Chapter Five
Natalie
When I woke up the next morning, it took me a second to remember why there was a man in my bed. All I could recall at first was putting away several mini bottles of liquor from the minibar, wondering if I would have to pay for them myself or if Jacob’s company would cover them, and slipping into a hot bath and getting ready to lounge around in front of the TV for the rest of the night and try to drown out the noises of the party that were happening downstairs.
But then, of course, it all came flooding back to me- Jacob turning up, the way he touched my face to get me to look at him, and then – me on top, coming so hard it felt as though my body was about to give out underneath me for good. Shit. Yeah. That.
And I had asked him to stay over. I wasn’t quite sure what had made that seem like a good idea, but the thought of him leaving just made me feel all kinds of dirty and wrong. Okay, yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have gone in for round two quite as quickly as I had, but I wasn’t sure when both of us would pluck up the courage to do this all again.
I was going to make the most of him while I had him in my bed, that was for damn certain. He was just so…fuck, there was nothing about him that I didn’t find sexy. I lay there in his arms for a moment as the morning light poured through the window, enjoying the slow in and out of his breath against the back of my neck, and closed my eyes. If I could just stay here forever that would be ideal.
Cancel the tour, cancel the article, and just the two of us could spend the rest of the time traveling the country and hooking up in every hotel we could find. Well, it would save on the costs of getting me my own hotel room, right? Maybe I should pitch that to them.Jacob began stirring behind me, and I twisted my head around to greet him. He smiled blearily at me, his face a little puffy from tiredness but still just as gorgeous as ever.
“Morning,” I smiled at him nervously. “How…how are you?”
“Pretty fucking good,” he replied, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me close against him. I could feel his erection against my ass, and as tempting as it was to go for another round, I knew that people would be looking for him by now.
“We should probably get going,” I suggested. “What time are you leaving?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he shrugged. “Fuck, they’re not leaving without me, are they?”
“I guess,” I laughed, conceding the point. “But I don’t…. I don’t know if I want everyone to know what you were up to last night, you know?”
“I think they’re going to have an idea,” he teased. “I mean, I didn’t go back to my hotel room…”
“Okay, but I don’t think I want them to know who it was with,” I pointed out firmly. “I just…I need some time to figure everything out, alright?”
“Noted,” he bowed his head. “I’ll get myself out of here soon, just let me grab a shower and I’ll leave you be.”
“I’ll come downstairs with you,” I yawned, rolling over in the covers. “Breakfast comes as part of the deal, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, I see your game,” he grinned. “Fucking me and then taking me for everything I’ve got?”
“If all you’ve got is breakfast, then yeah,” I cocked an eyebrow at him, and he laughed. I watched as he made his way through to the bathroom, leaving me alone in the bed, and I lay back and stared up at the ceiling with a big grin on my face. Okay. So, what the fuck had just happened?
Honestly, I had no clue where the two of us went from here. I still had to write that story on him, and I doubted that I would be able to use any of this for the article. Should I try to keep things professional after this, or should I use my place closer to him to get a whole new look at the world he was a part of? I mean, I would have felt like an asshole exploiting what we had, but still. It would have been the smartest move to make in terms of my journalism. And besides, I really, really liked fucking him. What was there to lose by enjoying some clandestine fun on the road? I would just have to keep my fingers crossed that no-one else would cotton on to what we were doing together. We were always going to be spending a lot of time together, so it wasn’t like we couldn’t find excuses for getting all up in each other’s business without arousing a bunch of suspicion.
And what about afterwards? When the tour was all done? Because if I was being honest with myself, there was something between us that I had never felt the likes of before in my entire life. That attraction, the one that clearly came as much from him as it did from me; the fact that he had come up here out of nowhere when I hadn’t even expected him to notice that I wasn’t attending that after-party.
We were drawn to each other, almost dangerously so, and my head spun when I thought about what it would be like to not see him every single day. I had a straight line to him pretty much whenever I wanted it now, but when this was over…it didn’t bear thinking about.
He emerged from the shower, naked but for a towel around his waist, and I swear to God I practically had to fan myself at the sight of him. How did one man contain these many levels of hot? He moved in close to me, and kissed me gently, even the chasteness of the kiss making me want him more.
“I should get dressed,” he pointed out, lingering close to my face, and I knew it was an offer more than it was a statement. I pulled back and waved to his clothes on the floor next to us.
“Yeah, you probably should,” I agreed, and watched contentedly as he pulled his clothes back on. I giggled when I thought back to the fact that we’d hooked up without so much as him taking his shoes off the night before. I had never been part of something so completely and utterly intense, the kind of encounter that wiped any sense of decency straight from your brain. There was no time to think about anything beyond him, and me, and the two of us together.
Even now, I was having trouble keeping my head on straight and reminding myself that we had to return to something close to normalcy now. If I could have locked those doors and hidden us both from the world for the rest of the day, I would have done it. And I had a feeling that he would have let me, too.
I got out of bed and pulled some clothes from my bag. Time to make my return to the real world. I sighed heavily as I got dressed, wondering if there was some way I could stay hidden out in here all day with him, but I knew I was fooling myself. We found ourselves exchanging nervous little smiles as we prepared ourselves to leave, and I stuffed as much of my crap in my bag as would fit. We were flying out later today, and I didn’t want to have to rush around when I came back up.
“Ready?”
“When you are,” I bowed my head and let him lead us out, grabbing my room key from the table before we stepped outside. We headed for the elevator and my stomach grumbled. He snorted with laughter.
“Hey, you’re the one who made me build up this appetite,” I protested, and he held up his hands defensively. “I don’t hear you complaining,” he shot back, and I grinned. We spent the rest of the ride down in companionable silence, which was broken as soon as we stepped out of the elevator. In the lobby of the hotel, there were at least a half-dozen people milling around, most of them I recognized from the fight the night before. And as soon as we emerged from the sliding doors, all eyes were on us. A few lifted their cell phones and snapped a couple of photos of us as Jacob hurried me over to the door that led to the dining room.
“What the fuck’s going on?” I demanded, looking over my shoulder agitatedly. I didn’t like this. Not one bit.
“Paparazzi,” he muttered, and he sounded pissed. “I didn’t think they would give a shit, but- ““Seriously?” My eyes widened, and I shot another look over my shoulder to check them out. I had never had anyone photograph me like this before, and it was as disconcerting as hell.
“Yeah,” he sighed. “Sorry, I should have thought. One of the receptionists probably told them I went to your room last night and they’ve been staked out here waiting for me to emerge all morning.”
“That’s crazy,” I muttered, but soon forgot about my troubles as soon as the scent of a hot breakfast filled my nostrils. “Mmm. Want to join me? We could get pancakes.”When I turned, I found Jacob looking down at his phone with a frown on his face.
“I actually have to go…” He replied apologetically, shooting me a brief, distracted look. “My agent wants to see me.”
“Oh, okay,” I shrugged. “Catch you later, I guess?”
“Yeah, sure,” he replied in a mumble, walking away from me with his eyes fixed on his phone the entire time. I started to load up my plate with food, starving hungry, and put the incident to the back of my mind. Little did I know that it was about to blow up in my face.