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?”