One More Kiss (Affair Without End Book 2) (12 page)

He nods. We go into the bedroom. In silence we undress. I climb into bed first and he follows, lying near me but not touching.

I turn off the light. I roll over in bed, into him, and hold him close. His arms tighten around me and his body melts into me.

“It will be all right, Jack.”

A ragged sigh. “How could things get so wrong without me seeing it? Maybe Walter is right. Maybe you’re right. I don’t see a fucking thing.”

I think of who I used to be. The girl I was at the beach the night we met, and who I am now after having loved Jack. “You
saw
me.”

Jack smiles. He brushes my cheek with his thumb. We lay quietly together. I start to lightly run my fingers through his golden hair. A few minutes later he’s asleep, his cheek resting near my breasts, his body still molded into me.

Jack is right. Sometimes it is good, very good, just to lay and hold each other.

CHAPTER NINE

I wake alone in the bed. I slowly stretch, push the curls from my face, and climb from the warm sheets. I go to my suitcase and pull out the little black nightie set. I want to look pretty this morning. Yesterday was rough for Jack. Today is our last day together. I want nothing but happy moments for the both of us.

After making a fast stop in the bathroom and doing a quick preening, I go to the suite’s living room. I smile. No surprise here.

Jack is sitting in a chair, wearing only those hideous boxers I hate, curtains drawn, feet propped on the window ledge, coffee in hand and staring at the sky.

I hang back and just watch him for a few minutes. He looks better this morning. Like himself. Peaceful.

“Well, there you are. Again,” I announce with mock heaviness. “What kind of man slips out of bed at daybreak, every day, even on the days he has me in his bed?”

His head swivels and he smiles at me. The look in his eyes makes me flush. “A stupid man, to be sure. Why are you with him?”

“Because I am in love with him even though he is very weird at times.”

His humor fades. “I needed some time to think, Linda. Get clear headed again. This is how I do my best thinking.”

“Hopefully, you’ve come up with a good thought or two.”

“Definitely good since you stepped out wearing that.”

I stop next to his chair and he eases up to give me a kiss. I take the coffee from his hand, climb onto his lap and settle back against his chest.

“How much time is it going to take you to pack up what you need from your place?” he asks.

My heart jumps. “It takes me five minutes to pack, Jack. I don’t have much,” I reply, truthfully but non-responsively. I don’t want to start anything now.

Jack brushes the hair back from my face. His blue eyes fix on mine. “You need to tell me how much money you’ll need to cover your expenses this summer.”

My eyebrows raise. “I don’t need any money. I got a job, remember?”

His blue eyes intensify in their hold on me, but not in an alarming way. “Don’t be stubborn. Let me do this, Linda. I don’t want you stressed out and worrying the next two months about something I can fix.”

There is a lot in his words and I don’t miss a single nuisance. I stare at him and the emotion rushing through my veins is nearly leveling.

I nod. “Let me give it some thought.”

He smiles, clearly pleased that I didn’t argue with him over this. He’s such an easy man to please. I settle more closely against him.

 “Can I ask you something?” I whisper.

Jack laughs. “Why do you always ask if you can ask? You can ask me anything, baby. No limits. No boundaries.”

I lift my head from his chest. “OK. I want the truth.”

“Yes? You’ll get the truth.”

I frown. “What’s up with the sunrise thing?”

He laughs.

“Don’t laugh at me. This has been driving me crazy. Musicians are nocturnal. If you were obsessed with the sun setting, I could get that. But who the heck wants to wake up every morning after working all night to watch the sunrise?”

Jack frowns. “Really? That is the question you needed to ask me if you could ask?”

“It seems some sort of personal thing you do. I didn’t want to invade.”

“It’s impossible for you to invade my life. You are my life.” His arms tighten around me. “The answer is going to disappoint you, Linda.”

“What? Does it have something to do with a past love? Someone you haven’t told me about?”

His hand lightly caresses my back. “No. I’ve told you about everyone.”

“Then what gives.”

His hand comes to my chin and he turns my face so I have to look at him. Slowly, succinctly, he says, “The sunset marks the end of something. The end of the day. The sunrise is the start of something. A new day. Clean slate. Infinite possibilities. I like to see sunrise to remind me that every day is a new day.”

I feel my eyes heat and grow misty. Even the simplest things Jack says mean so much more than the words he speaks.

“I love you,” I whisper.

He smiles, amused. “What’s gotten into you this morning? I expected an argument about the money and a wisecrack about my thing for watching the sunrise.”

“I just love you, Jack.” I kiss his neck.

We sit for a long time.

I don’t know
why
this seems important to me, but it suddenly does. I peek up at him.  “Why did you put us in a hotel with everyone else this hop?”

“What?” He stares down at me, clearly not comprehending. “I don’t know what you’re asking me.”

“We are in the same hotel as everyone else,” I explain. “The band. The crew. They’re all here. We are usually somewhere else, away from everyone. Alone. This is the first time you haven’t made special arrangements when I’ve joined you. Why this time?”

He stares. “Linda, I don’t know what you are talking about. We have always been with everyone. We are always just where they put me.”

What?
“But the hotels are always so quite. No one bothers us. I thought…”

The look in his eyes makes me break off.

“Is that what you thought? Christ, why would you think I’d do that? I can’t even imagine why you’d be here if that’s what you thought.”

I flush. I’ve insulted him. “I wasn’t being critical. It just seemed the way it was. Like we were in our own space away from everyone.”

His arms tighten around me. “We are always alone because everyone knows I’m on do-not-disturb when I’m with you. Anything else you want to know? Get it out now.” I make my face a mime of contriteness. He sighs again. “I should be pissed. I can’t believe you thought I’d do something like that.”

I’m so happy I feel like my heart is going to explode. I give him a long, thorough kiss. When I pull back Jack is anything but pissed. “Just shut up and make love to me. Now.”

~~~

I break free from Jack’s kiss, my flesh feverish, my body urgent. “I thought you were going to make love to me. You’ve spent the last hour doing everything to my body but screwing me. Get on with it. I can’t take any more. I’m about to climb out of my skin.”

He gives me
the look
. He hates it when I call what we do screwing almost as much as he hates when I call it fucking. Then he laughs. “This is my last bet. I don’t want to waste it.”

I am breathless and more than a little physically in need. “Trust me you won’t be wasting it. You’ll be bringing it to a spectacular conclusion.”

His mouth takes mine in a lingering, tongue dancing, nerve popping way. He slowly takes his body from me until he is laying casually reclined on his side staring at me. He nips my shoulder, then beneath my ear. He breathes, “I’m letting you collect this bet, Linda. Our last one. Do with me what you want.”

Oh my—I didn’t think it possible for the heat in my body, the desire and the electricity, to turn up any higher. His lips part as he gazes at me, waiting.

“Anything I want?”

“I’m yours,” he whispers, lying back on the bed in a seductive and inviting posture.

My fingers are in his hair. My mouth claims his unrelentingly. Every naughty fantasy I’ve ever had about this man flashes through my head. I feel his body hard and wanting against me.
Oh no, Jack, this is not going to be fast.  But first I need to do something about the pulse in my sex you’ve made beat too fiercely.

I slipped from his arms onto my knees. My fingers curl over the top of the headboard mounted against the wall and I pull myself into position above him, my legs straddling his shoulders. This time I’m going to ride him my way, letting him pleasure me with his mouth while I’m still in total control. His glorious rhythm of tongue and breath and fingers sends the blood pulsing even faster through my veins. My body moves into him, away from, forward, backward, up and down; teasing him and driving my own flesh mad. My back bows. My head tilts back. I reach with my hand, closing my fingers around him, and begin to stroke his erection. I come apart quickly, grinding into his mouth, slowing the motion of my hand around his cock, already near bursting and hard from the play of my fingers.

With the slowing of my breath and pulse, my body melts into a less frantic motion. I use the headboard to ease myself up. His eyes are deep ocean blue, fiery with want and urgency. He wants in me now. He thinks I’m going to ride him. I always want him to fuck me hard after I come against his mouth.

I don’t climb off of him. I turn and I wonder how long he will let me patiently stir him to the brink before he flattens me on the bed and fucks me.

~~~

Later, lying spent, Jack groans and says, “You’ve been holding out on me. You can patiently savor our bodies and God you are flexible.”

I blush. “I studied ballet for fifteen years. What did you expect? Of course I’m flexible.”

“Why don’t you ever attack me that way? You drove me out of my mind. I loved every second of it, waiting to see what you’d do next. How you would use that delicious body of yours.”

I kiss his chest. “I like it better your way. When you are done making love to me I always feel cherished and loved.”

“You are definitely cherished. You are definitely loved.”

His arms tighten around me and his eyes have a funny look to them, heartwarming but silly.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to move for the rest of the day,” he whispers, his lips in my hair.

I smile. “That’s fine with me. We can lay here forever for all I care.”

This is our world, Jack. And I don’t want to leave it. Not a moment sooner than I have to.

He sighs, stretching and still holding me. “The plane leaves at 11a.m. tomorrow. We’ve got a lot to do today.” He groans. “Not that I don’t want to stay here and do nothing but make love to you. Trust me I do. But we’ve got a lot to do. Things we should take care of whether we want to or not. What do you say to going to Encino and having dinner with Doris tonight?”

I nestle closer into him. “I don’t want to do anything. I don’t want to go out tonight. I just want to be here with you.”

He starts to gently stroke my hair. “Don’t you think I should meet your mother before I whisk her daughter away with me?”

“You already know Doris,” I answer, evasively. “I know that when you’re at the label you make sure to take your charming self over to her work station and chat with her. She tells me everything. Always.”

He lifts my chin. “Meet her officially. That’s what I want to do, Linda. I want to tell her I love her daughter. And thank her for giving you to me.”

Emotion again. All through me. My lips tighten into what I’m sure is a stupid expression. “You say it that way to Doris and she’ll ask you to take me off her hands.”

Jack laughs. “Good. I plan to.”

I shake my head. “No Doris, Jack. Just us tonight.” I peek up at him, widening my dark browns eyes in a way he calls wheedling and irresistible. “Just us. OK?”

He stares. He sigh and then rakes a hand through his hair. “We should really go to Encino, Linda. Have a talk with Doris so she doesn’t worry over you.”

I kiss him on the chest. “She won’t worry, Jack. I’ll make sure. I promise.”

Sadness runs through my veins even in this total bliss of my body’s contentment and being here with him.

“We leave tomorrow. Early,” he reminds.

That comment painfully reminds me of too many other things.  I take my lower lip between my teeth. This is our last night together. I need to tell him everything.

Do it, Linda. Do it. No stalling.

I lay my cheek over his heart. “Jack, there is something I have to tell you.”

His head lifts up from the pillow. “What?”

“It’s sort of good news.”

“Sort of?”

Shit, why am I stumbling around in this? I take a deep breath. “Remember that graduate program I applied to?”

“The writing intensive one in London?” he asks.

I lift my face. “Well, they accepted me into the program. They really liked the writing samples I sent them. They want me to attend. They are giving me a full tuition scholarship and…I’m going.”

His golden brows lift, and his gaze searches my face. His eyes widen. “That’s great, Linda. That’s one of the finest writing programs in the world. Fuck, why didn’t you tell me? I’m so proud of you, baby.”

Oh no…
He looks thrilled for me. I didn’t anticipate this.
Get the rest of it out, Linda. Tell him the rest.

“The program doesn’t start until September right?” he says, his brow furrowing. “That is what you told me when you applied, isn’t it?”

I nod. All words seems to have deserted me.

“I don’t like the long distance thing, sweetheart,” he continues, his voice oddly sounding very far away. “But it is only a year. We can do anything for a year. We’ll make it work.”

He smiles, touching my nose with his nose, holding my face in his hands. “I’m so proud of you. Have I told you today how amazing you are?”

I shake my head.

He laughs. “God, Linda. You are incredible. Nothing stops you when you decide you’re going to do something.”

Oh Jack...
In all moments he surprises me and is wonderfully him. Everything inside me collapses in slow, turbulent waves. It makes it impossible to tell him the rest.