Tangled Web (17 page)

Johnny exhaled. “Well, I guess I know that
now.” He scooted down the sofa to be closer to Katie. His knee
touched hers. “Every time I came home, I thought about telling you.
But you just seemed so happy without me. Your life was so
wonderful.” She scoffed. “No, it really seemed that way. You were
always doing something, dating someone, working on something, doing
this, that, or the other thing. You were saving the world, and I
was just the clown entertaining it. You always encouraged my music,
were excited for me, but it felt so...sanitary. Sisterly, I guess.”
Katie started to say something, but Johnny continued. “And so I
decided to play the rock star big time. If I was gonna be a rock
star, I was gonna party like one, fuck like one, do drugs like
one.” He sighed. “How stupid was that? I got hooked on smack more
than once, and that last time, I thought it was gonna kill me. And
I couldn’t quit it with my band right there doin’ the shit too.
They were the worst pushers, the worst enablers. So I came home to
the one person I knew I could trust, someone who loved me for who I
am. You, Katie. I felt safe with you.

“And when I spent that time with you, you
took great care of me. But I saw the look in your eyes. You were
terrified of me, like I was some monster. Don’t deny it. I know you
were.” She nodded. “And that’s when I figured I’d never have
another chance.

“But I decided I couldn’t give up. I decided
to change my life entirely. I gave up the hard liquor, gave up
every single drug out there, even the ones that I never got hooked
on--stupid shit like Ecstasy, mushrooms, and pot. I stopped
sleeping with every fan who threw herself at me. And I poured
myself into the music. Clean and sober, I realized I wasn’t happy
with where I was musically anymore, and that’s when I decided to
break away from Scathing Vengeance. Not only were they trying to
get me back on H, they weren’t growing artistically. But you know
that whole story. Anyway, I started working out and I got a dietary
coach for a while, started writing new stuff. And then I came home.
I wanted to look good when I saw you again. I knew I just had to
get the guts to do what I’d never been able to do before. I had to
tell you how I felt.

“But I still couldn’t, Katie. I couldn’t. I
just loved being around you. It felt so natural to be relaxed
around you, to be myself. I can’t be myself with anyone else. I
have to wear this mask, be the rock star they expect. But you know
me, Katie. You
know
me. I don’t have to pretend. But, God. I
still couldn’t just tell you. I thought about it that whole night,
but I just couldn’t. And then by the time I had to go that night, I
couldn’t stop myself. Maybe I couldn’t
say
it, but I
couldn’t stop myself from showing it anymore. Holding you close,
feeling your warmth up against me, smelling your hair, I couldn’t
resist. And if you’d pushed me away, I would have known for sure,
and I guess I would’ve been okay with it. But you didn’t. So maybe
in all fairness you didn’t even have a chance to be faithful to
your fiancé. Maybe you didn’t have a chance to tell me you were
engaged before we got together.” He looked down at his hands that
were resting on his thighs.

Katie grabbed them. “No, Johnny, don’t blame
yourself. I was afraid to tell you about Grant before that.”

He held her hands in his and looked up at
her. “Why?”

“For the same reason you were afraid to tell
me how you felt, I guess. I think I was afraid of rejection or...I
don’t know anymore. I was afraid of betraying my feelings to you
and getting hurt. I’d been hurt by you so many other times
before--”

“What? What did I ever do to hurt you?”

“No, you never did anything, Johnny. It was
me. I let myself get hurt because I wasn’t honest with you.”

He slowly nodded his head. “So what do we do
now?” Katie searched his eyes. “Do we want to give this a
legitimate go?”

Katie asked herself that question. “Yeah, I
think we should.”

Johnny brought his right hand up to her
cheek and stroked it. “Shit. You know my tour lasts another three
months, right?”

“Yeah. I’m in school for another year and a
half too. But it’s not like we’ve never been apart before.”

He grinned. “That’s true. Hell, we’ve maybe
spent a total of two months together the last fifteen years.”

She nodded. “We can work it out. I can’t
take the whole summer off, but I do have most of May and August
off.”

He tucked a piece of her hair behind her
ear. “Do you even want to finish school?”

“Yeah, I do. I’m finally doing something I
want to.”

“So what do you want to do when you finish
school?”

“I’d planned on teaching.”

“I promise you, Katie, you won’t have to
work if you don’t want to. Just be with me.” He paused. “Do you
want
to teach?”

Katie shrugged. “I want to
write
.”

“Then you can do that. You can do that with
me, can’t you?”

She felt a small tear form in the corner of
her eye. “Yeah, I think I could.” She reached over and hugged him.
She sat back and grabbed her glass of water, sipping another drink
and setting the glass back down.

“Well, I’m back on the road again tomorrow,
but I’ll have some times here and there I can get away, and we can
keep in touch over the phone.”

“Yeah.”

“So, what’s your roommate’s story?”

“What do you mean?”

“Holy shit. She’s got Kiefer wrapped around
her finger. I had no idea he was a chubby chaser.”

Katie frowned. “I’ll have you know Heather
is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. She’s genuine and
caring. And she
is
pretty.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Kiefer seemed pretty
captivated by her from top to bottom.”

Katie smiled. “I guess I’ve paid her back
then.”

“What do you mean?”

She stretched her neck. “I felt like I owed
her something after today. She talked me into calling in for the
tickets. Then she made me buy this silly thing,” she said,
indicating the corset still hugging her frame. “She was going to
pay for it if I didn’t. And she wouldn’t let me leave the house
without a face full of makeup.”

“Well, you gotta admit, you look
awesome.”

She smirked. “Thanks.”

He moved his face closer to hers, so close
she could feel his warm breath on her cheek. His finger traced the
top of the corset just over her breast. “You know what?” Katie
shook her head. “We’ve had sex twice now, right? And both times
were great but afterward totally sucked. I think we need to erase
that shit right now. We need to make love right now just so we can
have a nice morning after. What do you say? And then maybe I can
figure out how this goddamn thing works too,” he said, running his
finger along the top of the corset.

Katie smiled. “But don’t you have to leave
tonight?”

Johnny grinned back at her. “Our next
concert is in Colorado Springs tomorrow night. You can drive me
there, can’t you?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Then, if it’s okay with you, I want to
sleep with you in my arms tonight. And I want to wake up next to
you, knowing that everything between us is finally okay.”

She brought her face up to his so that her
nose was touching his. “Yeah, of course it’s okay.” She reached
down and tugged at the strings tied in a bow at the top of her
corset, loosening them. “Do you think you can take it from
here?”

He grinned. “Shit, yeah. I’m good with
playing strings.” He kissed her then, continuing to ease the
strings out one eye at a time. Katie couldn’t wait until he
discovered that the strings wouldn’t remove the corset. There was
still a secret zipper on the side that had to be taken care of, but
she knew that would make for some fun foreplay.

###

Why can’t she draw the line between attorney
and lover?

Samantha T. Paulson, Attorney at Law, finds
it hard to concentrate when new client Ryan Craig sits across her
desk.  She finds herself immediately drawn to him against her
better judgment.  Eventually the inevitable happens, and after
an unforgettable night, Samantha realizes she has crossed the line
of the attorney / client relationship and could lose her license to
practice law.  When she admits to Ryan that she shouldn’t have
slept with him, he believes it’s Samantha’s clever way of dumping
him.  She is torn between her career and her feelings for him.
She finally tries to reconcile with Ryan, but it might not happen,
because her ex-lover tries to rekindle their romance, and a man who
has long carried a torch for her threatens to have her disbarred
for misconduct.

Enjoy the following excerpt from
Stating
His Case
:

Samantha T. Paulson, Attorney at Law, was
trying very hard to concentrate. And,
unlike
most times, she
was even finding it hard to act like a professional.

She wrote a couple of words on the lined
yellow legal pad in front of her, trying to keep her eyes fixed on
the paper just a little longer. Longer than she had been, at any
rate, because she’d been maintaining eye contact for far too
long…she couldn’t keep her eyes--or her mind--off the gorgeous man
sitting on the other side of her desk.

Ryan Craig looked down at his hands without
saying a word. Samantha looked back up from the pad to ask him
another question, but the words were not flowing easily. She kept
getting drawn to those green eyes that smiled when he did,
little--almost unnoticeable--lines forming at the corners; light
brown hair cut short and a clean-shaven face except for the tiny
tuft right under his lip; three silver hoop earrings glimmered from
his left ear, and colorful tattoos painted most of his right arm;
his flamboyant appearance all but mitigated by his quiet,
unassuming manner. If Samantha had been somewhere else, somewhere
where he wouldn’t have been able to tell that she was checking him
out, she would’ve spent more time looking at the tattoos. But,
instead, she had to be content with bits and pieces…little glimpses
stolen here and there. He wore a black t-shirt…it wasn’t tight, but
she could tell he was well-defined underneath--his chiseled arms
told her as much.

But her view ended there, along his torso,
thanks to the desk. Ryan was quiet--even shy, perhaps--and only
spoke when she asked him a question. Maybe he was uncomfortable,
never having needed a lawyer’s assistance before, or maybe the
subject matter made him uncomfortable. Or was he intimidated by
her, was she coming on way too strong…or was he just a quiet
guy?

Samantha cleared her throat, trying to force
herself to behave. She was acting--in her mind, at least--like a
giddy schoolgirl. “Would you prefer I call you Mr. Craig or
Ryan?”

He looked up at her. “Ryan’s fine.” That
slight smile again. Samantha could have melted right there. She
only hoped that this man had no idea of the thoughts rushing
through her mind.

The funniest thing was that in ten years of
business, she’d
never
acted like this…had never even felt
this way about a client, had never even dreamed of looking at any
of her male clients in this light. Maybe it was because this man
named Ryan had the aura of a “bad boy.” Sure, she’d always had a
soft spot for those kinds of men--and, granted, she’d only had a
couple of guys like him as clients before--but, damn, the
electricity sparking off this guy was intense. Maybe he was just
like that, throwing off so many pheromones that all women felt
instantly drawn to him…or maybe there was something there just
between the two of them--maybe he felt it too.

“Okay, Ryan, please call me Samantha.” She
forced her eyes back to the legal pad. Pen at the ready, she asked,
“So, where is she now?” While she listened to his answer, in the
back of her head she chided herself--she didn’t look her best
today. What chance did she have of charming him back? Sure, her
makeup was fine as was her dark brown pixie-cut hair that always
fell neatly into place…but she hadn’t worn her nicest, most
flattering, show-off-her-curves suit, had forgotten even to put on
jewelry today, had forgotten to wear her favorite sexy perfume.
She’d overslept this morning and had done the best she could in
what little time she had. If she’d known this man was going to be
here today, she would’ve allowed herself to be ten minutes late to
put on the finishing touches. But she couldn’t change anything now.
She could only hope to be her usual enchanting self.

“I’m sure she’s still in Trinidad.” Samantha
nodded her head and jotted it down. Trinidad was in the
Southeastern part of Colorado--over one hundred miles from where
they lived in the small city (or large town, depending on how one
looked at it) of Winchester.

She couldn’t help herself. It might not be
relevant to his case, but she had to know. “So why did
you
move
here
?” She lied to herself that this information was
important, because any court documents or appearances would have to
take place in the other county. She was now his lawyer and should
be privy to the information, she told herself, justifying the
question in her mind.

“Better job opportunities.” He paused, and
she could tell he had more to say, so she remained silent. “That
and I had to get away.” He stopped again, looking down at his hands
once more. “She wouldn’t leave me alone. If I hadn’t left, I
might’ve done something I’d regret.” He looked up again, making
contact with Samantha’s blue eyes, and, for what felt like the
hundredth time during this conversation, she felt almost like a
voyeur. She was drinking this guy in, and he was starting to tell
her personal details. She’d heard and noted everything he’d been
saying, but she was pulling it in on a more personal level than she
had ever done in this kind of situation. She wouldn’t need to look
at her notes to remember, unlike many clients’ details. So even
though an important aspect of the attorney / client relationship
had just begun--maintaining a client’s confidentiality in regard to
intimate details--Samantha was recording it in her mind, just like
a woman would with a new guy she’d just met and had set her cap
for. In essence, wasn’t that what she’d been doing?