Chapter 5 My Heart in My Mouth
Dinner with Rick was always interesting and that time was no different. As soon as we sat down, he nodded at Lily but spoke directly to me.
“I see you took my advice and took care of your woman before dinner.” He glanced at his watch, “And you were actually on time too. Good job, Alfie.”
Lily’s face flushed crimson, but she tried to hide her embarrassment. She tilted her head, her chin jutting out in defiance as she delivered her own kick ass reply.
“Oh, we weren’t acting on your advice, Rick. In fact, your visit to our room today held us back. We’ve had to curtail our fun because you cut into our time. We had a whole afternoon planned.”
Lily turned to me and smirked knowingly, and I could see she wasn’t finished.
“Don’t worry, Alfie. We’ll fit in that blow job you missed out on when we get back upstairs.”
Rick gave her a silent stare and raised his eyebrow in surprise.
“And you expect me to sit through dinner now thinking about you blowing Alfie? Am I supposed to wonder if I’m holding y’all back again?”
Lily shifted in her seat but stared him down in a give-it-your-best-shot look. Rick let out a thunderous roar of laughter; his head was flung back, and his face looked up at the ceiling.
“Lily, sweetheart, I’m just fucking with y’all.”
I watched Lily, calculating her response and glanced at her in amusement. I knew she wasn’t going to let it go at that.
“You can mess with me, Rick, but Alfie and I aren’t into threesomes are we, honey? So you definitely won’t be fucking with us.”
Rick chuckled again and put his hands up, “Alright, Lily, jeez are you on the rag girl? Pity about the threesome, though, I could show you both a few tricks.”
I led the conversation to a safer subject to get the evening on track and spoke about a festival that Rick’s band was headlining.
He wanted Lily and me to do an impromptu drop by on stage and play one of his covers with him.
When he finally got us to agree, he swung the conversation back to the last place I wanted it to be.
“Mya rang me this afternoon.”
Rick’s eyes flicked to Lily then to me. “Interesting conversation I had with her, Alfie,” he said matter of factly with a serious expression.
I hated Rick when he did that…fucked with me, and he had for the second time that day.
“Oh yeah? How are Jack and Mya?” I replied trying to sound interested in a normal, everyday conversation kind of way.
Rick smirked and snickered a little. He was paying attention to his hand, watching himself patting his hand flat on the table before he began to smooth the crisp white table linen.
He paused for a long moment, then picked up his water and slugged it down slowly while the ice clinked against the glass.
“Good. Real good. We’re going on a trip tomorrow.”
Lily was instantly interested. “Really? I spoke with him this morning, and there was no mention of Jack going on this trip. Where are you going?”
“Um, somewhere in the mountains. Colorado or somewhere mountainy… Finland that’s it— Ruka, Finland. Mya booked it, so she could tell you better than me. Staying in a genuine log cabin I hear, although I’m not sure why I agreed, we’ll freeze our asses off.”
Rage tore through me. I could have punched his lights out for fucking with my plans. I was worried Lily may text Jack. If she did, and he answered before our departure, the game would be up. All our planning would have been for nothing.
“Good for Jack. I’m gonna check out the menu, I’m starving,” I commented nonchalantly and tried to steer the conversation away from Jack in the hope that Rick would let the topic drop but he didn’t.
“So what plans do you two have for the next few days, now that Jack’s going out of town?”
Watching Lily, her disappointment was etched on her face at the thought of her being in London and Jack leaving to spend time with Mya.
I sat still and said nothing, but my heart was almost torn from my chest by the depressed look she gave me.
Somehow we got through dinner without Rick spilling any more about the trip, and thankfully, Henry had managed to resolve the bag-in–the-cistern issue.
I felt that all the mischief had been managed, but by the time we left Rick and got into bed, my nerves were shattered.
Lily had brushed the hell out of her teeth while we got ready for bed.
I knew it was because she was hurt about Jack, and I couldn’t wait to see her face when she realized we were sharing a cabin with him for three days.
I wanted us to have individual accommodations, but Mya said it would be more fun if we had a few couples sharing each one.
I let her convince me and hoped she’d called that correctly, or we’d all be miserable.
Curling up behind her, I felt her despondent sigh and instantly felt bad for having something to do with her current mood.
“I’m sure there’s a reason he’s going out of town, Lily. Jack wouldn’t do it on purpose while you are here unless he had good reason to, honey.”
My hand slid over her belly, and I pulled her closer to me. I kissed the nape of her neck and stroked her hair. I tried to sooth her and it worked. Lily fell asleep after about ten minutes, her breathing shallow and even. Only then did I finally relax enough to drop off to sleep.
Shattering glass woke me and I jumped up into a sitting position when I heard Lily swearing in the bathroom. “Are you okay?”
“Shit!” Lily cursed. “Um, yeah. Sorry, the glass slipped out of my hand.”
I checked my cell to see what time it was.
It was 9:30 am. We had a little over an hour before we were due to leave and I hadn’t even told her about the trip yet.
I muttered a string of profanities under my breath and threw the covers back.
Lily was immaculately dressed in brown dress pants and a bronze-colored silk blouse.
She was picking up the last of the glass by the time I reached the bathroom.
She smelled delicious, and it was obvious from the state of the bathroom she’d already showered.
“Going somewhere?” My eyes appraised her from head to toe taking in how lovely she looked in the morning.
She glanced at my reflection in the bathroom mirror with a perplexed expression and dropped the glass she was holding into the small trash can by the toilet.
“I know, I know. Don’t be mad, Alfie. I just want to see Jack for an hour before he leaves. Mya said they were leaving about 1:30, so I thought…”
“So, you thought you’d leave me lying in bed and sneak out to see him?”
My voice sounded harsh and flat. I was annoyed that she’d just get up and leave like that.
“Guilty,” she said honestly. She at least had the grace to look guilty as well.
I expelled a deep sigh of exasperation and put my arm around her as she turned to face me.
“Come here.” I led her from the bedroom to a chair in the sitting area of the penthouse.
“Sit down, Lily. I know where they’re going.”
As soon as I said it, I knew I was going to be on the receiving end of some choice words.
“You know? How do you know? You knew last night, and you said nothing? What…”
“Stop, honey. Just sit down and listen. Jack probably only found out he was going himself this morning. The trip was my idea.”
I tried again to push her into the chair, but she resisted, her body was stiff, and her eyes narrowed in anger.
“Alfie! How could you do that to me? I’m not here that often, and you’ve arranged to have my friends sent out of town?”
I wasn’t handling things very well, so I just decided to tell her. I’d been hoping to get her to the airport first. “I did. It’s Christmas in two weeks, but we’re not going to be here. So I figured I’d arrange for us to have a short trip with our friends.”
“We’re going on the trip with Jack and Mya?”
“Indeed.”
“The four of us are going away on a mini-holiday?” Lily looked puzzled, but I could see the excitement building from the look in her eyes, at the thought.
“No, there are ten of us. We’re going to Finland like Rick said; I could have murdered that fucker last night by the way.”
I could see how the conversation between Rick and I began to make sense to Lily and she cut me off.
“Who else is coming?”
“Rick, Lenny, Cody, Dave, Emily and Emma.”
Without another word, Lily launched herself at me. Her legs wrapped around my naked waist. She clung to me like a little monkey. Her hands cupped both sides of my face.
“Alfie Black, did I ever tell you, you are my favorite rock star? I love you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” she gushed.
Her mood instantly changed, and she peppered my face with tiny kisses. When she did things like that I didn’t stand a chance.
“When do we leave?” she inquired, her voice rose an octave higher with excitement.
“A rough guestimate I’d say about forty-five minutes from now, but I have a small stop to make on the way for a PR thing, so we’re meeting everyone else at the airport.”
Lily’s brow bunched then relaxed, and I guessed she was probably figuring out why Mya had told her one thirty, and then she was digesting the last part of my sentence.
She stiffened again in my arms. There was a fleeting look of panic because she didn’t have a bag ready for a trip. I could read her like a book.
She started babbling about warm clothing and what she thought she needed, but I cut her off by closing the inches between our mouths and swallowing her unnecessary anguish with a deep kiss.
When I broke the kiss, her pupils were dilated, and she was breathless.
I took that opportunity to get a word in.
“You have everything you need for the trip, honey. I had your mom hook you up, and it’s all in the trunk of Henry’s car. All you need is your passport, and we’re all set. You have that with you, right?”
Lily smiled and nodded, and for a moment she seemed to just stop and stare at me again.
“How did I get so lucky?” she queried.
Her eyes glanced at mine with pure adoration that made my heart squeeze with the love I had for her.
“Because I’m easy?” I questioned back in a teasing tone. She swiped my arm before pulling free of me.
“Alright, Mr. Black, rock star. I hope you’re going to show me a good time.”
“Of course I am, honey. I’m Alfie Black, when have you ever known me to give a bad performance?”
Watching her dirty mind kick in was funny.
Lily tried not to react, but her lips twitched before they curved into a smirk as she fought for control by raising one eyebrow.
I knew she’d struggle to find much wrong with me in bed, so I waited confidently to see what she could come up with.
Eventually, she sighed and shook her head as if bringing herself out of some kinky flashback.
She slid down my body past my erection, until her feet touched the floor.
Taking a step back, she flung her arms out to the side.
“All I’m saying is if there has to be one it can’t be this weekend,” she giggled.
I grabbed her wrist and tugged her back to my chest in a quick hug. While Lily collected some things from the bedroom, I headed for a quick shower. Ten minutes later I was clean, dressed and ready to leave. I swiped my wallet from the side of the dressing table and headed out the door with her.