Rock Stars Don't Like Ugly Bras (7 page)

“He didn’t take it well,” Jake said more as a statement than a question.

“No, he didn’t.  He told me that I was stupid to let it happen and that I had to get rid of it.”

Amber felt Jake’s fingers gently wipe the tears from her cheeks.  She hadn’t realised that she was crying until she’d felt his touch.  She’d held everything in for so long that she’d almost begun to think it was a dream, but now actually telling someone brought it all back.  The pain and the anger were suddenly very real again.

“God, Freckles, I’m so sorry,” Jake said as he pulled Amber to him and gently stroked her hair.  “What did you do, when he said that?”

“Well, then I
did
leave him,” she whispered as she looked up at Jake through her wet lashes.  “I took nothing with me except a few photos of mum and dad and some clothes.  He was welcome to everything else.”

Jake heaved a sigh and hugged Amber tightly to his chest.  “What happened about the baby?” he asked, his voice tender and gentle. 

Amber pulled in a shuddering breath and felt the grief wash over her again.  As raw as though it were yesterday.

“I lost her Jake,” she sobbed.  “I had her growing inside me for almost twenty weeks but when I went for a scan, there was no heartbeat.”  Amber’s chin trembled as she looked up at Jake. 

“Oh Freckles, sweetheart, I’m so sorry,” Jake said, though he knew it wasn’t enough.  How could he possibly make her feel better about something so tragic with a few words?  As Amber cried in his arms, Jake gently rocked her, whispering soothingly into her ear and kissing her hair.  He didn’t want to let her go.  All he wanted to do was prove to her that he was the sort of man that she could trust.

After a while, Amber’s sobs lessened and she looked up at Jake with red rimmed eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Amber said.  “I think I’ve got snot all down your t-shirt.”

Jake looked down at his ancient, faded Rolling Stones tour t-shirt and laughed.  “Well, that’ll please Skins.  He hates this t-shirt, he can’t stand the Stones.”

“Ooh controversial,” Amber joked with a sniff, as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

“I know, I usually only wear it to piss him off.”  Jake lifted up the hem of the t-shirt and used it to wipe Amber’s nose and eyes.  “There, is that better?”

Amber nodded.   “Thank you, Jake. I’m so sorry for doubting you.”

Jake pulled Amber back to his chest and kissed the top of her head.  “Listen, you need to know that I really, really like you, and despite my clumsy words I wasn’t pulling any moves.”

“I know, and I’m sorry for overreacting.”

“Everything that I say, or do, I mean.  Even when I come out with crap, I usually mean it, apart from when I tell you I’ve used my best moves obviously,” Jake said jokingly.  “I just haven’t figured out that thing that normal people do.  You know, where you think before you speak?”  He pushed Amber’s hair from her tear stained face with both his hands and smiled at her.  “So, do you want to do this relationship thing?”

Amber nodded dropping her head against his chest.  “Yes, I really do.  It just happened a little quickly, going from being annoyed by you constantly, to finding out you’re actually very adorable and sweet.” 

Jake pulled a face.  “Ooh, adorable and sweet.  I’m not sure that befits my status as a guitar legend.”

Amber giggled and kissed him gently.  “Sorry, but you are.”

Jake cocked his head to one side and grinned.  “Okay, I’ll take it.  Sexy and manly would’ve been better, but adorable and sweet works for me.”

“Oh, you’re those as well,” Amber replied earnestly.

“As a matter of interest though, Freckles, why
did
I annoy you so much?”

Amber started to laugh.  “You really don’t know?”

“Me, what do I ever do that is so annoying?” he asked, giving her waist a tickle. .

“That for a start,” Amber cried, pushing his hands away.  “As well as your crude jokes, innuendos, and general piss taking.”

“All pretty endearing things if you ask me,” Jake replied with a wink.

Amber cupped Jake’s face and sighed as she gazed into his bright blue eyes.  “I guess the biggest thing though was the women.  I thought that you were like him, Daniel, my boss.”

Jake frowned.  “I would never do what he did, and I may have had a lot of women but I’ve never disrespected any of them.  Not even the groupies in the early days.”

Amber wondered how anyone could respect a woman who threw their knickers at you for a quick bout of hot, sweaty sex, but decided not to voice her thoughts for once.  However, Jake had asked her a question, and she knew that she needed to answer it, honestly.

“Do you know when the first time I met you was?” Amber asked.

“Yeah, here in this house, just before the tour.  I walked in and you pretty much hated me on sight.”  Jake smiled, but he still wondered what he’d done to receive such hostility from her.

“Yes, and no.  I saw you in the garden.  You were having sex with a red head against the summer house.”

Jake pulled his head back and stared at Amber intently.  Then light dawned.  “Oh, Sadie.”

“I guess so,” Amber replied.  “But what annoyed me was that I heard you tell her that her time was up and to hurry, and you didn’t even invite the poor girl in afterwards.”

Jake’s shoulder’s shook and his laughter filled the room.

“It’s not funny, Jake,” Amber protested poking him in his side.  “That’s not really respecting someone, is it?”

“Oh Freckles, why didn’t you say something before?” He shook his head at Amber and pulled her into his chest.  “We might’ve moved to third base by now if you had.” 

“Eh?”  Her response was muffled as Jake was holding her so tightly.

“Oh sorry.”  Jake released Amber and held her away from him so that he could look into her eyes.  He wanted her to see deep inside him, and to know that he really wasn’t that sort of man.  “Sadie likes to role play.  That day she was the lady of the house, and I was a gardener.  We were pretending that her husband was on his way home and so we didn’t have long.  Which was why I told her to hurry up.”

“Oh.”  Amber looked up at Jake warily.  “But why didn’t you invite her in?”

“Because she was actually on her way home when she dragged me down the garden.  Sadie and I have been friends for a long time, years in fact.  She’s the drummer in a band that supported us on a tour about seven years ago.”

Amber’s breath caught in her throat.  “Are you still friends?” she asked quietly.

“Yes, we are.  But,” he continued as Amber moved her gaze away from him, “we won’t be intimate friends again.  Not while I’m with you, okay?”

“Okay,” Amber whispered.

Jake pulled her closer to him, enjoying the feel of her cuddling against his chest.  He was glad that they’d figured everything out because now he felt that they could move forward into that scary thing called a relationship.

“Just one thing though,” he said, suddenly perplexed.  “Why didn’t you hate Tom?  He’s had loads of women on the tour too.”

Amber shrugged against Jake’s chest.  “I don’t know.  I know I told you I thought he was handsome and sexy, but he doesn’t make me feel all hot and bothered.”

“What and I do?”  Jake’s grin lit up his face.  “Shit Freckles, you’d have never have guessed it the way you were always bawling me out.”

“It was very deep rooted, believe me,” Amber said with a grin.  “However, much as I hated myself for it, I always thought that you were hot.  Hot and irritating.”

Jake laughed. “I can understand your feelings,” he replied airily.  “Some women think Tom’s dark, brooding eyes, and black hair are attractive, but I think that blondes with blue eyes are definitely the prettiest.”

Amber started to giggle.  She suddenly felt a lot lighter having told Jake.  Finally, she’d shared her pain with someone else - only her mum knew about the baby, she hadn’t even told Luke.

They sat in a relaxed silence for a few minutes until Jake shifted towards her and dropped a kiss onto her nose. .

“Okay Freckles,” he said, “you sit here and I’ll go and make us some lunch. I think even I can manage a sandwich.”

Just at that moment Jake’s phone started to ring.  He took it from his pocket and glanced at the display with a frown.

“You get that,” Amber said, pushing herself up from the sofa.  “I’ll make lunch.”

Jake shook his head and rejected the call.  “Not a chance, I’ll call them back.  Today your boyfriend is going to wait on you.  Is that okay?”

Amber’s breath caught in her throat as Jake’s words sunk in.

“Well,” he said, grinning when he saw the look on her face. “Is it?”

Amber smiled back and nodded.  “More than okay,” she sighed, grateful that she had finally let Jake break down her barriers.  “In fact it’s perfect,” she said, a huge smile illuminating her face. “Absolutely perfect.”

Jake’s long fingers caressed the strings and flew up and down the fret board of his guitar as effortlessly and elegantly as if they were made of oil. Amber, watching him play, squirmed with desire, and wished that it was her body he was playing instead.

“What you ogling at, Freckles,” Jake said without looking up.  “Do you fancy a go? “He looked up and raised his eyebrows cheekily. “Of the guitar I mean.”

Amber giggled and moved from the doorway to sit down on a footstool in front of him.  “That’s beautiful, Jake.  What is it?” she asked.

Jake stopped strumming and put his guitar on the sofa next to him.  He gave Amber the brightest smile that she’d ever seen, but there was a pink tinge to his cheeks.  “Don’t ever repeat this to the guys, but it’s Bruno Mars’, ‘Just the Way You Are.’.”

“Why are you embarrassed by playing that?”  Amber moved over and sat on Jake’s knee, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

“‘Cause it’s not exactly what the lead guitarist from a rock band should be playing,” Jake answered, planting a kiss on the end of her nose.  “Betty got me into it.”  Jake smiled as he thought of Martha’s daughter.  “It was when I was staying here before the tour started during her summer holidays from Uni’.  She played the bloody thing non-stop and I kind of got hooked.

“Aw, you big softie, you played it beautifully anyway.”

“You were my muse, Freckles,” Jake answered winking at Amber.  “I was thinking of you.”

Amber swallowed as she gazed at Jake.  He may well have been joking, but it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to her.  She leaned in and her lips brushed against Jake’s, as she ran her fingers through his hair, softly tugging at it.  As Jake’s heart slammed against his chest, he took Amber’s bottom lip in his teeth and gently pulled at it.

“God these lips are perfect,” he whispered.

His hands moved up her back and, as Amber let out a soft moan, Jake pushed them under her vest top, desperate for the feel of her soft skin against his fingertips.  As she melted against him, Amber moved one of her hands to the back of Jake’s neck and pushed him into the kiss.  Jake pulled away and slowly kissed a path up Amber’s neck, and pulled her hair to one side and softly caressed her ear with his lips.

“Jake,” Amber gasped, her body on fire.

Jake moved his mouth down and sucked against her bare shoulder, his teeth gently nipping at her skin.  As the flames grew within Amber and flowed to her core, she lifted her hips and pushed closer to him.  Her fingers curled around the soft fabric of Jake’s t-shirt, pushing it up his body so that she could run her hands across his hard chest.  Jake let out a deep, throaty groan as Amber’s touch stoked his desire and as pressure built in the pit of his stomach, his erection pushed against his sweat pants.  He’d never derived pleasure like this from just a kiss before; it was all encompassing and totally addictive.  Amber’s sweet mouth had him trapped and he loved it.

As they continued to devour each other, the intensity of their kisses continued to grow.  Finally, both breathless and their chests heaving in unison, Jake reluctantly pulled away. 

“Fuck,” he groaned “This is getting pretty intense, Freckles.”

Amber nodded as she slowly ran a finger across her swollen lips.  Jake was right, since their argument and subsequent talk two days before, there had been lots of kissing, and each one had become increasingly hot and heavy.  She wasn’t sure how Jake was managing to hold back, because she wanted him so badly, and felt like a bottle of champagne that had been shaken up and was ready to pop. In fact it wasn’t just a want any longer; it was more a relentless need.  Just looking at him created a throb between her legs and, if her eyes weren’t deceiving her, whenever they kissed Jake was pretty much in a state of constant arousal too.  They’d been back home for over just two weeks now, which if his usual escapades on tour were anything to go by, was the longest Jake had ever gone without sex.  Yet, he was always the one to pull back; always the one to call a halt to their steamy make out sessions.  Amber realised that was probably the sensible thing to do, after all she’d been hurt deeply by Daniel, however, after over a year without sex, not only was the pain of her heartbreak waning, but the frustration was growing.  If Jake hadn’t had sex for at least two weeks, a year was a damn sight longer, and if  he didn’t make a move soon Amber thought that she may well combust, leaving just a pair of singed knickers where she’d been standing.  She knew, however, that having sex with Jake would change things; probably change her feelings for him no matter what she tried to tell herself.  As it was they were growing deeper with every kiss, with every adorable thing he did or said, but for all his talk of a relationship she didn’t think that Jake was in this for the long haul.  So however long this lasted, it would have to be long enough.

Jake sat back on the sofa, pulling Amber with him, and gave a contented sigh as she placed her head against his chest.  Gently stroking her hair, Jake realised he’d never felt so relaxed –  apart from his resident hard on whenever they were kissing, which wasn’t so relaxing, but he didn’t want to make a wrong move and spoil what was happening between them. 

“You do know that I’m turning into a dork, don’t you?” Jake said as he nuzzled Amber’s neck.

“Why?”

“Because when I wake up in the morning I’m excited about seeing you.”

“Ah that’s so sweet,” Amber replied, stretching her neck to give Jake better access.  “But we’re only apart for the few hours that we’re asleep.  And I’m only two doors away.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jake sighed, thinking about the horny dreams that had him waking with a stupid grin and a hard on every morning.

As Amber cuddled closer to him, Jake thought about why on earth she
was
sleeping two doors away.  She was gorgeous and sexy, they were two adults alone in the house, he was an uninhibited, no holds barred rock star; so what the hell was his problem?  All he could think about was getting her into his bed, but he respected her too much to try.  Jake, although respectful to the women he slept with, was never particularly anxious to see any of them more than once after getting them into bed as quickly as possible; so these feelings were alien to him.  But, he had to be honest, no one had ever captured his attention like Freckles had, or dare he even think it, captured his heart.  While Jake played with her hair absentmindedly, Amber lifted her head from his chest.  She gazed at him, with wide, silver eyes shining with trepidation.

“Jake,” she whispered.

“Hmm.”

“You do find me attractive, don’t you?”

Jake pulled back and looked at her astonished.  “You’re joking, right?”

“Well no.  Not really.  It’s just that…”  Amber groaned inwardly not sure what to say.

Jake frowned.  “It’s just what?”

Amber blew a strand of hair from her face as her eyes almost disappeared into the top of her head.  “It’s just that while all this kissing it great, it just isn’t cutting it anymore!  I’m not a virgin that you need to treat like bone china.”

Jake sat up poker straight, his eyes as big as saucers.  “Christ, Freckles, you have no idea how much I want you like that too.  I was trying to be gentlemanly, and do this the right way,” he replied cupping Amber’s face.  “I didn’t want you to think you’re not special to me, because you are.” 

Jake blew out a long breath, relief washing over him.  He had been desperate to worship Amber at the altar of his bed, but also wanted it to be different with her.  She wasn’t just some groupie who he would bed after only hours of knowing them.

Amber smiled and nuzzled her cheek against the palm of his hand.  “Thank you for thinking that, but I’m not naïve enough to think that I’m going to be the great love of your life, Jake.”  Amber knew that if she kept telling herself that, it wouldn’t hurt as much when this all finished.  She wondered whether she could make this just about sex, because loving Daniel had only hurt her.  “So, let’s just enjoy wild sex for a while.  No emotions, just fun.”

Jake’s smile dipped slightly and his heart jolted.  He didn’t know why, but he felt a little deflated by her words.  He was definitely turning into a sap - a beautiful woman was practically begging him for sex, and he felt as though he’d just opened the most beautifully wrapped present in the world only to find it was a One Direction CD. 

“I do care about you though, Freckles,” 

“I know you do.”

“And, I’d never want to hurt you,” Jake replied not sure whether he was justifying a relationship based purely on sex or trying to persuade Amber that a bit of fun wasn’t all he wanted.

“I know that.  Anyway, if you do I’ll set my cousin onto you,” she giggled.

Jake smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.  “Yeah,” he said.  “I need to be scared of Luke…” Jake’s words petered off as he searched Amber’s face, noticing that her smile had faded.  “So, you’re sure you’re ready to take the next step?”

“Well, it’d be nice to see what all the fuss is about.”

Quickly, and with total ease, Jake stood and lifted Amber off her feet, and ran into the hallway with her.

“Jake,” Amber laughed.  “You’ll drop me.”

“Oh no Freckles, you’re safe with me, don’t you worry.  Now,” he said with one foot on the stairs, “your room or mine?”