Nashville by Heart: A Novel (14 page)

Will
had talked Gillian into leaving the next morning, but tonight he didn’t want to
think about work. It had been a discouraging week. To his dismay, the record
executives had insisted several times to meet with Gillian, and each time, he’d
had to tell them she was out of town. After several attempts to schedule a
meeting, one of the executives had asked Will if she was fully committed to a
career in music.

“We
have a hundred girls like her lined up at the door,” he’d said.

“No
you don’t,” Will said. “You know Gillian Heart is one of a kind, and she’s got
it in her blood.”

The
man had been silent for a moment. “All right, I’ll give you that, but it
doesn’t matter how talented she is if she disappears on us.”

“She
didn’t disappear,” he told them. “She’s visiting her mom.”

“She
going to see her dad while she’s taking this little break?” The executive
sounded hopeful.

“Maybe,”
Will said, knowing it wasn’t really the truth, but it could happen.

“Monday
afternoon,” the executive said. “If she’s serious.”

“She’ll
be there.” And he knew she would, even if he had to get her himself. That was
the real reason he was there, to keep her new record contract from being
cancelled, but for tonight, he’d decided, he just wanted to enjoy being with
his girlfriend.

~~~~

“Dang.
I’ve missed you,” he said.

They’d
driven to the back of her momma’s field next to the river and spread a blanket
in the bed of his truck. He couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather be right
then. Besides, they were in Gold Creek Gap. There was nothing else to do, except
play Bingo, which is where Louise had gone off to.

Gillian,
a younger, even more beautiful version of her mother, sat beside him on the
tailgate, her legs bare in a pair of cut-off jeans and a loose, lightweight
flannel shirt over a white tank top. She looked content in the light of the
moon, her legs dangling over the edge, softly singing some tune her momma had
taught her when she was a little girl. Seeing her like that made him feel young
again. How many times had he and his friends driven to the back of some pasture
like this one and partied the summer night away? Of course, all the fun he’d
had back in those days was a little bit good clean fun and a whole lot of his
being a bad boy and corrupting good girls.

“This
where you hung out as a teenager?” He found his mind going to the same place it
had back then, and he grinned in the moonlight.

“Yes,”
she said. “But it wasn’t anything like what you’re thinking about right now.”
She reached down and took off her flip-flops, tossing them back to the corner of
the truck bed.

“How
do you know what I’m thinking?”

“Because
I remember what boys like you wanted back then.”

“Back
then?” he teased. “Boys don’t change that much when they become men.”

She
playfully punched him.

“Ouch.”
He rubbed his shoulder. “I bet they didn’t get far with your right hook, did
they?”

She
laughed, the sound carrying across the river and echoing back to them. “I used
to come here a lot, to think and play my guitar. Wrote a few songs out here
too.”

He
watched her readjust the barrette that held her hair back, and the way the
moonlight cast a glow around her face made him catch his breath. Without
asking, he reached over and tugged gently at the hair bauble. She grew still,
letting her hair cascade around her like a halo. Leaning over, he framed her
face in his hands, kissed her softly, and then hungrily, the way he’d wanted to
kiss her since the chaste kiss that morning in the church.

Not
that he’d minded spending the afternoon with her and Louise, but he’d been
wanting to get Gillian alone all day long. Now that he had her out in the back
of the field, and in the back of his truck, his mind was running rampant with
all kinds of things that might’ve shocked her momma and made Gillian forget her
worries about her record deal.

Gillian
kissed him back, meeting his desire with equal intensity. Her hand against his
chest folded into a fist, balling up his T-shirt, and yanked him closer. Desire
shot through him. Pulling his mouth away from hers, he left her gasping, kissed
her jaw, and trailed his lips down to taste the soft skin of her neck. She
smelled like some kind of flower, and he delighted in how she arched her back
with a shudder of desire.

Her
response made him ache with wanting to be with her, but reining in his hunger,
he took his time. This was the boldest she’d ever been with him, and he wanted
to enjoy it. Sliding his hand to her shoulder, he pushed back her flannel shirt
and kissed her bare shoulder. It was so soft against his lips. Sliding his hand
around the back of her neck, he tentatively trailed a line of kisses along one
collarbone, tasting, teasing to see if she was all right with what he was
doing. In answer, she tried to scoot closer, but they were already pressed up
against each other, so she climbed over and straddled him. His heart hammered
in his chest, and he gasped, grabbing her hips and settling her close.

“You
don’t know what that does to a man, darlin’.”

“I
think I do.” Her words were a whisper on the breeze. She might have said she
was afraid to give herself to him before, afraid she might get hurt again, but
her eyes glittered with passion for him tonight. His skin burned as her tender
lips tasted his neck, sending his mind spinning out of control. She pulled back
to gaze at him, her chest rising and falling to the beat of his own heart. He
slid her flannel shirt down to her elbows and drank in the soft glow of her
skin against the thankfully thin tank top. He lightly circled his hands around
to her back, and sure enough, no clasp. Holy smokes.

“Too
hot for that,” she said.

“Too
hot is right,” he said, taking her in. She tilted her head back with a
beguiling smile, causing his breath to catch in his throat from the sight of
her. His heart stirred with a different kind of passion, and he knew she had no
idea how beautiful she was to him. He wanted to tell her about the plans he had
for her, and how they included more than tonight.

“I
love you,” he said, unable to hold the words back. He pulled her close,
reveling in the feel of her body against his.

“I
love you too,” she said. Her words sent a thrill through him, and he kissed
her, wanting to drink in this night before they had to go back to the lights of
Nashville. He was aching to touch her bare skin—the tank top was definitely in
the way—but before he could do anything about it, she’d unsnapped and removed
his shirt. The soft breeze raised goosebumps across his skin, and he trembled
as her delicate hands traveled over his chest.

He
cupped her cheek with one hand and placed his forehead against hers. “Darlin’,
you have no idea how many times I’ve thought about this.”

“Me
too,” she said.

“But
remember what you told me?”

“About
what,” she said, planting tiny kisses along his jaw.

“About
this,” he said. “This isn’t you.”

“What’s
not me?”

“You
know, in the back of a truck without a ring on your finger.”

“I
don’t care about a ring any more,” she said. “I only care about you.”

He
sure hoped she was lying about the ring.

“You
sure you don’t want a shiny rock on your finger?” He watched her face, noting
the turmoil that passed over her features. Her smile faltered for a second, and
he knew. She definitely still wanted a ring. The knowledge quickened his pulse.

“It
doesn’t matter,” she said, but he heard the reticence creeping back into her
voice. He knew it mattered.

“You
want a ring, don’t you?” He wanted her to say yes, to know she’d say yes if he
were to throw caution to the wind and ask her tonight. She took a deep,
shuddering breath as he slid his hands slowly from her waist up her sides. He
knew his hands were distracting her from answering, but he couldn’t stop
himself from letting his thumbs graze her curves. She was silent, except for
tiny bursts of breath coming from her lips.

“Holy
smokes, woman. Your body is beautiful.”

He
groaned, pulled her close, and kissed her hard enough to leave her lips puffy
and red, then he made himself pull away. He had plans she didn’t know about
yet, so as much as he wanted to strip her down right there under the stars, he
pulled her flannel back up around her shoulders.

~~~~

Gillian,
in the heat of the moment, vaguely remembered telling Will the promise she’d
made about no longer giving herself to a man who didn’t want to put a ring on
her finger, but the sensations throbbing through her body made her want to
forget about that. Why had she even told him about her plan? But she knew why.
The last time she’d done something like this, she’d moved in with a man and
promptly had her heart broken in two. The memory of that pain, that rejection,
set her on edge. And everything had been going so well up until this moment.

“I
love you, Will. And you love me. That’s enough.”

“You
sure?” He breathed in her ear, his voice husky. “You don’t need a ring, first?”

Her
resolve floundered, her head getting in the way for more than a few beats. Did
Will know he couldn’t give her forever? Just because he said he loved her
didn’t mean he could give her what she really wanted. Hadn’t Robert told her he
loved her too?

“Darlin’?”

She
looked at Will, saw the desire in his moonlit eyes, felt it in his touch.
Narrowing her eyes, she smiled.

“I’m
trying to get you to make love to me, Will. Why are you making it so
complicated?”

~~~~

Her
words nearly undid the already loose rein he had on his control, but her next
time had to be forever for her. She’d said so herself.

“I
don’t want you to wake up and be mad at me in the morning.”

She
giggled. “I don’t understand the gentlemanly act. It’s not like you.”

He
laughed out loud. “You don’t think I’m a gentleman?”

“Not
exactly, in some areas.”

“Darlin’,”
he said, a wicked smile on his face. “Trust me. I am the most gentlemanly man
you’ve ever known.”

“See?”
She could barely speak without laughing. “You can’t even say that without
exuding sexual prowess.”

Growling,
he leaned her back on the blanket. He couldn’t resist one more taste of her
tonight. Leaning over her body, he whispered how beautiful she was, and her
giggling ceased as his tongue skimmed along the lacy seam of her tank top.

“I
love you forever, darlin’.” He planted a kiss right below her belly button.
“You’ll see.”

He’d
felt the surety of his decision with a jolt in the church that morning. Blame
it on a wave of old-fashioned resolve from his days growing up as a preacher’s
kid, but in the back of a truck bed wasn’t how he wanted his first night with
Gillian Heart to be, or at least it’s not how he wanted it to be for her. Truth
was, he’d have her anywhere, any time, but if there was one thing he remembered
his dad telling him, it was that girls deserved forever and a bed of roses. She
suddenly gasped, momentarily distracting him from his plan.

Damn,
but she tasted good. Something he did with his tongue made her gasp again, and
he pulled back enough to study the glow of her skin and the shape of her
gorgeous body in the moonlight. She reached her graceful arms up to wrap around
his neck, her eyes filled with longing.

“Will,”
she whispered, and his lips were feather kisses across her skin, loving her and
tasting her at the same time. She shuddered with desire, and he kissed her with
more intention. A few moments later, he groaned like a bear who had lost his
pot of honey, and placed a chaste kiss on her cheek. The rush of the river, the
brightness of the stars, and the sycamore trees on the opposite bank reaching
their leafy branches out in the moonlight would have been a good setting for
what else he’d like to do to her.

“So
you really love me?” he asked, taking a light-hearted tone but feeling the
weight of her answer deep in his chest.

“Of
course,” she said, tracing a finger along his jaw. “Is that so hard to
believe?”

“Yes,”
he said. “I can think of lots of reasons you shouldn’t love me. I’ve hurt other
women, tons of other women, for starters. And my stupid decision to press the
issue about your dad, after you asked me not to, might have wrecked your deal.”

“If
my deal is wrecked, it’s my fault.”

“I’m
good at wrecking things,” he said.

“So
you’ve told me,” she said.

“And
you’ve waited a long time for a man who won’t make you cry again. I’m not sure
I’m that man, but I want to prove to you that I can be.”

She
seemed to let that hang and then went back to the business side.