Trouble in the Making (14 page)

It was an older home, a lot like hers in Orlando, a slight bungalow feel to it. “Did you have this place remodeled?”

“You can tell?”

“Yes. It’s an older neighborhood, well established, but really nice, comfortable. Just seems the inside of the house would be a little more closed in than what it actually is.” The layout was wonderful, welcoming, and as wide open as it was, it didn’t feel cavernous.

“I had it redone when I bought it about ten years ago. The inside had to be gutted for what I wanted, which is what you see. I don’t think anything is original to it save for the outer walls. It was pretty plain inside, no decorative or artistic touches.”

“Seems odd for an older place.”

“Yes, but it made it easier to choose to demolish the inside. I loved the location though, the view, and the aesthetics of the area. It felt like it could be home.”

“I get that.” She trailed her fingers along the walls, painted a soft, inviting gray, which contrasted beautifully with the dark hardwood floors. What drew her attention the most though was the solid glass back wall and the ocean beyond it.

The ebb and flow of the water helped to ease her anxiety in a way nothing else could have. Well, nothing else except him. The talk of coffee a few minutes ago was her way of trying to temper the nerves in her belly and had been a good start. Small talk, as they’d both discovered yesterday, grounded her when it came to him, gave her a level playing field on which to meet his outgoing personality.

“It’s something, isn’t it?” He spoke from behind her. “Different from the Atlantic.”

“Yes.” It was churning, alive in a way the Florida beaches on the Atlantic side weren’t. It was impressive and awe inspiring. She could see sitting out on this deck, writing, drinking coffee, at least drinking iced coffee and listening to the waves as they thundered and crashed. The color was different too. More blue than green. The sand, more white. It was an incredible sight and she was moved by it more than she’d have expected. She’d grown up around the water all her life. Even living in Orlando, the Atlantic was one way and the Gulf the other, but there was something about seeing the Pacific for the first time that took her breath away.

He pressed against her and wrapped his arms around her. “What has hit you?” he asked again, leading her back to their previous conversation out on the curb.

“Everything. You. Being here.” Her breath hitched as he began tracing lazy circles over her stomach. Her heart was pounding and by sheer force of will she was trying to calm it, but it wasn’t working.

“What about me?”

She wondered if she could find the words, if she could concentrate enough to speak. “Who you are.”

“Johnny?”

Liz smiled even though he couldn’t see it. “Yes, but you’re a rock star,
the
Johnny Trouble. We’ve had dinner, shared coffee, conversations, talked about life, been friends, but you’re really—”

“I’m really just me. I’m no different than I was a yesterday, or a few months ago, or at any other time.”

“You are, though,” she insisted.

His arms tightened. “No. I’m not. Don’t panic, baby. I’m the same guy I was in high school, just older, wiser, richer, and you’re the same girl you were, just older, wiser, sexier.”

“I’m definitely not the same person I was back then.”

Johnny laughed and rubbed his cheek against the top of her head. The gesture warmed her. It was sweet, intimate. “You’re probably right. I’m not sure you were this kinky in school, but…” Liz reached behind and swatted him on the hip. “Rock and roll has been good to me and so have you. You’ve been there for me, steady and supportive and normal. You’ve never treated me any different for my fame. You’ve never tried to capitalize on our friendship. So what is it about being here that has you so nervous? Thought you’d gotten over all this uncertainty before I left the hotel.”

He was right. About all of it. “I thought I had too. I don’t know. Maybe because it’s here. In L.A. In your house, in your world. We’ve always met in neutral places, and this isn’t.”

“No, Liz it’s not. Whatever this is between us, now and in the past, it’s never been neutral. And the place, wherever it is, doesn’t change that. I love this house, this view, but it’s not the home I bought hoping it could and would be. Look, I’m going to have to get back to the studio soon. We’ve only got a few hours of recording time left today. Want to come?”

She turned in his arms and wrapped herself around him. “I do. I think that might immerse me even more in my delusions of a rock star being in love with me.”

“No delusions, Lizzie.” He thrust his hips. “It’s all very real, baby.” He was hard against her lower belly and he brought her up hard into his body. “Feel that? There’s nothing more real.”

“Johnny, I—”

He took her mouth in a tongue plunging kiss, stealing whatever words she might have been thinking to say. His hands slid down over her ass and gripped her cheeks in his palms. His fingers dug in and he backed her through the room, up against the glass walls she’d been admiring.

She heard a click from somewhere close and then the ocean breeze was in her hair and Johnny had her up against the deck railing. “Johnny,” she tried again, but this time lost her own ability to speak. He unfastened her jeans and slid his hand downward, inside her panties to fondle her with calloused guitar player’s fingers.

Arousal hit her hard and fast, but it wasn’t enough. Not for her and not for him. He pushed at her jeans until they started to slide toward the floor. Liz helped his efforts and almost before she could take her next breath, he spun her around. “This is my private section of beach. No one can see us here on the deck, and unless someone walks up to the house itself, they can’t see what we’re doing.”

“O-okay. But I thought you had to go.”

Her heart thundered in her chest and she held onto the rail like it was the only solid thing left in the world. She didn’t turn around to see what Johnny was doing, she didn’t ask him what he planned, she just stared out at the sea with her jeans and panties down around her ankles.

“I do. Need to do this first.”

When she’d flown out to see him, this particular scenario never entered her mind. Sex yes, but not out on a deck, half dressed, in broad daylight. That it was a private section of beach didn’t make much difference. She hadn’t done outdoor sex, private, public or anything in between.

Johnny’s fingers found their way back to her pussy and he spread the lips wide and used his other hand to help bend her forward. He was inside her only seconds later and she couldn’t control the shudder that vibrated through her body or the deep-seated sigh of pleasure at being filled with him again.

And it most definitely was all about him.

He leaned over her back and spoke loudly so he could be heard over the sound of the waves coming in. “Do you feel it, Liz? Do you feel me? Everything, all these feelings I have for you, they are more real than any others I’ve felt for anyone.”

Liz only nodded. Her throat was dry from the salty air and the gasping breaths she took as he punctuated every one of his words with the fucking of his cock inside her. He held tight to her hips and pummeled her pussy over and over and she held on for the ride.

It was one of the most exciting things she’d ever done and she hoped they could do it again, more. He felt good, right, perfect as he thrust upward and slid along her front wall. It wasn’t enough, though. She needed something more, something direct and she lowered her own hand from the rail down between her thighs.

He knew the moment she started rubbing her clit. “Oh fuck yeah, baby,” he called out.

It wouldn’t take her long or take much teasing to make herself come. His earlier fingering and his fucking and his words, it all melded together. She lost herself in the repetitive motion of the water and the waves. She lost herself in the feel of her own wetness that really didn’t belong to her as much as it belonged to him. Her arousal was linked to him. After this time she’d spent having sex, fucking, making love with him, it wouldn’t be impossible to separate her desires, her fantasies, her body’s reaction to sex from him.

He lifted one of his hands away from her hip. “I.” His hand connected with her ass cheek. “Love.” It connected again, harder this time and forced a grunt from her throat. “You.” The third smack was harder still and followed by a roar from behind her.

He held her pressed tight against him as he came in hard, jerking motions of his hips. She kept rubbing at her clit and then his fingers took over. She orgasmed within seconds. His touch. It soothed, it calmed, it aroused.

Johnny braced himself with his hands on the rail near hers and held still inside her. It wasn’t until he started softening that he pulled out, and by then, her breathing had returned to some semblance of normalcy.

Something soft was pressed against her pussy, and when she stood and looked down, she found he’d caught any leaking cum with the t-shirt he’d been wearing. She laughed. She couldn’t help herself. She pulled her panties and jeans up, then faced him.

His hair was loose around his shoulders and his tattoos, the ink everywhere that was visible to her, came alive in the sunshine. He had his jeans fastened and a smile of supreme satisfaction on his beautiful face.

“Any more protests?” he asked as he led her back inside. She did collapse onto the couch this time and sighed. She could live on this couch.

“Well…” She couldn’t seem to think straight, her brain was so at ease.

“Oh, and it’s former rock star.”

“Huh?” It took her a few seconds to catch up to what he was saying. “Right. Not likely. Do you remember that guy at the curb a little while ago? You’re not a former anything.”

“I’m formerly single,” he offered. Liz laughed, but soon sobered as Johnny joined her on the couch. He had on a fresh shirt and took her hand in his. “Talk to me.”

“I don’t know what to say. You’ve given me more than I ever imagined, offered me something I never dared dream. I always tell my students in workshops to reach for the stars, yet I never allowed myself to reach for them until…” She closed her eyes and shook her head. When she opened them again, Johnny was all blurry. She was about to cry. “Yet here you are. My star.” She knew it sounded corny, but it was how she felt. He came into her life when she least expected it. The fact was that she had been swept off her feet without even realizing it over the last several years. She’d learned something very valuable since yesterday morning in the espresso bar. She’d learned that though her bashfulness could be debilitating at times and that she would miss out on some things because of it, reaching for other things, the right things, could change her life. Johnny was the right thing.

“Stop it right now. You’ll make me blush and then my whole rep will be ruined.”

“You’re aligning yourself with a nobody. Your rep may be ruined anyway.”

“Not true. You’ve never been a nobody, baby.” He sighed then, huge and dramatic. “However, you’re not as well known as I am and being with you isn’t going to gain me a whole lot of attention, so if I’m going to suffer for love, what do I get in return?”

“Bastard,” she muttered. Liz poked him in the arm, but before she could pull her hand back, he’d captured it and kissed the tip of her finger. “My undying devotion?”

Johnny turned his head toward her in time for her to see his eyes rolling back. “Oh that is lame. I can have that from any number of fans. You’ve got to do better.”

“Hmmm.” She screwed up her face as though thinking hard. “Well, there is the whole kinky sex thing you still have to teach me about.”

A nod from Johnny had her grinning inside. “Yes, yes, a definite plus. I could really get into teaching you all sorts of naughty things. What else?”

“Me,” she said softly.

The teasing light in his eyes gentled. “You? How much of you?”

“All of me?”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

“Telling.”

“Then tell.”

She swallowed against a sudden lump in her throat. “All of me.” The feeling behind those words stunned her. She’d known for a long time how much she wanted him and loved him and would give anything to have the fairy tale with him, but she hadn’t promised him anything for fear that her all wouldn’t be enough.

“In bed?” The teasing was back, but only slightly.

“And out, if you’ll have me.”

“No question that I will. Here?”

“Yes,” she answered without a second thought.

“In the summers, because it’s so damn hot in Florida.”

“Yes.”

“We can live there the rest of the year, if you want. There are plenty of recording studios for me to use and other things to keep me entertained and occupied. I might even break out the old art supplies.”

“I want you there with me.” No truer words had ever been spoken. Being with him was what she wanted most. “Ever since you told me you loved me, that you’d go wherever I was to be with me… Johnny, I want a life with you.”

“Not intimidated anymore?”

“I am completely intimidated.” She would be for a long while. His world was so different than hers. His friends a far cry from her own. There would be eggshells and uncertainty and fear that he would become bored with quiet nights and her suburban neighborhood in the small historic area of Winter Park, Florida that was a far cry from the crowds and entertainment he was used to.