Rock Stars Do It Dirty Page 6

  "I can't keep up with you. I know I can't. But I think that's only a part of the problem. There's something else. That thing you said you'd tell me 'eventually.'" Tess leaned her head against his arm. "This is eventually, but you still don't have to tell me. It's someone else. I see the way you look at me sometimes. Maybe I look like her, or something. I don't know. But that's what it is."

  "Yeah, sort of. But it's--"

  "Complicated," Tess said in sync with him.

  "Yeah," Chase said. "It's really complicated."

  Tess turned away from him, dropped the towel, and stepped into her panties, then hooked her bra around her middle and slipped it on. "I don't need to know the details. But I'll tell you this: A lot of the time, when someone says something is complicated, what they really mean is they're afraid of the truth. They're afraid of what will happen, afraid of the consequences." She turned back to Chase. "Good things often come with tough consequences. It just makes us appreciate the good that much more."

  "You're right," Chase said. "But it's not me you have to convince. It's her."

  Tess shrugged. "I don't have to convince anyone. You do. And if it's meant to be, it'll happen." She put on her flight attendant uniform, zipped her bags, and then set her rolling suitcase on end, handle extended. "I care about you, Chase. You're a good man and an incredible lover. I really am sorry this didn't work out, too."

  Chase thunked his head against the cold glass, then moved toward Tess. "I haven't been fair to you, Tess. And that's what I'm sorry for."

  She smiled at him, a little sadly. "I knew this was coming a long time ago. I knew it was coming when you said you didn't want to talk about it back in Eric's gym. I was just being selfish. I wanted a piece of you for myself."

  "Well, you got a piece. A big piece." He grinned lecherously, but his heart wasn't in it, and neither was hers. "Seriously, though. This goodbye sucks."

  Tess nodded. "Yes, it does. All goodbyes do."

  He leaned toward her and kissed her, careful not to smudge her makeup or wrinkle her uniform. When he let her go, Tess took a deep breath and let it out.

  "Goodbye, Chase."

  "'Bye, Tess." He watched her leave, wondering what he was supposed to do with himself now.

  He took a long shower and dressed, packed his one duffel bag, and left the hotel. The snow was bitterly cold against his shower-hot skin, and the wind was even worse, snatching his breath away. He walked aimlessly, trying to empty his heart, snuff out the turmoil inside himself. He shrugged deeper into his thick coat, eyes downcast, attention wandering. His bag was slung over one shoulder, and his hands were dug into his pockets. He thought he might be capable of just walking, walking, walking until the snow buried him or the cold froze him, or the hole in his chest ate him from the inside out.

  Then he rounded a corner, and something soft yet firm slammed into him, knocking him backward. He slipped on a patch of ice, tangled up with whoever he'd run into, and tumbled to the sidewalk, slamming his head into the concrete. He saw stars, squeezing his eyes shut against the pain. Then something familiar spiked through the fog and the thunder in his skull to his awareness. It was subtle at first, a combination of scents, lotion and perfume and shampoo, woman-scent...and then a series of sensations, the way her body fit against his, a tickle of hair on his face, and the heat of an intense gaze.

  Chase cracked his eyelids open to see the burning jade orbs that had haunted his dreams for months staring down at him.

  "Y-you?" Her voice broke.

  Chase tried to catch his breath and speak, but the wind scoured past his nose and mouth, taking it, and the pain in his head and the ache in his heart all conspired to keep him gasping. Most of all, it was her beauty that left him breathless.

  Her hands were on his chest, resting lightly. Her lips were inches from his, red and full. Her breasts were crushed against him, and...he was instantly erect, hard as a rock and near to bursting in the space of a single heartbeat. And all Jamie was doing was looking at him.

  Then he truly looked at her. Her eyes were red, and unshed tears were pooling, threatening to spill out. "Jamie? Are you okay?"

  She could only shake her head. She tried to get off him, to stand up, but she couldn't. Chase let his head touch back down to the cold concrete, snow drifting around his eyes, and gazed up at her.

  "Yeah, me either," he said.

  Jamie laughed, a choked sound. "Help me up. I can't..."

  Chase stood up gingerly, helping Jamie to her feet. He didn't let go when they were upright. He drew her instinctively into his arms, and she went willingly, seemingly unconsciously. "What's wrong, Jay?"

  "Everything. You. Me. Just...everything."

  Chase laughed again, knowing what she meant, somehow. "I wish I didn't understand that, but I do. All too well."

  "Why are you here? Why do you always show up at the worst times?"

  "I wish I knew." He felt truth boiling on his lips. "But then...I do know. I keep showing up because we're meant to be."

  "It can't be."

  "But it is."

  Jamie sobbed into his chest, as if a dam had burst open, then cut herself off just as quickly. "Why? Why, Chase?"

  "Why what?"

  Jamie pulled back to meet his green piercing brown. "Why did you have to make me fall in love with you? I wasn't supposed to fall in love with you."

  Chase felt something hot and wet burn down his cheek. "I don't know, Jay. But I've been wondering the same thing. Why, oh, why did I have to fall in love with the one girl I can't have?"

  Jamie's eyes slid closed, fluttered, then opened. When her eyes met his again, he saw a new kind of determination in them. As if she'd made a decision. The hot wetness stung his eyes, almost as if he was crying, but that wasn't possible. He hadn't cried since he was in elementary school, if not before. Certainly not over a girl.

  Then he felt moist, soft, wet lips touch his cheek where the saltiness stung his skin, heat on his cold flesh. Again and again her lips touched his face, cheek, chin, forehead, throat, neck, then...a pause...bated breath...and her lips touched his. Chase's eyes were closed tight, blocking away the world, and he almost flinched, so intense and visceral was the sensation of her lips on his. Like hot wine, like a drug.

  He had no chance of resisting.

  He kissed her back, softly at first. So softly. Then her lips pulled away, and he heard her drag in a shuddering breath. He opened his eyes and saw her, tear-tracks on her cheeks, wiping them with trembling fingers. Chase mimicked her gesture, kissing away the salt of her tears, trailing kisses across her face, over her lips, tasting hesitantly, then taking hungrily. She met him with equally sudden ferocity, and they were lost together then.

  Chase pulled away first. "If you walk away again, if you tell me no again, I'll be broken in a way that can never be fixed," he said.

  Jamie shuddered, and then collapsed into his chest. "Me, too." Her words were muffled by his coat, but he heard them.

  "Is this happening? Us?" he asked.

  She nodded. "It has to. It can't not." Jamie looked up at Chase and let him see into her heart through her eyes. "I'm terrified."

  Chase licked his kiss-swollen lips. "Me, too."

  "Where do we go? What do we do?" Jamie asked.

  "Well, first I have a show to play. Then I'm going to find a hotel, and I'm going to kiss you and make love to you until you beg me to stop."

  Jamie shuddered into him, but this was a different, more feral and salacious, kind of shudder. "I'll never want you to stop." She arched into him, wind-blown red curls tangling around them both, and he felt fire blaze through his body, instant heat, instant need. "Never."

  "Then I never will," he answered.

  Chase kissed Jamie again, and this time it was slow and languorous and full of promise. Their eyes met again as they pulled apart, and the heat flying between them was hot enough to melt the snow as it drifted between their bodies.

  The promise in her eyes had him ready to explode, and he knew when
they finally came together, it would stop his world.

  THE END OF PART TWO

  Jasinda Wilder

  Visit me at my website: www.jasindawilder.com

  If you enjoyed reading this book, I would love it if you would help others enjoy it as well. LEND it, RECOMMEND it, or REVIEW it.

  You can share it with a friend via the the lending feature, which has been enabled for this book. Or you can help other readers find it by recommending it to friends and family, reading and discussion groups, online forums, or the like. You can also review it on the site where you purchased it. If you do happen to write a review, please inform me via an email to jasindawilder@gmail.com and I'll thank you with a personal email.

  Links to my other titles:

  The Preacher's Son #1 #2 #3

  Biker Billionaire #1 #2 #3 & Omni Collection

  Big Girls Do It Better (#1) Wetter (#2) Wilder (#3) On Top (#4) Married (#5)

  On Christmas (#5.5) & Omni Collection

  Delilah's Diary #1 #2 #3

  Wounded

  Rockstars Do It Harder

  Visit Jasinda Wilder on Amazon for current titles.

  To be informed of new releases and special offers, sign up for Jasinda's email newsletter.