He laughed. “I’m sorry, hon. It’s just, I sit here with Hal wanting to read me all the minute details on documents and all I’m thinking about is how soft your hair is and how good it smells, and about how you tease me and keep me in line and make me laugh. I think about your sweet voice and all the times we’ve had together and all the things I want to do with you, and to you— Ah, great! I think Hal’s at the door. He probably wants to read me the fine print on my cable bill.”
“He’s just trying to watch out for you.”
“I know, but that’s why I hired him, so I wouldn’t have to read the fine print. All right, babe, I’ve got to go. I’ll call you later.”
“I love you, Chase, more than you know.”
“I love you, too. I’m sorry I’m so grumpy.”
“You’re entitled. I’ll see you soon, I promise.”
“Bye, babe.”
“Bye.” She hung up the phone, and sat petting Mewford, who had curled up on her chest morosely. “Well, I guess it’s just you and me, buddy.” Scooping him up, she returned him carefully to the pre-warmed couch. She ran through articles on Robert Mulrooney on her computer. He didn’t appear to be the type who would get involved with anything shady. Balding with glasses, he looked like your a-typical father of four or more. He probably sang in his church’s choir and washed the car wearing shorts and dark socks.
She sat with elbows on the bar, chin in her palm, staring at the screen. Only she wasn’t seeing Robert Mulrooney anymore, she was seeing Chase. Chase rising out of the waves, pushing back his wet hair, his pecs glistening in the sun like some male version of a water nymph. Chase’s love-charged eyes as he held her up, then lowered her. She remembered feeling his hands on her hips, and then her sides as he let her drop, still held tightly. She remembered her heart beating with a wildness equal to the thundering waves around them. She flashed to another scene, when she froze when doing the dishes as he slid his arms around her, his full lips so close to her ear.
She shook herself and stood up, rubbing her arms. The memories of him were so vivid, it was as if she could still feel his hands on her, still smell his clean, masculine fragrance. She wondered how it was that God had given each person their own special, recognizable scent. She moved over to the window, trying to walk away from his imagined presence, which was a definite turn on, without the promise of satisfying her hunger.
She gazed out the windows at the traffic below, hearing the vague honking noises as they drifted up to her. Now, she saw his sweet face as he agreed to help her find Phillip at the People’s Choice Awards, as he held her the night she had come to him in the rain, without asking anything in return, and now she felt the ache that was much deeper than the yearning her body had for him. She needed to feel the way she felt when she was with him. Whether naked or fully clothed, in bed or in a limo, she needed to feel the love that radiated from him and filled her so completely.
She picked up the phone and dialed Hal.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Hope sat in the hallway outside Chase’s hotel room. She had flown through the night, the pilot having to delay their take-off because of a sudden storm raging in Chicago. She took a taxi from the airport and arrived at six o’clock in the morning at his doorstep. As she had raised her hand to knock, it occurred to her he had been up late last night and given a concert to a stadium full of screaming fans. She had turned around and leaned with her back against the door, sliding slowly down to sit and wait to hear movement inside. She was almost falling asleep when, an hour later, the door down the hall opened and Hal stepped out.
At first he frowned, probably thinking she was a fan who had somehow gotten through their security measures, but when she smiled at him, he ran down to see her.
“Hope! It’s so good to see you.” He hugged her and held her hands as they spoke. “What are you doing out here in the hall?”
“Well, I knew Chase was sleeping and I didn’t want to wake him.”
“Our rooms are adjoining. Why don’t you sneak in through my side?”
She squeezed him. “Oh, Hal! You’re the bomb!”
She crept into his bedroom and dropped her bag quietly at the foot of his bed. He lay on his back with the sheet at a diagonal across his midriff, one knee bent to the side, one bare thigh exposed. He gave the impression of some Greek god caught napping, she decided. She wordlessly stripped off her clothing, still gazing on his sleeping form, and then slid underneath the covers. She felt the welcome heat of his body and inched closer until their skin was touching. His rhythmic breathing ended abruptly as he took in a deep breath.
“Hope!” His arms came around her immediately, and he buried his face in her hair. “What are you doing here?”
“Shhhh! Go back to sleep.”
He pulled her in, squeezing her, wrapping his arms around her chest, and adjusting the sheet so nothing separated them. She squirmed even closer, making sure every point on the back side of her body was touching him.
“I love you,” he murmured with a contented sigh. His fingers strummed chords on her arm reflexively, a movement so familiar and so singularly Chase it made her smile.
“I love you, too.” Within minutes they had drifted off to sleep.
* * *
Chase woke to the sound of birds outside and the woman he loved in his arms. Life couldn’t get much better than that. She felt so deliciously warm and soft. He didn’t want to wake her, but the call of her bare flesh was too much for him. He sat up on his elbow and gently pushed back her silky brown hair to expose her neck. Pulling the sheet down over her shoulder, he touched her porcelain skin. He brought his warm lips to her shoulder, then worked his way up her lovely neck. She woke up and turned over in his arms, smiling up at him.
“Hello.”
Chase grabbed her up into his arms. “I thought you weren’t coming,” she heard him whisper in her ear.
When he pulled away, she held his face in her hands. “I guess I found you irresistible.”
“I was beginning to wonder…”
“Wonder no more,” she said, running her hand up the inside of his thigh. She pushed him down on the pillows and began to kiss up his chest, her lips and tongue rolling over his flesh as she moved on top of him.
She brought her lips to his while her body continued to move over him, warm, pulsing, robbing him of all reason. As the blood rushed from his head to other parts of his body, giving him a slightly euphoric feeling, he wondered if this could really be true. Was she really here with him after all this time? After all the waiting and wanting and hurt? Could she really still love him, or was it all some dream?
She pushed away from him, sitting up. His eyes followed her every move and she drank in the power she had to move him. Questions kept floating through her mind. Could a love as powerful as this last, or was it as fleeting as the perfect light for an outdoor photograph? As she rode the wave of their passion, she realized she didn’t care. She just didn’t care. If this was fleeting, so be it. She would love him the best she could for as long as she could, and treasure every moment of it.
When at last they lay together, their bodies liquid and relaxed, he broke the silence.
“I’m glad you flew out here.” They both laughed at his statement, given as it was in the wake of their intimate moments. “Are you hungry?”
“Starved! Are you?”
He nodded. “Should I take you out somewhere nice for brunch and then show you the sights?”
She thought about this. “To be honest, I could care less if we go anywhere, just as long as we’re together.”
“In that case, why don’t we order room service and soak in my big tub for awhile?”
“Now that,” she said, sitting up to check out the sunk-in tub that sat in the corner of the room, “sounds divine!”
He ordered sandwiches and fruit. They ate, then turned on the water and soon sat across from each other in the deep tub, their legs intertwined in the middle. After several minutes of soaking, she lift
ed the shampoo she’d set beside them.
“Let me do it.”
She peered at him, eyebrows raised. “You want to shampoo my hair?”
“Yeah. Come over here.”
She slowly moved to sit between his legs, watching him with suspicion as she did so. She handed him the bottle of her cheap shampoo. “I suppose someday I should get some grown-up shampoo,” she commented.
When he took the cap off, he exclaimed, “So this is the stuff! This is the stuff that has been my downfall.”
She laughed, but then it turned to a moan as his strong hands began to work her hair into a lather. “Mmm. What are you talking about?”
“Man!” He inhaled deeper. “Whenever you pass by me and I catch a whiff of this stuff, it makes my insides do the rumba.”
“You’re kidding. I’ve been using this stuff since I was, like, six years old.”
“I know. And it’s always driven me crazy.”
“You never mentioned it.”
“It’s kind of a strange thing to tell a woman, don’t you think? ‘The way you smell sends me into orbit!’”
She laughed, flattered.
“Lean back now and I’ll rinse you.”
She tipped her head back, letting his hands support her and lead her gently into the water. Her hair spread out over the surface.
She studied his upside down image as she floated. She sat up suddenly and turned to him. “Chase, I know this is strange, and some weird quirk I have, but I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like we can’t possibly be this completely happy, and lucky, to be back together again. Do you know what I mean?”
“Yeah. I feel the same way, too.”
She flipped back again and rested the back of her head on his shoulder while he wrapped her tightly in his arms.
He kissed the top of her head. “And I even feel a little guilty sometimes. Not many people are fortunate enough to be able to say they have found the love of their life, but I have.”
She squeezed his hand, touched by his sweet words.
“Chase?” They both jumped at Hal’s voice in the next room.
There was a great deal of splashing.
“Uh…yeah, Hal?” He sounded flustered.
“I just wanted to let you know we’ll need to leave for the stadium in half an hour.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll be out in a little bit.”
They scrambled to get ready. “I have to be there early for a promotion and to sign autographs. You don’t have to come until concert time if you want. You may get pretty bored.”
Her lips lifted as she shimmied into a pair of black jeans. “I want to be where you are,” she said simply. He smiled and pulled a t-shirt on over his head, messing his hair up.
She sauntered over to him, wearing just her jeans and a bra and reached up to fix his hair. He grabbed her hips and kissed her, and then they finished getting ready.
* * *
Hope could not believe how incredibly sexy Chase was on stage. There was just something about a man with an electric guitar slung in front of his pelvis that gave a girl the hots. His ass and hips looked oh-so-good as he moved to the rhythm. She had heard all of the music before on the radio, but to see him sing it, live, on stage, just a few short feet away, set her a-tingle. The drum echoed the beating of her heart, and the high-pitched zing of the electric guitar mirrored her insides, strung so tightly with lust she thought he could make them zing, too. The husky tenor of his voice as he belted out lyrics seemed to reach inside, filling her with an expectant heat.
When he came off stage to change clothes, he grabbed her with one hand and pulled her to him to kiss her. He was obviously way revved up, too, as he smashed her against the wall, his tongue diving into her mouth, sending pulses throughout her body, in front of a dozen stagehands. He plunged into her, changing the angles, his mouth open and hard on hers, their bodies moving up and down on the waves of their passion. He moved her hands from his sides and slowly brought them over her head, pinning the wrists against the wall with one hand, while using the other hand to unbutton his shirt. He pulled away and watched her, both breathless, as he fumbled with the rest of the buttons, a slow, satisfied smile stealing across his face.
She peered at him, lust still clouding her eyes a little, her smile mirroring his. She felt the vibrations of the audience’s applause pounding through the wall and through her, escalating her heart rate even more. His body glistened with sweat in a virile sort of way, and she imagined riding on the sweat over his body, the moisture making it easy to slide and creating wonderful sensations for them both.
“I am so turned on right now!” she managed to get out, her voice raw from passion as much as from screaming out his lyrics.
For his part he leaned in closer, his forehead against hers, still having to yell over the crowd. “I can’t wait to get you back to the hotel room so I can do the things to you I’m dreaming of doing to you right now!” He ended with a growl.
He pulled away and stood a foot from her, but never took his eyes from hers. Peeling his shirt off and accepting a towel from a stagehand, he wiped his chest and the back of his neck, then handed it back and held his hands out so someone could help him into a new shirt, all the while looking at her as they both let their breathing come back to normal.
He jerked his head at his dresser with a flash of a smile. “Thanks.” Someone handed him a bottle of water, which he downed instantly, and then he was gone.
After his second encore he came off stage and threw his arm around her, blowing out some air tiredly and yelling with a smile, “Let’s get out of here.”
They strode back to his dressing room. The door clicked closed and there was relative quiet for the first time in hours. He unbuttoned his damp shirt, pulled it off, and started collecting things off his dressing room table—his brush and some toiletries—and throwing them into a bag. She came up from behind him and grabbed him around the waist, brushing her lips against the skin of his back.
“I don’t know if I can wait ‘til we get back to the hotel,” she murmured, catching his eye in the mirror.
He swept everything from the table onto the floor and turned around to grab her by the hips. She laughed as he lifted her onto the table. She brought her legs to wrap around his waist as she rubbed her hands across his chest.
When Hal walked in, their lips were locked together and she was running her hands through his hair.
“Uh.” He cleared his throat. “I just wanted to say, good show. I’m leaving now.” He closed the door.
They both laughed, breathing out the sexual tension. “I guess we better wait ‘til we’re back at the hotel, huh?”
“Probably for the best,” she agreed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Later, when Chase slipped into bed next to her, he had on only a pair of sexy black cotton boxers, she, just her camisole and black panties. He put his hands on her shoulders as they lay facing each other, their foreheads together.
He sighed. “So, what did you think of the performance?”
“I…thought…the performance…was totally…hot!” she said, punctuating the statement with kisses.
“You did?” he said, feigning surprise. “And I thought your performance—in the dressing room—was totally hot!” He kissed her in return. “And I was hoping for an encore.”
She nibbled on his earlobe. “Mmm, how very rock-star-ish of you.” He chuckled. She flipped, her back toward him, and he pulled her into an embrace, slipping his hands underneath the cami to caress her breasts. “My God!” she said, reflecting. “I never expected to be so turned on by seeing you play. You and that guitar. And the kiss you gave me backstage nearly sent me to my knees.”
His hands stilled on her breasts. She held her breath, waiting to see what he would do. “Chase?” She heard quiet breathing. “Chase?” she said again, turning over, but he was asleep. She smiled, brushing the hair gently away from his face. “Rock stars!” she muttered, and turned over to reach for the l
amp. She snuggled closer to his already warm body, and fell asleep.
When she woke up, she saw she had overslept and needed to hustle to meet the pilot for the return trip. Carefully, she shimmied out of bed, letting Chase’s arm fall over her side. As she dressed, she watched him sleep. Not exactly pretty, she determined. His mouth was slightly open, his hair ruffled, but he was her Chase, and she loved him. She bent over the bed, pushing a few strands of hair away from his eyes with her fingertips, and brushing her lips across his. With a pang in her heart, she hoisted her duffle bag over her shoulder, and slipped out of the room.
* * *
When she got home, there was a message on the machine.
“Hey, honey! I just called to tell you about a weird experience I had. I woke up yesterday morning with a beautiful woman in my arms I didn’t go to bed with, and this morning, I woke up minus the beautiful woman I did go to bed with. What a strange hotel! I hope you didn’t just leave me ‘cause I didn’t put out, ‘cause, believe me, I can make it up to you.” There was a long pause, and she thought he had hung up and was just about to reach down to play the message again when she heard him say quietly, “I miss you, babe. Come back soon.”
A pain shot through her so intense she brought one hand to her heart, one to her stomach. Resolutely, she went to take a shower and get dressed for her date with another man.
* * *
Hope fiddled with the clasp of her black clutch. She had worn a dress as he had requested, and carefully woven a black ribbon through her hair. A rhinestone studded comb helped to hold the mass of curls in place, and long, diamond, drop earrings hung from her ears. She had inherited them from her mother, who had inherited them from her mother, along with the matching necklace, which Ved gracefully across her collarbone. She gazed out over the dance floor, searching for her date.
Abandon All Hope Page 20