Chapter Thirteen: Fixed
Her last night with the tour Kitty sensed Josh wouldn’t be happy with the rather tame lovemaking they’d had since her arrival. She could practically smell the testosterone and adrenaline on his skin when he came off the stage. He took her hand as they ran to the bus.
“I’m glad we’re spending the night in a hotel,” he murmured against her hair. He needed the privacy of four walls to say his ‘good-byes’ to Kitty tonight. He was practically jumping out of his skin with anticipation.
Lance handed Josh a bottle of water as he sat across from the couple.
“Thanks, man.” Josh nearly drained it with one long swallow.
“So, Kitty, how do you like tour life?” Lance asked Kitty.
“I thought I was a gypsy going from location to location. It takes a whole new discipline to wake up in a different city every morning,” Kitty answered truthfully.
“Will you be coming along again?”
“I’ve got a movie release next month – and I’m already filming in Nevada. I don’t know when I could any time soon.”
“They have the premier date set?” Josh asked.
When she named the date, he smiled. “I’ll fly in and go with you. We don’t have a concert that night.”
“You’d be exhausted. You don’t have to—“
“You’re my wife – and it’s a special day for you. I’ll be there.” The firmness with which he said it made argument impossible.
“Thank you. I just figured I’d go with Annie and George.”
“Hey, I’ll be there, too,” Joey reminded them as he flopped down beside Lance. “JC and I are both in the movie.”
“Me for about two minutes,” Josh laughed. “Then Kitty’s character tells me to get lost.”
“Hey, we all can go,” Lance offered in support of his friends.
“I’m not going to have to date all five of you am I?” Kitty asked.
“Naugh. We’ll find our own dates. You’ll just have JC,” Lance assured her.
“Thank goodness!”
The second the hotel door closed, Kitty advanced on Josh. His condition had become more obvious. With each floor the elevator rose – so had Mr. Happy! Her mouth closed over his. For a moment, he was too surprised to respond.
“Josh, I want it all tonight,” she told him fiercely as she stripped the shirt over his head.
“But, Kit, you don’t like—“
“I never said I didn’t like it. I discovered we’d been missing some of the gentleness. There’s room for both, isn’t there?”
“In my love for you, there’s room for a whole universe.”
Instead of responding, Kitty began licking and nipping at his neck, all the while stroking the hard length of him through his pants. He even tasted different tonight: salty from sweat, the tang of adrenaline, musky from desire – a wonderful combination of Josh.
“Sweetness,” he growled, pulling her fingers from him, “I’m gonna waste my load in my shorts if you keep that up.”
“That won’t do.” Kitty knelt at his feet and pulled his clothing down enough to free his straining length. She licked at the dribble already escaping and blew on him, making his shiver. Licking him up and down, she finally took him all in, swallowing several times to accommodate him.
Josh collapsed back against the door. She had never done it quite like that before. Damn, it felt wonderful! “You’re so good to me, baby,” he purred as she began sucking on him. It didn’t take long before he was pumping himself down her throat and she didn’t stop until he was finished. It took him some time to recover.
Opening his eyes, he gazed down at the beautiful face of the woman he loved and smiled. “You blew the top of my head of.”
She grinned. ”Both of them?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Does that mean Mr. Happy is finished for the night?” One soft finger slid from tip to base and back. His body’s response was immediate. “Mr. Happy rises to the occasion.”
“That he does.”
Kitty removed his shoes and socks in order to divest him of the rest of his clothes.
“I think one of us is way over-dressed for this party,” he announced.
Kitty scooted back on the carpet, then sat down. Leaning back on her elbows, she pulled her knees up and back provocatively. She was showing a side of her he’d never seen. She was turning love back into sex. He couldn’t let that happen. They’d come too far in the salvage process to backslide. But then again, refusing her could have the same effect.
Josh went to her, kneeling between her thighs. Instead of pulling off her clothes, he reached back and linked his fingers with hers as he kissed her softly. “I love you, Kitty.” Trailing light kisses down her neck, he nuzzled her soft, fragrant skin. “These next couple of weeks, sweetness…How am I gonna live without you? Not finding your head on the pillow next to mine when I wake…Not looking up from lunch and seeing you there, looking back at me…” He smiled down into her dazed eyes. She had once claimed he could make love with his words – and sometimes, the words just needed to be said. “Not having raspberry-scented hair, because I grabbed your shampoo by accident while I was in the shower.”
She smiled and nuzzled his neck. “You, Joshua Scott, are a very special man.”
“I have to be to keep your love, don’t I?”
Kitty realized what he had done, turning her away from her natural aggression and competitiveness. She had tried to make a challenge game out of their lovemaking and he wasn’t having it. He wasn’t going to be tricked or seduced into failure. “I didn’t even realize I was testing you,” she whispered, ashamed of herself.
“I know, baby.” Josh rose and scooped her up. Carrying her to the bed, he lay her down. Sitting down beside her, he pulled her sandals off. Kitty nearly jumped out of her skin when he sucked on her tiny toes.
“You even have cute feet. You know how rare that is?”
“You don’t have a foot fetish, do you?”
He shook his head. “No. I have a Kitty fetish.”
Sitting up, she removed her shirt and bra, then unfastened her jeans. “Can I get some help here?”
“Sure.” When she lifted her hips, he stripped the jeans and panties down her legs, dropping them to the floor. “We’re a little more even now.”
Lying back, she held her arms out to him. “C’mere, blue-eyes, I need to hold you.”
He went to her with a gentle kiss. At the intimate contact, his body showed renewed interest.
“Mr. Happy’s awake now,” she commented dryly.
“Mr. Happy can wait.” He kissed her softly, lingering to melt any of her remaining doubts away.
“Oh, Josh, I do need you,” Kitty confessed, her eyes sad and worried.
“And I need you, Kitty. It’ll work. We’ll work. I promise.”
“I believe you.”
They got little sleep that night. After making love, they lie in each other’s arms and talked as they had on their wedding night. It felt good just sharing, in the low, intimate voices of lovers, as if they were sharing secrets. Both of them felt they were on a much more solid footing than ever before in their relationship. They had learned how to communicate with one another.
“I don’t want you ever to think there’s something you can’t share with me,” Josh told her.
“I was afraid I’d sound – well – petty,” she explained.
“I prefer to listen to anything rather than ‘good-bye’.”
“I really hadn’t planned that far ahead…Maybe I was hoping to shake you up. I don’t know. I thought I had been pretty obvious about the house, refusing to move. Pet was the one who pointed out men and women don’t read situations the same way.”
“Remind me to send her roses to thank her.” He stroked her hair, making her practically purr. “And, sweetness, use the direct approach. I can be pretty thick some times.”
She grinned. “Not you!”
“Yeah, me.” He returned her grin.
He got serious again quickly. “When you left, I called Mom. I just lost it. I cried and she told me to calm down and think. Funny thing, she didn’t assume I was blameless. She said it takes two to make a marriage and it usually takes two to break it.”
“I like your mom.”
“She likes you, too. She thinks you’re good for me.”
“Am I?”
“You give me your support and your enthusiasm for whatever I do. Yeah, you’re really good for me. I hope I give at least half of it back.”
“You do.” Kitty traced his lips with an idyll finger. “Can I ask something?”
”Anything.”
“Have you ever had your heart broken?”
“Sure. I guess. A couple of times. My career ended a relationship in my late teens. Then Robin, kinda did. She wasn’t what I thought she was.” He flicked his tongue out to lick her finger. “But nothing compares to your taking off your rings and walking away, Kit. I wanted to die right there.”
“I’m sorry – that was the first time my heart had been broken.” Her eyes reflected the pain. “I’ve always been so sure of myself and my situations. Then you came along and started messing with my time-honored tenants…I didn’t want to love you because you didn’t play by the same rules…” She sighed. “I even let you know what the rules were – even though I had never done that before.”
Josh had suspected Kitty had ‘bent’ some of her rules for him – which had left her open to heartache.
“I tried to pretend Robin wasn’t an issue like you had told me. But I couldn’t seem to get past it. That’s why I was so adamant about not wanting to move in with you. It still felt like poaching to me. Then she came breezing in while I was attempting to try and be there for your sake. She still had a key. Did you know that?”
Josh groaned. No, he hadn’t. “I’ll get the locks changed, so she doesn’t do that to whomever buys it.”
Kitty nodded. “It might be a good idea, even though I got the key she had with her that day. She told me how you liked the furniture the way it was. Then she got into your love life – but she never called it love. She saw me as an interloper – and that’s exactly how I felt – like I didn’t belong.”
“You belong to me,” Josh assured her. “And I belong to you.”
“I thought when I made every excuse not to move in, you’d get the picture.”
“You gave me way too much credit.”
She looked him in the eye. “What’re we going to do? Where are we going to live?”
Josh realized his house in Orlando was going to have to go on the block as well. He was going to be homeless for a while. Good thing he did put more stock in people than places.
“Well, baby girl, I guess whoever has the time looks for a new place.”
“I know someone who has a small house to rent. It’s off the ocean.”
“Go for it, if we can make it temporary. I’ll get a realtor to unload the house.”
Kitty grinned wickedly. “Guess you want me to buy a bigger bed.”
Josh chuckled. “That might be nice, though I don’t mind sharing yours.”
“You aren’t sorry, are you?”
“That what was wrong with our marriage was fixable? No way.”
“The house and the bed, I mean.”
“Like I said, I’m a helluva lot more attached to you, sweetness.”
Kitty leaned into him, kissing first his upper then lower lip. Her tongue stroked into his mouth and he sucked lightly on it as his hands drew her closer.
“Mmm…” She felt him harden beneath her. “I need to say ‘good-bye’ to Mr. Happy.”
Josh rolled her to her back, coming over her. “Not ‘good-bye’, baby. More like ‘see ya later’.”
“So, we’re fixed?” Josh prompted an assurance from Kitty as they waited on her flight to Las Vegas.
“Mostly.”
“What else can I do?—“
“Josh, stop. You aren’t an insecure boy. You’re a confident male.”
That male confidence had taken a hammering when she had left him. It wasn’t exactly fully recovered. Four days surely wasn’t enough time to undo all the damage.
She reached up for a kiss. He wanted to devour her so he’d never have to be separate from her.
“Good-bye, blue-eyes. I’ll see you in a few weeks.”
“Sweetness, I’ll try for sooner. I can’t—“
“We’re okay, Josh. We’re better than we ever have been. We have more understanding where the other one is coming from.”
“It’s still hard, baby. I don’t want to let you out of my sight.”
She lifted his left hand and kissed his wedding band. “Soulmates, remember?”
He kissed her rings, then put their hands together so their rings touched. “You’re more than my soulmate, Kit. You are my heart.”
When her flight was called, Kitty pulled away. “Love you. Bye!” Her kiss was almost absent.
Josh watched helplessly as Kitty hurried towards the gate. About halfway she turned around. Dropping her bag, she flew at him, her arms and legs wrapping around him. Her mouth crashed hungrily down on his. Both of them were breathless and smiling when she finally lifted her head.
“I love you so much, blue-eyes. And you’d better call me every day – twice on weekends.”
Josh laughed. “Yes, ma’am.”
She kissed him again. “I don’t really want to leave you…”
“You got promises to keep, baby. I understand.”
“I love you,” she repeated.
“I love you, too, sweetness. Now, you’d better get going.” Josh released her slowly, just as reluctant to separate as she seemed to be. “Call me when you get there.”
Tears sparkled in her beautiful eyes.
“Ah, baby, don’t,” he crooned, giving her another soft kiss. “Go on now.”
Shaking her head, Kitty walked back to her bag, picking it up she spared one last look at Josh before she disappeared.
“Married long?” An old man asked Josh as he watched Kitty out of sight.
“Less than a year,” Josh answered, finally losing view of his wife.
“I predict, ten years from now, she’ll still be that frisky.”
Josh smiled at the man. “With Kitty, it’s a pretty safe bet.”