Chapter 28

Elena stood there a moment while her thoughts scrambled to catch up with the new Richie. How could she have read him so wrong? He had been okay when they woke up, heck he couldn’t keep his hands off of her while they’d dressed. As soon as they’d come out into the living room things had gone terribly wrong.

In fact, they’d been ok until she went to check on Kate in the bathroom. Had Moptop said something to change Richie’s morning after attitude? Or had the reality of a new day blown the shiny newness away? She knew she’d probably never know, but for some reason she had the funniest feeling that Jon was at the helm of Richie’s sudden distance.

She thought they had connected on a level deeper than just sex. He’d just seemed to know all the right places to touch her and instinct had shown her just what he liked. They had laughed and played and even talked over so many things as the night went on. They’d ‘made love,’ quite a few times, although, maybe all it was in the end, was a good fuck. One that left her bruised and sore, and goodness she was sore, no doubt about it, but it was the kind of ache you wanted to experience all the time.

She couldn’t help the smile at the memory of falling from the bed, the sheets tumbling with her and Richie as they’d run out of space on that bed of his. The floor had been just as exciting, if not more so. God, they were so into each other they’d forgotten protection each and every time. A slight frown furrowed her brow as she contemplated the possibilities of having a small “gift” left behind by his boisterous lovemaking. Her hand even rubbed her tummy at the thought. Well, she’d just deal with that when the time came, IF it came.

Sighing, she stood and looked around the room, noting everything that made it pure Richie. From the foil on the windows to block the sun, to the frigid air blasting from the air conditioner, it seemed to have as much personality as the man himself. Funny thing that, she’d never even felt the cold that entire night, he was a damned heat source in and of himself. With a shake of her head she tucked the sheets in, then carefully laid the folded “Lennon” t-shirt on the pillows.

How could she have been so wrong about him? And how was she going to walk out into that kitchen and pretend his sudden distance was ok and that Kate hadn’t seen the bruising that his lovemaking had caused? Taking a deep breath she straightened her shoulders, fluffed her hair and forced a smile onto her face.

She’d only let them see the flirty party girl, not the sensitive girl that Richie had unleashed last night. He wanted to think she was like a groupie, then oh well too bad so sad, it was his loss right? Walking towards the door she never even noticed the tiny slip of lacy bra hanging off his bedside table, nor her driver’s license peeking from under a chair. Opening the door she reinforced her smile and sauntered back into the room, holding a cocky blue eyed Moptop’s stare for one long moment before sliding away to the soulful brown eyes that already haunted her.


~


Richie looked up and saw her back into her own clothes. He wasn't sure why that disappointed him so much, but it did. "Hey, Elena."
Her gaze traveled to his, "hmmm?"

"Everything okay?" He saw her smile, but for the first time it didn't seem to reach her pretty dark eyes.

Her head tilted, that fake smile plastered firmly upon her lips. "Any reason why it shouldn’t be ok, Richie?"

He stood up straight, "No, of course not." He smiled back but it felt forced. "Kate was rather adamant about getting you guys back to the car. If you're sure you need to leave."

"We can walk or call a cab, just like any other groupie, right? No need for you to put yourself out." She turned to Jon. "Use your phone, Moptop?"

Richie felt like a sledgehammer had been whaled into his solar plexus. Anger fisted inside of him until he wanted to lash out at her. It wasn't anything more than a one-nighter. Hell, he did it all the time. And he'd called a cab for a few of them too, goddamn it. Why the fuck did it matter? He cleared his face of any emotion. "No, I'll drive you to your car," he said cooly.

She turned to Richie, torment and anger flashing in her dark eyes. "I want to SEE you get me in a car I don’t wanna be in, big guy. I don’t go places with strangers." She turned to Jon slowly. "Either call me a cab, Jon, or I'm gonna walk."

Kate stepped forward. "C'mon sweets, we'll get a cab and get back home."

Jon glanced at Elena, uncertainty pulling at him. Where was that feisty smart mouth from last night? "Ummm."

"Would you just do it," Kate growled. "For once don't argue and just do it."

Elena sighed. "You call a cab, Kate. You wait on it if ya like. I’m outta here." She walked to the door, knowing if she didn’t get out she'd ask him where the hell the real Richie went too.

Jon shrugged and walked to the phone and lifted it, putting his finger out to dial. "Any cab?"

Richie wanted to follow her. He actually took a step forward before he stopped. Shit on that, he wasn't following her, dammit. When the door clicked shut Richie growled. "Shit, shit, shit," he turned to Jon. "Hang that up and keep her occupied," he thumbed at Kate.

She began to walk back the way she thought they'd driven the night before, fighting back the tears that threatened. Dammit she was hardly ever wrong about people, why'd she have to be wrong this time?

He blew out the door and left it open, running down the stairs. "Elena!" he called to her. When she didn't stop, just kept heading down the street in the wrong direction, he sighed and kicked it up to a jog. "Dammit, woman, stop."

She heard him yelling as she kept putting one foot in front of the other. Why the hell was he chasing her? Jesus, add insult to injury already. Closing her eyes she kept moving, praying she could out pace him.

"Are you deaf? I said hold up!" he said as he passed her and walked backward staring down at her. "Look, things got a little messed up. I don't want you to go away mad like this." He continued to back pedal, literally, he thought in disgust. "We had a great time together, why are we messing it up?"

She stopped suddenly and looked up. "I'm not the one who messed it up, I’m not the one who went all odd, Am I DARLIN’?"

He stopped, reaching out to touch her, but the anger flashing in her dark eyes made him cautious. The word darlin' all of a sudden was persona non grata. Fuck. It was just a word, it didn't mean anything. "Look, Elena...I like you a lot..." he began but stopped when her eyes went wide with an unholy anger.

"I’m sure you like all your little sex pit stops a lot. Gotta give yourself a reason to fuck so many strangers right Riiichhhieee?" She pushed back a stray lock of hair, her body nearly humming with anger. "To bad its warped you so bad you can’t figure out a real deal from the plastic you keep company with."

"You don't know me, so don't even begin to think you can imagine what my life is like." All he could hear was his heartbeat in his head like an echo. "Have you ever had a woman sneak into a room you were staying just so she could tell her friend she fucked a rock star? Have you ever had a woman paw at you even if you didn't want to be touched? Have you ever had a woman play cute and sweet because she thinks you have a shit-ton of money and will treat her like a princess? Have you ever had a woman tell you she loves you just so she can get out of her shitty life and cheat on you every single day that you aren't home?" His breathing was labored and he was horrified that all of that came out of him.

He cooled, reigning in the dark, tumbling anger that stirred in him so easily as a kid. He'd mastered it. He'd thought he'd mastered it anyway. "So don't tell me about sweet girls that maybe I should give a chance. I give lots of chances, but maybe I don't like being shit on, DARLIN'." He put his arms up and dragged his fingers through his hair.

She shook her head softly her voice gentling for a moment, "I feel so sorry for you Richie. I do, I can't imagine living in a world like that, having it warp you so much that when something genuine falls into your lap you’re so fucking afraid of it that you have to push it away. I can't imagine never knowing if I was loved for myself or my 'name’."

The tears that had been threatening for so long finally began to fall, only serving to bring back her anger. "But dammit I hoped you would have enough sense to see the difference between those girls and someone like me. But what did ya go and do, big guy?” She fisted her hands at her hips. “You lumped me into that group! What gives you that right? I didn’t even know who you were when I first met you. To me, you were just a cute guy I wanted to get to know. Why ruin that with your fame huh? Like I gave a shit about it!"

His eyes cooled and a nasty calm settled inside of him. "There’s lots of good actresses out there, Elena." Her words hit hard, but he didn't trust himself not to make another mistake. He'd been the patsy way too many times. "Just let me take you to your car and you can forget all about last night, huh?"

She gasped. Those words more of an insult than the darlin’ ever could have been. Turning on her heel she began to walk away, "I won’t forget last night, or the Richie I met. He was awesome. I won’t forget how he touched my soul. You on the other hand..." her words trailed off as she turned to walk again, her shoulders shaking as the tears truly began to flow.