Indiscreet by Nicole French

4

We didn’t talk or do anything else for several hours really but sit and hold each other, as if both of us needed to recharge some precious stores that had been depleted over the last two weeks. Life was so tenuous for us both. Will had a whole host of demons he was going to have to confront after years in hiding, and I had my own share of skeletons that were bound to come out if I was going to have a relationship with a public figure. Because that’s what he was, of course—as public as it got, despite what he wanted. And, I realized, he was scared to death about it.

At some point, after drifting off together on Benny’s couch, under the discreet shade of the canopy, we sat up in a daze, smiling shyly at one another. What next? Where would we go? What would we do? What were the next steps in healing?

How would I learn who this person was sitting next to me?

Will pushed back his hair. As he re-tied it, his gaze flickered over my body. I looked down to find my shirt pulled down a little too far in sleep, revealing a generous amount of cleavage while my skirt had bunched up around my thighs. I didn’t look indecent or anything, but there was certainly some stuff on display.

I made quick work of fixing and adjusting, but when I finished, Will’s expression had turned significantly darker. He sucked on his lip, closed his eyes for a second, then dragged his eyes up my body.

“I missed you, Lil,” he said softly.

He leaned in, and like a magnet, I leaned forward too. Our lips brushed, once, twice before he snaked a hand around the back of my neck and pulled me in for a kiss that I’d been craving for the last two weeks. It started out slowly, like he was trying to protect us, as fragile as we were. But quickly, his resolve melted, his mouth opened, mine right along with it.

“Oh!” I moaned as his teeth closed around my bottom lip. He sucked, then slipped his tongue around mine.

“Fucking hell,” he muttered as he pulled me onto his lap. In a second, my shirt was pulled up and he was yanking down the lace cups of my bra.

“Will…” I whimpered, my breath hot and ragged.

His mouth closed around one nipple while his fingers pinched the other. His left hand slipped under my skirt, took a thick handful of flesh, and kneaded roughly while he hardened between my thighs. I rocked against him, starving for more.

“What do you need, baby?” His deep voice rumbled over the delicate skin of my neck. He licked under my jaw before taking my earlobe between his teeth and worrying it lightly. “Can I make you come, Lil? I want to watch you fall apart in my arms again.”

“And––and then what?” His mouth made it hard to think, especially when the hand on my ass slipped farther down, breaching the elastic edge of my panties and making contact with my slick center.

“I just want to come home, Lil,” Will said as his finger slipped inside. “Any way I can.”

He captured my mouth again with his, twisting our tongues together in that intoxicating dance that erased all conscious thoughts. All I could feel was pleasure. Belonging. The complete and utter rightness of our bodies acting as one. I ground into him, luxuriating in the long, solid length rubbing against my clit. A second finger joined the first as he sucked on my tongue.

“Oh, God.” I threaded my fingers through his hair. More. I wanted more. “I’m close,” I whimpered.

“Do it,” Will urged. “Let go, baby. Let me feel it.”

His finger began to thrust more insistently, matching the rocking of my hips as I sought more friction against him. His other hand wrapped around my nape, holding me still so he could plunder my mouth more thoroughly. Higher and higher I rose, riding on the grunts, the growls, the heated breaths we shared between indecent kisses.

But right as I was about to fall apart completely, a tinny, bouncing ringtone rang through the air. I froze, then scrambled to the other side of the couch, feeling like I’d been caught doing something very, very wrong. I struggled to catch my breath, tugging my clothes back into place while Will jumped up.

“Shit!” He dug into the pockets of his jeans.

I gawked, fixing my bra as Will pulled out a sleek iPhone. “What is that?!”

Will ignored my astonishment as he awkwardly punched in the passcode. No fingerprint identification for this guy, apparently.

“I had to,” he said as he lifted it to his ear. “It was either that or have a gorilla babysitter follow me literally everywhere I went. Ben, what the fuck do you want? I was kind of busy.”

I watched curiously as Will talked. He sank back onto the couch and set one foot on the glass table. It was a strange juxtaposition. He was dressed in secondhand rags, but he seemed totally at ease with all of this luxury.

“Okay,” he said. “Yeah, we’ll be right down.”

He ended the call and shoved the phone back in his pocket with a sigh.

“Well, well, well. Will Baker is plugged in. If I felt like I didn’t know you before, now you’re really a complete stranger.” I was joking, but it wasn’t totally wrong.

Will sent me another withering look, which only made me chuckle. In response, he launched himself across the couch, caging me against the white cushions.

“I’ll show you a stranger, smart-ass,” he said as he leaned in to continue the kiss from before.

His lips were warm, firm. Familiar. I hadn’t realized it until now, but a part of me had wondered if this would be different too. Would “Fitz Baker” make love differently than Will?

Their kisses, at least, were the same. As Will teased my mouth open, our tongues were quick to restart that desperate dance our bodies already knew so well, I forgot both of his names. I practically forgot my own.

“Damn,” he said as he pulled away, though the movement actually made the obvious evidence of his arousal press harder into my thigh. I rotated my hips into it, enjoying the way his breath hitched.

“You kill me, you know that, Lily pad?” he said, pressing his forehead to mine.

I closed my eyes as his minty, fresh breath washed over me. “You don’t need to stop.” I wanted more. So much more. I wanted to know it was really him.

Will sighed. “Unfortunately, I do. The cavalry is on their way up.”

I opened my eyes. “Benny and Callie?”

Will nodded, then rolled off me. “The devil waits for no man.”

I got up, fixing my hair, and followed him back to the stairwell. “I think the saying is that ‘time waits for no man,’ you goon.”

Will sent me a crooked smile over his shoulder. “Eh. It still fits.”

“What does it say that you’re referring to your best friend as the devil?”

Will held the door open, allowing me to walk down the stairs in front of him. “Well, there’s the other saying, right? ‘Better the devil you know, or the devil you don’t’? Benny’s one of the devils I know.”

“One?”

Will wasn’t smiling anymore. “One of many,” he confirmed. All humor had left in his voice.

We found Benny and Calliope waiting impatiently in the living room. Calliope was texting madly while Benny chattered at breakneck speed into his Bluetooth. They both stopped when they saw us approaching. Calliope smiled when she caught my hand in Will’s.

“I’m going to have to call you back,” Benny said before switching off his Bluetooth. “Is champagne in order, or is this a temporary reunion?”

Will squeezed my hand, giving me a shy smile as he raised my knuckles to his lips. “She’s stuck with me now,” he said. “But no champagne needed. Yet.”

My eyes widened, and Will winked.

Benny raised an eyebrow. “Wow. You did change out there in no man’s land.”

I smiled back at Will, though I didn’t know exactly why. I still felt unsure about so much—like I had to get to know this man all over again—but I wanted to believe he meant what he said. My heart told me he did.

“Babe?” Calliope called from the corner. “Look, don’t kill me. But you said you needed money to pay the lawyer, and I might have made some calls. I told a few reps that you’ve been working on some new stuff. They’re interested as soon as you can get a demo together.”

I sank onto the big white couch that faced Calliope, followed by Will, who seemed unwilling to be more than a foot away from me. “Cal…”

“Don’t hate me yet,” she said, still tapping into her phone. “It’s only a demo, and you need the money, kid. You’re Fitz Baker’s girl—everyone is interested in you now. We should capitalize on that.”

Beside me, Will tensed. “Hey,” he said, low enough that only I could hear him. “Do you need some help? Because whatever it is, I can cover it.”

It was tempting, but I wasn’t going to do it. We were already in a situation that was complicated enough without letting Will pay my legal fees. I had absolutely no interest in incurring that kind of debt.

“It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll be fine.” I turned to Callie.

The thought of performing—even recording—struck a chord of fear through me, but it was either that or waiting tables. Will was facing his fears by being here. It was time for me to face mine too.

“If you can find me some cheap studio space, I’ll do it,” I said. “I can probably get my old waitressing job back to pay the fees. But it will be me alone. I don’t have the time or money to get a band together.”

Calliope grinned. “Perfect. I’ll make some calls. A couple of guys at Sony owe me some favors. Make sure you play that new one from this morning.”

Will blinked at me. “What new one?”

I shook my head. “Just some messing around.”

Calliope shot me a sideways look, but I ignored her. I wasn’t ready to talk about the songs I’d written on the drive to New York. They were personal, my way of dealing with emotions I still hadn’t straightened out in my mind. Our talk on the roof had helped, but things weren’t healed. Nowhere near it.

“So, hold up. What’s the plan, now?” Benny asked. “You’re not going back to Washington?”

“We’re going to need a place to stay.” Will tugged me into his side, wrapping a solid arm around my shoulder so he could play with my hair. I cozied into him easily, almost like the last two weeks hadn’t happened. Almost.

Benny brightened. “For how long?”

“Only until Maggie gets her hearing.” Will squeezed my shoulders, although Benny’s disappointment was obvious. “She has to deal with some harassment from her asshole ex.” Will turned to me. “Who’s your lawyer?”

“Her name is Jamie Douglass. She was recommended to me when the YWCA couldn’t take me on again.” Jamie was nice, young, and very cheap. She was pretty inexperienced with all of this, but she was also all I could afford, and was willing to take a payment plan.

Will’s distaste was palpable. “Huh.” He flickered a glance at Benny, who nodded in response to some unspoken communication between the two of them. Calliope and I both blinked at each other, unsure of what had just happened.

“Listen, I gotta go, babe,” Callie said, standing up. “Sadly, I do have other clients.” She leaned down to kiss my cheek. “You have the key, right?”

I nodded. “I’ll, um, keep you updated on where I’ll be later.”

“Someone will come get her stuff whenever you can be there to let them in,” Will added. “We’ll bring it here until we lock down a place.”

I turned to him, ready to argue that I could pick up my own things, but he silenced me with a curt shake of his head.

“I can’t go there right now,” he said quietly. “And where you go, Lil, I go too.”

I nodded, understanding he was referring to our little spat on the street and the potential crowds that might be there now. He wasn’t overreacting. #FitzSpotting had become a regular sport on Twitter.

He touched his forehead to mine again, almost like he was trying to telecommunicate the things he couldn’t quite say. I understood. There was a lot to say. A lot to know. And not enough time to figure it all out. We had to take one step at a time.

“I’ll call you later,” Calliope said as she walked to the elevator.

I waved.

“Benny, can you round up a broker for us?” Will asked. “Someone quiet. I’d like to be in a decent place tonight, if possible. We need better security than a hotel can offer.” He turned to me. “Do you have time to look at apartments with me?”

I nodded. “I should probably practice tonight, though, if I’m going to be recording.”

Will nodded again, though he tensed right along with me at the mention of recording. He had no idea what kinds of butterflies were already flying around my stomach.

“Already done.” Benny tapped out a message on his phone—the thing really did seem to be a part of his anatomy. “And…she’s here.”

As if on cue, the elevator door rang out a new arrival, and beside me Will’s entire body seemed to freeze.

“Who’s here?” I asked him. “The broker? That was fast.”

Will pressed his lips into a tight line, and draped his other arm over his face, like he was blocking out the rays of a particularly strong sun. “No, another devil I know. My mother.”