Authors: Clara Bayard
When I could speak again, I nuzzled him and said, "Okay, I believe you're healed."
He chuckled. "I am now. In every way."
I smiled and kissed him softly on the lips.
"Mmm. Keep doing that and you'll get a repeat."
Even though I was tired to my bones, arousal flared. "Already?"
As an answer, he throbbed inside me, thickening again.
"Well, I do have some free time in my schedule," I said.
Matthew kissed the tip of my nose and turned us over, still buried deep inside me. "Good. I think you're going to need it."
I was about to respond when my phone rang from wherever it had fallen. I backed up reflexively, sad to separate from him even for a moment, glancing at the floor around us.
"Where are you going?"
"To answer my phone."
He cocked an eyebrow at me. "What could be more important than this?"
"Well, I don't know. It could…" I trailed off as he stroked himself to full length, and I forgot what I was going to say.
"Could what?" Matthew asked, staring at me like a jungle cat sighting its prey.
My voice was husky when I replied. "Don't remember. Don't care."
He licked his lips and slid another condom down over his cock. "Then come back here."
I climbed on top of him quickly and guided his length back into my swollen, slick channel. Rocking back and forth, we joined completely. I leaned down and he cupped my face in his hands, thrusting slowly.
Staring deep into his eyes while he made love to me, I didn't care about my phone or anything else. The whole hotel could have burned down around us and it wouldn't have mattered. This time we were slow and tender, but just as intense. My body and soul, my heart and mind were entirely with him, and his with me. It was a connection so powerful it would have scared me before, but not now. Now I knew the intensity was strength.
Right before I came again, I told him, "I love you," and then let bliss consume me.
A few minutes later, while we held each other, Matthew's stomach growled loudly in the silent room.
I giggled. "Very romantic, Mr. Daniels."
He pinched my hip lightly. "Quiet, you. I've been exerting myself, in case you haven't noticed."
"Oh, I noticed." I was deliciously sore all over, so it was hard to miss. "Want to order room service?"
He caressed my cheek with his thumb. "There's a private chef in the suite."
"Fancy. Do we have to go out there to get food?"
Matthew scoffed. "If we did, I'd rather starve."
"You? Pass up food? This must be love," I teased.
"Must be." He grinned and kissed me quickly before rolling over to grab something off the nightstand.
"What's that?"
"Becca's notes. I saw something in here about kitchen hours and stuff. Ah, here it is. We can ask for anything we want at any hour. Just have to text her or our personal concierge."
"Really?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yup. How dumb is that, for a handful of people."
"Agreed. But, convenient right now." I sat up, unselfconscious about my nudity.
"Mm-hmm. Definitely appreciating it right now."
I stretched my arms over my head. "Why don't you pick something while I go take a shower?" My sore muscles thrummed at the idea of some hot water.
"I am a room service master."
I got out of bed carefully and walked towards the bathroom. "I remember." I could feel his eyes on my back as I left the room, and I smiled.
I was still pressing buttons on the massive steam shower when Matthew came into the room. "What happened to getting food?"
He stepped inside the stall. "Ordered. Gonna be twenty minutes, so I thought I'd offer to wash your back for you."
I looked down between his legs and arched an eyebrow. "Again? You're insatiable."
"I am. For you." As the room filled with steam, he pushed me back against the marble tile. Hot water beat down on us from above and I kissed him, reaching down to take his hard length in my hand and fell to my knees.
It was too loud in the shower to hear him, but I could feel his whole body tense as I swiped my tongue over the head and then slipped him inside my mouth. Holding his shaft in one hand I advanced and retreated, taking him a tiny bit deeper each time. Squeezing the base, I licked and sucked, changing the speed and pressure as he reacts, thigh muscles flexing against me. As my lips slid over his velvety skin, I looked up through the steam into his soulful hazel eyes.
"Ellie," he cried out, dragging me off and up to a standing position. "I need to fuck you. Right now."
I kissed him on the lips while still gripping his length, and he groaned.
"Back to bed?" I asked.
"No time." He rushed out of the shower stall for a second and then came back with a foil packet in his hand. He stood staring for a moment. "Look at you."
After planting a kiss on my lips, he turned me around and walked us over to the wide bench seat in the shower. Sliding his hands over my shoulders, he leaned in to whisper into my ear. "I want you every way, and everywhere in this hotel room. I'm going to take you until we both pass out. Then when we wake up, I'll start all over again. We have so many missed days to make up for, and I'm going to find a way to."
"Starting now?" I asked.
"Staring now." He bent me forward at the waist and rubbed the thick head of his cock over my slick entrance.
All thoughts of soreness disappeared as he pushed inside me again, and I couldn't wait to see if we could fulfill his challenge, even if I feared I wouldn't be able to walk afterwards.
*
Many hours later, Matthew was sitting in bed with his back against the headboard, and I was curled up at his side. We'd gone through two rounds of food and countless rounds of sex, and were both barely awake. Completely sated, I couldn't imagine doing anything but this.
He stroked my arm lazily. "You know, that film you made, it's wonderful. Which sounds self-centered, but I don't mean it like that."
"You didn't like the parts about you?"
"No, I did. Helped me see myself more clearly. As a member of the band, and as a person. I always relished and resented my position at the same time. That was dumb. What I thought was wrong. I could see it in the way the guys talked about me. In the way the fans reacted. Just because everyone can't see me for everything I am doesn't mean they're not seeing me at all."
"I see you."
He smiled. "You always have. And I wish you could see how much I regret what I did."
"I do. And I forgive you. How can I not? I think this is in the top five days of my life," I said.
He nodded. "Mine too." Leaning down, he planted a quick peck on my kiss-swollen lips. "Well, except for the parts where you hated me."
"I never did. I never could."
He smiled. "Good."
"Thanks for letting me yell at you."
"I deserved it."
I squeezed his hand. "Yeah, you really did."
Matthew barked out a laugh. "Damn, I really love you."
I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him. "You better."
"Wow. You've been spending too much time with my band. Those boys are a bad influence. You used to be nice."
"That was your brain damage. I was
never
nice."
"Hey! I did not have brain damage. Well, not medically, anyway."
"Okay, fine. It was probably spending so much time with Rick. Compared to him everyone is nice."
"I will tell him you said that," Matthew said archly.
"Oh, I already have."
We both laughed as there was a loud knock at the door.
"Uh-oh," I said, still giggling. "He heard us. We're in trouble."
Matthew rolled his eyes. "Go away," he said loudly at the door.
The knocking continued.
"What the hell?" He glanced over at the clock we'd been ignoring all day. "It's after ten. I thought everyone else would be out at a club by now."
I frowned, remembering all the calls we'd both ignored. "Maybe it's important."
Matthew wrapped a sheet around his waist and strode over to the door. "It better be." He gave me a moment to climb under the covers and then opened up.
Joe was standing in the doorway. He looked strange. Nervous and excited, but mostly nervous.
"What's wrong?" Matthew asked.
"Sorry to bust in on you guys, but I need to talk to you. I tried to call and text you both."
"We were uh… sleeping."
Joe flashed a crooked smile. "Right, sure. Well, you can get back to ‘sleeping' in a second. I'm getting everyone together tonight. Or, I guess, tomorrow actually. Midnight. Details are in the text I sent.
Matthew brushed his hair out of his eyes. "We're not really in the mood to go partying."
"It's not like that. We need to talk. All of us. Including you, Ellie."
My heart jumped into my throat. This sounded serious, and I couldn't imagine what couldn't wait until the morning. But we'd spent the entire afternoon and evening out of contact. Anything could have come up. It seemed like our bubble of happiness was going to burst a lot sooner than I thought.
"All right, okay," Matthew said. "We'll be there."
"Great. Thanks." Joe left, casting a strange glace over his shoulder before he went.
Matthew shut the door and came back over to the bed.
"That was weird, right?"
"Yeah," he agreed. "Definitely weird. I guess we better find our phones to see what the hell is going on."
The sense of calm serenity I'd been basking in was smothered by worry as I prepared for the latest disaster.
At the stroke of midnight Matthew and I were waiting in a closed bar at the hotel. He was in dark jeans and a nice shirt, and I'd thrown on a cute dress to look "kinda nice" as requested in Joe's mysterious text messages. Matthew had been telling me all about the really awkward evening he'd spent with my brother, which explained another mystery. I was still laughing when we met up with the others, similarly attired. We headed into the bar together and assembled in the center of the room. Dex, Becca and Rick were roaming around. Julia and I stood together, speculating about what was going on.
"You don't have any idea?" I asked the stunning redhead.
"No. I know Liss got into town this evening. Maybe this has to do with her?"
"Maybe. But why would I need to be here? I've only met the girl like twice."
"Fuck if I know. But there's a bottle of tequila with my name on it upstairs and I'd really like to get back to it." She cast a look at Becca, who was smoothing her long blond ponytail. Julia took my hand and dragged me over to the other woman. "What's going on, Becca? You know everything. Spill."
Becca grinned. "Not this time. Joe asked me to book this place for the night but that's all I got."
"Fuck. Well, if he doesn't show in the next five minutes I'm out. I want to go dancing."
"Don't worry, there's time for that," Joe said from behind us. He was standing at the bottom of a spiral staircase, wearing a black suit with no tie and black and white tennis shoes. Liss was behind him. Her dark hair was wild around her shoulders and she looked adorable in a short dress that flattered her curvy form.
Everyone began talking at once, trying to find out what was going on. Joe held his hands up to silence us.
"Look, I know you're all curious. And I'm sorry to be so cryptic, but I've got to do something important tonight and I needed to talk to you first."
Dex, who'd been uncharacteristically quiet, chimed in. "Are you leaving the band, mate? If so, you could've told us tomorrow."
"No, that's not it," Joe said emphatically. "But I do have to come clean about some things. Please, everyone just let me get through this, okay?"
There were a few grumbles, but no one interrupted him again.
Joe started pacing back and forth. "I've been thinking about all of this for a while, but now that Matthew's back, we're all together and it's the right time." Liss took his hand and he held it tightly. "You know there's been a lot of shit going on around us and between us. I think we're back on track, pretty much, but it's gotten me thinking." He stopped and looked at the ground, unsure of himself in a way I'd ever seen. One of his strengths as a front-man was always exuding confidence.
Liss shook her head and smiled at us. "Let me help. As you all know, Joe and I were planning to get married once this tour is over. I mean, that was the plan at first. After the accident. We always expected to want a very long engagement with so much going on."
The accident. The one that had taken the life of their manager and almost Matthew's.
"Right," Joe continued. "That was the plan. But lately we've been talking. And if the past year has taught us anything, it's that tomorrow is not guaranteed. Anything could happen, so it doesn't make sense to wait to do the things that matter. Do what you want while you can. Maybe it's selfish, but we all have to be selfish sometimes."
"Wait, are you saying what I think you're saying?" Rick asked.
"That all depends on you, boys. We're family. Always have been. And I know the timing is shit, but I want to marry Liss. Not someday or when the tour is over. I want to do it right now. We talked about it before her flight and she agrees."
Becca ran over and hugged Liss. "You mean actually right now, don't you?"
"Yeah," Joe said. "If you guys are up for it."
"Of course we are," Matthew said emphatically.
"Not so fast," Rick nearly bellowed. Julia punched him kind of hard on the arm, but he waved it off. "Are you fucking kidding?"
Joe's face fell. "No, man. I am serious. And I want you all with me on this."
"Not a chance in hell."
I gasped.
Liss's eyes narrowed and if looks could kill, Rick would've been dead on the floor.
Dex turned and glared at him too. "What's your problem now?"
Rick crossed his arms across his chest. "How the fuck are you gonna get married before we can throw you an epic bachelor party? I forbid it. If I gotta listen to sappy declarations of love I need happy memories to get through it." A wide grin spread across his face.
"Asshole," Julia spat at him before kissing his cheek.