The Drazen World: The California Limited (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Catherine C. Heywood

you.  And you’d star there whatever the energy of the crowd any night of the week.  A regular gig.  Regular pay.  With your voice and performing chops, you’ll be a star.”
    When he pulled back to look at her, she had fallen asleep.  He had no idea if she had heard him or how much.  He circled a plump nipple and grazed a hand over a breast, wondering what he had proposed and why.  Then he pulled a blanket up around her shoulders and sat back against the wall, legs splayed on the bed, hands clasped and tucked behind his head, to watch her sleep.
    What had happened to him in three days?  Was he really considering opening a lounge for a woman he had only just met?  A woman he barely knew?  That was just it.  The strangest thing of all.  Almost from the very first he had felt that he knew her and she him.  Not a meeting but a reacquaintance with an old and dear friend.  It was peculiar that he would feel so comfortable, so right with her, with himself when he was around her, as if everyone else he had ever known had simply inhabited his world while she…made it.
    His father would laugh him out of the room if he ever admitted what he was thinking.  His mother would be dismayed.  They had raised him to be clear-headed and responsible.  Moving to LA had been bad enough.  If he discarded his dreams for the mere possibility of a woman, they would think him mad.  He half did, too.  Yet time, like the train, would not stop.  And he wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her.  Not yet.
     
    18 hrs. to Los Angeles
    After sleeping, Jack woke painfully aroused, Minnie’s warm, lush body nestled into his.  Gritting his teeth, he waited for her to wake.
    Finally he couldn’t take it any more and gently eased himself from her.  Then he lay her on her back and pulled the blanket away.  He studied her body for a moment before spreading her legs and moving her arms to her sides.  Then he began to caress and kiss and stroke her brows, cheeks, and lips, to her jaw and down her neck, her collar bone and breasts, down to her navel and sex, her thighs down to her toes and back up, fingers grazing the backs of her knees and back up her inner thighs to her sex.
    She moaned and laced her fingers through his hair and he looked up and smiled.  “I’m sorry—” he licked her bud, “—did I wake you?”
    “You know you did, darling” she said, her voice husky with sleep.  “And you’re not sorry.”
    “No,” he said as he continued to work her with his mouth and fingers, playing her, drawing her close to the edge.  “I’m not.  And you, my canary, broke a rule.”  He gripped the backs of her thighs and thrust them up and wide, her knees nearly to her chest, and thrust inside her with a moan.
    “Is this my punishment?” she asked with a sly smile as he pounded into her.  “Because if it is, I’ve been very naughty.  I think I’m going to need repeated correction.”
    He pressed his nose to hers as he raised a brow in mock disapproval and tsk’ed.  She merely laughed and he pulled out, flipping her over and taking her from behind, a hand wrapped around her neck as he whispered.  “Now who’s corrupting?”
    “Yes,” she admitted.  “And you like it.”
    “More than you know.”
    When he brought them to release, they collapsed on the bed, him on top of her as he wrapped his arms above her breasts and kissed down her neck and across a shoulder.
    She groaned.  “If we keep this up, I won’t be able to walk tomorrow.”
    “I’ll carry you wherever you need to go, sweetheart.”
    “I believe you would,” she said as she reached behind her and tenderly cupped his face.
    “Believe it—” he kissed her cheek, “—because it’s true.”
     
    12 hrs. to Los Angeles
    They managed to dress for dinner in the dining car, Minnie’s earlier embarrassment forgotten.  When they returned, they set about packing for their arrival into Los Angeles.  He hung a fresh Brooks Brothers suit.  She removed