Black Falcon: Complete Series Collection (16 page)

Noel pulls my hand away from his face and kisses my fingertips. “I don’t want to lose you. The thought of it scares the shit out of me.”

“Me too. I can’t believe we’re together again. Nothing is going to break us up this time.” My voice sounds firm.

His large hands cup my face, and his thumbs rub against my cheeks. His blue eyes search my face. “Promise?”

I don’t look away from his gaze. “I promise.”

Noel’s mouth crushes mine as the words leave my lips. Heat bounds between us, and my hands fly up into his thick, dark hair. His hands slide up under my T-shirt and stroke the flesh on the small of my back.

I moan, and Noel chuckles. “I love that you get turned on so fast for me. It’s unbelievably sexy. How come you weren’t like this in high school?”

I kiss his lips and shrug. “Scared, I guess, and inexperienced.”

He grins. “What do you expect from two virgins?”

He cuddles me tighter, and I smile. “True, but I’m glad it was you.”

“Me too.”

We spend the rest of the day hanging out in our room. Most of the time, we’re in each other’s arms making plans and filling in the blanks between us from the last few years. The food from our room service order is devoured quickly.

“Are you excited that your boss will be here tomorrow?” Noel asks.

I swallow down the last bite of my hamburger before answering. “Excited and nervous.”

He tilts his head. “Why nervous? You already have the job locked down.”

“I know, but I really want Diana to like me. If she finds out that we are...together, she may not take me so seriously.”

People from all over the globe request Diana for projects. She has the magic touch. It seems as if everything she gets her hands on turns into a worldwide phenomenon. I can only dream of having a career like hers one day.

He touches my cheek. “How could she not love you? You’re the best person I know. You’re straight laced—head always in the right direction. I pretty much think you’re perfect. And who doesn’t love perfection?”

I blush and look away. He thinks I’m perfect. The most perfect man in the world thinks I’m perfect. Someone needs to pinch me soon because this is too much like a damn dream. “I’m nowhere near perfect.”

Noel nods and taps my nose. “You are to me.” He hops off the bed. “I have to take a shower and get ready to meet up with the guys for sound check.”

I gaze up at him and grin. “I suppose you want me to wash your back?”

He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. “That would be nice...among other things.”

I laugh and chuck a pillow at him as he heads toward the bathroom. His faded jeans hug his back side just right, and I appreciate the view. How did I ever get so lucky? My cell phone rings the minute Noel shuts the bathroom door. I fish it out of my purse by the third ring. I smile when I see who’s calling.

“Too busy to call me this morning or what? I need some juicy details. I’m dying over here,” Aubrey says.

I giggle. “Well, I was a little...preoccupied.”

“Score one for the Sex God. I bet he’s amazing.”

I’m silent for few seconds, and I know the suspense is killing Aubrey. “You know how they say things get better with time...”

Aubrey shrieks. “Gah! You are so lucky. He’s amazingly hot, sweet, and now we can add great in bed to the list. You know I’m jealous, right?”

“Why are you jealous? You and Riff have a thing.”

She sighs. “A thing is right. The thing that boy can do with his tongue...”

“Okay, okay. I don’t want to hear about your Sexual Olympics.”

She laughs as Noel pokes his head out of the bathroom door. I frown and point at the phone so he knows I won’t be coming in. He rolls his eyes and closes the door.

I catch up with Aubrey for the next few minutes about her family. She keeps turning the conversation back to Riff. She asks me at least twenty times in a few minutes if he’s asked about her or not. After I convince her that Riff is secretly madly in love with her, she finally lets me off the phone.

Noel steps into the large bedroom wearing nothing but a towel. Water droplets speckle his chest, and the smell of his body wash fills the room. He lays a clean pair of jeans and a T-shirt on the bed next to me, and my eyes trail over his body as if it’s dessert. The way his muscles bulge under his skin really is spectacular. It’s practically art—the naughty kind that women love to drool over.

Noel laughs, and I jerk my head back down and grab my laptop. I know he’s caught me staring, but it’s hard not to. He pulls on his jeans, with no underwear, and throws on his shirt. Men are so lucky. They can look yummy in less than fifteen minutes.

After I’m ready, we head out of our love nest holding hands. Noel’s thumb strokes the skin on the back of my hand. The small gesture is somehow the most reassuring thing in the world. A black Town Car with tinted windows waits at the entrance of the hotel. The driver, wearing a black suit, nods at Noel before opening the back door for us. Noel helps me into the car then slides in next to me. The driver shuts us in and hops in the front. The smooth car pulls out onto the road. It’s crazy that Noel has so much money he doesn’t even have to drive himself around like a normal person anymore.

“Do you still have your car?” I ask Noel.

His eyes sparkle a little at the mention of his black Chevelle. “Yep. She’s tucked away in my garage.”

His garage?
“I didn’t know you owned a place.”

He wraps his arm around me and trails his fingers over my bare shoulder. “Yeah, I bought a house in Kentucky a couple years ago with my first big chunk of money from the record company.”

I tilt my head and gaze up at him. “Why Kentucky?”

He shrugs. “Why not? No one really bothers me there. Who would expect that I’d live there? Plus, the rest of the guys in the band are from there, so I got a place near them. I like the space. It’s peaceful there, you know? Reminds me a lot of where we grew up.”

“It has a lake?”

He grins. “Yep, and the dock there puts our little one to shame.”

“I’d love to see it sometime.”

His eyes lock on mine. “One day soon. Maybe after you see it, you’ll want to stay.”

My breath catches. I’m stunned. Did Noel just ask me to move in with him? We’ve known each other our entire lives, but we just got back together. Am I ready for such a huge leap?

Noel runs his hand through his hair. “Every time I feel like we’re moving forward, you throw me off when you freeze up like this. Like you’re not quite sure enough about me to take things to the next level.”

I’m taken back. How could he possibly know I have even the slightest hint of reservation? “Noel...I...”

He leaves one arm around my shoulder and threads my fingers with his free hand. “It’s okay. I know I’m moving kind of fast, but I can’t seem to help myself. All I want to do is be with you. Now that I have you back, I can’t see my life without you. When I think about my future, I think about you.”

I want to be with Noel, but I don’t want to ruin this by rushing. We’ve only been reconnected for a couple days; there’s so much I don’t know about him anymore. Four years in the rock world pretty much equals ten in the real one. Everything is always on the move here. The most I can offer him is honesty. “I want to be with you too. I really do. But I think we need to take things slow. I mean, there’s no rush, right?”

Noel’s shoulders sag. “I guess not.”

He looks away, and I know I’ve hurt him. The familiar pain of heartbreak tears in my chest. I touch his cheek. “I’m not saying I’ll never move in, or that it’ll even take long. I’m just saying let’s see how the next couple of months go, and then we can talk about moving in together. For now, I’m here. And for now, I’m yours.”

He turns those powerful blue eyes on me and nods. “If that’s all you can give me for now, then I’ll take it.”

By the end of the week, I know I’ll probably feel the same way Noel does, but for now, we need to take it slow. I’m just glad he understands. Noel never was a very patient person. He’s always been an all-or-nothing type of guy. This compromising side of him is new, but I like it. It shows he’s grown. I kiss his lips just as we reach the arena. It’s another mammoth building, but nowhere near as big as the huge soccer stadium Black Falcon just filled back in Ohio. It’s my sixth day on the road with him, and I can see how a different city every night would get tiresome.

The car stops beside Big Bertha. Trip sits on a short concert retaining wall across from the bus and slaps his thighs with drum sticks—Tyke beside him, a hood over his head, fiddling with his phone. Noel helps me out of the car and grabs my hand. I smile and glance at him. His eyes watch me intently as he runs his thumb over the back of my hand. Something is on his mind. I can tell. Years of being friends with a man do have some benefits.

My smile fades. “Are you all right?”

He runs a hand through his hair and scrubs it over his face. “Yeah, just tired, I guess.”

I don’t buy his story, but I don’t want to rehash the same issue from the car ride over, if that’s what’s still on his mind. Hopefully, he really does understand and respect my need to take things slow. Most of the things I’ve done in a rush didn’t work out. Prime example: breaking up with him the first time.

We just need time.

Trip notices us and nods. “What’s up, love birds?”

Noel smirks at the black-haired drummer. “Did you guys hang out here all day?”

“Yeah, pretty much. This little town is boring as hell. They don’t even have a fucking Starbucks. Can you believe that shit?” Trip rolls his eyes at the city’s lameness. “The only thing to do is hang out on Bertha and play Xbox. Did you go over to the hotel?”

“Lane and I did.”

Trip grins. “Damn, dude. You’re a machine.”

The skin on my face burns. I know I’m beet red. Did everyone on the bus hear everything we did yesterday?

Trip laughs, and Noel shoves him. The force of the playful shove sends Trip against the shrubs behind him. That only causes him to laugh harder and his brother, Tyke, to join in.

Noel pulls me by the hand toward the bus. “Ignore them. The more they see it gets to you, the more they’ll keep at it.”

I want to die.

I’ve never been overly sexual or boisterous about my sex life, so to suddenly have everyone on the planet—okay, maybe not the planet, but definitely the band and most of the Black Flacon crew—know Noel and I have been at it like rabbits since yesterday bothers me. It’s totally embarrassing. Noel opens the bus door and leads me inside. It’s surprisingly clean, and it smells like a cleaner of some sort and air freshener. This is most certainly a different, yet welcomed, sight.

Noel notices my expression and grins. “Told you we’d get this cleaned up. We aren’t total animals, you know.”

The toilet flushes, and my eyes scan the hallway, curious as to who is back there. Riff steps out wearing yellow rubber gloves and holding a spray bottle. My eyebrows lift. Riff is the last person on earth I’d expected was the domestic type.

“You did all this?” I ask.

He shrugs. “I didn’t want you to have to live in our filth. Plus...” He pauses and glances to Noel, then back to me. “It’s kind of a peace offering for teasing you in front of Aubrey. No hard feelings. All right?”

I smile. “That’s very sweet of you. Consider it forgotten.”

He grins and nods while Noel stiffens next to me. Clearly, the little act of kindness didn’t win him over as easily. I don’t get why Noel is like this with Riff. I figured he’d chill out a little bit after I’d reassured him Riff isn’t my type. I mean, Riff is kind of with Aubrey now. That alone should relieve his fear.

A ringing cell phone cuts through the tense air. Noel reaches into his pocket and twists his lips. “I have to take this.” He answers the phone and tells the person on the other end to hold on a minute while he goes outside.

Riff pulls off the gloves and opens the cabinet beneath the sink. He tosses them in a blue tub along with the cleaner. “I’m going to find Trip. I’ll catch you later, Lanie.”

Riff pats my shoulder as he slides past me toward the door. I follow him out the door and spot Noel arguing on the phone. It looks heated and reminds me of the last time I caught him in a heated conversation over business. Riff stops in front of Noel, and they exchange a few words I can’t make out. Riff shakes his head and walks away. Noel’s eyes don’t leave him until he’s out of sight.

I have the feeling there’s way more to their tense relationship than either of them are telling me. I’m going to have to get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later if I’m going to make it on this bus for another week.

––––––––

N
oel really is amazing onstage. The way he belts out lyrics sets me in a trance—along with the other twenty thousand people in attendance tonight. I sway to the beat, and my head bobs in time to the music. It’s so easy to get lost in him.

I don’t notice the scantily clad woman in fishnet stockings and five-inch stiletto heels approach until she’s directly beside me. Like me, the woman’s eyes fixate on the guys performing. The blonde is pretty much in a black bathing suit covered by a black—what I assume is supposed to be—dress. Only it doesn’t cover anything. The dress is basically strings held together on each side of her body by a three-inch piece of black fabric. She’s brave, I’ll give her that.

I give her a polite smile when she catches me staring at her revealing outfit, and then I return my attention to the stage. I don’t know if I’ll be able to ever get used to all the women who hang around at shows.

When the song ends, Noel thanks his screaming fans before he glances in my direction. His smile fades, and my eyebrows scrunch together at his sudden change of mood. He’s scowling at me. It’s the same evil look I catch him giving Riff sometimes.

What’s his deal?

The woman beside me has an odd expression, too, but she doesn’t appear mad—quite the opposite. Some might call it a shit-eating grin, which in my book always equals to “up to no good.” The hairs on my arms stand as I wonder how Noel knows this trashy-looking chick. Things start to click. He’s been with this woman. Why else would he act like that? As if he’s scared that she’s next to me. Like she might say something.