RockMeTonight (6 page)

What was I saying? I was the one who was different. And not
in an acceptable way. Sometimes when I thought of him, I envisioned us
together, not thinking about the furry little secret I had.

I looked at the clock and said, “I better go so I’m not late
for my meeting.” I kissed her and hugged her goodbye. “Until the next full
moon.”

“Unlike you,” she said, “I always look forward to them.
Gives me a chance to see my girl.”

Nico

The moment I saw Lily again, it was as if I could finally
exhale, as if I’d been holding my breath waiting for her. I had been unaware of
the tension welling inside me, building the longer I waited, knowing that soon
I would see her again.

I had picked her up at her condo. When she answered her door
in a pale long-sleeved, yellow dress that clung to her breasts and waist and
swelled out down over her hips, words escaped me. As if she were some sort of
flower signaling spring was ahead. Bright, hopeful, happy.

My eyes traveled further down and saw the bright innocence
of that dress was offset by the sexy black riding boots, worn by a very sexy
woman.

“Hello again,” she said with a naughty glint in her warm,
cinnamon-colored eyes. A glint that sent the blood rushing through my body.

Trying to force my erection from growing, I tried to think
of anything else besides her eyes. Then I focused on her lips, which didn’t
help matters, so I looked around her condo to break my gaze. Her living room
was filled with a bookshelf, a brown suede sofa, and an armchair with a side
table piled with books.

“I’m glad I persuaded you to come out with me,” I said. “It
was easier than trying to learn your name. Only slightly less.”

She gave me a dazzling smile that brought my attention back
to those luscious lips and made every part of my body feel alive. “Sorry if I’m
difficult.”

“Not difficult. Challenging?”

She shrugged and smiled again. “Perhaps. But in a good way.”
She grabbed a short black wool coat and a pair of leather gloves.

“I don’t think you’ll need gloves,” I said. “It’s unusually
sunny out today.”

She shoved them into her pockets.

“Besides, I’ll keep your hands warm,” I added.

Staying true to my promise, I reached for Lily’s hand at the
beginning of Bearskin Neck, a village artists flocked to on the coast in
Rockport, Massachusetts. To walk hand in hand with this gorgeous, elusive woman
meant more to me than I could comprehend at the moment.

She clenched her hand for a brief moment as if she was going
to pull away and I instinctively held it tighter. No, she couldn’t pull away.
Then her fingers relaxed and she wrapped her hand around mine.

A small victory. I forced a smug smile off my face.

“It’s so picturesque down here,” she said.

“Inspiring.”

“I love the off-season. All the tourists are gone and this
part of town returns to a sleepy little New England village.”

I looked around at the funky little niche stores and
restaurants, but many of them had closed for the season. “Only the die-hards
stick around in the winter, I suppose.”

She squeezed my hand. “That’s all we need.”

Not sure what she meant by that, I didn’t respond.

“I love this store.” She stopped outside one flanked with a
knight’s shining armor on each side of the door. “Let’s go in.”

We oohed and aahed inside the store, which was filled with
all sorts of pewter trinkets and medieval weaponry. It was the kind of place
where you didn’t need anything, but wanted everything. While she moved into the
back part of the store, I scanned the front section with jewelry items. I
wanted to find a small gift. Nothing over-the-top, but something that was
perfect for her. And would show her I was thinking about her.

Lily

Walking hand in hand with Nico shot tiny sparks of
excitement through my body. Something about how natural and protected my hand
felt in his warm hold brought out feelings in me I’d buried so deep I didn’t
think they existed. I feared I kept smiling like a goon and had to control my
emotions from running away.

“So what was it like growing up in England?” I asked.

“It was great. We lived in a row house on a street with
loads of kids. Lots of houses were built like that in Bristol. We had families
on each side of us so there was always someone to play with.”

“Do you have any siblings?”

“I have a sister. She’s a few years older than me and she
didn’t adjust to life in America when we moved. So Diana returned to Bristol
when she graduated high school and she went to university there.” He smiled
when recollecting something. “Actually I didn’t adjust very well either, but I
was younger and eventually I got used to it here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was becoming a teenager, which is bad enough, but when
you move to a new country and the kids tease you about your accent, it’s no
picnic. The boys would shout ‘The redcoats are coming’ when they saw me and I
ended up in quite a few brawls by the time I reached high school. The girls
were a different story. They’d ask questions about whether I’d met the queen or
Prince William or Harry. And in high school, I found the accent kind of helped
rather than hindered getting girls.”

“Lucky for you.” I smiled, raising an eyebrow.

“Life in the States definitely turned up after that. And
another thing too—I discovered music.”

“Listening? Or playing?”

“Both. I’d been a computer geek since I was little, creating
programs as soon as I could reach the keyboard and type. However, when I was
going through high school and dealing with all the rubbish you deal with when
you’re that age, I needed an outlet. When I discovered all these other bands,
punk, alternative and so on, that you don’t find on the radio, and the thrill
of seeing those bands play live, I knew I found what I needed.”

“So is that why you have the computer geek by day, rock star
by night persona?”

“Perhaps.”

I smelled the salty air wafting off the Atlantic before I
saw the stone boulders ahead, just before we reached the wharf. To our right
lay a number of fishing boats anchored and bobbing along the shore.

“Why not do it full time? Commit to being a rock star?” I
asked.

“Lots of reasons, I suppose. For one, I worked my butt off
through school to get into MIT. It seems rather daft to throw away an education
and a good job to go on the road with a band. Plus I think my parents might
disown me!”

“Why’s that?”

“They’re big on education. My mom’s an English professor and
my Dad’s a math one. To throw away a college degree in computer science to be a
rock star? I mean, they’re all for supporting my dreams, but they worked hard
to put me through college. I could never do that to them.” He looked out to the
Atlantic, deep in thought. “And another small detail.”

“What’s that?

“We’re not that big yet, so I don’t have that choice to
make!” He laughed self-deprecatingly.

I joined in. “You seem to have quite the following from what
I saw at the club.”

“We’re doing okay,” he agreed. “The guys and I have an
agreement. If we start to get so big that it’s interfering with our daily work
life, we meet up and make the decision to jump together. All for one—”

“And one for all,” I finished.

“And I wouldn’t want to be the one to tell my parents if
that day ever came.”

Nico

There was something so comfortable about talking to Lily
that I spilled my story right out. When was the last time I did that on a date?
Being with her felt as natural as the environment around us—the ocean, the
breeze, the rocks. At the same time, I was so attracted to her I was afraid I’d
dive on top of her at the most inappropriate of moments and make a fool of
myself.

When we reached the jetty at Sandy Bay, her dress swirled
around her legs from the ocean breeze.
Make it fly up
,I willed
the breeze.
Let me see what she’s hiding under there.
I forced images of
what kind of panties she might be wearing out of my mind and focused on the
scenery.

“I’d love to come down here and sit on the rocks to read or
write,” I said.
Stick to the landscape so she doesn’t know you’re thinking
like a perv.

“Looks like a great place to paint,” she said.

Scanning the shore dotted with sailboats and lobster buoys
along the rocky coast, I saw how this view served as a muse for many artists.

“An inspirational setting,” I agreed. “Do you paint?”

She shook her head. “No. I just take photographs. Mostly
black and white.”

Business-minded, well read, fit and perhaps a creative side
as well. This woman definitely intrigued me. The more I learned about her, the
more I wanted to know.

Not to mention she was hot as hell.

“I’d love to see some one day.”

She laughed in a girlish way. “Maybe sooner than you think.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Never mind right now. Are you hungry? There’s a great
little café on the water here.”

“I’m always hungry, Lily.” I hoped the look I gave her made
my intentions clear.

“Maybe later, rock star,” she said, indicating she got my
double entendre. At least she didn’t shoot me down.

Within a few minutes, we had reached a café. Since there was
no line, we ordered a couple of roast beef and Boursin sandwiches and had our
choice of tables. We sat down to a great view of the ocean and watched a couple
of kids trying to convince their parents to let them walk out onto the jetty.

“I told you my tale, now it’s your turn. Tell me all about
you.”

She bristled almost imperceptibly. Then she took a deep
breath before beginning. “There’s not much to tell. I grew up in New Hampshire
and moved to Massachusetts to go to Salem State College. No fancy Cambridge
high-tech university like you. But it was just my mom and me in New Hampshire
so we didn’t have much money. I got into a communications program, found I
liked the area north of Boston, and decided to stay after graduating. I got a
decent job and have lived here ever since. In fact I bought a condo last year
so I think I’m sticking around for a while.”

“Good for you. It looked like you had a nice little place
there when I picked you up.”

“I like Beverly. How do you like Peabody?”

I noticed she’d turned the conversation back toward me. Did
she not want to talk about herself? That was not the usual case in the women
I’d dated. “It’s good for me. I can get wherever I need to go.” I wanted to
steer the conversation back to her. “Does your mother still live in New
Hampshire?”

“Yes.”

Just a one-word answer?

“Where?”

“Near the White Mountains.”

Four words.

“I get the feeling you don’t like to talk about yourself.”

“Not too much.” She took my hand. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all. I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.” I
rubbed her hand to reinforce I was okay with it. “I’m really glad you came out
here with me today.”

Her face froze for a split second but then she smiled. “Me
too.”

“I got you something. Back at the pewter store.”

“How did you do that? I was in there with you.”

“A wink and a nod to the sales clerk while you were
browsing.”

I handed her the box. She turned it around and looked at it
from all angles.

“Open it.”

She looked up at me before she opened it. Then said, “A
butterfly. It’s beautiful.” She picked up the pin and turned it as she examined
it, light bouncing different colors off the gems.

“It made me think of you.”

“That’s funny.”

“It is? Why?”

She raised an eyebrow in a way that shot sensations straight
to my cock. “You’ll see.”

“Don’t look at me like that—unless you want me to dive over
this table right now and jump on you.”

She laughed. “I like the sound of that.” Then she handed the
box back to me. “Thank you, but I can’t accept it.”

Puzzling. What was the issue? “Why not?”

“Because it implies something between us. Something
starting. And as much as I’ve enjoyed spending time with you today, I don’t
want to lead you on. It’s not fair to you.” She put her hand on mine. “I want
to be straight with you, Nico. I want you. I’m so attracted to you I can’t even
think straight sometimes and I’d like us to be lovers. But I can’t offer you
anything more than that.”

Most guys would be thrilled about an offer like this. In
most other situations with the girls I’d been with, I would have loved to hear
this as well. But in this one, I felt like I was shot down and punched right in
the gut.

“I have to say—I wasn’t expecting you to say this. You are
quite a contradictory woman, my dear,” I said, trying to keep my tone light.
“First you think I’m some womanizing rock star just wanting a one-night stand.
Now you want me in your bed, but think I’m going to push you into a
relationship after one date.”

“I just want to be straight with you. And I hope you’ll do
the same with me.”

“Agreed,” I said, shaking her hand. “The one thing I hate is
games. So if this is you being honest and telling me what you want, I gladly
volunteer to be your sex toy.”

She wouldn’t escape that easy. One day I’d dig more, get her
to give more than her one-word answers.

She laughed again. “Careful, I might bite.” Then she put her
hand on mine. “Friends?”

“Friends,” I replied and slid the box back to her. “So why
don’t you accept this gift from one friend to another?”

She hesitated before accepting the box. “Okay. In that case,
thank you. I love it.”

After lunch, we ambled hand in hand along the shops off the
main drag in Bearskin Neck. We stopped for coffee and strudel at one of the
cafés. Even fewer people and fewer shops were open here at this time of year.
When we passed a small gallery, she led us inside.