Chapter Fifteen

The sun was shining brightly when Howie awoke to the feel of soft skin nestled up beside his own. Wiping sleep from his eyes, he looked to his left and saw Lori, curled up against his arm. She was lying on her stomach, her face turned towards his. Her long blond hair was spread out like a halo around her head, making her appear even more like the angel Howie believed she was.

Smiling, he slid down a little in the bed, raising his hand to touch her bare shoulder. With his index finger, he lightly traced the freckles there, following each touch with a kiss.

Lori sighed happily and opened her eyes, her lashes fluttering like butterfly wings.

“Good morning,” she said sleepily. “Mmmm, that tickles.”

Howie grinned and continued following the path of freckles down her arm, burrowing under the blankets as he went.

“Tony,” she giggled. “What are you doing?”

He poked his head up and said, “Freckle hunting, shhh.”

She turned to her side when she felt him nudging against her with his nose. Her eyes closed in a feeling of extreme warmth when she felt his lips drop down into the space between her breasts. Then he was moving again, down to her belly button. She fairly trembled at his touch.

“Tony,” she murmured. “Don’t you think we should, um. . . .”

She lost her trail of thought completely as he moved even farther south, down to the space between her legs. He paused there for a moment, licking, kissing, teasing.

Lori gripped the blankets tightly between her fingers and bit her lower lip to keep from crying out. The feeling of warmth began to intensify until it suddenly burst into a flame. Shockwave chased shockwave throughout her entire body and she couldn’t hold back the scream any longer.

Howie emerged from under the blankets and gathered her shaking body into his arms.

“Wow,” she breathed after a moment. “That was beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful,” he told her.

They lay there in a comfortable silence, basking in the warmth from the sun streaming in through the windows.

“We should really get up,” Lori finally said. “It’s nearly noon.”

“What?!”

Howie glanced at the clock and laughed.

“My gosh, I hadn’t realized it was that late.”

“Well, we were up kinda late last night,” she said with a laugh.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Do you think we did the right thing?” she asked, suddenly serious.

“What do you mean?”

She tilted her head up to look at him. “I mean, we weren’t going to rush into anything, and then last night, I came over and we ended up in bed.”

“Hey, hey, you didn’t force me,” he said, cupping her chin. “Did it feel right to you? Because it felt right to me.”

She smiled and said, “It felt wonderful.”

Howie beamed and puffed up his chest. “Well thank you, thank you very much.”

Lori playfully tweaked his nipple and then slid out of bed, taking a sheet with her and wrapping it around her naked form.

“I’m going to take a shower and then fix you breakfast, or lunch,” she said. “You just stay there, all right?”

“You mean I can’t join you in that shower?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know if I could handle you in the shower.”

Howie watched her disappear into the bathroom. The door closed behind her and he couldn’t help but smile again. He propped himself up with a pillow and waited patiently for her to come out of the bathroom. While he waited, he thought about what had happened between them.

When she’d shown up on his doorstep, declaring it was tomorrow, he’d been too stunned to say much at all. Before he knew what was happening, she was kissing him, running her fingers through his hair. He didn’t stop her, or himself. Instead, he picked her up and carried her upstairs - directly to his bed.

What happened after that was pure magic. They gave in to the passion that had been quietly brewing all evening, throwing caution and rational thinking to the wind. The only thing that disturbed him about last night was that during the heat of the moment, Lori had called out the name “Tony” instead of “Howie.”

He frowned, remembering how that had almost ruined it for him. Somehow, he’d been able to continue, telling himself that soon enough she’d know the truth and scream for him.

Howie briefly considered calling AJ to tell him the good news. He knew AJ would be thrilled and want to meet Lori.

Oooh, wait, that’s too soon, he thought. She’s gotta know everything before she meets any of the guys. Now what’s the best way to tell her?

His conscience reared its ugly head once more, telling him that he shouldn’t have slept with her before revealing his secret. He groaned and ran a weary hand over his face.

Now I’ve really messed up! Howie, you stupid idiot!

Before he could ponder this further, Lori emerged from the bathroom, wearing only a fluffy white towel. Her hair hung down around her face in wet strands, dripping water onto the hardwood floor.

“Haha, silly me,” she said. “I didn’t bring spare clothes with me.”

“Oh!” Howie said, jumping out of bed. He grabbed his boxer shorts, slipped into them, and then went over to the closet where his clothes were.

He reached in and selected a large flannel shirt.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any uh, lady’s underwear,” he said, handing her the shirt.

“That’s okay. I don’t need to wear any,” she said, grinning wickedly.

Howie couldn’t stop the growing hardness in his boxers as she disappeared into the bathroom once more. Breathing heavily, he made his way back to the bed and sat down.

“Holy shit,” he murmured. “Howie, you’re in big trouble! Big, big, BIG trouble!”

He forced himself to calm down, to control his raging lust and stopped himself from bursting through the bathroom door. Lori came out again, this time wearing his shirt and nothing else.

“Shower’s all yours,” she said, as she passed him on her way out of the bedroom. “Come join me when you’re done.”

Howie bolted from the bed, grabbed clean clothes and jumped in the shower. In record time, he was showered, shaved and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. When he got downstairs, he was surprised to see Lori had time to make coffee. She was now busily working on bacon, scrambled eggs and pancakes.

“Hungry?” she asked, pouring him a cup of fresh coffee.

“Famished,” he answered, sliding into a chair.

Howie sipped his coffee, all the while keeping his eyes focused on her. He watched how she stood at the stove, with one hand resting on her shapely hip, while the other was hovering over the frying pan, holding a large black spatula. She suddenly raised her right foot to rub the back of her left calf. This simple action caused a breath of air to escape Howie’s mouth with a tiny whistle.

Lori turned around and he coughed innocently. She turned back to the stove and served their meal on two plates. She brought them to the table and sat down across from him.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked, reaching for an orange from the fruit basket between them. She began to peel it expertly.

“Sure did, after we decided to sleep,” Howie said. He picked up his fork and took a bite of eggs. “Wow, these are really good!”

“Thank you. My cousin had a special chef. He taught me how to cook, thank goodness. Otherwise you’d be eating dry cereal and burnt toast.”

“Nothing wrong with that.”

“Yeah, sure.”

They chatted while they ate, with Lori asking about his friends and family.

Howie did his best not to mention John was his brother, or anything about the guys being part of a musical group.

“AJ’s my best friend in the whole world. We’ve known each other for so long, we’re almost like brothers,” he said. “He’s heard a lot about you.”

“I’d love to meet him.”

Howie swallowed hard, forgetting to chew. “Uh, maybe you can. When are you going back to Orlando?”

“That depends. I have to get the cabin all in order to sell, and there are some people I’d like to visit with, like Buzz. Maybe Wednesday or Thursday. When do you have to leave?”

“I have a meeting Tuesday morning at nine am. So I have to get outta here by Monday evening.”

Lori looked down at her plate and began swirling the last bit of pancake around in the syrup. “That doesn’t give us much time here,” she said, almost sadly.

Howie set his fork down and reached across the table for her hand. It stilled and she looked at him.

“We’ll see each other back in Orlando, now that we know where to find each other,” he assured her.

“I know, but this place is so quiet, so peaceful. It’s like it was meant just for us. I don’t want to lose the magic.”

“We won’t. I’ve already considered asking my brother-in-law if he’d like to share this cabin with me. He hasn’t used it since my sister died, but I know he’d like to keep it, for the kids. I could help with the cost of it, and then we could use it whenever.”

“You’d do that?”

“For us? Of course.”

She smiled and squeezed his hand. Howie kissed her knuckles.

“For right now, though. We’ll just have to make the best of our time here,” he said. “Are you up for that?”

She nodded, a mischievious gleam coming into her eyes. “I think the question is, are you up for it?”