The Girl of Diamonds and Rust (The Half Shell Series Book 3) (24 page)

“No, I already have a room.” I hold up my index finger. “One second. I just need to call and find out where.”

I dial my phone again and wait. I stare into the lobby. The hotel is packed with people from the tour like it always is everywhere we stayed, but I don’t see anyone I am friendly with. Definitely none of the guys from the band are loitering in the lobby.

I cover my ear not pressed against the receiver with my hand to block out the noise. Ring. Ring. Ring. Fucking voice mail again.

I snap it shut and enter the hotel, cutting my way through the people toward the front desk. Crap, there is a line at check-in. I don’t want to wait in line just to get a room number.

I drop my arms on the marble countertop, smile and stare at a clerk. After trying to ignore me several minutes, he comes over to the spot across the counter from me.

“How may I help you?” he asks in that snotty way clerks do in the better hotels.

“I don’t know what room I’m in.”

Jeez, that sounded lame.

“Name?”

“Stanton.”

“Do you have ID, Miss?”

“Yes, I have ID.” I drop my purse on the counter. I pull out my wallet. “Oh crap. My license says Parker. But the Stanton room is my room. Get it?”

Now the way he’s looking at me is just plain insulting.

“Hold on.”

He grabs the phone and dials.

“Mr. Stanton, there is a Miss Parker at the desk…” His voice trails off and he nods for a while. Then, “OK. I’ll send her up.”

I exhale slowly, but internally I’m really annoyed because if Neil is in the room why didn’t he answer his fucking mobile?

I’m emotionally messy by the time I climb into the elevator, and I don’t want to be. I wanted this to be a perfect first day back with Neil. I definitely hoped Indy would be a special kind of day, sort of like a new beginning for us. Me being less frustrating and indecisive. The both of us more clear on where we’re going together. I’m not ready to say
yes, I’ll marry you
, but I’m seriously considering it and I want Neil to know that. I think it will make him happy.

Well, that’s what I’d hoped when I boarded a plane seven hours ago in Santa Barbara, but the Alan phone call has knocked me out of whack. Then the Neil phone calls—or rather
non-phone calls
—have started to make me feel anxious, though I don’t know why and I know they probably shouldn’t.

We exit the elevator, and the floor with the bank of rooms for the guys is noisier than usual. Crap, Delmo must be on the same floor with us again. There are people everywhere, girls everywhere, things I don’t want to see everywhere, doors open, small parties within this giant party. Give them an extra day on the hop and this is what guys do with it.

I glance into a room as I pass, and I really wish I hadn’t. I know that Les Wilson is a freaking man-whore, but I don’t like to see it because I know I’m going to be hanging out with his girlfriend again someday. Jeez, how will I ever be able to look Veronica in the eyes again after this tour?

The music, the activity, the loudness is intense, and I take more interest in the open doors I pass.
Stupid, Chrissie, stupid. Neil isn’t a partier. He’s a loner like you. Stop checking out the action all around you and trying to catch him doing God knows what.

The bellhop drops my bag outside a door and hands me a key.

“Here you are, Miss Parker.”

What the heck? All that, the phone call from the desk, the escort to the upper floor, just to give me a key and then walk away.
My bag. You could carry my bag inside.

I stare at the door. Now I’m pissed. I was already edgy before I exited the elevator into this madness, but something about this has my nerve-tips prickling. What’s up with the ignored phone calls and Neil having me escorted up here?

Really, Neil, escorted?

I struggle to get the key in the lock, turn the knob, shove open the door, then hold it with my leg and drag my bags in. I let the door slam behind me. I look up.

Oh my
. My eyes widen. My gaze slowly moves around the room and everything inside me turns to hot, roiling liquid.

My eyes lock with Neil’s.

“Welcome back,” he whispers.

I suck in a breath. The room is bathed in soft candlelight. The candles are everywhere, on every table and on every surface, dozens of them. And Neil is lying in the center of the bed, reclined on a hip, facing me and gloriously naked, every inch of him fully exposed, in an inviting posture waiting for me. His cheek rests in his palm and his messy waves frame his face, and the look in his eyes takes my breath away.

I start to take in other details of the room. The champagne on the night table next to a neatly arranged plate of Oreo cookies and strawberries. I laugh. What kind of guy remembers your weird food preference? Crap, there is even a cake and an elegantly wrapped present beside it.

I don’t know what to say.
This
I did not expect.

“You took an early flight,” Neil remarks into my silence. “We only got into Indy an hour ago. It didn’t leave me a lot of time to work with.”

Understanding comes to me in rich waves, making me acutely aware of why I love him. “You ignored my calls on purpose. You slowed me down getting to the room on purpose, so you could do all this.”

“Happy birthday, Chrissie.”

Moisture blurs my vision. “It is now, Neil.”

~~~

I lie naked in the wrap of Neil’s arms, quiet and sexually spent. The sex only ended because I think we’re both exhausted, but we’ve been kissing and touching ever since. Five days apart. Too long. If there had been a shred of doubt he missed me or that he’d cheated on me while I was gone, it would have died the first time we made love.

I feel drained, or I would be working toward sex again in this quiet after our passion. We have had nothing but mind-blowing sex for hours. Neil has been on fire tonight. I was on fire tonight. I didn’t expect that when I stepped into the room.

Everything changes. It changes quickly. This time it has changed in a good way.

“I can’t believe you did all this,” I whisper and then touch my lips to his forearm.

“You came back early. I wanted it to be special for you.”

I turn in his arms and stare at him with what I’m sure is lust-sparkling eyes. “Oh, definitely special. This night goes into the record books.”

Neil laughs.

I look at him. “If we were to get married, how would it work?”

He eases up to stare directly into my face and the passion haze leaves his gaze. “I don’t know, Chrissie. How does marriage work for anyone?”

“That’s not what I mean.”

He settles back against the pillow, draping me across his chest and holding me in the circle of his arms. He starts stroking my back in a gentle, soothing way.

“Why don’t you tell me what you mean, Chrissie? Things work better when I don’t try to figure out what you are asking.”

God, I feel stupid.
“Very funny. Ha. Ha.”

His eyes grow serious. “I’m not messing with you. I want to know what you’re thinking and it does work better when I don’t try to figure it out and just let you tell me.”

I take a moment to organize my thoughts and worries.

“I don’t want to stay with you on the road,” I whisper. “I’ll travel until we have kids, but after that I’m done. I want lots of kids, Neil. That is the only thing I’ve ever been certain of. I want kids.”

He starts plucking hairs from my face and brushing them back. “Then you won’t travel with me if we have kids and I won’t ask you to.”

I bite my lower lip. “I want to have a family. That is the most important thing to me. More than anything else, that’s what I want.”

He takes my face in his palms. “So do I, Chrissie. I want it with you.”

We are both quiet, pensive for a while. I’m sprawled on his chest, Neil gently caressing my back.

“Are you saying yes?” Neil asks.

I lift my chin to look at him. “I’m not saying maybe anymore, Neil. I’m saying someday instead.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

April 1994

I slouched down on my lounger, curling on my side and hugging the cushion for dear life. I haven’t enough strength to manage even a slightly presentable posture.

Fuck it, who cares here?

Nicole laughs. “You’re too young to be so tired.”

I frown. “It’s four in the morning. It’s perfectly normal to be tired.”

“Not here, love.”

I stare out across the pool on the rooftop patio. It’s packed with people laughing, drinking, and celebrating. Last show on the road done, a packed house at the LA Forum. Everyone tore it up on stage. God, Neil was incredible, even though when we arrived in California yesterday he looked like a limp dog on his last leg. 

We slept fifteen hours straight, but when he woke, Neil was supercharged, amped and ready to go crazy on stage. Last hop. They all are letting loose tonight. The party started the second we returned to the hotel after the concert.

I stare. “I don’t know how they all keep going. I wanted bed two hours ago.”

“Testosterone.” Nicole’s eyes fix on Neil, surrounded by people and still going strong. Her expression changes and is mildly wistful. “If I had that kid I’d want my bed, too.”

I blush and Nicole laughs.

Her gaze shifts to Delmo and she makes a face. “Regrettably, I have that. I’m staying on the roof until they boot me out of here.”

I laugh faintly. “You’re impossible. You and Delmo deserve each other.”

“That we do.”

My eyelids start to drift. Nicole’s laughter causes me to open them again.

She smiles. “We survived ten months on the road with Vinny and all we got is this lousy party and cheap booze on the roof of the West Hollywood Hilton. Damn man loves this place. Loves the nostalgia. Personally, I think it’s so he can slip away at night, party and partake of the scenery.”

I roll my eyes “He does not. Vincent wouldn’t do that to you. You can’t mess with me any longer. The man adores you. You adore him. Bicker. Bicker. Absolutely nonsense.”

She scrunches up her nose. “Sad, but true.” Her gaze shifts to me. “So where do you and the kid go now?”

I shrug. “I don’t know.” And I don’t, and it doesn’t bother me in the least. The tour is over, and I’m starting a new road with Neil. I don’t know what it is, but we’re doing it together and that’s enough.

Nicole studies my face and her relentlessly bitchy expression softens. “I can tell you one thing, Delmo is glad he’s not following the kid on stage anymore. The kid just keeps growing and growing each show. He’s on his way.” She grimaces. “Unfortunately, wherever you go it’s going to look like this.”

I laugh. “I hope not.”

She gives me a sympathetic smile.

I push the wayward hairs from my face and my gaze locks on Delmo cross the party to us.

He sinks down behind me on the chaise without asking, his legs on either side of me, and surrounds me in a sloppy hug complete with overly wet smacking kiss on my cheek.

He rocks us side to side. “Nancy Drew, I’m going to miss you.”

I try to wiggle out of his hold and then stop. “Don’t tell anyone I said this. They’re all too drunk to remember if they hear me, and if you repeat it, I’ll call you a liar, but I’m going to miss you, too.”

Vincent laughs. “You break my heart, love, but I love you anyway.”

He settles back against the cushion, taking me with him.

“Ah, will you look at this. We’re too fucking old for this, Nicky.”

“Speak for yourself, old man,” she taunts.

I laugh.

Vincent’s face appears over my shoulder. “You’re not going to have to miss me long, Chrissie. You’ll get to see me again Saturday, and I have another shot at convincing you to run away with me. But if you reject me again, it will be back to missing me because we’re off to Europe next.”

My eyes widen, surprised. “You’re going to Jack’s party?”

“Of course. Take a phone call from Jack anywhere you are. If Jack sends you an invite to the annual foundation fundraiser, you put on your best clothes and grab your checkbook. That’s how it is with your dad, love. We’re going to Santa Barbara.”

I smile, then droop and close my eyes again.

“Hey, asshole, that’s my girlfriend.” I hear Neil’s voice booming from across the party. I open my eyes to find him staring but smiling. “Let her go.”

Out of my peripheral vision I see Vincent bobbing a thumb toward Nicole. “Take my girlfriend, mate, and we can call it even.”

As exhausted as I am, I laugh and manage to avoid Nicole’s clumsy swat at Vincent’s chest. Jeez, I shouldn’t be attempting laughter and I start drifting into sleep.

“Let’s go, Chrissie.”

When I open my eyes, Neil is standing beside the chaise, staring down at me.

I nod and then frown. “I don’t think I can walk. I’m exhausted.”

Neil scoops me out of Delmo’s clutches and soon I’m held against his chest, legs and arms wrapped around him, my cheek resting on his shoulder.

He carries me into the hallway toward the elevator.

“We don’t have to be in Santa Barbara for two days,” he says, struggling to hit the call button with his elbow. “Nate wants to go La Jolla. Hang out. Surf for a day. What do you think of that?”

My head moves limply on his shoulder. “I don’t care.”

He steps into the elevator and maneuvers again to hit the number for our floor. He starts trailing light kisses across my face.

He laughs. “You’re a mess, Chrissie. Are you drunk? You’re not even being a pain tonight.”

I adjust to look at him. “Nope. Not drunk. Don’t want to be a pain. I sort of like you tonight.”

His kiss moves lightly and stirringly against my lips. “Do you love me tonight?” He starts kissing my neck. “Why don’t you do all those incredible things to me you do when you’re feeling loving.”

I roll my eyes. “Not a chance. If you wanted that you shouldn’t have held me hostage at that party for four hours. You missed it. That feeling is gone. Be happy I still like you.”

He makes a slight, upside down smile. “No?”