Trouble in the Making (11 page)

Johnny sighed and dropped his head back, breathing harshly for several moments. “I swear, woman, you’re gonna kill me.” He tilted his head down and raked her with his gaze. “You are beautiful, though,” he commented, while rubbing some of his cum into her skin, spreading it around, dotting her nipples with it. She arched under him and he coated them with more of his cream. He teased her until she was once again squirming beneath him, then presented her with his cum-soaked finger, which she sucked eagerly. “More?”

“Yes,” she answered and opened her mouth.

“My adorable, dirty girl.” He fed her as much as he could, as much as there was that hadn’t started to dry or soak in. He loved seeing her this way and couldn’t seem to get enough of it. She was emerging from her shell faster than he had thought she would and he wondered just how close to the surface she had kept her needs. At the same time, that he was the one to feed her, to give her the pleasures she desired, couldn’t have made him happier.

Liz soon grinned up at him. “I’m a mess.”

“But a beautiful mess.” He stole a kiss from her lips before rolling off her. “My beautiful mess.”

“If you insist.”

“Tease.”

“You’ve been quiet for a while.” They were facing one another, though she couldn’t remember how she got into this particular position. The last thing she did remember was lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling when he’d gone into the bathroom.

“You’ve been asleep for the last forty-five minutes. I didn’t want to wake you.” He came to her and kissed the tip of her nose. “We’ve got to work on your stamina. Every time you have orgasms, you fall asleep.”

“They feel good and relax me in a way I haven’t been relaxed, well, longer than I care to think about.” He looked delicious. He’d pulled his hair back in a loose ponytail and he’d changed into a new pair of jeans. He was shirtless and she couldn’t get enough of looking at him. Damn, but he was gorgeous. His lean body was toned and strong, and the way the tattoos stood out bright and colorful against his skin… God. He took her breath away sometimes.

He was getting ready to walk out of her life again for a little while. Confessions and good sex, a few conversations as well, and she didn’t want to give him up. She didn’t want their time to be over already. Her napping several times didn’t help and she could kick herself for being so drowsy. She’d asked him for this and she’d hardly been able to keep her eyes open. She sucked.

“Not even when you…?”

She refocused on him. “No. Not like this.”

“Mmm. Good.” He kissed her again and pulled away. “I’ve been thinking.”

All teasing was gone from his face and she was a little apprehensive about his thoughts. He always had a teasing glint in his gaze somewhere, but right now it was gone. It made her nervous. “Thinking about what?”

“I think you should come with me.”

“What?” The damn man kept surprising her. “I have to get back to work on Monday.” It was a lame excuse considering he’d flown across the country to have sex with her for a weekend, which didn’t turn out to be a weekend, but still…

Johnny smiled. “My practical girl. It’s only Thursday and I’d have you back by Sunday night.”

“And what will you be doing the whole time?”

Johnny had the grace to drop his gaze and blush. Who else in the world could say they had made Johnny Trouble blush? Liz reached for him, and when he slid his hand into hers, she kissed his palm and waited for his words.

“I’ll be in the studio.”

She laughed, drawing his eyes up to meet hers. “Exactly,” she said reasonably. “There’s no reason for me to come with you if the only time we’ll be together is on the plane.”

“I’d like knowing you’re there rather than on the other side of the country.”

She understood that completely, but it didn’t change the facts. “I’m always on the other side of the country.”

“True. Or in a different country.”

“Actually, it’s you who has the out of the country reasons. Maybe you should consider moving to Orlando for longer than the summer.” Liz fought the urge to clamp her hand over her mouth after those words flew out without her permission. She did her best to play it off as intentional when it wasn’t. She found herself doing a lot of that with him. Blurting out thoughts when she shouldn’t and then fighting the urge to cover them up and make excuses.

Johnny pierced her with those melted ice eyes. She fought with herself again, this time not to squirm. She lay there, stock-still, and stared right back at him. “I don’t know if you’re serious or not about that. I’ll have to consider calling your bluff.”

“If you don’t know whether I’m serious or not, how can you call my bluff?”

“I know you, Liz,” was all he said before sliding out of the bed, showing her the perfection of his ass again. Not that she minded. Seeing his ass, naked or in leather, was one of her favorite things.

“I know you too.” He wasn’t going to have the last word on this conversation. She did know him, but perhaps not as well as she thought or hoped or wanted to know him. They were close, as close as she’d ever been to anyone, even her ex-husband. She didn’t want to do this with anyone else. She didn’t want to open up and be vulnerable and give herself to anyone else.

“Yes, but I’m usually the one with surprises up my sleeve. You wear your thoughts and feelings for all to see. That gives me an advantage.”

Liz hated to admit it, but he was right. “I wish you didn’t have to leave,” she said truthfully, no trace of teasing left in her voice. She was sad. He always took a part of her with him when he left, but now that she’d spent the better part of a day in bed with him, sex and pillow talk and blackberry pancakes had made a distinct impression on her in a way that their other meetings hadn’t. “It can’t wait?” Was that a whine? Did she just whine?

“No. Timing on this project has been the biggest bitch and just when I thought it wasn’t ever going to come together… If I thought we would get done in just a few hours, I’d come back, but—”

“That’d be a little ridiculous, Johnny. There’s no need for you fly back and forth across the country like that. We see one another every few months as it is, so…”

He was in front of her before she could take her next breath. His hands were in her hair and his mouth was on hers for a brief, possessive kiss. “If you think I’m going to wait for another few months to see you again, you haven’t listened to a word I’ve said.”

“Johnny,” she whispered, trying to gather her thoughts. Every time he touched her, her thoughts and words and common sense scattered to the far corners.

“No, I’ll see you much sooner than a few months. If I have anything to say about it, I’ll see you before next week is out.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

He pulled back and eyed her suspiciously. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to keep me from seeing you again.”

“Lucky for us, then, that you do know better. I just think all the travel is going to get old when you don’t have to do it as much for your career anymore.”

“Then ask me.”

Liz drew her brows down and pursed her lips in thought, in contemplation, in uncertainty. “There’s nothing to ask,” she said instead.

“There is. You’ve already said the words. So ask.”

Could she? She shook her head, unwilling to risk the rejection. Though, would he want her to ask just so he could say no?

“Liz, you’ve never asked anything of me save for this time together. You never asked me to stay or go. You never asked me to take a chance on you back in school, even when there was that one time after prom that I was single. You never asked for anything from me at any time. I’m begging you now to do it. Ask. Me.”

“For how much?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“For as much as you want.”

She nibbled her lip nervously while she searched his eyes. “And if I want everything?”

Johnny groaned. “Ask.”

“This has trouble with a capital T written all over it.”

“What does?” He looked genuinely confused by her statement, but how could he not see it? She saw it plain as day.

“You. Me.” She waved a hand between them. “This.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Then think about it for a second, okay? You live this larger than life, life. You’re a rock star and you should live whatever life you want. But I’m a small-time writer in Orlando. I live a quiet life. Full, but quiet.”

“You’re just…” Johnny shook his head and started pacing. Back and forth at the end of the bed. He finally stopped and turned to face her, hands on his hips, pants riding low, tattoos beautiful and full of color in the late afternoon sun coming off the water through the window. “You want me to move to Orlando? I’ll put my house up first thing. You want to live apart for a while? I’ll rent a place close to you and we can have regular date nights. I won’t—”

“Johnny—” She started to interrupt him, to stop him, but he kept talking.

“Even wear leather anymore,” he finished.

“Don’t even joke about that,” she said, serious as she’d ever been about anything. The leather was… He knew how much she loved him in leather. For him to use it against her, well, that was just wrong. “I appreciate the gestures you’re willing to make.”

“Gestures? These aren’t gestures, Liz. These are changing my life thoughts and words and moves. I want you in my day-to-day life. Any way I can get you there. You’ve been with me through everything, thick and thin, for the last five years. I found you again. Don’t you get that? You were one of my closest friends in school, and for the last five years you’ve been my best friend. I can be me with you and there aren’t many people I can say that about. I don’t have to pretend when I’m with you. I don’t have to put on a face for the camera. I don’t have to do anything other than be me, and underneath the rock star image, I am a man. A very simple man who wants love and wants to give it.”

“You are anything but a simple man, Johnny Trouble,” she stated with deep affection and tears that were threatening to clog her throat. His words were what dreams were made of. “And you always could write a love song,” she complimented.

“I am simple. At the heart of me, you know I am. I want you, Liz. I’m done touring. I’m not done writing, but I’m done touring. I spent the first twenty years of my adult life living out my childhood dreams. I want to spend the next twenty years living out my adult dreams, which, my love, very much include you.”

“Oh.” Beyond that, she was at a loss for words. She didn’t know what else to say. He seemed to have covered everything, and while a part of her still had concerns and would likely always have concerns to some extent, Johnny never said anything that he didn’t mean. Especially to her.

“Oh? Really, that’s all you have to say? Oh?” He laughed a little. “I want to wake up with you, every day. In our bed, in a home that we share. I want it all, Liz.”

“You’ve had it all, Johnny.” One last feeble attempt at reason. That was all she had the resolve for. Here was a man who she’d known for most of her life, had shared deep desires with, had given her heart to years ago. He was famous, had done things which made him infamous and had always been there when she needed him, just as she had done when he needed her.

In this room, far from everything he knew, and even far away from what she knew now, everything seemed possible when he put it all out there in plain words.

“Then call me greedy, because I want more,” he added. “I want a whole hell of a lot more. With you. Ask.”

“Will you come back? Please? As soon as you can? As soon as you’re finished? Will you come back? Will you stay?” The words rushed through her lips and filled the space between where she sat in the middle of the bed to the end where he’d come to a complete stop. The shirt in his hand was forgotten, dropped on the floor, and he was on his knees on the mattress, leaning toward her with earnest, ice-colored eyes.

“Yes. To everything, yes.”

“Just like that? Yes?”

Johnny urged Liz to her back. “Yes. Just like that. Why would you find that so hard to believe?”

“Because things aren’t that easy. Not in real life and not in fairy tales. You can’t say yes to changing your life just because someone you care for asks you to.”

“Why not? It’s life, Liz. It’s my life. We get only one. We get one shot at making it everything we want it to be. I want mine to include you. I’ve taken years to feel you out, to get to know you again. I’ve taken steps to change the direction of my career. I don’t want to be touring when I’m sixty and seventy years old. I don’t want to be taking groupies to bed and hiding in limos and high-rise hotels. I’ve done it all. I’ve seen it all. I’m tired And I want something more. You asked me for one weekend. I’m trying to tell you I want the rest of my life.”

“What if you want it back one day?”

“One day isn’t going to come. Once I walk away from the stage, from the tours, I’m done.”

“You could do tributes or reunions or—”

“Or what, Liz?” Johnny shook his head. “I don’t want the ifs, ands, buts or ors. I want the surefire thing and that would be you.”

“Johnny…” Liz was once again floored at the words coming out of his mouth, at the look in his eyes, at the feel of his body on top of hers. If she let herself, she could get lost in him. Oh hell. Who was she kidding? She was already lost in him. She had taken the last five years to do exactly the same thing he did. She’d used them to get to know him again, to fall in love with him. To fall in love with a rock star.