by LuAnn McLane
“Is this?”
A moment later we’re completely naked and making love in a slippery, sticky, chocolate-and-whipped-cream mess while laughing and licking in a crazy kind of way. I’m surprised that Luke has this playful side but then again perhaps I’m bringing it out in him. He certainly is bringing out the sexy side of me that I never knew existed . . . oh but thank goodness it does.
After coming to our chocolate-covered conclusion we both flop over and stare up at the ceiling.
“Wow,” he says.
“Ditto.” After my breathing comes close to normal I rise up on one elbow and look at him, thinking I’ll say something tender and sweet, but when I witness his sticky, spiked hair, syrup-smeared cheeks, and whipped-cream-matted chest hair I burst into a fit of laughter. “Look at you!”
“Um . . . I wouldn’t be pointing any fingers.”
“What?” I sit up and gaze into the mirror. “Holy cow!” My auburn hair is highlighted with streaks of chocolate and sticking up, making me look like I belong in a punk rock band. Dark brown syrup is smeared across my nose and my chin, and is dripping from one earlobe. When I start laughing Luke joins me. I laugh so hard that I snort and taste chocolate. “Ohmigod,” I try to explain, but laugh even harder until I flop back down onto the bed in sticky, happy exhaustion.
“We need a shower,” Luke says, and my slow-thudding heart kicks it up a notch at the we part of his suggestion.
“I think you’re right. Now if only my legs will carry me.”
“No problem,” Luke says as he scoops me up from the beach towel. After turning on the shower to heat up he gives me candy-flavored kisses to, you know, pass the time. When we finally step into the shower stall the tiny bathroom is full of warm, chocolate-scented mist.
Luke stands behind me and squirts a dollop of shampoo onto my head. “Tilt your head back,” he requests, and begins massaging my scalp with his long fingers. My eyes flutter shut while hot water pelts the front of my body and I have to bite my bottom lip to keep from making embarrassing purring noises. “Let’s rinse.” Luke gently tilts my head forward into the spray. The foamy lather slides over our skin, making our wet bodies slick.
“Mmmm Macy . . .” With a deep sigh Luke brushes my hair to the side and starts kissing my neck. Then, reaching up, he grabs the bar of soap and washes my body with his big, capable hands. The soap slides to the floor with a thump but his fingers keep gliding, massaging until I’m pressing my back against his warm, wet skin. “Here hold on . . .” He tugs my hands upward around his neck and then continues his tender assault up and down my slick body, pausing to cup my breasts; then he rubs the pads of his thumbs in little circles over my nipples. A breathy groan escapes me when he licks the tender inside of my neck while his other palm slides down my torso. The warm water pelts my sensitive skin like gentle rain as Luke continues to kiss and caress me.
“Oh . . .” My head falls back against his chest when his fingers slide between my thighs, working sweet magic until I’m melting faster than the sliver of soap on the floor. “Luke!” I cry out while feeling as if I’m made of hot liquid and I could slither right down the doggone drain.
“Mmmm . . . wow.” When I can finally move I turn around and warn him, “Now, Luke Carter, it’s your turn”.
“I was hopin’ you’d say that.” We change positions so that I can lather him up. I’m careful not to miss one little bitty inch of his big body, taking special care of certain parts that need extra, um, scrubbing. With the water pelting us I glide my hands over his chest while swirling lower, cupping him, and then caressing the hard length with my soapy fingers. At first I tease him with slow and easy strokes until he groans. “Macy . . .” With a quick intake of breath Luke braces himself with his hands against the tile. Understanding, I go faster, grip tighter while licking droplets of warm water from his back. “Mmmm,” he growls deep in his throat, and after catching his breath he turns around to wrap me in a warm, wet embrace.
I will never look at a bar of Irish Spring the same way ever again.
“I do believe I’m clean as a whistle,” Luke chuckles, and I have to laugh along with him. I’m feeling so relaxed, so open that it makes me want to smile and just keep right on smiling. I know I must look silly but I can’t help it. It helps that Luke has a silly grin on his handsome face as well . . . so it’s not just me.
By the time we’re finished “showering,” I’m as limp as a wet noodle and have to hold on to Luke’s shoulders while he towels me dry, carefully avoiding the bump on my head. This time I don’t even protest when he carries me to the bed. After removing the soiled beach towel he tucks me in.
“You’re staying, right?” I ask in a slurred, sleepy tone. My eyelids feel as if they have weights attached but I manage to open them halfway.
“Yeah, but I’ll wake you a couple of times just to be on the safe side.”
“Okay,” I mumble, and snuggle into the pillow. When Luke joins me in bed he wraps his arms around me from behind and holds me close. “Mmmm,” I can’t keep from sighing, but at least he can’t see the silly smile on my face.
Dinner was amazing.
Dessert was delicious.
Showering was steamy.
But being in his arms like this is sheer bliss.
23
Moving at the Speed of Love
“You radiate happiness,” Tammy Turner tells me as she hands me another small sheet of foil. I’m adding some subtle auburn color to her hair that will catch the light for a photo shoot scheduled later that day.
After swiping the fat brush over a few dark strands I pause to look at Tammy in the mirror. “Seriously?”
“Oh yeah, seriously.” Tammy nods, causing her head full of foil to tinkle like wind chimes. “You’re positively glowin’. Of course if I had that stud muffin in my bed all week I imagine I’d be glowin’ too.”
Sam snorts from her chair, where she’s letting honey-colored solution soak into her hair. She wasn’t too sure about it at first but I convinced her that the lowlights would add some depth to her blondness. I’m pretty jazzed that my hairstyles are going to be on the cover of their next CD.
Sam leans over to look at Tammy. “Wait a minute, did you just call Luke a stud muffin?”
“I sure did,” Tammy says, turning her foiled head in Sam’s direction. “You got a problem with my terminology?”
“Yeah, stud muffin sounds stupid,” Sam informs her. “It makes me picture this muscle-bound blueberry muffin makin’ love to Macy.”
“Oh quit!” Lilly looks up from her magazine to complain. Instead of highlights she wanted bold platinum blond hair and I wasn’t allowed to soften her spikes no matter how hard I pleaded. “I had a doggone blueberry muffin for breakfast for goodness sake.”
“So did Macy,” Sam says, and of course I blush to the roots of my own auburn-colored hair. Actually, this is the longest I’ve stayed with a hair color, which oddly enough says something for my current disposition. Whenever I’m in an unhappy state of mind I tend to change the shade of my hair. I haven’t even thought about it lately.
“Well, I had boring old Cheerios,” Tammy complains. “I’d rather have a muffin. Macy, are there any more where that came from?”
“You mean Hootertown?” Lilly asks. “That little ole town must be chock-full of bodacious men.”
“Y’all just stop!” I plead, but of course they don’t.
“Seriously Tammy, you need to modernize your man verbiage,” Sam insists.
“Oh stop flaunting your youth,” Tammy shoots back, but then asks, “How about hunk? That better?”
“Eew, no!” Sam whines. “Hunk? Who says that anymore?”
“I need a hunka, hunka, burnin’ love,” Lilly sings in a deep Elvis voice and then laughs.
Tammy sticks her tongue out at them both. “You’ve got a hunka, hunka burnin’ love,” she sings back at Lilly, “and his name is Boone. And Sam has . . . What’s his name?”
“Brandon,” Sam replies in a d
reamy voice.
Tammy nods her highlighted head. “Right, bad-boy Brandon. Doggone it; I’m the only one without a man. This just sucks. I hate all of you.”
Lilly swivels her chair in Tammy’s direction and points a shiny red, freshly manicured finger at her. “Quit your bellyaching. You could have Colin Reed in a heartbeat.”
“I don’t want Colin Reed. Lilly, we’ve been down this road before. The man is talented but not my type. Will you please just give it up?”
Lilly looks as if she’s going to protest but then with a flip of her hand she swivels her chair back around. “Whatever,” she mumbles, but loud enough for Tammy to hear.
When Tammy rolls her eyes in the mirror at me I wince. “Sorry, I got her sayin’ that.”
“It’s better than the very tacky bite me,” Tammy says loud enough for Lilly to hear as well. I fully expect Lilly to say her favorite phrase right back to Tammy but she has her nose in a People magazine and seems as if she doesn’t hear Tammy . . . until I see that she is scratching the side of her nose . . . with her middle finger.
“Oh just say it,” Tammy tells her. “You know you want to.”
“Bite me,” Lilly responds, pretending to disguise it with a sneeze.
Tammy laughs. “Now all is right with the world . . . well, at least our little world here in Nashville.” She hands me another foil square. “By the way, how are the interviews for the coaching job at Vandy going for Luke? Any word if they’ve offered him the head coach position?”
While dipping the brush in the goop I say, “All Luke will tell me is that it’s going well but that his lack of experience is a factor.”
“I can tell by the tone of your voice that there’s more.”
Lilly and Sam swivel their chairs in my direction after Tammy’s question. For a moment I’m silent and then I tell them, “Well, Luke is flying to Florida tonight to interview for another job offer. He says it’s just as a backup plan in case he isn’t offered the job here in Nashville.”
“I hear a but,” Lilly prompts.
“I have this feeling that he’ll be offered the job in Florida and will take it.” I shrug. “I know . . . I’m being such a Debbie Downer but I can’t help it. When things go well I wait for the other shoe to drop. It’s my nature. It’s just that these past weeks have been so incredible but have gone by in the blink of an eye.”
Lilly leans my way. “You’re just movin’ at the speed of love.”
Tammy gasps, “Oh I love that! Movin’ at the speed of love! CD title?”
“Has it been done before?” Sam asks.
“I don’t care,” Tammy declares. “We’re usin’ it. Macy, you are a genius!”
“Hey,” Lilly protests, “I came up with that one. How come she gets all the credit?” Lilly complains, but winks at me.
“Yeah but Macy put it in your head.” Tammy turns to look at me. “What would we do without you?”
“Well, you’d just be lost, I guess.” Of course I beam with pride that Tammy Turner is saying such things to me, but for some reason it makes me wonder how the Cut & Curl is doing in my absence even though Daisy has assured me that all is well. Something else that has me on edge is that Jamie Lee and Griff arrived home today after two weeks in Hawaii. I made Daisy promise that although Jamie Lee is aware that I’m in Nashville, I want to be the one to break the news to her that it’s a permanent position at least for now.
That thought bums me a little, making me wonder why everything good has to come with a price.
Tammy meets my eyes in the mirror. “Okay, what’s goin’ through that pretty little head of yours, Macy McCoy?”
Taking another foil from her I reply, “I was just wondering why everything good that happens seems to come with a big ole price tag.”
“I hear ya,” Lilly agrees in a tired tone.
Tammy sighs. “Macy, I wish I could dispute that statement but I really can’t.”
I nod as I carefully fold the last foil square. “So then Tammy, what exactly are you tellin’ me?”
Tammy purses her lips and looks to Lilly and Sam for help but they’ve given her the floor. “Well, sugar, I could say all sorts of clichés like ‘Follow your heart,’ ” she replies, but then hesitates.
“What?”
“Or then again ‘Chase your dream’ might apply because, I was going to wait to tell you, but Cody West wants you to host a show with him once a month.”
I gasp. “Well shut my mouth.”
Tammy grins. “He found you refreshingly honest and endearingly charming and he thinks the audience will as well.”
“Ohmigod. I’m speechless.”
Lilly reaches over and smacks a high five to my gloved hand. “You go, girl.”
“Tight!” Sam raises her arms in the air and does a little wiggle. “Pretty soon you’re gonna be signing autographs.”
“No one will want my autograph,” I scoff, but think to myself that it would be pretty danged awesome. I’ll have to practice . . . add a flourish of some sort.
Tammy grins. “Yeah! Cody thinks that teaching you a new recipe will be a nice break in his usual routine. Of course we’ll have to see how it does in the ratings but Macy, I have a good feeling about this.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Yeah baby,” Tammy insists with a laugh. “Is that cool or what?”
“Her instincts about this kind of thing are usually spot-on,” Lilly informs me. “Congratulations, Macy!”
“Holy cow.” My heart is pounding like crazy. “And here I thought Cody would surely chuck the whole thing when he looked at the footage.” When I realize I’m nodding up and down like a Bobblehead I swallow and repeat, “Holy doggone cow. And here I was thinkin’ that I totally sucked.”
“Oh no, he even wants to repeat the grocery shopping as part of the learning process. Of course you don’t have to give me an answer right this minute. You can think it over.”
“Okay,” I tell Tammy, wait two seconds, and then say, “Of course I’ll do it! My goodness, this is another chance of a lifetime. How could I possibly say no?” I proclaim, but then it hits me that if Luke lands the job in Florida it would be almost impossible to give up this new opportunity. “Oh . . .”
Tammy meets my eyes in the mirror and reads my mind. “Let’s just hope that Luke lands the position at Vandy and then your decision will be easy.”
“Right,” I answer with a smile, but the pessimist in me rears its ugly head. Luke is going to take the job in Florida; I just know it.
“Macy, I have a gut feeling that this will all work out,” Lilly assures me.
“Think positive thoughts,” Sam adds.
I nod. “Thanks, I’m sure it will,” I lie, but somehow manage a brave smile. While I finish up their hair the conversation thankfully turns to song choices and I listen, fascinated as the three of them chat . . . well, make that mostly argue over what will end up on the CD they’re starting to cut.
The photo shoot itself is tedious and exhausting and by the time I’m back at my apartment my butt is dragging. Luke, bless his heart, brings home a veggie pizza and get this, rubs my aching feet while I eat.
“Mmmm my dogs were barkin’,” I tell him with a lazy smile. His strong, athlete’s hands are working magic on the balls of my aching feet. “A girl could get used to this,” I continue, but then almost choke on my pizza when Luke’s hands pause. “What?” I ask in a small voice since my he’s-going-to-say-something-bad radar is on full alert.
He licks his bottom lip, hesitating as if contemplating how to break some rotten news to me. “Vanderbilt offered me a position,” he finally responds.
My heart leaps for joy. “That’s great. Are you going to take it?” Please say yes.
“I’m not sure.” He shifts on the sofa and then explains. “They offered me a position . . . but not as head coach.”
“But it could lead to that, right?” I ask hopefully.
Luke reaches up and runs his fingers through his hair . . . oh, a bad sign.
“Maybe in time.” He swallows and then says, “Macy, if they offer me the head coaching job in Florida, then I’d be hard-pressed not to take it. These positions just don’t open up that often. And this is a team like the Payton Panthers who could really use me. It would be a rebuilding year . . . a challenge but that’s what I love to do.”
“You think they’ll offer it to you?” I try to sound bright and hopeful when my heart is breaking.
“Maybe,” he responds quietly. “But—”
“Of course you have to take it,” I quickly assure him. I would hate to be the reason that his dreams aren’t fulfilled. He went through such a rough patch that I know he deserves this success. “This might be the chance of a lifetime, right?”
“I wouldn’t put it that strongly . . . but in a manner of speaking, yes. But Macy, I thought that—”
“Well then, you have to take it,” I interject. When I’m on a roll there’s no stopping my mouth. “This sounds right up your alley,” I add while the pizza suddenly feels like a ball of lead in my stomach.
“True, but here’s the thing . . . I will consider the job only if—,” he begins, but we are interrupted by my ring tone, “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.” Luke gives me a small smile. “Go ahead and check who it is. Could be important.”
“I need to change the ring tone,” I tell him as I pick it up from the coffee table.
Luke shakes his head. “No, don’t. It’s somehow, you.”
“The call is from Tammy.”
“Answer it,” he insists with a gentle nudge.
After flipping the phone open I say, “Hey Tammy. What’s up?”
“Macy-girl, I wanted to tell you that I watched the edited segment of you on Grillin’ and Chillin’ and it is an absolute hoot, and yet somehow manages to be informative at the same time. I just had to share that with you. Cody’s already planning the menu for your next show. A big congratulations, Macy.”
“Thanks.” I glance at Luke to see if he can hear Tammy. Her voice is loud so I’m thinking he can.
“I just had to share,” she adds. “Oh and we’ll be in the studio tomorrow, so it’s a ponytail day. We won’t be needing you, so enjoy your time off with Luke,” she adds before hanging up.