I bring the phone to my ear. “How long before you make it out this way?” I ask, already feeling the answer to my question in my gut.
“I am sorry for your inconvenience, miss, but we will not be able to get out that way until sometime tomorrow. I urge you to sit tight, and when we dispatch someone to your location, we will let you know.”
I sigh in defeat and thank the representative before ending the call.
“Please, get that ‘I told you’ look off of your face,” I glare at Barry.
He throws back his head and laughs out loud. “Will it be so bad to spend more time with me?” he asks, suddenly becoming serious.
A shiver goes through my body from the heated look in his gaze. I want to say it will be a bad thing for me to become this attached to him in such a short length of time. But as he starts to walk towards me with his charismatic swagger, I can’t find the words to say so.
“I can think of plenty to keep us busy until they plow the road tomorrow. Can’t you?”
“I don’t think it would be a good idea for us to do what we did earlier,” I say, trying to cool down the way my body responds to him.
“I thought you liked what I did to you earlier. You don’t want me to taste your sweetness again?” he asks, standing before me.
“I…I,”
“You don’t want to feel my hardness in that sweet pussy of yours again?” He takes my hand and places it over his growing hardness beneath his jeans.
I gasp aloud, and his head swoops down to take my mouth in a heated kiss. His hot tongue enters my mouth to tangle with my own. I resolve to let him love me intimately once again. He scoops me up into his strong arms, as if I weigh little more than a feather, and marches up the stairs.
My pussy grows slick at the thought of him being inside me again. This man has me under his control, and I know that I will miss him once I have to leave this place. For now, I will enjoy the pleasure he gives me, and I will pleasure him in return. For the little time that we have together, I will pretend that I am his for a lifetime and that he is mine.
Chapter 5
Noelle
Feels like a Blue Christmas After All
Two Weeks Later
“Hi, Noelle.” My best friend walks over to me. We were both having lunch in the cafeteria at Harriman and Company, where we worked as receptionists. The company is a financial service group which brings in 5.5 billion in revenue a year. Mr. Harriman’s great-grandfather founded the company, and he has made it into the successful company it is today.
“Hey, girl.” I look up with a bright smile attached to my full lips, even if the smile never reaches my troubled brown eyes; I am feeling blue, but I don’t want to show it.
“What are you doing on Friday night?” she asks as she sits down in a seat across from me at the table.
“I have no plans.” I screw up my nose, picking at my sandwich as I become lost in thought.
I think back to how Victor Wallace broke up with me less than two weeks ago and how I became stranded with a handsome stranger during an unexpected snowstorm. I think about how devastated I was, to say the least. Victor and I would have been together for two whole years if we had lasted until December. I also thought about how, in such a short time, a perfect stranger made me forget about Victor. How did I lose all abandon with Barry? The way I let myself go with him was so unlike me, and on top of that, I am pregnant with another man’s child.
Why did I act so wantonly around him as if I was unable to control myself? How could Victor promise his love to me and make love to me the way he did only to break my heart in the end? I blink away fresh tears as I silently ask myself these questions. I try to convince myself that it was all because of Victor that I gave my body to another man without thinking anyway.
“Don’t you dare shed another tear over that loser,” Shelby says as her blue eyes clash with my brown ones.
She reaches over and wipes away the lone tear that escapes my left eye.
“I know you are right, Shelby, but Victor broke my heart. How could he do this to me after I gave my virginity to him?” I ask her with a tightness to my full lips. I allow her to think my tears are all about Victor and how he asked me to abort our baby. I am too ashamed to tell her how I spent my weekend making love to a man I just met.
Shelby places a loose, natural curl behind my ear before she begins to speak.
“I have no idea why men do half the things they do. My older brothers can be pigs sometimes too, but I love them to pieces,” she says with a grimace. “But what I do know is that Victor is the lowest of the low for breaking my best friend’s heart. I just want you to know that you will always have me to lean on no matter what,” she says with sympathy in her eyes. “I will be there for you and my god-baby. I will not let you go through this pregnancy alone,” she vows.
“I know you will be here for me, Shelby. This is the very reason I love you so much. Ever since our freshman year of college you have been like a sister to me. I don’t know what I would have done if it hadn’t been for you and your parents letting me spend so many holidays with you all.”
Shelby knows everything there is to know about me and my awful family life. My mother went to pieces after my father left her for a younger woman. I am the only child of Fredrick and Nicole Winters. She knows how my dad died and how my mother threw me away once she married my dad’s best friend. We told each other everything, but I can’t bring myself to tell her about Barry…at least not just yet. Maybe I will once my body stops craving him.
“Earth to Noelle,” Shelby snaps her fingers in front of my face to gain my full attention.
“I am sorry. What were you saying?”
“I was saying that I have two tickets for a concert on Friday night. Erick was going to go with me, but he has to go out of town on business. He won’t be back until sometime Sunday evening. Will you go with me?”
“Of course I will. A concert will keep me from staring at the four walls of my new apartment,” I reply.
I think back to how Shelby allowed me to stay with her until I found my own apartment a week later. I think about how Victor pleaded with me to stay, and how he apologized profusely for the way he acted. I asked him if he had changed his mind about wanting the baby. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he hadn’t changed his mind, so I let Shelby and her boyfriend help me gather my things, and I moved on without Victor.
“That’s great,” Shelby says as she brings me out of my musings.
“Who will we be performing?” I ask her.
“Beau Barringer and his band,” she says with enthusiasm in her voice.
I frown, trying to think who Beau Barringer is. “I don’t think I have heard of him before.”
“Girl, Beau Barringer is a famous rock star. He is fine too, and all of his fans want a piece of him. He was featured in the Rolling Stone Magazine last month as one of the top artists of our time. His last hit song, ‘My One and Only,’ topped the charts.”
I still don’t know who Beau Barringer is, but he seems pretty famous from Shelby’s description. “I can’t wait to hear this Beau Barringer sing since you are giving him such high praise,” I laugh.
“Noelle, you don’t know the half of it. This man’s voice will send chills down your spine. I can’t wait for you to see him in action. Then, and only then, will you know what I am talking about.”
“I can’t wait either,” I say as we quickly finish up our lunch so we can get back to work.
We take the elevator up to our floor but part ways at the elevator.
Chapter 6
Beau
Love Is in the Air this Christmas
I arrive at the studio, where my band is already there waiting for me, to begin our practice session. The members of my band consist of Kendrick Ballard, my bass player; Benji Rhames, lead guitarist; Keith Jones, our keyboardist; and last but not least, the best at what she does, Laney Cohen who plays the drums/percussions. I am the lead and only singer of the rock group
that goes by the name of Beau Barringer and the Hot Pack Band. My instrument of choice is the guitar.
“Hey, man,” they chorus.
“What’s up guys?” I greet each one in turn.
“You are late for practice,” Laney says. “What groupie caused you to be late?” she asks with a smirk on her lips.
“Why must it be a woman that causes me to be late?” I grimace.
For the last two weeks, there has been a certain woman on my mind. I can still remember the taste of her on my lips, and I remember how it feels to be enclosed in her snug heat. I bite back a groan as I feel myself growing hard thinking of her once again.
“Earth to Beau.” Kendrick was standing in my face, snapping his fingers to get my attention. “Man, you are really zoned out today. Is anything bothering you?” he asks with a concerned expression on his face.
“Nah,” I shrug off his concern and push the sweet memory of Noelle Winters far from my thoughts, or at least I try to for the time being. “Time is money lady and gents. Let’s get to it, shall we?” I add, closing the studio door behind me.
We practice hard for four hours before we finally take a break.
“Where are we having lunch at today?” asks Benji, who always have an appetite, but you can’t tell from the lankiness of his slim body.
“Let’s walk down the street to the Expresso Café,” Keith suggests.
“We all know why you want to go to the Expresso Café,” says Laney aloud. “You have your eye on that waitress with the fiery, red hair.”
“I do not,” he says with a sheepish grin attached to his face.
“You do to,” we all say in unison.
“Okay…okay,” he finally admits. “It seems that I have been busted.”
“This time, get her name if she is single,” I suggest to him. I know even though Kendrick faces overly large crowds when we are on tour and performing on stage, he is still shy when it comes to a one-on-one interaction with a woman. He has to have plenty of nudging in the right direction.
My friends and I walk at a rapid pace, in the thirty-degree weather, to the Expresso Café, I think of my band members and how they are not only members, but they are also my friends and a part of my extended family.
Thank God we weren’t stopped on the way by eager fans. We each had hats on our heads and coats pulled up to our necks trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. We enter the café, and Kendrick’s eyes perk up as they land on Mandy, the waitress with the red hair.
Mandy also looks up at the same time as Kendrick removes his hat to reveal his full head of brown hair. Mandy’s smile includes us all, but her eyes are glued to Kendrick.
“Welcome to Expresso Café,” she greets us. “Will you all like your usual table in the back for privacy?” she adds with understanding in her eyes.
“Yes,” we chorused together as she leads the way through the festively decorated café with Christmas music chiming from the many speakers built into the walls.
“What will you all have to drink?” Mandy asks as she places four thick vinyl menus on the table for us to peruse.
We all give our drink orders, and Mandy promises to be back soon with our drinks.
“Kendrick my man, it is now or never,” Benji urges.
“Think of it like this, Ken,” I say. “Think about if you were up to bat, and if you hit a home run, your team would win the World Series. You can do this man,” I say, thumping him on the back.
“Yeah, listen to the pro at getting plenty of women. If anyone can direct you to the right path, the great Beau Barringer can,” Laney teases with merriment in her eyes.
“Cut it out, Laney. You make me sound like a player or something. I am so far from a player,” I add with feigned hurt in my voice.
“Beau, we all know how you do it. You love them and leave them. I wonder how many broken hearts that you’ve left around the world? Poor, misguided women,” she adds with a sympathetic tone to her voice.
“I never lie to the women that I mess with, Laney. They all know the score with me. I tell them point blank so there will never be any misunderstandings. I am not good with relationships, and my trust is next to nil when it comes to these women. I never know whether they want me for me or just want me for who I am—some big time rock star,” I admit.
“Beau, there are some great women out there. You just have to know where to look. Look at me. I found a beautiful wife who has given me two sweet angels who look just like their mother,” he says with a laugh.
We all laugh at Benji’s comment.
“You are one lucky man, Benji,” I say to him. “Lisa is one of a kind, and you are truly blessed to have a wife like her to go home to. And those two babies of yours are as cute as they can get. I am sure that I will get there one day, but now is definitely not my time.”
“Never say never, Beau. I have a feeling that you will be swept off of your feet sooner than you think,” Laney throws her two cents in.
Mandy returns to our table, cutting off all conversations about me and relationships, or the lack there of. We placed our lunch orders before our conversation resumes.
“I will be right back,” Kendrick stands with new confidence and walks off behind Mandy.
“Go get ‘em, tiger,” Laney calls out in encouragement to Kendrick.
“I am proud of that boy,” she says as she pretends to wipe a tear from her eye.
“You are full of it, Laney,” I say to her with a grin. It is time for me to turn the tables on her. “How are you and Tony doing?”
Laney suddenly frowns. “I don’t want to talk about Tony. He is a slimeball…all men are,” she adds on a disgusted sigh.
“That is not a fair assessment. All men are definitely not slimeballs,” Benji says. “My wife Lisa can attest to that.”
“Maybe I misspoke, but the majority of men are slimeballs. Why can’t one woman satisfy most men?” she asks, casting her eyes directly on me for the answer.
I squirm uncomfortably in my seat because I know that she is throwing darts in my direction.
“Laney, for most men that are truly men and are ready to settle down, one woman is enough. I can’t imagine being with anyone else besides Lisa. I don’t even like to think about what my world was like before I met her. Sleeping with woman after woman gets tiring after a while. I would give up everything if it ever came down to choosing Lisa over this music,” Benji admits.
“Wow, see that’s the kind of love that I am shooting for,” says Laney. “Give me that one good man like you, Benji, and I will promise to love him forever and give him as many babies as he wants,” she adds on a wistful note.
I hear Kendrick’s voice penetrate our deep discussion as he retakes his seat at the table.
“I invited Mandy and a friend to our concert on Friday. I told her that I will leave tickets and backstage passes at the box office for her. She accepted,” he says with a wide grin on his face. “Plus, she gave me her telephone number,” he adds as he holds up his cell phone.
“Way to go, man.” I gave him a hearty thump on his back.
“Whatever you do Kendrick, don’t break her heart because Mandy seems like a sweet girl,” Laney warns him.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Kendrick says. “I am a one-woman man, and I only date one woman at a time.”
“Good for you,” Laney says to Kendrick but directs a hard stare towards me.
“What?” I question her, trying to pretend I don’t know what her look is all about.
“Stop giving Beau a hard time. He will figure things out sooner or later…I promise,” Benji says.
Mandy finally comes with our lunch orders and places our steaming plates of food down in front of us. My stomach rumbles from the aromas coming from my plate. I whisper a grace and dig into my tasty food.
Everyone is enjoying their food, and we keep the conversation to a minimum so we can head back to the studio and put in more practice to perfect our selections for the concert on Friday. We fini
sh our meal, and we each leave a hefty tip for Mandy before leaving the homey café and its Christmassy feeling behind.
Chapter 7
Noelle
Last Christmas
This time last year, I was in the Christmas spirit since Christmas is, or shall I say was, my most favorite time of the year. Victor and I always decorated the apartment together and picked out our Christmas tree together. It seems that Thanksgiving just blends in with Christmas, which makes it into just one great gigantic holiday.
I know I will be spending the Thanksgiving holiday alone this year. Shelby promised Erick that she would spend Thanksgiving with his family this time around. Of course, they invited me, but I declined. I don’t want to feel like a third wheel. They never make me feel that way, but it’s my own way of thinking that keeps me from accepting their invitation.
Now, here I am in my new apartment feeling all alone with no decorations in site. I know I must get myself together and stop feeling sorry for myself. I should just be thankful that I got rid of that loser before I invested any more of my life with him.
Shelby told me that she and Erick saw Victor out with some other woman at a gathering they were invited to two nights ago. I felt a sharp pain of hurt upon hearing the information, but I soon realized that since we are not together anymore, he has a right to date anyone that he sees fit.
“Me and my baby are all I need,” I say aloud to myself as I stand in front of the full-length mirror attached to the back of my bedroom door, rubbing a hand across my pudgy belly.
My pudgy stomach doesn’t stop me from squeezing myself into the new pair of designer jeans that Shelby and I picked out for me when we went shopping yesterday for tonight’s concert.
My red zipper skinny jeans mold to my bubble butt like a second skin. Even though my stomach has a plumpish look to it, there is still no sign of a baby bump as of yet. My jeans are accompanied by a fitted, V-neck, clingy, silver top with sparkly, metallic ingrain in the flimsy material. I add a red belt to wrap around my waist to finish the look.
Noelle's Rock: A BWWM Holiday Romance Page 4
