by Candy Sloane
Chapter Nineteen
A few hours later, Valerie walked down the hall toward her room holding one of the bouquets on the tables from last night. She felt silly, but they were the only flowers she could find on such short notice. Men who screwed up made things better with flowers, and since she didn’t know what else to do, she’d figured why the hell not.
Alec had not checked out yet—she’d been able to find that information easily enough. She hoped beyond hope that he was still in the room. That he wouldn’t be able to leave things between them this way, either.
Her heart plucked at quadruple tempo in her chest. She didn’t know what Alec would say, but her words were clear. I want this. I want you.
She squeezed the stems tighter in her hand, took a deep breath, and walked the rest of the length to her room. Cynthia had gotten her an extra key from the front desk. She stuck it in the lock and took a deep breath before opening the door.
She stepped inside ready to shove the flowers in his face and tell him everything, but the fear she’d had on entering the room and having Alec reject her had been replaced with an icy punch to the solar plexus. Her luggage was still there, but Alec and his belongings had been cleared out. There was just a quiet, empty room that still smelled of him, still held all the notes he played, all the words he’d said, all the kisses they’d shared, all the almost they could have been.
But he was gone.
He’d left without even trying. He’d left before she could even try.
She couldn’t move. Her body was as heavy as a boulder with the realization that Alec was out of her life, maybe forever.
Tears started to fall when her phone dinged from the nightstand. She picked it up and found a text from Alec.
You busy?
Her heart started to pound even harder, the tears in her eyes wondering if they should be happy, sad, or angry. Was this a peace offering, or was this him trying to see if they could just be friends again? If things could go back to the way they used to be?
The thought made her ill.
Yes, very, she texted back, afraid to respond with anything that would indicate anything. She was ready for a truce, but not of the friendship variety.
That’s too bad. There’s something down in the lobby I think you’re going to want to see.
What did that mean? She didn’t like how elusive he was being. She had come to find him prepared for a whole lot of truth. Her hand hovered over the letters on her phone and she considered her response when another text from him flashed onto the screen.
I’ll be here waiting. I can wait forever for you, Valerie.
Forever.
And I will, his text continued.
Her hands trembled, making the words blurry, but the word she needed was there—forever.
Those seven letters sent her running down the hallway to the elevator, her heart in her throat and her tears drying in the rush of the wind. When it didn’t come after maniacally pushing the button, that word sent her down the emergency stairs two at a time. She was out of breath when she opened the door to the lobby.
She thought Alec would be standing there waiting for her, but she didn’t see him at first glance. He probably assumed she’d taken one of the elevators, so she looked along the line of them, across each of the couches, up at the front desk, at the concierge, but he was nowhere to be found.
Her phone dinged.
Gift shop, a text directed.
She rushed over to the gift shop, her heart careening around her chest like a rocket, her skin a sparkle of nerves, but Alec still wasn’t there. Instead, she found a guy manning the cash register, rows of candy, and souvenirs. She scanned the walls, hoping to find a clue, and paused at the magazine rack. Alec’s Rolling Stone magazines were still hanging in a line, but there was something different about them.
She stepped closer and squinted. The covers to every single one had been altered. Donkey ears and teeth were drawn on Alec’s face in thick black marker. Like they’d done to people they thought were asses in high school.
She shuffled back a few steps, her mouth falling open. Ten covers stared back at her with Alec’s donkey face.
Alec stepped into the gift shop and stood beside her, staring at the covers, too.
“Looks like you made someone angry.” Valerie’s voice wavered, unsure what the hell was happening.
“Yes,” Alec said, “someone who means something to me.” He touched her arm, forced her to turn to him. “Sometimes you need to be able to admit you’re an ass.”
“Wait, you did this?” Valerie’s throat was thick.
“It’s my apology if you’ll accept it.” His hands were open at his sides. “I was an ass. I’m sorry.”
Their old joke had been turned around, flipped into something much larger. Something she never saw coming. Her heart seemed to pole-vault over her ribs. The sweet feeling of knowing everything had the possibility to be okay again lulled her like a bath. She let herself float there for a moment, until she remembered she didn’t deserve to feel relief. Why was he the only one apologizing? She needed to apologize, too.
He pointed at the wilting flowers in her hand. “What are those?”
She’d forgotten she still had them. “I was going to Pretty Woman you,” she explained. “Roses are hard to come by on short notice.”
“You brought me flowers?” His mouth quirked up and displayed his dimple.
“What?” She stood up straighter. “You’re the only one who’s allowed to be sorry?”
“Typical Val.” He stepped closer to her, his eyes not leaving hers. “Trying to steal the thunder of my apology.”
“No, this is wow.” She let herself fall back into the warm relief, and understand what his gesture really meant. He was willing to deface something he’d been so proud of, for the whole of their graduating class to see, for her. “It’s just that I want to apologize, too. My pictures should be up there, also. Our fight this morning was as much my fault as it was yours.”
“It was a little more your fault.” He banged his hip against hers, the studs on his belt shiny in the overhead lights. “But I was willing to take one for the team.”
“Careful,” she chastised with a smile.
“I’m sure we could get some old yearbooks if you feel like you need to express yourself that way, but right now, if you’re offering, ‘I’m sorry’ will do.”
Laughter bubbled up at the same time tears did. “I’m sorry, I was an ass.”
“You were,” he said. “We both were.” His arms circled her.
She nodded in agreement, allowing him to pull her in so his chin sat on her head.
“But just because we’re both asses doesn’t mean we can’t be together, right?” he asked.
God, she hoped not. Valerie looked up at him. She needed to see him when that word came from his lips. “Say that again.”
“Together,” he repeated, and his brown eyes seemed as sure as his embrace.
“Just to clarify, you mean together together, like a couple?”
He laughed. “If you want me to be your boyfriend, if you are ready to say yes to being my girlfriend, then I’d be honored.”
“Yes,” she said, snuggling into him tighter.
“I want to be the man you count on,” he whispered into the top of her head. “I always did, Valerie, I just didn’t know it.”
“How can this be so easy?” she gushed. She hadn’t had to ask for it. He was offering it. Everything she’d wanted. He was willing to give it to her.
“I have a feeling it won’t be,” he said, “but I’m willing to deal with that, too, if you are.”
She nodded against his chest and exhaled forcefully. Alec’s arms were there to hold her up.
“I know I haven’t always been the most forthcoming with feelings and talking, but I’m going to give that a shot for you,” he added.
“You’re off to a pretty stupendous start.”
He moved in, his lips aiming for a kiss that was bound to s
end them both spinning, but stopped and laid his cheek against hers. “Fuck, I want to kiss you right now, but I need to tell you I love you first. It’s something I should have said a long time ago, something I never want to forget to tell you again.”
“I love you,” she said quickly. Saying it felt so natural. “And I should have told you a long time ago, too.”
His mouth twisted. “You are seriously not making my sweeping you off your feet all that easy.”
She cupped his chin. “Sorry, sweep away.”
His eyes clung to hers. “I love you, Valerie.”
She let the words hit her. He was saying them. Not singing them. Not whispering them. Saying them. Making sure she heard them. Making sure she knew. Speaking the unspoken that had been between them forever. He punctuated his words with a deep, blinding kiss.
She lost herself in his lips and tongue and promise until the other question from that morning smashed in her mind. She pulled back and swallowed. “What about London?” They’d said the unspoken, but London was still something they needed to discuss, together, love or not.
“We kept a long distance best friendship going for ten years, I think we can handle just one as a couple.” He squeezed her tighter. “Don’t you?”
She nodded, even as tears sprung anew. “I know it was stupid for me to say I wasn’t going because of us. It’s just that I am going to hate being away from you. Maybe you should come with me,” she added, saying the words she’d come down here to say. She wanted Alec to know that she could ask him for forever, too. She could put herself out there, just like he had that day after graduation ten years ago.
“Yeah, I thought about that—maybe it’s time for Chronic Disharmony to do a European tour.”
There were no words to express her happiness at that statement, so she kissed him long and true, with lips and heart and breath she hoped would make up for years, for everything. She pulled back, a glance at his vandalized pictures bringing a fresh giggle. “What do we do now?”
The mischievous smile she loved graced his lips. “Cock-fucius says…” He slipped his hand down and teased his finger at her waistband. “Go back upstairs and christen our fucking bed.”
She laughed. “What about all the kisses we have to make up for?” They might be more than best friends now, but she would never stop giving him crap right back.
“We have forever for that now, Dirty Girl.”
Forever, the word hit her just as his lips did. Sealing the promise of everything they could be, and everything they now were.
Epilogue
Alec headed backstage at the Royal Festival Hall in London. It was two months into Valerie’s residency and he was just as excited to see her as he had been the first time he visited.
Backstage was bustling after the concert, held the same energy as backstage after one of his Chronic Disharmony shows. He and Valerie might have had different musical paths, different aspirations, but the buzz of putting on a good show was what they both chased.
They would always understand each other in that primal way.
He couldn’t convince the guys to do a European tour, so he’d worked out being able to take his plane to visit Valerie once a month. It wasn’t enough. It was never enough, but the way she looked like just-birthed sunlight was shooting from her skin when she took her final bow after a standing ovation, the way she seemed to float on that sunlight when she played her current solo, let him know her career was worth their separation.
Besides, it was only ten more months, 300 more days, 7305 more hours, 438,290 minutes, but who was counting?
He was. He thought back to the night at the reunion when he’d put her to sleep counting kisses. Even then, even after, during the days and nights they spent together before she left for London, he never felt like he had kissed her enough. Nothing came close to making up for ten years. To proving how many more years he longed to spend with her—how many more kisses he couldn’t wait to count into her waiting lips.
He stood outside her closed dressing room door, ran his fingers over the petals of the white roses he’d purchased, and checked the front of his tux jacket for lint. He left his rock star clothes at home when he came to see Valerie at the symphony. He wanted to dress with the respect she deserved for playing at this level.
The last time he visited and waited outside her dressing room in a tux, with flowers in hand, he couldn’t help equating it with picking her up for their prom. He was finally dressed as the man she’d always waited for. He was finally the man he’d always wanted to be.
He tucked the ring box deeper into his pocket and took a deep breath. This was the final piece. He was going to ask Valerie to marry him over breakfast in bed tomorrow with the smell of coffee in the air and nothing but their lives in front of them.
He would finally be her forever, and she would be his.
That wasn’t his only surprise. The house he bought for his mother had sold and he was using the money to buy a vacation home for him and Valerie in Napa—their own little cottage where they could get away from the world.
Valerie was the only woman he needed to take care of now.
He knocked and entered Valerie’s dressing room, the roses leading the way. She was sitting at her vanity, running a brush through her long brown hair. Upon seeing him in the reflection of the mirror, she ran to him, grabbed the roses, and hugged him tight. The feel of her, the way her curves fit his lines, the smell of her like a millions roses, the two of them lost and found in one embrace.
When he was with her, no matter where they were, he was home.
“You don’t have to bring roses every time you come to see me.” Her eyes shone. “You are enough.”
He stole a glance at her dress—black, velvet, and off the shoulder. He knew she’d be wearing a bustier and black lace panties underneath. He couldn’t wait to slide her stockings down, nuzzle and lick the creamy skin of her thighs.
He kissed her shoulder. “I’m never going to stop Pretty Woman-ing you. Besides, you’re in the symphony. Roses are like ties.” He smirked. “Required.”
She tossed a smirk right back. “Red roses,” she corrected.
“Damn, I always have to be a little off, don’t I?”
“I wouldn’t want you any other way.” She kissed him long and hard—their lips singing a song, telling a story, living a life.
He still couldn’t believe he’d denied himself this for ten years, her for ten years. His proposal would end that denial for good.
She pulled back and gazed at him. Her swollen mouth made his cock jerk to life. “And in that tuxedo you are perfection.” She sighed.
“Wait until you see me out of it.” He pressed a hand to her back and kissed her again, fast forwarding to when they would be in her tiny apartment by the River Thames. The lights of the city twinkling outside her window as his hands explored every bit of her, his lips tracing and trailing every curve and crevice. His cock had found a home, too. Just like he longed for Valerie, it longed for her. When he was with her, familiarity and surprise intermingled in a way that drove him wild. Made him crave what he knew and what he couldn’t wait to find out.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked. Maybe she could read his mind, maybe she was also fast-forwarding.
“You.” He tipped her chin up. “Making love to you, all night long.” Hearing the word “yes” from your lips tomorrow morning when I ask you the question that will end all the questions I’ve ever had.
“All night long?” Her lips twitched. “That doesn’t sound very ambitious. You’re here for the whole weekend.”
He laughed and kissed her again. His tongue wrapped around that familiar taste—peppermint and Valerie—sharpness and musky heat. She pressed her tits into his chest, and his lips skipped down to sample the sumptuous line of her cleavage.
Fuck, a weekend wasn’t even long enough. He wanted to make love to her forever. If they could get away with fucking every minute for the rest of their lives, he’d be up for it—
spending eternity in bed with his Valerie, his Dirty Girl, his everything.
He supposed his proposal was the first step. But was it perfect, yet? He loved her apartment, but a replay of the weekend they fell in love would be even better.
He shifted his lips to her ear. “I have an idea,” he said, the heat of it exciting him even further, “how about we get a hotel this weekend?”
“Are you sick of my apartment already?”
“I was thinking we should try to christen every rented bed in London that we can while you’re living here.”
Her body shuddered in a laugh. “We have a lot of work ahead of us. Do you know how many hotels are in London?”
His eyes roved over her lips, those swollen flute-player lips. “That’s a challenge I’m willing to undertake.”
“I think you’re going to have to come and visit more than once a month.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
She ran a finger along the collar of his shirt. “That, along with loving you, is my only job.”
Alec had never thought he deserved that kind of attention, that kind of love, but now he didn’t question it because it was fully reciprocated—a mirror of feeling, of love, of lust. Everything he gave her, she reflected back.
She rushed her hand down and cupped his cock. “We better check in soon, or the ice and vending area here doesn’t stand a chance.”
He stiffened even more under her touch. “Dirty Girl, when I’m with you, nowhere stands a chance.”
She grabbed her things and they headed through the backstage corridors and out into the London night. They had a whole weekend ahead of them, a whole world ahead of them—Al and Val.
They were inseparable besties and now insatiable lovers. As people had said back in high school, one was never without the other.
He palmed the ring he’d gotten for her and knew that would always be true.
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