by Kahlen Aymes
He made love to me like it was the first time… and the last. His body pushed into mine over and over a mixture of urgency and tenderness until we were both breathless. Our hands worshiped with every touch, our lips tasting and savoring. We forgot about the bodyguards waiting for us on the other side of the thin walls, not caring if they heard the breathless sounds we elicited from each other as we made love.
Cade was my reality; on screen or off. In all the world; there was only us.
MY HAND STROKED the bare skin of Brook’s back, my lips pressed to her forehead as we clung together, our breathing still labored. My heart ached with the ecstasy of her presence. She was here in my arms; real, loving me, right here and now.
“Do you have any idea how much I love you, Brook? I mean, really?”
“Mmm…” she moaned and turned her head to press a series of butterfly kisses to my chest. It felt like heaven. As much as I wanted her and how our passion consumed us, moments like this, when we were close, talking meant just as much. “I think so, yes. But it still amazes me.”
I pulled her up a little more on my body, so my arms could wrap more fully around her small form. “Have you lost weight? You seem thinner.”
“I wasn’t trying to, but maybe a little. Should we go? The guys are waiting to take us to dinner.”
I shook my head and tightened my arms. “Not yet. I’m not ready to let go of you. They know we’re shagging each other senseless, so why do we need to rush?”
Brook giggled, her shoulders shaking. “Cade, you have such a way of putting things. God,” she admonished.
“It’s the bloody truth. So what?” We both laughed together. “How long are you here for, love? Does Jeanne have you back in the States on a junket this weekend? I thought that was the plan?” The London premiere of her film was supposed to be Wednesday then the American premieres in New York and L.A. were slated for Friday and Saturday nights. The traveling for these things was horrendous.
“Well, I changed the plan,” she said casually and shrugged. “After our phone conversation, I just didn’t want to be away from you for my birthday. It felt wrong.” Her head tilted up, and her mouth brushed against mine.
“I know. This isn’t the life I want for us; we’re always on opposite sides of the world. I bloody hate it. I hate that sometimes nameless people know as much about what’s going on with you as I do.”
“The world isn’t dialed in like you. You can get to me anytime, babe.”
“No, I can’t. Today I couldn’t reach you and it drove me crazy.”
“Because I was flying here, duh.”
“I get that now, but at the time I was worried.”
Brook sat up and started gathering her clothes. I watched her as she dressed slowly, enjoying her movements and her nakedness. She pulled on her black bikini panties and a T-shirt, glaring at me as she went. Reluctantly, I started throwing on my clothes.
“You worry too much.”
She hadn’t answered my question about when she had to leave, and I was uneasy. The last thing I wanted to hear was that she had to turn right around.
I pulled on my jeans but hadn’t done them up. “How long can you stay?” I asked quietly, my fingers closing around hers and pulling her hand to my mouth. I met her eyes and her other hand reached out to brush along my jaw.
“Oh… should we negotiate that? What’s it worth to ya?” she grinned.
My arms closed around her and hauled her up against my body. Brook laughed “Everything,” I answered, kissing her neck and the side of her face. “Anything.”
“Let’s start with food. I’m starving. My man is demanding. I’m sure he’s gonna want more lovin’ later and I need to power up.” She was teasing me and her voice was amused, but her eyes were serious as she looked into mine.
I nodded and kissed her fully on the mouth and then placed a few kisses at the corners. “Thank you for being here, Brook. It means everything.”
She pushed my hair back and kissed my chin. “If you feed me, I have a surprise. Do you think room service has fresh strawberries?”
“Bloody hell, did you smuggle in some Twinkies?”
“Maybe. Would it make you happy?”
“Delirious!”
When we opened the door to the trailer, Bill was waiting, leaning against the side. He quickly straightened and opened the back door so Brook and I could dive in. The fans in Toulon weren’t as rampant as they were in the U.S. or even London, but it would be easier if we stayed off the radar.
I, for one, was bloody sick of all the bullshit. Telling them straight on wasn’t enough to get the press to back off. Nothing ever satisfied those bastards. It was particularly hard on Brook. We could barely tolerate them.
Tonight I breathed a sigh of relief when we made it in the car and off toward the hotel without incident. My hand entwined with Brook’s and her head was leaning on my shoulder. She had to be exhausted with the time difference. I rubbed my thumb over the top of her hand. My lungs expanded as I breathed in deeply, a sense of contentment like I hadn’t felt in a month settled over me.
“Hey, Bill, can we stop and grab some food before we get to the hotel?”
“Yes. Any requests?”
“Just fast. Burgers, okay?” Amazing how many Burger Kings and McDonald’s were scattered around France. No In-N-Out Burgers, though. The one thing I missed about L.A., besides the woman sleeping on my shoulder.
“Of course.”
When we arrived at the hotel, it was standard procedure to enter through the underground garage and take the stairs up to my room. Brook was wiped.
“We’re here, love.” I nudged her softly, and then kissed her forehead.
Bill opened the door as I lifted her in my arms, grabbing the burger bag from him before starting up the stairs.
Brook snuggled into my neck. “What did you get me for my birthday?”
I smiled as I climbed the twelve flights of stairs. “It’s in my pants, baby,” I teased.
“Pfft,” she scoffed. “You can’t give me something that’s already mine.” Her words were slurred. I wasn’t even sure she was aware of what she was saying, but I was grinning my bloody ass off. “You spend an awful lot of time trying to get what’s in your pants… into my pants.”
I laughed out loud, the sound bursting from me and echoing through the stairwell. Happiness was a precious thing. Brook was a precious thing.
IT WAS DARK AND I opened my eyes, running my hand over my face. The room smelled like Cade; musky and salty with just a hint of his cologne. I stretched languidly, my back arching and my arms reaching for him in the bed. He wasn’t there. The clock by the bed said 1:46 in the morning, the red digital numbers blaring in the darkness.
“Cade?” I called softly. “Hon?”
He suddenly appeared in the doorway between the sitting room of the suite and the bedroom. He was naked, which made me smile.
“Yeah, love.” His eyes glowed in the dark as he moved toward me. I scooted over and lifted the covers for him. I didn’t remember how I got that way, but I was naked, too. His strong arms slid warmly around me, pulling me to him in one smooth motion, pressing his body to mine and tangling our limbs together. “I thought you were sleeping.”
I snuggled into him further, my forehead resting against the side of his jaw. “Why are you up? Are you sick?”
“Nope. My stomach was growling.”
His words made me laugh softly. “Twinkie diving are you?”
“Mmm… but epic fail. I didn’t find them. Were you teasing me, sweets?”
“Nope.” My hand traced over the soft hair that covered his strong forearm. My body quickened. He had to be the sexiest man on the planet. Happiness rushed through me. He was all mine. “But I need strawberries before I’ll break ‘em out.”
“It’s ridiculous how in sync we are, Brook. I ordered them from room service. They’ll be here soon.”
“I knew there was a reason I loved your sexy ass.”
“You n
ever said how long you’ll stay.” He nuzzled into my neck and pulled me closer. My hands found their usual place threading through the soft hair at his nape as I tilted my face up, my nose brushing along the side of his jaw.
“I thought I’d hitch a ride to London.”
“Seriously?” I felt, rather than saw a big smile spread across his face. “That would be brilliant!”
“If you give me my present, now.” I was feeling mischievous.
He laughed and rolled me over roughly, settling between my legs and pushing my hair back. “I’ll give you a present, all right.”
“Pfft!” I pushed playfully at his shoulders. “We’ve already had this conversation. I own that already.” I grinned and then reached between us to close my fingers around his full erection. “It’s becoming a problem, isn’t it?” Cade grunted and kissed me a couple of times on the mouth, surging his hips to thrust into my hand.
“Not when you’re with me, love, but I have a bloody awful time with it when you’re not.” He began to tickle me by poking me in the ribs.
We were rolling around on the bed laughing when room service knocked on the door.
Cade looked at me horrified as I lounged under the covers, making no effort to get up and go to the door. “I’m not getting it. I have a boner, Brook!”
I fell over laughing. “And…?” I giggled. “Uh….okay, I’ll go.” I pushed off the bed and tugged the sheet with me. Cade grabbed it and tried to pull it from me.
“Uh, unless you want this dude to have a bird’s eye view of my vajayjay, you’ll let go of the sheet, Cade.” We both laughed. “I need some cash to give him.”
Cade got up in all his naked glory, pulled some bills from his jeans and handed them to me before I went and got the strawberries he’d ordered. There was also some champagne and bottled water.
I went to my suitcase and threw three packages of Twinkies on the tray. Cade was sitting on the bed, now in his boxers and a T-shirt and holding a black leather box. He wagged his eyebrows at me.
I smiled and set the tray down, reaching for the box at the same time. He pulled it back out of my reach. “It’s not your birthday until Saturday, so…”
Lunging at him and ripping the box out of his hands in the same motion, I somehow ended up on his lap, his arms wrapped around me, and the sheet precariously close to falling away.
“So? Can I open it?” I asked hopefully. “Please?”
Cade nuzzled into the hair at the side of my head. “Mmm, hmm.”
I flipped open the box and immediately saw a duplicate of the bracelet he’d given me the year before only as a pendant. “It’s gorgeous,” I said simply, turning my head to kiss him on the mouth. “ It’s perfect.” I thought about the gorgeous diamond R & J bracelet he’d given me before we were together, at the end of our first film, the one that matched this necklace, and the engagement ring that I could still only wear in private. My heart tightened. “You’re so thoughtful, baby. I love it. If I could, I’d wear them all and never take even one off.”
“I know,” he whispered against my skin. “As long as you know how much I love you. It’s just at times when we can’t be together; I want you to have something of me that you can keep close.”
I closed my eyes and rested my head against his, love threatening to burst my chest wide open. “Cade,” my voice throbbed. He touched me so deeply that if there were nothing but his words between us, it would somehow be enough. “You’re always close to me. You’re part of me. Always.”
His arms tightened and we held each other for a minute or two without words, his hand rubbed my thigh over the sheet and I snuggled into his neck, holding the box in my hand.
“I never want to be apart from you, Brook. Maybe we should just chuck it? We have more money than God.”
I let out a soft chuckle. “You know you’d never be happy not working. I know you talk about it, but I know you’d miss it. So would I.”
“Sure, but I also want to do music. Daniel has a new record out. I’m annoyed that I don’t have time to do any myself. Besides, it turns my girl on.” He flashed the crooked grin I loved.
I moved off of his lap and removed the necklace from the box. The chain was long, so I could just loop it over my head. The pendant settled between my breasts and Cade bent to kiss it.
“Aren’t you hungry?
“Starving,” he mumbled against my skin, his gentle hands pushing my back on the bed.
“What about….”
His eyes danced as he peeled the sheet from my body. “Remember the first time we had Twinkies and strawberries, Brook?” His hand took a strawberry from the tray and he started to squeeze it, the juice running over my breasts and down my stomach. I fell back on the pillows as his tongue began to run a hot path echoing the juice trails.
I remembered. We were still getting over that shit with Wendy and were traveling to promote one of the films. We were so close, the emotions and love spilling out of us unabashed.
“Yes. That weekend was so beautiful.”
He squeezed more juice over my breasts and his tongue circled a nipple, using suction, he pulled it into his mouth to suckle softly, causing me to gasp and throb deep in the pit of my stomach. “Cade… ugh…” I breathed in as he worked his way lower over my navel, kissing my stomach and hipbones. I wound my fingers through his thick hair.
“You taste delicious. It’s bloody ridiculous.”
“Cade.” His name broke from my mouth as tears welled in my eyes. “I love you. I’m so thankful for you.”
He lifted his head and kissed me softly. “I love you, so, so much. I could die right now, and not regret it.”
The tears finally squeezed from my eyes and I nodded. “Me, too,” I choked out.
“Love, why the tears?” He asked, pushing back my hair and the salty tears leaking from the corners of my eyes.
“I told you on the first strawberry night… it’s the love. There’s too much to fit inside me and so it has to come out. It never goes away. It’s always so much more.” A small sob escaped me as Cade buried his face in the side of my neck, his warm breath washing over my skin.
“Yeah, I know.”
FILMING WAS DONE, and Brook’s family had come in for her birthday yesterday. It was a nice surprise for her and I’d invited them to come back to London for a few days, but they declined.
Brook and I had discussed it at length and decided to say fuck it. Fuck it to hiding, fuck it to the paps… we still weren’t going to talk openly about it, but the prospect of traveling back to London separately when we were both going there had just really pissed me off. I’d finally convinced her. Fuck it.
Brook was tired. She’d been on set quite a bit, and in order to do it without being seen, she went apart from me very early in the morning. Denise leaked my call time so the fans and press wouldn’t hang out too early and Brook was able to get in unknown to any of them. It was cool having her on set, but weird to have her watch me marry someone else. She smirked when I’d mentioned as much to her.
“It’s fine,” she teased. “Marry them all as long as you’re in bed with me.” Some of the other cast heard her and raised their eyebrows. When I looked at Brook for her reaction, she simply said, “Fuck it, right?”
I laughed and the tension was over. “Right.”
Now she was curled up against my shoulder as we made our way to the airport. I had Bill and three other guards with us, because it would be madness and I wanted Brook protected at all costs. The plan was that I would walk through with Steve and Bill and Peter would walk on either side of Brook behind me. Closely behind. I wanted this over with as quickly as possible. We were taking the guards on the plane, because there would be bloody more of the same in London when we landed; likely more since the world would then know that Brook had been with me in France.
Fuck it. The words reverberated through my brain and I laughed out loud.
Bill looked over the back of the front seat. “What?” he asked.
�
��Nothing. I’m just really bloody happy.” Brook’s small hand curled into the front of my shirt and I put mine over it.
As we headed through town, I remembered Mr. Abel and my promise to stop by again. Plus, Brook was here now and she could meet the old man.
“Bill, I need to stop at Abel’s, please”
He glanced at his watch. “We’ll be cutting it close, but we can spare a few minutes.”
“Thank you.” I leaned my head down to the sleeping head on my shoulder. “Brook, babe, wake up, can you?”
She moaned and shook her head. “No. Why?”
“We have to make a quick stop. I promised to stop and see the old man who made your pendant one more time.”
She sat up then and pushed her hand through her hair. “Okay. That would be nice.” A smile tugged gently at her luscious lips and I couldn’t help it, I bent down to capture them with my own in a brief kiss. “Love you,” she whispered, and I squeezed her hand.
Mr. Abel’s eyes glowed with excitement as I ushered Brook into the little shop. “Mr. Caden! You came back! Is this beautiful girl your young lady?”
“Yes, sir. This is Brook.”
Brook was beaming at the old man who placed his hands on both sides of her face. “Okay to kiss you?” he asked. His English was good but broken with a heavy accent.
She nodded and he kissed first one of her flushed cheeks and then the other.
“Very nice to meet you, Mr. Abel,” Brook murmured. “Thank you for making the beautiful necklace. It’s really pretty. I love it.”
“Oh! Pleasure!” We watched the hunched old man walk back to his workbench and then return. He held out a hand to Brook, indicating that he wanted her to give him her left hand. “I apologize for the size. You are smaller than I expected.”
My face ached from smiling. Brook was glowing as the old man slid a gold ring on the middle finger of her left hand. “My gift to you. Your young man loves you. You keep him.”
