“This is lovely,” I commented appreciatively taking the chair he pulled out for me and leaning forward across the red and white checkered table cloth as he took his own seat. “But it smelled even better in there. The garlic. The fresh baked bread. The tomato sauce and basil.” My stomach grumbled its approval.
“Yeah but it’s more private out here and the view is definitely better.” He trailed off fingers soft across the round of my cheek before he leaned back into his chair straightening the cuffs on his black linen shirt.
“I couldn’t agree more.” I stared into his clear blue eyes meaningfully, completely captivated by the way they captured the glow of the tiny lights twinkling in the tropical foliage all around us.
He grinned approvingly and I was dazzled anew by how handsome he was with his tousled sandy brown highlighted hair and his half dimpled smile. I also had to admit to myself how much I had missed seeing him after he had come to my rescue the other night. My day had been dull in his absence.
A waiter suddenly appeared. Linc ordered a water for himself and a Longfin Lager for me after receiving my nod of approval. I continued to bask in the compelling aura of the powerful man before me who was at once comfortably familiar and yet mysterious and new owing to the years the two of us had weathered apart.
Once we had our drinks and had settled on a pepperoni white pizza to share, he lounged in his chair the backs of his masculine hands sprinkled with fine hair folded together under his strong chin as he regarded me. “Tell me what you’ve been up to these past years. Did you ever go back to college?”
“Yes.” I was surprised Ash hadn’t told him. “I used what was left in the escrow fund from the semester I sat out and some of my own savings for the first two years. Then my mom paid for the rest after the divorce was finalized.”
“It seemed from the way you spoke of her the other day that you two had made amends.”
“Yes. My mother had herself been so cowed and abused by my father that she had no self-esteem to stand up to him. That is why she drowned herself in alcohol. Miraculously something awakened in her the night you rescued me from him. She found an inner strength that propelled her to break free. She stopped drinking. She apologized as only a mother can, for allowing me to be ensnared in the cycle of abuse. We cried and then we held onto each other. Love melted all the bad memories away. She flourished and we found we totally enjoyed each other’s company. After I finished school she was the one who encouraged me to move to New York.”
He suddenly looked a little wistful as though lamenting those lost years. Maybe he was. I had been able to follow his career easily enough through the media. My career had never gotten big or bright enough to draw that kind of attention.
“How did that go?” he asked. “I bet you dazzled them all.”
“Not so much.” I tried to downplay the disappointment I’d felt when I remembered that time in my life. It had never been what I had thought it would be.
“Then they must have been complete idiots.” He leaned forward and took my hands. “It’s not too late to try again if that kind of thing still interests you. After this Blaine thing debuts I have a feeling you’re going to get lots of calls.”
“Maybe,” I allowed pasting on a weak smile.
“How long were you out there?”
“Three years. I gave it a good go.” One attempt at a relationship that ended up going absolutely nowhere. Lots of off, off, off Broadway performances. We both leaned back when the pizza arrived and he served us pieces with the spatula on the smaller plates that the waiter had provided.
“What did you think about the city?” he asked after taking a bite and dripping a small spot of sauce outside the outline of his chiseled lips. I gestured toward it by pointing toward my own chin but really wishing I would have been brave enough to remove it myself, but not with a napkin, with my lips or my tongue.
“It was exciting, loud, vibrant and overwhelming at times,” I admitted. “I’m glad I did it but I missed the sound of the ocean.” And the connection I felt to him at home in OB.
“What brought you back?” he inquired after serving me my second and himself a third slice.
“Karen and I kind of switched places. She sold me the shop after Patch died and…” I trailed off noticing the flash of strong emotion in his eyes.
“I’m sorry.” My throat tightened and my voice reflected the strain. “I didn’t realize you two had remained close. You weren’t at the wedding or the funeral. I just assumed that…”
“That I was a heartless bastard too self-absorbed to attend?”
That was exactly what I had thought. I looked down at the napkin in my lap. The beer and the pizza with the garlic, Alfredo sauce, mozzarella, fontina, ricotta and parmesan that had tasted so delicious a moment before now sloshed together in my unsettled stomach.
“He invited me to the wedding but the Dogs were so big by then I knew that my appearance would just have made it into a circus.” I looked up to find myself immediately ensnared by his intense gaze. His voice was much lower when he continued. “Plus I knew you would be there and that I wouldn’t have been able to handle seeing you.”
“It was a beautiful wedding,” I whispered with tears filling my eyes. “They were so in love.” I shut my eyes briefly against the onslaught of images that came into my mind of the two of them together. When I reopened them he was still gazing at me just as intently as before. “Did you not go to the funeral for the same reason?”
“No.” His eyes brightened and his tone turned self-condemning. “For that one I was too fuckin’ blitzed to clear customs out of Japan.” He glanced away looking embarrassed. “I don’t know how much of my life you might have seen played out over the years in the media but if you saw much of it you’d know it wasn’t pretty.”
I knew. I’d seen. But I hated that every single muscle in his body appeared to be strained from his jaw to thighs where his long fingers were curled into fists. Expecting me to condemn him. I stood and tossed my napkin into my chair and moved to kneel in front of him gathering his hands in my own.
“What happened to you, Linc? You were so strong. So determined to prove your father wrong.”
“Turns out the old man was a prophet,” he spit out bitterly. “In my genes, I guess.” He lowered his head. “Anyway I wasn’t strong enough at the time to find the right path.” He lifted his gaze and stared into my eyes. “The one that would have led me back to you sooner.” He stood and pulled me up to my feet gathering me close. “One of the first things I did after I got out of rehab was apologize to Patch’s family and to Karen.” She never told me that. I guess maybe it was too sore of a subject for either of us to handle. “Patch’s dad was so incredibly cool about it. He accepted my apology like it meant something. He told me a man’s worth isn’t based on his missteps but on the steps he takes to rectify them. I made a promise to myself after that. If I could stay clean for a year then I would come see you again. Just see you. Not to reinsert myself because after all hadn’t I caused you enough grief already? But then my old man died.”
“I’m so sorry, Linc.” I touched his face wishing I could smooth away the pain contorting his features but realizing he needed to get it all out. I could feel the physical and emotional space between us dwindling the more we continued to share with each other. Life had taught us both how little individual accolades end up mattering over time. Rather it’s the memories we create together that truly sustain us.
“Yeah,” he said bleakly. “They found him under some bridge. His body had been there for weeks, Mona.”
“His death made me see things even more clearly.” He turned his face to press a firm kiss into my palm. He shifted to bring our bodies more closely together and gathered both my hands and brought them to the center of his chest. I could feel every taut line of his. “He was wrong, you know. His was the real worthless life. Not mine. Not because of any success I had or didn’t have on my board, not because I had a couple of hit records, but because of t
he people I’ve had love me. You. Ash. My Aunt and Uncle. If I hadn’t spent so much time at the bottom of a whiskey bottle I would’ve saved everyone a lot of grief and reached that conclusion a lot sooner.” I felt his grip tighten. “I was serious when I said I was here to stay. The band is finished or at least my part in it is. I want you to be mine again, Mona. You have my heart. You took it with you when you left all those years ago. The Blaine thing is just a reason to be near you, and an attempt to give you back at least part of the dream you sacrificed for me. I came back not to ask for anything but to offer you everything. All that I have, all that I am, I give to you.” His voice was low and his eyes burned bright with the sincerity of his words. “Will you take it? Will you have me?” His plea resonated somewhere deep within me. Somewhere that had remained empty and dark since the day I had departed from his side. “No more talk of yesterdays. Right now. Tonight. This very moment let’s start a future together. What do you say?”
Chapter Sixty-Two
* * *
Linc
She was so incredibly beautiful, so alluringly feminine both of her hands small enough to nestle within one of own. My other hand was low on her back holding her to me so firmly that I could feel the eyelet pattern of her dress imprinted upon the surface of my palm. But no matter how tightly I held her, no matter how much I wanted to keep her, she was the one in control. She was the one who held all the cards. She was the queen of my heart and it was completely hers to do with whatever she decreed.
“Are you sure you don’t want dessert?” the waiter asked as he stacked our empty dishes together. I wanted to growl my frustration. I’d already declined and requested the check. Could he not read the situation? I had my girl in my arms. Finally. He had to be completely clueless.
“No thank you. I couldn’t possibly eat another thing,” Simone politely chimed in, her cheeks becomingly flushed seemingly from embarrassment which was adorably refreshing to me after the type of woman I had been around during far too many drunken backstage parties.
Gaze tucked to the center of my chest her voice a little breathy she tried to struggle free but I didn’t let her. I was perfectly happy with the current scenario sans waiter. I loved having her sexy curves pressed against me. Her tits to my chest. Her shapely thighs to mine. There was no place else I would rather be though of course my cock had other plans.
“I wanna be yours,” she whispered lifting her pretty head and peering up at me through her sooty lashes the moment the waiter disappeared from view. “How soon do you think you can get the check paid and us out of here so we can make that a reality?”
My heart took a leap like my board when it picked up big air and went nearly completely vertical in steep water. “So fast I can make your head spin.” I tucked her under my arm and headed back into the main part of the restaurant withdrawing my wallet and shoving a wad of way too many twenties into our surprised waiter’s hands.
Outside I pressed her up against the side of the jeep. My body was vibrating with more tension than it had a moment earlier when I’d been waiting on her answer. I gave her a hard hungry possessive stare gazing down into her lovely eyes. “My hotel…your house…do you…” I swallowed to gather my fractured thoughts and to moisten my parched throat. Hell, my whole body felt parched and desperate with the need to reclaim her and make her mine again.
“Are you trying to ask me if we should go to your place or mine?” she purred in her sexiest voice, the one she used all those years ago when she used to chant my name as she unraveled around me. My cock got even harder and I answered for her.
“Mine. It’s closer,” I growled leaning back putting some space between our bodies but only so I could help her into the car.
As soon as I had my seatbelt on, I threw my arm over her seatback, glanced behind to check that the way was clear and got the hell out of there.
My hotel was only five minutes away, a simple matter of negotiating a couple of blocks down closer to the waterfront. I got us there in half that amount of time.
She smiled softly when I ripped open her door and grabbed her hand before she could even offer it to me. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just throw me over your shoulder?” she quipped hurrying to keep up with me as I strode toward the South Pacific longhouse style building with her in tow.
“That sounds like an excellent idea.” My mouth curved into a dark grin. “Why don’t you sashay your sexy body a little closer so I can?”
“Why don’t you make me?” Her tone was teasing.
“Are you flirting with me, Mona?” I stopped outside my door so abruptly she ran into me.
“That depends.” She blinked her dark framed eyes at me. “Is it working?”
“Hell yes.” I leaned in to try to capture her lips, but she took a slight step to the side thwarting me. “Then how come I’m still standing out here outside your door?”
She didn’t escape my second attempt. Not that I think she intended to. In perfect sync with me she went up onto the toes of her ballet flats tipping her face to my lowering head as I plunged my hands into her silky hair. The instant my hard mouth met her soft one her lips parted and I thrust my tongue inside, the sweet distinctive taste of her blending with the Italian spices we’d both partaken of at dinner. Her hands curled around my forearms as if her knees had given out and she was depending on me for balance. Her tongue met my own. I felt the slick slide of them rubbing together all the way down in my dick.
“Linc.” Her golden eyes looking slumberous she clung to me, her body trembling when I lifted my head.
“Simone.” I brushed a softer kiss across her lush mouth. “My sweet Simone.” Somehow I got the key card in on the first attempt. Once inside I spun her around lifting her arms over her head as I pressed her body against the door. “Need your lips again, babe. It’s been too damn long.”
“Yes,” she agreed and I took her mouth again. Hard like I used to and she was with me all the way, her body restlessly moving against mine, her lips bearing the brunt of my assault, our tongues dueling wildly.
I couldn’t get enough of her.
My fingertips burned with the need to ravish every single inch of her. I slanted my mouth one way and then the other while combing through the long strands of her hair scalp to ends tangling it in my haste to relearn its silky texture.
I broke the kiss but only so we could both catch our breath. Her breasts lifted and fell with each ragged one she took. The sound of hard breathing punctuated the heated space between us.
“My goddess,” I praised, pressing her hands further into the wood, brushing her hair aside then lowering my head, letting my humid breath bathe her sensitive skin before my hot tongue followed. She shivered and I nearly did too imagining her rosy nipples hard and puckered beneath her dress.
She arched her neck to give my mouth more territory to conquer. I traced the stately column she offered me from just below her ear to just above where her neck met her shoulder. She tasted sweet like the summer we had once shared. Only better. Infinitely better. Because I knew now the priceless value of the woman I held in my arms.
I ran my parted mouth across the smooth round of her cheek and took her delectable mouth deeply again, and then with shallow sips of the nectar inside, over and over again before I soothed the plump abused flesh that framed it with soft back and forth passes of my parted lips to hers.
Her eyes fluttered open, the depths black revealing need that matched my own. My entire body was misted with a sheen of passion, my clothes stuck to my damp skin.
“Mona.” I dropped my forehead to hers. “I’m barely holding onto my control by a thread. I’m too shaky to attempt all those buttons on this dress.” I drew my palm down between her breasts and laid it over the tiny fastenings that held her dress together from the scooped neckline to the hem. Her breath hitched. I wanted to touch her. I suspected she wanted that nearly as badly as I did. “I’m gonna rip it. My hands all over your skin. It’s gotta go. Now.”
She nodded and I di
dn’t hesitate. I released her hands, grasped the bodice with both of mine and tore the fabric apart. Buttons flew everywhere but I didn’t care. I was too busy staring at her gorgeous body, the white cotton hanging from her tanned arms like a curtain over an illicit view. I eased back to enjoy it.
I thought my memory had exaggerated her perfection. It hadn’t. Her tits were pushed up and outlined in nude lace that had a flowery pattern and delicate pearl beading. Her rosy nipples were beautifully budded beneath and lower, her thatch of curls was barely covered by a matching triangle of the same lace.
“Perfect,” I whispered, eyes making another appreciative pass before I lifted my gaze. I hadn’t allowed myself to remember her predilection for wearing sexy lingerie.
“Not perfect,” she protested.
“Perfect for me.” You were always perfect for me, I thought. Perfect for any man. But that was irrelevant. She was mine from here on out. Only I was allowed to gaze on that perfection. I took a step toward her and she moved toward me at the same time reaching for the buttons on my shirt.
She showed me her hands. They trembled. “I seem to be having the same problem.” She moved her hands lower to the hem of my shirt. “Do you mind?” she asked in a teasing tone.
“Not at all, babe.” I captured her hands and helped her tear my dark linen shirt asunder. Her lips curled into a slow smile as if she appreciated the view of me as much as I had of her. Not likely. But her hands on me I loved.
I groaned when I felt her soft fingers gliding slowly over the contours of my skin, my shoulders, down both my arms to my hands where for a brief moment she connected our fingertips before she tossed aside what was left of my shirt.
(Complete Rock Stars, Surf and Second Chances #1-5) Page 26