by Magan Vernon
“Um. Okay,” I said, slinking into my seat, really wishing I was at least half lit for this conversation.
***
I really thought a flight to Austin would be quick, but with Pam droning on and on about keeping up appearances and making sure I smiled, it was the longest flight of my life.
I wanted to just sit in the hotel room, order room service, and watch porn, but Eddie had a radio interview, and I had other matters to take care of.
“You sure you don’t want me to come with you? You can wait at the studio then we can ride there together before going to the house,” Eddie said, leaning against the door of the limo that picked us up right outside the plane.
Apparently, his record label preferred renting out private houses instead of hotels since Eddie had quite the line of girls at his door. I didn’t want to think about other girls or anything other than the Eddie I’d been with the past two months. The one I’d missed so damn much. And now, it was time to come clean with Drake and get the rest of my stuff.
“I’ll be fine. This is something I gotta do myself,” I said.
“All right. Text me when you’re done. Okay?”
I nodded and gave him a final hug before his team whisked him away in the limo, and I headed toward the cabs waiting at the front of the airport.
Watching the view out the window on the way to downtown Austin was like stepping back in time. It had only been a few months since I left, but it felt like a lifetime ago.
Drake had not-so-casually brought up buying a house in the suburbs more than once. I couldn’t even commit to a lease or an engagement, let alone buying a house with the guy. And part of me liked the hustle and bustle of downtown, and being able to walk a few yards to get to my favorite coffee shop or the salon I worked at briefly, waxing people’s eyebrows. By briefly, I mean they fired me within a week because people said I had a creeper smile when I lifted their hair follicles from their faces. Some of us got sick pleasure from hair removal, and there was no shame in that.
Once the hair salon came into view, I sucked in a deep breath. This was it. I couldn’t avoid Drake any longer.
I walked into the lobby, thinking the air smelled different. Like the constant running air conditioning somehow made it more stale, and it was going to suffocate me.
Quickly, I made my way to the elevator and punched the button for the tenth floor.
I’d walked down this hallway dozens of times, but now, it was like pushing through wet cement to get to the door of apartment 1017B.
I knocked once then twice. I waited a few seconds, and no one came to the door. I knew Drake was inside because I could hear the TV loud and clear. I didn’t want to, but I needed to get this over with, so I pulled my key from my key ring and unlocked the door.
Normally, my eyes would have gone to the picturesque view out the window that overlooked the water past the kitchen table. Instead, my eyes went to my former co-worker, Emersyn, spread eagle on that wooden table wearing nothing but a white t-shirt while Drake plowed into her. Drake wearing nothing but the donkey mask from my part as the animal in Baylor’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“HOLY HELL!” I yelled, putting my hand over my eyes.
“Brooke!” Emersyn yelled before a loud clanking sound rang through my ears. I looked down where a giant purple vibrator rolled at my feet.
“I don’t even want to know where that was going to go,” I muttered.
“I wasn’t expecting you after the whole, you know, leaving and basically breaking up with me via a text,” Drake said, his bare feet appearing on the floor next to me.
“Please tell me that the mask is off and you’re clothed,” I said.
He sighed. “Yeah. And Emersyn’s in the bedroom.”
I slowly moved my hand down and opened my eyes, looking up the hairy legs and powder blue robe of my former boyfriend. “This wasn’t what I expected to see when I came here.”
“Well, you could have called first. But that’s not your style. If you’re here to ask me to take you back, which I also doubt since I’ve read TNC, you should know that Emersyn and I are together.”
“I sort of gathered that about you and Emersyn, even though I have no idea how the hell that happened, and what about TNC?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Drake smirked. “I was actually reading another article on my phone when something popped up about Eddie Justice rekindling his romance with his hometown honey. That wasn’t long before I called you and basically got the gist that this was over. I was angry and upset, so I decided to go for a major change in my life too and ended up at the salon. Emersyn talked me out of dying my hair blue, and we went to the pub down the street instead. One thing led to another, and well, she’s moving in.”
My eyes widened in shock. I didn’t know which thought to tackle first. The fact that he knew about Eddie, that he wanted to dye his hair blue, or that he was wearing my donkey mask while plowing a former co-worker, who I was now regretting tipping very well when she did my hair.
“I don’t even know what to say ... I just came here to get my stuff, and I don’t know ... I just didn’t expect this ...” I tried to grasp for words.
Drake smiled and put his hand on my shoulder. “I should have known when you told me in college that you knew Eddie that there was something more there. Hell, we should have probably broken up months ago, but I wanted it to work. I guess I just got used to the comfort of having you around. Now that we’ve both moved on, I can see that maybe we were never right for each other.”
Tears pricked my eyes. I might not have loved Drake like I thought I could, but the guy never did anything wrong. He was always so sweet, and I was the bitch that couldn’t commit. “I’m sorry, Drake ... for ... everything, I guess.”
He squeezed my shoulder. “Don’t be sorry, Brooke. Everything that happened just led us to where we were supposed to be. Just do me a favor and don’t make the same mistakes with Eddie that you did with me. If you do love him. Don’t run unless it’s into his arms.”
Chapter 14
“Mom! Can you get the door?” I yelled, applying the last layer of lip-gloss.
I don’t know why I agreed to go to prom in the first place. I wasn’t a big fan of anyone at Friendship High School, but Eddie had made a big deal of us going together. Though he had a date he could actually tolerate, I reluctantly let him set me up with Jake Lane, who lived in Wylie and worked at the guitar shop Eddie frequented. The longhaired, blue-eyed hottie and I had exactly one date that ended with a very uncomfortable blowjob in the backseat of his Mustang. After that, we “hung out” a few times. By hanging out, I mean we fooled around because the guy was dumber than a box of rocks, and I couldn’t have a real conversation with him to save my life.
I smoothed out my dress one last time. The black spaghetti strap taffeta piece wasn’t exactly my dream dress, but it definitely made me look like I had some assets with the padded top.
Putting on my heels, I made my way down the stairs, expecting to see Jake. While Jake was there, I met Eddie’s sparkling eyes as soon as I hit the landing of the stairs.
Eddie had always looked at me with a smile and nothing more. But this time, I saw something else behind his eyes. Something that made my stomach somersault. Something that told me Eddie might have been looking at me the same way I’d looked at him all these years. Maybe prom night was my night to finally tell him everything I had bottled up forever.
***
“Bless The Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts crooned through the speakers the DJ set up on the stage in the high school gym. The planning committee probably wanted it to look like something else with the twinkling lights hanging from the rafters and the white tablecloth covered cafeteria tables, but the crepe paper covering the basketball hoops and ocean scene wallpaper taped to the bleachers didn’t really hide much.
Jake had gone to the bathroom for the millionth time, and Eddie’s date was talking with her friends. I figured this was my chance.
> Slowly, I walked over to where Eddie was sitting alone. I stopped right in front of him with my hands on my hips. “Is the someday famous Eddie Jahid too good for a dance with his best friend?”
Eddie grinned, looking up at me. “When it’s a classic, I’ll make an exception.”
He stood up, and we walked together to the dance floor. I’d imagined being in Eddie’s arms for so long. How I’d inhale the scent of his cologne and shampoo, intoxicating my senses.
I closed my eyes, briefly taking in the moment and sucking up the courage. It was now or never—I had to tell Eddie I had feelings for him.
I opened my eyes, and instead of his being on me, they were across the room on his date.
“Geez, Eddie, way to make a girl feel special,” I muttered.
Eddie laughed, looking down at me with that dimpled smile. “Sorry, B.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the bleached blonde with her bright pink dress then back at Eddie. “So ... the two of you? Do you really like her?”
He shrugged. “I mean I like her well enough.”
This was it. He was going to tell me he really didn’t like her and liked someone else who was hopefully me. I licked my bottom lip, keeping my eyes focused on his.
“She, uh ...” He rubbed the back of his neck.
“She what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
He laughed slightly then leaned in, pressing his lips to my ear before whispering, “She slipped me her panties when we were in the limo.”
All of the color drained from my face, and all of my words and emotions stuck in my throat.
“I’ve never, uh, done anything farther than some groping with a girl, and I know she’s more experienced. I guess I’d better get it over with, though. Especially if you and I are going to head off to school or LA together this time next year, huh?”
My heart felt like it shattered into a million pieces. I couldn’t look at the guy who had broken me, so I rested my head on his chest and tried to fight back the tears. “Yeah.”
I thought about what Drake had said on the long cab ride to the house Eddie’s people had rented. Supposedly, his whole staff was staying there: publicist, agent, assistant, hairdresser, and people to cook and clean. I was finally going to see Eddie in his superstar mode and not just as the boy next door.
A horde of reporters camping just outside the gates of the private estate could have rivaled South Fork in size. A guy in oversized sunglasses and a blue suit asked for my name and credentials before I got out of the cab and physically walked through the gate toward what I could only assume was an exact replica of the Beverly Hillbillies mansion.
Greeting me at the front door was some Jeeves-like fella who ushered me into the grand foyer with a chandelier that had to cost more than all of my student loans and past ten years of salary combined.
“Mr. Justice is in the master suite. Right this way,” Jeeves said, swinging his arm to gesture to the grand staircase. I was pretty sure I’d had a few dreams about stealing a mattress and sliding down one of those like in the Princess Diaries movies.
I followed Jeeves down a long hallway with marble floors until he knocked on a set of closed double doors.
“Come on in,” Eddie yelled from the other side.
Jeeves nodded. “I’ll let you two be, Ms. Carrington. My name is Arthur. Let me know if you need anything.”
With that, Arthur turned and walked back the other way. I briefly wondered if Eddie always had these types of people in his life, and if I’d ever get used to it. Or if we’d even stay together long enough for that to happen.
I shook the negative thoughts out of my head and pushed the double doors open.
The master bedroom was seriously as big as Clay’s house. Vaulted ceilings hung over the large room with its own fireplace that looked onto a four-poster king-size bed. Light shined in from the floor-to-ceiling windows that faced a big balcony. The seating area on the balcony was as if we were in some Italian countryside and not in Austin, TX.
“Hey.” Eddie stood up from a leather couch in the sitting area near the fireplace with a flat-screen TV mounted next to it. He set his guitar down and sauntered toward me. “How did it go with the ex?”
I didn’t bother telling Eddie that I packed only one box of random things or that Drake was sleeping with a former co-worker. Instead, I did what I should have done ten years ago and wrapped my arms around Eddie’s neck, pulling him to me and crushing my lips to his.
He reciprocated in full force, his tongue dancing behind my lips as he wrapped his arms around my waist, lifting me up and moving to the bed.
Without breaking our kiss, he leaned forward until I was on my back and he crawled on top of me, inch by inch pressing his long and lean body against me. He only briefly took his lips from mine to slide off his white t-shirt. I slid my hands along his hard muscles before kissing a line down his chest. He moaned before tugging off my t-shirt and bra. His mouth went to my nipple, his tongue flicking against my sensitive flesh before he sucked on my hardened bud. I moaned, arching my back and pressing my core to his bulge. I ached to have all of him.
Fumbling between my own moans of pleasure, I trailed my fingers down to the button of his jeans, unbuttoning and unzipping until I was able to tug them down.
He lifted his head up slowly, the ghost of a smile on his lips. “Eager?”
“I want you, Eddie. I’ve wanted you for so long. I love you.” The words came out faster than I’d intended, and I stared up at that dimpled smile, hoping he felt the same way.
“I love you, too, Brooke. I always have,” he murmured before crushing his lips to mine again.
I’d waited for so long to have Eddie say those words, and as every emotion flowed through me, so did every physical feeling. My senses were hyper aware as Eddie’s body roamed over mine, taking off my panties and jeans and his own underwear so nothing was between us.
He leaned over to the side drawer and opened it to reveal a bowl of condoms.
“Planning this?” I asked, leaning up on my elbows.
He smirked. “Better to be prepared.”
Grabbing a foil packet from the bowl, he held it in front of him, ready to put it on his hardened length.
I put my hand on his, stopping his tearing.
“Don’t tell me you want me to stop,” he said.
I smiled and grabbed the condom. “Nope. I just think it’s time I took charge for once.”
I sat up and held onto his back as he helped me roll us so I was on top. I straddled his hips and unwrapped the condom before rolling it onto his length. He grabbed my hips as I slowly sat on top of him, and I moaned as he filled me completely.
We rocked together slowly, our bodies in the same rhythm, as his eyes met mine with hunger and lust.
He sat up, positioning his hands on my ass, and quickened our pace, my breasts bouncing between us and hitting the tiny wisps of hair on his chest.
“Oh damn, that feels good,” I whispered, grabbing his back as I rode him harder.
He kept one hand firmly on my butt then crept his other hand down to my center, circling my clit as he continued to rock inside me. I came harder and fast, biting my lip to keep from moaning.
“You can be as loud as you want, baby. I want the people here to know that you’re mine,” he murmured, moving faster as his fingers continued their magic between my legs.
I grabbed a fist full of Eddie’s hair and pulled his head back, his eyes meeting mine as I circled my hips and pushed him to the hilt. “And I want them to know you’re mine,” I growled.
My second orgasm came hard, my body shuddering around his. I didn’t hold in my moans, and neither did he as we both collapsed onto the bed.
I laid my head on his chest, feeling his heartbeat against my cheek.
We stayed there in silence for a few moments, just breathing. His hands running through my hair as I drew small circles on his chest with my finger.
Eddie’s phone rang from the dresser, disrupting our
post-coital afterglow.
“I guess you have to get that?” I asked, not moving my head.
He reached over and grabbed the phone then laughed. “It’s a text from Stan. He just wanted to know if we were done, and it was safe to come upstairs.”
“Is it?” I asked, lifting my head up slightly.
Eddie grabbed my waist and moved me onto his lap, his length already hardening again against me.
“That depends. Are you ready for round two?”
Chapter 15
I wasn’t an early riser. Ever.
When we were younger, Eddie always was up to help with work on the ranch, so I guess I shouldn’t have expected any less of the country crooner.
The harsh sunlight forced my eyes open. I moaned, staring at Eddie wearing nothing but a towel and a smile.
“If you’re going to wake me up this early, there’d better be coffee.”
Eddie pounced on the bed, the towel falling to the floor. Normally, I would be staring at him in all of his naked glory, but I was too busy fumbling in the covers I’d wound myself in.
“Dammit, Eddie!” I shrieked, releasing myself from my sheet cocoon.
“Come on, B. It’s ten o’clock. Practically half the day is gone,” he said in a way-too-perky voice.
“Yeah, the sucky part,” I muttered, slowly coming to a sitting position.
I didn’t consider myself a sexpert or anything, but Eddie definitely was, and after multiple rounds and orgasms, I wasn’t sure what my hair looked like or what any part of me smelled like ... even though we did spend some time in the giant shower. Luckily, it didn’t break like mine did.
“I’ve gotta head to the hall soon for sound check,” Eddie said, springing back up from the bed.
“Okay, okay,” I grumbled. “But coffee first?”
“Country Crooner Crusade? Are you sure you want to do this?” I looked at the flyer Eddie handed me as we walked to our cars in the high school parking lot.