Note: Thank you for your reviews and support. Here's chapter two. It's short but I feel like I'm getting a better handle on what it was I was feeling in Rayna. You'll notice that I really don't naturally write dialogue. That's something that I'll hopefully get better at as I push myself. Thankfully that first elevator ride was silent.
Also things start getting a bit sexy in this chapter
-Kristy
By the end of the flight Rayna had a swing in her step and a song in her heart. She was humming once her car was on the way to the hotel. Bucky usually looked worried about something but Rayna's obvious delight was very off putting, especially as he had been expecting an angry interrogation demanding to know what he did and did not know about Deacon's arrival. Years of experiencing managing things for Rayna, as well as managing Rayna herself, suggested that he spend the ride into Chicago with his mouth shut and his face pointed at his phone.
Rayna jumped out of the SUV when they pulled up at the hotel. She had taken all the anger and worry surrounding her divorce and decided to set it aside and do her absolute best to not think about it for a few days. Didn't she deserve that? Screw deserving she decided. She just flat out needed it. Instead she focused her mind on the one man whom she could obsess about without end. Even the hordes of Juliette's screaming fans didn't phase her.
Juliette was absolutely itching for Rayna to crack and show some sign of irritation. "Just admit that you're pissed!" She said. Ha! Nothing could have eased the sting of Deacon joining Juliette's band any better than the obvious way Juliette kept making it all about Rayna. With all the natural confidence of a woman who knew she was in a position of strength Rayna said "Girl are you ever going to grow up?" and sauntered inside behind Bucky.
A few minutes later the White Lies/Red Lips tour had checked into the hotel and Rayna found herself in an even more confining private environment with Deacon than the jet had been. She stared at him while he ignored her all the way up. He looked tired and the same instinct that had brought Rayna to his house the day before to check on him rose up again and demanded she protect him. But then she remembered the brutal honest words he had flung in her face yesterday and every time she had tried to prevent hurting him over the last fourteen years and every time her efforts had failed. She had always watched her words around him, kept Teddy's name out light conversation, made whatever subtle manipulations she could to keep her band leading best friend from ever being in the same room as her husband. She had worked for fourteen years trying to protect him and look what it had gotten her; the inevitable divorce and an angry Deacon who refused to speak to her.
The elevator stopped on Deacon's floor and he walked off without a word or glance. That just cemented the plan in Rayna's mind. She wasn't going to hurt him this time but she definitely wasn't going to make it easy on him either. She knew how hard the last few months had been on him. Here he was though, defiant and sober and strong, the one man who could always match her and she needed that today. She needed their games and their passion for each other and she decided that as long as it all ended well then everything else was fair game.
Chicago lay spread out below Rayna's feet as she looked out the windows of the penthouse suite. Walking away from the floor to ceiling windows she flopped down onto the sofa and stared at the ceiling instead. What should she do? What could she do?
She could figure out Deacon's room number, go there right now, convince him to let her inside and then get naked before he had a chance to wonder why. Rayna giggled and smiled. She had definitely used such aggressive seduction techniques before in their relationship. How amazing it felt to know that if she chose she could be in a bed with Deacon in less than fifteen minutes. She could have her mouth on his skin and her hands wrapped around his shoulders. She could run her lips down his neck and drag her nails across his low back and find out if he still growled low in his throat when she pushed him like that.
Obviously she wasn't going to go knock on Deacon's door today. That was too easy; too fast. He was in such a bad, combative mood that while she was almost certain he wouldn't kick her out, she would much rather put in the time and effort to make him want her. She had spent over a decade fighting the sexual energy that could build up between them so swiftly. She had turned off the huge part of herself that revelled in making Deacon Claybourne pant and that Rayna James needed to be let out for change.
Planning and patience were going to be required elements to this campaign and Rayna let her joyfully naughty mind dance over all the things she was going to do to make Deacon her's again and all things she could be doing to him right now, then all of the things he would do to her. In the privacy of her hotel suite all alone, Rayna's face had the biggest most excited grin as she decided how she would actually spend the next hour of her day. Guilt free thinking about Deacon was a luxury she hadn't enjoyed in far too many years and she was eager to enjoy it. Rayna undid the top button of her jeans and indulged herself. Her last coherent thought that wasn't about the sounds Deacon used to make or arch of her hips was that this was going to a great tour.