One More Time

by Ali Parker

  His hips moved in a precise rhythm, never once breaking pace. He groaned and moved faster until he was pistoning into me, rubbing every nerve, every sensitive inch of skin. Heat spread through me, the tension winding tightly in my belly.

  I was so close, but I needed more. “Caleb!”

  “I’ve got you,” he rasped out, reaching around us and pressing the rough pad of his thumb against my clit. Circling it and adjusting the pressure until it was just right, my entire body started shaking.

  My core tightened, and with one last thrust of his hips, I went flying over the edge again, soaring on mind-blowing pleasure that shattered my mind and overtook my senses as I came shouting Caleb’s name.

  His low groans turned into loud moans that ran into one as he tensed behind me, rammed into me, and came with an animalistic growl.

  We fell back onto the thick carpeting of Caleb’s hotel floor. A flush spread across my cheeks as I realized what we’d just done in front of a bank of windows that looked out over the whole city, even though I knew logically that no one had been able to see us.

  My body was sated, as relaxed as I hadn’t been since we’d had that fight the night after Destitute’s first show. Caleb seemed relaxed too, tracing circles on my back with a lazy grin on his face.

  When I’d come over to his room earlier, I hadn’t been surprised to find him stand-offish and hostile, but I knew that I wasn’t leaving without saying my piece, no matter how hard it was. There had been more than a few instances where I thought he was going to chuck me out of his room, and right at the end there, I was sure he was going to tell me to leave.

  The thing was that I’d been prepared for it. If that was what he wanted, if he wasn’t ready to face the ghost of his past, I would’ve left. And I would’ve liked to think that I would’ve done it without looking back. I even had a bottle of wine and a pint or two of mint chocolate chip waiting in my fridge back in my room for that eventuality.

  I couldn’t deny that I was beyond relieved that it hadn’t turned out that way. Looking into the chocolatey depths of his eyes now, unguarded for once, I knew that I’d done the right thing.

  Caleb reached over to stroke my cheek, looking into my eyes like he could see into my very soul. “I don’t know how all this is going to go. It’s not going to be easy.”

  “I know,” I told him honestly. “And I don’t know how it’s going to work either.”

  He paused, cupped my face, and didn’t let his gaze wander away from mine. “But you’re willing to give it a try?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Grinning, he lowered his head to mine and kissed me. It was a sweet, slow kiss. An exploration and a reverie, but it didn’t take long before my legs were tangled with his once more and our hips were grinding together.

  Caleb broke the kiss, rested his forehead against mine, and smiled. “Good, because I want to try too.”

  I nudged his nose with mine. “Good.”

  Then his lips met mine again, and our kisses quickly went back to that passionate fervor. Caleb grew hard against my thigh and groaned into my mouth when I pressed it against him.

  “Right now though, I’m ready for round two,” he whispered into my ear, sucking the lobe into his mouth and nibbling on it.

  I laughed, but my giggles turned into soft moans as his hands roamed my body and his lips hungrily crashed back to mine. Seconds ago, I’d thought I was sated. Under Caleb’s hands and mouth and strong, hard body, it wasn’t long before that throbbing ache started back up between my legs, and I grew desperate for him again.

  Here we go again. I smiled as I reached for him, completely ready for it and moaning softly when I felt that he was too.

  Chapter 21

  Caleb

  I woke up the next morning hard as a rock and ready for another round. I couldn’t get enough of Kelly, and now that we’d decided not to end things after all, I was looking forward to many more mornings starting as well as this one was about to.

  Before I so much as blinked my eyes open though, I knew that Kelly wasn’t in bed anymore. The floral scent of her clung to the sheets and her pillow, pressed all the way against mine. But her heat was absent from the bed. I groaned and rolled over, fanning my arm out to be sure, but I was met with nothing but cool bedding.

  The blackout curtains in the suite were still drawn, but there was faint light coming from the kitchenette area. Sure enough, Kelly was there.

  She was wearing one of my T-shirts and nothing else that I could see, a steaming mug of coffee in her hands as she balanced on a stool with her heel planted on its seat and her arms around the knee she was hugging to her chest.

  Her eyes were fixed on a laptop screen. My laptop screen, to be exact. There wasn’t anything on there that she couldn’t see, so I wasn’t worried about that. What did worry me slightly was how she’d bypassed the password. I was pretty sure I hadn’t given it to her.

  I walked up behind her, snatching the coffee from her hand and placing a soft kiss on her temple. “Good morning.”

  She flashed me a smile and looked pointedly at the coffee. “Nothing good about it if you steal my coffee.”

  “I’ll make you some more,” I promised, going about the heroic task of pushing a button on the machine and waiting for the other mug, already waiting in its slot, to fill. When it was filled with fresh coffee, I handed it to her. “Slaved away for the perfect brew.”

  “I saw that.” She giggled, sipping at her new mug. “Mind you don’t overexert yourself.”

  I clutched at my back like I’d thrown something out and then winked at her. “If I did, it wasn’t on account of the coffee.”

  Kelly blushed, her cheeks taking on an adorable pink hue. “Oh hush. I didn’t hear you complaining about overexertion last night. Or this morning.”

  Smirking, I nudged her with my hip and pulled up a stool of my own. “You wouldn’t have been able to hear me complaining over the screams.”

  She opened her mouth, but I interrupted her by leaning in to kiss her. “But you wouldn’t have heard complaints anyway because there sure as shit weren’t any. As for the screams, don’t you dare tone ‘em down, ever.”

  Kelly saluted me, her cheeks still flushed. “Gotcha.”

  “Good,” I said, positioning my seat so I could sling an arm loosely around the back of her stool. “You working already?”

  Shaking her head, her teeth sank into her bottom lip and guilt flashed in her eyes. “Nope.”

  “What’re you doing then?” My eyes narrowed slightly as I tried to peek at the screen, but as soon as I’d started pulling my stool up, she’d faced it down so it was halfway closed. “If you’re watching porn, you shouldn’t be embarrassed. I’m up to try just about anything.” I was ninety-nine point nine percent sure that wasn’t what she was doing, but just in case. “You know, just not anything with—”

  Kelly slapped her hand over my mouth and rolled her eyes, not able to completely suppress her grin. But then her eyes grew serious again, and the same look of guilt flashed in them. “I’m not watching porn. I was looking someone up, actually.”

  “Okay, who?” I asked, but the beginning of my sentence was muffed by her hand. I licked the inside of her palm, making her drop it with a shake of her head. “Who are you looking up?”

  Kelly fidgeted with the thin silver ring again, looking anywhere but at me as she sighed and finally opened the laptop screen fully again. “I think the problem is that you need closure.”

  “What?” Confusion furrowed my brow, and my mind raced. Surely, she couldn’t mean—

  “With Elizabeth,” she clarified. My stomach dropped as my suspicions were confirmed. “Now that I know about her and about your past with her, I can easily track her down if you wanted to meet with her. In fact, I already have her phone number.”

  Ice started spreading from my extremities, and dread rolled into me. “Why would I call her?”

  The last thing I wanted to do was to speak to that woman. I wasn’t still in
love with her, contrary to what Jared might have believed. It was the scars she left, more than the memory of the woman herself, that still put me on edge. “I’m really not sure that’s a good idea.”

  Kelly regarded me for a long moment, then reached out to squeeze my hand. “Think about it. You have all these lingering, negative feelings about relationships. All because of what she did, right? It might be a good idea to contact her, or it might not, but isn’t it worse not knowing?”

  “Not knowing what?” I didn’t want to call Elizabeth. I didn’t want to think about her or know that I had her number in my phone. She was ancient history. The only thing I wanted to remember about her were the lessons she’d taught me.

  “Not knowing why she did what she did. I think the only way you’re ever going to be free of her is if you confront her one final time.” Kelly held my eyes with hers as she spoke. Her voice was impassioned, determined. She really believed this was what was necessary.

  I still thought it was a shitty idea, but if Kelly believed it was the only way for me to be free of Liz once and for all, then so be it. “Fine, I’ll think about it.”

  Her answering smile was so sweet and serene that I bent my head forward and took her mouth in a deep kiss, hooking my arms around her. I hoisted her into my lap, and she wrapped her legs around me. Our kiss didn’t break until we were both panting.

  “Thanks for agreeing,” Kelly murmured against my lips.

  I grinned and tugged her hair back gently so she was looking into my eyes, our lips still almost touching. “If it’s what you want…”

  “And what is it you want?” she asked, her voice husky and breathy as she ground against me. My dick was already excited by her kisses, but pleasure shot through me when I felt the hot wetness of her through her slick panties.

  Between the thin pajama pants I’d pulled on before coming to look for her and her tiny lace underwear, we may as well both have been naked for the barrier our clothes provided. But it was still too much.

  I stood up, cradling her against me as I pressed a kiss to her mouth. “Oh, I’ll show you what I want, and I think you’re going to want it too.”

  For the next couple of hours, there was just me and Kelly. She was as insatiable as I was, and I had no idea how either of us were going to walk for the rest of the week, but we kept going. If I’d thought that we’d gotten to know each other’s bodies and needs well in the past few months, those few hours proved me wrong.

  Good sex had never been bad, but fuck me, that was phenomenal. I was relatively certain that people in the next state had heard us going at it, but I didn’t care.

  Later that day, after tearing myself away from Kelly still naked in my hotel room. I headed to band practice. At this stage, we had the show down pat, but that didn’t stop us from having practices on the days that we didn’t have to perform.

  After practice, Nick and Matt disappeared pretty quickly, and Dominic was chatting to one of the production managers. Jared sauntered over to me as I was securing my guitar in its case and waited for me to finish before he started talking.

  “You look strangely happy today, bro. You start taking drugs or something?” His tone was light and teasing.

  I flipped him off but couldn’t stop the corners of my mouth from lifting into a smirk. “I’m on a natural high. Spending the morning in bed and just about every other surface of the hotel room will do that for you.”

  “Touché.” Curiosity sparked in his eyes, but it was quickly followed by knowing. “Your wrists must be killing you. Unless of course, you weren’t in bed by yourself.”

  “You’re hilarious,” I told him dryly. “I wasn’t by myself. I was with Kelly, actually.”

  Jared grinned and raised his fist for a bump. “Glad to hear you’ve pulled your head out of your stubborn ass. All is well with you two now?”

  “I think so,” I said. Then my chest rattled on a deep sigh. “She has this idea though, but I’m not sure it’s a good one.”

  Jared’s eyes widened humorously, the corners of his lips raised. “It takes a big man to bend over for a strap on. It’s not really my thing—”

  “Fuck off,” I snapped. “It’s not that.”

  Jared rubbed his hands together and nodded. “Okay, let me venture another guess.”

  “She wants me to call Elizabeth,” I interrupted before I had to listen to any more of his disturbing guesses. Jared’s face fell. That was the last thing he’d been expecting.

  His reaction was exactly as I might’ve thought it would be. His back tensed, his shoulders stiffened, and both of his dark brows lifted. Any humor that’d been in his eyes evaporated. “Let me get this straight. Kelly, the girl you’re currently with, wants you to call your ex-fiancée? Why the fuck would she want you to do that?”

  I explained Kelly’s reasoning, and by the end, Jared didn’t look any more convinced than I was feeling. “I’m not sure it’s a great idea either. Feels to me like it could open a giant can of worms, especially while we’re here. But hey, I’m glad you’re done pushing Kelly away because of it.”

  “It’s not love or anything,” I warned him. “So don’t go spewing around anything like that. This is just us exploring what this can be. That’s it.”

  Jared threw his hands out in mock surrender. “I get it. I get it. You’re done with love. It’s for fools. It never lasts. Blah blah blah. Of course it’s not that.”

  “I mean it, Jared. The last thing I need on this tour is a lot of pressure from a new relationship. Kelly understands that. Don’t be a dick.” With Kelly being Alicia’s sister, I was sure Jared was going to hear all about this from Kelly’s point of view later. I needed to make sure that he understood where we were and what we were doing before either he or Alicia felt the need to interfere.

  “Message received. It’s not love, no pressure. I got it. Chill out.”

  “Jared,” I started, my voice already deeper in warning.

  Taking a step closer to me, he put his hand on my shoulder and clasped it tight. “All jokes aside, I’m happy for you. I like Kelly. She’s fun. I think you’re in for one hell of a ride with that one.”

  Chapter 22

  Kelly

  Caleb was a freaking beast in the sack. Now that we were out of L.A., away from all the pressures of everyday life and had cleared the air between us, the man was on a mission. Except for a couple of hours that he’d gone to band practice the day after we’d made up, he’d kept me naked and in his bed, mostly panting for more.

  We took short breaks for food, but the rest of the time, all bets were off. By that night, I knew I was going to have to leave his room if I was going to get any sleep. It was after midnight by the time I’d gotten back to my room though, and I’d collapsed onto my bed without so much as changing into my pajamas.

  My suite wasn’t as expansive or as expensive as Caleb’s, but it did the trick for me. The carpeting was pretty plush, and the bed had a rich wooden frame and was plenty big enough for an ordinary family, nevermind just for me.

  It also happened to sleep like an absolute dream. At least, it did until sunlight filtered through the cracks in my curtains, and I woke with violent cramps in my lower belly. I barely managed to make it to my en-suite bathroom before my meager stomach contents came spilling out.

  Every time I so much as tried lifting my head, the same thing happened. I couldn’t think of anything that I’d eaten that could’ve been funny, so while I was searching the recesses of my mind for a possible cause for my sudden and violent illness, I groaned and tried to think of what medicine I had in my bag that might help for this.

  When my vomiting finally ceased, I crawled to the cabinet under the basin and rummaged around for the medicine pack I’d gotten from the drugstore before leaving L.A. Peeling the safety tabs off, I ripped it open to search for something that might make the nausea subside.

  As I ripped, my elbow hit something in the cabinet, and I turned my achy head in its direction to see what it had been. With my luc
k this morning, it was probably a bottle of something that was open and would stain the entire cabinet.

  It wasn’t. It was a small blue box that I should’ve opened weeks ago, but I hadn’t because it hadn’t been necessary. My stomach lurched again as I started doing the math, and this time, I wasn’t going to make it back to the toilet. Thankfully, if I sat up on my knees, I could reach the sink.

  There was nothing left in my stomach, but I gagged and gasped and heaved as my mind spun. The nausea didn’t subside. If anything, it just got worse the longer I tried to think.

  It’s not possible. I’m on the pill. But it was undeniable that I’d missed my last period, as I’d realized as soon as I saw that damn little blue box—unopened, unused, unnecessary.

  By my quick and very dazed calculations, I was about two weeks late. Some women might not have been concerned by being half a month late, but I was. My cycle was like clockwork. I swallowed back a sob, rinsed out the basin, and weakly pushed myself up onto my wobbly legs.

  My phone sat on my coffee table where I’d tossed it after I’d gotten back to my room after getting back from Caleb’s. Blood drained from my face as soon as I thought his name.

  Caleb.

  Pushing him out of my mind for the moment, I grabbed my phone and called number one on my speed dial. Alicia. They were staying up in one of the other suites, similar to Caleb’s I imagined. My sister answered on the second ring, and I’d never been more grateful for her get-up-and-go attitude.

  As soon as I asked her to come down to my room, I heard her tell Jared she’d be back, and she was getting in the elevator before we even ended the call. No need to shower or get ready first. Alicia woke up ready to go.