The Rock Star Next Door, a Modern Fairytale (21 page)

“Going somewhere?” He smiled in that lazy, self-assured way he had. “I was just about to start round three.”

“Yeah, my phone is ringing.
Was
. Jack is probably frantic.” Jessie informed him, realizing too late the truth of her words. “What time is it?” Her eyes darted about the room with panic. “Shit. I should have told him I was here.”

“It’s two-t
hirty.” Lex released the sheets
and Jessie nearly lost her balance with the release of tension she’d been bracing against. “And, if I’m not mistaken, I think he knows you’re here.”

Jessie was about to argue the point when the heavy pounding on the front door reached her groggy ears.
“Crap.” She mumbled
and hurried into the bathroom. She closed the door and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

“Whoa
.
” She stared at the woman with wild hair and very wide eyes, a woman who looked like her twin, but who also looked the part of a vixen or a pin-up girl in an old Playboy spread. Her lips were swollen and red.
Hell, yes. Being kissed so thoroughly would do that to a girl, wouldn’t it?
The
black silk sheet, clutched provocatively about her breasts, just low enough to reveal all but her nipples added to the strange seductiveness of her startling image.

A knock on the bathroom door brought her back
to herself. Jessie opened it.
Lex,
now
wearing a pair
of
jeans, handed her his bathrobe. “We have a visitor.” He explained.

“Jack.” Jessie acknowledged. Lex nodded, and closed
the door again. She dropped the sheet, slipped into his luxurious polish
ed
st
eel silk robe
. She raked her fingers through her hair, and then snatched up a tortoise shell brush and began trying to tame her disheveled mane. The remnants of their earlier interlude lingered behind her in the mirror’s reflec
tion; chocolate scented candles
and
a deep, warm rose hue
on the walls surrounding the old claw foot Victorian bathtub. And speakers in the ceiling. Mozart, chocolate, and roses. Those were the images she remembered bracketing Lex’s lovemaking, the images she returned to from that wild precipice of sexual climax.

Jessie whirled around and approached the tub
. The lovely bathtub was raised up on a platform like a sacred altar, requiring her to step up twice to reach the bathing space and the stand beside it
. The scent of roses lingered in the humid room. She checked the
bottle of bubble bath; sure enough, it was rose scented.

The guy sure knew how to set the scene for a seduction. She’d been drunk at
the time. Jessie was sober now
and she didn’t regret a moment of being in his arms.

*    *    *

“Why didn’t you call me?” Jack insisted, moments later, as Jessie entered the living room on the ground fl
oor.  “Damn it, I was worried, y
ou can’t just not come home
.
”

“Why not.” Jessie returned, annoyed that her brother would choose to go all medieval on her tonight and spoil the magic of the evening. “It’s what you do all the time, you, Darrell and Steve. What, I can’t have a life but you can?”

Jack’s body relaxed at her taunt. “No, but you could call or text me. Let me know you’re
spending the night here.”

“Would you like a drink?” Lex asked her brother, appearing casual, matter of fact as he waited for her brother to answer. “Scotch on the rocks, Jack Daniels?”

“No--don’t encourage his bad behavior.” Jessie replied for him, giving Lex a perturbed look. Damn, did he have to look so sexy wearing only those loose denim jeans and nothing else? The faded blue of his jeans brought out the pale blue of his ey
es.

“Yes, thank you. Jack Daniels, a double shot, straight up.”

“Why are you here?” Jessie demanded, putting her hand on her hip. “Why are you spoiling this evening for me by intruding on my boyfriend’s home in the middle of the night like a caveman? Duh, I went out with Lex for dinner, we had a few drinks, walked along the pier an
d then came here. It’s not 1950
and I’m not Doris Day, so stick it.”

J
ack laughed.
Lex handed him a double shot of the amber liquid and then sat down on the sofa between them
as they stood at opposite ends of the room.

She crossed her arms about
her chest, attempting to puff herself out a little and display her anger so Jack wouldn’t pick up on the fact that neither she nor Lex were fully dressed. “I don’t come storming over to your date’s house in the middle of the night, demanding to know wh
y you didn’t come home
. Maybe I should.”

“It’s different.” Jack sipped his drink. “
You’re a girl. And my sister. I
t’s my job to make sure you come home at night. Isn’t that right
,
Lex?”

Lex shrugged at the man from his seated position on the couch. “Hey, don’t bring me into this. I’d like to stay on the good side of your sister, considering I keep asking her to marry me, and she has yet to agree.”

Jessie hissed. Damn it. Wasn’t it enough that Jack was act
ing all protective and caveman
on her, now Lex was bringing his marriage proposal into the argument, tipping the boat in h
is favor heavily
by doing so.

The boat
b
eing Jack, her coke
-brained
brother.

When she glowered at Lex for bringing up his prop
osal yet again, no doubt in the hope of garnering Jack’s unswerving support in his cause, Lex smiled slyly at her and then raised his hands in mock chagrin.

And then it hit her, clear between the eyes. Lex was distracting her brother, very effectively, from the greater truth between them, their recent lovemaking.

“Yeah, what about that, Jess?” Jack inquired after tipping his glass and emptying the contents of it into his gullet. “Why don’t you marry the dude?  It’s not lik
e he’s a scientologist or something.
”

*    *    *

“I
f it makes any difference,
I feel good about the whole th
ing.” Jack
sucked down
a generous portion of his drink
and wiped his lips carelessly.

“Why don’t you marry him
?
” Jessie teased, stirring he
r m
argarita
.

The siblings wer
e sharing a rare moment alone at home on
the evening after Jessie’s Black Pearl
s and
Hot Sex in the Bathtub date with Lex.

“I
like
breasts.
”
Jack deadpanned. “
Seriously, why not jump the broom?
Lex
seems like a nice guy.
” Jack leaned back and propped his legs on the glass table.
“And he’s not making you go through a stringent interview process at the cult headquarters to get hitched, like
others I could mention. Ol’ Tom
lost another wife. Or should I say, she took their kid and ran away from M
r. Wonderful and his religious entourage
. See, you could do a lot worse, Jess.”

Jessie sipped the icy lime drin
k.
“How much is he paying you to convince me?”

“Not
hing. I had him checked out.
No police record, no substance abuse, no ties to the Mafia, no
dead bodies in the backyard, no hidden offspring. Christ, talk about disillusionment, finding out your Rock Hero is a normal, nice guy next door
.
”

“Jack, how could you?
” Jessie sprang forward, uncurling her legs from beneath her and nearly spilling her drin
k on both of them.

“Y
ou don’t think I’d bury my head in the sand and
let you marry some
whack job
?
We grew up with crazy, I ain’t lettin’ you marry it.
Le
x has a reputation, sure, but it’s
like
those pro wrestlers
who snarl and threaten onstage but
off
stage
they’re
big
teddy bears. Yeah,
I hired a p
rivate investigator. Actually,
Max did the hiring
for me
.”

“Ah, you
checked
him out
and now you’re sitting here trying to get me drunk so you can convince m
e. Kind of Medieval, isn’t it?
”

Jack chuckled gleefully. He was obviously
feeling his liquor
. “If we were doing the dark ages
, I’d just make
you marry the dude, cuz I could, and that would shut you up
.
”

“You wish. I’d plot my way free of that one. I’d find a witch to curse you.
”

“
Hey,
that’s harsh, don’t cha think? I
t
would be for your own good
.
”

Jessie set down her
glass carefully, feeling unsteady
.
“
I need
time
, Jack
.”

“For what?
Do you love the guy or not?”

“Yes,
but--”

“
No buts
.
You lov
e him
.
Embrace life, Jess.
Quit worrying a
bout what might happen tomorrow
or nex
t year.
Just do it
, Jess
.”

“You’re drunk.” Jessie noted
with an amused laugh. She grasped the stem of her drink on the table and
tipped her
margarita gla
ss to inhale the last of the slushy brew
.

“Ditto.
Have another?”

She
nodded, relishing this rare time they had
together.

“One m
argarita coming up
.” Jack rose, m
aking a precarious walk to the open kitchen across the room
. After a few clunky noises
and some splashes
she he
ard the blender whirring again.

She gazed out the transparent wall of th
eir living room. Before her was
the moonl
it sea. This room was a perfect place to be
at any time of day, as the unhindered vista of the Pacific Ocean filled the glass wall
facing the beach
. The living room, like much of the first floor, was minimalist in decor, very stark with white walls, black furniture and glass topped
curved wrought
iron tables. It worked, as what could possibly compete with the stunning Malibu shore and the vivid blue o
cean comprising one wall of the room?
A wrap around veranda made it easy to move from living room to outdoors to enjoy the invigorating sea breezes and California
sunshine.
Jessie loved
living in
Malibu. She wo
ndered if the star who leased this house
to them would be willing to sell it. Properties
in Malibu, particularly right on the ocean
were difficult to come by. Those who owned
ocean front houses
them kept them forever. 

Suddenly Jack stood before her
holding out the
favored
o
palescent green potion
.
“Drink up, my dear.” He said i
n a falsetto voice, channeling an evil witch in a Disney cartoon
. “It will help you forgot all those nasty doubts you have about Prince Charming.”

“Would you marry a girl you’ve barely known a month
?” Jessie asked
as Jack sank down next to her.

“Hell
,
no.
I still have years of goo
d partying
before I’m ready to
start that gig. But
we’re talking about you, not me; the serious one.
What are you so worried about?”

“He doesn’t really know me, not the real me. What if--”

“
What ifs
don’t count.
” Jack sat for
ward. “Listen, I’m your brother
and I’m the last person who wants some guy to waltz in here and take you a
way from me. If I think Lex is good for you
, then, hell, you better take notice, cuz I’m basically a selfish guy.”