Page 63 of With Stars in Her Eyes

Thea

I arrived yesterday at the large rental property in Colorado before any of the rest of the crew.

Marshall flew in early this morning since his business seminar ended yesterday.

He had been so busy with his classwork that I had barely talked to him for the last couple weeks since my conversations with Richard and Samantha beyond asking if he still wanted to come out and help with the shoot.

The label had already gotten the permits, so my main responsibility for the next few days was to ensure I had everything I needed ready for when the rest of the crew and band showed up.

I was up late last night, so I had just woken up when he arrived. While we ate lunch, I was filling him in on everything that had happened since he left for Philly.

“So then after I endured this whole monologue from Richard, Demetrius’s manager, about no fraternization with Demetrius bullshit and signed the contract, I mailed her the papaya card. Because a papaya looks like—”

“Yep. I get it. I’ve heard the song.”

“You’ve been listening to Courtney’s music?”

“Some.” He considered me in a way I found perplexing. He set down his sandwich and wiped off his fingers. “Can I see the contract?”

“Sure.” I grabbed my iPad and swiped.

He flipped through pages of the paperwork and then looked up, mouth set in an expression torn between amusement and pity. “You signed this?”

“Yeah, right after Richard dropped it off. So I think I’m set up for a big grand gesture somehow, and I’ve been looking for places to take her around Denver.

Because I’m still in love with her, but obviously, I had to let her go so she would follow her dreams. And given that she’s still sending me extremely horny books and quoting things that I said to her in her opening set, I think it’s safe to say she still feels the same way. ”

“Right, but—”

“I mean, how gorgeous is this rental house? Would it be crazy to try to plan something after I see her at Red Rocks? They have a few days off afterward. It didn’t seem like she would be here for the shoot because it’s just Demetrius and the actual band but—”

“ Thea .” Marshall set the iPad down and grabbed my hand like he was a doting parent about to tell me my goldfish had been eaten by the family cat—not that this was a core memory from my childhood or anything…

“So, I know I don’t have my MBA yet, but”—he scratched his head—“I don’t think that’s going to work. ”

“Why?”

“You signed a contract with a no-fraternization clause.”

“Right. Richard—who as I said is a real dick by the way—thought I was an aspiring groupie. I guess Demetrius has a past with photographers. I don’t want to have sex with Demetrius, so I signed. What’s the big deal?”

“Right so.” He pointed at the paragraph.

I scanned the wording of the contract. “Oh no.” I read it again. “Oh no .”

“You are contractually not allowed to have sex with Courtney until the end of the tour. She’s under the same definition. See…” He pointed to a paragraph early in the contract.

“That cannot be right.”

“We can get Abbott to take a look at it if you want, but this language seems pretty strongly worded to me. And it’s with the label… Honestly, just sending her that papaya card might even violate the terms.”

“No. No. NO .” I grabbed the iPad back. “ What? ”

“She’s one of the musicians playing on the tour, right?”

“Yes… goddamnit.”

The doorbell rang. Figuring it was the property manager to come ask if we needed anything again, I abandoned the ridiculousness of this conversation and headed to the door. When I opened it, it wasn’t the property manager at all.

It was Courtney Starling. Real Courtney Starling. Her actual self. Right there a foot away from me. And she was beaming. Every aspect of Courtney’s face was brighter than it had been during those months she hadn’t been performing.

A strangled sound was the first thing to come out of my mouth. I hadn’t been aware of exactly how much I missed this woman until the woman herself stood on my doorstep.

“I hope this is okay.” Courtney held up the card with the papaya. “This wasn’t exactly an invitation to come out a couple days early to see you, but I thought it meant…”

“I—” I swallowed and then opened my mouth to try to speak again, wanting to tell Courtney all the things I was feeling all at once, but that wasn’t what came out.

“It definitely was an invitation actually, but I just found out I accidentally signed a contract that says I can’t have sex with you or fraternize with you.

I’m not exactly sure what fraternizing entails, but I am sure it doesn’t forbid me from saying I’m so incredibly proud of you.

I’ve been watching the live streams like a parasocial internet stalker. ”

Courtney grinned. She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it over. “I heard about that too.”

“You heard I’m a parasocial internet stalker? What is that?”

“An addendum.”

“An addendum?”

“Any relationships begun before the terms of the contract are outside of the contract’s terms… or something like that, I think. I figured I should bring it to you myself, along with an apology. I also didn’t know if it presumed too much.”

“Presumed too much? Um… definitely not. I sent you on your merry way to be a rock star. It was a hiatus. I told you it wasn’t a third-act breakup. I just didn’t want you to use me as an excuse to give up something you love.”

Courtney’s eyes shone. “You really still want me even though I messed everything up so badly?”

“Do you think I send sexy fruit to every girl I’ve ever been with?”

“God,” Courtney said with a sniff. “I hoped not.”

Marshall came out the door from behind me. “I’m going to head out.”

“Where are you going?”

“Ah. Demetrius just texted me. We’re going to go get coffee. Says the rest of the band is still scheduled to come into town in a few days… Don’t wait up.”

Courtney and I both stared at the giant man who might be blushing. Either that or his neck had gotten suddenly sunburned after his weeks of studying inside. Marshall didn’t give either of us any time to comment further on his plans, because he hopped in his truck and drove off.

“You don’t think anything is going on between…” I squinted at the spot where Marshall’s truck disappeared down the road.

Courtney appeared torn between laughter and shock. “Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Marshall has been whistling a lot more lately.” I looked down at the paper in my hands because I was confused about why my hands were anywhere except on Courtney. “So, I should sign this sex addendum, right?”

“It’s not a sex addendum.”

“It’s the addendum that will let me have sex with you without violating my photography contract.”

“True.”

“Let me grab a pen.”

After I signed, I tossed the paper toward the table, not caring where it landed. The golden centers of Courtney’s eyes glowed. I pulled Courtney into my arms, slanting my mouth over hers. When we parted, my voice shook. “I missed you.”

“Same.” Courtney sniffed again. “Demetrius said if I wrote one more sad, lovesick song he was going to have to quit writing with me because I was too pathetic.”

“You wrote songs about me?” I blinked.

Courtney touched my chin. “Most of them are really bad. I wasn’t in a great head space when we left. But there’s one called the ‘Sea of Grass’ that has potential.”

“You wrote about that day?”

“Parts of it.”

“Which parts? I want to hear.”

“Honestly, the only parts of anything I’m thinking about now are the parts of you I want to kiss. And how happy I am to be here with you.”

With a small smirk, I led Courtney to my room.

I didn’t feel a hint of embarrassment when Courtney saw that last book she had sent me out on the antique cherry nightstand.

Right next to a very particular something that I probably should have left in a more discreet location, especially given that this was a rental house.

Courtney’s smile became slightly wilder than before. She reached for my shirt and eased it over my head. I wasn’t wearing a bra beneath it. Courtney’s small shake of awed breathlessness unleashed everything I had been holding back.

“Baby, I’m going to need you to get real naked real fast.”

Courtney’s vest was gone in a few flicks of buttons. Her jeans hit the floor seconds later. As soon as I had stripped down to my underwear, her mouth was on my collarbone as her thumb slid over my nipples, making me moan.

“Fast enough for you?” Courtney’s tongue slid over my throat.

Her cello-calloused fingers walked downward from my ribs to navel to tease at the hem of my underwear. I swallowed once, my body arching upward, hoping to coax those fingers exactly where I needed them.

“Keep your eyes closed.”

Courtney left the bed, but I still obeyed her and kept my eyes shut. I was entirely naked except for thin boy shorts.

Footsteps approached the bed again. Something soft and silky grazed my thighs and then swept upward.

Courtney combed my wild hair off my shoulders and over the pillow beneath my head.

A scarf draped over my eyes, and I almost laughed because I understood.

This setup had been in one of the earliest books that Courtney had loaned me after we met.

The ransacking pirate who had secretly been a woman in disguise fell in love with the woman who had stowed away on the ship.

There had been drama and intrigue and a particularly incredible scene involving a blindfold.

Smiling lips pressed against mine. “Tell me if you want me to stop.”

“Are you really going to torture me?” I lifted my head to let Courtney tie the scarf around it.

Courtney didn’t answer but she did trace a line down my arm from elbow to wrist. Her lips pulled on the pulse point just hard enough. The nerves beneath my skin sparked with every suck and graze of teeth as her mouth moved over my body.

Courtney raised my arms above my head and linked them together where my hair was fanned out beneath. Although Courtney didn’t say anything else, I kept them there. As she kissed the curves of my stomach, I arched toward her.

I forgot where I was and anything about the last few months.

All I knew was that the woman I loved was here .

Finally, Courtney slid my underwear down my legs. She pressed her palms onto my knees, bowing my legs out. I was open and exposed but felt utterly worshipped in a way I never had before.

With every flick of Courtney’s tongue on my thighs, my small delicate whimpers turned to louder moans. The peaks of Courtney’s breasts grazed my hips as she found new places on my body that hadn’t yet been kissed. Courtney’s breaths matched mine. The pressured need coming in hot, deep exhales.

Every time I thought Courtney would ease the aching at my core, the unhurried teasing continued.

So painfully slowly the pressure of those touches built.

Instead of kneaded, my nipples were pinched.

Courtney’s fingertips slid to my ass and dug into my softest places and somehow my body opened further.

“You feel ready?” Courtney said with a teasing quiver in her voice.

“Baby, if I were any more ready, I would already be coming on your— fuck .”

Courtney’s tongue swept over my pulsing center. I cried out. The blindfold and the relentless teasing meant I felt this contact every place Courtney had touched before. It was lightning on a complex circuit. A surging and sparking storm over a series of live wires.

I was nearing an explosion when all sensation stopped.

Courtney placed something in my hand, and I felt along the silicone to realize what it was.

Holy fucking hell. I was about to lose it on this woman.

I couldn’t hold out any longer. I pulled off the scarf. My chest jumped at the sight of Courtney over me. It was like I had never appreciated just how beautiful she was until seeing her now with her eyes so very wide and dazed with need of her own.

I placed the soft vibration at my core, finding the angle I needed while Courtney seemed content to trace every line on my body. I was done being patient. “ Please .”

“Oh god.” Courtney lowered herself onto the other end. Her eyes shut and she braced an arm on the bed beneath me.

I bucked upward, watching every nuance of Courtney’s expression to make sure every tremor was pleasure. I was so distracted by Courtney’s perfect fucking face, that those first tingles of an orgasm nearly took me by surprise.

“Mmm… oh fuck. Fuck. ”

My knees held Courtney tight as we rocked together.

Courtney’s breathing came faster and faster and every heave made me lose myself further into the electric brightness of this perfect moment.

I lost control of my muscles as I came. My fingers gripped the sheets because whatever force between them was nearly too much for gravity to keep hold of me.

I gave myself entirely to the moment, but when I thought it was over there was just another height and another gasp and another fall.

“ Thea .” Courtney said my name over and over with a few long, trembling groans ending with a final wordless exhale. The vibration was gone now, but we were still joined together.

Our eyes locked. Courtney’s hand slid up my body, our fingers intertwined. After bending to sweep her lips over mine once more, Courtney spoke. “I never want to be anything other than yours ever again.”

My other hand reached to trace the crinkled smile lines at the corners of her eyes, fingertips sliding from temple to cheek to settle softly cradling her neck. Courtney’s eyes shut as her head bowed forward against my forehead.

“Well, then I guess it’s good I never want to let you go again.”

A tear slipped out of Courtney’s squeezed-shut eyes, leaving a shiny trail as it moved down her nose to land hotly on my cheek. Neither of us moved to brush it away.