Read Satellite of Love Online

Authors: Christa Maurice

Satellite of Love (8 page)

“What are you? My mom? I told you I would and I did. Happy?”

“Yes.”

He tried to make out the expression on Maureen’s face, but she was a little too far away. She’d been happy last night. Very happy. So had he, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been that happy not getting off.

“Are you even listening to me?”

“No.”

Marc sighed. “Look, I know we’ve been bugging you a lot this break, but there’s a lot riding on this album.”

“And you know what? All the promotion in the world isn’t going to help until the tour starts.”

“The tour isn’t selling.”

The last album had sucked, but not so bad it should be killing the new one. “What exactly do you mean, the tour isn’t selling?”

“I mean we start touring in a month and we don’t have a single venue even half sold.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I wish I was.”

Maureen was turned toward the far side of the playground. That woman was too good for a one-night stand. Too good for a one-week stand. Damn, he’d miss her. “I’m doing a drop-in Friday. See if Candy can scare up an interview in the same city and I’ll hit the forum.”

“The forum? You know all those folks already got their tickets. Plus they’re crazy.”

“I know, that’s why we need them. They’re crazy about us so they’ll talk up the album, request the songs and convince their friends to go to the shows.”

“True. Good to hear you thinking again.”

Thinking. Yeah, about how he should have been staying away from Maureen Donnelly. She was a nice woman who deserved a stable romance, not some gypsy musician who was going to rip her life apart like a time bomb when somebody realized who he was and who she was to him. Some of the women on the forum, for instance.

 

* * * *

 

“So how was your weekend?” Linda asked, surveying the playground with her hands stuffed in the sleeves of her coat.

Maureen hadn’t noticed the chilly weather all weekend. Okay, she hadn’t noticed anything. “Great.” She caught herself grinning. Great almost defined it.

“Great?” Linda turned to study her. “Did you call Greg?”

“Oh, I forgot.” Forgot to call Greg, forgot to do laundry, forgot to get groceries. But she’d gotten her brakes fixed and her car tuned up. Yesterday afternoon she’d almost gotten a tune up of her own on the couch. Her mouth curled into a dizzy grin again.

“What did you do all weekend that was so great?”

“Michael.” Her mouth snapped shut as Linda’s eyes went round. “No, I mean I spent all weekend with Michael. I mean—” Maureen pinched the tip of her tongue between her teeth as if that would make the words come out right. “I was hanging out with Michael every day. We went to the dinosaur exhibit. The kids are going to love it.”

“Yeah.” Linda pulled her hands out of her sleeves and folded her arms in the ‘you’re in trouble’ pose she used on the kids. “Who is Michael? Not that mechanic.”

Her face now frozen in a ridiculous grin, she nodded.

“I can’t believe you spent an entire weekend with a mechanic.”

“What’s wrong with it? I got my brakes fixed and my car tuned up for free.”

Linda cocked an eyebrow. “Free, huh?”

As the subtext sunk in, her grin melted. She should have guessed what people would think. Who was she kidding? She had guessed, she’d just been pretending it didn’t matter.

If they found out. Who said they had to find out? It was called a personal life for a reason.

“He fixed my car and took me to the museum and we hung out and watched TV. I like him, okay? Besides, he’s not even going to be in town for long. Just a week.”

Linda snorted. “That sounds like a really going somewhere relationship.”

“Well, looking for Mr. Right hasn’t gotten me anywhere so I’m taking a break.”

“J’maya Drake, I see you climbing that fence! Down. Now,” Linda bellowed before turning back to Maureen. “I just don’t understand why you’re wasting your time with this grease monkey.”

“Because I want to.” Maureen half turned, pretending to survey the far side of the playground for infractions. She liked Michael. He made her feel hot and shivery and oh so enticing. Every time he said he was trying to be a good guy his voice got huskier. It made her wish she had another reason to wear the blue dress.

It made her want to go out and buy a whole wardrobe of stuff that would make him grind his teeth while he tried to be a good guy. “Linda, it’s my life and I’m tired of safe bets.”

“It’s your life until it blows up in your face and you’re crying over coffee in my kitchen.”

She shrugged. “So, have some coffee ready, and bake some of those cinnamon chip cookies to dunk in it. This cry is going to be a bad one and I’m going to love every minute of earning it.”

 

* * * *

 

Her leg ground against his cock and he shuddered. Returning the favor, he brought his knee up tight between her legs, making her moan. He slid his hands under her shirt and up her bare back. This was as close to naked as he’d gotten with her and he was pretty happy with it. Frustrated as fuck, but happy.

The X-Files
theme started to play. Tonight, like every other night this week, they’d gotten dinner, returned to her house to watch TV and ended up necking on the couch. For the rest of his life, that theme was going to make him hot and sweaty. “Baby, you are killing me.”

She started kissing his neck and giggling.

God, this woman was amazing. The way her soft body rubbed him in all the right ways made him never want to get off this couch. He smoothed his hands down her satin skin. “You are going to make me stop being a good guy.”

“Maybe that’s what I want.” She teased his ear lobe with her tongue.

His body tensed and snapped like he’d grabbed the jumper cables at the wrong time. “What?” he asked.

She arched up over him, her eyes dark. “I said, maybe that’s what I want.”

He bit back a whimper.
Don’t fuck with the locals
. “What do you mean?”

“I want you, Michael. I have totally inappropriate thoughts about you in the middle of the day.” She brushed her lips along his jaw. “I’m being aggressive and asking for what I want. Give me some positive reinforcement.”

“Positive reinforcement?”
Don’t fuck with the locals
. “Maureen.”

“I have a surprise for you.” She started working her way down his neck again, roaming his sides with her hands.

Surprise? She had no idea.

“I took tomorrow off. Since you’re leaving Monday, I thought we could have a long weekend.”

Long weekend. Very long. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t sleep with her if she didn’t know the truth. “My brother is going to kill me.”

“Your brother?” Maureen hesitated. Then her hesitation turned into a full-blown pause. She sat back looking like the recipient of a bucket of cold water in the face. “Ah. I forgot about—well, I forgot about the whole rest of the world for a couple of minutes there. Can’t always get what you want, right?”

If the Stones were right, you could always get what you needed and he needed Maureen. Bear sat up. She was still straddling his knees and well within reach. “You took tomorrow off?”

She shrugged. “I thought I’d either want to spend the weekend with you or need the mental health day to recover.” She poked his nose with the tip of her finger.

He stroked her cheek. Her warm soft spirit flowed into him. At this moment he wanted a lot more than a long weekend. She was such a genuine, sweet woman. So true, so real.

And he’d been lying to her since the minute he met her. “I have surprise for you too.”

“Really?” She cocked her head. “Am I gonna like it?”

“You’re either going to like it or you’re going to slap me really hard.” Bear gritted his teeth.

Her pretty grin melted off her face and she suddenly looked a lot more like a teacher. “You did promise me you weren’t a serial killer.”

“I’m not a serial killer.” He swallowed. The slap was a more likely outcome. In about ten seconds he was going to get a lesson in never lying to a woman. Especially one who might turn out to be more than a passing fancy. “I’m not a mechanic either.”

“What did you do to my car?”

“I fixed it. I know how to fix cars. That’s just not my day job.”

“You’re starting to make me really nervous.” She leaned back like she was about to bolt.

Bear grabbed her hands. Her body weight bent his knees backward, which wasn’t the most comfortable position in the world, but he was afraid if she moved away he’d never get her back. “Wait. I’m sorry. I never meant to lie to you. I thought it would be one evening and a pizza and that would be it. Then it turned into the weekend and now it’s—”

“I did mention that you were making me nervous.” She was letting him hold her hands, but that was it.

“I’m a musician.”

“A musician.”

“Yes.”

Her frown deepened. “And what is the problem with that?”

“Well.” What was the problem with that? “I’m kinda famous and I really wanted you to like me for me.”

“I’ve never heard of you.”

“There’s a signed picture of my band up in the garage.”

“There is?”

“There was. I took it down Saturday morning because I didn’t want you to see it.” His hands started sweating and not in a good way.

“Because you didn’t want me to know you were famous?”

“Yeah.”

She pulled her hands out of his, stood up and walked across the room. Picking up a pop up book of dinosaurs, she flipped through it before putting it back on the shelf. “I really dislike being lied to.”

Her brittle tone made him wish she’d just slapped him. He turned to put his feet on the floor and debated standing up. If he walked over there, it might piss her off enough that she’d hit him, which would end the Arctic blast, but she’d probably also throw him out on his ass which would end everything else. Better to hold the beachhead he had. “And I’m sorry. I was sorry as soon as it started, but I didn’t think it would matter.”

“Why did you do it?”

Maybe fury had made her deaf. Hadn’t he just said that? “I didn’t think it would matter?”

“No, why did you do it at all?” She turned to face him and folded her arms.

He looked at the floor. Why
had
he done it at all? “I’m sorry.”

“Well, so am I, because that isn’t a good enough answer.”

Her well-deserved attitude grated. He shoved himself to his feet. “Don’t treat me like a kid.”

“I’m sorry. I’m just not sure how to treat you. I thought I knew you, but now you tell me you’ve been lying to me since we met. What am I supposed to do?”

“Forgive me? You liked me well enough a few minutes ago. You were ready to have sex.”

“That might not be the best thing to remind me of right now.”

“True.”

“I feel like an idiot. All this time I thought I was seeing Michael D’Amato, mechanic from California and now I find out you’re a—what did you say you did?”

The DVD menu started to cycle through again. He grabbed the remote, switched off the television and threw the remote down. “I’m a drummer in a rock band. We just released a new album and this is my vacation before I have to go back for rehearsals and the tour.”

She nodded.

“You know, I’d feel a lot better if you’d scream at me or hit me or something.”

“I’m sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable.”

He dropped back onto the couch. Lying to her had to be one of the biggest boneheaded decisions of all time. “Maureen, I’m really sorry I did this to you and I wouldn’t have told you at all—”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

“And I’m sorry.” Bear drew a deep breath. This was like stepping off a tall bridge not sure if the bungee cord was secured. “But I really like you. I really
love
you. I don’t want to leave town Monday and never see you again. What I really want is to see a lot more of you.”

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