Chapter 2

I couldn’t tell you the rest of the set list. I couldn’t stop touching my ear, and was completely preoccupied with the little card burning into my ass. When the final encores were done, and the band made their bows, Jon and Richie pointed at us and winked. We waved back and smiled. Here we go!

We waited for most of the crowd to thin out and found one of the big security guys from earlier and showed him our passes. He brought us back to the dressing area, and it was empty. Not exactly what I had hoped for. I didn’t really think I’d be getting naked and horizontal with the King of Swing, but I at least thought we’d be in the backstage party with these passes. Huh. Sterling and I walked around, touching everything, and I couldn’t resist smelling some of Richie’s things. I very nearly filched one of Richie’s hat-scarves, but contained myself. I compensated by taking Richie’s trademark Stetson and plopping it on my head. I look good in hats. I admired myself in the mirror, then turned to Sterling and said, “Can you believe this? We must have done something right in a past life to deserve this!”

“No kidding,” she said. She was brushing her hair with what looked like Jon’s hairbrush. Guess that’s better than stealing something,

“God, where do you think they are?” I complained.

“Don’t know. What the hell are we doing here?” she asked. She sounded as incredulous as I felt.

I sighed impatiently. “Waiting. I don’t do good waiting.”

“Me neither. I have an idea.” She took out her camera – brilliant!! – and took a picture of me wearing Richie’s hat. I took her picture sitting in Jon’s chair at the hair station. We took a zillion pictures of us touching everything. Sigh.

The door opened, freezing us in our tracks. Jon and Richie rushed in, talking to someone over their shoulders. “Thanks everyone. We need to get showered and out of here. Enjoy the party.” They stopped when they saw us.

“Well, well, well,” Richie said. “You came. We weren’t sure you would.”

What, are they stupid or something? Of course we weren't going to pass this up! I was still giddy from the dance earlier in the evening, and am a smart ass anyway, so it didn’t really surprise me when I tipped Richie’s hat rakishly over my eye and answered, “Oh, we will; we just haven’t yet. We were waiting for you.” God, the look on Sterling’s face was priceless. I know she wanted to smack me one. I do that to her all the time. Fortunately, the guys just looked at each other and laughed at my remark, although Richie’s eyebrows shot up.

Richie came to me and scooped me up in his arms. I love strong men. He sat me down on his lap, which had one hell of a lump in it, and flicked the brim of my hat. Yeah, my hat. I’m gonna do my best to keep it. “So, darlin’,” he said, smiling at me, “What’s up?”

I arched an eyebrow in perfect imitation of him, making him laugh loudly. I heard a door slam and looked up. Seems like Sterling was on her way to Jonny-land.

“I know you know my name,” I said to him. “’Darlin’’ is reserved for the faceless, nameless hoards. Me, you call by name if you please.”

“Sassy one, aren’t you, Jennifer,” he emphasized my name, making me shiver.

“Damn straight, darlin’,” I emphasized the endearment before I latched onto his mouth. No sense in pretending I was here for the stimulating conversation or outrageous flirtation that Richie is known for. Not that would have been bad, mind you, but I missed the last half of the concert of the year because of the naughty thoughts I was having about this very thing. No way was I going to miss out on a second of it.

Richie’s hands reached up to cradle the back of my head and flipped the Stetson off. I was going to whine about that, but he shifted the angle of my head ever so slightly and thrust his tongue in deep. Good Lord, what a rush. After what seemed like hours he lifted his head from mine. “I think we should go somewhere more private,” he said.

“Anything you say, Richie,” I said on a whisper. “Anything you say.”

He smiled a sly smile at me and winked. “You just remember you said that,” he said huskily, as he stood, keeping me in his arms. I flipped off Richie's hat and thread my fingers into his hair, nibbling on his neck as he made his way toward a door in the back of the room.

Yikes!