Keeping my eyes on his, I jump a little and wrap my legs around his waist. “Fuck,” he moans at the feeling, and walks toward the pool edge and presses my back against it. He kisses my lips again, and then under my ear, the line of my jaw, down my neck, my chest, before he lifts me up a bit and exposes my breasts. “Beautiful,” he says before his lips tease, suck and pleasure them. My head falls back on my shoulders and I run my fingers through his hair.
“So good,” I tell him as I feel him tease a nipple between his teeth. My body feels like it’s on fire, and my temperature rises so much that the pool water starts to feel like cool relief against my skin.
He kisses his way back up and finds my mouth again. I groan, pulling him tighter, wanting more, wanting everything he has to give.
Without warning, he puts me down on my feet and steps away from me. He takes several deep breaths and looks away before looking back, “I just need a minute.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m just getting very excited, very fast,” he smiles. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
“Because, I don’t want you to think that I purposefully brought you over here to do this. I mean, okay yeah, so I suggested skinny-dipping and I know that involves getting naked, but that doesn’t mean we have to…do anything else. I’m just trying to say there’s no expectations here.”
I nod my head and start walking toward the other side of the pool where the stairs are. He calls my name once but I ignore him. Turning to look at him over my shoulder right before I walk up the stairs, I smile seductively. Holding his eyes, I take a step up, then another. Just as his eyes widen, I turn around and move to one of the lounge chairs. Sitting down, I push my hair behind my shoulders, then brazenly place a leg on either side of the chair exposing him to…everything. “Maddox?”
“Yeah?” He asks, voice husky, eyes huge.
“Maybe you don’t have expectations, but I do.”
His mouth falls open, and he moves fast to the stairs and walks up and out of the water. He stands there for a moment and gets a good look at my body, the moonlight making it clearly visible. If I could take a picture of him like this, I would. All sinew and muscle, wetness sliding down his body, and the inky blackness of the water at his back. The view makes me salivate, and I can’t help but bite my bottom lip as I devour every inch of him.
Finally, he approaches. I expect him to put his body on mine, to take me hard and fast. But he doesn’t. He kneels next to my chair and looks me up and down again. I watch him watching me. His right hand reaches toward my body, and he caresses a breast. He teases my nipple, cups it, then moves to the next. His hand then trails down my body, swirls around my belly button, and stops. My breath catches when I realize what’s caught his eye. His finger trails the faint scar from my cesarean section back and forth. Suddenly, I feel his lips upon my skin kissing the spot where my son was taken from my body. Tears come to my eyes as he whispers, “Beautiful.” It’s certainly not the first time anyone has seen it, but they either didn’t say anything, didn’t notice, or didn’t care to know. It takes effort to keep my emotions from overflowing, but he distracts me when his hand slides the rest of the way down my smooth skin before it slips into my wetness. When he feels how ready I am for him, he moans and looks at me. He continues to move his hand, teasing, entering, swirling. My breath begins coming in pants and just before I’m about to beg him to give me more, he finally stands upright before stretching his body over my own.
We both exhale deeply and simultaneously as if the simple act is too overwhelming to do anything else for a moment. His elbows are on either side of my head, and he drops his head, eyes wide open, and kisses me while leaving his eyes on mine. It feels erotic to kiss him this way and I make myself keep my eyes on him and not close them against the pleasure I feel. When he pulls his lips away from my own, he begins placing kisses in other places. My jaw, a kiss and nibble on my neck, runs his tongue down my chest, over my breasts, to my stomach, hips and thighs. He pays each location attention before moving onto the next. I practically squirm at the expectation he builds within me.
When he lowers himself so that his face is practically buried between my legs, I groan. He quickly moves my legs over his shoulders, and I barely have time to think before his mouth is on me. When he moans after his first lick, my back arches and I break out in goose bumps and my breasts feel heavier, my nipples harder. “God, yes,” I say and begin moving my hips in time with his motions. Nothing else exists except the two of us, and how he’s making my body feel. I want to try to hold off, I want the build up to be slow and steady, I want it to last, but the feelings he evokes in me are too much and in no time, I’m gasping for air and crying out as fireworks explode behind my eyes.
He rises from his place between my legs and grins at me, “Feel good, songbird?”
All I can do is nod. He smiles again as he kisses his way up my body, and gets into position. With a look at me, he pauses. A question. I nod, and shock him even more with my demand, “Fuck me, Maddox.” He grins, and enters me swiftly. I move my hips suggestively, a demand.
Adhering to my request he begins working his hips quickly and sufficiently. “Like that?” he asks me.
“God, yes.” My head is bent back, my breaths coming in gasps as I wrap my legs around his waist. “More,” I tell him. “I want more.”
“Fuck, Sailor,” he says and his body feels slick from a mixture of water and sweat, and I dig my fingernails into the chair. He moves faster, and I love what he’s doing to me. I meet him pound for pound. The look on his face, the sound of our bodies coming together over and over, the way he whispers my name under his breath, how his eyes roll back in his head – it all provides sensory overload, and before long I’m moaning out my release again, his quickly following mine.
It was fast, intense, and perfect. His head is next to mine and he doesn’t move, waiting to catch his breath. I begin rubbing my hands over his back, his shoulders, his arms. He pulls away from me, looks down into my face and kisses my lips before separating us and hands me a towel like a gentleman. “Shower?” he asks and I nod.
While wrapping myself in the towel, he does the same, wrapping one around his waist then leads me inside, up the stairs, and into a huge bedroom with an attached bathroom. We shower together and he sweetly washes every inch of my body, and even shampoos my hair. I return the favor and the whole time we laugh and whisper to each other like the lovers we now are.
He then calmly and efficiently takes me to his bed and we make love all over again. Each touch is like fire to my blood; each sweet whisper is water that puts out the flame.
Much later, facing each other, he asks, “Will you stay with me tonight?”
“Yes,” I tell him sleepily, my eyes feeling heavy.
“Sailor?”
“Hmm?”
“Why do you have a tattoo that says ‘good vibes’ under your breast?”
My eyes pop open having forgotten he would see my other two tattoos while seeing me naked. “I was drunk and it seemed like a good idea.”
He laughs, “Gotcha. And the date on your hip? That’s your son’s birthday isn’t it?”
That sobers me, “Yes,” I whisper.
He pulls me closer to him, kisses the top of my head, “I thought so. Do you…do you ever hear anything about him?”
“No. It wasn’t an open adoption. I don’t even know his name.”
“I’m sorry,” he says.
“It was my choice,” I tell him. “I thought that knowing would have made it harder, but the truth is, not knowing isn’t all that easy either.”
“I understand.”
“I did send my name with other information about me so they would have it. So, maybe someday…maybe…”
He pulls me closer and I love that I don’t have to say another word. He knows. “Maybe so,” he says. I’m not sure why but the words, even though they aren’t a certainty by any means, give me comfort and my min
d slips back to the moment he kissed my scar. I almost tell him right then. Almost. But, I refrain, choosing instead to revel silently.
The next morning I realize that I slept the best I have in years. It was the first night since I can remember that I didn’t pray to God asking him to forgive me for abandoning my son. For the first time since his birth, I know without a doubt I made the right choice. And feel at peace.
“All you have is two big suitcases and one small one?” I ask Sailor as I move to take her bags from Britt’s car and place them in front of our tour bus. There are three. One for Nixon, Henley, Jace, Rocco, Sailor and I, another for the crew, and a third that holds all of our equipment. It takes a lot of people to orchestrate a successful tour, even a small one like ours.
“Yeah, two for clothes and shoes and one for everything else,” she tells me as she watches me hungrily.
I wish I could kiss her right now. I almost do too, to hell with everyone else. Instead, I flex my biceps unnecessarily just for her viewing pleasure as I heave her bags. “You have less than Henley,” I tell her.
“Shut the fuck up,” Henley grumbles. “This look takes effort, asshole.”
“Seriously, dude,” Nixon says, “She’s a chick and she has less shit than you. That should tell you something. Three huge suitcases for a guy is seriously bordering on narcissistic.”
“I don’t know, Sailor. I’m really worried about you being trapped on a bus with them for six weeks.” Britt says to Sailor as she watches Henley and Rocco continue to argue.
“I’ll be fine,” Sailor smiles. “Besides, Jace and Rick said that I get the bedroom in the back to myself since I’m the only girl, so I have a place to escape.”
“Jace is just afraid after a couple days of listening to them burp, fart, chew with their mouths open and argue constantly, that you’ll want to bail early. Having a space of your own should eliminate that,” I tell her pointing at the other guys.
“Oh please, Mad,” Rocco says. “You can rival all of us in all of the above so don’t act like you’re exempt.”
“No shit. How easily he forgets that we had contests that he often won doing all of those things and more. And, I believe it was not too long ago he was a handful and major pain in the ass as he acquainted us with an ever growing array of, shall we say, activities,” Nixon adds backing up Rocco.
“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” I mumble to Sailor.
“I’m going to miss you,” Britt says pulling Sailor’s attention back to her. I watch as they hug each other for a long time. When they pull away, Sailor’s eyes are full of tears and I don’t like the sight one bit.
“I’m going to miss you too,” Sailor says. “But I’ll FaceTime you or text you every day. It will be like I never left.”
“You better,” she says with a sniffle, then looks at me and I nod. “And then I’ll see you at your last concert before you come home,” Britt says with a smile.
“You will?” Sailor asks excitedly looking from me to Britt.
“Yep. Maddox said he’ll send me tickets so I can come and see you,” she grins. “He offered to send others, but I really can’t get away from the shop until then.”
“Seriously?” Sailor asks.
“Yep!”
“You did that?” She asks me, but before I can either confirm or deny she launches herself at me and hugs me. But it’s not just any hug, she jumps into my arms and wraps her legs around my waist, a position I’ve found I quite like. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” she says. “I know it may seem silly, but it means a lot to me.”
“If this is the reaction I get, you tell me who else you want to give tickets to, and I’ll make it happen,” I laugh. Placing her back down a little distance from me, she looks confused for a moment and then realizes where we are and who we’re with.
“Uh, sorry about that,” she says and hides a smile. I can’t really blame her. We’ve spent every possible minute of the last week together. Keeping our hands and other body parts to ourselves is not going to be easy.
“Uh, excuse me,” Nixon interrupts. “If I told you that I helped get Maddox the tickets will you finally tell me about the time you experimented with a woman?”
Sailor laughs, “Did you? Help him get them I mean?”
“No, he didn’t,” I tell him and Nixon curses. “Sorry, I’m not sharing my thoughtfulness with you. Did you not see the reward I just received?”
“What do I have to give you in order to get a hug like that?” Henley asks and I barely keep myself from telling him to fuck off. I know he’s joking, but there’s some truth to his question too, I can see it in the way he checks Sailor out. Yet another reason keeping this to ourselves for now blows, but it’s the right thing to do. They will implode.
“Sorry, Nixon. Not telling you a thing,” Sailor says and then turns back to Britt. “I love you,” she tells her and I find myself feeling slightly jealous. “The time will fly by. And don’t forget I left you money for my half of the rent and utilities while I’m gone. You remember where it is?” Britt nods. “And I’m only a phone call away.”
“I know,” Britt says sadly, “But it’s not the same.”
“Oh my god, we will never leave. I can see it now, the sun is setting, we should have left hours ago, but we are still waiting for these two to quit hugging,” Henley harasses them.
“Hey,” Britt snaps and points at him, “Shut up. This is the first time we’ve been separated. I’m not at all ashamed to admit that our friendship is a co-dependent one, and I’m going to miss the shit out of her. So shut the fuck up,” she says and then bursts into tears.
Henley looks horrified and Nixon shakes his head and mutters, “Women.”
Sailor soothes her friend until suddenly, there’s a shout from the bus and Jace comes running off of it. “It’s on! It’s on!”
“What’s on?” Henley questions then laughs when Jace trips over his own feet in his efforts to get to us quickly.
“Chaos, it’s on the radio!”
We all smile and move toward the bus, Sailor and Britt on my heels.
As soon as Sailor hears our song a glorious smile graces her face and I love that I get to witness it up close and personal. Hearing your voice on the radio for the first time is indescribable. I feel like I’m hearing myself for the first time through her. By the way her eyes light up, the curl of her lips when she smiles, the squeal that comes out of her mouth and the way she jumps up and down and starts singing along. “I’m on the radio! Maddox! I’m on the radio!” she yells and starts dancing all around. Britt starts dancing with her and they squeal while Sailor starts singing out loud.
All the guys, and everyone else surrounding us can’t help but dance along with them. And with Sailor leading, we all have one big dance party while the song plays and act like a bunch of weirdos.
Inevitably the song ends and Jace claps his hands, “Alright, Graffiti, get your asses on the bus. It’s time to take off.”
The girls hug one more time, “I’m so happy we were together to hear your song on the radio for the first time,” Britt tells Sailor.
“Me too,” Sailor smiles and hugs Britt again. “I’ll talk to you soon.” With one last look over her shoulder, Sailor walks to the bus and gets on. “Hey,” Britt says catching my attention as she moves closer to me.
“Yeah?” I ask looking at her.
She moves her sunglasses to the top of her head, “Take yours off too,” she tells me. I do so and she looks me dead in the eyes and quietly says, “If anything happens to her, I’m blaming you. Take care of her.”
“I will. You can count on it,” I promise, knowing that Sailor didn’t keep our new relationship a secret from her best friend.
“I do,” she says and then she surprises me by giving me a hug too. “I’ll be watching the mail for those tickets.”
I hug her back and laugh, “Okay. I promise they’ll be on their way.”
With a nod and one last look at the bus, she gets in h
er car and drives away. I finish helping them load the rest of the luggage on the bus before sitting down next to Sailor at the table and chairs in the middle part of the bus across from the kitchen. The bus is pretty amazing, really. It’s completely decked out and if you have to live on one for a little while, this is definitely the way to go. Of course by the end of the tour we will probably all be ready to rip each other’s heads off and be condemning this bus to hell, but until then, we have everything we need here for the most part. We’ll stay at a hotel intermittently. If anything like before, those hotel nights are coveted and we all go to our separate rooms, but not before kissing the damn floor, eager to have some time separate from each other.
“So,” Sailor says looking around at all of us, “tell me some stories.”
“You already need entertained? We just got on the bus!” Nixon teases.
“Some stories? About what?” Rocco asks.
“I want to hear about your prior times on tour. The things no one else knows. There has to be some crazy stories. Times you fought? What have you done to pass the time?”
“Well, there was this one time that we all met this groupie at a concert and she was traveling from venue to ven-” Henley starts.
“No. No. We are not going to tell her stories like that,” I interrupt. I’m not keen on her hearing about times we were a bunch of man whores. Not that they still aren’t, or I wasn’t a few months ago, but that’s not the point.
“Why not? She asked!” Nixon argues.
“She’s still a lady, and that’s not cool,” Rocco says.
“Thank you,” I nod at Rocco thankful he agrees with me.
“Sounds like you’ll have to tell me that one in private,” Sailor says to Henley.
“I’ll gladly tell you all about it,” Nixon says with a devious smile. “As long as you tell me about the time you made out with a woman.”
“Oh my god, give it up,” I tell him.
He looks me dead in the eyes, “Never.” Sailor simply laughs and shakes her head.
“Look, here’s all you need to know,” Rocco starts. “Henley gets really gassy when we eat at one too many taco places, Nixon completely misses the toilet pissing when he’s drunk.”
Broken Melody (Graffiti On Tour Series) Page 22