“This song goes out to a very special guy who’s at home waiting for me. Miss you, Daniel.” Somehow, I know he’ll see it.
We’re only back on the bus for a few minutes when I retire to my room to give him a call.
“Hi, beautiful,” he answers.
“Did you see it?” I ask, sure that it’s already been uploaded somewhere.
“I saw the whole thing. I streamed it.”
Thank God for modern technology. “And?”
“And I miss you too. The song was great, but you do realize that won’t put the rumors to rest, right?”
“Fuck the rumors. I don’t mind if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind as long as they stay out of my office,” he laughs out.
“Six days and counting,” I remind him.
“I can’t wait.”
The week passes by slowly, but as the bus pulls back up to the place I left Daniel behind, butterflies in my stomach take flight. The bus comes to a stop and the doors open. I waste no time in running out. Daniel is parked about 100 feet away. He opens the door and climbs out, and I take off running to him. I jump into his arms and breathe him in, burning that scent into my memory.
He hugs me close. “God, I’ve missed having you in my arms.”
“I’ve missed being in your arms,” I reply, pulling back enough to clearly see his handsome face. He places me on my feet and his hands come up to cup my cheeks. He pulls my lips to his, kissing me passionately. It’s hard but slow and lingering.
“All right, lovebirds,” Van says, walking up to us with my bags in his hands. “Save it for when you get home.” He sets the bags down at my feet and Daniel and I finally pull away.
“I’ll see you in a couple of days I’m sure,” Van says, pulling me in for a hug.
“I’m sure the record label will be throwing us another party soon for the album release,” I say, pulling away.
Daniel bends down and grabs my bags.
“Take care of her, man,” Van says, taking a step back.
“You know I will,” Daniel replies, pulling me back to his car.
He puts my things in the trunk and takes his seat behind the wheel. He looks over at me with a smile. “I can’t believe you’re really here sitting next to me again.”
I place my hand on his jaw. “Well, believe it, ‘cause you’re stuck with me for a few weeks until we leave again.”
“Let’s not talk about you leaving again,” he breathes out, pulling me in for another long, delicious kiss.
Sixteen
Daniel
Having her back feels surreal. It’s like she’s been beside me this whole time—that these last few weeks didn’t even exist. Having her here feels like being a kid on Christmas morning and finally unwrapping that one thing you wanted more than anything. All the phone calls, FaceTime talks, and text messages didn’t do it justice. Now, I can touch her and feel her soft skin against mine. I can breathe in her sweet scent of jasmine and vanilla. But best of all, I can kiss her, and she tastes like watermelon on a hot, sunny day. The moment we walk into her apartment, I drop her bags on the floor and pull her against me. She wraps her arms and legs around me and kisses me like I’m the air she’s been living without. Now, she can finally breathe.
I push her back against the door, slamming it closed with the action. She works on removing my shirt while I lock the door she’s pressed against. She rips the T-shirt over my head and tosses it to the floor. She breaks our kiss as she rests her head against the door, her eyes taking in my naked chest and stomach. She licks her lips in the cutest way. “God, I’ve missed you, and I’m going to make sure I kiss every single one of these hard muscles I’ve missed.” She comes forward, pressing her lips to my collarbone. “Take me to bed, Daniel.”
“My pleasure,” I say, holding her against me as I walk us to her bedroom. We fall onto the mattress and we’re immediately wrapped up in each other. I kiss every inch of flesh I can as I pull off her clothes. She gets impatient and flips us over, kissing her way down my chest, ribs, and stomach. Her hand finds its way into my pants and it wraps around me. I take in a hissing breath when she touches me. With her free hand, she pulls my jeans down my hips, allowing me to spring free. She looks at me from beneath her lashes and licks her lips. I wish I could take a picture of the way she’s looking at me right now. It’s sexy as fuck and something I always want to remember.
The moment she opens her mouth and takes me deep inside, I want to explode. Every muscle tenses as my hands move up to fist in her hair. She’s not holding back either. She’s going for gold. “Slow down, baby,” I practically beg, but she only takes me further. I think my eyes roll to the back of my head and my lungs forget how to work.
“Fuck, Luna. You have to stop,” I manage to get out, but all she does is dig her nails into my thighs like she’ll claw me to death if I try to stop her. She takes me in further and further until I’m not even sure how she’s doing it. My release builds to new heights and bubbles over the surface. A loud moan rips out of me as I spill myself into her mouth. She sucks up every last drop and continues to suck even after I’ve given her all I have to give. My head falls back and my back arches upward.
Finally, I grab her shoulders and pull her away, flipping her over and burying my face between her legs. I flick her clit with my tongue before sucking it into my mouth. My fingers slide into her, working her from the inside. Using my other hand, I wet one finger with her juices and slowly slide it into her ass. It’s only a matter of minutes before she’s soaking the sheet beneath us. I make her come and keep going, just like she did with me. I’m pushing her to the edge, forcing out another orgasm. By the end, she’s begging me to stop and fuck her. I can’t deny her request. I pull away and push myself inside her as quickly as I can. She tightens around me for a warm welcome. I don’t know how our bodies fit together so perfectly, but it’s like she was literally made to be mine.
I thrust into her as hard as I can. With each motion, she slides a little more up the bed. The sound of our flesh smacking together fills my ears, along with the mattress squeaking and the bed frame hitting the wall. Her breathing is loud and her calls of passion are even louder. Fuck, we probably sound like a couple of college kids in here, fucking our brains out. But I don’t care. All I care about is making sure Luna is satisfied and can’t move to do anything else the rest of the night.
We both fall from our high at the same time and our bodies begin to slow. We’re breathing erratically and my heart is pounding so hard I’m almost afraid it will beat right through my chest. When I pull out of her, I roll to her side and pull her against me. She holds me close, her hands never stopping their exploration of my body. She combs my hair with her slender fingers, traces over the muscles in my back, and kisses my pecs and neck.
I hold her against me, just allowing us both to catch up to the rest of the world—letting our bodies calm and our hearts slow back to a normal rhythm.
“I swear, every time with you gets better and better,” she says, lifting herself up onto her elbow to look down at me.
“That’s because every day, we get a little better together. I have an addiction I can’t break, and I don’t know where this is going to take us, but I’m here, for all of it. Ride or die.”
She smirks. “Ride or die,” she agrees.
We make love several more times throughout the night and finally get to sleep when sunlight starts to peek through the window. My body is completely spent in every way possible and it doesn’t take anything for me to fall asleep. It’s a deep, dreamless sleep—the kind I haven’t had since she left. Her smell is all around me, her heat warming me from the inside out. A ringing phone finally pulls me out of my sleep and I open my eyes to see the clock reading 4:56 p.m. I groan and stretch, suddenly realizing how badly I need to pee.
I pull my arm out from under her and run to the bathroom to relieve myself. I flush the toilet and place my hands on either side of the sink, hanging my head. I need to wake up
. I feel dead to the world. I splash some water on my face and dry it with a hanging towel before going back to the bedroom. When I crawl back into bed, she wakes and stretches.
“I thought you’d run out on me.”
“Never going to happen,” I say, pressing kisses to her shoulder. “Want to go for dinner?”
She nods. “Mm-hmm. Food sounds good.”
I laugh. “Get up and get ready.”
We both get up and get dressed to load up in my car. As we’re driving through downtown, she yells. “Stop! Turn around!”
“What? Why?”
“Just do it. Turn around!”
I take the next turn and go around the block.
“Right there. Park there,” she points to a spot that’s just been vacated.
I pull the car into the impossibly tiny parking spot and she throws open her door. “Come on!” She’s already out of the car and running toward a store.
I turn off the car and chase after her, not realizing what’s gotten into her until I see her standing in front of a poster of the band in the window of a record store.
“The album dropped!” she says, pulling out her phone and taking a selfie in front of the band poster. “Come on. We have to go in and buy a copy.”
We go inside and the album has its own display. She grabs a vinyl record for herself and a CD for me. “Can you believe this?” she asks, looking at me with excitement shining in her eyes.
“I can’t believe we still have record stores. I thought all of these went out of business when streaming became big,” I say, looking around the store.
She smacks me across the chest. “I meant the album, not the store!”
“Oh, yeah. It’s awesome. Let’s go buy these so your record sales go up.”
We take our albums to the cashier and she gets busy ringing Luna up. “This is a great band,” the salesgirl says, scanning the record and putting it into a bag. Then she looks up and notices that Luna’s the girl from the album cover. “Oh my God! You’re her, aren’t you? This is your band?”
Luna laughs and nods. “Yeah, it’s our first album.”
“Would you sign mine for me?”
“Of course,” Luna agrees.
The girl reaches under the counter and pulls out the CD. Luna pulls the insert out of the front and scribbles her name across it, then signs the CD itself before handing it over.
“Thank you!” she says, taking Luna’s cash for the record.
The girl scans my CD and takes my money before sliding it into a bag. She hands it over and Luna and I continue out to the car. When I get behind the wheel, I pull the CD out of the bag and open it.
“What are you doing?” she asks with a smile.
“I have to listen to it.” I slide it into the player on the dash.
The music starts and she giggles and shakes her head.
“Luna?” I ask, seriousness filling my voice.
She looks over at me, a little afraid of what I’m going to say with my serious tone.
“Will you sign my CD?” I ask, finally cracking a smile.
She rolls her eyes. “You know I will.”
We both laugh and I steer the car out onto the road.
We enjoy our day together and end up back at her place after dinner. We take a shower then lie on the couch, eating sunflower seeds while watching TV.
“So, what was it like being on tour? Was it anything like you thought it’d be?”
She has her feet resting on my lap with her head propped up on the other end of the couch. Her eyes find mine. “The shows were cool. Especially once we became a little more known. You could look out at all these faces who were singing the words to our single. It was amazing. But the traveling was boring and it kind of sucked. It would’ve been nice to get off the bus and go on some little adventures through the towns and find some cool places, but it wasn’t like that at all. It was show, travel, show, travel, over and over. The most we got to see was the highway and fast food restaurants. It was nice having you though. It wasn’t fun being away from you. Every free minute I had, I caught myself wondering what you were doing, and if you were thinking of me too. But it was nice to have someone to keep me grounded in a way.”
I take in her words, trying to read between the lines for any hidden meaning. “So when you leave on your big tour, do you think things will be any different?”
She shrugs. “Honestly, I haven’t given it much thought. I’m just glad to be home with you. I want to live in the moment—not worry about the future or think about the past.” She gets up and straddles me, wrapping her arms around my neck as she moves her lips to mine. They’re soft and a little salty from the seeds, but it’s a taste I find myself craving and needing more of.
“Let’s go to bed,” I say against her lips, picking her up in my arms and carrying us to the bedroom.
Our time together passes quickly—too quickly. Before I know it, I find myself right where I was a few weeks ago, carrying her things out to my car then dropping her off in front of a big tour bus, since the tour is starting with a couple dates in North America before they head to Europe.
I should be grateful for the time we got to spend together. It was perfect in every way possible. For a time, I even forgot that she’s a famous rock star since her time off wasn’t anything like what she did before. There were no shows, no practices, nothing. It was just Luna and me living every day however we wanted. We made love all night and slept in every day after I managed to move my clients around. If I had a client that had a pressing issue, I’d leave Luna long enough to handle it, but then I was right back beside her.
I put the car in park and look up at the big, black bus that has many people moving around it. We’re in an empty parking lot that’s lit by overhead lights. I watch as they load things into the storage compartment at the bottom of the bus.
“Daniel,” Luna says, stealing my attention away from the bus that’s about to take her away from me. I look over and meet her eyes. I can see all the pain and sadness behind them. “Before I say what I need to say, I want to tell you how amazingly perfect these last few weeks with you have been. Every moment was perfect and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
“But?” I ask, feeling it coming on.
“But . . . I’ve been thinking about how unfair all of this is to you. I mean, I’m out there, living my life and doing what I want to do, and you’re here wasting your life by waiting for me. I don’t want you to move on without me, but I don’t want you missing out on your life for me either.”
“What are you saying, Luna?” I ask, feeling the panic rising in my chest.
“I’m saying that when I get back, if you’re still around and wanting me, I’ll want you too. But I don’t want you waiting on me. I want you to go out and experience life. I don’t want you missing out on opportunities. If you find some girl attractive, I want you to be able to ask her out. If you get offered an amazing job, I want you to be able to decide if you want to take it or not, and I don’t want you factoring me in. I just want you to be happy, even if it isn’t with me.”
I nod my head as I clench my teeth together. “So you’re breaking up with me?”
She turns to face me. “No, I’m not breaking up with you because we’re not together, Daniel. As much as it hurts me to do this, I’m setting you free to find whatever makes you happy when I can’t be here. Please understand the difference.”
My mouth opens but no words come out. I’m speechless.
She leans forward and presses her lips to mine. It takes me a moment before I can even kiss her back, but I finally do and decide I want to make it a kiss she’ll never forget—one she’ll never be able to move on from. I kiss her with as much passion, yearning, and love as I can pour out of me. And I know she feels the difference when she pulls away with tears in her eyes. “See ya later, Daniel,” she says opening the door.
“See ya later, Luna,” I reply, not moving, watching her walk away.
It’s been months si
nce I’ve seen her, talked to her, or listened to her music. I can’t. Something inside me is broken, and when I hear her song on the radio, I have no choice but to turn it off before my anger turns to rage and I break the radio.
Even though thinking about her fills me with heartbreak, love, anger, sadness, and every other emotion I can think of, I haven’t allowed myself too much time for her to cross my mind. I’ve always prioritized her needs, and now I want to move on like she asked me to. I’ve been on a few dates here and there, but nothing worth speaking about.
I’ve finally hired a senior partner at the firm, Matthew Lewis III. He seems like a bit of a pompous ass at times, but he’s a damn good lawyer. With the amount of hours and dedication I’ve been putting in at work, our client base is growing faster than I can keep up with, and Matthew will be vital in helping me manage things. And truthfully, his fiery administrative assistant, Poppy, has been a source of comedic relief for my melancholy mood. The hateful dynamic between them would normally annoy me, but I’m 99 percent sure he has the hots for her, and it drives him crazy that she can’t stand him and is constantly screwing things up.
My life is now comprised of work, time at the gym, dinner at my place alone, and sleeping. In fact, this is the first time I’ve allowed myself to fully think about her in weeks, and it’s only coming up now because I’m at the hospital, surrounded by happy couples and holding Preston and Riley’s daughter.
This little baby in my arms is perfect. She’s tiny, soft, and pink, and smells unbelievably good. Preston and Riley are sitting on Riley’s hospital bed, watching me and whispering back and forth between themselves.
Rocking His FAKE World: A Fake Boyfriend, Opposites Attract Romance (Love You Forever Book 3) Page 17
