LOVE TRIP:
Romantic Adventures with CARTER DAVIS, hero of Kisses Don’t Lie…
Click here to read previous chapters:
Chapter 1 - The Meeting
Chapter 2 - Are You Scared?
Chapter 3 - My Place or Yours?
Chapter 4 - How Bad is Bad?
And the story continues…
CHAPTER 5: There’s No Place Like Home
A sleeping man is a man who can’t get into trouble. Except maybe for Security Guy. I have a feeling he could get into trouble even if he was on his death bed. Or at the very least, he’d cause trouble. I know this because I’ve watched him in action. Women have had accidents because of him. He walks into their line of vision and they spill hot coffee all over themselves. He glances their way and they trip over their own feet, trying to do the sexy walk for him. He speaks to them and they forget their name.
Yes, a man like Carter is big trouble. And right now, he’s my big trouble. Although to look at him sleeping on my bed, you wouldn’t think he’s any trouble at all. He looks like a saint and he’s making little sleeping sounds that make me believe I could do the forever thing with him. Be still my thumping heart.
I can’t resist. I need to be closer to him, to smell him, to feel the heat of his body next to mine. I lie down behind him, taking care not to wake the beast. He’s on his side and so I snuggle up close and wrap an arm around him. This is what heaven feels like, I think. This is what forever feels like. (Okay, so I don’t really know what forever feels like, but it’s what I believe, so I’m going with it.)
Security Guy stirs. I hold my breath as he settles. It’s all I can do being so close to him. My mind is in overdrive and I’m afraid it’ll short circuit if I think or do anything other than just enjoy the moment.
Security Guy is a right-now kind of guy and I’m a forever kind of girl, yet I try to convince myself I could take a chance on a guy like him. But the truth is, I know I have to let him go. Only I don’t want to. Not yet, I tell myself. I want this moment to last long enough for it to become a memory.
More stirring on his part makes my heart beat faster. Has he somehow read my thoughts, even as he sleeps? He’s a powerful man. I’m a crazy lady. But who cares? He’s here and I need to be just a little closer.
I push myself up against his sleeping body, half wishing he’d awaken and make me his woman; half wishing I’d never met him. Okay, maybe half wishing I wasn’t also in the middle of writing the sequel to Kisses Don’t Lie. After all, how will it look if the hero of my book is fraternizing with the author? Behind the heroine’s back?
I push such silly thoughts to the back of my mind. The heroine isn’t a real person. Still, it’s hard to write a love story between two people when a third person is in the mix. But, hey, I tell myself, there’ll be plenty of time to worry about that—later. Right now, I’m doing some heavy lusting…and a little daydreaming.
Let’s see…what would life with Security Guy be like? Neon lights, late nights, and numb lips (we’d be doing a whole lot of kissing, after all). I’d spend my days soaking up the Las Vegas sun, waiting for him to come home to me and our mini-mansion. We’d have a roast for dinner or maybe a plate of pasta and then, to work off the calories, we’d take a dip in the sparkling aqua-colored water that would be our swimming pool. Later, we’d retire to our boudoir and we’d make love into the wee hours and, finally, he’d sing softly into my ear. And then I’d fall asleep. The next morning, we’d get up and do it all over again.
And on those days that I couldn’t wait for him to come home to me, I’d go into town and I’d sneak up to his office and I’d make him close the security screens so that he and I could have some privacy. And then…
“Did you just moan?” Security Guy asks me.
I look over at him and his eyes are open. I quickly check to make sure I haven’t been drooling. “Me? Moan?” I laugh. “Don’t be silly. Why would I moan?” Geez, can’t a girl have a private thought without being given the third degree?
“You tell me,” Security Guy says. He rolls over and we’re face to face. His lips are mere millimeters from mine. I could kiss him—if I wanted to. Or he could kiss me.
“Uh,” I say. Once more I’m stalling for time. Time to explain. Time to think. Time to figure out what the heck I’m doing. This is total insanity. A life with Security Guy could never happen. Women everywhere would be determined to give him a pair of their Victoria’s Secret panties—and I’d eventually be the girl keeping him from having fun with all of them.
As much as I’d like to think a man like Security Guy will someday want to settle down, that time has not yet arrived. Not even close. And as I look at him, I know I can’t bring myself to just go for it. For if I did, and things didn’t work out, he’d just be some guy I had a lot of fun with and I might even be ruined for any other man. Yes, I’m sure he’s that delicious.
Even so, I do have right now. And even if I can’t do some things, I can do others.
I put a finger to my lips and shush him and he laughs gently. I close my eyes, because it’s safer that way. For him or me, I’m not sure. Just safer. He allows me a minute before he touches my forehead.
“What’s going on in there?” he asks.
I open one eye and stare into his gorgeous face.
“Nothing.” I’m such a liar. I’m fantasizing like a madwoman. “Sleeping,” I say, closing my eye again so that I can continue my lust-filled dream.
Security Guy’s lips brush across my skin and my cheeks flush hot. He kisses his way down to my neck and I feel it to the roots of my hair. I wait, half expecting the bed to catch fire, but it doesn’t and so I let him continue. What can it hurt, a little fun between friends? It’s all good, I tell myself. Security Guy reaches an arm across me and squeezes me. It’s all very good.
“Kiss me,” he tells me and I do and then he says, “I can’t stay, you know.”
I nod, but I don’t say anything, afraid one of two things might happen—tears or begging—neither of which I’m very good at. And neither of which I think would do any good with a man like Security Guy. It is what it is and if there was any other way, I think he’d like to stay. At least for a while…just to get the hang of me.
“Will you ever come back?” I finally ask.
“You’ll see me again,” he answers.
His answer is an adjustment to my question. He’s being kind, which he doesn’t have to be, but that’s how he is and I appreciate it, but it doesn’t make our parting any easier. I tell myself I really will see him again, but the pain is still there. I think he senses my heartache and so he pulls me tight against him once more.
“It’s good that you’re leaving,” I manage, at last. He pulls back and gives me a look. I shrug. “I can’t write when I’m with you. Being near you clutters my mind.”
He smiles and says, “You like me.”
“Very much.”
“Enough to…”
“Maybe someday. Not today. But I wouldn’t mind more kissing.” I’m lying, of course. I’d like nothing better than to be with him right this minute, but like I said, I don’t do tears well and I wouldn’t want him to feel bad about loving me and leaving me. Someday might actually happen—someday—and I don’t want any kind of bad feelings between us.
Security Guy drags me over on top of him. He pulls his gun out from some undisclosed location on his body and lays it on the nightstand, so that all I feel beneath me is his hard, masculine body.
“Then let’s do more kissing,” he says. And we do, for a very long time. So many kisses I can’t even count. So many kisses, I begin to believe I’m already ruined for any other man, and I ask myself how I’ll ever be able to finish my sequel to Kisses Don’t Lie. Even though the heroine Bailey is only a figment of my imagination, it’s hard to have a sense of Security Guy being with someone else.
Oh, well. It could be worse. Security Guy could also be a figment of my imagination, and then I wouldn’t have such true inspiration for writing my book. Any maybe I will see him again. Maybe. After I finish Return to Sender. After all, stranger things have happened…like me winning a car on a slot machine.
**This was my last chapter with Security Guy. But now that I’ve finished Return to Sender, and Carter and Bailey have finished what they started, I think I just might see him again. For at least one more chapter. Or three. Thank you so much for your letters about these two characters and thanks to everyone who has encouraged me to write their sequel.
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