse. He found a condom and went back to the bed, hovering over Tracy.

He worked the condom on him with one hand while he used his other to tease her nipples to attention. Tracy closed her eyes and stretched out on the bed, the movement dislodging her cap so her hair cascaded down her shoulders like a black waterfall. Steven immediately stopped and looked transfixed at her hair, thinking of another girl with raven hair who was waiting for him at home.

He would've have still ignored the guilt with the excess of anger he was feeling towards his wife, if Tracy hadn't suddenly called him "Steven" and reached out for him in a way which reminded him of how Jackie had reached out for him just a few weeks ago. The image of the trust at which she had looked at him, shyly asking for him to come to her, it quelled the burning anger within him for an instant, replacing it with a tender feeling towards his wife.

Luckily for Steven, that was all that was needed to hurriedly put his clothes back on while Tracy used all the tricks she knew to get him to complete what he had come to the room for. He had slammed the door and literally run to his car, hearing Tracy's threats about exposing his deeds to his wife all the way to the end of the road.

Bad Hyde! How the hell is he ever going to come clean to Jackie about Tracy ? Is there anything else he needs to get off his chest ? Will he confront her about Michael Kelso, what did Pam actually tell him? Also, is Jackie really ready to make love to Hyde or was she acting in desperation ? Stay tuned for more. Dont forget to review.