Heading East (Part 2 of 2) (The True North Series)

by Gray, June

  “Are you alright?” he asked, touching my shoulder.

  I nodded, finally meeting his eyes. “I was just thinking… apart from my dad, who’s legally bound to do it, nobody’s taken care of me before,” I said, tears prickling my eyes. I yawned to hide my sentiment. “So… thank you. I guess. For the coffee.”

  When I looked up his eyes were full of warmth. “It’s my pleasure. Taking care of you is the most natural, gratifying thing I’ve ever done. I’d make you a hundred thousand cups of coffee if you asked.”

  I bit down my smile. “I might need that many to survive this fashion program.”

  He glanced at the dressform while sipping his own coffee. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  I shook my head. “Unless you can use a sewing machine.”

  “I think my sewing skills would make your professor run screaming.”

  “Go back to bed. You have to get up in three hours.”

  He set his mug down and carried the leather armchair over. “I’m staying up with you.”

  “What for?”

  “Moral support,” he said as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  “You’re just going to sit there and watch me work?”

  “And look pretty,” he said, lifting one leg up on the other knee and settling back into the chair.

  “In that case, here,” I said, throwing a piece of fabric at him. “Iron that for me?”

  “Now that I can do.”

  The garments were finally finished at around five thirty in the morning. I stepped back to admire my work, holding each one up in front of the mirror, my chest expanding with pride. Perhaps it was sleep deprivation, but I could almost imagine my designs were good enough to grace a runway, even if it was nowhere near Bryant Park.

  And there, as the sun’s rays were starting to peek over the apartment’s brick walls, I came to the realization that this—fashion—was what I was meant to do. And damn it, I was good at it. If Professor Ramirez couldn’t see that, it was his loss.

  After zipping the three pieces into a garment bag I turned to cast a rueful gaze at Luke, who was fast asleep on the rug on the floor, his head propped up on a bolt of fabric. The poor man had stayed up; even if I’d only had a few things for him to do, he had chosen to stay with me until he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore.

  I yawned and dropped down on the floor beside him, fitting myself into the crook of his arms.

  “Mmm, what time is it?” he asked, gathering me to his side.

  “Close to six,” I said, closing my eyes.

  He kissed my forehead and settled back down.

  I placed my hand on his bare chest and spread my fingers out. “Aren’t you going to the gym?” I mumbled, barely able to stay awake.

  The last thing I remembered was Luke’s rumbly voice saying, “No way am I moving, not when I finally have you in my arms again.”

  ~

  Traveling to school with the large garment bag in my arms was not an easy task, especially avoiding wrinkling the fabric, but I made it with plenty of time to spare.

  The class was abuzz with excitement, everyone walking around the room looking at each other’s projects. I kept mine hidden until Professor Ramirez walked in the door and announced that we had to leave the room. “I’ll call you in one by one and we’ll assess your work together.”

  I was still rushing to hang mine onto dressforms when Professor Ramirez reached my table. “Did you complete the objective?” he asked, even as all three garments were already on display.

  “Yes.”

  “Then please join your classmates outside.”

  I started to leave but something made me turn on a heel and come back. “I just want to say that, no matter what you think of me, I know my pieces are good,” I said, building steam with each word. “I love fashion design. I’m even good at it sometimes. So even if you hate these, even if you’re convinced that I need to drop out of this course, the fact of the matter is that I’m staying.”

  “Are you quite done?” When I nodded, he said, “Well let’s start with yours then, since you’re already here.”

  He walked around the dressforms with his hands at his back, silently assessing my work, his eyebrows drawn. Professor Ramirez was in his early forties with a head of thick, dark hair, a handsome face and a thin beard, but there was a steely reserve about him that reminded me of Luke.

  He touched the sleeve of one garment and looked at me with a bemused look on his face. Then he began to point out every fault he could find. “The stitching here is a little uneven. The hem of this dress should be shorter. I see a few loose threads that need to be trimmed over here.”

  I bristled with each criticism, shouting at him in my head. Your nose is a little uneven! Your beard should be shorter! Your belly needs to be trimmed!

  But I stood back and took it all in, knowing deep down that he was only speaking the truth.

  “Well?” He crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for… what, I didn’t know.

  “Well what?”

  “Don’t you want to defend yourself?”

  “No. Everything you said was true. These aren’t perfect,” I said, then decided to just say fuck it and lay it all on the line. “But they are representative of my style, of what I’d like to produce in the future, this conglomeration of soft and hard, a look that a woman can wear that conveys she is both elegant and strong.”

  Professor Ramirez nodded, his lips pursed. “And, based on these designs, do you think you should stay in this program?”

  I straightened my spine. “Yes. Definitely,” I said, trying to read his expression. “I’m staying Professor. You’ll have to flunk me out if you want me gone.”

  He snickered, that little hint of a smile softening his features. “I have no plans to flunk you, especially after what you’ve shown here,” he said. He leaned against a desk and linked his hands at his front. “The truth is that I think you have a unique eye, and unique, in this business, is most important. But I saw that you weren’t truly applying yourself; you were holding back out of fear. I wanted to draw you out of that shell.”

  “So you were just goading me?”

  He laughed. “I wanted to challenge you, to make you fight for your right to stay here.”

  “Next time, just say so. I’m ready to fight any time.”

  He smiled and extended a hand. “Well done, Katherine,” he said, getting up. “I look forward to seeing more of your work.”

  “Thank you,” I said, absolutely giddy with relief and pride. “And please call me Kat.”

  14

  LUKE

  “You got a minute?” Lisa asked, standing at my open door.

  I looked up from the email I was composing. “Yes, but only a few minutes. I’m headed out the door as soon as I send this.”

  She stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “So I called Astral Records…”

  “You what?”

  She shrugged sheepishly. “I just wanted to make sure they received your demo.”

  “And?”

  “They did.”

  “And?”

  Lisa’s lips twisted into a grimace. “They are going to pass.”

  I fell back into my leather chair and let out a long sigh. There it was, the final nail in the coffin.

  “You still have a few floating out there.”

  “But they’re not Astral.” I pinched the bridge of my nose—funny how headaches and disappointments always go hand in hand. At least when I hadn’t heard from Astral, the hope was still alive. Now that dream of music was dead. Record companies disliked my music, thought I was pedestrian, and for someone who’d been raised to feel like a special snowflake, rejection felt like a punch to the gut.

  My mood was black on the way home but, before entering the apartment I took a deep breath and pasted on a happy face. I found Kat moving around the kitchen, preparing dinner, the sight of which managed to lift my spirits a little, if only for how right it felt to come
home to her.

  “Hi,” I said, wrapping an arm around her waist and kissing her cheek. “How did it go?”

  She turned to me, a spatula still in her hand, and gave me a loud, smacking kiss. “Got an A-minus.”

  “That’s fantastic!” I lifted her in the air and spun her around. “You’re amazing,” I said, planting kisses all over her face, my own failures momentarily forgotten.

  “I guess you’re stuck with me for a little while longer,” she said, beaming at me.

  I walked her backwards and pressed her against the fridge. “A lifetime is not long enough for all the things I want to do with you,” I said kissing the tip of her nose before tilting her head back and moving to her mouth, the kiss quickly changing from tender to heated in mere seconds. I pulled away, breathing heavily. “Or all the things I want to do to you.”

  She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the oven’s timer beeping.

  “Leave it,” I said, nuzzling her neck. “This is more important.”

  “It’s going to burn,” she said in a breathy tone.

  “I don’t care.”

  “But I do,” she said. “I cooked us a celebration dinner.”

  I dropped my head to her shoulder and groaned. “Okay.”

  We took our plates outside to where Kat had dragged the couch and coffee table to the middle of the patio. “I figured it would be nice out here tonight,” she said, sitting down and putting her feet up on the coffee table.

  I looked around at the darkening sky above, the feast of food and wine before us, and the amazing woman sitting beside me. Who the hell cared about Astral Records when I had everything I needed right here? “It’s perfect.”

  While we ate Kat talked about her day and all that she’d told her professor.

  “I’m proud of you,” I said, setting my empty plate down. “I knew the Badass of Sommers Lane was still in there somewhere.”

  “I do feel pretty badass,” she said, unable to keep the smile off her face.

  I stared at her, unable to believe my luck. If nothing good ever came my way again, I’d still consider myself the luckiest man alive. “Come here,” I said, setting her plate aside and grabbing her by the ankles.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Just get here,” I said, pulling her legs onto my lap. When she settled in beside me with her elbow on the back of the couch, I touched my palm to her cheek. “I’ve never known a more amazing person.”

  “I didn’t do anything amazing, just stood up for myself.”

  I leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “That you managed to do so in the face of failure is amazing.”

  She blinked at me, still unconvinced. “I’ve felt so lost out here, like everything was pecking away at me until all that was left was a scared bundle of nerves,” she said. “But I think… I think maybe I’m finally getting back on my feet and finding my way again.”

  “Sometimes you have to lose your way in order to find where you’re going.”

  She gazed at me with a tenderness she’d rarely shown. “True, even though I still have no idea where that is.”

  “Oh, you’re going places,” I said, tapping her nose with a finger. “Places you’ve only ever had the courage to hope for in the quiet of your bed.”

  “And you?” she asked, taking hold of my hand. “Are you coming with me?”

  “Do you want me to?” I asked, holding my breath for the answer.

  But instead of words, she turned my hand so that my palm faced the night sky, and traced my tattoo with her finger. “I think you’d better come along. You have the compass to make sure we won’t get lost.”

  “Kat,” I whispered. “We will get lost a thousand times if we follow that compass.”

  “That’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”

  I moved my hand a few degrees. “I don’t know if you know this,” I said, touching the fleur-de-lis that topped the compass, “but that North points to you.”

  She looked down at my wrist, at the permanent marking that was barely visible in the twilight, and said nothing.

  I ducked my head to see her face.

  “Thank you,” she said softly. She looked up, her eyes shining. “West.”

  My chest filled with warmth and it was all I could do not to grab her and never let her go. I leaned over and touched her lips with mine, kissing her tenderly. “Say it again,” I whispered against her lips.

  “West.” She licked her lips, staring at me with those blue eyes. Without warning, she swung her legs out from my lap and got up.

  “Where are you going?” I asked, grabbing her hand. “We’re having a moment here.”

  She grinned and nudged my legs apart, standing between them, then gripped the bottom of her shirt and pulled it up over her head.

  I sat back and watched as she tugged down her jeans, a little hesitant to hope. When she stepped out of her panties and stood completely naked before me, I finally understood what it all meant: Kat was laying down her armor. She was letting me back in.

  I sat up and touched her reverently, running my palms up the back of her thighs, pulling her close. I pressed my lips to her stomach, closing my eyes as she ran her fingers through my hair. I wanted to tell her a million things but the words were clogged in my throat. Instead I rose, kissing a path up her stomach and the valley between her breasts, until I reached her mouth.

  The kiss deepened, sparked and caught fire until we were devouring each other, our bodies tangling from need. I pulled away, keeping my hand on the back of her neck. “Kat,” I said breathlessly. “Does this mean…”

  Her face was flushed when she nodded. “Yes,” she said, giving me another quick kiss. “Please don’t let me down again.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

  She undressed me, slowly at first but, by the time she reached my pants, her movements were hectic and almost desperate. “It’s stuck,” she said, fumbling with my belt.

  I stayed her hand. “Here,” I said, taking over. I pushed my pants and underwear down and kicked them aside.

  We stood naked on that dark patio, lit only by the stars in the black sky, two people laid bare in every way possible. Kat’s chest swelled with each ragged breath as her gaze locked with mine. This beautiful woman was naked but, for the life of me, I couldn’t drag my eyes away from her face, from the raw love and fire I saw there.

  “I love you,” she said. “For believing in me. For taking care of me. For being… you.”

  Her words lit up something in me and I grabbed her and kissed her like it was my last day on earth. My hands roamed over her backside, grasping her close, naked flesh against naked flesh. I sat down on the couch and leaned back, waiting for her to take that final step and claim her place with me.

  There was a moment’s pause when she looked as if she might change her mind, but then she leaned down and climbed on top of me, straddling my erection with the heat of her sex. She slid along my length a few times, covering me with her moisture, then sat up and positioned me at her entrance.

  I pressed my forehead into the crook of her neck, needing to be inside her so bad it hurt. “I’ll have to get a condom,” I said on a groan.

  She paused and gave me a tentative smile. “I’m on birth control,” she said. “If you want to…”

  She didn’t need to ask twice. I took hold of her hips and guided her down onto my cock, every sensation in my body concentrated on that one part of my anatomy. When I was completely seated in her I let out a groan, sure that something just clicked into place.

  “I can’t believe I’m inside you again,” I breathed against the soft skin at the base of her neck.

  Then she started to rock her hips back and forth and it took everything in me not to flip her over and take over. I had to remind my body that I was giving Kat the control tonight, to let her know that I was a man of my word even if every bone in my body wanted to fuck her senseless. But there was time for that. Tonight was about making love.

&
nbsp; My hands were everywhere, unable to touch enough of her body. Her hips undulated over me, causing my cock to slide in and out of her tight channel. Her breasts swung in front of my face and I took hold of one with my hand and the other with my mouth, sucking and biting on her nipple.

  Then I sat up, holding her to me, and kissed her as I thrust upward. She moaned at the depth of my penetration and kissed me harder, squeezed me tighter. “West, I’m about to come,” she said.

  I grabbed her ass and slammed her down as I thrust deeper into her. Over and over I bounced her on my lap with an aggression born of need. I could feel her entire body clenching, her hands tightening around my shoulder. Then she threw her head back, her mouth wide and eyes closed, and let out a long groan.

  I watched her orgasm, enjoying the visual as well as the sensation of her muscles quivering around my cock. I continued with the assault, driving up into her from below in chase of my own release. When she bent down to kiss me I lost all sense of myself, arching up into her one last time as my climax sped through my body.

  Afterward she bent forward and buried her face in my neck, her breathing loud and ragged. I slid down sideways and took her with me, laying us both on the couch.

  “I love you, Kat,” I said, brushing hair away from her face as she looked up at me. We lay on that couch for a long while that night, our naked bodies cooling in the night air, and stared up at the stars, saying nothing, only enjoying the simple joy of being entwined with each other.

  15

  KAT

  After that night there was a major shift in my relationship with West and, in a smaller way, with New York. Opening myself up to one allowed me to open up to the other. I just hoped that, when the dust settled, both wouldn’t find a way to screw me over.

  With my newfound confidence I was able to relax at school. Designing became easier. The nagging doubt resurfaced with each project, but I punched that voice in the throat and shoved it down the stairs. I’d fought hard for my place in that school and nobody, least of all myself, would take me out.