Change Of Plans (New Adult BBW Romance) (3 page)

Chapter
Five

 “Mmm. This has got to be the best
steak and ribs I’ve ever had, even reheated.” Lucinda cut another piece off the
flatiron steak on her plate, then placed it in her mouth. “Mmm.”

“Well, I’m glad someone’s enjoying it,” Callie
said, poking at her own dish. They were seated at the dining table in Callie’s
apartment, eating the food that Brendan had paid for back at the Daniel. She
hadn’t wanted to sit alone at the table and eat the fine food that Brendan had
so generously purchased, so she’d taken it to go back to the office, where
she’d been too distraught to eat.

Lucinda, sensing her mood, had offered to
take her out for a drink afterward, but Callie had instead invited her for
dinner, not feeling up to going out. For all she knew, she might run into
Brendan again, and that was the last thing she wanted. Home was the safest
place for her right now.

“Girl, if you’re not gonna eat that, I’ll
help myself,” Lucinda said pointedly, eyeing Callie’s plate. The woman was
bird-boned, but she ate like a horse, and Callie had no doubt her friend would
finish both plates.

“Thanks, but I’m good.” Callie sighed,
then took another bite. The pork was melt-in-your-mouth delicious, but she
couldn’t seem to fully enjoy it now that it was associated with Brendan. “I am
really glad you’re enjoying your food. At least that means the lunch meeting
wasn’t a total waste.”

“So you really didn’t sign him?” Lucinda
frowned. “I have to say I’m a little confused as to why. You were crazy about
his book, Callie. I thought you were coming back with a signed contract for
sure.”

Callie shook her head. “It’s a bit more
complicated than that.” She hadn’t told Lucinda anything about the meeting when
she’d come back; she’d been fuming, steam practically coming out of her ears,
and her assistant had taken one look and wisely kept her distance for the first
couple of hours.

“Yeah, seems that way.” Lucinda swallowed
her last bite of steak. “Maybe you could enlighten me a little bit on why?”

“Well.” Callie put her fork down, trying
to figure out the best way to phrase this. “I didn’t realize it until I met him
today, but it turns out I have a bit of a history with B. Strong.”

“Oh yeah?” Lucinda leaned forward a
little, her eyes brightening like she always did when she heard a particularly
juicy piece of gossip. Callie took a deep breath; even though she knew Lucinda
wouldn’t spread this around the office, it was still hard to tell her.

“He’s my ex-boyfriend.”

“Shut up.” Lucinda practically leapt out
of her chair. “Andy Smith wrote that book? The guy you dated for like, six
weeks back in January? I didn’t think that bastard had it in him!”

 “God, no. Not Andy,” Callie said,
laughing. “His name is Brendan Armstrong.”

“Oh. I didn’t know you’d dated a
Brendan.”

“He was before your time.”

“Right.” Lucinda’s brown furrowed, and
then her eyes widened. “Oh my god. You don’t mean…
that
Brendan
Armstrong? The one from that band who broke up after their drummer died?”

“What?” Callie’s jaw dropped.
Lucas
was dead?
“I had no idea,” she whispered.

“Yeah.” Lucinda watched her closely. “He
died a couple of months ago. Drug overdose. I’m guessing you knew him?”

“Yes. Yes, I knew them all,” Callie
mumbled numbly. She’d hung out with the Strong Arm Giants many times, back when
they were just a garage band and she and Brendan still had the possibility of a
future together. Lucas had been a sweetheart, a skinny guy with a mop of long,
unruly hair he loved to swing around as he head banged while playing on the
drums. “That’s so terrible.”

“It really is.” Lucinda reached over and
squeezed Callie’s hand. “I’m so sorry honey. I thought you would have known.”

Callie shook her head. “I always made it
a point not to follow them in the media. It hurt too much.”

Lucinda nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, I
get that. Breakups are rough.” She waited a moment, but Callie didn’t say
anything more. “I guess it must have been years since you last saw Brendan.”

“At least five.”

“Wow.” Lucinda frowned. “You know, it’s
kind of a crappy thing to do, luring you into the restaurant like that on the
pretense of work when you didn’t even know who he really was. What’d he try to
do, get you two to kiss and make up?”

Callie’s lips twisted. “Not exactly. He
offered me a revised contract to sign.”

“What?” Lucinda’s pretty blue eyes
widened. “What the hell is that all about? What did he want, for you to agree
to suck him off for every thousand dollars he makes in royalties?”

Callie snorted. “Nothing quite so vulgar.
Just for me to accompany him on a book tour.”

“Oh.” Lucinda deflated a little. “Well, I
guess that’s not so bad.”

“Excuse me?” Callie didn’t quite believe
what she’d heard. Was her assistant actually defending her ex?

“Okay, I mean I get why you’d be upset
and everything.” Lucinda held up her hands. “But in a way, it’s kind of sweet
that Brendan’s inventing ways to spend time with you.”

“Yeah, it’s really sweet that he’s
coercing me into putting myself in a position where I can be seduced by him,” Callie
said sarcastically. She picked up her plate and tossed the contents in the
trash, thoroughly disgusted at this point. “Acting like he’s offering me this
deal like I’m in dire need of something juicy.”

“You
are
in dire need of something
juicy,” Lucinda pointed out, somewhat dryly. “Or at least that’s how you’ve
been acting this past month.”

Callie threw her hands up in the air.
“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean I have to stoop so low as to accept his charity,
just so he’ll have a chance to get in my pants again. I’m done with him, Lucy.
He left me behind because music was more important to him than I was, and he
can suffer with his decision for the rest of his life as far as I’m concerned.”
She stalked over to her couch and plopped down into it. “I don’t need to feel
sorry for him.”

Looking concerned, Lucinda abandoned what
was left of her meal and joined Callie on the couch. “Honey, I totally
understand your position, and if you truly feel this is the best thing for you,
I’ll back you up all the way.”

“Good.”

“But before I drop the subject
completely, I have to ask, did you love him?”

Callie’s mouth opened, then closed. Her
jaw worked as she tried to come up with an answer, with something that would
convince Lucinda that she didn’t love Brendan, that she despised him, that she
wished he was nothing more than a speck of dust on the face of the earth. But
she couldn’t.

Lucinda smiled as she read Callie’s
thoughts in her expression. “That’s what I thought.”

Callie let out a huff. “What does it
matter how I felt about him? He’s still the one who left me, who didn’t care
enough about our relationship to really try to make it work. He said that he
worried that the stress of being on tour, of being away all the time, would put
a strain on our relationship, and that he didn’t want to put either of us
through that. He said it would be better if we just ended it, to save ourselves
from heartbreak later.”

“Hmm.” Lucinda gave Callie a thoughtful
look. “Sounds like he’s suffered some heartbreak himself.”

“What?”

“Or at the very least, commitment issues.
Why else would he be so worried about that, if the two of you truly loved each
other?”

“Maybe he didn’t really love me?” Callie
suggested sarcastically. “Maybe he just wanted to cut the thread of our
relationship so he wouldn’t feel guilty about banging groupies while he was on
tour? And now that he’s done with the band, he looked me up because he wants a
piece of ass and thinks I’m available?”

Lucinda rolled her eyes. “Come on, Callie.
If this is really Brendan Armstrong we’re talking about, he could get any piece
of ass he wanted. That man is sex on a stick.” She paused, allowing herself a
dreamy sigh, then continued. “He wouldn’t go through all these lengths to write
a damned book, then seek you out to try to get you to help him publish it, if
all he wanted was to fuck you. If your ass was all he’d wanted, he’d probably
just find a way to show up in your office naked or something.”

An image of Brendan waiting for her in
her leather office chair, completely naked except for a red rose covering his
cock, sprang into her mind, and she blushed. “That would be something else.”

“Damn right. And if he’s anything like
the sex scenes in that book, you’d be in for one wild ride.” Lucinda grinned at
Callie’s shocked look. “I started reading it last night, honey. That book is
seriously hot.”

It’s the story of us.
Brendan’s words echoed in Callie’s
head. The sex scenes between the millionaire bad boy and the headstrong business
woman had borne little resemblance to the sweet lovemaking she’d enjoyed with
Brendan. They’d been downright kinky, full of role-playing and dominance games,
but she had to admit that she’d been excited by them.

If she slept with Brendan again, would it
be anything like that? Would he tie her up and spank her, or torture her with
pleasure until she couldn’t stand it anymore. And even better, would he
treasure her like she was unspeakably precious, the way Mr. Millionaire Bad Boy
did?

“You really think that Brendan wants to
do more than just get into my pants?” Callie asked, although that wasn’t
sounding like a half-bad idea right now.

“I think that if he knows you even half
as well as I do, he understands that you’re stubborn, and that he’s trying to
get to you through the only way he knows how – through your work.”
Lucinda patted Callie’s leg. “And he made sure he had something so tantalizing
to offer you that you would have a tough time resisting. You might call that
manipulative… but I call that dedication. No man would go through that much
trouble just for a couple of nights of hot sex, not when it’s a woman he’s
already had before.”

“I guess you do have a point there.” Callie
sighed. “I just don’t know, Lucinda. Brendan accused me of letting my emotions
cloud my judgment, and I guess he’s right because regardless of how I feel
about him, I’d be a fool to pass up this deal. With his celebrity status we’ll
both make a killing.” She raked a hand through her chestnut waves. “I just need
more time to think about it.”

“You can have all the time in the world,”
Lucinda said, then reached over and grabbed the remote sitting on the walnut
coffee table. She switched on the flat screen TV with a grin. “In the meantime,
let’s kick back and watch something so you can take your mind off it.”

Callie smiled. Lucinda wasn’t just a
great assistant; she was also one of the best friends she’d ever had, and
always knew what to do to make her feel better. “Sounds good.”

Brendan was sprawled out on the black
leather couch in his penthouse apartment, looking through photo albums when he
got the call.

Sitting up, he set aside the black vinyl
album he was holding, placing it on top of the stack of albums that teetered
atop his glass and chrome coffee table. Gracing the cover of that particular
album was a photo of him and Callie smiling into the camera, with a backdrop of
palm trees and blue sky and sand. He was cradling her against his chest, and
she leaned against him trustingly, completely secure in the knowledge that he
held her safe and would never let her fall.

If only he’d treasured that trust, had
held onto it, and her. But he’d let his bitterness get the best of him, and now
she was lost, possibly forever.

Hmm, maybe not forever
, he thought, smiling as he
recognized the caller ID.

“Hello.”

“Hi.” Callie’s voice, always so light and
melodic, brought another smile to his face, even if her tone did sound a little
more reserved than he’d like. “It’s me…Callie.”

“Hey, you.”  He was careful to keep
his voice light, as if his pulse hadn’t jumped up “I’m glad you called.”

“Yeah.” Callie paused. “I thought about
what you said yesterday, and I’ve changed my mind. I’d like to offer you
representation, and I’m willing to sign your contract.”

“Wow.” Brendan let out a short laugh.
“Just like that, huh? I was expecting you to chew me out, or at least to give
me some kind of counter offer.” Actually, part of him had been worried she
wouldn’t call him back at all, but he’d refused to give into that gnawing
insecurity. He knew Callie better than he knew himself, and had been mostly
secure in the knowledge that she wouldn’t be able to pass up the opportunity he
was offering.

“Yeah, well I’m not exactly offering this
with no strings attached,” Callie said, her tone caustic. “First, I want to get
some questions answered.”

“Oh yeah?” Brendan asked warily. “Like
what?”

“Like why you didn’t tell me that Lucas
had died.”

Aww, hell
. “It wasn’t exactly something I wanted
to bring up while trying to convince you to represent me over dinner,” he said
a little stiffly.

“Yeah, and thanks for that, by the way,” Callie
said, sarcasm dripping from every word. “My assistant loved the food.”

Ouch
. “Okay, okay, I get it. You’ve made your
point. Sorry I took you out to lunch,” he said, throwing a little of his own
sarcasm back at her.

“I’m not angry that you tried to take me
out to lunch,” Callie said, her voice softening a little. “Just that you tried
to sweep me up off my feet and blindside me to what’s really going on with you.
I want to know the truth about why you left the band, about what you’re really
doing here, and what you want with me now after you tossed me aside all those
years ago.” Her voice thickened, and Brendan was instantly swamped with guilt
as he realized she was holding back tears.

“I’ll tell you whatever you want to
know,” he said quietly. “Lucas –”

“Not now,” Callie interrupted. “Not over
the phone. I want to talk to you face to face, after I leave the office today.
And none of that fancy crap either,” she added. “I want to talk to the real
Brendan, the one I thought I knew before you left.”

“What do you say we meet at Gino’s,
then?” Brendan asked, referring to one of their favorite pizza parlors. Their
third date had been at Gino’s, and they’d kissed for the first time after he’d
brought her home, so he knew they both had mutually fond memories of the place.

“Gino’s it is. See you at 6.”

* *
*

When Brendan walked into Gino’s at
5:59pm, Callie was already seated at one of the tables near the back, nursing a
glass of wine. He glanced around at the honey colored walls that were covered
with framed paintings and photos, at the wait staff who were bustling between
the handful of tables that were filling up, and smiled. The place felt like
home, or maybe a long-lost friend he hadn’t realized he’d been missing.

“Did you already order?” He asked, taking
a seat in the padded wooden chair across from Callie.

“Yep.” Smiling a little, she poured a
glass of cabernet for him. “Lasagna pizza for you, Focaccia for me.”

“I’m surprised you remember.” Brendan
took a sip of the wine, watching her over the rim of his glass. She was dressed
in jeans and a white turtleneck that was lacy and sheer from the bottom of her
throat to the tops of her breasts, teasing him with hints of skin and the barest
suggestion of cleavage. She’d scooped her hair up into a bun, with only a few
tendrils framing her soft face, leaving the silky column of her neck completely
bare. He wondered if she would still make those little mewling sounds if he
kissed a path down her neck to nibble near her collarbone, just the way he used
to do…

“Yeah, well, I haven’t forgotten much
about you.” The spots of color in her cheeks told him she had a good idea about
where his mind had been, and he gave her an unabashed grin in response. “I’ll
wait until the pizza arrives before making you get into the good stuff with
me.”

“Great.” His budding arousal instantly
dampened at the thought.

It didn’t take long for the pizza to
arrive, and soon Brendan was biting into his first slice of lasagna pizza, the
combination of beef, ricotta, mozzarella and tomato sauce bursting with flavor
on his tongue. “Jesus,” he moaned, swallowing down the first hot bite. “This is
even better than I remembered.”

“Mmm,” Callie agreed, her eyes closing as
she savored her own pizza. “Agreed. I haven’t been here in over three years.”

Probably not since the last time we went
here together
,
Brendan realized, sobering a little. He wondered how many other places around
the city Callie had avoided while he was gone, places they’d made memories at,
simply so she wouldn’t have to think about him.
God, I am such an ass.

They ate in silence for a few moments
before Callie finally lifted her head, worry shining in her beautiful dark
eyes. “Brendan, I have to know… did Lucas really die of a drug over dose?”

“He did.” Brendan sighed, his guilt and
grief crashing against his mental barriers, threatening to overwhelm him. “Shot
up on meth one too many times. It was fucking heartbreaking.”

“I’m so sorry,” Callie murmured, her eyes
big and sad. “I didn’t… I never thought that Lucas would go down that path. He
always seemed so clean and carefree.”

“He was.” Brendan put down the
half-finished slice of pizza in his hand, his appetite gone. “The rock star
life… after a while it can get rough. Too many temptations, and far too much
money to indulge in them. Lucas wasn’t the only one who dabbled in drugs, but
it hit him and Jake the hardest.” He shook his head. “I should have done
something, should have gotten him some help, but he pushed back, and you know,
I just said fuck it, right? As long as he keeps playing, as long as we’re still
doing shows and rolling in the cash, why do I give two shits what Lucas does on
his own time?”

Callie said nothing, so he went on, the
words tumbling from his lips in a rush, as if a dam had burst free and he just
couldn’t stop talking. “The night he died, we had a huge performance scheduled,
and he didn’t show. Couldn’t find him anywhere, and we were freaking out
because we were on in like, three hours or something.” He dragged a hand
through his hair, causing it to stick out from the side of his head in black
spikes and probably make him look like a crazy person. “So Ricky has the bright
idea to try to track him using his phone, and we find out he’s in a motel about
ten miles away.”

Shaking his head again, Brendan took a
long gulp from his wine glass. “I was so fucking pissed at him, because I just
knew he was shacked up there with some junkie whore, so Ricky and I jumped into
my car and drove off to find them. When I got there, his lay was sitting on top
of him, butt-naked except a g-string, pushing down on his chest and trying to
resuscitate him.” He broke off, disgust and rage and sorrow choking him. “I
couldn’t decide whether to cry or to beat the shit out of him, even though he
was already dead.”

Callie took his hand, squeezing it gently
with both her own. “I wish you’d told me about it,” she murmured. “I would have
called his family, come to the funeral, tried to do something for their pain. I
would have wanted to.”

Brendan sighed. “I might’ve done that if
I was thinking straight, but I was too out of my mind with grief, and besides,
I didn’t think you’d want to hear from any of us again, especially me.”

“I would have wanted to hear about this.
I liked Lucas.”

Brendan smiled a little, squeezing her
hand in return. “I know that. You’ve got a big heart, Callie. It’s one of the
things I love about you.”

They stared at each other for a long
moment, hands clasped together, only a table and two leftover pies separating
them. “So what happened then?” Callie asked, eventually breaking the spell.
“Did you try to find another drummer?”

Brendan shook his head. “There was talk
of that, but I didn’t have the heart for it. The band wasn’t the same without
Lucas, and quite frankly I was just fucking done. Tired of being strung out,
tired of partying hard, tired of the whole sex, drugs and rock and roll
rollercoaster. Just tired.” He rubbed his left temple using his free hand. “So
I packed up, and I came home. And I wrote a book.”

“You sure did.” Callie smiled crookedly,
then took her wallet out to pay for the pizza. “What do you say we go take a
walk in Central Park while the sun’s still above the horizon? I think it would
be good for both of us to get some air.”

“I’d like that.” Brendan smiled back,
then reached over and gently grasped Callie’s wrist. “But put your wallet back.
I’m paying for the pizza.”

They left the warm, cozy pizza parlor and
entered the beauty of Central Park, following the paved path as it wound around
the lake. Birds were still twittering as they settled down for the night,
flitting between the branches of trees whose leaves were just starting to turn
color. The vibrant colors of the setting sun shimmered across the lake in hues
of orange, purple and gold, making the water look like it was a rippling
canvas.

Going for a walk in Central Park after
pizza had also been one of their traditions, Brendan remembered. In the early
days of relationship they’d spent lots of time strolling through the park, hand
in hand as they talked about hopes and dreams and possibilities for the future.
He glanced down at Callie’s hand, the fingertips peeking out of her jacket
sleeve, just a few inches from his own. If he moved his own hand just a little
bit they would be touching…

No
, he told herself firmly
. I’m not
going to push it yet. Wait until she’s ready.
They’d already made a lot of
progress, much more than he’d expected considering that they hadn’t even signed
the contract yet. He didn’t want to screw it up.

“So what are your plans for the future
now?” Callie asked. The chilly breeze tugged at a lock of her wavy brown hair,
and she tucked it behind an ear, exposing a succulent-looking earlobe. He
didn’t know why, but he’d always been crazy about her earlobes, always liked to
tease them with her tongue and teeth as she writhed and whimpered in his arms.
“I mean, did you really intend to come back and start writing romances?”

Brendan chuckled, shaking his head. “I
didn’t really have anything in mind, honestly. I just wanted to get the fuck
away from everything for a while, just hunker down and try to heal. I found
that writing about my issues helped clear my head space, and I did that for
months, just doing yoga and reading books on philosophy and writing in
journals.”

Callie’s jaw dropped. “You, doing yoga?
Shut up.”

“It’s true, swear it on my mother’s
grave,” he said, holding up his hands. It was a serious oath, both his parents
having died when he was barely a teenager. “It helps ground me, plus it’s
fucking great for strength and flexibility.”

Callie laughed. “Yeah, I know that. I was
telling you that all the time, back when I tried to get you to do it with me.”

“Are you still practicing?”

“Every morning.”

“Maybe we should do it sometime,” he
suggested. “You show me your tadasana and I’ll show you mine.”

“Maybe,” Callie agreed, laughter in her
voice and sparkling her eyes.

They reached a small gazebo sitting by
the water, and Brendan led Callie inside, hopping up the few steps and then
reaching down to offer her a hand. She slipped her palm in his, and the slide
of her soft skin against his sent a jolt through him that went straight to his
cock.

Damn
, he thought.
So this is what
abstinence does
. Never in his life had holding someone’s hand made him so
damn horny.

“Thanks,” Callie said softly, releasing
his hand so she could settle herself down on one of the bench seats. They had a
perfect view of the lake from here, which now reflected only a dull orange from
the sky, the setting sun having disappeared from view. They stared out at the
picturesque scene in silence for a few moments, their bodies close enough that
Brendan could feel Callie’s body heat. Her unique fragrance surrounded him,
making him draw even closer to her, until they were nearly touching.