Chocolate Page 4

  I heard the backstage area before I saw it. The pulsing music and laughter were a harbinger of a party already in full swing. When we finally came to a stop, the security guard – or “Little John” as I had secretly named him – opened a thick wooden door to let me inside. As I whirled into the room, I had to blink a few times before I thought to myself, So this is how cool people party.

  There were tattooed men and pretty girls as far as the eye could see and they all seemed to know one another. Beer and liquor bottles covered every surface. I was sure that I’d find drugs if I looked hard enough. Oh, hang on. I didn’t have to look that hard at all. There was a guy hitting a joint right in front of me. The music was loud, but the laughter was louder and everyone appeared to be having a great time just reveling in the collective awesomeness of the room.

  I had never felt more out of place in my entire life.

  Not that I didn’t like to go out and have fun. But most of my friends were people I knew from college and grad school. They were all teachers and lawyers and accountants. When we went out together, it wasn’t on this level.

  Thankfully, only a few seconds passed before I heard the voice that was quickly becoming my favorite sound in the whole world.

  “There she is,” Luke said. He’d been sitting with a group of people to my left, but now he made his way through the crowd toward me.

  “Hi,” I said breathlessly once he was standing in front of me. I was just happy to be close to him again.

  “Glad you could make it.”

  “Sure. What kind of journalist would I be if I passed up an opportunity to do research?” I asked innocently.

  “Research, right,” he gave me a rakish grin. “Come on, let’s get you a drink. I’ve got something special for you.” I was glad that he didn’t ask me what I’d thought of his performance. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that all the fears he had about his new music were justified.

  He led me through the horde to a makeup table that was currently being used as a bar. That must get sticky, I thought ridiculously, as if they were going to make the least cool member of the party clean up. Instead of handing me one of the beers that was on the table, Luke reached behind it and pulled out a bottle of Jameson.

  “We’re usually a Jack Daniels crowd,” he said. “But I had to make sure we had your brand on hand too.”

  “You got this for me?” I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face.

  “Went to the liquor store and everything.”

  “That’s really sweet,” I said, and I honestly meant it. Some girls got excited about jewelry, but not me. Whiskey was the way to my heart.

  “I hope you don’t mind drinking it out of a plastic cup, though. They don’t exactly give us lowball glasses back here,” he said.

  “A plastic cup is perfect.”

  As he handed me my drink, a shout echoed from across the room. “Luke! Hey, Davies! Come here a second!”

  “Wait right here,” Luke said. “I’ll be back.” And then he was gone.

  Before I had even a second to contemplate what the backstage invitation and personal bottle of whiskey meant, I felt a tap on my shoulder that made me spin around.

  “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” It was the lead singer of the band that had played before Luke. He was very blond and very pretty for a man. In fact, I could see from this close distance that he actually had makeup on.

  “Um, hi,” I said, not knowing how to answer his question. “I’m Lyssa.”

  “I’m sure you are,” he said, eyeing me up and down like he was imagining me naked. Subtle. I guess I was just supposed to know what his name was. “Now why don’t you tell me how a fine looking thing like you got in here without me noticing?”

  “Uhh, I walked?” Did the lines he was spitting actually work on other girls? Judging by his confidence and demeanor, they must have. When I heard them, I mostly just wanted to take a shower.

  “Oh yeah? Well how about you walk on over here and let me show you a real party.” Ew, this guy is the worst. He’s like a walking cliché of every guy that girls try to avoid in bars. He chose that second to clamp onto my arm and start leading me away.

  “No, that’s okay,” I said. I wanted his smarmy hands off of me.

  “Hey, let go of her Ricky.” Oh thank god. Luke came charging toward us with a seriously fierce glare in his eyes. No doubt, if looks could kill, Ricky would be dead.

  “Don’t worry Davies, we’re just going to get to know each other a little better,” Slimy Ricky said. I fixed Luke with a pleading stare.

  “I’m not fucking around Ricky. Take your hands off of her.”

  “Or what?” Ricky turned to face Luke full on, but still kept his hand firmly clenched around my bicep.

  Luke half laughed and looked to the side before he pulled his arm back and punched Ricky square in the face with so much force that I could literally hear his nose break. Whoa, I thought. That escalated quickly.

  The combination of shock and sheer power had Ricky reeling and it took less than a second for him to lose his grip on me and hit the ground. A stunned silence fell over the party. I so wished that a record would scratch, but instead the music just kept blaring through the speakers. All of a sudden, some enthusiastic applause broke out. Apparently, Ricky’s reputation as a disgusting human being preceded him.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here,” Luke said to me. He placed his hand on my lower back to guide me toward the stage door. I felt like, by leaving so quickly, Luke was missing an opportunity to deliver an awesome one-liner, like “how do you like them apples?” but it hardly seemed like the time to point that out.

  We exited into an alley behind the theater. The second the heavy metal door closed, Luke grabbed me by the arms, pushed me up against the brick wall, and slammed his lips into mine. With his hands cupping my face, his tongue demanded entry into my mouth. My initial surprise quickly gave way to elated acceptance as I reveled in the feeling of his chest pressed against mine. I wrapped my arms around his back, trying to pull him even closer. All too soon, he pulled away, leaving both of us panting, our breath creating little white puffs in the cold night air.

  Keeping his hands on the side of my face, he brushed his thumb across my cheek and stared straight into my eyes. “In case there was still some confusion about my feelings for you,” he said.

  “Yeah, um, that pretty much clears it up,” was all I could manage.

  “Come on, I have more planned for tonight.” He grabbed my hand and started leading me toward his car that I saw was parked just down the street.

  “Wait a second!” I said before I tugged my arm back to make him stop walking. “Are we even going to talk about what just happened in there?” I mean, hello?

  “What? Ricky? I hate that dude. And so does everybody else. He’s such a douche.”

  “Yeah, but you just punched him in the face!”

  “I know, I was there.”

  I arched an eyebrow, unamused by his flippant response. It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate the strong, alpha-male type, but breaking someone’s nose was a bit much.

  Luke sighed. “Alright fine. I know it probably seemed like an overreaction, but I’ve known Ricky a long time. He opened for me on my last tour, which means that I spent six months on a bus with him. You saw him. He’s not a good guy. Especially when it comes to women. He…whatever, I don’t want to scare you with the details. But trust me when I say, it was a long six months. He’s lucky he made it this far without me rearranging his face. Plus,” he said, “I don’t like other people touching my things.”

  “I…” I honestly didn’t know how to respond to that last part. Truthfully, I was so shocked by everything that had happened in the last five minutes that I was officially done talking for at least the next five. I tried to ignore the sensation of my stomach doing excited flip flops as I let myself be dragged to Luke’s car.

  Dark Roman Wine

  A few minutes later, we pulled into a parki
ng spot in a lot near North Avenue Beach. It was a popular destination for Chicagoans who wanted to enjoy the cool waters of Lake Michigan during the humid summer months. However, at this time of year – and night for that matter – it was completely deserted, and provided a sharp contrast to the rest of the bustling city on a Saturday night. I was pretty sure that the beach was closed and that we were running the risk of getting picked up for trespassing but, in an effort to seem like I was the type of girl who went with the flow and didn’t care about committing misdemeanors, I decided to keep my concerns to myself.

  “Come on,” Luke said after he’d killed the engine.

  Oh, so I guess we’re not just going to make out in the car for a little bit?

  By the time I’d unbuckled my seatbelt and hopped out, Luke had walked around to the trunk and started to dig around, so I meandered back there to see what he was looking for. I was surprised to find that he already had a blanket shoved under one arm and a bottle of wine in his other hand. Evidently there’d been some planning that had gone into this.

  “Here,” he said, handing the wine to me. “I figured that any girl who enjoys good Irish whiskey would also enjoy good Italian wine.”

  “You figured right,” I replied as I stole a glance at the label. I didn’t recognize the brand, but that was hardly surprising. I was no oenophile. I just liked drinking wine because it was wine.

  He slammed the trunk closed and took my free hand in his. “Let’s go.”

  We walked down toward the lake, the sand shifting beneath our feet and the water stretching out ahead of us like a vast expanse of black glass. I was working a little harder than Luke at staying upright. Sand and high heels were not a great combination. “How about here?” Luke asked when we were about halfway down the beach.

  “Here’s good,” I agreed, happy to be done walking. Then we set about making ourselves comfortable.

  “Oh, and I brought this for you,” he said, handing me a hooded sweatshirt that he had shoved under his arm with the blanket. “I didn’t know how warm of a jacket you’d have with you tonight.”

  I took it from him gratefully, since I had definitely dressed for a sweaty concert hall, not a night on the beach in November. “Thanks,” I said as I slipped my jacket off so that I could put the sweatshirt on underneath. Mmmm. It was gigantic and cozy and smelled like him. I hope he doesn’t think that he’s getting this back. This is mine now.

  Once we’d settled down on the blanket, Luke reached into his pocket and pulled out a little corkscrew. As he twisted it into the cork, he said, “In keeping with tonight’s theme of insufficient glassware, we will of course be drinking straight from the bottle.”

  “Just the way I like it,” I said. “Reminds me of when I used to steal my parents’ wine in high school…or, you know, just a regular Tuesday night for me now.”

  Luke laughed. “I mean, why dirty a glass, right? You’ll just have to wash it, which uses water, which is a dwindling natural resource. If you think about it, drinking out of the bottle is actually good for the environment,” he reasoned as he pulled the cork out with a satisfying pop.

  Now it was my turn to laugh. “Reduce, reuse, recycle, that’s practically my mantra.” I grabbed the bottle from him and took a decidedly unladylike swig of the dark liquid before handing it back.

  We spent the next long while talking and laughing about nothing in particular while we passed the wine back and forth. I had a lovely little buzz going and I couldn’t remember ever having such a good time with another person. Apparently, I didn’t need fancy restaurants or trendy bars or even walls to have fun. I just needed Luke.

  Finally, he took one last sip and then shoved the half-empty bottle into the sand to keep it upright. He lay back on the blanket and pulled me down next to him, his arm providing a perfect pillow for my head. The night was surprisingly clear and calm, with the gentle lapping of the waves and the dull roar of the cars on Lake Shore Drive the only discernable sounds.

  “Are you cold?” Luke asked as he pulled me in closer.

  “Not at all,” I said, shaking my head. The wine and his sweatshirt had taken care of that.

  After a few tranquil seconds, he said, “You know, I used to be really in to astronomy as a kid.”

  “Really?” I replied. “I didn’t peg you as a nerd.”

  “Oh I wasn’t a nerd,” he countered. “I just had elevated interests.”

  I snorted. “That’s definitely the same excuse used by kids who join the mathletes.”

  “Yeah, well you don’t exactly strike me as someone who was smoking in the boys’ room when you were younger, my friend,” he snarked. Touché. “Plus, would a mathlete be able to tell you that that cluster right up there,” he said pointing, “is the little dipper? And above it, right there, is the big dipper.”

  “Hmm,” I said, letting my eyes follow his arm upward. I could sort of make out what he was trying to show me.

  “And that, just below it, is the Andromeda galaxy,” he continued. “It’s dim, but you can see it. You can also see Pisces, right up there, and Cassiopeia.”

  Aw, he really is in to astronomy. There’s so much more to this guy than I’d thought when I first met him. “It’s really beautiful,” I said honestly. I was sure that I’d never just passed time looking up at the stars like this. Truthfully, I was more of an indoor girl, but lying here with Luke, I was starting to appreciate the merits of the great outdoors. It was both peaceful and exhilarating at the same time. “Here,” I pretended to pinch one of the countless constellations in my hand. “This one’s for you. You can keep it as a souvenir.”

  “I’ll treasure it always,” he said, grabbing my hand and pulling it into his chest.

  Then, before I knew what was happening, he shifted our positions and rolled on top of me. I was startled by the quick motion, and my breath was coming in short little bursts as I looked up at him. “Now what am I going to give you to remember tonight?” he smiled devilishly.

  “Oh, I’m sure you’ll think of something,” I said. My innocent tone was undercut by the openly inviting way that I parted my lips.

  He quirked one side of his mouth upward. God, he was sexy. “I think I already have,” he replied. “In fact, it’s the only thing I’ve been thinking about since I saw you backstage tonight. Or, more accurately, since I saw you at that bar last night. And also kind of since I saw you walking out of that conference room yesterday.” So he was flirting with me. I knew it.

  “Oh yeah?” I baited him.

  “Yeah,” he said, and then he leaned down and pressed his lips against mine.

  I groaned involuntarily, overcome by the sensation of having this delicious man here in my arms. I loved how he smelled, how he felt, how he tasted, with the red wine giving his kisses an almost sweet quality. Yum. But soon the tender motion of his mouth against mine became more urgent, hurried. Our breathing became ragged. I wound my hands through his hair and pulled him even closer while he grabbed one of my thighs and hitched my leg around his back. Yes. This was everything. Turned on didn’t even begin to describe how I felt.

  Even through the lust-fueled haze that was clouding my thoughts, I couldn’t help but be blown away by the fact that I was actually here in this moment. I so rarely came across a man who I truly liked, and when I did he so rarely liked me back, that I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that this was reality. This was really happening. My life was really this good right now. Sure, it probably wouldn’t last, but even if this thing between Luke and me was just for tonight, then I was determined to enjoy him while I had him and wake up tomorrow with no regrets.

  It was this thought that prompted me to pull back and whisper, “I want you, Luke. Right now.” I was immediately embarrassed by my boldness, but whatever, I did.

  Luke paused for a second before he smiled. “God, L.L., you are too good to be true. You have no idea how much I want you. But it’s too way cold out here. My dick will snap off like an icicle.”

&nb
sp; I had to laugh at his phrasing. “You really have a way with words, Mr. Davies. But I’m suggesting that you put your dick someplace warm and…tight,” I said suggestively as I wiggled my body beneath his, “so as to protect against any potential, uh, breakage.”

  He closed his eyes and groaned. “Jesus, Lyssa. You’re going to give me a heart attack.” When he opened his eyes again, I saw a look of unbridled determination focused directly on me. “That’s it. We’ve got to go. Right this second. Leave the blanket. Leave the wine. I’m taking you to my place.” He hauled himself off of me and grabbed my hand to help me up. Before I knew it, I was being pulled into the air with so much enthusiasm that I almost fell right back down again. Whoa. This guy is not messing around.

  “Wait, we can’t just leave a half-empty bottle of wine on the beach, Luke,” I said, steadying myself. “What if a little kid finds it?”

  “Fine, then just dump it out. I’m going to be driving recklessly and I can’t have an open container in my car on top of it. Now let’s go!”

  Punishment

  Luke crammed the blanket under his arm and took me by the hand again. I had just enough time to stoop down and grasp the bottle by the neck before he pulled me away. I let the wine pour out behind me as we ran back to the car. It broke my heart a little bit to see the sweet nectar discarded so carelessly, but there was no time to mourn. We were on a mission.

  Luke’s headlights flashed as we neared the parking lot to signal that he’d unlocked the car. Without missing a step, he pulled open the passenger side door for me, threw the blanket into the trunk, and then rounded third to hurl himself behind the wheel. I clicked my seatbelt into place as the engine roared to life and we squealed out of the parking lot like we were being chased.

  Although a part of me appreciated how hysterically the two of us were acting – like the world was about to end and this was our last chance to get it on – the other part of me just really wanted to sleep with Luke, and I was glad that he was driving like a maniac. Good thing the Chicago Police Department had better things to do on a Saturday night than stop a lone speeder because, if a cop had tried to pull us over, I truly think that we would have had a high-speed chase on our hands.