Trouble in the Making (2 page)

“You can’t be serious?” How red were her cheeks? And a glance at his face told her he was completely serious. “I…I can’t say it. Not here.”

“You can say it anywhere, Liz. Since we’re here, though, it’s as good a place as any. Besides, you said it at dinner the a few weeks ago.”

“That was different,” she hissed. If he was trying to rattle her, he was doing a damn good job of it.

“Nah. It wasn’t. It only took you through the salad course to get the question out, but you know how it is. I’m older now, I’ve been playing music for years at decibels that are off the charts. There’s that man thing too. We don’t listen all that well the first time around.”

“You’re impossible.”

“Oh baby girl, you haven’t seen me naked yet. I promise you, it’s quite possible.” He leaned down close and nipped at her ear with his gorgeous, full and kissable and definitively wicked lips. “I’ll let you off the hook this one time. All bets are off after this. Get your coffee and come sit with me. That’s not a request or a suggestion.”

He stayed next to her, staring at her until she turned her head and met his gaze. There was no humor or challenge in his eyes. Liz nodded slowly and watched as he stood to his full height. He towered over her. His long blond hair hung loose across his shoulders and back, the scruff of dark-blond beard made him look rough around the edges and the icy blue of his eyes held her frozen in place, melting everything deep down inside her.

“Johnny Trouble,” she breathed. “You do live up to your name.” She turned away and his low chuckle reverberated down her spine when he disappeared to the table he’d indicated a few minutes ago. She took the steps forward to the counter, resisting the urge to follow him with her eyes. Resistance proved futile. Her attention was riveted to the sway of the hem of his leather duster.

“Ma’am?”

Heat flooded her cheeks as she met the impatient look of the barista. “S-sorry.”

“What can I get you?”

Liz surveyed the menu again. What was it she’d settled on before? “Dark-chocolate mocha with caramel drizzle, please.”

“Whip?”

“Yes, please.” She was on vacation. She could splurge on the extra calories for the weekend, especially considering the exercise she was planning to get. The laid kind of exercise. There. She said it. In her head, but it was a start. She was there, in a ritzy hotel, to get laid. By a rock star.

“Would you like an extra shot of espresso?”

“You have no idea how much I’d like one,” she said, a little too enthusiastically to her own ears.

Liz paid the bill, gave her name, and against her better judgment, made her way to Johnny’s table. His smile was gentle, nonthreatening and he motioned for her to sit. If it had been any of his other smiles, she’d have probably turned tail, flipped out of her flops and run away.

The thing about Johnny’s smiles were that as long as you looked at his mouth, they were just smiles. The real meanings behind them were conveyed in the way his eyes would shift and change with his moods and with who happened to be in front of him.

He was always an open book, but there was always more to him when it came to certain people. Some got the friendly smile, some got the tolerant-but-you’re-an-asshole one, some got the get-the-hell-away-from-me one.

He was an enigma and she’d spent four years in high school watching him, staring at him, studying him, lusting after him. Here, more than twenty years after graduation, she was still just as taken with him.

“Cat got your tongue?” He leaned forward. “Because if so, he’s going to have to give it up. I have plans for its use later.”

Oh God. Oh God. Oh. God. Liz didn’t know how to answer him, so she looked away. Why was she mute again?

“Poor baby,” he teased, while reaching across to lift her face with his fingers beneath her chin. “We’ll get through this. I know it’s not easy, but I’m glad you chose me.” There was an extra gleam in his eyes, an extra little lift to his lips. This altered version of his smile was personal and all for her. It said he was going to have her and that she was going to let him.

It was a smile filled with promise, with heat, with pleasure.

“One dark-chocolate mocha with whip and caramel drizzle for Liz.”

Finally. Saved by the shout out for coffee. She started to get up, but Johnny stayed her with a motion of his hand and a hard, pointed look. “I’ll get it. If I let you up, you’ll bolt for the door.”

Liz nodded and turned in her seat. She couldn’t see his ass for the coat that trailed along his calves, but she would bet it looked as good in leather now as it had looked back when they’d been classmates. Probably better if the front of him was any indication. He was still lean and trim, and from the glimpse earlier, just as well hung as rumors had said.

He set the steaming cup in front of her and she took a deep breath. Aside from the lattes she made for herself at home, she never got one in a ceramic cup. Those from coffee houses were always in cardboard cups with plastic lids. This was most definitely a treat. “I bet you’ve never served a girl coffee before, huh?”

Johnny took his seat again, crossed one leg over the other and laid his hands on his knee. “Outside bed? No.”

“Oh.” Liz sipped at the coffee. Espresso, chocolate, caramel, whipped cream. It all hit her system at once. It was quite hot, but so very good. She took a second sip, swallowed, sighed happily, took a deep breath and opened her mouth. “We’re here to have sex. There? Happy? We’re here to have sex. You with me and me with you. Sex. A lot of sex.” Before he could respond at all, she moved on quickly. “So now that that’s out of the way, how did it happen that you’re not only early, but also walking into the coffee shop right behind me?”

“Hold on now. Let me catch up. Sex. I’m actually relieved that you clarified it for me. I am indeed here for the right reason. You’re correct, we’re going to have a lot of sex and I’m going to make sure you blush and I’m going to make sure you enjoy every last second of it.” He winked just before she looked back down at her coffee. He wasn’t going to make it easy on her, but he was going to make it fun. “I’m here because I had to alter some plans and arrangements. They told me they could check me into a room, but it would take a while to switch a few things around and to have a seat while they finished. This little shop was better than the lobby. All the leather might draw attention, you know?” When she didn’t respond, he sighed. “Liz. Fucking look at me.” She did, immediately. “That’s better. You didn’t check your voicemail, did you?”

“No.” Unlike most people she knew, she wasn’t glued to her smartphone. Half the time it annoyed the hell out of her and the other half she couldn’t figure out how to work it efficiently. He tsked at her, but the quirk of his lips was indulgent and she melted all over again. She couldn’t remember the last time any man had indulged her in anything. If they kept this teasing banter up, she’d be nothing more than a puddle of coffee-flavored Liz on the floor. She took another sip for that fortification she’d been lamenting the lack of earlier.

“Don’t worry. I wasn’t hiding behind potted plants waiting to pounce. The timing is purely coincidence. However, since it appears that’s where your mind has gone, I guess we could go on up to your room and start getting down to the pleasurable business of why we’re here.”

She could play dumb for a bit. She could do easy and simple without too much trouble, but the continuous blush that heated her cheeks she couldn’t hide.

“Naughty girl,” he whispered.

“I know, but you’re just as naughty,” she said softly, surprised at her quip. His only reaction was a raised brow and a small smirk.

“Just as? Oh no, my Lizzie. I’m much naughtier.” There was a pause where he stared at her just long enough to make her start to squirm. “Much, much naughtier.”

“So, uh…” She had to clear her throat because the squeak that was now her voice wouldn’t work properly. “Are you sure you want to do this? We won’t be able to go back, Johnny. Maybe if we were younger, but now? If we go through with this, our friendship will change.” It was her biggest fear. She’d come to count on his friendship.

Johnny shook his head. “You’re the one who proposed this and I’m glad you did. Don’t worry about it, baby. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while. I—”

“You have?” She couldn’t keep from interrupting. “How long?” She wanted to know because she’d been thinking about it for roughly five freakin’ years. Long time to carry a torch for someone.

“Since our class reunion.”

“But that was—”

“Five years. You’ve been on my mind for much longer, but seeing you at the reunion brought back some old feelings I’d had for you in school.”

“Oh.” It was all she could think to say. His words mirrored her thoughts exactly and it was, what? Fate? Serendipity?

“Oh,” he mimicked, but with an extra twinkle in his eyes. “I started thinking about second chances and with all the changes going on in my career I decided it was time to change up my personal life too.”

Did he, Johnny Trouble, mean that she was his personal life change? Wouldn’t that just be a hoot? “Is that why you kept in touch? Calling, writing, laying over in Orlando?”

“Something like that, yes. Why do you seem so surprised, Liz?”

“I just am.” Sometimes she saw him as Johnny, her friend from years ago, mature and grown up, but still her friend. Other times, she saw him as Johnny Trouble, the rocker. It was rare that the two melded together in her mind as they were doing right now.

“You shouldn’t be,” he casually denied.

“Why not? It’s not as though I have rock stars calling me all the time.”

“Which shocks me.” He winked. “Then again, I’m not just any rock star.”

“No,” she agreed. “No, you’re not. But you’ve shown up as the rock star you are. Head to toe leather and silk, earrings in your ears.” Dear God, that turned her on. “You knew if I saw you like this…” She couldn’t finish the thought. He would know that her seeing him in leather would make her forget her own name.

“Yes, I knew exactly what I was doing when I boarded the plane dressed this way. More than that, though, more than the rock star persona, I’m your friend Liz. That much has always been true. No matter what, we’ve always been friends. As for this little rendezvous changing our friendship?” He pinned her with an intense look. “I’m counting on it.”

Much as she liked the way he could hold her in place with a word, a stare, a smile, the reality of the moment still weighed heavily on her. “What if it changes for the worse? If what we have now becomes awkward and falls apart, then what? Won’t we have ruined it for nothing?”

Johnny shook his head. “Darlin’, sex doesn’t always ruin things. Sometimes it’s the start of something and my gut feeling with you is that it would be the start of something fun.”

He slowly slid his gaze from her face to some spot behind her. She’d learned over the years and from her own experience as a writer that when thinking things through, Johnny would look off somewhere else. He’d focus hard for a moment, looking for the words. She often did the same thing, so she was patient enough to give him whatever time he needed.

It also gave her a chance to study him. The way his hair hung over his shoulder and the way the gold hoops in his ears gleamed in the warm light of the café. He had a few wrinkles here and there and he looked his age, but he was more beautiful and interesting now than he’d ever been as a teenager. She could look at him forever and not get tired of doing so.

That thought brought her up short and she looked down at the melted whipped cream and strings of caramel floating on top of her coffee. Damn. She—

“Liz?”

“Yeah?” she said a little too quickly, a little too guiltily. She hoped he didn’t notice.

“I want this. I want you. I’m willing to risk everything about our friendship for the chance that we could have something more.”

More? What kind of more was possible for an ordinary woman and a rock star? “I don’t want to lose you, even if all I have is your friendship.” There were no more truer words. He’d become a constant presence in her life, someone she counted on, turned to and if she lost him, it would break her heart. She was in love with him. She didn’t think he knew and that was how it had to stay.

“I said I’m willing to risk it, but honestly, baby, I don’t think it’s a risk at all.” He reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. “It’ll work,” he promised, breathing the words across her skin. “It won’t be awkward and you won’t lose me.”

She nodded after a few moments. “Okay.”

“Excellent. See how easy that was? Now, there is one thing.”

Liz’s heart started thundering. She was nervous enough without him adding in an unknown element. “Figures. I knew this couldn’t go off without a hitch.”

“Hey now. It’s just one hiccup and it’s not going to mess up anything long term.”

“What is it?”

“I have to leave first thing in the morning.”

“In the morning as in tomorrow morning? I only get you for twenty-four hours? That’s why you’re a day early? I wanted to ask, but just thought…” She let her words just hang there. There was no point in finishing her thoughts. She knew she couldn’t and wouldn’t even try to keep the disappointment from showing on her face.

“I do and I know I promised you more than what I’m able to give on this trip, and for that, I apologize. It’s work or I wouldn’t leave you.”