by HK Carlton
“Thank you,” she said, rising, her heels bringing the top of her head up to his chin. “You must have made very good money as a gypsy,” she said, looking up at him.
“Very,” he answered, looking down at her, his dark glasses concealing his mood. He stood in front of her, making it impossible for her to get around him, almost pinning her between the car and his body. She could feel the heat from him. Deeply, she inhaled the clean refreshing scent of soap and the uniquely spicy scent of Jason.
The notch in his throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Your pulse is very rapid and erratic today, Lainey. What’s the matter?”
“Perhaps the Bugatti is exciting, Mr Westlake.”
“Funny…” He placed his thumb over the rapid beat at the base of her neck, his fingers lightly brushing across her skin causing goose bumps to race down her arm. “You didn’t even know about the Bugatti yesterday and it was still doing this rat-a-tat thing. And you know what else? The minute I touched you, it triple timed.”
She felt at a disadvantage not being able to see his eyes. He seemed not quite angry, but adversarial. Like he was intent on proving his point that she wanted him too and he was going to overwhelm her until she gave in to it.
“Tell me, is this a special occasion or do you just want to go fast?” she asked, referring to his earlier comment about the car.
“I’d have to say it’s because I wanna go fast but the car is the only thing that’s going to get me there.” He scowled.
She stepped around him. So he was pissy because she wouldn’t put out. On one hand it ticked her off. On the other hand it gave her a little thrill that he was going through the same agony that she was. “I hope you’ll be very happy together. Thanks for the ride.” She strode toward the church as she belatedly noticed how many of the worshippers had stopped to gawk. She tried to ignore the stares. They weren’t really looking at her anyway. It was the Bugatti they were interested in, and some healthy speculation about the football star’s downtrodden ex-wife showing up to church with the sexiest man alive, driving that.
The car door slammed, then the obnoxious ‘dut-dut’ followed as he set the alarm. “Hey.” He caught up to her in a few long strides.
“You can go. You don’t have to come in. I’ll see you later. It was a nice try.” She tried to walk faster but he caught her arm on the steps.
“Stop.”
“No. You stop. I didn’t ask you to bring me here and I certainly didn’t ask you to accompany me in. And I especially don’t want you to be here if you don’t want to be. That’s not what this is about. Not to me. This makes me feel better. And I’m not feeling it right now with you pressuring me. You said I could set the pace and now you’re clearly angry with me. I don’t need it. Go home, Mr Westlake, and grade some papers, or better yet call your waitress. Perhaps she is faster than me and your Bugatti.”
His nostrils flared as he took another deep breath. “I haven’t been in a church in a very long time. I’m not sure the walls will remain standing if I come inside.”
She couldn’t stand not to see his eyes anymore. Not being able to see them made her think all kinds of crazy things, especially when he was being so cryptic about his past. She pulled the shades from his eyes and pushed one of the arms into his shirt, then folded them down.
Searching his dark eyes, she noted that he seemed guarded.
“What are you afraid of? Worse men than you walk over that threshold every day and still it stands. Men that don’t even deserve or want forgiveness. If you’re just here to try to ingratiate yourself with me, don’t. Go in there for yourself. Not for me.”
Lainey walked into the church by herself. A greeter handed her a calendar showing the order of service and she made her way down the aisle and sat by herself in her usual spot. Sometimes Jilly accompanied her but sometimes she didn’t want to, and Lainey didn’t force her to, like her father had done to her when she was a child. It really was different when you came for yourself and not for somebody else.
Jason paced outside the doors for a moment. One of the ushers smiled and nodded at him, as if he knew what he was going through. The doors closed as the organ music began. Jason listened to the first hymn and the voices raised in unison.
“Well, God, I’m here. And I should probably thank you for lookin’ out for me all those years when I was out there doing all the wrong things. I really like this girl and I’m not sayin’ I’m gonna be here every Sunday, and I’m not even sure that I’m here for the right reasons. She’s probably right on that score. I showed up to make points with her. I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. You know why I’m here. So I’m just bein’ straight up with you, I’m goin’ in for the girl and you’ll just have to forgive me… Again.”
Reefing open the door, he skimmed over the heads of the rest of the congregation hunting for the woman in question. About halfway down the aisle to the far right with the hymn book in her hand, she stood alone, singing with the rest. He walked to her side. She shuffled over to make room for him and passed the left side of the song book to him. Ignoring the words, he tried to follow the music.
He hadn’t sung a note in ages. It was like the minute he’d decided to go back to school he’d forgotten all about music. As if he’d turned off his creativeness. He hadn’t even written a melody or jotted down lyrics. In the past, he’d kept a pad of paper and a pen by his bedside always, even when they were on the tour bus, just in case something came to him in his sleep. He used to dream lyrics and sometimes even the first few chords of a new song. A few times he’d woken up and after having written it down, he’d get his guitar and play it out and a whole chorus, sometimes even a whole song, had come to him. Some of their best stuff had come just like that. From his head to Number One in the charts. He’d even written a couple that he’d never shown anyone else. Stuff that wasn’t in their genre, but he’d always thought someday he’d publish them for someone else to record. He’d never really thought about it until now, with the sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows, that maybe it had all been a gift. His talent, the way that the melodies and harmonies and lyrics had just poured from him.
As the music ended they sat and there was a reading, some announcements and another hymn. They stood and again she handed him the book. He listened to her for a moment. She had a nice voice. He liked it. He let it wash over him. She’d sound good with him, he thought. He didn’t even realize that he’d started to hum until she looked up at him and gave him a smile. Again, he read the music instead of reading along with the words. He could feel the organ vibrating through his chest, making him feel things that he hadn’t in a long time.
They sat again and listened to the service. The choir rose and began to sing. Jason let the music in and he realized he had missed it. How could he have let himself turn from it so completely? It had always been so much a part of him. He totally missed the sermon thinking about everything. His mind was a whirl. Where was his guitar even? Had he even brought it from his parents’ house? It had to be at home. He’d given up most of his guitars. Actually just left them on the bus and walked away from them. He’d kept the one he’d played MSG with and the acoustic that he’d had for as long as he could remember. All beat to hell as it was, it was probably his most prized possession. It meant more to him than the Bugatti—all the cars, the house, the money. It reminded him of simpler times.
Lainey reached over and twined her fingers into his. “Are you all right?” she whispered leaning in so that he could hear her.
He squeezed her hand and pulled it onto his thigh. He nodded, before regarding their entwined hands. She’d reached out to him. That was something.
The offering plate came around and Lainey put five bucks on the plate then passed it to Jason, probably expecting that he’d just pass it along. But he tossed a twenty in it.
Jason reluctantly let go of her hand as they stood to sing the last hymn. It was a song that was familiar to him, he didn’t even know from where. H
e finally allowed himself to read the lyrics and he let the words form on his lips. He took a deep breath and he sang the first words he’d sung in over six years. Softly at first, louder as his confidence in himself and the words grew.
Lainey looked up at him with surprise. She stopped singing and her mouth dropped open. The deep rich timbre of his voice went straight through her. The congregation finished the hymn, the minister boomed his benediction, and Lainey didn’t remember a thing from the moment Jason had started to harmonize.
Jason took hold of Lainey’s hand again as they filed out slowly, following the crowd. The minister stood at the door greeting the parishioners by name.
“Lainey. It’s good to see you again.”
“And you, Reverend.”
“You are becoming a regular. Soon I will begin to badger you to become a member. And I see you’ve brought a friend this time.”
Jason presented his hand. “Jase Westlake, good to meet you, Reverend. I enjoyed the sermon.”
The minister wrapped both hands around Jason’s and shook his hand with enthusiasm. “Jase. It’s good to meet you. Westlake? Westlake. We had some Westlakes as members at one time. What were their given names? Oh, well, anyway, I hope we’ll see you again.”
Jason gave him a non-committal nod, wrapping his arm around Lainey’s back, coaxing her out.
“Please feel welcome to join us for coffee and fellowship.”
The pressure on her back increased, propelling her forward.
As they walked out into the sunshine, Jason pulled his sunglasses from his shirt and slid them into place. Taking Lainey’s hand again, he steered her toward the car, which now had a crowd of teenage boys around it.
Lainey bit her lip wondering how he might handle this—all those kids being around the one-point-seven million dollar car. The vehicle cost more than Lainey and Thad’s home.
“I’m gonna own one of these someday,” one of the kids boasted.
Jason pulled the key from his pocket and unarmed the alarm, making the boys jump as if they’d been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
“Step back, boys, and let the lovely lady through.” He opened the door for her and she stepped in. He closed it and walked around to his own side. The boys fired questions at him. He answered every one of them and allowed them a look inside when he opened up the driver’s side. He was wonderful with them. Another reason that he must make a good teacher.
“’Kay, guys, if you’ll excuse us, we need to go. But I’m sure we’ll be back and if it’s all right with your parents, maybe we can go for a ride.”
“Naw way!” “Awesome!” “How ‘bout next week?” “I’m gonna go ask my ma now!” “Me first.”
Jason got in and started the car. He revved the engine a few times and watched the young faces light up, impressed with the sound.
He pulled out of the parking spot and casually drove out.
“I’d peel outta here if we weren’t at church.”
“I’m sure that would dissuade a couple of moms from allowing their sons a ride with you.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, but they woulda thought that was so freakin’ cool.”
She laughed. “Yeah, they would.”
Jason hit a button and the car filled with music. He sang along to Springsteen’s Born to Run. That was more his thing. Now that he’d used his voice again, he wanted to keep using it.
“You are a man of many talents, Jase.”
He inhaled sharply thinking she’d put two and two together and guessed who he was.
“I think you should give up your day job and take up singing. You have an incredible voice.”
He relaxed, realizing he’d introduced himself to the minister as Jase.
“That’s what I gave up to be a teacher.”
“What?”
“I told you, I moved around a lot. I sang. In a band.”
“No way, you did not.”
He grinned slightly. She really had no idea. “Yeah.”
“When? For how long? What made you quit? Would I have heard of you? Is that who people keep mistaking you for? It’s not a mistake, they know you?”
“Whoa, wait. That’s a lot to answer. I don’t know if you’d have heard of us. We went by a lot of different names in the beginning.” That was the truth. But as they got to be more well known, and because he was the front man and did most of the lead vocals and yeah because of his looks, people just associated the rest as his band and it just became The Jase West Band. Like when you hear Bon Jovi you automatically think Jon. Van Halen you think Eddie, not even David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar. “And you know what made me quit. I had a, what is it women say? An ‘a-ha’ moment? I didn’t want to do it anymore. I looked in the mirror one morning and I didn’t even recognize myself. I needed a change. I needed to clean up and grow up.”
“Okay, so what kind of music?”
“Rock.”
“So you went from rock band to school of rock?”
“Yeah, I guess I did.”
“Must have been some epiphany,” she commented as they pulled up in front of her house.
He jumped out and ran around to get her door. Again, he stood in front of her, not allowing her room to think.
He pushed his glasses up onto his head. Placing his hands on either side of the car’s roof, he trapped her. “So, I’m gonna run home, change, put the Bugatti to bed and I’ll be back to pick you up. Put on your hikin’ boots, baby.” He kissed her cheek. Once. Twice, moving closer to the corner of her mouth. When his lips finally touched her there she turned her face into his and allowed herself to kiss the roughness of his cheek. Then she ducked under his arms and took off up the driveway. She didn’t turn back but he made sure that she heard the screeching tires and the roar of the powerful engine speed down her street. Yeah, he wanted to go fast today.
Chapter Six
Lainey changed, putting on a loose-fitting, but frilly white peasant blouse and a pair of beige short shorts. Undoing the loose braid she fluffed her hair with her fingers, scrunching it then finally letting it fall loose around her shoulders in kinky waves. She reapplied some blue eyeliner and mascara, then pinched her cheeks going for the au naturel look instead of applying blush. She knew that her face would flush when Jason came back around anyway.
Taking the cooler from the basement she then rushed back into the kitchen and began to throw together sandwiches. When she acknowledged the fact that she was excited to be spending the day with Jason, the horny little butterflies were back with a vengeance. It had been a long time since she’d felt this way.
After rinsing some grapes she tossed them into a plastic container. Unsure if he liked mayo or mustard, she threw those both up onto the counter to take along. She made a large pitcher of lemonade and was stirring it with a long wooden spoon when she heard the knock on the door.
“Come in,” she yelled pulling her blouse off each shoulder.
“Are you always so trustworthy? Any sexual deviant could walk in and take advantage of you.”
“Well, I was expecting a certain pervert so I wasn’t worried,” she teased, admiring the tight white T-shirt hugging his chest and muscular biceps along with the snug-fitting dark shorts.
Pushing his dark glasses up onto his head, he raised his eyebrows at her. “Are you referring to me?” he asked in all innocence. He followed her to the counter.
“Oh, look at you,” he breathed. She looked over her shoulder at him, as his gaze started at her ankles moving slowly up over her. He wrapped his large hands around her hips. “Sexual deviant, right here. I knew you’d have fantastic legs. And the shorts… Geez woman, how am I supposed to walk around with you all day with that amazing ass in those tiny shorts?” Removing his hands from her hips, he then started at her wrists, skimming his palms over her arms all the way to her shoulders. She inhaled sharply when she felt his lips skim her shoulder. Moving her hair, he continued over the back of her neck and onto the other shoulder. “Mmm, creamy sweet shoulders. Yeah
, I’m just gonna be indecent all freakin’ day.” He flattened his body against her back, pushing her slightly forward so that her butt stuck out and he rubbed his erection over it, leaving her in no doubt as to what he meant. “As if I haven’t been since the day I met you.” Goose bumps rose all over her body and her heart pounded.
“Oh you have not,” she said, straightening her back out along his chest. Awkwardly, she raised her arms reaching behind them to clasp her hands behind his neck. He wound his arms around her waist and held her to him.
“You feel good,” he mumbled against her neck, then trailed his palms over her ribs. Lainey arched her back in anticipation, then thrust her chest out as he wrapped his hands around her breasts. She sighed, loving the feel of his hands on her.
“Mmm,” he hummed. “Nice.” He kneaded her breasts. Her nipples hardened against his palms. He plucked them with his fingers, making them even stiffer, sending delicious little waves of sensation lower. His hips took on a rhythmic thrust, grinding hard against her ass. “Do you have any idea what I want to do to you?” he breathed.
“Ohh, I think I do.” Surprisingly, she wanted him to do them—and even more shocking—she wanted to do things to him. Sensuously, she wiggled her bum against him. He shoved her so that her chest flattened out against the counter. He grabbed her by the hips, lifting her backside level with his hard straining cock and he ground against her enthusiastically.
As he reached around and fumbled with the button of her shorts, the phone started to ring.
“Ahh, fuck me!” he cursed, pinning her.
“Church did nothing for you, did it? Let me go, I have to get that, Jason, it might be Jilly.”
Reluctantly, he released her. Lainey answered breathlessly, “Hello?”
“Hey, Mama.”
“Hey, baby, what’s up?”
“You sound out of breath, you okay?”
“I’m fine, I was just down in the laundry room and had to run up the stairs to get the phone.”
“Liar,” Jason accused softly. “Church did nothing for you,” he mimicked.
