Kori picked up the final prints from the first roll and flipped through them for imperfections. She noticed JT was watching the print catcher intently, but dismissed it as his desire to see the final version of the roll he’d processed from beginning to end. She slid the prints into their envelope, then turned back to look at the processor as the first new print dropped from the dryer.
She was beyond words, but Marcie clearly wasn’t. “Oh, my GOD!” she squealed. JT just stood there, looking satisfied.
It was a very clear shot of Paul, from the tips of his short hair to his knees. He wore nothing but a smile, some chest hair, and one sock pulled strategically over his privates. In another, it was impossible to tell who it was unless you could tell one Knox’s naked butt from another; there was a smiley face drawn sideways with a buttcrack smile. JT chuckled, thinking of how easily he got them all to pose. Kori was still speechless, her blush heading for purple as the pictures continued to drop. One of Clay wearing nothing but a well-placed baseball cap. JT had discovered that the camera had a timer, so there was one shot of all five of them mooning the camera. Paul wearing a sign around his neck which read ‘Will play for sex.’ Ian wore a similar sign; his read ‘Will you blow up my balloon?’
Kori finally found her voice. “You are so very dead, mister. How did you… oh, the camera that I forgot still had film, didn’t it? I’ll get you back for this. Just you wait.”
Kori printed the roll with the photos Clay took next, while JT and Marcie laughed at JT’s pictures, and at Kori’s embarrassment. They didn’t notice the first few images as they dropped. She put those in her purse to give to Clay later, wondering what the drummer planned to do with them, and if she could help in any way. So, this is how it’s going to be, is it? she wondered. This could be a lot more fun than I expected, even if they do get even.
Five
JT pulled the pillow over his head with a groan. Didn’t those two ever stop? He reminded himself not to get a room next to theirs the next time Mark came along. A particularly loud moan filtered through the wall, and he snugged the pillow down tighter over his ears, wishing for his stage earplugs.
He wondered if they were always this enthusiastic, or if it was because Zach was staying with his grandparents while they were in Phoenix.
Ah, crap. Another night where he wouldn’t sleep until they did. He’d discovered last night that even the TV turned up way too loud couldn’t drown out the sounds of their lovemaking next door. He’d also discovered that, if he propped himself up against the wall with pillows, like he had last night in an attempt to read, he could hear them even better. Like having my own porno, he thought with a tired and annoyed smirk.
If I have to listen to it, I might as well get a good visual to go along. He rummaged around in his bag until he found the printed pages he’d tucked away. Her thoughts, her sounds, just not her body. Simply hearing them had him half-aroused. It was difficult not to be with the shouts of “Oh, baby, fuck me!” and “Yeah, harder, just like that!” filtering through the thin hotel wall. He flipped up the cover page, then a few more, and began to read a scene containing his fictional self and Cherie.
****
Korina was growing tired. It seemed Mark planned on stockpiling the sex. Too bad that, like sleep, you couldn’t bank it for later. Her mind began to wander. It wasn’t his fault, she’d just had enough and was ready to roll over and go to sleep. The damn alarm clock would go off far too early in the morning. It always did. She followed her drifting thoughts, only half-aware and half-involved in what she hoped would be their final escapade of the evening. She found herself thinking of Clay and his grin, Paul and his joking comments, Rafe and his shy smile and few words to her, Ian speaking glowingly of his new daughter, and of JT, who seemed to have adopted her and Mark both, making sure they felt welcome and comfortable. He seemed to always be somewhere nearby unless he was needed for something related to the show.
She found it rather charming how he felt responsible for their feeling accepted in this world which was so new to them. She’d never pictured him as the doting type, but there he was. Constantly. Much as she appreciated the attention (never in her wildest dreams had she imagined getting so much as the time of day from the man) she sincerely hoped he wouldn’t make her feel like his new project. Too much was actually sometimes too much.
As Mark pleased her body, her mind was only somewhat in the here-and-now, still thinking of JT and his way of smiling ever so slightly when he saw she was settling in with the routine (and the constant joking around). His intense gaze that made her feel she was the only person in the room. Even though they had made several mental connections, and she no longer felt completely overwhelmed when she met JT’s stare, she could still so easily get lost in it…
She felt hot kisses trailing down her throat, over her chest, slowly dragging to one aching nipple and sucking gently. She jumped when she felt a tongue rasp over the sensitive tip. “Mmmm, yes…” she breathed, reaching to tangle her fingers in his hair.
Her hands met empty air.
What the — ? Yet the heady sensations continued. She felt a gentle nibble, another rake of the tongue over the tight bud. A fresh punch of desire, accompanied by an unfamiliar throbbing between her legs. The last thought she had that was completely her own was the realization that JT had the room next door, they shared this wall, and she was helpless to break whatever connection he’d somehow made.
Warm lips left a blazing trail across her chest, taking her other nipple between gently nipping teeth. Even warmer fingers stroked lightly over her skin, down her stomach, to grasp unfamiliar flesh with a tantalizing squeeze. Her eyes flew open at the unaccustomed sensation; she only saw almost-darkness, tinged with red, as if she were in a dimly lit room with eyes shut tight. Another squeeze, hot throbbing, then the gentle brush of only fingertips up and down over a shaft of flesh she did not possess. An electric thrill shot to her core at the teasing touch.
–Oh, yesss, so good… please, baby, touch me, taste me, take me into that hot mouth…
While Mark loved and teased her, driving himself into her again and again, she also felt her lips close over an unfamiliar steely arousal, and had the sensation of being enclosed in that wet mouth, as well. She was aflame with desire, lost in the feeling of pleasing and being pleased. She was uncertain where physical reality began and ended.
JT felt himself become fully aroused by the graphic descriptions of his fictional encounter. His eyes drifted closed as he began to touch himself, thinking of this imaginary woman. The sounds of passion from the other side of the wall spun him further into his fantasy.
He couldn’t imagine a face for the make-believe Cherie, so his mind conjured up instead the striking blue eyes and full lips of the passionate woman whose words he read and whose moaning voice he heard through the paper-thin wall.
As he teased at the skin of his stomach, his hands slowly making their way south, he imagined her bare skin before him, pebbled nipples begging to be tasted. He licked his lips, his breath coming more rapidly as he saw himself taking one, then the other, into his mouth, could almost feel her writhe beneath him as he sucked and nipped. His hand continued its tickling tease downward, encircling and squeezing his cock. God, this feels so good… he strived to draw it out, make it last, fingertips lightly strumming over the engorged flesh.
Oh, yesss, so good… this dream lover hungered for his skin. Please, baby, touch me, taste me, take me into that hot mouth…excited heat made him flush. He squeezed his cock again and again, feeling her lips on his skin, tasting him, pleasing him. He skimmed a thumb over his throbbing tip; that was her tongue taunting him. He groaned, begging her to take all of him; his long fingers enclosed himself fully, stroking lengthy and slow, as he felt her wet mouth cover him, lips sliding down until he was buried deep in her throat. Squeezing harder now as she swallowed over him, making his swollen shaft ache and throb. He could almost feel his hands in the silk of her hair, wanting desperately to hold her there over him. Oh Christ ho
w fucking good this feels….
****
Korina’s self was almost not there, replaced by a creature of pure want and desire. She was the imagined one, and the one who brought her forth, reveling in the sensations of being both. He wasn’t physically there, yet she felt him oh so clearly. Her mind clouded with thoughts not her own.
Even as she felt her throat fill with him, squeezing his thick shaft with her tongue, swallowing over his tip, so, too, she felt those same rippling contractions on highly sensitive flesh. JT’s flesh, she realized in some dim part of her mind. He did it again, but this time it’s more than just a kiss… Hot desire slammed her sideways, sending what was left of her mind spinning.
–Oh, shit, babe, yeah….mmm I knew that tongue would feel soo good…. oooyeah, squeeze me….oh, fuck I want…..aaahhhhyesss just like that….so good, luv…. gonna fuck your mouth so good…need to….want more….ohfuck! squeeze me so tight…. no, not yet, don’t make me come yet….please……feels too goddamn good….oh but don’t stop… yesss, faster….ohhh I wanted to wait….but I can’t, you’re so hot, soo close….mmm tighter, yeah God that’s it……oh…ohh… ohmyfuckingGOD!!
The ripples of pleasure gave way to crashing waves. She trembled as the world shattered around her.
“OhmyfuckingGOD!” her voice cried out, drowning out the same words which muffled their way through the wall in JT’s deep growl. Her body reacted as if the climax were her own, contracting and squeezing over Mark buried deep inside her. It was more than he could take, and he erupted with a throaty groan.
JT slowly opened his eyes, feeling spent and exhausted. He’d never felt such intense pleasure by his own hand before. Tiny tremors still quaked through his body. He felt the stickiness of his release on his stomach and his hand, but was too drained and satisfied to move toward cleaning up just yet. He let out a shaky sigh. Fuck, but that felt so good. Too bad I had to be alone. How much more incredible would that have been if someone, if she, were here? JT felt an abrupt rush of shame at what he had just done. Christ, I’m eavesdropping and beating off to it. He suddenly felt very alone.
Her consciousness floated, spinning lazily outside herself, still brushed aside by the man who’d taken over her thoughts and her will.
–Fuck, but that felt so good…
She saw her own face in his mind, appearing far prettier than she thought herself to be. Is that how I look to other people? To him?
She felt him recede a little further as he wished she were there with him. With his sudden rush of shame, he was gone.
Kori felt a twinge of regret. That was simply the most incredible sex she had ever experienced. Cheating without cheating. A threesome with only two. She felt an emptiness inside, a hollow space where JT had just been.
Mark wrapped her in his arms, pulling her close. “My God, baby, that was amazing. I’ve never seen you like that before. I swear, at one point, I don’t think you even remembered to breathe.” He sighed into her long, tangled hair.
She knew which moment that was. When she felt JT so deep in her throat he cut off her breath. Right before she felt his hot release in that same deep place, swallowing to take it all. That man had one strong imagination.
“I think I did forget,” she murmured. She felt intruded upon, while at the same time satisfied in a way she never thought possible. She wasn’t sure if, the next time Mark traveled with them, they should room next to JT again. As soul-shattering as that had been, some things should remain private. Well, Mark and Zach fly home tonight, right before we leave for Salt Lake, so I’ll have a few weeks to figure that out before he joins me again. And maybe I should talk with JT privately on the plane, to see if he knows what he did. Then again, if he doesn’t bring it up, doesn’t act like he knows how he entangled himself in our lovemaking, it might just be easier to look him in the face without blushing. I certainly don’t want to tell him, if he doesn’t already know. She sighed heavily; what to do, what to do….?
She snuggled further into her husband’s arms and drifted into a sated and dreamless sleep.
JT was not so lucky. Although he was exhausted from the show the previous night and wound up sleeping very little afterward, he was unable to turn off his thoughts and relax. He kept following the same circle. Guilt for listening in (not that he had a choice, they were so damn loud); shame at taking advantage of what he heard and pleasing himself; sadness at having to resort to his hand; alone since the breakup with his longtime lover; lonely because he was alone; if he’d had a companion, he wouldn’t have noticed their noise so much; but he did notice and so felt guilty for listening; and the merry-go-round spun again.
Time was, and not that long ago, if he didn’t want to be alone, he wasn’t. He might still have been lonely at heart, but never alone in his room, could have the pick of the beautiful women, and pick them he did. Still could. He didn’t want that meaningless meeting of flesh any more. He was jealous of his mates and their relationships. Not that he’d ever admit that to them. They were equally (and vocally) jealous of his freedom to have a different woman in every city. Trouble was, he didn’t want any of those women. He longed for someone to snuggle up with, wake up next to, talk to, laugh with, a woman who knew his thoughts as well as he knew them, himself.
He tossed and turned in the darkened room. Shortly before the sun’s rays broke the horizon, he fell into a fitful, restless doze, embracing the spare bedpillow in his arms like a talisman.
****
The alarm clock went off all too early the next morning, pulling Kori and Mark from their sleep and from their warm cuddle in each other’s arms. Mark grumbled as he switched off the loud beeping, “Too early.”
Kori yawned, reluctant to move from the arms that made her feel so loved and protected. She knew what would happen if she didn’t. She’d go right back to sleep, dragging Mark back to dreamland with her. God, she was going to miss waking up like this. They were always touching in some way, all night long. How would it be to wake up, morning after morning, alone in the cold, empty bed? She supposed she’d be finding out soon enough.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” she nudged him. “We’d better get up, if you’re going to make that tee time with your dad, and if we plan on having any time to spend with your folks before we leave.” She didn’t have to add ‘on our separate planes.’ They were both so very aware of their looming separation. At least he’ll have Zach. All I get is a bunch of lunatics and a horny man who can’t seem to keep his brain offa me.
“Yeah, we’d better get moving,” he sighed, pulling her closer. “We do only see them two or three times a year.”
Mark’s dad was supposed to meet them in the lobby in less than an hour, to take Kori to the house, and Mark to the golf course. They scrambled into the shower, and managed to make it to the lobby just as his father arrived.
Whether or not JT knew about his intrusion last night didn’t really matter. Kori knew, and it would be awkward to meet his eyes when they saw each other face to face. She was grateful to escape from that possibility for the day.
****
It wouldn’t have made any difference whether they spent the day in the hotel, or out of it. JT passed the day in his room, trying like hell to sleep, and not succeeding. Noise in the hallway disturbed him. The telephone seemed to ring constantly. He finally asked the desk to hold all calls. His bandmates knocked on the door instead.
“Sod off! I’m sleeping!” he yelled at them without getting up. As much as he viewed flying as a necessary evil (he hated giving over control of his safety to another, thank you very much), he actually found himself looking forward to leaving this evening. The boring drone of the aircraft’s engines often made him sleepy, and perhaps he could catch a nap during the short flight to Utah.
****
Mark and Zach said their sad farewells to her at the gate to their flight. She would call at every opportunity, she promised, patting the case of her new cell phone. She wouldn’t see them again until the band played Dallas in twelve days.
Zach clung to her tightly, tears in his eyes. “I’ll miss you, Mommy.”
“I know, sweetie. I’ll miss you, too. I’ll call whenever I can, and as soon as I get that laptop, hopefully in Salt Lake, we can send silly stuff to each other in e-mails, too, okay?” It was hard to let his little body go, but if she didn’t, they’d miss their flight. Reluctantly, she straightened and released him.
Mark gave her a lingering kiss. “Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine,” he said softly. “We’ll miss you, but,” he repeated for easily the hundredth time, “this is the opportunity of a lifetime. I’m still glad you took it.”
The last call for their flight was announced; they walked up the jetway backwards, waving at her until they rounded the bend and slipped out of sight.
****
JT was tired and grumpy. The others all left him alone, not wanting to be the target of his foul mood. Kori followed their lead, and instead passed the flight on the private plane laughing and joking with Clay, Paul and Stuart, getting better acquainted with the men she’d be spending so much time with.
JT didn’t sleep on the plane, either.
Six
The flight arrived in Salt Lake City on time and without incident. The group, along with Stuart and Kori, piled into two limousines to shuttle to the hotel and begin the process of settling in to a temporary home again. JT grumbled something about absolutely no calls or knocks on the door unless somebody was dying, and ambled off to his room.
He looks like hell, Kori thought. I wonder why he can’t sleep?
Clay planned to stay in and read; Ian was writing a new song and wanted to work on a troublesome middle eight; Rafe, Stuart and Paul had spotted a pool table in the club downstairs, and were discussing who would play first and who’d sit out to play the winner. They asked Kori to join them if she didn’t have any other plans. She politely declined, stating that she wanted to be up early enough to go shopping for a laptop. The truth was, she would make a fool of herself at the pool table. She’d been known to miss the cue ball altogether and leave a nasty chalk mark on the felt. She didn’t want to be fuel for the Knox running-joke machine tonight.
Dream Me Off My Feet (Sex, Love, And Rock & Roll) Page 11