‘Why are you the wrong one?’ Annabel was wearing her don’t-mess-with-me expression. ‘And don’t give me any of the usual crap about him being rich and famous. Think about the person he is, away from all that.’
‘But that’s just it. He comes with all that.’
‘You sang on national television to millions of people,’ Annabel reminded her gently. ‘You’re hardly a blushing wallflower.’
‘I know, but that was me, a village pharmacist, having my five minutes of fame. I was being judged for my singing, not for how attractive I was. For how well suited I am to be dating a singing idol.’
‘That’s ridiculous. Aside from the fact that you’re gorgeous so therefore highly well suited, why would anyone want to pick you apart? Michael might be a celebrity but he’s hardly Justin—’
‘Bieber. Yes, I know. He’s already pointed that out.’
‘He did?’ Annabel smirked. ‘Well, well. Great minds obviously do think alike. Did he also point out that his fans are mainly middle-aged women more likely to knit you booties for your future children than want to stick pins in you for being with him? All of which is largely irrelevant because the only time you see him in the papers is when he’s advertising his latest album?’
Jessie hated being cornered. ‘No, he didn’t,’ she answered sullenly. ‘And I guess I can’t argue with you.’
‘That’ll be a first,’ Annabel murmured.
Jessie’s lips twitched. ‘I should rephrase. I can’t argue that particular point, though I can argue that a woman with children has to be the wrong fit for a man who spends a lot of his time on tour.’ She drew in a shuddery breath. ‘I’m meant to be going to Barcelona in two weeks and already the boys are giving me a hard time. They want to come too, no surprise there, but Michael hasn’t invited them. And why would he? We’re only just getting to know each other. Besides, the last thing I want is for them to get too attached.’ A sigh escaped her; deep and heartfelt. ‘I should never have started this. I’m much more suited to someone like John. Not that he’s asked me.’
‘Though we know, from the way he looks at you with his big brown puppy eyes, that he’s just waiting for a signal from you.’
‘Maybe.’
Annabel walked to the sink and turned on the tap. ‘We also know if you’d wanted that, you would have encouraged him months ago. You wouldn’t have been dazzled by a celebrity singer. A stunningly handsome, celebrity singer who’s given you the best sex of your life. Your words.’
Jessie fought not to laugh. ‘And your point is?’
‘Rather obvious, I think.’ Annabel wet some paper towels and started to wipe at Jessie’s face. ‘There, that’s better. Less upset panda, more pale and interesting.’
Jessie studied her gloomy face in the mirror. ‘Thanks.’ Her eyes crossed to Annabel’s. ‘Speaking of sex. Is this going to get awkward if you and Phil head that way?’
A rare blush settled on her friend’s cheeks. ‘Not if we don’t want it to be.’
‘In that case, we’ll make sure it isn’t. I won’t mention sex again, other to say that just because Phil and I ended up preferring to read in bed rather than tearing each other’s clothes off—’
‘Doesn’t mean it will be the same for me,’ Annabel cut in. ‘I know. Finding fabulous chemistry isn’t easy though, which is why I also know you shouldn’t give up on what you have with Michael. At least not without a damn good fight. Now come on. We need to find those sons of ours. I expect they’re causing chaos.’
When Jessie said goodnight to Jack later that evening, he surprised her with a question.
‘Who were you talking to on the phone at the pub?’
‘Michael. Why do you ask?’
He gave her one of those shrugs that teenagers, and near teenagers, love to annoy their parents with. ‘No reason.’
She didn’t buy his response, but as it didn’t look like he was going to venture any further information, she let it go. She had plenty of regrets about the way she’d handled the phone call. How incredibly flattering that Michael wanted to be seen in public with her. Yet instead of focussing on that, she’d allowed fear to rule, making her responses mean and sniping.
It would serve her flaming well right if he took her at her word and found someone else.
A lump the size of a fist shot into her throat and she blinked at the damn tears fighting to escape. No, she wasn’t going to go there. She’d simply phone Michael back and apologise for being a miserable cow.
But when she tried his phone, it was switched off.
Sleep, when it finally came, was a relief, if a short-lived one.
The phone woke her at five to midnight and her heart jumped when she saw who it was. ‘Michael?’
‘Sorry, I know it’s late. Have I woken you?’
‘It doesn’t matter. Is everything okay?’
‘I hope so.’
The uncertainty in his voice elicited a quiet sob from her. ‘I’m so sorry about what I said. I tried to phone you back but your phone was turned off.’
‘I was in the air.’
‘I thought you’d only just arrived in Vienna?’
‘I had. But now I’m here. On your doorstep.’
‘You’re what?’ Jessie shot bolt upright, her heart pounding.
‘I’m hoping you’ll let me in.’
She raced down the stairs, almost tripping over her feet in her dash to get to the door. She grabbed at the handle but the chain was on, thwarting her attempts to fling it open. ‘Oh my God, what are you doing here?’ she shouted through the door as she struggled with the catch, all fingers and thumbs.
‘Getting frostbite?’ he answered mildly.
Finally, finally, she swung the door open and threw herself into his arms, inhaling him as if it was the last breath she was ever going to take. He returned the embrace, wrapping his powerful frame around her and lifting her off her feet.
‘Hi.’ He smiled, looking so tall, so handsome. And so on her doorstep.
Awed, thrilled, her heart still racing, Jessie ran a hand down his face. ‘Why are you here?’
‘I think you know.’
Guilt swam through her. ‘Because of the phone conversation?’
He nodded, grasping her hands. ‘I needed to know we were still okay.’
Overcome with emotion, she started to cry quietly. ‘Of course we’re okay. I was just fed up and missing you. Scared about the media speculation, and missing you. Frustrated, and missing you. Did I mention I was missing you?’
Laughter shone in his deep blue eyes and he dipped his head to give her the most exquisite kiss. It left her hot, flustered and aching for more.
Taking hold of his hand she tugged him inside. ‘Have you eaten? Do you want a drink?’
He shook his head, following her into the living room where he almost fell onto the sofa, dragging her with him. ‘I know how hard it is to carry on a relationship at a distance. The misunderstandings, the frustration. I’ve been here before.’ He tucked his arm around her, piercing blue eyes locked onto hers. ‘I don’t want it to wreck what we have.’
Now he was here, his magnetic presence dwarfing her small front room, her earlier worries seemed totally misplaced. ‘Neither do I.’
‘And you have my word that I’ll try my hardest to keep you out of the press.’
‘I know you will.’ She leaned into him, resting her head on his chest, letting her hand drift inside his shirt and over his hard stomach muscles. ‘Thank you for coming, it means a great deal. How long can you stay?’
‘I’m performing tomorrow.’ His voice had gone quiet and when she glanced up, his eyes looked heavy.
She sighed. ‘And I’m working, so I guess that rules out anything but breakfast together. I don’t even know if I’ve got anything other than cereal. Last time I looked in the bread drawer the kids had swiped anything decent.’ As she babbled, she was aware of his shoulders relaxing, his breathing slowing. A quick glance confirmed her suspicions. His eyes were shut.<
br />
‘Oh no you don’t,’ she whispered, pulling him up. ‘If you’re going to go to sleep on me, you’re doing it in my bed. Come on.’
‘Your bed.’ His mouth twitched. ‘I’ve imagined you in it often enough.’
His sleepy voice sounded husky, and desire unfurled inside her. ‘I’ve imagined you in it, too.’
They were halfway up the stairs when she stopped. ‘It’s not a very big bed.’
She would have said more, but he shut her up with a kiss.
Leaving him to undress in her room, she darted into the bathroom. There she slipped out of the cotton pyjamas she’d been wearing and into a lacy number she’d bought for their first tryst in Rome, though it had never made it out of the suitcase. With desire pulsing through her she stepped eagerly into the bedroom.
And came to an abrupt halt.
He was already in bed, eyes shut, the top of his naked chest visible above the duvet, moving rhythmically up and down.
She eased carefully into the bed next to him, but she could just as well have jumped straight in because he didn’t twitch, didn’t move a muscle. He was fast asleep
As she stared down at him her heart filled, and filled, until it threatened to burst. This beautiful man had just flown hundreds of miles to see her for only a few hours. He wasn’t just a man she was capable of falling for. He was a man she had fallen for.
She loved Michael Tennant. Only time would tell whether it was the most spectacular, or the most stupid, thing she’d ever done.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Michael woke with a start to the sound of a radio. It took a couple of seconds for his brain to work out where he was. And whose arm was currently slamming the snooze button.
‘Bloody alarm clocks.’ Jessie turned to face him and gave him a sleepy smile. ‘Morning.’
His eyes drifted over her tousled bed hair, across her soft pink lips and down to the curves of her breast, pushing against ivory lace. ‘Please tell me you weren’t wearing that last night. And that I didn’t fall asleep on you.’
‘I did put this on, but if it helps you were asleep before you saw it.’
Disappointment flooded him as he realised the lost opportunity. ‘How long do we have?’
She captured his fingers and kissed them. ‘I need to wake the boys in ten minutes.’
He groaned, his fingers diving past the lace and into the warm flesh of her cleavage. ‘Then prepare to have the fastest, hottest sex of your life.’
Her wicked laughter heated his blood even further. ‘Consider me prepared. And very willing.’
He was almost inside her before he realised what he’d forgotten to bring. ‘Shit, condom.’ The disappointment he’d felt a moment ago had nothing on what he was feeling now, his body all aroused and aching and needy.
She smiled. ‘That sounds familiar, but this time I’ve got it covered. I’m on the pill.’
Despair to elation in four simple words. ‘Thank Christ for that.’ Joyfully he thrust into her heat, trembling as she closed around him, her breasts rubbing against his chest as he found his rhythm. ‘Ten minutes is looking like a stretch,’ he panted, half amazed, half mortified at how close he was already.
Her moan of pleasure didn’t help the situation.
But then she was gripping his buttocks, urging him on before detonating around him. Her orgasm hastened his and he fell headlong after her, collapsing in a spent heap.
‘Heck of a way to wake up.’ She grinned up at him, eyes alight with laughter.
He glanced over at the alarm clock. ‘And we still have one minute to spare.’
As they shared a smile he felt his heart unfurl, reaching out to her, begging her to accept him. His awkwardness, his clumsy, introverted ways, his public side. To love him. He didn’t know how deep her feelings ran. He could ask, but he didn’t want to put her on the spot like that. Perhaps if he told her how he felt, she’d offer something back, yet when he’d blurted out that he was falling for her, she’d remained tight-lipped. He wasn’t sure he could take another disappointment. Not with their relationship still so precarious.
Instead he spent his luxury extra minute, kissing her.
‘We have to move,’ she murmured, when it became obvious he was enjoying himself a little too much.
‘You’d be amazed what I can do in ten seconds.’
Laughing, she gave his backside a playful smack. ‘If it’s anything like what you managed in ten minutes, I’ll take you up on that offer. Just not now.’ Reluctantly he rolled off her and she scooted out of the bed. ‘I’ll wake the boys. You’re welcome to take a shower. What time do you need to be at the airport?’
He didn’t have a clue. After their painful phone call yesterday, he’d asked Georgina to get him to England as soon as she could. He hadn’t thought to ask about the return trip. Grabbing his phone, he scrawled through his messages. ‘Looks like I’m on a ten o’clock flight.’
Midway through putting on her bra – the sight alone was worth the trip over – she scrunched up her forehead, clearly working her timings backwards. ‘I just have time to drop you off before work.’
‘I don’t want to put you out. I can cab it.’
‘And I want to take you to the airport.’ She slipped on a pale pink jumper, ruining his view, then kissed him lightly on the lips. ‘Please.’
He wasn’t going to argue. Not when it gave them an extra half an hour together.
While she went about her morning ritual he took a quick shower, the refreshing moment ruined when he had to put on the same clothes he’d worn yesterday.
Jack and Luke were already up and eating breakfast when he stepped into the kitchen. Their chatter stopped when they looked over at him, faces alert, interested. Not disapproving but not hugely welcoming, either.
Michael felt a moment of panic as he wondered what to say, but Jessie smoothed over any awkwardness by handing him a cereal bowl. ‘If you’d been here Sunday morning you’d have had bacon and eggs. Monday morning it’s cereal.’
‘Mum has bran.’ Luke turned his nose up in disgust. ‘It looks disgusting but it helps her poo.’
‘Thank you, Luke.’ Jessie rolled her eyes, her cheeks pink.
‘What do you have?’ Michael asked, his panic settled into a more reasonable apprehension as he joined the boys at the table.
‘Cornflakes. I’d rather have Frosties, but Mum says they’ve got too much sugar.’
Luke raised his eyes skywards in that way kids have when they can’t believe how dumb an adult is. Figuring he was already on shaky ground appearing in their house out of the blue, Michael chose not to comment.
‘Why are you here?’
Jack’s eyes, hazel like his mother’s, studied him, quietly assessing. Michael wished he knew what conclusions he’d drawn. In Paris they’d started to bond, though it had fractured a little when he’d seen how upset his mum had been after the concert. Michael wondered if he’d seen her cry yesterday, too, after the phone call.
‘I wanted to check your mum was okay.’ He glanced over to Jessie, wondering how much she’d told them.
‘Why wouldn’t she be?’
Though the tone was more question than barbed comment, the tension in the kitchen rose a notch. As did Michael’s anxiety.
Jessie stepped behind Jack and kissed his head. ‘Michael came to warn me that a magazine has been asking questions about whether he has a woman in his life.’
Red spots of anger appeared on Jack’s cheeks. ‘He has another girlfriend?’
‘No,’ Michael cut in sharply, hurt. ‘I love your mother.’
Jack’s mouth gaped open, his eyes as round as buttons, but it was only when he heard Jessie gasp that Michael realised quite what he’d done. He hung his head, pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to compose himself. After dragging some air into his lungs he turned to Jessie, only to find her frozen to the spot.
Shocked he’d been so unromantic as to blurt to her sons, what he hadn’t had the balls to admit to her?
Or shocked he’d been so stupid to fall in love when she thought they were only having a fling?
Jessie could see a million questions in her sons’ eyes, but her own kept coming back to Michael’s. He looked as stunned as she at what he’d just said.
‘So are you Mum’s boyfriend?’ Luke looked confused, though probably no less confused than any of them right now.
Michael’s expression was tight, as if he’d rather be back in Vienna than in her kitchen, being interrogated about his love life by a pair of kids. ‘I hope so.’
Jessie considered intervening but stopped herself. Jack and Luke were her life. If there was to be any future for her and Michael, he needed to understand that. More, he needed to fit into it.
‘Are you going to marry her?’
Her heart thumped wildly and she could feel her face burning up. This was no longer about rescuing Michael. This was about rescuing herself. ‘That’s enough questions for now. It’s time you were getting ready for school.’
With a sigh Luke pushed back his chair. ‘Mum says she’s going to Bar… some place in Spain to see you. Can we come?’
Oh God. Why had she ever thought dating again was a good idea? And if this was excruciating for her, she could only imagine how Michael – intensely private Michael – was finding it.
‘It’s up to your mother,’ Michael was saying, his stiff shoulders and strained expression betraying exactly how hard he was finding this. ‘If you have no plans in two weeks, you’re very welcome.’
‘He doesn’t want us to come.’ Jack spoke this time, an edge to his voice Jessie didn’t understand. ‘And anyway we can’t. It’s our cup final.’
The blood drained from Jessie’s face as she looked from Luke, to Jack and finally to Michael. She shook her head, feeling as if a rug had just been jerked from under her. She had nothing to hold onto as her world span out of control. Michael loved her. But she was about to let him down. ‘I hadn’t realised.’
Reach for a Star Page 20
