Authors: Jennifer Cruise
Charlie All Night (20 page)
* * *
Allie opened the door of her apartment when he knocked, and just thesight of him made her
weak-kneed. Coming home to bed had been a
mistake. It was November first, and Grady was where
he wanted to be,
and the bet was over, and she wanted him. She didn't want to lose the
closeness
they'd had, but she wanted him with a craving that went
beyond lust.
So when she opened the door, and he was standing there, broad and safe
and male and Charlie, her
knees went, and she tried to pretend it
didn't matter. "Come on in," she said and: then went back into
her
bedroom and crawled under her : quilt. "I can't believe this," she told
him when he followed her.
"I can't believe this last twenty-four hours
happened. I can't believe this last
month
happened."
Charlie slumped at the foot of the bed, and Allie fought back her
disappointment. He was supposed
to be under the quilt with her.
"It happened," he told her. "The last thing I heard as I went through
the lobby was Mark, on the air,
telling the world he'd inhaled in the
seventies."
Allie was so surprised, she forgot to lust for a minute. "Inhaled what?"
"I don't know." Charlie rubbedhis neck. "I don't care. I'm iust glad
it's over. I just want some sleep."
Sleep. Well, it was a start. She moved over a couple of inches to make
room for him. "You can
get some sleep here if you want,"
He was still for a moment. "Here?"
She nodded.
"Allie, if I climb into bed with you, I'm going to want more than
sleep."
Her heart did a little heated lurch in her chest.
Thank God.
Now, if
only things didn't change.
"I've been thinking," she said to him. "All
last night, and this morning while I was on the phone.
And I don't know
what I think about this Grady mess. I don't even know which one of us
is right.
But I do know that you did what you thought was right even
though I tried hard to change your
mind." She smiled tentatively at him. "And I'm pretty impressed with
that, that you'd give up
everything
to do what you thought was right. And I know that you've been right on
some other
things this month, too. Not everything, but some things.
And I know I love you, and you love me,
and after that... well, I think
we can work this out." She swallowed. "What do you think?"
Charlie's eyes met hers. "Will you marry me?"
Allie almost fell out of bed.
"I already told Bill we were getting married, so I'm going to look like
a real fool if you say no."
He leaned forward. Make an honest man out
of me. Marry me."
Allie stopped breathing. Marriage. That was permanent enough. And since
it was Charlie asking,
it was forever. She'd lave to follow him all
over the country, and they'd probably have all their kids
in different
states, and she'd never have a career again.
But she'd have good times. And laughter.
And Charlie.
She drew a deep breath. "Can we get a Winnebago?"
He blinked at her. "Well, yeah. Sure. I guess." He frowned at her. "Why
would you want a
Winnebago?"
"So it'll be like home while we're traveling," Allie said, 'like a
house."
Charlie's frown deepened. "Traveling where?"
"Wherever it is that we're going. It's November.*'
He started to laugh, and she wanted to kill him.''Forget the Winnebago.
We're not going anywhere.
I told Bill I wanted a full-time job. Medical
insurance. Pension plan. Paternity leave. We're adopting
Sam. I'm
settling down."
Some days, you get everything you ask for. Unbelievable. Allie sank
back against the pillows. "Oh.
Oh, good." She closed her eyes in
relieved wonder. "Oh, Charlie, I do love you, and I'd follow you
anywhere, but I'd really rather—"
"Stay here and make me a star." Charlie grinned at her. "I know, babe.
You've got it."
Allie loved him so much she thought she'd die of it. And he was still a
whole bed-length away from
her. She tried to glare at him. "Will you
please come here and kiss me? You just proposed. You're supposed to
kiss me."
His grin disappeared. "I'm not going to stop with a kiss. I want a lot
more than that."
Allie took a deep breath. "You've got it."
His eyes met hers and he didn't move. "This is unbelievable," he told
her. "I feel like a kid on a
first date."
"It's not like we haven't done this before." Allie tried to smile at
him. "It's not like it's our first time."
"Yes, it is." Charlie moved up until he was sitting on the side of the
bed, his hands on each side of her, and she put her hand on his arm,
grateful to finally be touching him. "It's our first time for this," he
said, his eyes looking deep into hers. "What we had before was fun, but
it wasn't this. This is our first time."
She couldn't move her eyes from his. "I know." She moved er hand to his
cheek, barely touching him.
"I know. I want ou so much. I couldn't bear
to lose you now."
She hadn't meant to sound so vulnerable, but she couldn't ill back the
words. He closed his eyes, and
then he shook is head. "You won't lose
me. Things have changed, but they'll be better. They're already better.
If you don't want to love this fast, we can wait to make love. Until
you're sure."
"I'm sure," Allie said. "I'm just... nervous."
"I know. I am, too. But I want you so much..."
He leaned forward then and kissed her softly, lingering, and the heat
from his mouth went straight into
her bones and died back all the
craving she'd ignored for too long.
"Oh, come to bed," she whispered. "I can't wait any longer."
He stood then and undressed, deliberately, not like the old cuberant
Charlie who had stripped at the
speed of light and then pulled her to
him like a teenager in heat. When he slid into bed beside her, he
didn't
touch her; he just supported himself on one elbow and looked down at
her
as if she was
something irreplaceable.
"This must be what wedding nights used to be like," he id. "Terrifying.
Incredible."
Allie put her hand on his chest to feel his warmth and felt him stiffen
at her touch. She'd forgotten
exactly how good he would feel under
her hand, how hard his chest was, how hot his skin burned,
like a brand
on her palm. She let her hand trail down his chest and put her cheek
against him and
listened to his heart pound, and he slowly slid his arm
around her waist and pulled her close as he
eased himself under her, unto
the pillows.
Charlie tipped her face to his, and she almost suffocated from love,
just
watching him look at her as if
he was memorizing her. There was so much
love in his face, she thought she'd drown in it, and when
he finally did pull her head down, to kiss
her, she did drown. His mouth was gentle at first, and then
more
insistent, his tongue invading her, and her hands clenched his
shoulders as he grew more demanding. She felt her body deepen in heat
against his, her blood growing thick; and hot as his
mouth took her
away, and she willed herself to remember that it was him with her and
not to melt into senselessness. She felt him pull at her nightgown and
helped him strip it off, closing her eyes as the
cool air fell on her
body, opening them as the heat from his hands reclaimed her. She licked
at the
base of his neck, and then down his chest to his nipples,
feeling how hard and smooth he was under
her lips hearing his
breathing break as she touched
him.
Then he bent his head, and she felt the sweet chill of his mouth on her
breast, and then the chill turned
to heat. She raked her fingers
through his hair and pulled his head against her, savoring the ache of
his mouth on her. The heat and the ache and the torment were
everywhere, and as he moved under her,
she fell into him, becoming
part of him, wanting him everywhere against her, inside her. Even
simple pleasures like the brush of his cheek against her skin became
charged with electricity and
love.
"I love you," she whispered to him, and he said, "I didn't know this
existed. I didn't know until you."
"Make love to me." Allie tried to move against him, but ne rolled her
gently onto her back and began
to kiss her neck "I want you inside me,"
she said, arching into him. I've waited so long. Don't make
me wait
longer."
"Just a little bit," he said against her throat. "Just a little
bit." His cheek was on her breast and then his tongue traced down the
seam of her stomach, and her nerves fluttered and she forgot how to
breathe.
"Soon," he said, when his hands were on her hips, and he hips flexed on
their own, tightening under his grip. "I just need to taste you. I need
this first." His fingers found her, and she
moaned and stretched to ease the ache, then he licked his tongue inside
her, and she jerked under the shock and grabbed the headboard above her
in desperation, holding on to it as if it were sanity.
"You taste so sweet, Allie," she heard him whisper, and she moaned at
the thought while his breath tantalized her thighs. She gripped the
headboard until her knuckles went white, trying to stay with
him, but
his whisper pounded inside her and she couldn't breathe because the
heat was everywhere. "You're so sweet."
And then he licked inside her again and again, and she writhed in his
grasp, and he moved his mouth harder against her, holding her hips
harder against him, and she couldn't twist away, didn't want to
twist
away, had to twist away as me heat screamed through her veins until she
cried out, "Oh, Charlie,
now,
"
and he whispered, "Soon," and drove her
on and on until she went over the edge, ecstatically
out of control.
He moved back beside her then while she throbbed against him and the
aftershocks of her climax wracked her. He whispered that she was
beautiful, most beautiful when she was coming, and she breathed, "It's
not enough. I need you inside me." And he closed his eyes and then
moved over her,
his lips saying her name soundlessly, his thighs moving
her legs apart. She ached so for him that she moaned with it, her veins
bursting under her skin. "Oh, please," she said, clutching him to her,
and he said, "Look at me," and when she did, loving him so much she was
insane with it, drowning in the heat and love she saw in his eyes, he
moved into her, filling her, and they both stopped breathing for that
moment, their eyes locked on each other, their bodies tensed together
as the shock flooded them both.
And then they moved together, breathed together, and the heat rushed
through them, and Allie surged
and bloomed, feeling Charlie in her
fingertips, in her heart, in her brain, as his warmth and light and
love moved through her, and she fell into her climax, screaming with
it, feeling him surge against her
over and over, beyond measured
rhythm, and his shuddering moans brought her back into the aching
spiral again and again until she thought she'd die of ecstasy.
And when they were both quiet, both breathing again, holding each other
in the early-morning sunlight, Charlie kissed her and said, "I love
you, Allie. I'll never stop loving you."
She nodded against his cheek, weak with spent passion. "I know. This is
forever."
She felt him relax, and then moments later he was asleep in her arms,
and she held him tightly until
she fell asleep, too.
* * *
It was afternoon when she woke up, and Charlie woke, too, when shestirred. He pulled her
dose and she closed her eyes when he kissed her
forehead. "I forgot to tell you the good news,"
he whispered. "We've
got a new show."
Allie frowned at him, still half-asleep. "What new show?" "Bill gave us
the prime-time spot," he murmured into her hair. "The one at 6:00 a.m.
You're back where you wanted to be."
Allie sat up, suddenly awake and appalled. "Did you say 6:00 a.m.? In
the morning a.m.?
Are you nuts?"
Charlie blinked and pushed himself up beside her on one arm. "I thought
that was what you wanted.
The prime-time show. Back on top."
Allie looked exasperated. "I can be on top at night." He grinned at her
and moved his hand to her
breast and said, "Anytime," and she grinned,
too, covering his hand with hers. "You know what
I mean," she told him.
"I like the ten-to-two people. They're bizarre. Let Mark have the
prime-time
show.
At least until Marcia takes it away from him, which should be any day
now. We belong at
night, Charlie." She looked at him anxiously. "Don't
you think so?"
"Well, yes." Charlie started to laugh and collapsed back into the bed,
pulling her on top of him.
"Wait'll I tell Bill."
Allie propped herself up on his chest, enjoying the way her breasts
squashed against him. "I can't
believe you even considered the morning
show."
Charlie sighed. "I thought I was giving you what you wanted."
"You always give me what I want. Which reminds me..." Allie moved her
face to his until they were nose-to-nose, stretching and feeling the
long hard length of his body against hers. He'd be hers for the
rest of
her life. She almost died just thinking about it. Then his hand moved
lazily downher back to her rear end, and she brought her mind back to
the subject on hand. I have an idea for a new show," Allie
told him.
It'll run forever. Audience of one. I'm thinking of calling it Charlie
All Afternoon. And the playlist—"
"I do my own playlist," Charlie told her and kissed her to start the
program.
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