He heard her curse quietly in the nest of her arms.
“And now, to complicate things that aren’t complicated enough on their own, there’s how I feel about you.” She snorted. “Now there’s an understatement. Mistress of subtlety, that’s what I am.”
She raised her head then, just enough to shine her stricken gaze into his gentle eyes. “Dammit. What’s wrong with me? How can I care for two men at the same time? And I do thank God for you, JT. I don’t know how I’d handle this if I didn’t have you to lean on. Just knowing you’re there….you will be there, won’t you, JT?”
For a very short moment, no more than a few heartbeats, JT hesitated. Answer too fast and it sounds placating. On the flip side, take too long and again, she won’t believe me, but that’s because she’ll think I’m trying to decide how to say what she wants to hear.
He reached out and took her hands in his, unwrapping her arms to reveal the rest of her face. Her full lips were parted slightly and downturned at the corners, mirroring the sorrow in her eyes. “I will always be there for you, sweetheart,” he said. Leaning closer, he held one of her hands flat against his chest. “Because you’re in here.”
He watched as her lower lip began to tremble; she clamped it tightly against its mate. The quivering continued and she rapidly blinked back the tears threatening at the corners of her eyes.
Kori felt the strong steady beating of his heart under her palm. Noticed the gentle expression in his eyes melt into something more tender. Without breaking their locked gaze, she parted her lips to voice her thanks.
“I love you,” came out in a soft whisper. The prickle of tears was instantly gone. She finally spoke the words she’d been hiding in her heart and the walls didn’t come tumbling down, the roof didn’t cave in, no stray lightning bolt from the heavens smote her down. There wasn’t even the tiniest rumble of far-off thunder.
Instead she felt the weight of a thousand boulders lift away. Tomorrow be damned; today she felt like floating, dancing, singing, laughing. And when she registered the genuine look of surprise in JT’s eyes, she did utter a soft laugh. “I think I shocked both of us.”
JT was struck dumb. He’d been longing to hear those words. She’d thought them, alluded to them, but he’d been waiting for her to say them. And now that she did his brain was left too stunned to even operate his tongue.
One of her hands he still held to his chest; she let it stay there over his heart, feeling the sudden increase in its rhythm. The other rested in his lap, clasped tightly in his strong fingers. She raised their joined hands to her lips and laid a soft kiss on the back of his hand before tilting her head to rest her cheek against it.
The light touch shattered his paralysis, and his self-control. There was no force on earth that could have kept his hands away from her. He pulled both his hands from hers to cup her face, then leaned down to sip from her mouth. The flashfire threatened, but the need to be gentle was far stronger. With infinite tenderness, his lips slanted over hers again and again. Her breathing quickened, fanning in soft little puffs against his cheek. Still he only brushed her mouth with his lips, tasting of her sweetness, her softness, diving into this moment and drowning there.
She whimpered under his sensual assault, but the more she wanted, the softer became his caress. Her lips parted under his, but that only offered him the opportunity to brush against each one separately, pausing to pull tenderly at one or the other by enclosing it in his own. She was unraveling.
She released a throaty moan as her fingers tangled in his soft waves, pulling him closer to deepen the kiss. Dragging the tip of her tongue over his bottom lip, she was rewarded with an answering groan from deep in his chest. He slowly leaned back until she straddled his body. She felt his hard bulge under her rear and settled her weight on it, wriggling and grinding against him.
– Oh fuck, I’m gonna come in my pants if you keep that up, love….
She answered by thought, pulling back with a lazy smile.
** Why don’t you take them off, then?
JT plucked her shirt from her jeans, pulling it over her head in one fluid movement, then reached behind her, unhooked her bra and tossed that to the floor, too. The rosy peaks tempted his tongue, but instead he unbuttoned her jeans and slowly lowered the zipper. She shifted over his arousal and he finally could take the slow pace no longer.
He rolled her onto her back so fast her head spun. Leaning up, he pulled off his shirt and shimmied out of his jeans, then with frantic, fumbling hands tugged hers down and off. So the sexy temptress wasn’t left behind. She’d forgone wearing anything under her pants.
One touch to her slick folds told him she was more than ready. Her whimper and the tilting of her hips to meet his hammered the point home. “Not so fast, sweetheart. I want to show you my love tonight,” he murmured.
He rocked into her gently, slowly, then stilled, relishing her velvety softness enclosing him.
–You feel so good, so right…..so right….
“So right,” she echoed in a whisper. “Show me, JT. Love me like I love you.”
Her breathless words streaked a thrill of desire through his gut. With a shuddering sigh, he regained enough control to move slowly against her. Ah, my love, I want this to last…
She met each torturously gentle thrust with one of her own until she couldn’t take any more. “Please, JT….” she begged.
“Please JT, what?” he murmured, close to the edge of ecstasy from the tease alone.
Her eyes and thoughts told him what her voice could not.
** I want you harder…deeper….please, JT….
“As always, whatever you wish is yours, love.” JT deepened his strokes; she groaned as oblivion beckoned. “That’s it, my love, give yourself to me. Just let it go.”
With a final plunge into her sweet depths, he felt her pulse around him. “Oh…I love you…JT…” she moaned as the tide swept her away.
The enticing sensation of her throbbing around him sent the waves of his own release crashing home. Oh sweet paradise, your name is Korina, and I love you so…
She slowly became aware of his sweat-dampened body resting gently on hers and sighed. She was at ease within her skin, something she hadn’t felt for a long time. She truly loved her husband, but knew what she shared with JT was something more than just love; they were joined in a way that went far deeper than she’d ever suspected could exist.
She wasn’t aware of JT’s thoughts at that moment, but if she had been, she would have found them strikingly familiar. So this is what they mean by soulmate. I don’t know that love is a big enough word for how I feel about her. I don’t know that there is a word for it. But since ‘love’ is the only word we’ve got, that one will have to do.
And she finally said it. Used it, that word ‘love,’ for me. I feel so….complete. The final piece of the puzzle that was me is found. And my God what I’ve found. The missing piece of my heart.
He nuzzled into her neck. She wound her arms around his back, keeping the sweet weight of him over her for a little longer.
“JT?” she murmured.
“Yes, love?” he answered softly against her skin.
“I meant what I said before. Now is probably not the best time for this to happen for us, but I need to tell you again. I love you, JT.”
“Right now might not the be most convenient time, but I believe people come into our lives for a reason, and just when we need them the most. Love happens when it should happen. Fate has its own timetable, Kori. If it helps, know that I love you, too. Things will work out as they are supposed to.”
He rolled to the side, and she nestled into the hollow of his shoulder. “I never used to be much of a philosopher. Time, experience, and growing older have all had their influences.” He stroked her hair absently, continuing, “I’m still ever the workaholic. For me, that’s relaxing, and playing a round of golf stresses me out. But I have learned that things happen when they’re meant to and not before. Fate, kismet,
whatever, plays as much a role as hard work. You don’t get what you want without the work, but it won’t happen before its time, no matter how hard you try. The more you push, the harder it pushes back.”
He tightened his arm around her. “And when life throws a gift into your lap, you’d better grab onto it. With both hands.”
His words sparked a memory; she tilted her face to look at his profile. “Mark said something almost exactly the same on the night that you and I met after the Albuquerque show. That this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and that I should grab it with both hands and not let go.”
“See, I knew he was a smart man. After all, he found you first.”
She was thoughtful for a moment. “I wonder if he knew how prophetic that was to become. I mean, he knew, then, that his time was coming, that he was…” Her voice hitched on the last word. She had no tears which needed his comfort but he pulled her a little closer, anyway, and landed a gentle kiss on her hair.
****
Mark wandered through the clean house, checking and rechecking, making sure everything was in order. With the help of his best friend, he’d done the major winter chores that he and Kori usually did together as the warm days wound down. Winter came hard and fast in the desert; fall lasted a week, maybe two, then frigid days and frozen nights appeared with almost no warning at all. He’d found himself sleeping a lot less than usual recently, and far less than his now-always exhausted body wanted him to. This was probably his last autumn in this house.
He spent many late nights typing at the computer, saving everything she’d need to do come springtime to restart the evaporative cooler, what services the cars needed before summer, how to do the maintenance on the lawnmower. Then how to undo it all a few months later to prepare for another winter. He might be here in the spring, but didn’t expect to see another winter, here or anywhere. And how much help he could be six months from now was anyone’s guess.
All those little tasks he attended to without thought, and with hardly her awareness, he typed and saved. A gesture of love, of staying in her life after he was gone. He couldn’t find the strength to write of his love for her, of his memories of the fifteen years they’d shared. Lord knows he’d tried, but then the tears would come and the keyboard got blurry and he had to stop. He knew she would miss him; he hoped the path he’d nudged her down would bring her happiness when he was gone.
****
The morning was hectic, as expected. The flight from Denver to Dallas was scheduled to leave at noon and the band were notoriously late risers, especially the morning after a show. Stuart had actually imposed curfew the night before, and they ignored it for an hour before he’d managed to hustle them away from the fans in the hotel bar. Not that it seemed to make one iota of difference. They were late and rushing around as usual.
Korina had been prepared to leave since the day before, and to Stuart’s surprise, so had JT. They took advantage of the uninterrupted time together.
JT knew he would soon have to play the part of ‘just good friend.’ No stolen kisses in empty hallways, no long heated glances, and definitely no soft skin under his hands.
Kori was nervously puttering about the room, making sure she had everything. JT stepped up behind her when she stopped moving for a moment. Watching her flit around the room was driving him nuts.
“I promise to behave.” His voice was soft and low into her ear.
“I know that,” she replied on a sigh. “I’m sorry, JT. I’m worried about seeing him again. How he’ll look, what to say. How to bring it up.” She sounded miserable.
“I remember some good advice I received from someone not long ago, and I’ll pass it on to you: just open your mouth and let the words fall out.”
She turned to face him. “Ha-ha. Very funny, throwing my own words back at me. But I guess that’s what I’ll have to do. I mean, I can’t exactly steer a conversation into, ‘So, when were you planning to tell me you were dying?’ I know I have to do it, and it has to be today or it’ll be even harder to open my mouth. But I’m not looking forward to it.”
JT took a step closer, then another, trapping her near the wall. “I know that, love. And I’ll be here,” he touched his fingertips to her chest, “whenever you need me.”
She raised her eyes to his and found she couldn’t look away. Her own eyes widened, her lips parted with a sharp intake of breath. She staggered a half-step backward under the onslaught, and found her back landing firmly against the wall.
JT sidled closer, his fingertips trailing lightly up her chest, her neck, tracing the line of her jaw. He pressed her into the wall with the full length of his body, his fingers still brushing that maddening heat over the edge of her face, finally stopping to draw the tip of his index finger along her lower lip. His eyes never left hers.
“I’ll miss this,” he said thickly, replacing his softly tracing fingertip with his lips.
Good God, what this man does to me with just a look, one touch… She felt a brilliant flare of desire even before the first brush of his mouth. The world was nothing but his soft lips, the molding of his body to hers. JT slid his hands over her shoulders then up the wall, over her head. He shifted to press into her harder. She whimpered under the tender assault of his lips, her senses reeling. Instinctively she tensed the muscles of her buttocks, trying to draw even closer.
JT felt her push into his growing arousal; with a groan, he crushed her against the wall. He sensed the simple rightness of her warm body under his. Holy shit. How can I do without this, without her? Suddenly desperate to impress the memory of her contours into his fingertips, he dragged his hands over her soft curves. He swayed, then stumbled back. He was no longer balancing against his arms, and the emotions slamming through him spun his head.
She followed his backstep. She had no choice. His hands roamed hungrily, pulling her closer until she melted. Lost. The word played through her mind, over and over, like a needle stuck in the groove of a record. And I don’t know if I want to be found. Lost in his eyes, lost in his kiss, lost in those amazing hands and their sweet caress…
A tiny sound escaped her throat as her hands snaked around him and into his back pockets, pushing the obvious evidence of his desire for her tighter against her body.
– Ah, Christ, love! I love it when you do that….when you show me how much you want me….I want you not just one more time but over and over…but….time…..is there enough time to…
A loud knock at the door stopped him cold. They broke apart, both breathing shallow and hard.
“Hey, Kori! We leave in fifteen minutes. If you’re in there, too, JT, be ready to go in fifteen,” Stuart’s voice carried through her door, and doubtless the others nearby, as well.
They glanced at each other guiltily, as if Stuart had seen what he’d interrupted. Still close, but no longer touching. Kori gave a nervous little laugh. “So I guess we haven’t been hiding this as well as we thought.”
“What? Stu? Don’t worry about him, love. He might see it all, but he keeps it to himself.” JT’s eyes were glazed with unsatisfied passion.
“Good thing he came by when he did. Or we might’ve been too busy to catch the plane.”
“Yeah, good thing,” he rasped, still trying to regain his composure. “Speaking of the plane, got a seatmate picked out?”
“Nope. The job’s still open. You want it? I could use a big shoulder to sleep against.” He watched her bend down to pick up her suitcase, and had to push away the thoughts of what he wanted to do to her ass.
“Just to sleep on? Aw, babe….bend over in front of me again like that, and the plane be damned. We aren’t leaving this room.”
She just chuckled and maneuvered her bags out into the hall, still riding the adrenaline rush of lust and enjoying it while she could.
Thirteen
Korina kept a nervous eye on her wristwatch as the porters gathered their luggage and lugged it to the waiting limousines; ninety minutes from now, Mark and Zach would be arrivin
g in Dallas, too. If traffic was light, she should be able to pick up her room key at the hotel and drop off her bags, then return to the airport with time to spare.
Stuart offered to take her luggage and register her room, but she declined. She didn’t want to rattle around the airport with no distraction from her thoughts for an hour and a half.
Per JT’s request, Stuart instructed one of the two limousine drivers to wait at the hotel while Korina impatiently registered, scrambled up to her room to leave her bags and take an anxious elevator ride back down to the lobby.
JT knew she was beginning to feel the stress of the looming confrontation with Mark, and wasting her limited time to catch a cab would only make it worse. He also remembered her delight during her first limo ride in Denver, and wanted Mark and Zach to enjoy that little touch of luxury before embarking on the tedious tour bus for a while.
Korina nearly ran Stuart over as she exited the elevator.
“Whoa, lass. Slow down. You’ve got forty minutes yet,” he said, grabbing her arms to keep both of them from tumbling to the polished marble floor.
She glanced furtively at her watch. “It’s a twenty minute trip back to the airport, Stuart, and I still have to snag a cab.”
He smiled, thinking that JT knew her far better than even she suspected. “There’s a limousine waiting, luv. JT knew you’d need it, and asked me to keep it for you.”
Her eyes widened. “A limo isn’t necessary, Stu. A cab will do us just fine.” She looked at her watch again and turned to walk away.
“JT insisted, luv. He laid all this out before we left Denver. Saying no is not an option, I’m afraid.”
Her minutes were ticking away. “I give up. JT wins. This time. Tell him I said thanks, will you, Stuart?” She gave him a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, then spun on her heel and jogged out the front lobby doors.
Dream Me Off My Feet (Sex, Love, And Rock & Roll) Page 25