Everybody Falls (13 page)

"And, what? You get off playing like you're a regular person or something?" I hissed. "That whole 'I'm just a nice, regular hot guy' helps you score with us local-yokels? Huh?"

Chocolate chips, even my voice was shaking. I tried to get a grip on the tremors of my body but it was pretty hard to do when I was so tense, so utterly pissed off, I thought my head was going to explode.

How dare he?

"What am I? One of your groupies or a little local plaything you've decided would help you pass the time here in bum-eff Egypt?" I whisper-yelled again.

"Lacey? Stop, baby, please," he begged. "Please don't."

"How stupid am I, right?" I said, turning to stomp my way upstairs. "Getting all up in a famous rock star's face. Not even knowing he was a rock god to begin with! Jax Wynter!"

A thought occurred to me and I twisted on the staircase to stare directly into his eyes, since we were on the same eye-level now.

"I had my tongue in your mouth," I yelled out loud. I mean,
loud
.

"Yes, you did," he shot back, shouting right back at me. "And it was
good
. Right, Lace? It was good,
right
?"

His words hung in the air a couple of seconds before I got it.

I heard a background note in his voice I didn't expect.

It wasn't of a rock star with a groupie.

It wasn't even of a man with a woman who was having a shit-hemorrhage.

To this day I really believe it was of a man who was scared of what his woman thought of him. Not of what he, one of the superstars of rock, thought about me.

No. He was afraid of
my
opinion about him.

Very afraid.

I slowed my roll.

The look on his face, the tone of his voice, everything I was reading in the air around us on the staircase had absolutely nothing to do with rock and roll or fame or a guy slumming it.

I dropped my ass to the stairs in shock.

He was into me. As in,
into me
in a big way. My thoughts about him mattered and held weight.

I saw him crouch down before sitting on the steps below me.

"I wanted to tell you, Lace," he said slowly.

"Why?" I asked, glancing at him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He was quiet and I gave him time.

"You're the first person that didn't know me, didn't recognize me," he began. "The only person that treated me like a real person, not some fucked up, burnt out, has-been piece of shit."

His hand covered one of my feet on the tread just above where he was sitting and his head lowered, watching as his thumb moved over the skin on the top of my foot.

"That life, the fame of the group and fucking everything that goes with that kind of inescapable attention, almost destroyed me, Lacey." His voice was soft yet underneath was a note of pain.

"It
did
fucking destroy Denny," he said on a tortured whisper and his head dropped to my knees.

Without thinking, my hands went to his hair and I watched as my fingers began to thread themselves through his still damp raven locks.

"I've never met anyone like you," I heard him mumble into the skin exposed by my robe. "You didn't flirt or ask questions about my life, the drugs, my brother or the band. You asked questions about me, Lace, about
me
. What I thought, how I was feeling. You treat me like someone you want to know."

His voice, that deep velvety voice, got even softer. "You kiss me like I'm somebody special, but not the famous kind of special. Just a regular guy who has worth. Someone who you might like to be with at some point."

He raised his head and I, like always, got caught in his chocolate eyes.

"You're beautiful, funny as hell and smart. Your sweetness covers me like warm syrup every time I'm around you. You kiss like a woman starved for me, just for fucking
me
, and I don't want any of that to stop." He blinked at me slowly and swallowed before he continued. "I was afraid you wouldn't want me, wouldn't want to even see me if you knew, Lace. And I didn't want this thing that's started between us to…"

I pressed my fingers against his mouth to stop his words.

I didn't need to hear anymore.

I looked, really looked, at my Jack.

The man I was getting to know.

A man that had captured my heart and that enflamed my body.

And, by all the wonderful cocoa berries under the sun, I forgave him for not telling me he was a smoking hot rock star. One of the handful of men that every woman in the world wanted to sleep with, to kiss, or even, just once, see face-to-face in real life.

I tipped my forehead and pressed it against his.

"You think we've started something here?" I teased.

"Fuck, yeah, baby, I do," he admitted with, what sounded like, a relieved sigh.

"I'm kind of getting that we need to keep this on the down-low," I said feeling, as much as hearing, my smile.

"Grams says that eventually people will forget, except it hasn't happened yet," he replied, his own smile beginning to spread before faltering. "Is that going to be a problem for you?'

I thought about it for all of point zero four seconds. "Absolutely not."

He leaned forward. And was about two millimeters away from kissing me, when I had to ask, "But, when it comes out, can I tell everyone that you fell at my feet when you met me?"

I got a view I'm sure was not on any piece of film, video or even written about in any rag-sheet.

It was the view of Jax, that beautiful rock god, throwing back his head, laughing his ass off, the booming sound echoing off the walls in my tiny stairway.

Chapter 11

We were still kissing on the stairs when I heard a key in the back door and saw Beth squeeze her way through.

She glanced up and, over Jax's shoulder, I saw her eyes get big as she dropped the ring of keys in her purse.

"Your mom's outside, Lace," she advised slowly, turning her head away from the tangle of our bodies.

"I know," I answered mildly and used my head and shoulder to keep Jax's head tucked against me. "Uhm, I'll be down in a second, okay?"

She waved a hand and turned to the door that led to the bakery.

As soon as I heard the door close, I stood, pulling Jax up with me.

"I gotta get to work, honey," I said, opening the door to my apartment.

"You didn't get to bake, Lace," he said. Glancing back I could see he was frowning. "I didn't mean to keep you…"

"You didn't," I assured him moving to my bedroom. "You're welcome to stay if you want. I'd like you to meet Beth and Sarge. I'll completely understand, though, if you don't want to be seen."

He'd followed me all the way back and into my room. I reached for a pair of jeans and one of my 'Lacey's Bakery' t-shirts before grabbing a bra and some underwear.

Jax was standing next to my bed, eyeing the muss of covers, taking in the little stalk of freesia in a bud vase sitting on the nightstand.

"What?" I asked, stilling at the look on his face.

"You liked the flowers," he said. He didn't ask. He just seemed to be confirming.

"Very much, honey."

I got another beautiful smile.

"Could you, uhm, give me a sec to get dressed?" I asked, waving a hand towards the door.

He stepped through and softly closed it behind him.

I shucked into my clothes, slid my feet into a pair of chef clogs before dragging a brush through my half-dried hair. I looped a holder around it before pulling on a black baseball hat, yanking my hair through the back opening, catching the long length of it, wrapping the holder again and again.

It was going to look like shit tonight, but it was up and I looked somewhat presentable.

He was waiting in the hallway, just tugging his t-shirt into place when I exited my room.

I glanced towards the bathroom and saw the towels were draped over the shower rod to dry, the mess on the floor completely wiped up.

"Yes," he said slowly.

"Yes?" I repeated, watching him as he leaned against the wall, pulling on his obviously new running shoes.

"I'll stay. I gotta call Gram and I'll stay in the kitchen. But, I'll stick around if you…," I saw him swallow as he straightened before finishing. "If you want me to."

I was already late, so what was another five minutes?

There was a hot man in my house that needed assuring, who's mouth fit mine so stinking well that I was willing to take just a bit more time.

I took a couple of steps back and grabbed another baseball cap for him.

It wasn't much of a disguise as disguises went, but it was something.

I pressed against him as I shoved it on his head and raised my mouth to his.

Oh, yeah.

We fit.

*.*.*.*.*

"Beth," I said coming into the retail space, feeling his heat behind me. I glanced towards the glass doors at the front and noticed there was a bit of a group forming. "Can I see you in the kitchen a moment?"

Her eyes travelled to the tall figure behind me before she nodded and went through the swinging half-doors.

When all three of us were in the tiny room, were taking up almost every available square inch of walking space, I saw her expression. And I saw she already knew who he was without even having to be told.

I was determined to do this right in a way that would help him as much as myself.

"Beth? This is Jack, my boyfriend." At my words, I felt his shaking fingers flex on my waist from behind. "Jack, this is Elizabeth. We all call her Beth."

"He-hello, Jax," she stumbled, her eyes round and wide.

Jax moved to my side and stuck a hand out towards her. I watched her eyes move to the hand, then to his face and back again before she reached a shaking hand to him.

"Nice to meet you, Beth," he said velvety, deep and I felt his whole body vibrating as his chest again pressed against my back as their hands released.

"He's going to help me in the kitchen, if you don't mind handling the counter?" I asked, trying to sound normal, calm. He needed calm and normal. "He's hiding out, okay? We're not going to…uhm, we don't want to…"

"I get it," she finally said, cutting me off. "I'll work the counter and the crowd. Except, can I just say this and get it out of the way?"

I tilted my head over my shoulder at Jax, catching that gaze, that shy brown look before I saw him nod his assent.

"Okay," I breathed, turning back to her.

"God, I love your music," she gushed, releasing words along with her breath. "You're my favorite band! I was so sorry to hear about your brother."

"Ah, thanks," I heard him rumble from over my shoulder. "It's, uh, always nice to meet a fan."

"No, really. I mean it," she said, her eyes widening even further. "I won't tell a soul, honest. But I just wanted you to know, you know with everything and all."

She was no longer making sense, which I took as my cue to end this little meet-and-greet.

"We need to open, Beth," I reminded her, moving to get aprons and such.

"Oh, yeah. Right," she breathed again, making her way around the large farmhouse table in the center of the space.

Jax was watching her warily as she moved, keeping close to my side, like she was going to bite him or something.

"And, uh, Beth?" I asked as she moved away. "Break out the 10% off coupons for the people I've kept waiting, okay?

"Sure, Lacey," she mumbled.

As soon as her ass cleared the doors, I was in his face. His very white, very stony face.

"Look at me," I demanded on a whisper. He didn't. I placed my hand on his chin and used it to pull his face towards mine. "It's all good, Jax. It's just you and me in the kitchen at my bakery, right? We're going to bake some magic, honey. Just you and me, alright?"

His eyes finally cleared and I got a shaky grin.

"Yeah, Lace. You and me. Kitchen. Doing the baking thing. Got it," he growled after a time.

"Good," I smiled as I reached into the cabinet to get the aprons and such. "Call Grams so she won't worry then let's get started."

It took more than a few minutes until he calmed down, his movements evening out as we worked together like we had in the quiet of the morning before. I didn't have to give him many directions, and he didn't ask as many questions yet it was just as wonderful to have him there in my space.

He prepared the pans and sheets. I mixed and poured. He washed and I wiped, a dance of sorts; a dance of grazing touches and lush, short kisses as we moved.

In the lull, as I moved the trays out into the retail space, I kept us in cups of coffee.

"Lacey?" I heard Sarge bellow as he came into the shop.

"Back here," I yelled back, shaking the black-dyed sugar crystals through the plastic form, creating a lace pattern on the recently frosted, white-iced cupcakes.