California Dream (10 page)

Roddy was unaccountably happy just hearing her voice. Everything about her was so much different than any other woman in his experience. Anyone else would have forgiven him immediately for his transgression, simply because he was a rock star. Lee treated him like he was a regular guy who had to play by the rules. He knew he couldn’t get away with whatever he wanted with Lee, and he found he liked it. Instead of being annoyed, he respected her. He hadn’t been able to respect a woman in that way in a long, long time.

“I’m still saving for a car, so I can’t drive out there, and if I had the money for plane fare, I’d already be somewhere fun.” Roddy could tell she hated to admit to limited finances, and it gave him another ridiculous rush.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it,” he interjected before she could give him another reason. When she started in with the expected objections, he cut her off. “Don’t give me your kept woman line. I need you out here for selfish reasons.”

There was a moment of silence before she said, “Oh? What kind of selfish reasons?”

He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. “The band is going to lynch me if I don’t get back to work pretty soon. I’ve been pretty worthless for the last few weeks, and Eddie has them convinced it’s your fault.”

“No kidding,” Roddy agreed, a fraction too emphatically. “The bottom line is, unless I can get you to agree to come out and visit me for a couple of weeks, my four best friends are going to seek other employment.”

He waited while Lee mulled over his suggestion. He hoped she would forget her scruples and just accept the invitation. He knew she was independent and self-supporting, but he hoped she would swallow her pride and let him pay for her tickets just this once. It was the only way they would get to see each other.

Roddy could picture her smile. “I go in tomorrow at eight o’clock, and I’ll ask Eggers for the time off as soon as I get there. I can tell you tomorrow.”

Roddy slapped his forehead at his stupidity. All this time, he had been so busy sorting out his feelings, he hadn’t even thought about Lee not being able to contact him. No wonder she always expected the worst. He quickly rattled off his number.

“I guess I’ll call you at an indecent hour of morning, then,” Lee promised in a husky voice.

Roddy was reluctant to let her off the phone now that he had her on the line, but he remembered that she had to go to work the next day. Reluctantly, he rang off, and told himself it was enough he had already interrupted her sleep. There was no need to keep her up all night, too.



Lee found it impossible to get back to sleep after Roddy called. How was a woman supposed to sleep when she had the prospect of a vacation in California to look forward to? The vacation itself was exciting, but her feelings went off the charts since she would be spending it with Roddy O’Neill. The whole thing sounded like a game show prize, and she was having a hard time believing it was her real life.

She knew she looked like hell the following morning when she stumbled into work. After wrestling with it twice as long as usual, she simply accepted she was having a bad hair day. No amount of make-up could hide the dark circles under her eyes. She dressed in a flattering color, but it apparently didn’t help.

Lee decided to ignore the butterflies going crazy in her stomach and get business out of the way immediately. She straightened in her chair and gave her boss a serious look.

Mr. Eggers looked at her sharply. While he seemed to enjoy riding herd on her and Debbie, Lee knew he thought she was a good worker. Their professional relationship felt a little strained for awhile after Roddy showed up at the library, but Lee’s diligence got her back in his good graces. Lee couldn’t think of a reason for Mr. Eggers to deny her request. She had not taken a substantial amount of time off in well over year. She was sure her boss would not approve of the way she wanted to use her vacation days, but it really was none of his business.

“How soon would you like to go?” Mr. Eggers asked in a careful tone. Maybe he had already guessed she would take the time off whether he liked it or not.

She smiled and shrugged. “As soon as you can spare me, I guess.”

He was definitely displeased, but surprisingly, gave in immediately. “If you need time off, I think I can let you go by Monday. Just finish out the week, and then I guess we’ll find a way to manage without you.”

A slow smile spread over Lee’s features. “Thank you, Mr. Eggers. I also need to make a long-distance phone call. Do you have one of those slips for me to fill out?”

He looked like he wanted to grill her about the necessity of the call, but he merely thinned his lips and reached into a drawer. He wordlessly handed her a slip and then discreetly left the room so she could make her call in private, though he shook his head and muttered on the way out.

Lee counted to three after the door shut at his back, and then immediately began dialing.

Roddy’s phone rang several times, and she was scared she had the wrong number until finally, his familiar, gravelly voice answered.

“I was waiting by the phone,” he told her, “but I guess I fell asleep.” There was a pause while he made a few rustling sounds. “I’m wearing yesterday’s clothes and I still have my boots on.”

Since she was at work, they kept their conversation short, and Lee hung up the phone feeling dazed. It seemed too good to be true, but she was leaving to visit Roddy before the week was out.

She attacked her work with vigor all week to keep herself from dwelling on the upcoming vacation. She had to make sure she was exhausted at the end of the day or sleep would have been impossible. Every day after work, she went shopping for the things she was certain she would need. It was only a two-week vacation, but Lee had a feeling her life was undergoing irrevocable changes.

Lee had Roddy’s number now, and was tempted every day to use it, but she held herself back. She didn’t want him to get sick of her before she even arrived. She hoped he might call again, but he was obviously busy because he did not. Her ticket arrived in her e-mail right on schedule, though.

On Friday, Debbie borrowed a car from a friend to drive Lee to the airport. She seemed to be as excited as Lee was nervous. Both of them thought it was unreal that Lee was on her way to California to spend two weeks with a rock star. Debbie insisted Lee get lots of pictures of famous people, especially Eddie Brandon.

Debbie pulled the car up to the curb at the drop-off point and got out so she could give Lee a hug. “Have fun! I’ll miss you!”

Lee hugged her back, feeling strangely disconnected already. “I’ll miss you, too, but I’ll be back before you know it. I’ll only be gone for two weeks.”

For some reason, Debbie hugged her extra hard one last time before letting her go.

Chapter ten

Lee made her way through LAX in a sea of people. They came in every shape and size, and wore every conceivable style of dress. She feared she would never find Roddy in the mob milling around the baggage claim carousel.

Her eyes roved over the crowd, and suddenly she saw him. He must have already spotted her because he wore a huge grin, along with his torn-to-shreds jeans, a sleeveless black tee-shirt, and bright yellow aqua socks. He peeled away from the pillar he leaned against and made his way over in long strides.

He just stared at her for a few seconds, and then impulsively took her in his arms. Lee responded to his kiss with vigor and pressed herself against his hard length. Her lips were soft and responsive under his, and the all-encompassing need she felt for him rose up to overtake her.

He had an unreadable look in his eyes when he finally pulled away. He took her hand in his, though, and led her closer to the carousel. Lee pointed out her suitcase and he retrieved it for her, and then they were on their way.

Lee was not surprised to find Roddy had used valet parking at the airport, even though she hadn’t known it existed until that day. He tossed her suitcase in the trunk when the car pulled up, opened her door, and then they roared away from the airport without a backward glance.

Lee didn’t let his foot-to-the-floor driving bother her. She wanted them to be alone as much as Roddy apparently did. She didn’t care what anyone else might think of her actions because she knew Roddy understood her. This thing between them required no explanation. It also apparently required no caution and no words; just satisfaction.

Roddy pushed a CD into the stereo, and Lee sat back to enjoy it. The music was hard and driving, from a band she had never heard before. She simply absorbed everything; the music, the blur of palm trees racing by, and the aura of Roddy O’Neill. Until that moment, she had not realized how much she missed him after he left.

Lee knew she would be stocking up on memories over the next couple of weeks. Roddy was a one-of-a-kind man, and she would never be able to forget him.



Roddy was glad Lee didn’t seem to feel like talking. It was a refreshing change of pace to be with a woman like her. She didn’t need to fill the air with pointless chatter, and though he knew she was glad to be there, she was cool about it. She would never fawn over him, and he appreciated it anew every time he saw her. Since their first night together, she hadn’t gushed about her feelings on anything, and had yet to make a comment about his impressive car. Her reticence just made him want her more.

With that thought firmly in mind, he drove them up into the hills and wound through the maze of streets that comprised Beverly Hills. He pulled into his winding driveway and killed the engine in front of the imposing, Spanish-style house. There was a fountain playing out front, and the gardeners trimmed bushes and mowed grass in the distance.

Roddy cracked a smile. “Of course. Unfortunately, all the footmen have the day off, so I have to carry your luggage.” He walked back to the trunk and pulled her suitcase out, then indicated she should precede him to the front door.

Lee walked slowly toward the entrance, and Roddy laid an arm around her shoulders on the way. He opened the front door and followed her into the cool, tiled foyer, where he immediately dropped her suitcase on the floor.

He was about to take Lee into his arms when his housekeeper, Rosa, came into the room. He made quick introductions and answered Rosa’s questions about his dinner preferences before the woman went back to the kitchen and he was again alone with Lee.

He wasted no time sweeping her into his arms. “I’ve been waiting all week for this,” he said into her hair as he lifted her off her feet.

He carried her up the stairs and kicked his bedroom door open when they reached it. She laughed and clung to his neck, planting kisses under his ear all the while. Her hands pushed up under his shirt to feel the smooth expanse of his chest, and his lips tasted her neck as he felt her pulse beneath them.

Roddy would never forget the first time he made love in his own bed in his own house. Before Lee, there had never been another woman in his private sanctuary, and he was glad of it. The memories they made there were for them alone. Lee gave and gave of herself while she took everything he offered and more. Afterwards, Roddy felt drained and lay on his back while she softly trailed her fingertips over his flat stomach.

Despite the way things had been between them before, he had been unprepared for the intensity of the interlude. He didn’t really have a clear recollection of anything from the moment he caught sight of her at the airport. From that moment, he had gone on auto-pilot, unable to think about anything but being with Lee. He had intended to lead her casually into one of his guest bedrooms and seduce her, and instead found himself playing Rhett Butler. He still couldn’t believe he had carried her up the stairs and brought her mindlessly straight to his own bedroom, where he all but tore her clothes off in his urgency to have her.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked as he stroked her soft, golden hair.

She smiled and opened her eyes. “I haven’t been able to think for at least a week,” she admitted while her fingers drew circles around his navel. “I feel absolutely perfect,” she added, “and suddenly very, very tired.”

He smiled over the top of her head. “Me too,” he agreed, thinking perfect was exactly the way to describe things the way they were just then.

Roddy supposed some people might find his music poetic, but despite the lyrics he wrote, until that moment, he had never felt particularly romantic. He could already hear the strains of a ballad starting in the back of his mind. If he wasn’t so tired, he would have gotten up and grabbed his guitar.

He and Lee drifted off to sleep wrapped around each other with their legs tangled in his fine cotton sheets. He awakened some time later to find the sky had gone dark. Lee had an arm flung across his chest, and both her legs were wrapped around one of his. He had to crane his neck to see the clock.

It was two a.m. It was unlike him to fall asleep much before that hour, but he supposed these were some unusual circumstances. He had hardly slept in weeks, particularly after Lee agreed to come out for a visit, and he was exhausted. Certainly, making love to her like his life depended on it had contributed to the situation, as well.

Roddy decided he had better call Eddie before Eddie called him or simply showed up on his doorstep.

He carefully disentangled himself from Lee and the rumpled bedcovers and stepped into a pair of cutoff shorts. Not used to having to worry about waking someone else, he then padded out of his thickly carpeted bedroom, silently crept down the stairs, and finally felt like he could breathe normally again once he got out to the patio.

His back yard was huge, and sat on two levels. The top level, by the house, was all done in stone that surrounded an L-shaped swimming pool. If he walked down a flight of smooth stone steps to the left of the cabana, he would be standing on a large expanse of green lawn bordered by flowering plants and an adobe wall. There were two trees out in the yard he was exceedingly proud of. They were supposed to yield fruit of some sort, but if they did, the gardeners ate it all before he could guess what it was since he was often on the road.

Roddy settled into a deck chair next to the pool and reached for the phone he kept there. Truth to tell, he wasn’t really in the mood to talk to Eddie just then. He knew his best friend would give him a hard time about Lee and try to make him admit to things he wasn’t ready to discuss. He needed to talk to a comfortable, familiar person, though. His emotions were all over the place, and he just wanted to get his head straight instead of letting them carry him away. Besides, Eddie would probably call any minute if he didn’t call him first.

The moment Eddie’s phone was answered, Roddy realized he needn’t have worried. It was obvious the guitar player was busy when a vacuous female voice came on the line.

“Hello!” Her voice screamed perky. Roddy envisioned a pretty girl, no older than nineteen, dancing around Eddie’s living room in part of a bikini, lush curves bouncing with every movement.

Eddie’s laugh held genuine amusement. “Two weeks, huh? Somehow I don’t think the other half of that ticket is ever going to get used.”

“You’re only saying that because you want my five hundred bucks.”

“Could be. I’d be willing to put a million on it that she stays longer than that, but you know me. I have no appreciation for an unearned fortune. I’d just blow your money on frivolous things.”

Roddy’s laugh was a little forced. “Awfully sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

“Sure am. I’d hate to see you have to mortgage your house over a bet.”

Sometimes, Roddy wished Eddie was there just so he could hit him. There were times he wasn’t sure why he called him his best friend. Eddie Brandon really knew how to get on his nerves.

“In your bed, right?” Eddie’s question was more of an accusation. They both knew Roddy never let women invade the sanctity of his own bedroom. How Eddie knew Lee was already there was uncanny.

Still, Roddy was defensive. “So?”

“You don’t share your space. Today, she’s in your bed. Tomorrow, her clothes will be in your closet, and before long, her toothbrush will be permanently parked next to yours.”

Perturbed, Roddy ran a hand through his hair. “What makes you so sure?” he asked almost plaintively.

He had the sinking feeling Eddie was right about all of it. Already, he honestly wasn’t sure if he would be able to send Lee home in two weeks, just as Eddie had predicted.

“I’ve been there myself,” Eddie said with surety. “Of course, that was with Claire, who isn’t half the woman Lee is, and I wasn’t goofy in love with her, but the situation is basically the same. Once you start breaking your rules with a woman, it’s all over for you.”

All Roddy heard him say was that Claire wasn’t half the woman Lee was, and he wondered how Eddie knew that, too. He had never really looked upon Eddie as someone possessing great wisdom, but he was dead-on with everything that day, and Roddy wanted to know how he was figuring it all out.

“Let’s see,” Eddie began, “first off, you let her spend the whole night with you,
after
you brought her to a party with the band, which is something you vowed a long time ago you’d never do. Then, you went back to her. You drove a total of five days to spend a weekend with her. And then you brought her here, to your house, when you could just as easily have put her up in a hotel. But she’s not just in your house. Even though you pointed out you’ve got all those guest rooms, she’s in your bedroom, in your bed.”

He knew he was getting angry with Eddie simply because he was right. Roddy really had gone over the edge from the moment he noticed Lee across a crowded room. He was simply diving deeper and deeper into his own self-made pit every time he broke another one of his long-standing rules for her. Eddie seemed to think it was all over, and his mother apparently thought it was absolutely wonderful.

So why couldn’t he be happy about it? Why not just accept it?

Uncomfortably, Roddy realized it was because he was a world-famous, millionaire rock star. He was supposed to be impervious to the emotional turmoil normal people felt. He was jaded, which it was impossible not to be when girls threw themselves at him every time he stepped outside. Even Lee had not told him no.