Under Her Skin (18 page)

Finally, at 2:45 in the morning, she heard the front door slam open and a loud voice call for Dusty. She knew that it was Tobias, and he was drunk. When she got out to the foyer, she found him on his knees. Dusty had just gotten there, and all Tobias could say was, "Taxi, no money." He put his hands in the pockets of his jeans, and turned them inside out to show that they were empty.

Dusty turned to Marlo. "I'll take care of the taxi, you get him to his room… or your room… where ever."

Marlo nodded and went over to Tobias. "Come on dumb ass, can you stand up?" She asked, wanting to hold her nose. He smelled of a mixture of alcohol, smoke and puke.

"Lola…Lola, la-la-la-la Lola." He sang and slurred. "Love Lola." Tobias wobbled a few times, but eventually stood. He put his arms around her neck to keep from falling, and tried to plant a kiss on her lips.

"I don't think so playboy." She said sharply and turned her head. His kiss slobbered on her ear. "Come on, let's get you to bed." She told him and walked him to his room.

"Can't." He said.

"Can't what?" She asked.

"Can't… bed. Love you. Is different." He told her drunkenly.

"What's different, Tobias?" She asked.

"Motions." He said as she laid him in his bed.

"I think the motions are all the same, stupid. Just because I'm a virgin doesn't mean I don't know anything." She said, getting angry at the drunken man.

"Not motions, emotion." He clarified. "Scared." He said, and in some form of drunken soberness, he looked her in the eyes steadily and honestly when he said it.

"I'm scared too, but what do you have to be scared of?" She asked, not understanding why she was even trying to have this type of conversation with him when he was so drunk, except for the fact that he was being so honest.

"Not good enough." He told her, his eyes drooping. "I won't be good enough." Marlo thought he had said something else after that, but finally realized that it was just him snoring.

She bent down and kissed his cheek and told him, "We all worry about being good enough. Sometimes we just need to let go of our worry and try." When she went to stand up, she realized that Tobias had ahold of her wrist and wouldn't let her go, even in his drunken sleep. Sighing in resignation, she laid down next to him, thinking it was for the best in case he woke up in the middle of the night and needed something. As his arms automatically circled her body and pulled her tightly against him, she let out the deep breath that she seemed to have been holding since the night before, and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

Chapter 20

The next morning, Tobias woke up to a violent wave of nausea. He rushed to untangle himself from the blankets that were twisted and tied around his body before running out of his room and down the hall to the bathroom. Marlo, nearly getting hit in the process of him ripping the blankets from his body, followed after Tobias.

She made it to the bathroom just in time to see him oh so pleasantly retching into the toilet, unloading everything that he had put into his system in the past twenty-four hours. She knelt next to him and rubbed his back, knowing how bad it felt to get sick.

Finally feeling better, Tobias flushed the remnants of his stomach away and wordlessly went to the sink. Trying to get rid of the taste in his mouth, he loaded his toothbrush with toothpaste, then put it in his mouth and started scrubbing. A few minutes later, he rinsed his mouth and got out the mouthwash. He swished it around his mouth for a few more minutes, really trying to concentrate on the opening of his throat.

Marlo was silent the whole time, just sitting there watching him from her place on the floor, next to the toilet. She wasn't sure if he hadn't noticed her there, was still drunk, or if he was purposely ignoring her. She never would have thought that he was just trying to get his thoughts in his head straightened out before he said anything and made more of a fool of himself.

After he finished his oral cleansing, he went back to the toilet and dropped to his knees. Marlo thought that he was going to be sick again, and was surprised when, instead of purging, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

"I'm sorry." He whispered into her hair. "I'm sorry for leaving when I should have stayed to talk. I'm sorry for drinking so much and staying out so late. I'm sorry for whatever I said last night because I'm sure it was something stupid and incoherent. I'm sorry for holding you captive last night and making you sleep in the same bed with me, especially when I'm sure it was the last place on earth that you wanted to be. And mostly, I'm sorry that I am so bad at relationships and am a horrible boyfriend."

Marlo was stunned, she never expected to hear all that from him…she suspected he was still a little drunk. "It's ok. I'm sorry too. And you're not a horrible boyfriend." She backed away and gave him a small smile, still feeling a bit hurt. "You better get in the shower. You've got a long day at the studio ahead of you." She stood and walked out of the bathroom, leaving Tobias alone. He put his head in his hands, knowing it was going to take a lot to make up for all he had done wrong this time.

*****

The next three weeks passed by in a blur. The guys were in the studio from sun up until well after sun down, every day, trying to get their album finished by the deadline set up by the record company. Tobias hadn't been able to talk to Marlo alone, since that morning in the bathroom, but he was constantly letting her know that he was thinking of her by sending flowers or leaving little notes for her. She wasn't awake when they left in the morning and by the time they got home at night, she was already asleep. They saw each other every now and then at the recording studio, but she was only there for business purposes, so they didn't have the time or space to talk about personal matters.

Marlo felt like things were still unresolved between her and Tobias. They weren't even sleeping in the same room at night, and the distance was really getting to her. She could only hope that once the record was finished, things would get better between them.

The guys finally finished the last track for the record, just hours before the deadline. They had three days off before the big record launch party in New York, which they were immensely grateful for. All of them were exhausted, but they were proud of the finished product. Marlo's song even made it as one of the tracks, something she wasn't aware of yet.

Tobias caught his second wind as he walked into the house and went in search of Marlo. Just thinking of spending time with her gave him energy that he wasn't aware that he had. He looked in her room, which was empty, then went to the living room and kitchen, not finding her anywhere. "Dude, where's your sister?" He yelled to Dusty.

"I think she's in New York already. There was some PR stuff that she needed to check on." Dusty told him absently as he walked into the kitchen looking for something to drink.

"Why didn't she tell me that?" He asked, frustrated. He finally had some time to talk to her and she wasn't even around.

"She did. She told us all at the studio the other day. She stopped there before she went to the airport." He looked at Tobias like he was an idiot.

"Oh. I must have been half asleep." He said solemnly. "I think I'll give her a call." He picked up his cell phone and dialed her cell, then listened to ring after ring. Just as he was about to hang up, Marlo answered breathlessly. "Hey, I didn't think you were going to answer."

"Hey!" She said excitedly. "It's so good to hear your voice. Are you guys done?"

"Yeah, we just finished up about an hour ago. We have the songs all lined up and edited. Everything is done now, thankfully." He told her.

"You sound exhausted." She said, sympathetically.

"I am." He admitted. "I didn't realize you weren't going to be here. I was hoping to spend some time with you."

"I know. I'm sorry, but I had to tie up some loose ends before you guys got here."

Tobias yawned. "Why don't I fly there early to spend some time with you?"

"I'd love that. But all I'm doing is working, and all you're going to want to do for the next few days is sleep. I'll see you when you guys get here, it's only a couple more days." She told him, feeling bad that she was turning him down, but she knew that they wouldn't really get to spend much time together if he was there. Plus she figured that he was so tired that he'd be in a horrible mood the whole time. If he stayed home and rested, he'd be a lot more pleasant to be around when he did get out there.

He yawned again. "I see how it is, you don't want to cut your alone time short with your new boyfriend, right?" He asked, trying to put a teasing tone in his voice. "All right Lola, I'm going to go before I fall asleep on the phone. I'll see you in a couple of days. You're going to be my date for the launch, right?"

"I'd be honored." She laughed. "Get some sleep…you're going to need it!"

"Promises, promises." He yawned. "I'll talk to you later."

Marlo paused, feeling a little hurt. "Ok, bye."

"Oh shit! Wait! Marlo!" He yelled into the phone.

"Yeah?" She asked, just barely stopping before hitting the end button.

"I love you." He told her softly, with a smile.

She smiled from ear to ear. "I love you too. Good night." Now she felt a lot better when she hit the end button.

*****

Marlo rushed around her hotel room, trying to tie everything together. She didn't know why she waited so long to start getting ready. The limo was supposed to be picking her up in 15 minutes, and she wasn't even close to being ready. In a little over an hour, she would be seeing Tobias again for the first time in what seemed like forever, and she felt like nothing was coming together right. Her hair was extra frizzy, her eyeliner kept breaking, she dropped her eye shadow compact, which sent the powder flying in every direction, and she put a giant run in her silk stockings.

Ten minutes and counting left Marlo on the bathroom floor, trying to scrape up the remnants of her eye shadow, putting more smoothing lotion into her hair, and sharpening her eyeliner until it barely fit into the sharpener anymore.

At the five-minute mark, Marlo decided that she really didn't need stockings anyways. She had her dress on, along with her shoes, and it actually looked better that way. She stared at herself in the mirror, realizing that her panic was all for naught. Her hair looked great finally, the sides pulled back and twisted as if she was wearing a crown, the back was left to cascade down her back in waves. Her makeup was flawless, even if she did have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to get it all, and her dress…Her dress was new, and was guaranteed to knock Tobias' socks off. It was fire engine red, and draped at the chest and the back. The back dipped to her waist, nearly to her butt, and the front showed just the right amount of cleavage, with spaghetti straps. The bottom was a diagonal layered silk that was tiered into different levels. It was probably the sexiest dress that Marlo owned, and it fit her like a glove.

Right on time, Marlo heard a knock on the door. "Come in!" She called to the limo driver as she went to the bureau to get her evening bag and shawl. "I'll be ready in just a second." She told him, checking the contents of her purse to make sure that she had her ticket, ID, and some money. She also put her lipstick in there since she knew that the moment she saw Tobias she was going to need to reapply it. When the driver didn't say anything, she turned to look at him.

The shock on her face matched the shock on Tobias', but for entirely different reasons. He stood there, holding a single Fire and Ice rose in his hand for her, with his mouth wide open. Marlo thought that he would flood the carpet with all his drool.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, feeling excited and confused at the same time, not expecting to see him until after the party had already started.

"I caught an early flight. I couldn't wait to see you." He said, still not blinking. "Good god, you are a sight for sore eyes!" He finally snapped to his senses and closed the distance between the two of them, capturing her with a bone-melting kiss.

"I've missed you so much." Marlo told him breathlessly when they parted for air.

"You have no idea." He groaned, already feeling a reaction from the kiss. "I think that dress is going to be the death of me. You're not leaving my side for a minute tonight!"

Marlo laughed. "I'm glad you like it." She kissed him again, but backed away a lot quicker this time. "We need to get going or else we'll be late. The press is already waiting."

"Let them wait. I need some time alone with you." He whispered.

"As much as I would love that, if we spend any more time alone, we're going to end up in bed, and we'll never make it to the party." She told him seriously. "We better go."

Tobias sighed. "I hate it when you're right." He kissed her softly again. "Ok, let's go, but I meant it when I said that you are not leaving my side for the entire night."

"I promise." She said and sealed it with a kiss.

The couple was barely able to keep their hands off each other in the limo on the way to the party, but luckily Marlo had enough sense to make sure they didn't go too far. They ended up being right on time, arriving just as the others were arriving.

"Dude, nice lipstick, but isn't it going a little overboard to try and match with your girlfriend?" AJ teased Tobias before they walked in the door.

Tobias frantically wiped at his mouth, trying to remove the evidence of his make-out session with his girlfriend. The guys all laughed at him, glad that Marlo and Tobias seemed to be back on the right track.

The night was a blast, filled with music, drinking, dancing, and pictures. Marlo had a great time, but no matter how much fun she was having, she couldn't wait to get Tobias alone. And true to her word, she didn't leave his side the whole night.

At the earliest opportunity, Tobias pulled Marlo out of the party and into the waiting limo. As they sat in the back of the limo, looking into each other's eyes, they were both aware of where they were going and what they were going to do. There was no stopping them, no turning back. The time was right, and there was no mistaking it.