by April Fire
I held my hands up to acknowledge their support, and ducked into the VIP area where I was meant to sign a bunch of autographs for my fans. The VIP area had started out less official at the beginning of the tour, but soon enough as people became more and more acquainted with my name and my skills, it became one of the biggest sellers and I found myself posing for photos with a couple of dozen people every night. Every time, I apologized for the sweat and the blood, but all of them seemed to like it that way and dismissed my worries with a hand-wave and a shrug.
A woman approached me, a VIP lanyard hanging around her neck and a smile a mile wide on her face. She was dressed in jean-shorts and a tight top that showed off a body I wouldn’t have hesitated to look twice at if I hadn’t been so distracted. She held up her camera and raised her eyebrows at me, and I plastered on a grin and gestured for her to come stand next to me. The faster I got all of these done, the faster I could go off and spend the rest of the night with Natalie.
The woman snuggled up close to me and held her camera out – she was chattering away but I was having trouble paying attention to what was coming out of her mouth as I was focused on the fact that Natalie had just come through the door. She glanced over at me and saw the woman pressed tightly against my side. I kept my face neutral but tried to express the fact that I was sorry, so sorry, as the woman took the photograph. She pulled away, and cocked her hip to the side as she looked at me.
“So?” She asked, and I returned my attention to her at once.
“So, what?” I asked as politely as I could. She was paying good money to be here and the least I could do was make sure that she didn’t feel as though she’d wasted every penny of it.
“So, do you want to come back to mine?” She flashed me a nervous grin. “I never normally do this, but-”
“No,” I cut across her. “Thanks. I have…plans tonight.”
“Oh,” She looked pretty disappointed, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that. She followed my gaze to Natalie, and then looked back to me.
“Is that your girlfriend?” She asked, and without thinking, I nodded.
“Yeah, it is,” I agreed, and her eyes widened.
“I didn’t realize you had…” She trailed off, distracted, as she lifted her camera to snap a picture of Natalie. Natalie raised her eyebrows at me, waited for the girl to back off, and then approached.
“What was that?” She asked as the girl made her way out of the back room, looking down at her phone intently.
“She was trying to get me back to her place,” I explained. “But I told her that I couldn’t go.”
“For me? You’re too sweet,” she grinned teasingly. But before we could get another word out, I spotted Angelo storming towards me with a face like thunder. He pushed himself between Natalie and me, and raised his eyebrows in my direction.
“So?” He demanded.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I held my hands up and stepped around him so I could look at Natalie once again.
“I just heard a woman walking out of here talking about the fact that you just told her that Natalie is your girlfriend,” he replied through gritted teeth. Natalie’s eyes bugged out in shock.
“Is that true?” She turned to me, and I couldn’t read the expression on her face.
“Yeah,” I nodded, something in my head lifting and removing all the panic that had come with Natalie and I since the start. I was clear-minded at last, and nothing seemed to matter anymore but making sure I made the most of my time with this woman. “She was trying to get me back to hers and that was all I could think off to get her off my back.”
“Why didn’t you just go?” Angelo rolled his eyes, exasperated. “Did you see her? She was hot as shit!”
“I don’t want her,” I dismissed him with a wave of my hand. “You’re welcome to her if she’s still around.”
“So, you guys are dating?” He glanced between us with gritted teeth, and Natalie and I exchanged a look. A smile was playing at the corner of her mouth, but there was still a nervousness in her eyes. I reached out to take her hand, doing my best to ignore the curious glances of the people around us.
“You want to be?” I asked, and Natalie nodded tentatively.
“I just put in the last draft of the article last night,” she grinned. “It’s…it’s all done now.”
“What about your sponsors?” Angelo pointed out, and there was an edge of desperation to his voice that I had never heard the likes of before. “You have a reputation to uphold, Jacob, you know that-”
“I can live without them,” I replied firmly. “And you really think they’re all going to drop out if they find out that I have a girlfriend, anyway?”
Angelo glared at me, and I could see that he was trying to come up with something, anything that would encourage me to drop this relationship. But there was nothing he could say, nothing he could do. I wanted to be with Natalie, and that was the only thing that mattered. The only thing I had to lose were some asshole sponsors, and I knew I was good enough to get some who wouldn’t bolt at the first sign of a relationship.
“So, this is just you now?” He threw his hands in the air. “You’re just going to…do this?”
“Sure am,” I met his gaze steadily, and Natalie squeezed my hand. She was with me on this and that was all I needed.
“I can’t believe you,” Angelo snapped, and I could see it coming before the words so much as came out of his mouth.
“I quit,” He shook his head. “I can’t work with you if you’re just going to ignore everything I say. Good luck explaining all of this to your sponsors.”
“Thanks for the well-wishes,” I called after him sarcastically, and turned to Natalie. Her eyes were shining with something that looked close to love, and I pulled her close against me and planted a kiss on her lips in front of everyone. She stroked my face lightly as our lips met, and I smiled into our embrace.
“I think we have an afterparty to go to,” I murmured, and she nodded.
“I think so.”
“Will you be my date?” I asked teasingly, feeling like a middle-schooler. She tossed her head back, laughed, and then returned her gaze to me.
“Of course.”
Chapter Eleven
Natalie
I wasn’t exactly dressed for a fancy after-party, but Jacob insisted that I looked great the way I was and that he didn’t want me in anything but my skirt-suit.
“You sure?” I frowned. I had seen the calibre of outfit that usually made their way into his after-parties, and had a feeling mine would stand out as particularly egregious.
“Certain,” he nodded. “I want you just the way you are.”
He leaned in to kiss me again, and I thought my head might explode from the craziness of it. What had happened backstage, I never would have called it in a million years. The way he lay the smack down on his agent like that, the fact that he chased that girl away because he wanted to be with me – it was more than I’d ever expected from a man like him.
All this time, I’d been dancing back and forth over the question of whether or not he actually liked me, and then he just came and asked me to be his official girlfriend. I was pretty sure I would be the only one he’d ever had in the public eye, and the pressure of that was already starting to get to me as I checked my hair and make-up in the mirrored walls of the elevator that took us upstairs to the wrap tour for the party.
“I can’t believe you did that,” I glanced over at him, and he grinned back. He had hardly been able to keep the smile off his face since the confrontation in the back room.
“Me neither,” he admitted.
“Aren’t you worried about your sponsors?” I frowned. I knew I probably should have been revelling in the magic and romance of the moment, but the practical side of me never took a day off and I didn’t want to be responsible for him losing a huge ton of his money.
“Yeah, a little,” he admitted. “But there will be other ones. Maybe even better ones. T
his whole being in a relationship thing - it could work to my advantage for all I know. Angelo was so hung up on the playboy thing that he never considered that there was a market out there was a different kind of me, you know?”
“I guess,” I nodded, feeling a little relieved. “How do you feel?”
“Uh, well, I’m expecting to start getting phone calls from my family demanding to know why they haven’t met you already,” he grinned. “But other than that, pretty good.”
“You ready?” I asked as the doors slid open in front of us, and he nodded, adjusting the collar of the shirt he’d thrown on before we headed up together.
“As you are,” he looked over at me, and before we could head out into the corridor, he wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me, pressing me up against the mirrored walls and pushing his tongue into my mouth. I grabbed his shoulders for support and kissed him back, momentarily losing myself to him – until we heard someone clear their throat just next to us.
We pulled back at once, and found ourselves on the receiving ends of some intense glares from an older couple who were lingering outside the doors waiting for us to get us. I smiled bashfully, and Jacob offered them a big, cocky smile in response.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he bowed his head as we stepped out of the elevator, and we managed to suppress our giggles right up until the door slid shut.
“Good thing we told everyone or you’d have blown the whole deal for us anyway,” I scolded him playfully, and he took my hand and led me towards the after-party.
“I just have trouble resisting you,” he cocked an eyebrow at me. “I’m looking forward to getting you back to my place already.”
“Seconded,” I smiled, my heart fluttering as his eyes travelled hungrily down my body. “But I’m not missing the chance to go out as your girlfriend for the first time.”
“You’re not worried about the story?” He frowned, and I waved my hand.
“It’s all done now, and I’ll just tell anyone who asked that we got together tonight,” I assured him. He wrinkled up his nose.
“But you were in my dressing room asking me questions before the fight today,” he pointed out. “What was that about if you were done?”
Shit – I had been caught out. I let out a sigh, rolled my eyes, and admitted the truth.
“I just wanted to spend some time with you before it was all done with,” I shrugged. A cocky smile broke across his face.
“I knew it,” he teased. “I really am that irresistible.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” I shot back, faux-angry. Before I knew it, we found ourselves outside the door with the buzz of the party just beyond.
“Ready?” He asked, and I nodded determinedly.
“Ready.”
He tightened his grip on my hand and led me into the afterparty, where everyone’s eyes turned to watch us as we came in.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur; I was sure that I spotted Angelo stalking around the outskirts of the party a couple of times, eyeing us with the kind of disdain that was generally reserved for people who’d killed your whole family. But that didn’t matter, not one bit, because Jacob and I were finally together, finally out there, finally…fuck, it was more than I ever could have imagined.
He introduced me to a handful of his sponsors and fans as his girlfriend and every time the word crept past his lips I wanted to throw my arms in the air and cheer with excitement. I had to make do with a polite smile and a squeeze of his hand to let him know that this was as novel and exciting to me as it was to him.
After the way Angelo had reacted to us announcing the fact we were dating, I had fully expected to be met with oodles of distaste and open aloofness, but instead everyone seemed kind of charmed by us. I spotted eyes traveling down to our interlocked hands, then back up to me, apparently registering what was going on between us – and they just smiled and nodded, or came up to Jacob to demand an introduction.
The worst we got were a couple of disappointed glances from women who’d clearly been hoping to pounce on Jacob as he celebrated the end of the tour, but there were plenty of other eligible bachelors there that evening where they could transfer their affections. I was focused on making a good impression, and trying not to think about the teasing I was going to get when I returned to the office and revealed that the two of us had gotten together. I imagined it would bring a whole new marketing angle for the story, at least – or that was how I would pitch it to my editor.
After a couple of hours and a few celebratory glasses of champagne, Jacob leaned in close to me and brushed his mouth up against my ear.
“You want to head back to my room?” He suggested, and a shiver ran down the length of my spine. I downed the rest of my drink in one gulp and
nodded.
“And this time we don’t have to sneak around to get there,” I pointed out as he tugged me in the direction of the door. I was tipsy, the fuzz around my head coddling me. But it felt good – for the first time since I’d come on this damn tour, I wasn’t feeling confused or anxious or distracted. There was only one thing that I was focused on, and it was the man who was taking me back to his hotel room.
Chapter Twelve
Jacob
It felt as though the corridors stretched out for days in front of us as we made our way through them and towards my room. I hadn’t taken her up there yet – our encounters had been limited to her place or my dressing room, anywhere that we could be sure that the press wasn’t going to hound us. But now I could walk up there with her on my arm and proudly let everyone know where we were going. Hell, I half-wanted to stop a busboy we passed on the way up and announce to him what we were about to get up to, but I figured that might have been a little above his pay-grade.
We finally reached the door and I slotted my keycard into the lock; it clicked open and Natalie brushed by me to get inside.
“Your room’s a lot nicer than mine,” she looked around, eyebrows raised. “Were you cheaping out on me?”
“Maybe,” I replied with a shrug. “Or maybe I just wanted to make sure that I could dazzle you on our last night.”
She plopped herself down on the edge of the bed and cocked her head at me.
“Shut up and come here,” she purred, kicking off her shoes and holding her hands out to me. I stood still for a moment, looking her up and down – Jesus, the way she looked in that skirt. I would have to buy her a dozen more in every color, even if I knew I wouldn’t get anything done as long as she had them on. She crossed her legs chastely, as if she knew what was going through my mind.
“Open your legs,” I ordered, and her eyes flashed up at me. She knew what was coming next.
She parted her thighs at once, shifting the skirt up a few inches so I could see the black cotton panties that she was wearing. Even in the dim half-light of the hotel room, I could make out the shape of her pussy lips underneath. I slowly lifted my gaze to hers once again, and carried on talking.
“Take off your panties. Slowly,” I went on, and she hooked her thumbs around the fabric, lifted her hips off the bed, and pushed her underwear down and off her feet. She clamped her legs shut as she sat back up, and then slowly, slowly opened them again so I could get a look at her glistening pussy.
I sucked in a sharp breath, my mind filling with the memories of how it tasted, how it felt around my cock. I wanted to go over there and touch her, but I knew that waiting was just going to make it all the better.
“Your jacket,” I went on. “And your shirt.”
She did as she was told, undressing slowly so that every inch of flesh was a tantalizing treat.
Her eyes never left mine, as though she was asking for my approval, and I gave it in the few steps I took towards her. She pulled off her skirt, so that she was sitting there completely naked; I swept my eyes up and down her body and had to fight the urge to march over there and fuck her senseless where she sat. But I wasn’t done with her yet.
“Play with yourself,”
I lifted my chin slightly. “Let me see.”
The buzz of alcohol was mixing with the power trip I was on, watching her do everything that I asked, and I realized then just how addicted I was to this woman. There would never be anyone else like her, no one else who could stimulate my cock and my brain in equal measure.
She slipped her fingers between her legs and spread them lewdly so that I could get a good look at her fingers as they went to town on her clit and her soaking slit.