“You don’t have to do this.” She shakes her head. A tear finally falls, but she wipes it away as fast as it came. “You can do what you want with whoever you want.”
“I never even touched her. She was in the gym, and she came on to me, but I turned her down.” I watch her face, and I watch her eyes. What Cori said finally snaps into place. I have one more shot with her. “When you asked me to kiss you, I said I can’t. I never said I didn’t want to.”
“It’s the same thing,” she fights back.
“It isn’t,” I finally say, the days and hours of frustration rising to the surface. “I couldn’t kiss you in that bar because I knew it wouldn’t be enough.” The weight on my chest suddenly lets up a bit, her mouth opening. “I knew that if I kissed you that one time, it wouldn’t be enough, and I would want more. I would want to bury my hands in your hair.” I laugh at the irony of me trying to stay strong and fight this. “I didn’t just want to kiss you last night in that bar. I wanted to own you, claim you, make you fucking mine. I wanted to get lost in the kiss I know I will never, ever forget. A kiss I know the minute it happens will be over for us because there will be no other.”
“I …” she says softly, her brain trying to wrap around the words, and then my brain stops working. My head doesn’t listen to the side saying just do your job. Instead, it listens to the side that says make her yours. I walk to her, her eyes going bigger and bigger as I get closer and closer. “Brian.” It’s the last thing I let her say because my hands are in her hair, and I tilt her head back, finally giving in to the months and months of aching for her, the months of wanting to taste her when I knew I couldn’t.
Her mouth opens when I finally touch my lips to hers, her hands going to my face as she tilts her head to the side. Her tongue finally slides with mine, and our groans are swallowed by each other. Her hands move from my cheeks to my hair, and then finally, her chest is flush with mine. The kiss goes from soft to full-on need. Our heads move side to side to get deeper, to get more. It’s not enough. I knew it wouldn’t be enough. I knew that with one taste, one touch, I’d be gone. I pull away from her and see her chest rising and falling, her nipples now poking through her shirt, but it’s the whisker burn that she has around her plump lips that I’m staring at. “See,” I whisper, trying to get my mind to finally catch up to what is happening. “Do you see now?”
“You didn’t fuck her?” she asks me again, and I shake my head.
“Not even close,” I tell her. “She was there, and she pretty much said she wanted to, but I …” I close my eyes. “It’s you.”
“Me?” She puts her hand to her chest.
“It’s you, it’s only you, it’s you everywhere.” Rubbing my face, I lean back on the little desk she has in the room before I fall, and she walks over to me.
“It’s always been you,” she says and now she stands in front of me, and we are eye-to-eye, “from the minute I met you.”
“Kellie,” I plead or beg. I don’t even know.
“I want to kiss you again,” she says. “I’ve waited to kiss you for what feels like my whole life.’ She smiles, and this time, she moves first. She leans in and nips my lips and then sticks her tongue out, licking my bottom lip. Her hands go around my neck, and I turn my head just a touch, just enough for our tongues to meet again. This time, the kiss lasts longer. Her hands go from my neck to my face to my cheek to my hair. My hands go from the counter to her hips, bringing her close to me, then to her ass. The ass that has been teasing me this whole time. I slowly move them up her back to her hair again. Our kiss goes from needy to soft to slow, so fucking slow. Hours, we kiss for hours.
We kiss until the bus stops and then the driver announces over the speaker, “We have arrived.” We release each other but neither of us moves.
“I don’t want to leave this room,” she says softly. “If it means never kissing you again, I’m not leaving this bus.”
I laugh. “Let’s go, baby.” I grab her hand, and she pulls me back. “I have to check in so we can make out in a bed.”
She looks up at me, smiling. “Okay, fine. Let’s go then.” She pulls me off the bus, and I follow her. It’s scary to think I’d follow her anywhere.
Chapter Nineteen
Kellie
I’m so warm it’s like I’m wrapped up in a cocoon. I move my face and feel skin under me. Slowly peeling my eyes open, I don’t see anything but a hard chest. His smell makes me nuzzle my face deeper into his chest. “Morning,” he grumbles, turning to his back and taking me with him. I finally open my eyes, looking out the big window at the cloudy sky.
Last night, we checked in, and the room had only one bed with a huge couch, but I wasn’t letting him get away. So we waited for our bags, and then he went to shower. I waited on my bed, and he came to me. We spent the night kissing, just kissing, and it was everything.
“I’m hungry,” I finally say, sitting up, then leaning over him to grab the phone. I order a bunch of food. “I hope that is enough,” I tell him, getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom. I wash my hands and brush my teeth and walk out to see that he put on his shirt. “Why are you dressed?”
“I’m not dressed. I’m wearing a shirt.” He laughs at me. When we were on the bus, and he finally told me that he did want to kiss me, it made all the chasing worth it.
“Can you take off the shirt?” I wink at him playfully and then walk over to him as he sits on the couch with the remote in his hand.
“I’ll take off my shirt the minute the food comes and we lock ourselves in again,” he tells me and then gets up, kissing me on his way to the bathroom. I grab my purse and send Cori a text.
Thank you.
Just those two words, and she’ll know exactly what I mean by that. I owe her big time.
I put the phone aside when he comes back into the room, and at the same time, the knock on the door comes. He walks to it, returning with the tray, and then there’s another knock on the door. He looks at me funny, but I walk to the door, opening it.
“We have a delivery for a Miss Kellie.” The man stands there in regular jeans and a white shirt. He is wearing a green baseball hat and has a scruffy beard. I reach out to take the box from him, and then he turns and hurries away, almost running down the hall, and I know something is wrong. I’m holding the box when I feel Brian push me aside to run down the hall after the guy. But he must get in the elevator and the door closes because he looks back at me.
“Shut the door and don’t open it unless it’s me,” he says, running into the stairwell. I lock the door behind me, but I don’t move from my spot. I wait in case he needs me. I’m not even sure how long I’m standing here before I hear his voice. “It’s me.” Rushing to the door, I swing it open, and he comes inside, his chest heaving. “I missed him. He got into a white van before I could make it outside.” Making a call on his phone, he puts it to his ear and says, “Conference call in two minutes,” and then hangs up. “Did you look in the box?” he asks, and I just shake my head.
He sets the brown box on the table, and I watch as he unties the purple ribbon around the box. The ribbons fall to the sides when he takes the top off. The sound of the white tissue paper crumpling echoes in the now silent room. When he hisses, I look over and see that it’s a giant purple heart. The letter on the top is my name in block letters. It looks like he did it with a ruler.
You have my heart. Now I’m going to have yours.
“Fucking hell.” I hear Brian hiss out and then run for his phone. I pick up the note, and the hair on the back of my neck flies up. “Don’t touch anything else,” he tells me, and my wonderful day has now been taken away from me. “Yeah, it’s me. She just got another one,” he says and then picks up the purple heart. “It’s a heart-shaped amethyst stone.” I sit in the chair and just look at the heart. “No idea. I chased him to the lobby, and then he sprinted to a waiting white van. He got in, and they peeled away. There were no tags.” I see him looking at me and listen before he as
ks me, “What was he wearing?”
“He was wearing jeans and a green hat, and his hands were dirty. He had black Converse on,” I tell him softly, my mind now flying back to remember everything about him. The way his eyes twinkled like he was on something, the way his lips twitched, and he almost chuckled when he finally handed me the box.
“Did you get that?” He talks to the person on the phone. “I want to pull the video from the cameras around the hotel. If he walked in here, it has to be somewhere.” He puts the heart back in the box and covers it. “Call me when you have something.” He throws his phone and comes to squat down in front of me. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I say softly.
“Are you okay?” he asks me, grabbing one of my hands and bringing it to his mouth to kiss it. Something that I would have gone crazy over yesterday.
“I thought that it was over,” I tell him. “We’ve been on the road for three weeks. I thought it was over, and he had moved on.”
“Baby,” he says softly, his hand cradling my face, “I’m so sorry.”
“I woke up happy,” I finally say, the tears running down my face. “I woke up actually happy. I was in your arms, I had just had the best kiss of my life, and I was happy to have that. Not a kiss for the big screen or the red carpet just to be in the papers. It was for me.” I put my hands to my chest. “It was mine, and he took it away from me.”
“There will be more kisses, baby,” he says, leaning in and kissing my lips softly, “this afternoon, tonight, tomorrow.”
I look down, staring at his hand on my leg. “There better be.” I lean in a touch and kiss him because I can. “It’s not like I haven’t had stalkers before, but they never went to this much trouble.”
“Well, let’s hope he gets tired,” he says with a smile, and my stomach decides it’s time to make a loud rumbling noise. “Well, then, I guess I better get my girl fed.”
I laugh and then see him pick up the box and move it to the coffee table. “I am going to ship that back to the office and see what they get from it.”
I’m already getting my plate and grabbing a waffle, then I look at him.
“Do you think he fucked with the food?” I ask him, and he stops filling up his plate.
“Go get dressed,” he says to me in a gruff way, then grabs his phone and puts it to his ear. “Rachel, we are going to plan B.” I watch him on the phone. “He got to her door, so he can get to her food. I want everything set up.” He stops talking and listens to what or whoever is on the phone. “Perfect. Send me the address.”
“Who was that?” I ask him, and he looks at me.
“Rachel,” he says, and I swallow the news. “She’s one of the guys.” He follows it up. “She got us another location, and only me, you, and Cori will know it.”
“Is that really necessary?” I ask, and he glares at me. “Okay, I know he came to the door, but do you think he will come again?”
“I have no idea, but I’m not going to sit here and wait,” he says, and his phone beeps. “Perfect. We have a car that will be downstairs in fifteen and an address. You need to take one bag, so …”
I stare at him. “Well, what are we doing?” I look over at the luggage cart overflowing with bags. I make a mental note to have Cori send back half of them. I haven’t even touched a couple.
“Making out,” he says, and I look back up at him, “a lot.”
I try not to smile, but I lose the battle. “Then I’m ready,” I tell him and then look down at my crazy loose sweats and big shirt. Maybe I should dress up a bit, so I grab my bag and go into the bathroom. I put on my fitted gray sweats and white T-shirt, tying the hem in a knot on the side. My hair is all over the place since I didn’t dry it after and he spent the night with his hands in said hair. I pin it to the top of my head and then walk out. “Okay, now I’m ready.”
I look over at him, and he has his bag next to him. When he gets up, I see he’s dressed now. He is wearing fitted dark blue pants and a gray long-sleeved sweater pulled up to the elbows. His eyes fly up, and he spots me. “Is there anything that you don’t look beautiful in?” he mumbles. I smile, the butterflies all forming in my stomach. I’m a grown-ass woman, and I’ve been called beautiful my whole life, but from him, it’s just that much better. His phone beeps. “Okay, the car is downstairs. I texted Cori about what was going on. I am going to have someone pick her up and bring her to us.”
I nod at him and then walk out of the hotel room with him. He holds my hand the whole time until we step next to the black Range Rover waiting for him at the curb. He opens the front passenger door for me, and after I step in, I watch him walk around the car, open the back door, and throw our bags into the back. He gets in the driver’s seat and sets the address on his phone, and I watch the tall building fade as we make our way to the secret house. We pull up to a gate, and he enters a code, and the gates open. We make our way down the gravel driveway, and I see the vast green lawn and the house in the back. “Where are we?” I look at the two-story white house with black shutters. Columns line the front, holding up the second-floor balcony.
Brian pulls up to the side of the house where there are two garage doors. I get out of the car and wait for him as he gets our bags from the back of the SUV. He walks over to one of the garage doors and flips open a cover over a keypad. He enters the four numbers, and the door starts to open, showing us that it’s empty. I follow Brian who walks to the three wooden steps leading to a brown door. He opens it, and we step into what is the kitchen and family room. I look up to see the wooden beams on all the ceilings. The whole kitchen is an oak color. The L-shaped light beige counter with stools has six trays on it.
“Good, the food arrived,” Brian says, walking to the green couch and putting our bags on them. The whole room has so many colors it doesn’t make sense, but then when you look back and forth, it looks really cozy. I walk over to the counter, and when he takes off the covers, I see they have a feast for more than two.
“How many people are you expecting?” I ask him, and he shakes his head but then my phone rings from my bag. I walk over to it and see that Tommy’s trying to FaceTime me. “It’s Tommy.” I look at Brian, and he nods, so I press connect. The little round circle goes around and around while connecting, and then Tommy’s face fills the screen.
“There is my beautiful girl.” He smiles, and I see that he is sitting on a couch somewhere. “How are you holding up?” I walk to the couch and sit down on it, tucking my legs under me.
“I’m good. I was freaking out a little this morning, but I’m good now,” I tell him.
“What did he send?” he asks me, worry all over his face.
“It was a heart-shaped stone, which wasn’t that bad, but it was the note and that he was able to get so close to me,” I tell him. The fact that he could have gotten to me so easily just makes the danger so much more in my face.
“Where the fuck was Brian?” he hisses. “How the fuck did he let that happen?”
I look back at Brian, who looks like he’s about to rip his head off. “He was right there, but I went to the door without thinking. He hasn’t even let me workout by myself,” I defend him. “This has nothing to do with Brian.”
“Well, he should have been the one who answered the door,” he says, and now I get angry, but I don’t have time to say anything because the phone is taken out of my hands.
“There is no way in hell you are blaming this on me. You said you had the hotels covered,” he hisses. I look at him now and see that he’s not just pissed. He’s past pissed. “From now on, I choose where we stay, and I also get to decide who gets that info, and right now, I don’t trust anyone but my team.”
“There is no way anyone from my side leaked this information or took the information,” Tommy snarls. “I’m getting on a plane in an hour.”
“For what?” he asks. “To make yourself feel better for putting her in danger?”
“That is enough,” I say softly and walk over to him, grabbing the p
hone back. “Tommy, I’m fine. There is no reason for you to come. If I feel at any time I need you, I will let you know.”
“Okay, sweetheart, but I’m just a phone call away,” he tells me. “You call me whenever you want.”
“I will.” I hang up and then turn back to Brian. “What was all that?” I say, holding the phone up in my hand. “Where I stay is not a secret. You know this. The hotel people could have leaked the information to get free press. This is just the way things work.” I walk to him and put my hands on his hips. “I shouldn’t have opened the door.” He puts his hands on my hips, pulling me into a hug. I raise my head and kiss his neck. “I promise to let you do what you need to do.”
“I don’t care if you let me or not. It’s happening.” He wraps his arms around me. “Now, let’s eat. We need to talk.” The words “we need to talk” don’t sit well with me for some reason, but I just nod. Walking over to the kitchen, I open the cabinets until I find the plates and then take one to him. There is a tray with pancakes and waffles, one with eggs, another one with chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and also mashed sweet potatoes.
“Great, what every girl wants to hear. Let’s talk,” I tell him and then walk to the table with my plate half full and a pit in my stomach.
Chapter Twenty
Brian
“Great, what every girl wants to hear. Let’s talk,” she says to me, filling up her plate but not as much as she should be. I look over at her as she sits down at the table in the corner.
What started as one of the best mornings I’ve had has turned into a shitshow. The minute the knock came on the door, the hair on my neck stood up. I knew it wasn’t good. Watching her walk in with the brown box in her hand screamed bad news, and I was pissed at myself for letting her answer the door. I was pissed at myself for letting my guard down. I was pissed I let Tommy talk me into hotels and didn’t follow my gut and just rent houses for the tour. This stops here. I sit in the chair next to her and watch her push around her food, nibbling on a couple of pieces.
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