I nodded. “I’ll try to dig up some email addresses for you. I’m sure they’ll think I’m an ass for waiting until now…”
“I’ll make sure they won’t. I’ll explain you were busy, on deadline, but now your project is done.” Kacey propped herself on her elbows, the swell of her breasts pushing against my chest. “I’m so happy you changed your mind. Can I ask why?”
I started to tell her it was to make her happy, or that I really wanted to see my old friends. I told her the truth instead.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t feel as important as it once did to keep them away.”
She traced a shape on my chest with her finger. “Maybe it’s because you accomplished what you set out to do. No distractions.” She grinned shyly. “Well, except for one.”
“One beautiful, amazing distraction.” I pulled her mouth to mine, kissing her softly at first, then deeper.
You need to take it easy…
“Hold that thought,” I murmured against her lips. “I need water. Want some?”
“Sure.”
I got up and padded naked to the bathroom. The light blasted in my eyes when I flipped it on, and they flinched at the harsh glare. I tried for one of the two glasses on the sink and missed because white lights were suddenly dancing across my vision. I grabbed the counter as the floor spun beneath my feet and my breath turned shallow.
The hell…?
The episode, or whatever it was, passed in moments. My vision cleared, and I breathed deeply a few times until my equilibrium was restored. A side effect of the meds, probably. Or more likely I’d just overdone it with Kacey. That was probably it. Even as I was taking her like a madman, I knew it was too much. But tonight I couldn’t get enough of her. I needed to fill my hands with her, touch her everywhere, inhale her, absorb her, as if I could carry her with me even when we were apart.
Nice and easy. Chill. The installation is done and you have every day free to see her.
I filled both water glasses with steady hands and returned to the bedroom.
“Thanks,” Kacey said and drank hers as I climbed back into bed. She set her glass on the nightstand and took mine when I was finished. “Now… Where were we?”
She kissed me sweetly, then seductively, but I gently pulled back. “The day’s finally caught up to me. Either that or you wore me out. Pretty sure it’s the latter.”
She huffed a dramatic sigh. “Tease.”
“I know. Come here.”
I wrapped her up in my arms, tucked her head under my chin, and kissed her hair. Even after sweaty, voracious sex, she still smelled like caramel. I filled up my lungs with her, taking her with me into sleep, where I dreamt of a gently rocking boat and a swiftly receding shore.
It was opening night of Jonah’s installation at the Wynn Galleria. I hadn’t been this nervous and excited since the night before Rapid Confession’s first big concert.
Miraculously, I didn’t want a drink. I hadn’t had a drink since I’d left the band and hadn’t smoked a single cigarette either. I had the urge now and then, but I would never smoke around Jonah, and if I smoked in my apartment, it’d be everywhere when he came over.
So I kicked two bad habits. One for me, one for him.
I put on a little black dress that came to mid–thigh in the front, with wide shoulder straps and a skirt that draped to my calves in back.
“It’s a reverse mullet,” I’d told Jonah over the phone earlier that day. “Party in the front, business in the back. Do you think it’ll be appropriate?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “My main concern is how easily it comes off.”
The joke was a relief. Jonah had been distracted, nervous and stressed this last week of the load-in. I hadn’t yet seen the finished product, and anticipation threaded through my stomach as I piled my hair on my head, letting some loose tendrils fall down. I applied my usual makeup with smoky eyes and bright red lips, and then paced my little living room, waiting. One glance out the window revealed a sleek black limousine pulling to the front of my building, just as my phone chimed an incoming text:
Here, but running late. Meet me downstairs?
I raced down and got to the curb just as the driver opened the passenger door and Jonah climbed out. He froze when he saw me, jaw dropping open for a beat.
“I got this,” he said to the driver, who tipped his cap and returned to sit behind the wheel.
“Good evening,” I said.
“You look…” He shook his head as he came closer and slid his arms around my waist.
“You don’t have to,” I said. “I love your silent compliments.”