The third floor held her bedroom and office. There was a large bathroom complete with a spacious Jacuzzi tub. The bedroom had French doors that opened up to a small balcony. In the summertime it was one of her favorite places to curl up with a good book. A wrought iron bistro set sat on the balcony as well as a comfortable lounge chair. The best thing about it was the panoramic views. At times it felt as though she lived at the ends of the earth. But right now it was time to have her two feet planted firmly on the ground.
John would be by soon to drop off Cameron. She hadn’t seen John or Cameron in seven days. Her son, she couldn’t wait to see. John, hell, she was still mad at him and his superior attitude. She had to admit though, she and John had a good relationship compared to some divorced couples who shared custody of a son. Shannon knew plenty of divorced people who couldn’t stand to be in the same town, never mind the same room as their divorced spouse.
She should count her blessings. She’d been lucky so far. But she still thought John was being unreasonable. He had his lovely wife, three adorable children and one on the way. She was truly happy for him. Why couldn’t he be happy for her?
Cameron went to a private school in Braintree. It made switching back and forth between Hingham and Standish Bay easy. There was a boy nearby in his senior year at the same school who drove Cameron most days. On days he stayed for one activity or another, she went and picked him up. When he stayed with John and Cheryl, either they drove him back and forth or a friend did. So far, the arrangements had always worked. And hopefully would continue to do so.
John called last night and told her about Cameron’s drinking and smoking escapade. It brought back many memories from her own teenage years, some good and some bad. They both agreed a week’s grounding fit the punishment. And when the grounding ended, he had to give them a play-by-play of where he’d be and who he’d be with at all times. They knew it seemed harsh, but with Cameron due to get his driver’s license next month, they wanted to make damn sure he wasn’t going to drink and drive.
John dropped Cameron off mid-afternoon and her heart swelled as it always did when she saw her son. When she saw her little boy, who was not so little anymore. In fact he stood taller than her by several inches now. Cameron gave her a hug and kiss then went directly down the hall to his bedroom. John, on the other hand, came in uninvited, plopped himself down at the kitchen island, and Shannon could tell by the look on his face, he had talking on his mind. She wondered if she should tell him about what happened in Chicago. For the time being she decided to keep it to herself.
Standing with her back against the counter, she studied him. She didn’t know when the last time was she eyed him intently and scrutinized every aspect of him, but she did now and was a little disturbed by what she saw. He looked positively exhausted. His deep, brown eyes looked almost black with worry. His brows were creased and there were shadows beneath his eyes as though he hadn’t slept in weeks. His body was still fit and trim, but his hair was thinning fast and starting to gray around the temples. All and all, he still resembled the handsome teenager she’d loved, although, she’d never admit it to him. And at thirty-four he was still undeniably handsome, but his exhausted and troublesome look deterred from that handsomeness. It was a damn good thing he didn’t do it for her anymore, didn’t cause her to feel sexual pull or lust anymore, just good old-fashioned friendship.
“What’s on your mind John,” Shannon finally asked as he still hadn’t spoken a word. She wondered if he was scrutinizing her as she’d been him.
“Nothing…something,” he stammered as he ran his hands through his hair, clearly grasping for words. “I’m feeling pulled in a zillion directions.”
“How about a drink?”
“Water.”
Shannon took a glass from a cabinet and filled it with ice and water from the door of her refrigerator and handed it to him. He drank thirstily and sighed. “I can’t believe Cheryl’s pregnant again. How the hell am I going to handle another kid?”
He looked right into her eyes with his desperate ones, and her heart sped up. He looked on the verge of tears. She hadn’t seen him this upset since they decided to divorce all those years ago. Her anger with him over Cole dissolved and she became instantly worried.
“John, you don’t have to handle anything alone. You have Cheryl. Now tell me what’s really bothering you?”
His head snapped up and he nearly smiled. “Damn, you’re good.”
She grinned at him. “You’re damn right I am. Now spill your guts.”
“Cameron…and you...I feel as though you’re both pulling away from me.”
Shannon went to interrupt, but he put up his hand to stop her, causing her intended words to die on her lips.
“I know it’s normal for teenagers to pull away from their parents and start being more independent. I understand that with Cameron, but you’ve barely spoken to me in the past week.”
“John.”
“Let me finish. I know we’ve been divorced a long time and most ex-married couples usually hate each other, but you’ve been my best friend since middle school. I can tell you things I can’t even tell Cheryl, which hell,” he snorted, “isn’t good. Anyway.” He looked at her, his eyes serious, his voice soft. “I’m sorry I was such an asshole.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Does this admission of you being such an asshole mean you’ve had a change of heart about Cole?” She could only hope.
John got up and started down the stairs toward the door, stopped and turned back, grinning like a schoolboy. “Shit no,” he said as he slipped out the door.
She wanted to strangle the man. But instead she went to speak with Cameron and found one boy angry at his father.
Shannon tried to smooth things over without letting her own frustration with John surface. But Cameron didn’t buy anything she said, which wasn’t surprising. Her son was no dummy. When he told her about the phone calls coming on John’s landline from people in the record industry regarding his music career Shannon saw black. How dare John not discuss this with her? He was only one-half of a parenting team and she intended to have her say in this matter. Christ, what was he thinking? Several talent agents called and two record producers! She was way past upset John had conveniently omitted mentioning it during their talk earlier.
***
Later in the evening, as Shannon prepared dinner and Cameron did homework behind his closed bedroom door, the bell rang. She wiped her hands on a dishcloth and ran down the stairs to the door, wondering who it could possibly be. As she opened it, her heart pumped wildly. On her front porch stood Cole, holding a backpack and looking slightly frazzled around the edges. One could say he literary looked asleep on his feet. Shannon reached out and pulled him in, wrapped her arms around him for dear life, as if she were in the middle of the icy black Atlantic Ocean clinging to a buoy, the only real lifeline around for miles and miles of raging ocean. He was the last person she expected to see at her door. Was it possible she plagued his mind as much as he did hers? Her mind hummed, how long would he stay? Would they finally make love? Would she tell him she loved him? Slow down Shannon, slow way down. Start with the obvious.
“You should’ve told me you were coming. I would’ve picked you up at the airport.” Then a thought accosted her. “How did you know where I live?”
He smiled. “First.” He kissed her lips with a loud smack. “I wanted to surprise you, and second, I called your editor.” He kissed her quickly again. “Nice guy.” He chuckled. “He actually threatened my life if I didn’t take...let’s see how he put it? Ah yes, the threat went like this, ‘fragile care of your heart, body and soul.’ The dramatic type I see.”
His bag hit the floor with a dull thud as he pulled her tighter. “I have three days off, and all I could think about was you. I told myself I could wait for you until I cleared my name, but it’s a lie. I want you so badly I ache all over from needing you. I told myself I needed to stay away to keep you safe from your attacker. However,
I rationalized my decision to come here by telling myself no one would know where I am or where you live.”
Chapter Eight
Shannon drowned in his eyes radiating lust, need and desire, and she melted, not giving her safety another thought. Words were no longer needed. Cole proceeded to possess her lips, and Shannon lost all coherent thought except for the taste of his delicious mouth. The feel of his warm hard body wrapped around her soft pliant one. Their tongues did the dance of lovers gone way too long without each other’s nourishment. Their bodies entwined in desperation, the need for the joining of two lost souls finally coming together as one. His warm hands traveled up the back of her shirt as she heard someone clear his throat. Cameron. She’d forgotten about Cameron. Shannon released Cole and turned to face her son.
“Honey,” she said a little breathless. “You remember Cole?” She felt herself blush from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. How stupid she mused, of course he remembered Cole. Her nerves were rattled over having her son find her in such a steamy embrace. Not to mention what Cole’s kiss had done to her. And his hands, his body. Oh God, his erection!
Cole shook Cameron’s hand and smiled at him. “Good to see you again, Cameron. I hope you’re working on your music,” he said with a deepness to his voice Shannon had heard only a few times before.
Cameron beamed with admiration. “Yes.”
“Cameron, why don’t you go back in your room and finish your homework,” Shannon said, hoping her son got the hint that she wanted some privacy with Cole.
Cameron glanced from his mom to Cole and grinned. “Sure. I’ll catch you both later.”
Cole looked uncertain once they found themselves alone. “Jesus, how stupid of me for not thinking about Cameron. Is there a hotel nearby I can stay in?”
She took his hand in her trembling one and led him up two flights of stairs to her bedroom. After turning into him and kissing him until they were both breathless once again, she looked at him, knowing all her feelings spilled out from her eyes and she didn’t care.
“Your hotel room awaits. That is, if you don’t mind a roommate?”
He yanked her up against his chest. “Cameron. You mean him right?” he said with a mischievous gleam in his eye.
“If you want to be his roomy, but I had someone else in mind,” she said as she held him tightly back, not ever wanting to let him go. Not quite believing he was here. Whenever she started thinking she’d never see him again, he showed up. Their weird connection coming through.
Shannon left Cole to shower while she went and finished cooking supper. When she approached the stove, she found the chili boiling hot and ready to eat. Cameron came and sat at the kitchen table, his eyes watching her with a teenager’s curiosity. Damn, she could feel herself start to flush, and it had nothing to do with the spices from the chili she’d just sampled.
After serving up two bowls of chili topped with cheese and heating cornbread in the microwave, she sat down at the table opposite Cameron. His face beamed with exuberance as he babbled on and on about Cole and how cool it was he was staying with them and not to worry, there stood two floors between her bedroom and his, he wouldn’t hear a thing.
She dropped her spoon in shock and her jaw opened.
Cameron continued, “Besides, no one can make as much noise as Dad and Cheryl.” He rolled his eyes. “She’s a screamer and Dad, he howls like a werewolf during a full moon. I’m surprised they don’t wake the neighbors. Old Ms. Smart would have a stroke if she ever heard them. The old lady probably never had sex in her life.”
Shannon stared at her son in shocked disbelief as he went on and on about John and Cheryl’s sex life. She could not possibly be having this conversation with him. And was she not mistaken, but did he just give her permission to sleep with Cole? Not that she needed it, nor was it any of his business. Or was it? Shannon never did get a word in edgewise as Cameron talked, ate and left the kitchen for the family room before she could find the words to express her thoughts, never mind, having eaten any of her supper.
Alone at the table, she buried her face in her hands and laughed at the absurdity of their dinnertime conversation. Not a typical mother, father, two-point five kids and a dog conversation. At least she didn’t think so. Sitting at the table and laughing was how Cole found her.
“Care to share the joke?”
She looked at him and laughed some more. “Why not, sit down and I’ll fix you supper and tell you all about it.”
She told him what Cameron had said. He laughed and grinned at her, pinning her with his sexy eyes. “You did say Cameron’s bedroom is two floors down.” He winked. “That might be far enough for what I have in mind to do to you.”
She threw her napkin at him, laughing. “You have no idea if I make any noise, and what about you?”
He grinned at her and she melted. “Care to come upstairs with me now, and we’ll see who screams the loudest? We can make it a contest to see who can be the quietest. But I guarantee,” his voice became soft and downright sexy as sin, “you’ll lose.”
Oh my God! She began to tingle all over from his offer. She’d love nothing more than to go upstairs with him, but she couldn’t now. Not until Cameron went to bed. And even then, could she? Hell it was only seven—she’d never make it, not with her body burning up. This was something she’d wanted since she first set eyes on him in the hotel suite playing his guitar. His muscles rippling, his intriguing tattoo fascinating her, and oh, she couldn’t forget his molten brown eyes sucking her in like sweet, creamy chocolate. Oh, he’d definitely done something to her the night they met, and she’d never been the same because of it. No. Never the same. And at some level that thrilled her. On another level it terrified her as her heart was torn wide open.
While she cleaned up from dinner, she heard Cameron ask Cole if he would jam with him. Cameron went to his room and brought up two acoustic guitars. They spent hours playing together while Shannon sat curled up on a large overstuffed leather chair beneath a fleece blanket. She listened with love and pride to the two men in her life create beautiful music together. Watching Cole strum his guitar was like watching him make love. He looked all intense and gentle, using his long graceful fingers to make the instrument sing for him. She couldn’t wait to be the one his fingers made sing. She fidgeted in the chair as her body craved his fingers on it.
At one point Cameron brought out pen and paper, and they created a new song together. A beautiful song. The lyrics were potent and sad, causing Shannon to shed silent tears every time Cole glanced her way, which was often. The lyrics were about a boy’s lost love and finding her again later in life, only to lose her again to a terrible tragedy. She wondered what inspired her son and Cole in their song writing. At midnight, she finally made Cameron go to bed. He had school the next day and he would be exhausted.
After he left, Cole looked at her from his position on the couch with his eyes so hot and intense Shannon squirmed in her seat. In that instant she knew he would make her sing tonight. Finally, she would know what it felt like to make love with Cole. And suddenly she couldn’t wait any longer. She jumped up and gave him a sultry look that had him following close on her heels.
Once inside her room, she quickly shut and locked the door, then proceeded to light several candles on the nightstand. It amazed her she was able to accomplish the task with her hands as unsteady as they were. She was nervous, anxious and downright burning up with sexual need. And her voice had deserted her.
***
Cole watched with heavy lidded eyes and a tightness in his groin as she slowly unbuttoned her blouse. It took longer than it should have, but she finally slid it off her shoulders and Cole sucked in air. Her arms reached behind her back and unclasped the black lace bra she wore, and it joined her blouse on the floor. Once again he sucked in air to his desperate lungs. She was breathtakingly beautiful standing in front of him naked from the waist up. Her blue eyes dark with lust, her skin flush, and her breasts small, round and p
erfect.
The candlelight flickered around the room, casting shadows, making her seem more erotic. Neither of them moved as Shannon continued to undress down to nothing but creamy white skin causing Cole to nearly drop to his knees as his body went weak at the beautiful, sensual picture she made. He wondered if he touched her just so, would she be moist and warm and waiting for him. Oh yeah! Cole proceeded to undress, taking his time as he enjoyed the sight before him, a sight he’d waited far too long for. He couldn’t wait to taste, touch, love and possess every luscious creamy inch of her.
He stood fully erect ready for the feel of her body sheathing his. Slowly he went to her, not quite believing this was happening and whispered her name, “Shannon.” He put his hands on the nape of her neck and kissed her. Slow and teasing. He sucked on her bottom lip and nibbled it. She moaned into his mouth, waiting for him to deepen the kiss. He didn’t. He left her mouth to discover uncharted regions. He lingered as he found her pleasure points, behind the ear, the hollow of her neck and the spot between her breasts.
“Cole,” she purred out.
“Yes, my love?” He didn’t wait for an answer as he tore his mouth from her breast and dropped to his knees to explore lower into exotic territory, moist and damp as a tropical rain forest. He parted her thighs with his warm hands and made the most incredible discovery known to man. He discovered the innermost core of a woman’s body, the sweet nectar that drove men crazy. He’d dreamed about this. Her taste, her scent, but it paled in comparison to having the real thing. He drank from her, tasting and teasing with his tongue, unable to quench his thirst. He was like a man gone days in the desert without water, and this woman was his savior. Her fluids were his nourishment. He drank from her deep well and was rewarded when her body trembled with release. He continued to drive her higher and higher until she cried out in mercy and collapsed down to him, breathless and shaking. Cradling her to him, he caressed her breasts as she recovered. And he wondered what he’d done in this lifetime to deserve her?
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