Chapter Five

Jesse

I nearly threw the guitar across the room. Thank God there was a couch there.

She was heading toward me with a stride that said she had absolutely only one thing on her mind, and it sure as hell wasn’t the sandwiches she had put on the table beside the door. Or the bottle of whiskey, though that might be fun to add into things later.

It was as if thousands of dreams I’d had for the last eight years, fantasies I’d tried to work out with the raven-haired cutie who showed up to one of my shows, had suddenly come true. The only girl that ever really mattered to me, the only girl who I would have given up my seemingly free pass to the inside of any girl’s panties I wanted, was heading toward me with her fingers tearing at her black blouse.

I wasn’t wearing a shirt on purpose. I’d wanted to subtly seduce her, and in my experience, my ab muscles did a lot of that work for me. But she had barely seen me before she started heading over like a locomotive doing a striptease. It was as if all she needed was a feather touch to get to where I wanted her, and my shirtless guitar strumming was more akin to a wrecking ball to the back.

Diving into my outstretched arms, she continued to yank her shirt down off her shoulders as our lips pressed into each other. I relished the taste of her, which I thought I’d forgotten so long ago, but never really had. I woke up with the taste of her lips on mine many mornings, and now I knew I hadn’t imagined the flavor.

Her shirt hit the floor at the same time that her hands found my belt buckle and yanked. I kissed her neck as she hungrily unzipped me and hooked my jeans with her thumbs to yank them down. My boxer-briefs went with them, and suddenly a cool breeze brushed across my stiffened cock just before her warm hand wrapped around it.

I pulled down on the strap of her bra as my lips made their way down her collarbone. Yanking it down, I exposed one of her breasts as she began to stroke me and I took her nipple hungrily into my mouth. She gasped and giggled at the same time and I made my way back to her lips. My tongue slid inside her mouth for a moment as I reached down and lifted her. She wrapped her legs around my waist as I carried her, kicking my pants off my feet, into the bedroom.

Tossing her playfully on the bed, I laughed with her, feeling the joy overwhelming me. She scooted back until her head was on the pillows and began to struggle with her own jeans. I grabbed the pant legs and pulled, helping her get them off and revealing white cotton panties underneath. She paused, her eyes sparkling as I settled between her knees and reached for her stomach.

Tracing my fingers down her skin, I took the panties in my grip and pulled them down slowly, revealing her soft mound of curly black hair. With the panties off her, I flung them aside to a giggle and crawled up to press my lips to hers again. There was no need for foreplay. Neither of us was interested in that right now.

I settled between her thighs and arched my stomach in so I could aim my cock for her soft, wet core. The head brushed through the folds, and I felt her gasp under me. Our eyes locked together, and I slowly thrust into her, only able to go inside a little as she cried out in a mixture of pain and pleasure, a sound I’d heard often but never as satisfying as this one.

Achingly slowly, her body began to relax, and I was able to drive deeper inside. Gripping my chest, her fingers digging into my skin, she rocked with me with each thrust. Soon, we were moving in concert, her voice yelping with each movement as she drew closer and closer to climax.

Enthusiasm took over, and we rolled and jockeyed for position. Her on top, me on top, from behind, from above, it was as if we were teenagers trying out every position we could think of. Every so often, she would clench and her thighs would shake as she rolled through another orgasm.

Sweat rolled down my back as I gripped her in my arms, pressing her against the wall behind the bed as I thrust up from my knees. I smothered myself between her breasts as she held me tightly to her chest. I felt the finish coming and pulled her away, tossing her down on the bed below me as I slammed into her. She laughed and then moaned at the sudden change of pace, and our eyes locked again.

“Come for me,” she said. “Come for me, Jesse!”

A roar built up in my chest and exploded from me as I slammed into her with abandon. My eyes clenched shut and her voice lifted to match mine as I pulled her thighs tight and emptied into her in one glorious, incredible climax. My body shook as I felt myself completely spent, mind and body, falling into her arms.

She stroked my hair as I breathed heavily onto her chest. When I forced myself up, I grabbed her hand and pulled her with me so we lay with our heads on the pillows. She settled her head into the nook of my shoulder and within moments was fast asleep. It only took me a few more seconds, just enough time to know she was truly asleep and see the smile on her face before I kissed the top of her forehead and closed my own eyes, drifting off immediately.

The sunshine coming from the open window woke me up, and I rolled over to put my back to it and wrap my arm around Charlotte. The only problem being she wasn’t there.

Groggily, I opened one eye—the sun was still too bright for both—and searched the bed. Had I dreamed she had been there again? Was it another one of my vivid dreams about her, where I woke up with her taste on my lips?

My eyes settled on something pink on the sheet, and I reached for it, lifting it up to view it. It was a pink hair tie. Exactly the same one she had been wearing when I’d brought her to bed, the same one she’d dramatically removed as she settled on top of me and rode me for the first time, shaking her hair out like an X-rated shampoo commercial. She must have dropped it during the chaotic, Olympic-level lovemaking that happened afterward.

I smiled. That was one for the books, all right. Perhaps THE one for the books.

Still, it was curious she wasn’t there. I wondered what time it was and realized I had left my phone in the living room with my pants. Searching around for a remote, I found one on the bedside table and clicked on the television. Immediately, in the top right corner, the time appeared. Eleven-fifty-two.

Ahh.

Scooting out of the bed as the Weather Channel continued to show how bright and godawful hot it was going to be today, I made my way into the living room, not bothering to put anything on. I had a mild hope she would be in there, sipping coffee or eating the sandwiches she’d brought over.

Unfortunately, I was alone, and all of her clothes were gone. I searched for a note, something she might have left me with a phone number on it, or any other way to contact her and found nothing. A faint memory clicked in my head that she said she had something to do this morning, and I felt a twinge of guilt for how obviously little sleep she’d gotten, and how she was likely still wearing last night’s clothes.

Still, I had a late checkout for one in the afternoon, a requirement I had put in for every room I was booked by Flynn, which meant I had just an hour to get showered, changed, and back on the road. Without another way to contact Charlotte, I had to think of something. I picked up the ancient and out of place hotel phone on the kitchenette counter and hit the button for the lobby. Maybe she was there and would pick up. Wouldn’t that be convenient?

“Front desk, this is Stan.”

“Hey, Stan,” I said casually. “This is Jesse from room, uhh…”

“Eight hundred,” he said. “It comes up on the screen when a guest calls.”

“Right. Eight hundred. Anyway. I am a friend of Char—I mean, April’s. April Garafalo? Is she in?”

“No, I’m sorry, she left earlier.”

“She left?” I asked.

“Yes, she was with another gentleman around ten. She hasn’t returned, but I can leave a note for her to contact you.”

“Ahh,” I said, crushed. “No, that’s fine. I appreciate it. Thank you.”

I hung up before he could respond and hung my head. Of course she was taken. She was gorgeous and smart and funny and somehow even more of all of those things than she had been eight years ago. She must have not been able to stop herself last night and now was going to go back to her normal life, having checked my name off some bucket list.

As depressing a thought as that was, I tried to see the bright side. At least I got to cross her name off my list too. Even if that meant that I now didn’t have a list anymore, because she was the only one ever on it, and everyone else was just a placeholder.

Sighing, I gathered up my clothes and tossed them in a ball on the bed. Opening up my bag, I grabbed my fresh clothes and took them with me to the bathroom. Remembering the bottle by the door, I came back out and grabbed it, popping it open and taking a swig as I turned on the water.

I was sure the bus wasn’t going to leave until one. Kevin never got out of hotels on time. For this leg of the journey, I would let him drive my car, and I would ride the bus. The whiskey was going to make sure I wasn’t driving.

I got myself clean and mostly drunk before I got out of the shower and got dressed. My phone was ringing on the bed, and I got excited before I remembered I didn’t give Charlotte my number. Pulling out the phone, I saw the name and was disappointed yet again.

“Hey, Flynn,” I said.

“Hey there, boss,” he said. “How was the room? Everything up to your standards?”

I huffed a laugh. “The room was great,” I said. “Thanks. I think I am going to ride the bus down today though, so make sure they don’t take off without me.”

“Sure, sure,” he said. “I’ll have someone get your car to Arlington. Don’t worry about a thing, superstar. I got you. Flynn Moody has always got your back.”

“Thanks,” I said evenly. People who spoke like that usually had an ulterior motive. I just didn’t care what his was. Not right now, anyway. “Hey, just a question.”

“Sure, champ.”

“When you booked this room, did you speak to someone about it? An April?”

“In April? No, I booked it yesterday, actually.”

“No, not in April. An April.”

“Oh. No… No, I don’t believe so. I spoke to a guy. Stan? Stan, I think.”

“Ahh,” I said.

“Why? Was something wrong with the room?”

“No,” I said. “The room was great, Flynn. It doesn’t matter. I’ll see you in Arlington?”

“You will!” he said. “I’ll be at this one. You’re going to kick ass, my friend.”

“See you there, Flynn,” I said.

I stared at the hair tie for a long moment before placing it in my bag. Maybe she didn’t want anything beyond last night with me, but I wasn’t so sure I was done thinking about her.