"I'll come back and get you in about an hour. If you get done before that, give me a call," Jagger told Layne as they pulled up to the front of Doc Jones' farm house.Layne nodded, feeling nervous as he looked at the house. It wasn't what he had expected at all. "Will do," he mumbled as he reached for the door handle to let himself out of the car.Jagger reached over and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Between the two of us, Doc Jones is amazing. I've seen her before—still do sometimes. If you let her, she'll help you tremendously.""I appreciate that.""No, I'm serious, man, she will help you, but you have to be willing to let her help you. You've got to let go of everything when you talk to her. I'm not saying that it's going to happen the first session, but you've got to let her do her job. Don't go in there with a chip on your shoulder," Jagger advised. "She's released parts of me that I didn't even know I kept hidden from other people. My life is a complete 180 from
Jessica was nervous, nervous as hell. It had been hours since Layne had left to go see Liam, and he had yet to come back. Millions of scenarios ran through her head. Had he done what they asked him to do? Had he freaked the fuck out and gone AWOL? What would she do if he hurt himself because of some ultimatum she had convinced Liam to give him? Desperate to stop the thoughts racing through her mind, she logged onto her email account. There were a couple of emails from her manager asking her where she was. She still couldn't believe she'd left Hollywood without anyone knowing. Soon, she would have to face the consequences of those actions, but she wanted just a few more days. Just a few more days that she wouldn't have to deal with everything that came with her brand. As she was scanning, she saw another email that warned her one of her accounts had been compromised. It read like Greek to her, so she got up and walked towards the dark room that Steele normally occupied."Travis?" s
"Hey Liam, we've got a problem, and I'm not sure how big it is."Those were the last words that Liam wanted to hear out of Travis Steele's mouth. They could run the gamut of 'we're screwed' to the even worse 'we're fucked up the ass without the courtesy of lube'. "Do I need to come down there?" he asked, although he knew the tone of his voice told Steele that he didn't have time for this."Yeah, I need some help here," the other man said on the other end of the phone. "I'm not exactly sure what we're facing, and I need you to give me permission to do what I need to." Those were also words he didn't like to hear from Steele, who could usually handle anything that was thrown at him. Even worse was if it was from Steele, it had to do with security, and right now, the baby sleeping over in the bassinette next to Denise in the living room meant that their security had to be top notch. "I'll be right there, and if Tyler's not down there, do me a favor and call him." There was not anot
The next morning, Jessica sat on the back porch of the clubhouse, enjoying her coffee. Layne had already left for the shop by the time she had woken up, and not many people were around the clubhouse on this day, so she decided to take advantage of the quiet and pulled out a well-worn notebook from her bag. She sat with her coffee on one side, the notebook in front of her, a pen in her mouth. If there was one thing she kept hidden from most of the world at large, it was the fact that she loved to write. The fact that she liked to write wasn't what was embarrassing, what was embarrassing was the fact that she wrote erotic romance. She never even wrote it on a computer for fear that someone would find it and trace it back to her. Every story she had ever written was written by hand, and she always took them with her, no matter where she went. This particular notebook that she was working on filling up was number ten. Two of them had been stolen in the burglary, and that was making her
"Layne, I'm surprised to see you this early today," Doc Jones said when she opened the door to his persistent knocks."Yeah, I'm sorry to spring this on you, ma'am," he told her, and he really was. "But I need to talk with you.""Don't be sorry, what's happened?" she asked as she ushered him into the room she used for her appointments. He had a seat on the same couch he had sat on the day before. "I'm pissed and I don't know how to deal with it.""Okay then, why are you upset?""I'm not. I said I was pissed," he told her again. "Upset and pissed are two totally different things with me.""Then explain to me what's going on here."He couldn't sit on that couch anymore, he had to get up, he had to be able to move, not feel like he was caged in. She didn't say anything when he did this, but her eyes followed him sharply as he made a circle around the room. "Jessica went to Goodlettsville, she doesn't have a cell phone, I can't get hold of her, and she didn't even tell me sh
"Thank you so much for inviting me," Jessica told Bianca and Meredith as the three of them sat at dinner after their marathon shopping trip. It had been nice being with them, away from the clubhouse, but nice also being a friend on a day trip with other friends. "I haven't done that, just for the fun of it, in a very long time." "Why not?" Bianca asked as she took a bite of the appetizer they had ordered. "Don't people, like, pay you to come shop in their stores? Just because of who you are?" "Yeah," she answered. "That's the thing; I haven't done hardly anything for just the fun of it in so long. I was beginning to wonder if I had it in me anymore. I can't even tell you the last time I went out with a couple of girls just for the hell of it. Usually we go out together so the paparazzi can be called and they can get a picture of all of us together. Then they can talk about how good of friends we are one week and the next week they can make up stories about how one of us slept wit
"Shit, they're waiting on the side of the road," Meredith laughed. Jessica scooted so that she sat in between the two front seats, leaning on the console. "Can they just do that? Sit in that construction zone where it says 'no U-turn'?"Bianca grinned. "You'll find out with these guys, they kinda just do what they want."Meredith sighed as she flipped on her emergency lights and pulled off at the exit that proclaimed itself the Natcher Parkway. "Umm, how are we going to get back on the interstate?" Jessica asked."It's one of those that you can drive through if you take the wrong exit. It's got direct access. They'll just block it for anyone coming off the Parkway trying to get onto I-65, but hopefully we won't even have to deal with that tonight," Bianca explained.They parked and waited for Tyler, Jagger, and Layne to make their way over to the truck. Meredith reluctantly let down the window and watched for the big Native American to make his way over."Hey, gorgeous,
Out of nowhere, the thought flashed across his mind that he had to be ready for something different. He couldn't keep dragging her along the way he had been for years. It wasn't fair to either one of them. He needed to man up or drop her, and now, after being with her, he knew he would never be able to drop her. He trailed his hands from her cheeks down to her throat. The bruises were still evident, and he closed his eyes rather than look at them. Dropping his head to the hollow between her neck and shoulder, Layne ran his lips across the injuries he had caused. "I'm so sorry," he whispered in her ear. "Please forgive me." His voice was low and deep as his lips traveled from her ear to her cheek."I know," she whispered back at him.In this quiet place, where it was the just the two of them, it was easy to pretend that things hadn't changed. That they were still the same young kids they had been when they first met. That was the feeling she wanted to give into, not the feelin