I sigh heavily. “So you’re going to stay?”
Honor shakes her head and rises to her feet. “Why is that so important to you?”
I have no idea what has gotten into me. I get up as well and put my hands on her arms, staring into her eyes. “Can’t you accept that I want you near me?”
She averts her eyes again, pulls away from me and walks a few steps along the beach. She utters a string of Italian curses and takes off her shoes, flinging them down onto the sand. She continues to swear like a sailor, and I begin to realize that she’s got a fierce temper.
“We agreed that we’d keep it casual!” she flares at me when she turns around.
I raise an eyebrow. “I don’t understand why you’re so upset suddenly. All I’m saying is that I want you near me.”
“I’m upset because your behavior is inconsistent, Alexis. Ambivalent.”
I’m ready to admit that my behavior is inconsistent, but only because I don’t know what I actually feel for this woman. I’m utterly confused by the fact that I feel like a different person when I’m with her.
“Say something, please!”
“I don’t know what to say!” I take off my shoes, too, and then I close the distance between us and take her into my arms. I know I’m going to regret it, I will hurt her, but that will be necessary to avoid being hurt in turn. “You confound me, Honor. You’re a puzzle I cannot solve.”
“I don’t mean to be.”
When she looks up at me again, I put my hands on her cheeks, cupping her face. “I still don’t want anything serious, but I do want to have you near me. I feel so much better when I know you’re not far from me.”
Once again, her eyes betray her utter confusion.
“I know that it’s hard to understand, but that is the way I feel. Please promise me that you’re staying.”
She nods almost imperceptibly. The only reason I can feel it is because I’m holding her face in my hands. Her skin is so damned soft, distracting me from anything but the desire to kiss her again. I give into the temptation she poses, put my lips on hers, but gently this time, trying not to let passion take over completely this time. Honor pulls away rather quickly. “Stop kissing me all the time, okay? We need to remain professional, or I’m going to get to a point where I can’t do this anymore,” she whispers without breaking eye contact.
I inhale deeply. Her rebuff is tearing a hole into my heart, and it’s an almost painful sensation. “Okay,” I reply in a much-too harsh voice, before taking a step backwards. “I’m going to call Colt and tell him where to pick us up.”
Honor rubs the back of her neck and nods once again. Has she suddenly lost her voice?
I pull out my phone and dial Colt’s number, walking away from her as I speak into my phone.
Honor
It was necessary to cut Alexis down to size, even though it felt like a stab in my own heart. We need to behave like professionals, need to stop giving into passion, need to maintain a safe distance. He already got in trouble with his friends once because of me, and I don’t want to provoke another fight. I’d rather quit than let that happen, because I don’t want to threaten their connection. Why do things always have to be this complicated? I didn’t expect Alexis to come on to me again, and I certainly didn’t expect him to fuck me in a dressing room. It was amazing, satisfying and incredibly hot, but it was also forbidden. I’m so overwhelmed by the double bind of our situation that I flop down onto the sand, pulling up my knees and resting my head on them. “I hate my life,” I mumble to myself. What in the world is happening to me?
“Colt is on his way. He’ll be over at the parking lot in a few minutes.”
I look up at Alexis. “Okay.”
He holds out his hand and I take it. Then he pulls me up. “Everything ok?”
“Yes, of course.”
He gives me a skeptical look, but doesn’t say anything. I may have hurt or disappointed him, one or the other, or maybe both. But I’d rather push him away than risk anything, least of all this damned job.
I bend down to pick up the small bag from the optometrist, and then we head up the beach towards the parking lot.
He takes my hand again, ignoring my resistance. “I’m not going to stay away from you.”
And I’m not going to reply to that. I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear it, because I can’t argue about this with him anymore. If I haven’t heard it, I can’t remember it or give an answer. Easy peasy!
After a few oppressively silent minutes, the black Mercedes pulls into the lot. “Reese took your car back to the house after you called,” Colt explains when he pulls up.
Alexis nods. “Thank you.” He gets in and looks at me expectantly. “Are you coming?”
I climb into the backseat with him and close the door.
The car starts moving, and we remain silent. The mood is subdued.
Chapter 9
“And that’s a wrap,” Alexis announces ceremoniously. “Congratulations, Miss Prescott, your first song is done.” He smiles at me.
I’m sitting next to him in the recording studio in the basement of their mansion, and now I’m hugging him tightly. “Oh my god, that is fantastic!” I squeal.
He laughs and briefly strokes my back, before pushing me away. “Do you want to record the vocals now?”
“Now?”
“Well, the band recordings are scheduled to start tomorrow, which means that this room will be occupied most of the time.”
“I’ve never done this before.”
“I’ll help you,” he promises, and has already started copying the lyrics onto a clean sheet of paper. I’m glad that he uses block letters, because I can’t read his usual handwriting any better than he can decipher mine. When he’s done with the words, he hands me the legal pad. “Ready?”
“And you know how the recording system works?” I inquire.
“Of course I do Linden’s equipment back in his house in Coral Gables is almost the same, and I used to mess around with it a lot when we were still living in Florida.”
“Okay.” I look around the room. “Do I have to go into the other room now?”
“If you want to record your voice, yes, you should go in there and stand before the mike,” he smirks as he folds the sheet of paper with the original song lyrics, crossed out and rearranged a hundred times.
I stand up from the chair, step through the sound-proofed door and into the actual recording cubicle. Alexis turns a switch. “The mike in the center, please,” I hear him say over the speakers. “I’m going to play the music we just recorded with the program here, and you sing along, okay?”
I nod, since I’m uncertain whether he can hear me at all.
“You can talk to me, Honor, I can hear you,” he says with a smile.
I return it. “Alright. I’m ready.”
“Then stand very close to the mike, please. Let’s start.”
I glance at the clock on the wall. It’s already past ten at night. We’ve spent hours down here, and we even asked Ms. Cunnings to bring our dinner downstairs so we could continue to work while we were eating. She told us that the others went to a recording for a TV show. Alexis had been excused due to his health.
“I don’t assume I need to tell you how a microphone works, do I?” he asks with a smirk.
“I think I can guess,” I reply with an amused eyeroll.
“Alright then, take a deep breath and put on the headphones. Ready?”
“Ready.” I follow his instructions and then look at him expectantly.
The melody comes over the headphones, and I wait for the fourth repetition of the beat before singing the first verse. I know the words by heart, so I close my eyes to feel the music.
“That was good,” he says after the fifth try. “But we’re going to do it again.”
“Why?” I ask, because my throat is dry.
“Because I say so,” he answers resolutely. “You’re amazing, but there’s still room up top, Honor.”
<
br /> I back down, drink a few sips of water, and wait for him to start the music all over again. He added my vocal track to the mix, so I have a number to go by.
I’m more than ready to go to bed. Not necessarily to sleep, because I’m still too wired, but to tune out and relax. It was a long, exciting day, and I’m exhausted.
After another forty-five minutes, five more tries and one freak-out on my part, we do it once again, and then Alexis announces with obvious relief: “Now it’s really perfect.”
“Can I hear it?”
“I’m putting both ballad and remix on CD for you.”
I leave the recording cubicle and join him in the mixing room. “But I want to hear it now.”
“Just a minute. We’ll go upstairs to my room, since my stereo has a much better sound than these computers.” He looks up at me. “Can you wait another minute?”
“Gonna be tough,” I concede.
“As soon as the CD is burned, we can go upstairs. But I need to take a little detour and stop in the kitchen.”
“Are you hungry?”
He shakes his head. “No, but I want to celebrate your very first song with you.”
I smile ecstatically.
When the CD is done, he switches off all the equipment. “Are you coming?”
I follow him upstairs, but when we reach the first floor, he sends me ahead to his room while he disappears into the kitchen. Upstairs, I walk down the hallway and open the door to his room. I take a seat on his bed and wait expectantly. Because he’s got the CD, I can’t even satisfy my curiosity by listening to the song before he comes back. I know that we have two versions of my song; the ballad and the remix, which he conjured on the computer. I can’t wait to hear what that sounds like.
“Alright, I hustled a bottle of champagne, and ransacked the pantry to find the strawberries Ms. Cunnings bought this morning,” he brags with a grin.
Champagne and strawberries. Why do I suddenly feel as if I landed smack dab on the set of Pretty Woman? “Cool,” I venture.
Alexis sets everything down on his nightstand, before pulling the CD from the pocket of his sweatpants. “Ready to hear the crow caw?”
I give him an outraged look. “Excuse me?”
He is shaking, probably suppressing a burst of laughter. Then he puts the CD into his stereo. “I played with the melody and added a few simple sound effects. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Let’s wait and see.” I close my eyes to focus on what’s coming, but he takes my hand, so I open them again.
“It’s a ballad. Let’s dance to it while we listen.” He pulls me to my feet and takes me into his arms. Alexis and I drift and sway to the music, and I put my head on his shoulder. “I like it,” he murmurs.
“The dance or the song?”
“Both.” He places one hand on the small of my back while his right is holding my left. He caresses me, but that makes me uncomfortable now. I thought he’d accepted my plea for professional distance. When his hand slides down from my back to my buttocks, I pull away from him.
“Okay,” he sighs, and then opens the bottle of champagne. “Would you like a glass?”
“Yes, please.”
He fills the two glasses and hands over one for me. Then he sits down on the bed. His toffee-colored eyes gaze into mine as we clink glasses. “Here’s to you and the launch of your career.”
“My career as a background singer for Downstairs Alley,” I reply, before taking my first sip.
“And one fine day soon, we’re going to fight for number one on the billboard charts,” he says with a chuckle.
“I doubt that.”
“Why? You’re a very good singer. Most people couldn’t hold a candle to that.”
I tilt my head. “You’re exaggerating.”
“Me? Never!” he professes in mock outrage. “My appraisal is absolutely objective. A sober judgment.”
I give the glass in his hand a pointed look. “Liar,” I giggle.
“Wait till the bottle is empty.”
My giggle turns into a burst of laughter. We continue to argue about whether I will be famous one day. Alexis thinks that Spencer will offer me a solo contract once he’s heard my demo. I point out that I don’t see myself as strong enough for the music business, but he won’t have any of it. How come Alexis and I never see eye to eye? We have a totally different outlook life, at least when it comes to stuff like this. I’d really like to have an answer to that question, but if I don’t know, who else is supposed to?
“What do I get if I’m right and Spencer offers you a contract?” he asks.
I can feel the heat of excitement suffuse my cheeks. “Whatever you want.”
“Can I get it now?” he probes, getting up and turning off the stereo.
“That depends on what it is that you want.”
He comes back to the bed and pulls me towards the edge by my ankles.
I laugh softly. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to show you what I want,” he murmurs.
I try to wiggle away from him, but he doesn’t let up. He pushes my legs apart and kneels between them.
Alexis falls forward, but braces himself with his arms before he lands on me.
“So, what do you want now?”
“Only one kiss,” he whispers and puts his lips on mine. He effectively drowns out any protest from me. I feel the erection growing in his pants, pressing against me as our tongues duel.
I am doomed. This man is everything I want, but he’s taboo. I know that I’m repeating myself, but I’ve made that my mantra by now. Taboo, forbidden, taboo, forbidden. We need to accept that we can’t do this, but the champagne in my system is already messing with my senses, and his incredibly soft lips do the rest. Adrenaline is rushing through my body, making my heart race until it hurts. Alexis grabs my hands and pushes them down onto the mattress on both sides of my head.
“We can’t …” I want to protest once I get the opportunity to breathe, but he swallows my words with another passionate kiss.
He pushes my top up, until my bra is exposed, and then he slides down. His tongue traces the edge of the cups, and I react with a sigh before closing my eyes and giving in to him. He frees my breasts from their confinement, and the tip of his tongue teases my nipples. Then his teeth join the game, sending jolts of electricity through my body. I writhe beneath him.
“Alexis …”
He bites down a little harder. “Shh.”
“Okay …”
“Shh,” he hisses more insistently. Then he pushes himself up, pulls me with him by my wrist, so he can take off my top, and then his own. He fixes me with glittering eyes as he unclasps my bra and pulls the strap down over my shoulder slowly. His fingertips leave a trail of goosebumps on my heated skin. I splay my hands across his chest. His lightly tanned skin, his abs, the tattoos, all of it highlights the attraction of his body, and makes him goddamn irresistible. I lean forward and shower his abs with kisses. Sighing softly, he rakes his fingers through my hair and then wraps his hand around it, pulling my head back. He kisses the corner of my mouth, then the line of my jaw, before he pulls away from me again. He pushes me backwards and pulls down my pants. Afterwards, he hastily takes of his own, including the boxers. I grab his hand and pull him down on top of me. His cock strains against my slit, but I don’t want to let him enter me just yet. I want to savor him and explore his body. I roll over with him so that I am on top now.
Alexis laughs softly. “I like a woman who knows what she wants.”
“Shh,” I imitate him with a grin, before leaning down to kiss the most sensitive spot on his throat. My lips travel up to his ear, then down over his collarbone and to his chest.
He strokes my hair again, but doesn’t pull my head back this time. I scoot down lower, and the tip of his cock brushes against my breasts, making Alexis sigh. “Oh god, that is so hot.” His voice is hoarse and husky, and it sends a shiver down my spine, shooting straight into my core. I can feel my
clit respond with a desperate, tugging sensation. I position myself between his drawn-up knees. Alexis lifts his head and watches as I trail kisses up the insides of his thighs, coming closer and closer to his erect penis. He places a hand on my cheek, but he doesn’t try to steer me, which I am grateful for. When I finally reach the glistening tip, I put my lips around it. Alexis’s head falls back and he moans loudly. He starts clawing at the sheets as I slowly take him into my mouth, teasing him with the tip of my tongue. My hands stroke the insides of his thighs. I register in relief that he doesn’t try to thrust against me. I cautiously bring my teeth into play, nibble on his hard cock, then start to suck down on it gently. Alexis moans even louder. I move my lips up and down around him, faster and faster, flicking my tongue across his tip, reveling in his obvious pleasure. I taste a drop of his lust on my tongue. “If you go on like this, I’m going to come in your mouth,” he warns me, but I increase the speed anyway. Alexis freezes. “Honor, please.” The he pushes me away with deliberation, looking into my eyes. “I don’t want to ejaculate in your mouth, okay?”
“Okay,” I reply softly, slide up higher and kiss his lips. He pulls me up even higher until I’m sitting on top of him. I wrap my hand around his hard length and slowly slide it up and down.
“Oh baby, you are too much.” His eyes are filled with arousal, glittering in a way I only get to see when we’re this intimate. He puts his hands on my waist and lifts me a little, directing me towards his cock. Then he replaces my hand with his own, gripping his member to stroke my slit with the tip of it. “You’re so hot and wet,” he murmurs as he positions it in front of my opening. Then he pulls me down on top of it.
We both moan when he fills me, penetrates me slowly. When he leans forward and nibbles on my nipples, I put my hands on his shoulders. He doesn’t set a pace but lets me take the lead, something I could get used to. I slowly rotate my hips while he penetrates even deeper. He puts his hands on my buttocks, pulls my butt cheeks apart. Judging from his moan, this intensifies it as much for him as it does for me. Then I start to ride him. He thrusts upwards, and I increase my pace. I lift my hips up high, making him enter me repeatedly, but that drives me towards my climax way too quickly. I try to slow down, because I don’t want it to be over yet.
Alexis: In love with a rockstar (The Hamptons Series Book 2) Page 15
