Paul was truly feeling overwhelmed, no longer playing a role. He again shook his head no. JT moved both of Paul’s smaller wrists to his one large hand, with his other slowly dragging his fingertips down Paul’s arm. Paul shuddered. God, he’s good, he thought. No wonder the women want him so.
JT continued his slow caress, over Paul’s shoulder, then up his neck to cup his jaw. Slowly, he raised Paul’s chin, his gaze never leaving Paul’s face. Even without looking up, Paul could feel the heat of that stare. He needed to look, had to see if what he felt was reflected in JT’s eyes.
JT, too, was no longer just re-enacting his seduction on Cherie. He suddenly needed Paul to want him, to have loving closeness replace the hurt and anger he’d caused. He shifted closer, pressing Paul against the wall gently.
Paul shifted his gaze to meet JT’s eyes, and was struck full-force by the desire in them. He knew, then, that neither of them was still playing. JT could never fake that look of sheer hunger. “Holy shit,” he whispered.
JT glanced down to Paul’s mouth, wanting more than ever to taste his lips. Yet he prolonged the tease, now that he knew Paul was his for the taking. Slowly, he traced Paul’s lower lip with his thumb, eliciting a low moan from the man he had pressed up against the wall.
He pushed his hard body more firmly against Paul, grinding his stiffness into Paul’s straining zipper. “You make me ache, Paul,” he murmured close to his ear, surprised to find that it was, indeed, the truth. “Do you feel how I burn for you?” He thrust his hips forward again as he brushed Paul’s lips softly with his own. Paul was dizzy. He would have slid down the wall if not for JT pressing against him.
Paul struggled to get a hand free; he wanted to pull his face closer, end the taunting light touches. JT tightened his grip and crushed Paul to the wall, grinding into him again. “You feel so goddamn good under me.” JT captured Paul’s bottom lip in his, tugging it gently. Paul’s semi-drunk brain could take no more and he ran the tip of his tongue over JT’s lips, groaning.
JT finally gave in, releasing his tight reign of self-control. He ground against Paul once more, reveling in the sensation of their aroused bulges pressing against one another. He let go of Paul’s hands, desperately wanting to be touched. JT kissed him fiercely, demanding his tongue. Paul’s response echoed JT’s passion, every nerve hypersensitive, begging for contact.
Paul’s last coherent thought before careening off into a boundless universe of pure desire was one of amazement. Sweet God in heaven, it’s no wonder Cherie gave in to him. If he made her feel even half of what he does me, she never had a choice. He doesn’t make me feel that I’m the only thing that matters; it’s as if I’m the only thing that IS. Nothing exists outside us two.
He’d never before felt this way. With anyone.
JT, too, was immersed in sensation and want. His hands traveled frantically over Paul’s body. He couldn’t touch fast enough, rub hard enough, trying to feel all of him at once. Paul deepened the kiss, his groaning breath falling faster over JT’s skin.
Realization dawned, cold and sharp as a slap across the face, and JT pulled away violently, his own breath coming hard. “What are… Jesus Christ, what the fuck was that?” He closed his eyes, trying to calm his jangling nerves.
*
JT tried to scroll lower, but that was the last line in her chapter. Fuck, that was hot, he thought with a small measure of embarrassment. No wonder she didn’t print that one for me. Me kissing Paul?
Another memory she’d managed to pluck loose and run off with. It hadn’t happened quite the way she’d written, but once, in the true heat of the moment, lost in a haze of hands and skin with the two women in bed with them, they had found each other’s lips, and shared a kiss of such intensity and raw passion that they’d never brought two women to share a bed with them again. One woman, sure. Two, well, it was too easy to lose track of whose hand was where, whose lips were whose. That they’d shared a kiss wasn’t the real shock. There were a few times, to feverishly arouse the woman they were sharing, they’d brushed lightly over one another’s lips, maybe with a little slip of the tongue to taste of the woman one of them had just been pleasing.
What alarmed both of them was how much they’d enjoyed it. Deepened it, even after discovering whose lips they were kissing. The two women had found it highly erotic, and didn’t know they’d just witnessed a first for both men. He and Paul had pulled away, amazed, and shrugged it off to the passion hanging in the room like a mist. Decided that it was the women’s fault, their wandering hands and pleasing mouths getting the men spun around and upside-down, only knowing the need to feel warm flesh under hungry lips. Neither one mentioned it after that night, and they had an unvoiced agreement to never, under any circumstances, share one bed with two women again. It was an embarrassing memory of an awkward moment that neither of them wanted to repeat.
Feeling sheepish, and that he fully deserved what he got for snooping, JT took the laptop offline and closed down the programs. Teach me to be so damn nosy.
As he lay alone in bed a short time later, he pondered Korina again. Rather than disgusting or embarrassing him, she intrigued him further. He wondered if that kiss was a random memory she’d picked up on one of her dream excursions, or something she had made up all on her own. Either way, I guess it really doesn’t matter, she’s captured my interest all the more.
Four
Beep-beep-beep-beep. Groggy, she reached over her head and slapped the snooze bar, just to shut the damn thing up. What time is it, anyway? She ventured a peek at the window. Light surrounded the edges of the curtain. That means it’s after seven, when the sun hits this side of the house. She looked blearily at the red numbers on her cursed alarm clock. Seven-thirty. Ahh, so this time it was four hours sleep instead of the usual five. I’ll just brew the coffee extra-strong, and I’ll be juszzzzzzzzzzz….
Beep-beep-beep-beep. Again, she reached up and smacked the snooze bar. Didn’t I do this already? She brought the clock closer to her face. Seven-forty-five. Better get up this time. She slid the alarm switch to ‘off’ and tossed back the blankets. Some people name their cars, she thought as she wandered into the kitchen to prepare the coffee pot. I named my alarm clock: ‘Dammit the alarm clock.’ Vile contraption. She flicked the switch to get the coffee brewing, then stumbled to the shower to wake up.
Mark was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee when she emerged, towel-headed but more awake. Ah, coffee, the great giver of life. She pulled out her favorite mug and filled it.
“So, are you going to tell me about it?” he asked Kori’s back, “or do I have to drag the details out of you?”
Kori waited to answer until she sat down across from him. “You knew, you rat! How could you keep that from me?”
“Easy. I just kept my distance. Stuart said they wanted to see you as you normally are, so I couldn’t say a word. What, exactly, do they want you to do? When do you start? Are you going to go in to quit today? What time are we supposed to be at the soccer fields?” He paused for a breath between questions.
He’s as bad as Zach. “One at a time! Sheeeze,” she said before taking a long gulp of the strong coffee. “To answer the first one, to write for the website, do interviews, find all the media links and post them, make sure all TV appearances of them and about them are posted… I think that about covers the website aspect. They also want me to be a traveling photographer with them for a while, or maybe on and off, I’m not sure yet. So I guess we travel with them until they get tired of having us around.” She stopped to take another swallow.
“We?” he asked. “You mean you, me and Zach? But that would take him out of school. I don’t think that’s wise.”
“You expect me to travel with them alone? I don’t know that I can do that. I’ll miss you too much.” So maybe I shouldn’t take it after all. She stared down into her coffee.
“I’ll miss you, too, but really, how much could you be away? And every time school is out for more than a weekend,
we’ll come to wherever you are. Or if you’re just a short flight away, we don’t even need a long weekend. It’ll be good for you to get the hell out of this town for a while.” He watched her contemplate her mug, wishing he could read her the way she could sometimes read him.
I’ll miss you. And Zach. I don’t know if I can leave you both for longer than a day; we’ve never spent more than that away from each other. And what if another opportunity like last night presents itself? Ordinarily, fidelity would never be a problem. But this time it’s different. He was in my mind, his thoughts were my thoughts…what might have happened if he hadn’t opened his eyes when he did? My body responded to his thoughts and emotions as if they were mine. I’ve never been that out of my own control, not even with you. But I don’t want to pass this up. There will have to be more ground rules. No drinking for me. No being alone with him. Those should keep me out of that danger zone.
She looked up then, her thoughts more under control. “They go to Phoenix next. They haven’t asked me yet, but I have a suspicion they want me along. At least come there with me. Your parents are there, you could visit for a while, Zach can miss a few days and not get behind.”
He knew she was nervous, and might not go if he didn’t. “If they want you in Phoenix, we’ll go. What about quitting? You think your boss will be pissed?”
“I know he will be. I’m just going to ask for a leave, first, to make sure this all works out. I’ll talk to him when I go in to process last night’s film.”
Mark reached over and grasped one of her hands. “Make it work. Do not pass this up. I mean it. We’ll be a phone call or a short flight away. This job means more money, recognition… you could really make a name for yourself. Besides, it’s Slanker Knox—” his voice went high-pitched and frou-frou, “your ultimate fantasy men!”
Kori smacked him on the arm. “Oh, stop it!” She stood up and chugged the remains of her coffee. “I’d better dry this mop of hair, then be on my way. We’re supposed to be at the field at one, so why don’t I call and let you know if I can make it home first, or if you two should just meet me there?”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll make sure Zach brings his PS2, so he and Steven can play. I’d better get him up—he’s got a busy day ahead.”
****
Eric, the store manager, was used to Kori coming in on her days off to process her own work, especially the day after she shot a concert. He wasn’t surprised to see her walk in this morning, gallon-sized plastic bag of film rolls in hand.
“Have fun?” he asked with a smile.
“Great time,” she responded. “Marcie, would you mind sending these through to process? I’ll print them, as usual. Eric, I need to talk to you. It’s important.” She handed the bag of film to her associate, then followed him into the store office.
She waited for the door to close. “Eric, I need to take a leave of absence.”
His eyebrows shot up into his hairline. “Is something wrong? Can I help?”
“No, nothing’s wrong. Last night, they, I mean Slanker Knox, offered me a job, and I want to take it. Just in case it doesn’t work out the way I hope, I don’t want to lose my twelve years’ seniority here.” She chewed on her lip while he waited in stunned silence for her to continue. “You know Martha can do my job. She’s that good, and I trust her. Give her the position. If I have to come back, I’ll do whatever position is open. Just please don’t take me off payroll. I don’t want to quit just yet.”
This was the third photo lab she’d opened for the drugstore chain, and they’d all been successful while she ran them. They’d all also gone very downhill when she left. There goes my sales bonus, he thought. “I don’t suppose there’s anything I can do to compete, is there?”
“Not unless you triple my pay, give me a cellphone and an expensive digital camera, and surround me with gorgeous men, no,” she said with a laugh.
“Well, I guess all I can do is wish you luck and pay out all your unused vacation time. If you do come back, I still want you to run this lab.” Her look told him the likelihood of her returning was slim to none.
He sighed and began to fill out the necessary paperwork.
****
Kori grumbled as she painstakingly lined up each negative to print. This was the only part she hated. Cut off heads, missing feet, half of one shot and half of another… dark backgrounds and stage lighting made using the autoprinter impossible. The sensors couldn’t tell where the images ended.
The first prints began to drop from the dryer.
“Ohmygod!” squealed Marcie, who’d seen only one prior episode of Kori’s concert work. “These could be in a magazine!”
“Maybe this time, they will be,” Kori mumbled. She glanced up from aligning negatives to watch a few prints fall. “Oh, baby, sometimes I even surprise myself,” she said, louder this time. They looked exactly as she hoped, not a blurry one in the bunch.
“Can I have a copy of this one? Please?” Marcie held up an extreme close-up of JT, from his chin to just above his forehead, backlit by blue gels; he was looking right into the lens and smiling. “Those eyes are just to die for,” she sighed.
“I guess, but it’s for you only. These copyrights may not even belong to me, eventually. The band wants to option them. You can’t even scan this to send to your friends, got it?” Kori took the photo, made a note of the image number from the back so she could print another, then copyrighted it with a permanent marker. She wrote © KConner/SlankerKnox, just to be safe.
The printing was finally finished at twelve-thirty; that didn’t leave enough time to go home and pick up Mark and Zach, then get to the soccer fields by one. She called Mark, told him to pack her gear (he already had), and meet her at the fields.
She added a large photo album, three caffeine-loaded energy drinks and eight rolls of daylight-speed film to her picture purchase, then shoved a pair of her disposable cotton work gloves into the bag, to wear when she put the proofs into the album.
Time was short, so she jogged to her ancient car, tossed the bags onto the floorboard, and sank breathlessly into the driver’s seat. She stomped down the clutch, turned the key, and… nothing.
“Oops, sorry, baby, I forgot the music,” she said, reaching forward to push a taped copy of Slanker Knox’s newest CD into the deck, then turned up the volume. Music began to blast from the speakers. “Is that better?” she asked, turning the key. The engine fired into life. Lucky for me this car’s a girl.
****
They were all out on the field, fooling and practicing, kicking the ball around, and generally enjoying the clear sunshine and cloudless blue sky of a New Mexico autumn day. The heard a car scream into the parking lot, music blaring; they looked up to see who had broken the otherwise quiet early afternoon.
“Drives like you, JT, whoever it is,” said Paul with a grin.
“Sounds like your cat-screech, too,” quipped Rafe. They could all hear the semi-moaning vocal of “Love ’er All Night” making its way across the grassy fields.
“Bite me,” JT grumbled, but with a smile. He had a suspicion who was driving. But why did it have to be that song? He still suffered bouts of regret about that one. That and “Eyes Off, She’s Mine” were two he wondered what ever possessed him to record. They were raunchy and blatant to the point of embarrassment.
The car pulled into a parking space, but the music didn’t stop until the driver cut the engine. The group stared at the white car as it parked, flattered that someone liked their music, wondering who it was that played it so loud. A ponytailed figure emerged with a bag in one hand. As she trotted closer, one by one they recognized her.
“Hey, guys,” Kori said with a small wave. She was met with a chorus of greetings. “And I thought I was getting here early.” She sat on the player’s bench closest to the group, dropping the bag between her feet. She noticed Paul’s son, Steven, sitting on the next bench over, playing with his PS2. “Mark’s bringing the gear, but I’ve got last night’s proofs
with me.” She fished around in the bag and pulled out one of the energy drinks.
“Really? Can we see?” asked Clay, while Rafe was already reaching for the plastic bag near her feet. He snagged a handle and spun away with it, trying to keep it all to himself. The photo album inside was heavy and its sharp corners tore a hole in the bag, scattering the contents over the grass. I’m glad I left the negatives in the car, uncut and rolled in that big, spare film can. Else they’d be ruined by these impatient little boys.
All but JT scrambled to grab an envelope or two. They looked like puppies fighting over a bone.
“Don’t you want to see, too, JT?” Ian asked, tearing open the seal on one of the packages.
“In a bit. Korina, would you come over here for a moment?” He was standing by his canvas gym bag.
“You forgot this last night,” he said, handing her the empty camera.
“Oh, thanks. I was so beat, I’m surprised I remembered the directions for you to take me home.” She looked up at his face. “Linking with someone in a strong connection is very draining, too.”
JT was a little embarrassed and looked down at his bag.
He handed her an envelope and cleared his throat. “This is for the option on the photos. Judging from their reactions, I’d say you’ve got some keepers, there.” The comments of the band members, standing several yards away, made Kori smile. “It’s also for today’s pictures. After this, you’ll be on payroll, but we figured you’d need some walking-around funds for Phoenix and Salt Lake City.”
“Phoenix and—” she began.
“Oh, that’s right. We didn’t get to that last night, did we? We want you to come along, and Mark and Zach, too. The sooner you start, the better. We leave for Phoenix day after tomorrow, first thing in the morning. Say you’ll be there, too?” He gave her one of his little-boy grins.
Dream Me Off My Feet (Sex, Love, And Rock & Roll) Page 9