Exit Stage Six: A Contemporary New Adult Romance Novella (8 page)

“I blew past her, was pretty much a total dick to her, but
you know what? I got back with the drugs and there’s this plate of fucking
cookies sitting on my doorstep. I went into my apartment and stared at this
plate of god damned cookies and this pile of pills looking from one to the
other for I don’t know… hours?” He picked up my hand and smoothed his thumb
over the back over and over again. His hands were cold. Damp from having washed
them.

“I ate a cookie and it was the best mother fucking cookie I
had ever tasted. I ended up flushing the drugs.” He stared at me and I stared
back at him.

“I don’t understand…” I said.

“I didn’t either.” He said.

“Why’d you choose the cookies?” I asked and it was too soft
over the thump and thrum of the music.

“What?” he asked.

“Why did you choose the cookies?” I asked louder, and even
Hal and Carl were leaning in to hear the answer.

“It was the damnedest thing I swear to God I heard Drake say
‘Have a fuggin’ cookie’ like he used to say when we were kids before sliding a
pack across the counter at me. I stuffed a cookie in my mouth and lost my shit.
I cried like a baby and didn’t stop crying. I ate every god damn cookie on the
plate and flushed the drugs.”

“When I saw you by the tree I didn’t plan on asking you to
dinner. I was just so pissed, so angry I wanted to be an ass to you. I wanted
to make you hurt like I was hurting I felt all out of control but the next
thing I knew I was asking you to dinner instead of what I wanted to do which
was make you hurt as much as I was hurting.” He looked embarrassed.

“Yeah and that went remarkably well.” I rolled my eyes and
smiled, he smiled back.

“You put up with a lot more from me than that but it was
like I was hooked. I thought about you all the time after that and with
everything happening with Drake, it twisted me up inside. I wanted to spend
time with you, let you in but…” he scrubbed his face with his hands and sat
back. I handed him his water and he finished it off.

I fixed him another Moscow Mule.

“Thanks.” He took a sip.

“I started drinking to drown out the hurt and confusion.” He
stated.

“Really, I hadn’t noticed.” I said sardonically.

“Yeah, cue my next little misadventure.” He grimaced. We sat
quietly for a minute.

“What was his next misadbenture?” Carl asked, eyes narrowed
in suspicion.

“He showed up drunk on my doorstep, thought my apartment was
his. When I came home and unlocked the door he made himself at home. Went right
on in and passed out in my bed.” Carl looked at me dubiously.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“Stole his keys and apartment swapped.” I answered and his
eyebrows went up.

“Hey I could have called the cops!” I crossed my arms and he
thought about it and finally said.

“Thanks for not… that would have been a hell of a PR
nightmare.” He gave me a grudging nod.

“That’s still not the worst thing I did.” Dorian grimaced.

“The blonde?” I guessed and he nodded, then shook his head
but went ahead with an explanation anyways.

“She recognized me.” He said, “I took her home figuring that
if the booze could erase the pain that maybe I could erase you with her.” He
stopped talking and grimaced.

“As unflattering as it is, I get what you’re saying… Go on.”
He looked at me.

“I’m so sorry London, fuck I told you that you deserved
better than…” I put a hand on his knee and squeezed.

“Shut up with the apologies Dorian, I’ve heard them from you
before, remember? Right now the only thing I’m interested in is the truth. All
of it.” he straightened as if I’d slapped him and nodded. I felt like a bitch
but my anger abated just a little. Hal raised his eyebrows and Carl actually
looked a little impressed. I glared at them too.

“Right, so I went home and there you were at your door and
you looked… Fuck you looked so perfect, warm and inviting and like this angel
sent from God and I don’t know what I was thinking.” He grimaced.

“Likely not with your big head.” I said dryly.

“Like I told you, I got her upstairs and I couldn’t do it.”
he fisted his hands in his hair.

“You were too far into my system by then and I just didn’t
know what to do with any of it.” He reached up gently to peel the mask from my
face I pulled back.

“Don’t.” I said too softly to be heard, fearfully scanning
the area for my boss Jay. I saw him standing near the bar arms crossed,
watching the proceedings over here. He waved a hand and nodded that it was
okay. I blinked.

“How much are you
paying
him?” I asked.

“You don’t want to know.” Carl grunted.

I fixed him his third drink and Hal’s second.

Dorian reached out and detached the mask with a gentle tug
when I settled.

“I want to see you.” He stated. I sighed.

“That’s the trouble Dorian… You’ve
seen
all of me.”
My shoulders slumped and he sighed.

“I know, and that’s the worst thing by far… I wanted what
you gave me to never end.” He said. “You took me away from all of the bullshit.
Drake, the media, obsessive fans… You put me back together, made me remember what
it was to be
normal
. You were good to me, good for me, didn’t want
anything from me and I just wasn’t ready to give that up and I knew once I came
clean that it would just dry up and blow away.” I blinked at him.

“Dorian the only thing I ever wanted from you was
the
truth
from you! Okay sure, I didn’t ask much but I wanted honesty and
something real from you! Not this farce! Jesus! A man burst into my class room
and demanded to know if I was a virgin when the rock star fucked me! He asked
me if it hurt! Who does that!? My whole life is one inside out mess because of
you now!” I covered my face with my hands as his expression grew angry.

“Carl…” he said and the band manager’s cell phone appeared
in his hand. He squeezed past Hal and went for the exit.

“Shit L.B. I’m sorry. You wouldn’t
talk
to me.” He
pried my hands from my face with gentle fingers around my wrists. I looked at
him and the look wasn’t friendly.

“I honestly had no intention of saying anything about you in
that interview. When she asked me about the tattoo… I don’t know it just seemed
like a good idea at the time. I fucked up! I didn’t think past the immediate
and it fucked you over. I just didn’t want to lose you and it was a crazy last
ditch effort to get you to hear me.” He looked miserable and I grimaced.

We were all silent for a long time, finally he searched my
face and said,

“Let me take you home.” I nodded. I didn’t want to be here
anymore. Hal got up and nodded to Dorian. I got up and he followed just behind
me, hands on my hips as we threaded through the crowd.

“You alright kid?” Jay asked falling into step beside me.

“Yeah I just want to go home.” I said.

“Yeah okay. You want me to call you a cab?” he asked. I
looked from Jay to Dorian and back.

“No, that’s okay. Dorian will take me.” His real name still
felt so foreign on my tongue.

“You sure?” he checked one last time. I pursed my lips and
nodded.

“Okay Isaac has your back.” He told me then turned to
Dorian, “You keep those mongrels off her; she’s a good kid.” He pointed a
finger into Dorian’s face. I rolled my eyes, Jay was barely five years older
than me yet still had a thing about calling me ‘kid’ but right now I
appreciated that he was treating me like a protective older brother.

We exited the building, Isaac and the rest of the security
team keeping the crush of people to either side off the red carpet running to
the curb. Dorian tucked my head against his chest and covered my face with his
arm as we shuffled forward. He shoved me into the back of the waiting limo as people
called out and flashbulbs blinded behind us.

Dorian climbed in after me and settled in next to me. Carl
and Hal sat across from us. Isaac slammed the door shut with a grimace and
knocked twice on the roof of the car. We pulled smoothly away from the curb and
left all the excitement behind. All four of us exhaled in unison and then
nervously laughed at one another.

“Doesn’t get much more real than that.” Hal remarked dryly,
eyes twinkling.

“I guess not.” I said softly and looked out the window.

“So now what?” Carl asked and he looked tired.

“Did you get it?” Dorian asked. I startled when his thumb
grazed along my own and looked down to see our fingers intertwined. His hand
was warm in mine and my heart ached.

“Yeah I got it. Lawyers are already working on it.” Carl was
saying.

“Working on what?” I asked.

“Taking whatever legal action they can against the guy that
crashed your class.” Hal said.

I looked at each of their faces in turn.

“You’d do that?” I blurted.

Hal and Carl exchanged looks.

“With pleasure.” The dour man said.

“Yeah sweetheart. That wasn’t cool.” Hal finished.

I looked over into Dorian’s intense green gaze.

“Babe there isn’t a damn thing on God’s green earth that I
wouldn’t do for you. Don’t you get that yet?” he asked and I bowed my head and
turned to look out the window.

“I just wanted to be like my dad.” I whispered.

“Yeah what’d he do?” Hal asked.

“Photo journalist for Nat Geo until…” I stopped myself,
Dorian squeezed my hand.

“You have your heart set on Nat Geo?” he asked with a grin.
I frowned.

“No.” I said, perplexed and the three of them traded
conspiratorial looks. We got onto the highway and I searched Dorian’s face.

“So whose home are we going to?” I asked in a moment of
insight. His face split into a grin.

“Mine.” He said.  I looked out the window as we got onto the
highway and debated with myself.

I could see his reflection in the tinted glass over my
shoulder. His brow furrowed with concern I saw the fear and the hurt and
endless apologies reflected in the depths of his eyes and I decided then and
there that I had one last chance in me for Evan Lake after all.

“Fine.” I said and his shoulders relaxed marginally. His
hand tightened around mine and I turned to look him in the eye.

“I don’t know where this is going, or who you really are but
I’m giving you one last chance.” I said.

“Babe, Evan Lake, Dorian Metzger, it’s always been me. The
same person. This is just a different setting.” He palmed the back of his neck
and I nodded slowly. I suppose that made sense.

Hal was beaming at me and I caught him mouthing ‘Thank you’
out of the corner of my eye. Carl was messing around on his phone doing God
knows what as we sped onward to the rich west end suburbs with their perfectly
manicured lawns and wrought iron fenced grounds.

We pulled up into a circular drive in front of a large
house. Dorian got the door and helped me out of the car. He shut the door
behind him waved at the driver and the limousine pulled smoothly back down the
driveway, the iron gates sliding closed behind it.

We went into the house and I looked around and tried not to
look impressed.

“Do you forgive me?” he asked. I hung my head, my hair
curtaining my face.

“I’m trying to but finding out all of it was lies… that hurt
worse than anything else you’d done before.” I whispered.

He crushed me to him and the tears I’d been holding in all night
slipped free, tracking through the heavy makeup on my face.

“I missed you.” I sobbed, “I think that was the hardest
part.”

“I missed you too L.B., I missed you so much…” and I heard
his voice crack. We stood there and cried, clinging to each other in the
opulent foyer.

“What happens now?” I asked against the side of his neck. We
were nearly the same height.

“Now? Now I try to be a better man.” He pulled back to look
at me and laughed gently.

“What?” I asked. He cupped my face and smoothed his thumbs
through the tear tracks on my cheeks.

“You’re even beautiful when you cry,” he murmured, “But
this… this is not a good look for you.” He turned me to face a framed gold
record and I caught my reflection in the glass and groaned.

My makeup cut a swath of messy destruction down both cheeks.

“I need a shower.” I groaned.

“Sounds good to me.” He breathed into my ear and lightly
kissed the outer shell. I shivered and he walked me forward to the stairs.

I let him do it and after a myriad of twists and turns we
entered what was presumably the master suite.

The bed was big and fluffy despite all the covers being
black or gray.  A single framed photo hung on the wall opposite. I blinked at
it, Dorian’s vacant green eyed stare over the railing of the stairwell landing,
the only spot of color in the room, the brightly done tattoo sleeve crawling up
his arm.

“I had the entire room redone around it.” he said.

“You liked it that much?” I asked.

“More.” He said, arms twining around me from behind, pulling
me back into his warm, lean chest.

“It’s the first one, isn’t it?” he asked.

“First one I ever took?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, it is.” I affirmed.

He kissed my shoulder and his lips were warm against my
skin.

“Can you get me out of this thing?” I asked.

“You bet.” He murmured and walked us into the bathroom.

It was large and airy inside, the shower immense. He pulled
the ribbon in the back of the corset and began to loosen it. I held my long
hair up out of his way and cast my eyes to the side, watching us in the mirror.
His lips curved into a smile as his long fingers made quick work of things.

“Turn around.” He murmured and I obeyed the softly spoken
request.

He unhooked the metal hook and eyes along the front, and
where his fingers grazed my skin, delicious tingles spread outward lighting me
up from the inside out. I watched his face as he eased the constrictive bad of
material off of me and saw silent appreciation there.

“You were lovely in the dark but you’re stunning in the
light.” He murmured, pulling me gently against him. I wended my arms about his
neck and he kissed the side of mine, gentle, barely there kisses that set me
awash in goose bumps. His roughened fingertips ghosted down my back causing me
to suck in my breath and hold it. He backed me slowly against the marble
countertop that held two sink basins.

“Hop up.” He ordered and palms flat against the cool granite
countertop I did as I was told. He helped, hands on my hips and nudged my knees
apart with his body. He drew back from me and I missed his warmth, the air in
the bathroom chill as it was.

“Don’t go anywhere.” He whispered in my ear and withdrew to
a touchscreen panel, set into the wall beside the glass shower enclosure. Another
square panel set in the ceiling began to drip, and the room filled with the
sound of gently falling rain. He set the temperature and how hard the water
fell all with a few gentle taps of his long fingers. I blinked slowly with
shock at just how opulent the whole thing was. I grew nervous, and started
asking myself what I was doing here. Anxiety unfurled in my chest but was
quickly whisked away when Dorian turned to look at me.

The light in his green eyes was one of the most intense
things I’d ever seen and it made my skin grow heated where it fell. He shrugged
out of his jacket and pulled his tee over his head, letting it fall beside the
coat. He kept his eyes on me as he toed out of his half laced boots and I
couldn’t help but drink the sight of him in.

He came toward me, one stride, then two, closing the
distance between us. My fingertips reached up of their own volition to trail
down the roughened skin of his still-healing tattoo. He shivered and closed his
eyes and let me touch.

“Does it hurt?” I asked.

“Not any more. Itches like a motherfucker though.” He said.

“Is it supposed to be all rough like this?”

“No. Needs lotion.” He said.

“Do you have any?”

“After we get out I’ll put some on it.”

“Can I?” I tipped my head and his eyes opened.

“Can you what?”

“Put it on for you?” I whispered. He licked his lower lip,
tongue out, pink, wet, gone and I closed my eyes. I wanted him to kiss me
again, so badly it was almost a physical ache. I felt rather than saw him kneel
and opened my eyes. He grasped my calf and lifted my leg slipping first one
tall boot then the other off of my feet and legs. He let them drop and stood,
going for his belt. I put my hands to the countertop and slid off, trapped
between it and him.

We kissed and his jeans dropped with a clatter of buckle and
wallet chain to the carpet. His hands smoothed across my ribs and down my back,
long fingers slipping between my panties and skin to grip my ass and pull me
tight against his front. I could feel him hot and thick through the front of my
leggings where they covered my stomach and I moaned, a tight spiral of sound
uncoiling from the back of my throat.

He knelt, taking the leggings and lace of my panties with
him. I stepped out of them and he left them forlorn on the floor. He stood and
we kissed again. I couldn’t get enough of his mouth on mine, his skin against
mine… My hands cradled his face while he held me against him by my hips. He
walked us backwards to the shower and broke the kiss just long enough to open
the glass shower door.

I stepped up into the warm, gentle rainfall and tipped my
head back, letting it beat down onto my face, the salt from my tears and makeup
running together and off me. Warm soapy fingers caressed my cheeks, smelling of
my familiar soap.

“Keep your eyes closed.” He admonished when I tried to look.
He washed my face twice and I scrubbed my hands over it as the water gently
fell and steamed around us. I sighed feeling much better but he wasn’t done. He
washed every bit of me with gentle hands, lips trailing across my skin as soon
as it’d been rinsed.

He wouldn’t let me return the favor.

He shut off the water and dried me briskly, wrapping me in
an oversized towel. I tried to do the same for him but again I was denied.

“You’ve been taking care of me all this time, it’s time I
treated you with the same consideration.” He said gently. He plucked a tub of
some kind of cream out of the medicine cabinet and motioned me into the bed
room.

“Up on the bed L.B.” he said and I took the lotion from his
hands and set it to the side on one of the tall end tables.

“Stop being so damned bossy for a minute and kiss me.” I
said. He smiled and pulled me to him, lips finding mine. I kept my hands to his
shoulders and higher, mindful of the new tattoo on his side and back. He walked
me backwards, our towels falling forgotten to the floor until we bumped into
the bed. He lifted me by the hips and put me resolutely onto the high
monstrosity and it was like being dropped onto a cloud.

The bed was taller than I was used to but it had its purpose
when he nudged my knees apart and stepped between them. It was the perfect
height. I swallowed and he brought his mouth down over mine. My pulse raced
with the ferocity of a hummingbird’s wings and euphoria swirled in my veins. He
pushed on my shoulders and I lay back. He went to one knee and I watched him
down the length of my body, his green eyes dilating with lust until the gold at
their centers were nearly swallowed whole by the black.

“You are so fucking beautiful.” He whispered in awe. His
hands trailed down my inner thighs and I shivered. He gently introduced one
long middle finger into my body and my hips arched up to meet his mouth as he
placed it over that sensitive bundle of nerves.

The blood in my body ignited, searing me with pleasure from
the inside out as Dorian played my body more lovingly than he had ever played
an instrument in his life. I fisted the comforter in my hands to either sides
of my hips and cried out as he found that place inside me and exploited it to
his own ends. His mouth was hot and silky and moved with expert precision and
before I knew what was happening I was wailing my pleasure, my voice echoing
back at me from the gray painted walls.

He backed off, a satisfied smile curving his generous lips
and stood, slowly removing his fingers from inside me. I slumped back into the
bed, panting, trying to relearn how to breathe, turned into a boneless liquid
grace by his hands and mouth, but he wasn’t done.

“I love how wet you get for me.” He took a step forward and
placed his cock against me, collecting the wetness there against its head.

“Dorian please…” I gasped, and he smiled the most
heartbreakingly beautiful smile at the sound of his name on my lips that I
couldn’t help myself. I whispered it again.

“Dorian…” he pushed forward and filled me with one thrust
and I felt my body stretch to accommodate him. My previous arousal and orgasm
had paved the way for him and he slipped into me easily. I wrapped my legs
around his lean hips and he cried out, striking a smooth and steady roll of his
hips, swelling and cresting before smoothly withdrawing, a sea to my shore.

I wanted him like this forever, to suspend this moment in
time and just live here.

“Don’t stop, please don’t stop…” I pleaded and he groaned,
dropping down over me, bracing himself on his hands to either side of my
shoulders deepening the angle with which he took me. I rocked my hips to meet
every forward thrust and he cried out. I could feel the wave building inside of
me. Things low in my body tightened, growing heavy with impending release until
with one final roll of his hips I exploded, going supernova, my vision clouding
with white starbursts as I screamed Dorian’s name, my nails biting into his
upper arms where I clutched him.

I heard his distant shout a half a second later before he
collapsed on top of me, both of us gasping for air as if it were a precious
commodity in short supply.

“I love you…” I breathed and wasn’t at all surprised to
realize that I meant it.

“I love you too babe, I meant it the first time.” He said
between gasps. I pushed myself up onto my hands and felt a keen sense of loss
when he pulled out of my body. He crawled up onto the bed beside me and
collapsed on the side without the semi fresh tattoo.