Charlie All Night (16 page)

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Authors: Jennifer Cruise

BOOK: Charlie All Night
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*  *  *
"The only problem was that since the booth reeked, Charlie tad to spend
most of his time out of it.
With Allie. He was upposed to be talking
about the ads for the rest of the show, but Allie was wearing
a
silky pink sweater, and her curves were right there in front of him.
She was saying something, but he couldn't hear because of the
rushing in his ears.
He had to touch her. Touching was not sex. Touching was just touching.
"What we need here is a definition of sex," Charlie said. "The bet said
no sex. It didn't say no kissing." He took a deep breath.
"I want to
touch you."
Allie flushed pink and Charlie felt dizzy. Usually when she flushed
like
that, it was because he was
moving his hands on her. He thought of the
nights he'd had with her the week before and thrown away, not
memorizing every second of what it was like
to touch her. How he hadn't concentrated on the feel
of his tongue
against her skin, the slide of her body against his as she arched
against him, the heat and
the wet and the— "Oh, God," he said. "I
really need to touch you."
8
Allie sat across from him and tried to control her breathing. I really
need to touch you. He was making
her insane over this stupid bet. If he
wanted her, all he had to do was say, "You win."
Of course, all she had to do was say, "You win." and she could have him
back. She could slide her
hands down his back, bite into the muscle on
his shoulder, lick her way into his mouth, arch her
aching body into
his hardness, and dear God, find some surcease for this endless need
that was driving her crazy. She bit her lip to keep from saying it out
loud.
And if she did that, he'd touch her like only Charlie could touch her,
his hands on her breasts, hot and teasing, his nouth, moving lower...
She drew a breath, suddenly light-headed from not wreathing before,
suddenly wanting his mouth
more than anything in the world. Her breasts
felt hot and tight and made her crave his touch even
more, and she
moved her hands to press against them, trying to ease the itch and
the throbbing here.
And Charlie said, "Don't do that, please don't do that," and she said,
"You do it. I can't stand it
anymore."
He got up slowly and came to her, and she stood and put ler head on his
shoulder. He finally touched
her, smoothly us palms lightly over her
breasts at first, then pressing against ler, and then finally
lowering
his head to bite her gently hrough her sweater, and that's when she dug
her fingers into us shoulders and cried out.
He kissed her then, licking into her mouth, and the relief was like
drowning. She arched against him, feeling how hard he was against her
stomach, and his hands pressed her breasts in exquisite relief while
every cell in her body throbbed for him. She laced her fingers in his
hair and pulled his mouth harder agamst hers, trying to drink him in,
biting his lip, and his leg went between hers as he bent her back
against the production table, moving against her, while she wrapped
herself around him as tightly as
she could.
He was heavy on top of her, wonderfully heavy, and she stretched up to
him, trying to meld with
him, using his weight to satiate her need to
have him inside her. His lips were on her throat as his
hands pulled
her sweater down off her shoulders, and his tongue licked deep into her
cleavage. She scraped her nails down his back and throbbed against him.
He pulled her bra off her breast, and his
mouth found her, hot and wet,
and he sucked hard, and she cried out and tightened against him,
blind
with need. He shoved her skirt up and moved his hand between her legs,
pressing against the
nylon there, his fingers sliding under the elastic.
"Wait," she breathed. "You, too."
And he said, "No, this is just for you."
She moved away from his hand. "No." She pulled his head up to look into
his eyes, and they both
shook with passion. "No. Not unless it's for
both of us. It has to be both of us."
"It is," he told her. "I love watching you come." His eyes were hot,
and she wanted to drink them
in with the rest of him and make them part
of her, but she wanted him with her, too. They were
in this together.
They were in everything together.
"No." Allie drew a long, shuddering breath. "No. I want you so much I'm
dying from it. But that's
just sex. No. Both of us or nothing."
Charlie dosed his eyes, and she slid out from tinder him, memorizing
the feel of him as she did.
Charlie leaned on the table, gripping the edge, his biceps taut from
tension. "We could end this damn
bet by mutual consent. We could both
give in."
Allie leaned back against the table, getting her breath under control
while she tried to figure out why
that was such a badidea. It should
have been a good idea. "Is that what you want?"
"It should be what I want." Charlie stood up and tipped his head back,
staring at the ceiling instead
of her. "I don't know why I'm so sold on
this damn bet. It's making me insane."
"It's making us different," Allie said, and she knew that was why she'd
pulled away. In the beginning,
she and Charlie had been about sex. Now
they were about something else. She knew it was love, but
he was still
getting there. So she'd give him time. "We're different now. It's just
one more week."
Charlie met her eyes for an instant, and then turned and walked back to
the booth.
Allie felt light-headed. Probably from not breathing, she decided and
consciously filled her lungs
with air. She was dying from not having
him, but she didn't want him yet. She wanted him more
than anything.
But not yet. Not until they both knew it was more than sex.
*  *  *
Three weeks into the bet, Allie was trying to look on the bright side
and failing. It should have been
easy to look on the bright side.
Charlie All Night was a huge hit. The paper ran stories about Charlie
and the city building, Charlie and the FoodStop indictment, Charlie and
Sam. Pictures of Charlie and
Sam were particularly popular, and people
had donated so much dog formula and food and puppy
toys to the station
that they were supplying the local animal-rescue groups daily. Even the
sabotage
was helping; when the ad tapes disappeared from the booth one night,
Charlie had been forced to
fake
it. His ad-libs about how great McCarthy's cashew chicken was at
two o'clock in the morning, how
much Sam loved the formula he'd gotten
from Paula's Pet Emporium, and how Harry swore by
Gleason's Auto Parts,
had started a trend. Now all the advertisers wanted Charlie ad-libbing
ads.
He was a radio natural.
And she was going crazy. For the first time in her adult life, her
first thoughts on waking weren't about
the radio station. They were
about Charlie. She'd gotten what she wanted: they talked all the time
now. About radio, about food, about politics, about books, about
sports... they talked until she was ready to scream, "Shut up and kiss
me!" And even if she did, he'd probably think it was a request and play
Mary Chapin Carpenter. She was delighted her career was back in high
gear, but she wanted Charlie
back more.
She finally hit bottom one night after staring hopelessly at Charlie
through the booth window for the
entire show. She was a mess and she
needed comfort, so she went home and knocked on Joe's door.
"Come in," he said, half-asleep, and she went in and sat on the side of
his bed while he tried to focus
on her.
"I know it's the middle of the night," she said. "I'm sorry."
"No problem." He yawned and moved over and she crawled in bed next to
him, sinking down on
his shoulder when he put his arm around her. "So
what's up?"
"You were right," she said into his shoulder.
"I'm always right." He patted her. "Let me guess. This is about
Charlie."
Allie nodded. "I'm in love with him. I really screwed up this time."
"Well, not necessarily." Joe shifted in the bed to make more room for
her. "This could be a good
thing. At least you've given up thinking a career is a life. And
everybody should fall in love
at least
once in her life, so that's good, too."
"I was in love with Mark," Allie said miserably. "I served my time."
Joe scowled at her. "You were not in love with Mark. Mark was your
career and you thought it would
be efficient to have a relationship
with him, too. That was your tidy streak talking." He stared off into
space for a moment. "Now, Charlie is the worst possible match for you,
so this must be love. Good
for you, kid."
"Very funny." Allie wanted to stick out her chin and move away to show
she wasn't kidding, but Joe's arm was too much of a comfort to lose.
"What am I going to do?"
Joe shrugged. "Love him. What else can you do?"
Allie blinked, trying not to cry. "He's going to leave in November. Do
you know how much that's
going to hurt?"
"Do you have a choice? And anyway, it's not November yet. You've got
some time. Things could change. As usual, you're focusing on the
problem and not looking at the big picture."
"What big picture?" Allie slumped deeper into the bed. "There is no big
picture. I love him and he's leaving in a week."
"You could leave with him, you know," Joe said, and Allie looked at him
sharply. "Well, I'd miss
you, but you'd write and come back to visit.
It might not be a bad life, following Charlie around the country. You'd
have a good time."
"And no career," Allie said stubbornly.
"Well, it would be a choice," Joe said. "But at least if s a choice.
And I think you're forgetting Charlie here, too."
Allie groaned. "Fat chance. He's all I think about anymore. I'm
becoming
obsessed
with
Charlie."
"Well, he's not exactly ignoring you." Allie blinked at him, and Joe
went on. "I know he moved out,
but that was the only sane thing he could do. He never takes his eyes
off you when he's with
you.
He always knows exactly where you are. And..." Joe paused, and
Allie waited hopefully for some
killer point that would convince her
falling in love with Charlie wasn't the dumbest thing she'd ever
done
in her life. "He's jealous as hell of Mark."
Allie slumped again. "Big deal. I want him to love me."
Joe rolled his eyes. "Well, Al, I'm pretty sure he does."
Allie sat up, "Then why doesn't he say so. Why doesn't he say, 'Allie,
I love you and I'm not leaving
you in November.' I'm not looking for a
marriage proposal here. I'm just trying to get my option
extended for
another yeas."
Joe moved his arm away. "You know, if I didn't like you and Charlie so
much, I'd enjoy watching the two of you be dumb about this. Allie, he's
not going to tell you he loves you until he figures it out for himself."
Allie threw her hands up in exasperation. "Well, when's that going to
be?"
"Hard telling," Joe said. "I like Charlie a lot, but he's not deep, and
he really hates commitment. It may take him a while."
Allie flopped back onto the pillows. "Well, great. With my luck, he'll
figure it out next spring when he's
in Dubuque or Broken Arrow or
someplace else I'm not."
"Then you make the first move. Tell him you love him. Tell him he loves
you." Joe punched his pillow and slid back down into the bed. "Produce
yourself a love affair."
"He would run like a rabbit." Allie sighed. "I'm sorry. You've got to
get up and work in the morning.
I shouldn't have bothered you." She
started to climb out of bed.
"Don't be wimpy," Joe said from his pillow. "Of course you should have
bothered me. You'll be okay. Charlie will get around to figuring out
what he wants as soon as he finishes doing whatever it is he
came to
do."
Allie turned back to him. "What do you mean?"
Joe's voice was sleepy. "Well, he came here for something. What was it?"
Allie blinked at him. "To fill in for Waldo as a favor for Bill."
Joe yawned. "Then why is he asking so many questions?"
"Because..." Allie let her voice trail off. He was asking a lot of
questions. She'd assumed it was for the show, but he didn't care about
the show. Or did he? Maybe he was getting interested in radio. He was
making sure nobody was sabotaging the show again. And he had her
researching great topics for the show, like this drug legalization
thing they were doing next week.
"Maybe he's starting to care about the show," she told Joe with hope in
her voice.
Joe snored, and she gave up and went to bed, still miserably in love
but vaguely comforted.
After all, November was still a week away.
*  *  *
"Mark tried to do a talk show with Lisa today," Harry told Charlie.
"You've really got to start getting
up earlier. You're missing some
good stuff."
Charlie sat on the console. "Such as?"
"He decided they were going to discuss working relationships."
"Well, it's an okay topic," Charlie said.
"Yeah." Harry leaned back. "But Mark spent the whole time talking about
Allie. Never let Lisa get
a word in edgewise. She finally burst into
tears and left the booth."
"We need to kick him," Charlie said. "I don't care how dumb he is, that
was mean."
"Nah," Harry said. "He still doesn't know why she's upset. And she's
staying with him. They deserve each other."
He tilted the chair back to look up at Charlie. "I think he's planning
on making his move on Allie again."
Charlie ignored the spurt of alarm he felt and shrugged. "She can take
care of herself."
Harry shook his head. "Yeah, but you're not around to stick up for your
interests much. You don't
even see her outside of work."
"Come on," Charlie protested. "I see her five or six hours a day."
"At work," Harry said. "It sort of looks like, if you're not sleeping
with her, why spend time with her?"
"Hey," Charlie said. "That's not-"
"That's what it looks like. And Mark has noticed. Probably mentioned it
to Allie by now, too."
Allie came into the booth. "Here's the stuff you wanted," she told
Charlie, handing him a stack of
notes. "I got the—"
"You busy tomorrow night?" Charlie asked her.
"Uh, no." She blinked up at him.
"Let's get a video and some Chinese," he said. "Tell Joe."
"Joe's got a date. It'd be just us."
"Oh." Charlie shrugged. "Okay. Fine."
"Okay." Allie looked at him strangely again and left the booth.
"Good move," Harry told him.
"Right," Charlie said, but he thought,
Allie and me and Chinese food at
her apartment. Oh, hell.

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