Alek turned, and Cori threw herself into his arms. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea she was that crazy. Are you okay? Did she hurt you?”
Feeling the love and strength from Alek made her feel safe again. Corie had never been so scared in her life. “No, I’m okay. She didn’t hurt me. Thank God, you came when you did. How did you know I needed you?”
“The girls that were in the room with you told a roadie that Crystal was back. They had a feeling she was up to no good, so they said something the first guy they saw, and he ran and got me. Ethan called for security while I ran here. Are you sure you are okay?”
“Yes, I am. Thank you for rescuing me. Crystal was completely crazy, and I didn’t know what to do.” Corie’s voice shook as the enormity of what just happened hit her. Tears started to flow down her cheeks as the thin thread of self-control that she had been hanging onto completely vanished.
All Alek could do was hold her as she sobbed. Ethan walked into the room flanked by the other two band members of Midnight Steel. “Is she alright?” the lead singer asked.
“She will be. The shock of everything just hit her,” Alek replied before kissing the top of Corie’s head. “I want that crazy bitch arrested. And find out who let her back in. If it was one of our guys, he’s fired. If he belongs to the venue, we are never playing here again. Got that, Ethan?”
“Got it, mate. Take the limo back to the hotel. Go now so you can get Corie out of here. I’ll catch a ride with Tony and Davey when we are done.”
Alek nodded his thanks. Corie pulled away from him wiping her eyes. “We can go now?” she asked him.
“Absolutely.”
Together they made their way towards the waiting long black limousine. This wasn’t how Corie expected to end her night. Everything had been so incredible from her reconciliation with Alek to getting to see him perform with the band and especially the song he wrote for her. Now that psycho Crystal had ruined her perfect night. But Corie was determined to reclaim it. There was no way she was going to let that woman win. Alek belonged to her.
He pulled her onto his lap as the long car pulled away from the back of the venue. It was time to reconnect with him and make plans. They had a lot to figure out to make their relationship work, but she was fully confident that they could. For now, though, she was content to just be in his arms. They could work on the details later.
Chapter 20
Alek held Corie on his lap as the limousine drove down the always busy New York streets. Whether it was three o’clock in the afternoon or three in the morning, it didn’t make a difference. New York was the city that never slept.
He couldn’t believe she was here with him. The woman he never thought existed, the one that came flying into his life only to have him fuck it up and lose her…was back. The night couldn’t have gone better for them. She still loved him. They put on a kick-ass show, and she absolutely loved the song. In fact, everyone did. It went over really with the sold-out crowd, so well that Ethan told him it had to be on their next album. He would want Corie to be okay with that happening. The song belonged to her.
Neither of them said anything during the first part of the drive even though the partition was up blocking them from the driver. It was not that they were afraid to say anything, but just being together was enough for right now.
The only part of the night that had gone wrong, really wrong, was what happened with Crystal. Alek closed his eyes as he relived those horrible few minutes. He had no idea that Crystal was capable of something like that. When Bobby ran into the dressing room telling him that Crystal was back and acting crazy to Corie, he dashed out at full speed to rescue her. Ethan had called out that he would get security.
He never imagined that he would find Crystal holding a knife on the love of his life. He listened to her ranting for a moment and heard how delusional she was. He took the chance that if he acted calm and played her game, he could get her away from Corie. All that mattered was Corie being safe.
And thank God that it had worked. The psycho bitch should be on her way to jail now and far away from them. If she had hurt Corie, he never would have forgiven himself. This was entirely his fault. Even though it had been well over a year since he had slept with her, Alek regretted it completely.
He owed Corie another apology for being so bloody stupid to ever have hooked up with Crystal in the first place. It didn’t matter that he didn’t even know Corie at the time. His mistake could have cost his love her life.
“Alek, you’re squeezing me kind of hard. I’m not going anywhere,” Corie said softly.
He hadn’t even realized that he had been holding her too tightly. “Sorry. It’s still difficult to believe that you are really here. I was a mess without you.”
“I know I was too. Nothing made sense. I didn’t even want to write anymore.”
That shocked Alek. “You love to write. Damn, Corie. I’m so sorry for screwing everything up.”
“We both did,” she admitted. “I never told you, but my new book was a variation on how we met. When we fell apart, I didn’t know how to make Olivia and Grayson work anymore when we didn’t.”
Alek rolled his eyes in the dark. “Grayson? You named a character you modeled after me, Grayson? Could you have chosen a more pompous name?”
Corie laughed at him. He was serious, but she thought it was hilarious that a man named Malcolm Alexander would believe that Grayson was too pompous. “Well, she calls him Gray, and he is a prince, so he can’t be called Bob.”
“A Prince? You turned me into a stuffy royal Prince? Is a rock star not bloody well good enough for your book?” Alek did his best not to laugh and sound indignant, but he knew he was failing.
“You are too much,” she laughed. “I need to write what I know, and until today I knew absolutely nothing about the rock star life. Writing about a runaway prince is easy. A runaway rock star, not so much.”
“Did they get their happily ever after?” he asked while nuzzling her neck.
“They did, even though I hated it. Now, I’m glad I finished it the way I did. DeeDee thinks it’s one of my best manuscripts. It goes on sale next month.”
“Well, I look forward to reading about this Prince. I want to see how close he comes to me and our own personal bedroom scenes. Did you use the time I had you bent over the outside railing…”
“Alek! Stop.” Corie took a deep breath. “You’ll just have to wait to find out, but this isn’t the place to talk about that day.”
Now he couldn’t think of anything but that afternoon. She had been teasing him all day, but she wouldn’t let him touch her. He spent most of that day adjusting the nonstop hard on he had for her. It was late in the afternoon, and he found her outside on the front porch. Corie had her arms leaning on the railing while lightly swaying her hips back and forth. The little sundress she had on was barely covering her bum. When he sat down in one of the wicker chairs she had outside for them to relax in, he noticed that she wasn’t wearing anything under that dress.
His zipper was down, and he had himself inside of her in seconds. That led to a marathon of crazy sex on the front porch. It had been her first time having sex outdoors, and they only went inside when the mosquitoes started to bite.
Alek couldn’t wait to have her naked again. In fact, he was rock hard for her right now. And he was sure that Corie knew it too as she had been wiggling on his lap for the last few minutes driving him crazy. “If you make me walk through the hotel lobby with this huge fucking hard on, you will pay, Luv. And pay dearly,” he growled into her ear.
“Promise?”
Before Alek could respond, he felt the car pull out of traffic and stop at the front entrance of the St. Regis. It took only a moment for a bellman to open the door to assist them out. Alek made sure that Corie was walking in front of him until they got into the elevator. Once the doors closed, he pushed her against the wood-paneled back wall and crushed his mouth to hers.
She surrendered to his kiss instantly. But
then the doors opened again for another couple. “Take the next one,” Alek growled to the couple. “Too many damn people around here,” he mumbled as the doors closed again.
“Maybe we should actually hit a button, so the elevator moves this time,” Corie giggled.
“Fucking details.”
Alek pressed the button for the fourteenth floor and turned back to Corie. “My suite. I know Ethan got you a room tonight, but we’re staying in my suite.”
“Where ever you are is where I want to be. I don’t care whose room it is as long as we are together.”
He took her face between his hands and kissed her much more gently this time. “I like the sound of that.” The elevator doors opened and hand in hand they headed for Alek’s suite.
They hung the Do-Not-Disturb sign on the handle before the door closed softly behind them. Alek and Corie were finally alone. No more band. No more crazy women. Just the two of them.
“So…would you believe that I’m a little bit nervous,” Corie admitted as she took her leather jacket off, placing it on the back of one of the chairs.
Alek was ready to rip both their clothes off, but he realized he was better off going slow. He wanted her to feel comfortable with him again. There was no need to rush, they had all night. Hell, they had hundreds of nights ahead of them. It wasn’t just about him, it was about her, too.
“I understand, Luv. Let’s sit down here for a bit and catch our breath. Tonight has been very crazy, to say the least.” He sat down on the white sofa, indicating she should join him. When Corie sat down next to him, Alek threaded his fingers through hers as his need to touch her was overwhelming. “So what have you been doing besides writing about this prince?”
“Not too much. I was lost for a while hating you and loving you at the same time. Kelsey spent a lot of time with me at the farm and having her around helped. I just wrote and rewrote, worked outside on the property, and planted a garden. I live a quiet life. You know that.”
“How are the girls?” he asked with a smirk.
Corie laughed at his question. For a man that hated her hens, in the beginning, he had become quite fond of them towards the end. “They all miss you, especially the mean one. Anytime I said your name, I swear Matilda would start squawking nonstop. I think she misses your singing. I know I do.” Alek’s voice wasn’t a strong as Ethan’s was, but he still sang very well.
“I knew I’d win that miserable bird over,” he laughed. He missed the quietness and ease of living on her farm. He had only known life in a busy city, but the peace he found with her in Maine still called his name. He had loved living there.
“What about you, Alek. What did you do?” she asked him.
“Got drunk…a lot. Didn’t want to do much else.”
“Oh, Alek.”
He knew drinking wasn’t the way to solve his problems. He saw that with Davey. His friend had demons that ran deep, but it was the only way he knew to numb the pain. “Ethan showed up one day. I sobered up, and we talked. He was the one that said if you wouldn’t answer my calls or texts, I had to be creative and find a way. So I did it the only way I knew how which was through music. He hesitated for a moment before asking, glancing down at the floor before back up at her, “Did you like the song?”
Alek could tell that she liked it from seeing her reaction to the words Ethan sang. But he needed to hear it from her. Did she understand what he so desperately needed to tell her? If she got the song, she would get him.
“I loved the song, but I want to hear it again with you singing it. I think I heard most of the lyrics, but if you sang it to me a dozen more times, I wouldn’t mind.” Corie turned towards Alek while moving closer to him on the sofa so that their bodies touched. They both felt the spark that always happened between them.
“Ethan thinks it should go on our next album, but I told him the decision was yours. I wrote it for you. You don’t have to say yes or no now, just think about it.”
“It’s so beautiful, and while it’s about us, it needs to be shared. I saw how everyone tonight reacted to it and as much as I would love for it to be just ours, I can’t do that. It belongs where everyone can enjoy it. Tell, Ethan it’s fine with me,” she told him. The world should be able to hear how much he loved her.
“Brilliant. I’ll let him know. I’ll sing it for you when we get back to the farm as many times as you want. I’m so damn happy that you understood what I was trying to say.”
“I get why you felt the need to do what you did. I understand it now. You were lost and knew it. I was lost, but I didn’t know it. When we’re together, everything just makes sense. When we’re not together, we’re just lost pieces without any meaning. I’m nothing without you.”
“And I am nothing without you,” he echoed. The love he saw in her eyes staggered him. They shared a bond that he never imagined he would find, but he did on a cold, snowy night. A night, that while I did its best to kill him, he found salvation.
Alek brought his hand to her face trying to reassure himself that she was real. He had bet his lost soul that he’d find a way to get her to come to New York, but it was actually his best friend that convinced her to give him another chance. He lowered his hungry lips to hers. She was just as sweet as he remembered. His tongue pushed hard against hers at first, needing to claim her again as his. When she sank into the kiss and into him, he softened his assault on her mouth. Alek held her tight against his chest as her arms reached up to wrap around his neck.
Corie broke the kiss first, resting her forehead momentarily against his trying to catch her breath. Then she stood up, extending her hand to him, and he took it firmly in his own. Alek got up, and together they headed toward the open door on the far side of the room that led to the bedroom. It was unusual for a hotel to have a bedroom done up solely in white. The walls, the carpet, the bedding, and every piece of furniture in the room were the same color. The room looked colorless when it was the exact opposite. The bright whiteness that surrounded them spoke of the pureness of their love. There was nothing in their path that could taint it anymore. It was what so many dreamed of, and so few found.
Without a word, they began to undress each other with Alek bending down to unzip Corie’s boots before slipping them off her feet. She did the same to him. It was her stockings next followed by his shirt. When Corie turned her back to Alek, he slowly lowered the zipper while peppering her neck with light kisses. He unsnapped her bra and gently pushed the straps to both off her shoulders until everything lay in a milky, white puddle at her feet.
Almost shyly, she turned to him in only her panties. Alek held his breath for a moment, taking in her stunning beauty. His hand reached out and stroked the side of her breast. He was afraid touching her would break the spell that was wrapped around them both. Corie was the one who took the next step by popping the top button on his jeans while he continued to stroke her. When she lowered his zipper, Alek felt himself spring free of the restricting pants. He had been hard for her since the limo ride back here to the hotel, and it had been uncomfortable being stuffed into his jeans. She pushed them down his hips, and Alek kicked them off. They both stood together clad in only their underwear.
Corie backed up to the bed, her eyes never leaving Alek’s. He saw her touch the elastic on her waistband of her panties and he did the same to his boxer briefs. They both lost their final piece of clothing at the same time. Alek took a step toward her and Corie moved onto the bed. He was beside her in a split second with his lips on hers a scant moment later.
While Alek’s mouth rained kisses all over her, his hand now took possession of her breast. He had loved their size and feel since the first time they made love. He loved touching them as often as he could. They were as perfect as she was.
“I missed you,” he murmured as his kisses moved further down her body.
“Oh, God I missed you and this too,” Corie said in a breathy whisper.
Then Alek moved his body over Corie’s, so he was looking down into
her passion-filled green eyes. The tip of his shaft touched her wet folds, begging for entrance. Then she said to him the words that he had never thought he’d hear again, “Please. I need you, Alek.”
The first thrust had him in as far as the tip, the next one he was in halfway, and with the third hard thrust, they both groaned loudly as he was sheathed completely inside of her. For a moment they stayed that way, neither of them moving, just relishing the feeling of being together again. Then he started moving his hips so that each subsequent time he plunged into Corie, she had her body meeting his.
Her arms were wrapped tightly around him, keeping them as close together as they could get. Alek’s head was side-by-side hers as their bodies moved as one. The room filled with the sound of their ragged breathing as the desire they had for each other rose higher and higher toward the peak they both sought. With a sudden cry, Corie was the first one to fall over the edge as waves of electricity overtook her body, causing her to shudder uncontrollably under Alek. He was right behind her, groaning loudly as he spilling himself into her over and over again. They were consumed by the passion they had for each other as their bodies reacted stronger than ever to the love they share.
For several minutes Alek lay on top of Corie as they struggled to catch their breath. Finally, he slid off of her and gathered her in his arms as together they were still feeling the remnants of the bliss they created. “I love you,” he whispered in her ear.
“I love you more,” she replied with a smile. Which Alek acknowledged with a squeeze. “How about we get under the covers?”
They both got up off the bed and pulled the soft duvet down along the sheet underneath. Then they slid between the cool sheets and cuddled up together while lying on their sides facing each other.
“Goodnight, my prince,” Corie said softly, looking up into Alek’s loving eyes.
“Goodnight, my love,” he told her with a kiss. Just as she was falling to sleep in his arms, he whispered to her, “I’m no bloody prince” before they drifted off together, happy and deeply in love.
Pieces of Me (Midnight Steel Trilogy Book 1) Page 25