This Is Forever (7 page)

NINE

Her suite was just as it was when he left the night before, except the snacks and random popcorn was cleaned up. The lights were low, leaving the monochromatic room a study in shadow and light, the darker blobs of the suede couch and furniture gave the white and grey pillows a stark relief. It was a black and white picture, turned on its head with the entrance of her, wearing a bright red shirt, her hair a riot with color and density.

She dropped her bag, bent and unzipped her boots. Winter stopped himself from moving closer, stopped himself from running his hands up the backs of her thighs. Not that he couldn’t see them, the skirt she was wearing was tiny, and she wasn’t bending from her knees. When she turned her head and grinned at him and shook his head.

“Dirty fucking trick Lo.” He said and dropped his messenger bag on the
nearest chair and walked forward. She turned to him and he caught her wrapping his arms around her waist and kissed her, long and slow. She melted into him, and ended the kiss on a sigh.

“You wanna hit the shower first or should I?”

“If I had my choice it would be neither and I would carry you in there right now, but we are going slow right? So you hit the shower first, I’ll see what’s available on the pay per view cool?”

She kissed him again softly and was gone, slipped through the door to the bathroom. He grinned as she locked it. Guess she really meant they were taking it slow.

He settled in on the couch, busying himself with figuring out what they were going to watch. There wasn’t much on there he hadn’t seen, but then again when you’re on the road as much as Shades was, movies became life’s blood to stave off monotony.

He heard the door unlatch and turned to see her walk through, fresh from the shower, hair down and towel dried, face clean of all her makeup, in a pair of boxer shorts and a white tank top, and his mouth went dry.

Sweet shit on a shingle, she was so fucking perfect. And he loved her with all her war paint, her defenses against the world, but seeing her like this, stripped down to the woman she woke up to in the morning, always made his heart hurt, because that was the woman he was in love with. The real woman. The woman Lola was when she was with those she trusted.

“I was wondering when Natasha would make an appearance.” He said to her as he levered himself of the couch.
It wasn’t often she let the world see the person she was without all the glitter and glam, and as much as Winter liked Lola, he loved Natasha more. Lola was the bold brash girl he had a hard on for all the time, but Natasha was the girl he loved with what was left of his soul. That he got both of them in the sexy little package was a bonus.

He approached her and grinned. “I missed you.” He pulled her into his embrace
and held her, hugging her to him, reveling in the feel of her, her heat, and the scent of her fresh from the shower.

She giggled and sighed. “
It’s not often I get to be Nat,” she said softly, “Though I do enjoy when I do. Like it more when your involved too.”

He kissed the top of her head. “Well don’t go anywhere.
It’s my turn in the shower, and then its movie time.” He pulled away and cocked his head. “I don’t suppose Natasha wants to strip me of all my clothes?”

She laughed. “Both Lola and Natasha are abstaining. What did you pick for a movie?”

He pouted at her and shrugged. “Nothing. There’s a few up there but most I have seen, Ladies choice. I’ll be out in ten.”

The shower was quick, unsatisfying, but then again he wasn’t in there to relax. Relaxation was out in the main room in the form of a couch, and a girl. He
toweled off, slipped on a pair if pajama pants he had grabbed from the bus, and padded out, shirtless, his hair a riot around his head as it dried.

She looked him up and down and blinked. “Damn.”

His brows drew together. “What?”

“You…” she blushed and looked at his chest again and then shook her head. “
I didn’t think it was possible, but you’re hotter. Fan of the new ink too. When did you get the snowflakes?”

He turned his arm so she could see the piece in its entirety, several snowflakes, all touching, and all done in a light blue that nearly glowed on his tawny skin.
“Oh, about a year or so ago. Impulse.”

“It works for you, believe me.
Those pants? Not so much.” She gave him a wry smile.

He looked down at the cotton pants he was wearing, the material showing off
mustache’s in various styles, and shrugged. “Not my choice. Saffron went “bus shopping” before we got here. Everyone got pants, because apparently she got up one morning as we were driving, Tosh was up, still drunk by the way, and standing in the galley, drinking from a milk container wearing nothing but his tweety bird socks. She’s decided since most of us sleep naked, that everyone has to have pants in their bunk.”

She laughed. “Yeah seeing Tosh naked could be considered daunting.”

He nodded. “She was babbling for an hour after, and you know Saff, she ain’t one to be riled easily.”

“Well his massive cock does that to chicks. I mean
how insane is it that he’s a shower
and
a grower? Daunting to say the least.” She shuddered.

Winter
shook his head. “Are we really talking about Tosh’s dong? Really? I would much rather explore that look you gave me when I walked in.” he offered and hopped the back of the couch, plopping next to her.

“Let’s just say I appreciate a finely made male,
whether it’s Michael Angelo’s David or Winter Tulane.” She smirked at him. “And that’s where Imma leave it. Now, about that movie?”

They argued for a few minutes about what to watch and she sighed. “Well shit. I got Netflix on the TV in the bedroom. We could watch some bad British comedies like
Monty Python
or
Father Ted
.”

Winter
arched a brow. “And you trust me in a bed with you watching television?”

She laughed.
“Oh yeah. Come on.”

He didn’t need to be told twice and followed after her into the large bedroom, the door that had been closed when he went to take a shower. The room was just as monochromatic as the rest of the space, but the bed had red and white sheets on it, and was covered with pillows. It was also play ground sized. He gave her an incredulous look.

“Oh hell no. I cannot be held responsible with what happens in a bed like this.”

She shook her head and went to the far side and bent down giving him another fabulous view of her ass.

“Nat, if you think doing that is going to deter me…” he trailed off and frowned at her when she straighten, or frowned at what she held in her arms.

Rococo, her insane and murderous loop eared bunny, was giving him the evil eye.

“Why the hell is that thing here?”

She waived him away and set the forty pound menace on the bed. “I never leave him home. He’s the group mascot.”

The animal never liked him, detesting the fact that he had to share his mistress with another male. She had the little bugger for almost ten years, and he was sure it wasn’t a normal rabbit, but a were creature of some sort. The damn things had been known to play off their humanity when the need struck them.

She went on as she settled down on the bed, a carrot in her hand. “He walks on a leash now too.
He’s mummy’s little baby!”

Winter
sighed. The bastard would sit between them and nip at Winter every time he reached for her. Made sense that she felt he could keep it together. “Well shit. Hey Rococo, How’s it…” the bunny glared at him and hopped over to Nat to snuggle.

She motioned to the other side of the large bed.
“Python or Feck-arse-girls?”

Winter
Settled on the far side of the bed and shrugged. “Let’s see what’s up in
Father Ted
land.”

***

Winter
groaned. “If it’s eating my hair again I’m going to kill it.”

Nat turned over, partially in
Winter’s sleep embrace, though they had about a foot between their bodies. This could only mean that Rococo had decided to stay on the bed for the rest of the night after they had fallen asleep, and just moved recently. To sit on Winter. And eat his hair.

She opened her eyes and saw the bunny, the bulk of his body behind
Winter, his paws on the man’s shoulder as he leaned down and nibbled his hair. Rococo always loved Winter’s hair, and took every opportunity to munch on it. She frowned. “Rococo! Off the bed! Leave him alone.”

The bunny looked at its mistress and then went back to munching.

“If I move he’s going to bite me.” Winter whined. “Do you mind?”

She sighed and slipped from bed and ran around the other side. The bunny, not to be thwarted, nipped
Winter’s ear, as if it was his intention all along, jumped over Winter and bounded down to its cage on the floor with an ever twitching nose.

Winter
, at the bite, howled, grabbed his ear and cursed the little thing. “I swear to god Nat…”

She waived him off, knowing that
Winter was all bluster. He and the bunny had an understanding most of the time, but odds were Rococo was pissed he hadn’t seen Winter in a while. They were friends of a sort, comrades, and much like when they had first met, Rococo was trying to assert his dominance over Winter. It was the way of bull rabbits, and one as old and set in his ways as Rococo, Winter didn’t stand a chance.

“Did he break skin?”
Winter asked with a frown. “How much of my hair is left?”

He sat up and Nat looked him over. His hair was longer before, and the damn rabbit had
munched a good inch down in places. It wasn’t at all unpleasant. She smiled. “He rocked you one hell of a cut. Looks awesome actually.”

“Now is not the time for jokes Nat.”

She shook her head and walked over to the bathroom and grabbed the hand mirror there. “Look.”

Winter
studied himself in the reflection for a minute. She had to give it the little bastard, he did look hot. Shorter in places then others, it was choppy, but sexy in a devil may care I-don’t-give-a-shit-what-I-look-like kinda way. Seemingly satisfied with the job the animal did, he turned his head and frowned. “Fucker broke skin.” He murmured. “You got some antiseptic?”

All he got for his trouble was an eye roll from her. “I’ll doctor you up. And you,” she looked down to the rabbit who was merrily munching away on a carrot, “Bad bunny!”

The rabbit didn’t even bother to look at her.

“
Little shit.” she said and looked at the clock. It wasn’t even ten yet, and she counted back and frowned. “We have had a little over five hours of sleep.”

Winter
gave her a sleep grin. “All the more reason to come back to bed.”

Nat crawled on, and settled behind him after he snuggled down into the ne
st of blankets, and propped her chin on his shoulder. She inhaled softly, the warm, vaguely crème brulee scent of him, mixed with something more earthy, like sage, attacked her nose. She sighed. Gods she missed that smell.

He turned and pulled her towards him, rolling again so they were now in a new spooning position, him snug against her back
. He kissed her shoulder and wrapped his arm around her waist, keeping her in place while he mussed with the blankets to get them from being tangled from his ninja moves.

“Now this is perfect.” He murmured and let out a slow breath, tickling her ear with the movement of her hair around it. “So what do you
say, another couple of hours and then back to the concert grounds?”

Actually, it sounded like a fine idea. Unfortunately she wasn’t afforded the luxury of sleeping the day away. “Sadly, I can’t. We
have several interviews today before we get back to the event. I probably won’t make it till around eight.” She blew out a breath with undisguised agitation.

He held her
tighter and nipped her shoulder. “So enticing you into some play time is probably out of the question too then?”

“Going slow remember?”

“Crystal clear. I didn’t even mention the fact that I have been very good all night.”

“You were very good, yes.”

His voice was low in her ear. “But you know I can be much, much better if you let me.”

She shivered and the effect as not lost on him. He rubbed his lip and piercing across the shell of her ear. “And
I’m going to pretend you didn’t like that as much as you did.”

“Why? You know what to say to me to turn me on
Winter, you always have. You’re playing dirty.”

“Of course I am. After two years I finally have you stripped down to Nat in bed with me.
No pretenses, no motives. I’m finally here with you. Baby a man can only resist temptation for so long. But this is nice. I missed this. Missed you in the morning. So why don’t I save you the internal struggle of deciding to take this further this morning, because I know you and that’s exactly what you are going to do if I propose what I wanted to, and ask, How long till you have to get up?”