Page 20 of Where You Are
“Well,” she says and I can tell by the way those gorgeous greens start to light up and sparkle that she gets what I’m saying. “You better make my goodnight kiss a good one, then.”
Damn.
Without hesitation, I grab her around her waist and pull her body flush against mine before locking my mouth down on hers. I smell apples and flowers as I breathe in through my nose, trying to catch the breath she’s taken. Our tongues dance, tangle and caress each other, and after a few moments, I can’t help wanting to immerse myself in her. My hands plunge into her thick hair and my mouth ventures across her cheek to her neck, and down further than it’s ever explored before. I hear her breath hitch as I kiss my way down her neck. I gently pull on her silky strands to tilt her head back far enough for my mouth to meet every inch of skin on her chest that the neckline of her dress will allow.
A moan comes out of her, completely uncontained, as she grips the back of my neck with one hand and my bicep with the other. It signals my place to stop before I pass the point where there’s no turning back. It takes all I have in me to pull my mouth away from her skin as I return my hands to her waist to steady myself as much as her.
“How’d I do?” I ask, my voice breathy and wavering.
“Oh,” she breathes out, her face slightly flushed. “You passed.”
Chapter Eleven
Melanie
Days later,I still haven’t put out the flames from Matt’s epic goodnight kiss, and I find myself not even wanting to try. I haven’t seen him in a few days because the band had to make a quick jaunt out to Buffalo to headline in a summer music festival, which is probably for the best. It helps to get a good look at the picture when you step out of it every now and then. And besides, I liked the extra flirty text messages I got from him while they were gone.
They got back last night and I’m headed over to Jack and Mayzie’s in my silver Toyota that Jack was nice enough to keep running nicely for me while I was away. I haven’t seen their home since I’ve been back, so I’ve been asked over for dinner. I’m excited to get a look at how my brother is living now, by seeing his home and getting to know his wife a little better. When I left, he was bartending and helping out with our dad’s construction company and only just making ends meet, therefore was preparing to live in Sarah’s pool house for a while.
Now, his band has reached a level of fame that has generated the funds to apparently buy a house on a ten-acre lot on the outskirts of the city. As I approach, I notice a tree line around the property’s perimeter, and a gate at the base of their black asphalt driveway. When I’m buzzed through, I find myself relieved to see a house that while its nice and big, its simple and cozy looking. I guess it reassures me that my brother is still modest and humble, and not like those musicians that feel they need to show off how much money they can spend once they find fame. The house isn’t lavish or ostentatious, and while the property is expansive, I can tell it’s meant for practicality. Jack and Mayzie have dogs that I bet love running around on it, and it provides them with privacy. Apparently, when Turn it Up was halfway through a tour as merely an opening act, they gained so much attention that Jack and Mayzie could no longer live on a street with neighbors.
As I find a place to park in the driveway, I notice a familiar looking Jeep already parked up by the garage and my stomach does a flip. Tingles and nerves chase each other around my body as I thrill at the thought that Matt’s just inside, then freak out a tiny bit at the thought of being around him in front of Jack who has no idea we’ve been out running a few times, been on a date, slept next to each other one night and have made out a whole lot. This is going to be difficult.
I trudge up the steps and knock on the door. I hear the telltaletap tap tapof claws on hardwood, paired with a couple of loud barks and whines, followed by human footsteps coming to the door. The door is jerked open by Mayzie who greets me with an excited smile, and again I’m refreshed to see that she didn’t make herself up to impress me. Her hair’s in a messy bun with loose strands, her naturally beautiful face is makeup free and she’s in black yoga pants and a slouchy grey tank top with the logo of some dance place on it. I love it, and if anything, I feel over dressed in my cutoff shorts and t-shirt. A German Shepard that I know to be Jack’s dog, Trooper, as well as a Rottweiler that I’m assuming she brought to the marriage, circle the two of us, sniffing me out and barking excitedly.
“Don’t mind them,” she says, turning and walking back towards the kitchen area. I love the open floor plan in the house. The ceilings are vaulted making the living room look bright and airy, and the kitchen and dining area is spacious with a cozy breakfast nook in the middle. I can see by the laptop, notebook, and her phone lying on its table top that she must use it as her office. She had said something at Sarah’s barbeque about releasing a book and starting a blog. She pats her leg and makes a squeaky kissing noise as she reaches the back slider door off the kitchen, and the dogs come running and barrel into the back yard.
“Where’s Jack?” I ask as she walks over to the fridge.
“He and Matt are up in the office writing. Do you want something to drink? We’ve got beer, water, juice…”
“A beer sounds nice, thanks,” I say, as I lean on the counter top. “It’s crazy to think that they wrote songs and played as a side gig, and now it’s actually their job,” I marvel out loud, and Mayzie widens her eyes and nods in agreement.
“Yeah, and when the inspiration hits, the rest of the world pretty much has to stop until they at least get the bones down on paper,” she chuckles as she resumes putting together what looks like a delicious potato salad.
“Ah, so they’re in the zone right now?” I ask, inwardly baffled that in a short time, so much changed that this person who is so new to me knows more about these guys than I do now. Not in a jealous or butt-hurt kind of way. I couldn’t very well take off for two years and expect to come back and find everything exactly the same. The people I knew became different versions of themselves, versions that Mayzie got to know and I have to catch up on.
And while I like the version of Matt from before, I have to say I’m drawn to who he is now even more. He’d always been mature, but everything about him now just screams ‘man’. My mind wanders to what he must look like at this moment, somewhere in this house,working.
“You can go say ‘hi’,” Mayzie mentions, looking up from her task of slicing celery and pulling my head out of the clouds.
“What? No… if they’re writing, I don’t think I should…”
“They write in front of me all the time, it’s seriously no biggie,” she says, looking up at me with eyebrows raised. “I’m sure Jack heard you come in and they are probably close to wrapping it up anyway.”
I’m trying really hard to play it cool here, but after four days of not seeing, touching or smelling the sexy, manly specimen that is slowly becoming a fixture in my world, combined with the chills and thrills of the flirty texts he sent while he was gone, the urge to lay eyes on him wins out.
“Okay, just a quick hello then,” I say as casually as I can muster, grabbing my beer off the counter. “I’ll be right back.” Mayzie looks up briefly with a smile and a wink before she goes back to mixing in her bowl.
“Up the stairs, first door on the right,” she calls after me, and my inner butterflies flutter to life as I reach the stairs.
I can hear their voices and familiar tinkling sounds of guitar strings being idly picked at. I round the doorway and give the doorjamb a light knock with my knuckles. Jack looks up and gives me a pleasantly surprised smile which I return before daring to let my eyes turn to Matt, who’s sitting across from him and…holy hell.
Keeping my expression casually neutral is all of a sudden like trying not to scream when you’re having an orgasm, because my eyes have just been subjected to the sexiest sight they’ve ever seen.
Matt has his acoustic draped across his lap as his body hunches over a notepad. His black hair hangs in his face as he holds a pen in his mouth. There’s a look of intense concentration on his face, complete with drawn eyebrows, crinkled forehead and… glasses. He’s wearing glasses. I’ve never seen him wear them so I’m wondering if he normally wears contacts or if he just needs them for reading, and when the hell in my life glasses became a turn on for me I have no idea. All this cycles through my head in the second and a half it takes for Jack to sayHey Mel, and Matt’s face immediately snaps up, pulling the pen out of his mouth to give me a smile that melts both my heart and my panties. He reaches up to take the glasses off his face and it’s a damn shame, but I get over it quickly when those ocean blues twinkle at me. The look in them conveys that they’re filled with a joyful relief to see me. I swear it makes my heart - and my stomach - swiftly swap places.
I see him try to quickly school his expression like I have as he manages a laid back, “Hey.” He looks over to Jack, as if trying to see if he caught the elated look he gave me, and bends back over the notebook again.