Chapter 27

Kate felt the tension and a simmering undercurrent of something...It was hard to figure out what since she didn't know either of the guys from Adam, but something had happened while they were gone.

Richie looked over his shoulder, forcing an easy smile on his lips. "Hey girls, take a seat and breakfast will be right up," Richie said and forked bacon onto a few paper towels.

Elena peeked around Kate, taking in the eerie silence and Richie’s tense shoulders. Letting her fingers glide across the countertop she crowded in on Richie. Pressing her body tight against him, she reached across to the paper towel and snitched a piece of bacon. The heat of him rivaled the stove for goodness sake. "Smells pretty good there, Pony."

He closed his eyes and for the first time, he hated his instant reaction to her. Jon was right, it was only one night. He didn't even know the girl. Well, he knew that a flick of his fingertip at the back of her knee made her cum on the spot and that she craved close skin on skin sex, but beyond the naked he didn't know a damn thing about her. He needed to take a step back. Play it casual. "Everything's better with bacon," he said and bumped her hip with his.

Her brow arched as he bumped her. Even after just a few hours, she knew he liked to touch and stroke not…well, not bump her back. Lifting a hand to the silky hair that drove her wild, she tugged him down and whispered in his ear. "You ok?"

"Fine, darlin'," he grinned. "Just cookin' breakfast for all of us."

"Fibber," she said with a smile, but she let it go, settling herself at the table.

"Hey Teensy, let asswipe dish up the food before you two are at it again, I’m starved." Jon sat back with a smirk and before he knew it his chair was clattering to the floor and linoleum at his back her tiny foot hovering high on his throat.

"The name is Elena, Sport, try and remember that. And don’t speak to him that way, I don’t like it.” Removing her foot, she sat back down reaching for a plate, arranging it in front of her as if nothing had happened.

Kate smirked down at Jon, stepping over his trim little belly. A flash of her fingers lingering over that lean, fur covered belly unsnapping the button on those tattered jeans twisted her lips into a sneer of distaste. "I shoulda thought about doing that."

Surprised, and more than a little impressed Richie hauled Jon off the floor. "Okay?" he asked out of courtesy more than real interest.

"Eh, takes more than that to hurt me," Jon quipped as he shrugged Richie off.

"Oh, I bet I could try again.” Kate tucked her chin in her propped hands, elbows wide on the table. “I'm sure there's a way to keep you down for awhile."

Jon slid into the chair next to Kate, shifting his jeans so the semi-hard on didn’t knock on his zipper. He’d love her to keep him down, preferably on any surface available. "You did just fine last night Kate, but I’m always up for a repeat performance." He mirrored her propped elbows and waggled his eyebrows.

She sat up straight and grabbed the plates off the small island in the center of the kitchen. It was childish and stupid, but she didn't want to sit next to him, dammit. "It doesn't count when you don't remember.” Looking him dead in the eyes, she smirked. “Looks like you just weren't that memorable, Sugar." She hoped her voice sounded as cool and calm as she'd intended. She shuffled out the plates around the small table.

Jon clicked his teeth together with a snap, his blue eyes moving to Elena expecting some witty comeback only to receive nothing. He shrugged filling his plate with homefries, hoping the grease would settle the rest of the tequila sloshing in his belly. Richie's big breakfasts were always the best cure for a hangover.

Silence stretched as they all filled their plates. The only sounds were the click and screech of forks and knives over the chipped, mismatched dishes. Kate dragged potatoes she didn’t want through ketchup, she tried to remember anything about the night before. The only thing she could picture was his chest and a shot glass. If she never heard the clink of a quarter hitting the bottom of a shot glass, it would be too soon. Dammit! Why couldn't she remember?

Elena snuck a look to the man she’d spent the better part of the night screwing into a mattress and the floor or a time or two. They’d forgotten protection every time, which wasn't like her at all. She didn’t sleep around, but she wasn’t an angel either. She’d prided herself on being smart about protection and her future, but everything seemed different when he touched her.

She shook her head slightly as her thoughts zapped from one thought to the next. He’d been so different last night, but now…he was so distant. Maybe that’s what she’d been all along, another in a long line of conquests. She pushed her eggs around the plate, the urge to just leave growing by leaps and bounds as the silence seemed to fill the room.

Richie forced himself to stop cooking. Polish and Italian heritages collided in a cooking spree when he didn't know what to do with himself. He dropped the last bowl of fluffy eggs on the table as Jon scooped out a massive spoonful and shoveled it in. "What are you five? No one's going to take your food away."

Kate snorted and picked at her potatoes, adding a small scoop of eggs to push around.

"What? I’m hungry." Jon continued shoveling in the eggs grinning around the hangover cure. "I’m a growing boy."

"Too bad the eggs didn't help you grow taller," Richie quipped.

Jon flicked his middle finger up. "Fuck you," he said, filling his fork again.

Elena risked another glance at Richie and suddenly the food went from mouth watering to sawdust. With a softly uttered, "excuse me," she stood. "I need to get dressed."

"Hell," Richie stood, his food forgotten.

Kate gripped his forearm, a little startled to feel such iron hard muscles beneath her fingertips. "Let me go take care of it. I think it's time for a little girl talk," she said with a quick wink. As she walked by Jon she snarled, "go on, talk amongst yourselves about how amazing we were last night." Not waiting for a reply, she followed Elena into the dark room. "Hey sweets, you okay?" She asked, hesitantly pushing open the door.


She looked up at Kate, seated Indian style with a pillow in her arms. "Huh? Yeah Kate, I'm peachy keen here. Why?"

"I don't believe you, Lain. I know you too well."

Elena stood and dumped the pillow back on the bed. Shrugging out of the Lennon shirt, she stared down at the ransacked bed. "So you were right, they're all a disappointment.” Folding it neatly, she left it on the untouched bottom corner of the dark sheets. “No biggie, girl." Gathering her scattered clothes, she stepped into her jeans. "So, he was a total sweetie last night and a total dick this morning. Shouldn’t have expected any less from a rock star right?"

Kate stopped her mid slide as her jeans went over her hips. "Whoa, what the hell did he do to you last night?" Faint bruises in an angry blue-green marred her lower back. The pattern suggested a...She looked up. "Did he hurt you?"

Elena shook her head, "Not in the way you mean,” she blushed. “It hurt so good, girl friend. He's um, built shall we say?"

A single eyebrow raise was her answer.

She zipped and snapped her jeans with a wince. Each bump and bruise held a memory, reminding her that she’d never been touched quite like the way Richie’d touched her. Easing onto his bed, she slid first one boot on, then the other. "WHAT?" She looked up at Kate. “We both had an eventful night, so what?”

Kate motioned to the sheet half off and half under the bed. "Having regrets?" She asked, sitting gingerly on the edge of the bed. God knew what was going to bite her. "You understand that this was a one night stand. How else was it supposed to end, sweets?"

"Just like it did, sister girl. Just like it did." Elena stood, a rueful smile on her face. "Can't shoot a girl for hoping someone like that was a bit different though.” She shrugged. “I thought there was a connection that might have made it to a second date." She laughed at herself. So much for a special night. “Go on back out. I need a second to get up courage to walk out of this apartment without a backward glance, okay?"

Kate stood with a sigh. Her friend hid her soft heart under her party girl persona. Sooner or later a guy was going to look a little deeper and realize just what they had. "Are you sure?"

Elena lifted her head and tried to smile, but knew from Kate’s frown that she hadn’t even come close. "Yep, totally sure, hon."

Kate nodded and tucked a lock of her brown hair behind Elena’s ear. "He's an ass if he didn't see it after one night anyway."

Elena smiled weakly, and stepped back. Bending to pick up the sheet, she snapped it out until the worn cotton covered up what they’d done on that big, squeaky bed. Yep, ass about covered it.

Kate shut the door behind her with a soft click. The two of them sat at the table arguing over something that had to do with football. And normally she would have jumped right in on stats and plays, but right now all she wanted to do was smash their foreheads together.

Just because she knew exactly what part of each skull could do the most damage to the other meant nothing. Nope, not a single thing at all. She quietly walked up behind Richie and dug her fingertips into a tendon at the fleshy part where shoulder met neck. "If you screw with her head about this little one nighter, darlin’, I will find a way to knock you out and lop off your balls with my sharpest scalpel. And believe me when I say, I won't think twice about doing it."

Richie felt an instant of intense and mind altering pain as a voice like southern heat threatened his boys in a calm and efficient way. When she let go, he stood up and rolled his shoulder as he rounded on her ready to do a little damage of his own. The anger melted away when he saw the rage glittering in her spring green eyes.

His gaze shifted to his bedroom door and images from the night before nagged at him. Elena’s smile, his laughter, the way her tiny body enveloped his larger one. The weakness alone and the strength of them together that made him think of something other than his guitar and the road that beckoned him for the first time.

Jon watched her nearly vibrate with her mad on. She was half Richie’s size and hadn’t thought twice about taking him out. Damn she was formidable, and fuck if that wasn't sexier than hell. He hated that he couldn't remember the night before because he bet it would have been something that rocked his world. "Looks like your boys are in danger there Richie. I'd be careful if I was you."

"Your balls have less meaning to me than his, believe me." She gathered her things and sat on the edge of the couch with her eyes bouncing from the front door to Richie’s bedroom door.

Jon bit his lip and the retort that bubbled there. Yep she was a force to be reckoned with. So how was he going deal with her and her penchant for scalpels?