Rock Star

by Roslyn Hardy Holcomb

  Bryan tensed even further, the shudders rippling through his body more powerful than ever.

  “Oh God, oh God, oh God,” he moaned, rolling his head from side to side. His control slipped another notch. “God baby, you feel so good. You’re making me crazy!” he strained out as his hands flexed forcefully on her hips.

  Catching sight of Bryan’s extremity pitched Callie into a second orgasm. When Bryan felt her muscles begin to clench spasmodically around him, he knew he couldn’t hold back any longer. His back arched almost impossibly as he reached his own release.

  After maintaining that posture for what seemed like an eternity, Bryan sank back onto the floor, taking a limp Callie with him. She pressed her fevered face into the curve of his neck as the tremors continued to arc their way through her body. It seemed that the exquisite sensations would never cease. They were almost frightening in their ferocity. Their bodies gradually calmed as they lay in a boneless heap on the floor.

  Chapter 12

  Bryan stirred briefly from his position under Callie, smoothing his hands over her back to rouse her. He wanted to stay intertwined with her forever, but was concerned that he might have hurt or frightened her.

  “Callie.” When there was no response he shook her slightly. “Callie, baby, are you okay?” he rasped.

  Callie murmured something unintelligible into his neck, and he shook her more insistently. “Baby, are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

  Finally Callie raised her head and peered down at him as if in a daze. “Whaaaa…?”

  “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked anxiously.

  Callie continued to stare at him blankly as she gradually collected herself.

  “Oh my God,” she murmured as she moved completely off him, her movements jerky and disjointed. She wiped a hand over her face. “What did I do?”

  Bryan sat up immediately and reached out to touch her shoulder. “Sweetheart…”

  Callie began to collect her clothing. Still feeling disoriented, she held her shirt up to cover her nakedness. She knew only one thing for sure: She had to get away from Bryan as quickly as possible.

  Bryan grabbed her shoulders firmly. “No, Callie, you’re not leaving me.”

  “But, Bryan…”

  “Listen to me, Callie. You knew this was going to happen sooner or later.” He looked down ruefully at the faint marks on her hips and breasts. “I’m sorry I hurt you and no, I didn’t intend for it to happen tonight, but we were going to be together eventually, and you know it.”

  Callie still reached for her clothing, trying frantically to move away from his hands. “Bryan, just let me put my clothes on…”

  Bryan brushed her locs away from her face. “No, Callie, you’ve got to go home tomorrow. Just stay with me tonight, please.” He leaned forward, his mouth mere centimeters from her own as he whispered, “Baby, I’ll be leaving soon, and we won’t be able to be together for a long time. I just want to hold you. Please stay.” Bryan was almost desperate to continue their embrace. The need to have more of her was urgent. Now that he’d had her, he had no intention of ever letting her go.

  When Callie moved hesitantly under his hands, he moved them to her shoulders, stilling her as he captured her lips in a tender kiss. He moved away slowly, until his lips were a mere hairsbreadth from his own. Staring down into her liquid brown eyes, he implored, “Callie, stay with me.”

  Callie breathed in deeply, closing her eyes as she reflected on what had just happened. To do so would only make bad matters worse as far as she was concerned, but the invitation to spend the night in his arms was impossible to resist. She leaned forward, placing her head on his shoulder.

  Bryan moved his hands up, cupping her head to his body as he inhaled deeply. She would stay. All was not lost.

  * * *

  As the fingers of dawn painted a pastel palette across the sky above the Santa Monica Mountains, Bryan woke to a dream fulfilled. Each time he’d awakened during the night, he’d looked down on the vision Callie made lying against him and simply couldn’t believe that his fantasies had come true. Though they had made love only one additional time, the sensation of her flesh against his was as intimate as the most carnal act. One of her arms was flung across his chest, and her thigh lay across his hips. Her hair was strewn over his chest from where her head rested on his shoulder. He rubbed it in circular motions against his skin. As he had suspected, the soft coily texture was extraordinarily sensual. He lay back in the bed, luxuriating in the feel of her silky flesh against his own. But she had an early flight and he had to talk to her before she left. There was no way he was letting her leave until they came to some type of understanding. He gently shook Callie awake. “Come on, sweetheart,” he murmured. “We need to talk.”

  * * *

  Callie and Bryan sat facing each other on a beach that was abandoned at this early hour. Clad only in his pajama bottoms, Bryan’s legs were splayed to the outside of hers. He held both her hands firmly ensconced in his own as he tried to formulate the best way to tell her what was in his heart. He knew he was unlikely to get another opportunity to talk to her like this, and was terrified that he would botch it. He’d never wanted to express such feelings to a woman before, and didn’t know where to begin. He waited until she raised her eyes inquiringly.

  Taking a deep breath he began. “Callie, last night was the most incredible night of my life. For the first time in my life, I felt…” He fumbled, unable to put such wondrous emotions into words. “I can’t even tell you what I felt, but it was unbelievable. I wish things were different, and I could take as much time as I want to be with you, but I’ve got to finish up this tour. There’s no way out of it.” He rushed on when she didn’t respond. “Do you understand what I’m saying?” He took another deep breath and held it, afraid of what Callie’s answer would be.

  Callie had lowered her eyes the instant Bryan mentioned the previous evening. “Bryan, I don’t think any of this is a good idea. There are just way too many things separating us.”

  Bryan placed a finger under her chin, raising her head until her eyes met his own. “Callie, the only thing separating us right now is you. We are two people who care about each other. Are you going to throw that away because other people don’t approve, or because of the business I happen to be in?”

  Callie broke eye contact and lowered her head again, but couldn’t think of anything to say.

  Bryan continued, “Callie, like I told you last night, you knew damned well that this was going to happen sooner or later. Okay, the physical part happened sooner than I had planned, but baby, we’ve got something here, something I’ve never had before…” He broke off, unable to think of anything else he could say that might convince her.

  Callie knew she was being unfair to Bryan. He was right. Deep down inside she had known that their relationship would eventually come to this, and if she hadn’t wanted it, she should have stopped it long before they slept together. Breaking it off now would make things even more difficult. She lowered her head to her knees. “Bryan, I do want to be with you,” she admitted, “but…”

  Bryan pulled her closer, relief making his body go limp. “Let’s not think about the ‘buts’ right now.”

  Callie turned her head to look at the seagulls diving for their morning meal. “It just seems to me that it would be simpler for us both to just let it go.”

  Bryan cuddled her against his chest. “Callie, I don’t think either of us has ever taken the easy way out, no real reason to start now.”

  From that position, nestled in the warm safety of his arms, Callie couldn’t think of any real reason to start either.

  * * *

  Callie and Bryan stayed on the beach for as long as they could, but eventually they had to get ready to go to the airport for Callie’s flight back to Alabama. Bryan would be staying in L.A., rehearsing for the resumption of Storm Crow’s tour. Callie had packed the previous day, so it was really just a matter of checking the house to ensure
that she had not left any of her belongings behind. As they sat in the kitchen enjoying one last cup of coffee before they departed for the airport, Bryan slid the tiniest cell phone she’d ever seen across the table to Callie. Smaller even than a pager, it gleamed with an odd metallic sheen.

  She picked it up and examined it curiously.

  “I’ve always refused to have a cell phone before. There are times when I don’t want to be in contact with anyone, but that doesn’t apply to you. With this cell phone, I’ll be reachable twenty-four hours a day.” He took it from her hand, and flipped it open. “I’ve got one like it. Yours has my number programmed in it. You’ll be the only person to have that number, so you can reach me any time you want, okay?” He handed the telephone back to Callie. “I’ve got a manual and an extra battery for it around here somewhere, but it seems pretty easy to operate. This way we’ll be able to stay in touch, no matter where I am.”

  Callie continued to examine the cell phone. “It’s really tiny,” she mused. “Do you think you’ll be able to keep up with yours?” she asked, an impish glint in her eye.

  Bryan smiled at her. “I always hold onto what’s important to me.” He gave her a pointed look. “It’s a trait commonly found amongst gutter rats like myself.”

  Callie had to laugh at his self-deprecating humor. “Bryan, I’m really going to miss you,” she murmured, quietly reaching for his hand.

  Bryan gave her big grin. “You could always come with us. It would be a blast,” he continued enthusiastically. “We’ve got some great cities left, especially Miami. I love Cuban food. Have you ever tried it?”

  Callie shook her head. “No, Bryan, I’ve never had Cuban food. But I’d have to be crazy to go on tour with you and your band. One week with you guys has aged me at least ten years! I don’t know when you people sleep, and my God, the amount of beer y’all drink would keep a brewery in business for centuries. No, that’s okay, I’ll return to my nice, quiet, sane bookstore.”

  Bryan smirked at that comment. He’d spent enough time at Books and So Forth to know that the largest collection of kooks he’d seen outside L.A. patronized it.

  They reminisced a bit longer about the insanity of the previous week, postponing their departure as long as possible. When it was impossible to delay the inevitable any longer, they began loading Callie’s belongings into Bryan’s truck for the trip to the airport.

  Try as she might, Callie could not resist the need to hold onto Bryan as long as possible. She feared that she was making a spectacle of herself, but at this point, she was beyond caring. Bryan felt much the same way, and they spent most of the time they waited in the VIP lounge quietly embracing each other. They remained entwined until final boarding call, then reluctantly separated, knowing it would be a long time before they had this pleasure again.

  * * *

  Callie snuggled down deeper into the warm confines of the fluffy pink quilt on her bed, still using the cell phone. It was after midnight, and she had had a very long day. Bryan’s schedule was still insane. The band’s rehearsals were often overly long because they were really feeling the vibe. With the time difference, his promised calls usually came very late in the evening. As she yawned her way through each work day, Callie would remonstrate with herself to cut the conversations short, but she never did. She took so much comfort in talking to him while lying in bed, she couldn’t bring herself to limit the time. So what if she sleepwalked through most of her days?

  “Okay, Bryan, you’ve really got to stop doing this.”

  “What, a guy can’t even send his lady a teddy bear these days?”

  “Bryan! He’s four feet tall, for crying out loud,” she exclaimed, looking exasperatedly at the gorgeous Steiff teddy bear that sat in the corner of her bedroom. His biscuit-colored fur had a sheen and luster present in only the most high-end stuffed toys. The fluffy white fur on his belly and snout was especially luxurious, and Callie had been compulsively stroking it since it arrived that afternoon.

  “Nonsense,” Bryan replied. “Three and a half at the most!”

  Callie tried the reasonable approach. “Bryan, he’s bigger than my mother.”

  “Callie, I’ve seen garden gnomes bigger than your mother,” Bryan retorted.

  Callie giggled into the telephone, enjoying this frivolous exchange with Bryan as she had all the others they’d had since she returned to Alabama. They’d developed a pattern: The UPS man delivered her daily gift, and she and Bryan would argue over that gift during their nightly bedtime telephone call. Over the past couple of weeks the gifts had varied from the sweet and simple—three-dozen pink tulips, her favorites ascertained from a very cooperative Tonya—to the ridiculously extravagant—a ten-carat, though Tonya claimed it was at least twelve, pink sapphire line bracelet. She’d never seen pink sapphires before, but Tonya, a font of information on just about every subject, told her that sapphires come in many colors. Along with the more familiar blue they could also be yellow, pink, green, or red, the red being known as rubies.

  Though it was breathtakingly lovely, she had every intention of returning the bracelet to Bryan, despite his protests, as soon as possible. Unfortunately, she’d just been too busy in the past few days to do so. At least, that’s what she told herself. Deep down, she had to admit that the gift was enchanting and she was loathe to part with it. However, her dignity and self-respect demanded that she object to his generosity. She’d seen too much of that type of thing in L.A. The bear was absolutely beautiful, but Callie had no doubt that he’d cost a small fortune.

  “Bryan, I thought we’d agreed, no more extravagant gifts,” she persisted.

  “Extravagant? Look, it was either the bear or a pink Jaguar.”

  “A pink Jaguar?” Callie gasped. Had the boy totally lost his mind? A frown marred her smooth brow as she pondered the next question. “And who buys a pink Jaguar?” She paused for a moment, stunned by the prospect of driving around Maple Fork looking like a Mary Kay lady going through a midlife crisis. “For that matter, where on earth do you buy a pink Jaguar?”

  “This is L.A., baby,” Bryan replied breezily. “For enough money, you can get whatever you want. But anyway, Jon said you struck him as more of a Volvo kind of girl. I could see his point. You know, with you being an emerging robber baron and all. Unfortunately, there’s a six-week waiting list to get them in pink.”

  “Bryan, don’t you dare buy me a pink Volvo!” Callie shrieked into the telephone.

  “Why not?” Bryan asked, puzzled. “Tonya said pink was your favorite color. But that’s okay. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if I ordered another color. What would you like? Or would you prefer the Jaguar after all?” he asked hopefully.

  “Bryan!” Callie shouted. “I don’t want you to buy me a car at all. Actually, I don’t want you to buy me anything else, period, okay?” When Bryan didn’t respond, Callie asked, “Why do you keep buying me stuff anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be rehearsing? You must spend all your time shopping.”

  “I don’t know, it just seems like when I’m buying presents for you, we’re closer or something. I got so excited when I found the bracelet because I could just imagine the look on your face when you opened the box. The guy at Harry Winston’s showed me all kinds of stuff, but when I saw the bracelet, it just reminded me of you, so pretty and elegant. The stones kind of flashed and sparked, the way your eyes do when you’re annoyed with me. I just knew you would love it. I think that’s the cool part of it, imagining your reaction. I’ve never felt like this before. Sure, I’ve given women stuff before, but usually it was, you know, a part of the deal, and I usually sent Kelly to pick something out. With you, it’s different, you’re different. I like looking for things that’ll make you smile, that you’ll think are nice. It’s been lots of fun. I think in a way it helps me deal with being away from you.”

  Callie smiled. She knew she would keep the bracelet now. How could she resist when there was such sweet sentiment behind the purchase? He was like a young boy with
a crush, making daisy chains for the little girl down the street. Probably the world’s most outrageously expensive daisy chains, but daisy chains nonetheless. It was absolutely delightful, and a far cry from what she’d originally thought.

  Bryan went on, “I guess if I can’t be with you, I can send something to be with you. Like the bear. If I can’t sleep with you, at least he can.”

  “But he’s four feet tall, Bryan. Why did you get him so big?”

  “Well, you’re a pretty fitful sleeper. I figured you’d lose a smaller bear,” he chuckled.

  “I am not a fitful sleeper,” Callie protested indignantly, even though she knew that both Tonya and her sisters had made the same claim and refused to sleep with her under any circumstances. “Anyway, Bryan, I’m not the type of girl who sleeps with a stuffed animal. I think it’s sweet that you want to buy me things, but could you try not to be so excessive? There’s no way I can explain such expensive gifts to my family. I don’t want them to think that I’m…well, you know.”

  “You don’t want them to think I’m keeping you?” Bryan asked softly, irritation evident in his tone.

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Callie, it’s not like that.”

  “I know that, Bryan, but I don’t think I could possibly explain it to them. So no pink Volvo, okay?”

  Bryan’s breath whistled as he blew it out between his teeth, not trying to hide his annoyance as he reluctantly capitulated. “Okay, baby, no cars.” He paused for a moment. “What about Christmas?”