“I… I don’t understand,” he finally managed to spit out. When she didn’t say anything he glanced her way only to see yet another room beyond her.
Walking over to the door of the smaller room, he turned the knob and pushed it open to find what looked like a bedroom, complete with recently slept in bed.
“I’ll be out in a week, I promise. Then you can use this space to give lessons to people… like you do with Gretchen, Melody and Ginny,” she quickly explained.
She’d thought of everything. But where on earth had she come up with the money to do all this? Even any proceeds from the sale of the house wouldn’t have been near enough. Turning around he faced her. She wouldn’t meet his eyes, and that made it even harder to accept what she’d done for him.
“Why, Sherri? Why would do all this for me? Your ex-husband?” he choked out.
“I’m finally on board with your dream. It may be too late for us as… man and wife… but it’s not too late for you to make your mark on the music industry… somehow,” she replied, quietly. “I know it’s not what you had in mind when you left for Nashville but with the contacts you made there, who knows… maybe one of those songs you and Tommy come up with will still become legendary. Maybe it will just get recorded here and then shipped to Nashville instead of created there. In the meantime, until that happens, you’ve got a way to make money between giving lessons, recording other people’s music and selling instruments and stuff. Just don’t give up on your dreams, TJ. I never wanted that for you. I really didn’t.”
What could he say to that? He’d waited a decade to hear those words from her. Waited what felt like a lifetime for her to join his team and now she had… after they were divorced. Now when she was off limits to him, she had finally crossed the line over to his side.
She wasn’t challenging him. She was supporting him… and God it felt so good and yet hurt so badly at the same time. Especially now that things were over between them. Or was it over between them? Looking at her it was hard to accept that, even with a piece of paper declaring it so.
“Why didn’t you come with me to Nashville or at least come up after the fact, Sherri?” he asked. “I know it shouldn’t matter… especially now… but it still does. I need to know why. Were you that dead set against leaving the state of Florida or against leaving the bar for a few weeks or months? Did you not want me to do my own thing? Why, Sherri? Why?”
“I have never nor will I ever share my man with another woman. How were you prepared to explain that bitch, if I had shown up, TJ?” she asked angrily, showing some of her fire again.
“What bitch? Gina?” he asked.
“Gina?” she answered in confusion. “What does Gina have to do with it?”
“Wait, I’m confused…” he said. “What woman are you talking about?”
“The woman you left with!” she yelled. “When you didn’t call or anything I was all packed up and ready to go up there and then Gina told me to just stay here and run the bar while she went up there to find you. When she did come back she told me all about the woman you were with in Nashville.”
Tears of conviction, anger and devastating hurt shone in her eyes and his gut sank. If Gina had lied to Sherri… her supposed best friend… what else had she lied about? He felt sick to his stomach. He’d never liked Gina but would never have guessed that she would go so far as to lie to them both… effectively playing them against one another. Why? What purpose did it serve? Payback perhaps?
“She also told me about the women from before you even left. I’m not a groupie and I won’t be part of some fucking harem of yours… I’m a one woman show. You buy a ticket for this bitch… that means you’re there for me and me alone. There’s no opening act or side show… just me,” she spat angrily.
“Look, I think you were fed some bullshit and I think I know why,” he managed to choke out, waving his hands in an attempt to calm her anger some.
If Gina were nearby he’d very likely take a swing at a woman for the first and perhaps only time in his whole life. The bitch had ruined everything. All because he’d chosen Sherri over her… and even Tommy had thrown his vote behind Sherri.
Jealousy was a very ugly thing. He and Sherri both had apparently taken more than just a sip from the flask that Gina drank from. Gina had offered it to them and they’d drunk their fill. Between the two of them, they had polished off the entire bottle, erasing any chance they ever had of a successful relationship.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, skeptically.
“Gina…” he started. Then deciding they might need to sit down for this he pulled her inside the tiny little bedroom and then sat down on her bed. She slowly joined him.
Her scent rose up to meet him from the sheets and a need to consume her like nothing he’d ever experienced before slapped him brutally across his already broken heart.
“Before you met all of us… me, Tommy, Bobby, and Gina… she… Gina,” he tried to explain and then just quit. How could he explain something so outrageous about a woman who’d proclaimed to be her friend for the past decade?
“Gina and I… we were never really together… but people thought we were. Having people look up to her or admire her was everything she wanted. That’s why she liked singing in the band… it got her the attention she craved. Anyway, by being the lead singer and having other women think that we were an item back then made her pretty popular around here. Then when I met you… she decided it was time to make her move, I guess. She came on to me one night after band practice and I told her I wasn’t interested… that I was with you. The next day she apologized and said it was all a mistake and that she’d had too much to drink… that Bobby was really who she wanted. Then suddenly the two of you were friends and everything seemed to be good… normal again. I never really thought anything more about it. At least not until I went to Nashville… and again just now,” he finally managed to explain.
“What are you saying, TJ?” Sherri asked, understanding beginning to glisten in her eyes as unshed tears.
“When she came to Nashville… she came on to me again… this time wanting me to admit that you had been the wrong choice for me. She told me that she’d been in love with me for years,” he confessed.
“She kept rambling on about how she originally thought she liked Bobby but she’d been wrong… that it was me she wanted,” he said. “I felt bad throwing him under the bus, especially after he used to avoid her like the plague whenever possible, but she was like physically… you know… trying to get with me. So I told her that I still didn’t feel that way about her… but I was pretty sure that Bobby did…”he finished.
“What?” Sherri asked in shock and confusion.
“As soon as I told her that she stood a chance with Bobby, it was like turning off one light switch and flipping on another one. She just gave up on me and focused on him instead,” he said. “I truly thought I’d dodged a bullet with her once again and that this time would be it. No more declarations of love and trying to get with me. That she would chase after Bobby. I know it was wrong and I’ve apologized to Bobby since then… but that’s not the worst part. After I managed to throw her off my trail and on to his, she told me that as my friend she thought I should at least know the truth about you. She said that the minute I left you started seeing that guy from the bar that was always coming in… sniffing around… and flirting with you when I was on stage.”
“What guy?” she asked defensively. “I was so over the moon for you… how could I have even noticed another man? How, TJ? Why would you even think that?”
“I don’t know… I guess at least that gave me some explanation as to why you didn’t want to come with me to Nashville… why Florida held more interest for you than I did,” he admitted. The first tear slid along her cheek and he reached out and traced it down her face with his finger.
“No… it wasn’t Florida or working at the bar. It was you, TJ,” she nearly whispered. “My parents… they were always off chasing s
ome dream… leaving Lilly and I with friends or a nanny. That’s how they died in an accident, in a whole other state from where their children were. When I figured out that they wouldn’t be coming back from that trip. I made a decision that I would be the parent to Lilly that they had never been. She was always more forgiving about them leaving us. They would bring her back a gift… some token they picked up while traveling and all was forgiven,” she choked out around tears that she angrily swiped away.
“I resented them not being there. I was the responsible one, the caregiver for Lilly while they were gone. When you started talking dreams and traveling… I didn’t want to go through that again. And I didn’t want to be like them… just packing up and taking off when the next shiny thing appeared off in the distance,” she finished in a whisper.
“Why didn’t you tell me that back then?” he asked.
“I didn’t want to hold you back. I thought if I did I would lose you for sure. I guess I was secretly hoping that you would pick me over the gold at the end of the rainbow,” she said. “It was selfish, I realize that now… but I was young back then… still grieving over the loss of my parents and feeling like I was slowly losing Lilly to the same upscale lifestyle that they’d led. Here… in this dinky town… I’ve barely got a pot to piss in but I’ve got friends who will be there in a minute if I need them. It’s never inconvenient to call one of them or just stop by… they are the type of family that Lilly and I never had. Even Lilly figured that out within a couple of months of being here.”
“You should have told me, Sherri,” he said, wiping another tear away from her beautiful face.
“When you didn’t come back… I figured out that without you… I was even lonelier than I had been whenever my parents were out of town. For the first time in my life, I understood what made them follow each other off on some big adventure rather than staying at home to be with their children. They were each other’s world… we were just an extension of that world. I stopped blaming them in that moment and I too was willing to follow the person I loved… no matter where that might lead. Then Gina…” she stopped and a flash of pure rage passed her face. “She fed into my jealousy and my need to protect and look out for number one… me… and I bought it… hook, line and sinker.”
The silence was deafening between them. As much as he could barely breathe after having absorbed the fact that if they’d been as good at talking back then as they’d been at making love, they might have been able to work things out. Sherri was struggling with it just as bad, if not worse, than he was.
“This place… please tell me that you didn’t sell the bar too... because there is no way you were able to afford all this just from the profits from the sale of the house,” he finally said in an effort to break the silence.
“Nah… just a loan from one of those friends who’ve become my family… he just happens to be filthy rich with a heart of gold. Seems that the first love in his life is really into music and he was thinking that the garage band she started might need a new place to rehearse since I sold the house,” she laughed.
Then her face took on a serious look and she stood up to walk over to the doorway. “I meant what I said. I’ll be out of here in a week. I’ve only been staying here so that I could get the place put together during the morning hours and keep working at the bar during the evening without having to worry about finding an apartment on top of it all.”
He didn’t really know what to say with so much having been said already. Plus, he didn’t want to ruin the subtle truce they’d managed to come to finally.
“Thank you, beautiful… this place… it is absolutely amazing. I’ll be the one paying Chuck back for that loan though… not you. You’ve done enough for me,” he said, standing up as well.
“Well if that’s the case, then I guess you won’t need me to take you back to your apartment then?” she teased.
“Are you kicking me out of my own store?” he teased back.
“No… just out of my bedroom,” she replied. “We’re divorced now… remember? That means a whole new set of rules… or so someone once said. I believe those guidelines involve no more hanging out, going places together or stopping by for visits… especially in one another’s bedroom. Sound familiar?”
“Whenever did you start paying attention to the boundaries anyone set, Sherri?” he asked, approaching her. Then he stepped up close to her and watched as she backed away from him. “I thought you purposefully broke the rules just to see what kind of trouble you’d get in to… what the punishment might be.”
When her back hit the wall, her face lost its teasing quality and she said, “I can’t do this, TJ. We should go… All kidding aside, we are divorced. Divorced people typically don’t hang out, go places together and they certainly don’t fuck each other. So this should stop now.”
“They also don’t buy businesses for each other. Do you remember when I told you that I didn’t want you making new memories with some other man in my grandmother’s house?” he asked.
“Yeah…” she said, swallowing hard as he pressed his body against hers, flattening her out nicely for his touch.
“I lied…” he whispered, bending down to suck the skin of her neck into his mouth. Damn, she tasted amazing. “I don’t want you to ever make new memories with another man… whether in that house, here, the bar or any other place for that matter.”
Reaching down he unbuttoned and unzipped her pants. Kissing her neck again, he flattened his palm against her smooth stomach and then slid his hand down into her pants to the very center of her. Feeling that she was already wet for him, he sighed into her mouth.
“This here… this is mine, Sherri. I don’t give a fuck if we’re married or not… this will always be mine and as much as you don’t share well… neither do I. Got that? Mine…” he growled next to her ear after finally breaking the kiss. “You’re mine.”
Chapter Thirteen
God… why couldn’t she be stronger where he was concerned? She’d tried to stop this before it really got started. Now with him touching her in that way that only he could, which made her stomach clinch, her legs shake and her entire body come alive, she didn’t stand a chance.
Especially when he said things to her that made her heart want to explode right along with the lower half of her body. Be strong… it was over between them. She’d done what she’d come here to do today… she’d made things right between them… but that’s where it should end.
“Please, TJ?” she said, closing her eyes to try and pull her thoughts and feelings back from the brink and fight the absolute bliss his touch was creating. Then turning her head away from his nearness she said, “You have to stop now… making love with you will kill me. This is supposed to be over between us, remember?”
Leaning his forehead against the side of her head, he whispered against her cheek, “Never, Puppet. Now be quiet. No more talking.”
His use of the nickname he’d given her within the first month that they’d been together made her wonder how much longer she could even remain standing, let alone resist him.
What had once started as a form of foreplay years ago had grown into a pet name for her that could bring her right back to that time and place. Making her beg him for what she wanted somehow excited them both. Ten years hadn’t changed that for them either.
“I mean it, TJ. We shouldn’t be doing this…” she whispered as his fingers found a rhythm she was all too familiar with, making her body conform to his will. She tried to find a hold on his shoulders to use as leverage as he stroked her, but was suddenly too weak as blood rushed to the spot he tormented.
The fingers of his free hand reached up and threaded through her hair, pulling on it almost to the point of pain, forcing her to look up at him. Oh God… he was serious… that look told her so.
Why did he have to look so good whenever he watched her? All hungry like that? Her knees took that moment to become a jelly like substance and the only thing that prevented her from slid
ing down the wall was his carefully placed knee between her legs.
“What did I tell you, Sherri?” he asked angrily.
The whimper escaped her mouth as the first shockwaves of pleasure flowed down her thighs and then right back up to center where his fingers continued their exquisite rhythm against her already heated flesh.
Pulling a little harder on her hair, he leaned down close to her mouth and said, “Shhh… quiet. I mean it, Sherri. Don’t push me about this. Give it to me… don’t make me force you. Tell me you want this as much as I do.”
“I… I do. It’s just… we shouldn’t…” she managed to gasp out as pleasure shot in all directions at once causing a strangled moan to escape her mouth.
“Wrong answer… Puppet,” he whispered, removing his hand from her pants.
She’d been right at the edge of heaven. He’d withheld it from her because she wouldn’t give him what he wanted. Admitting that she wanted him… and not holding back from him… was something he’d always insisted on.
He would get what he expected from her or she would be given nothing more than a glimpse of the pleasure he was capable of providing.
She would be left wanting just as much if not more than him. Weakness, desire and a soul consuming need for him kept her from just walking out and leaving him standing there.
“Please, TJ…” she said quietly. Her body was inflamed and he knew it. How she could have thought that she’d be able to handle this now that she was older was beyond reason. She was just as sexual now as ever and he was just as willing to wait her out.
“Please what?” he said, reaching up and placing his fingers against her lips and gently pulling them apart.
“Open up for me, Sherri. Kiss me and show me how much you do want me. Then you can explain to me why you are so wet right now and why you taste so good if we shouldn’t be doing this?”
When she opened her mouth to try and dissuade him, he touched her tongue with his fingers forcing her to taste her own essence before bending and capturing her mouth with his.
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