Disclaimer: I still don't own Big Time Rush. I also don't own the chapter title, which comes from Fred Astaire's song "New York, New York". So, uh, please don't sue.

Thank you so much for all the reviews and alerts! You guys rock!

A/N: I am so, so sorry for the wait! Believe me, I didn't plan to take forever with this chapter. But I got busy with work, and allergies hit me pretty bad, and I just haven't been really focusing on my solo stories. And, as some of you may have noticed, I just started replying to reviews again today, so I'm sorry for the delay on that! Please forgive me?

This chapter continues directly from where the last chapter left off. Also, I've clearly been writing about vampires too much (*cough* Jatieluv *cough*), because of something that may or may not happen in this chapter. Anyway, I think that's about it for my chapter's notes :)

Enjoy the chapter :)

Chapter Fourteen – New York, New York

James' POV

"Hey," I said back as I took Katie in. She was in pajama pants and a baggy t-shirt, fresh faced with her hair down around her shoulders, and she looked amazing.

She smiled widely up at me as I smiled back, warmth spreading through my limbs and rushing into my veins.

"Hey," she said again, sounding more breathy again.

Cody cleared his throat. "Are you two just going to stand here, staring at each other, or are you actually going to get out of the hallway and close the door?"

"What? Oh." Katie blinked, before stepping back so that I could walk inside. She closed and locked up the door, before turning to me. "So, how was the plane ride?"

"Not too bad. I slept and listened to music most of the time. How did the talk show go tonight?"

"It went well. We just covered the basic things like what the movie's about, that kind of thing. Pretty boring stuff."

"I'll have to watch the interview, I want to see it," I told her.

"You don't have to," she assured me. "It'll probably seem really boring."

"It won't," I said firmly.

She didn't look like she believed me, but nevertheless she walked over to me. "You can just set your stuff anywhere you want. And…um…I think I mentioned on the phone that there's only one bed?"

"You implied it."

"Right, yeah, okay. There's only one bed. Is that okay?"

"It's fine," I promised as I dropped my duffel bag on the floor, letting my backpack follow it. "Unless it's a problem for you?"

"No, not at all. I'm cool with it. More than cool, actually. What're the chances you sleep naked?"

I smirked. "Depends on how much sleeping I'm going to be doing."

"Oh my gosh…" she fanned her now glowing face. "I don't know what it is about you, but whenever I'm around you I can't keep my mind out of the gutter. I'm normally really nice and sweet."

"I've seen you around people, I know what you're like," I laughed. "Hey, are you going to hug me or not?"

Her face lit up like a little kid who had just gotten their dream toy for Christmas, and she leapt into my arms. I caught her, holding her tightly as I buried my face in her hair. She clung to me, wrapping her arms around my neck and winding her legs around my waist. She was so tiny in my arms and so soft. I wanted to hold her forever and ever and never let her go.

I carried her over to the couch and gingerly sat down, placing her in my lap. She curled into me, resting her head against my chest, and I stroked her hair. Katie sighed contentedly, before yawning.

"Have you slept yet?" I asked. "I mean, since I woke you up?"

"Not really," she admitted, sounding reluctant. "I wanted to wait up for you."

"You should sleep," I told her. "What time do we have to get up?"

"You can sleep in tomorrow," she replied. "I have to be up at seven."

"That only gives you about four hours of sleep," I pointed out.

"But you just got here," she whined. "I don't want to just conk out on you."

"Don't worry about it. You need sleep." I pushed myself to my feet, Katie still in my arms, and I carried her into the bedroom. The covers on the bed had been pushed back like she had gotten into bed, but had changed her mind. I laid her on the mattress and tucked her in. She snuggled into her pillow, yawning again.

"Will you lay with me?"

"If you want me to."

"Please?" she blinked sleepily at me, and I nodded. I kicked off my shoes and got in on the other side, wrapping my arms around her. She cuddled into me, and within moments she was out like a light, sleeping soundly.

Once I was certain she was going to stay asleep for a little while, I got to my feet and walked back out to the living room, or sitting room, or whatever the front room with all the couches and chairs is called in a hotel suite. I grabbed my pajamas – a pair of sweats and a t-shirt – my toiletries, and headed back through the bedroom and through the adjoining door, which I figured was the bathroom. Sure enough, I was in a crystal white room bathroom with pale gold furnishings. I closed and locked the door, and took a couple of minutes to explore, admiring the little button that let the toilet seat heat up and the huge bathtub with what looked like a damn good showerhead.

So this was how the other half lived. Who the hell would ever want to go back after this?!

I stripped and got the shower going, stepping into the tub. I groaned as the stream of hot water hit my back, shoulder blades, and neck. The plane's seat had done a number on my upper body, and it was a relief to feel my muscles relaxing under the shower stream.

Once the achiness had flowed away with the water down the drain, I began to wash up, taking my time and just enjoying the feel of the shower. I finally turned the shower off and I got out, drying off and slipping into my pajamas. I ran a comb through my hair, brushed my teeth, and headed back out to the bedroom to join Katie. I crawled into bed with her and once more wrapped my arms around her. She instinctively snuggled up to me, and I smiled tiredly.

Yeah, I wasn't letting this go.

Before long, I was drifting off too, dreaming of skyscrapers and huge bathtubs and Katie beaming up at me like I was the hero who had just saved her from a burning building.

I must have been exhausted, because when I awoke sun was streaming through the flowing curtains and Katie was walking into the room, fully dressed in jeans and a sweater, and holding a cup of what I figured was coffee.

She smiled when she realized I was awake. "Hey, sleepyhead," she said, tone lightly teasing.

"Hey," I mumbled groggily, rubbing the heel of my palm over my eyes. "What time is it?"

"About eleven-thirty," she replied. "But I figured you'd be asleep for a little while longer, since you got in so late and there's the time difference to deal with. You're probably pretty jet lagged."

I rolled over on my back, stretching out. "Eh, I'll be okay. So, you did the interview? How did it go?"

"Not bad. I've definitely had worse ones." She sat down on the edge of the bed, drinking from the cup.

"Is that coffee?" I asked hopefully.

"Nope, sorry. I only drink coffee in dire situations, like if I've been up all night."

"You were up all night."

"True. I had my cup of coffee when I first got up. After that, I switched to caffeinated green tea. There's still caffeine in it, just not as much as in coffee or black tea. My body can't handle all that caffeine, it makes me jittery."

"It does that to me too," I commented, sitting up.

"Yeah, well, it does other stuff as well. So I have to limit my coffee and black tea intake. How'd you sleep?"

"Not bad. I guess I slept straight for about eight hours."

"That's good," she smiled.

"Yeah, I guess so." I pushed the covers back, getting to my feet. "I guess I should get ready for the day. What's the plan for lunch?"

"I think we'll probably get room service," she told me. "Oh, and Natalia and I have another talk show tonight. You can come if you want to."

"Somehow, I don't think Cody will like that. He told me last night the plan is to make sure the movie publicists don't see me."

"Oh." She furrowed her brow. "Yeah, I guess that is the plan. Damn, that sucks. Though it's probably for the best, since Natalia would jump all over the chance to tell everyone that I'm hooking up with some random dude in my hotel suite. Still…" she sighed again. "Maybe Cody can sneak you in somehow. Or maybe you can pose as Elaine's nephew or something." Katie ran her fingers through her hair. "Yeah, let's have you pose as Elaine's nephew."

I stared at her. "You're kidding me."

"Sadly, no. I really want you to be able to come tonight," she pleaded. "And this way we can at least hang out for a little while before the show. Maybe we can even go out to dinner afterwards. I'm sure there can be some official story that Danny – he's my publicist – can spin about why we were seen together. You could be a prospect for the male lead opposite me in a new movie, or maybe Rocque Records is thinking about signing you. Or maybe we're just friends and whenever I come to New York, we hang out and catch up."

I continued to gape at her.

"I don't want to waste the weekend with you because I'm stuck doing interviews," she explained. "And if we say you're Elaine's nephew, no one's going to question it. She has a bunch of nephews, and no one can keep them straight. And the movie publicists don't care about her nephews or her family anyway. They'll buy it. And they won't be able to spin it into a hot, steamy story, as long as we keep our hands to ourselves. And since we're not even together, that shouldn't be a problem."

"Famous last words," I said, shaking my head. "But yeah, sure. Let's run it past your team and if they're okay with it, then we'll do it. Just let me go and take another quick shower before getting dressed, I still feel kind of gross after the flight."

"You took a shower last night?" Katie asked. "Wait, like, you were naked and I didn't know?"

"More like, I was naked in the shower and you were asleep."

"Damn! I have the worst luck. If I'd known, I could have ambushed you."

I smirked. "It wouldn't have worked. I locked the door."

"Ugh. Of course you did."

"And I'm locking the door again."

"Oh, like you don't want me to try to ambush you in the shower."

"More than you know," I admitted reluctantly. "But we both know it'd be a really bad idea for us to jump in bed together."

"Technically, we'd be jumping in the shower together," she pointed out, and I raised an eyebrow at her. "But yeah," she relented. "I see your point. It still sucks, though."

"Yes, it really does," I agreed, before walking out to the living room so that I could bring my bags into the bedroom. Once I had dropped the bags on the floor, I rifled through them for a pair of jeans and a button up shirt to wear for the day. I headed into the bathroom to brush my teeth, do my business, and shower again.

Twenty minutes later I emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed, to find Katie leaning back against the pillows on the bed, watching TV. I joined her, and she smiled, though she looked tired.

"Are you going to try to get some sleep between now and when you have to get ready for the talk show?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "Maybe. I'd rather spend it with you."

"Yeah, but then you might have trouble tonight. And being exhausted is never any fun. You should get some sleep."

"I guess…" she said hesitantly.

"You should."

"Fine," she sighed. "If you're going to insist…"

"I am."

Katie pushed herself wearily to her feet and grabbed sweats and a tank top from one of her bags, before heading into the bathroom to change clothes. Once she was finished, she crawled into bed. "Just go ahead and order room service when you're ready," she told me, snuggling up under the covers.

"Okay. What time do you want me to wake you up?"

"At about five, assuming I'm not up."

I nodded in agreement, and she closed her eyes. Within a couple of minutes her breathing had evened out, and I was left to my own devices. I grabbed the hotel phone and called down to room service, ordering a pizza, a salad, and a bottle of non-caffeinated grape soda since Katie had mentioned that caffeine messed with her. The concierge sounded a little put-out at the thought of one of the hotel guests ordering regular junk food, but he didn't make any comments about it. Thank goodness. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I was just a normal twenty year old Californian college student from a little town in Minnesota.

The food arrived a little while later and I tipped the delivery guy – the server or whoever – before settling down with a slice of pizza in the living room. I munched on my pepperoni , mushroom, and green pepper pizza as I flipped through channels. I settled on an old detective show. I ate a couple pieces of pizza and dished myself up some salad.

Katie dragged herself out to the living room at about three-thirty, looking exhausted but relatively cheerful. She ran her hand through her hair before flopping down on the couch and snatching up a slice of pizza.

"How'd you sleep?" I asked her, turning the volume down on the TV.

"Not bad. I conked out right away. I think I just really needed a nap." She took a bite of the pizza, humming happily. "My nutritionist is going to kill me. I swear, whenever I'm around you I eat ten times more junk food than I normally do."

I smirked. "That's because it's more fun to be around me."

"Sure, that's what it is," she smirked back, before swinging her legs over so that they were sprawled across mine.

"Are you saying I'm unhealthy for you?"

"I'm saying I don't think when I'm around you. I don't know if that's necessarily unhealthy, though."

I looked at her curiously, but she just smiled and went back to eating her slice of pizza.

"So, am I the first guy you've ever flown across the country?" I asked Katie as a commercial came on.

"Yep. And the first guy I've ever shared a luxury hotel suite with. So feel special," she added with a grin.

"Oh, believe me, I do," I assured her.

"You're the first guy for a lot of things."

"Such as?" I prodded.

"I'll tell you if you rub my feet," Katie bargained, wiggling her sock-clothed toes at me.

"Spoiled pop star," I teased. "Don't you pay people to rub your feet for you?"

"I used to, but then I had to fire them when I found out they had a foot fetish," she said with a straight face, though her eyes glittered with merriment. "You don't have a foot fetish, right?"

"I'm getting help for it," I deadpanned.

"Mmm…I guess I can risk it." She wiggled her toes at me again and leaned back, placing her hands behind her head.

"Spoiled pop star," I repeated, but I still took her right foot into my hands, kneading the bottom of her foot gently.

"Mmmmm…want to be my new foot massager?" Katie wanted to know.

"How much am I going to get paid?"

"Minimum wage."

"Then no way in hell." I dug my thumbs into the arch of her foot and she gasped. I paused, before asking, "Feel good?"

"Yeah…Where'd you learn to do that?"

I grinned in satisfaction. "It's a natural gift. You can't teach talent like this."

She raised her foot and pressed it up against my chest. "Keep going, foot massager. You're not getting paid to talk."

"I'm not getting paid at all," I grumbled. "I feel so used."

She patted her foot against my cheek. "Would you rather be my sex slave?"

"Sure. Let's do that."

"You have to move up the ranks first," she informed me. "First you start off as the foot massager. Next you'll be the full-body masseuse. After that…" she trailed off suggestively.

"I knew you were only using me for my hands."

"Damn straight, Diamond. Get back to it." She clapped her hands, and I dug my fingers into her foot's arch again. "Hey!" she squealed.

"What?" I asked innocently. "You told me to get back to it."

"Not what I meant!" She made to sit up, but before she could, I grabbed her legs and held them down so that she couldn't get up. "Hey!" she protested again. "Not nice!"

"You want me to be nice?"

"Yes." She pouted up at me.

I tugged on her legs, hauling her forward so that her ass was in my lap. She blew her bangs out of her face and gave me a ruffled look before pushing herself up into a sitting position. I immediately wrapped my arms around her waist. "Is this nice enough for you?" I asked sweetly.

She sighed long-sufferingly and snuggled into me. "I suppose it'll have to do. Have you changed your mind about kissing me?"

"Nope."

"Then it'll have to do." She rested her head against my chest. "I was hoping you'd changed your mind about that."

"Sorry."

"Don't be. Just promise me we're going to end up together. I don't want to end up disappointed again."

I flashed back to what Cody had said the night before in the car: "I've watched Katie go through crushes, falling for one boy or another every few months, and it never pans out for her. The boys usually aren't interested in her, or they have girlfriends. Or they're gay." She had been hurt before. She had had horrible luck with boys. And I couldn't be one of them. Because if I was, I wasn't sure I would ever be able to forgive myself. And then there was the fact that I wanted her more than I had ever wanted anyone else in my life. There was just something about her that drew me in, pulled me towards her, like she was the North Pole and I was the South. She was magnetic. And, in all honesty, a part me thought that maybe, just maybe, I needed her…

"It's going to happen," I assured her as I ran my fingers through her hair. "We're going to happen. We're going to be together. I know it."

"Promise."

"I promise." I kissed the top of her head and she smiled, snuggling even closer to me.

"Okay. As long as I know it's going to happen someday…I can live with that. Because we have too much chemistry, you know? It would really suck if we had all this chemistry, and then we never did anything with it."

I chuckled. "Yeah, it really would suck. So it's a good thing we're going to do something with it eventually, huh?"

"I don't suppose you could give me a time or a place…"

"How about after the press tour ends?"

She perked up. "Really?"

I nodded. "I'm not saying for sure, but it'd be something to look forward to, right?"

"It would be," she agreed. "Okay, yeah." And then, because she's a little sneak, she reached up, brushing her lips against my neck. I felt a shiver run through my body. "Just to remind you about what you have to look forward to…" she murmured, kissing my neck for real.

I squirmed, torn between wanting to let her continue, and knowing that I should really push her away. My neck was one of my most sensitive places, and she was going to figure it out of she kept this up. Then again, I had a lot of sensitive places, so maybe it wasn't going to matter anyway.

As if she could sense my indecision – and with my luck, she probably could – she continued to move her lips up my neck, before kissing her way across my jaw line and dipping back down. The next thing I knew, she had spun in my lap and was straddling me.

It occurred to me that this was a really good reason for us not to be alone together, because I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be holding out very long if she started giving me a lap dance. My resolve tended to suck when things like that happened.

I whined as she sucked hard on my neck and scraped her teeth against it, working on it thoroughly with her mouth. Her hands slid down to my pecks, before moving to my stomach. She slipped her hands under my t-shirt and traced over my abs, still moving her mouth over my neck and jaw.

Eventually, she pulled back, and grinned proudly. "I do nice work."

"I – what?" I blinked at her dazedly.

"Go look in the mirror." She wiggled off my lap and I jumped to my feet, dashing into the bathroom to peer at the mirror over the sink. A bruise was forming on my neck, right where she had been biting and sucking.

My jaw dropped open as she walked into the room, smirking widely. "What do you think?"

"You gave me a hickey!"

She waggled her fingers at me. "Correct on the first try. You get a gold star, Mr. Diamond."

"You gave me a fucking hickey! We haven't even kissed and you gave me a damn hickey!"

"I know. I'm so proud of myself. It's my first time ever giving a guy a hickey, and it looks like it's going to be a good one."

I glared at her, but she didn't look too concerned. "Oh, relax. I have cover up, so you can use that to hide it. No one besides us will ever know."

I whined, slapping my hand to my neck. Victoria wasn't big on giving – or receiving – hickeys, because, as she liked to put it, "It's nothing but a way for people to mark their socially acceptable territory." So, I wasn't overly familiar with them, but I did know that unless I put ice on it or something, it would last for awhile. On the other hand…it was kind of hot…

"You're admiring it, aren't you?" Katie asked, her smirk widening.

"Do we have ice?"

"I can ask room service to bring up some if you want."

"Eh…nah. Forget it. I'll just put on cover up before we leave the room tonight."

"Good." She walked over to me, still smirking. I grabbed her and threw her over my shoulder. "Hey! Kidnapper! What are you doing?" she screeched.

I threw her on the bed and proceeded to go after her neck as aggressively as she had gone after mine. She wiggled and whined and moaned under me, but didn't try to push me off. She wrapped her legs around my waist, pulling me closer as I worked on her neck, and she tilted her head to the side to give me more room. Before long, I pulled away with a satisfied grin. "I hope you have enough cover up for two."

"Fuck…" she panted out, though I had a feeling it had nothing to do with the cover up comment. "You're going to kill me. I hope you know that."

"You did it to me first," I shrugged, rolling off the bed. "Payback's a bitch, huh?"

"Oh my God…" She sat up, pushing her hair back. "Are you sure we can't speed things up to tonight? You're driving me crazy."

"You're the tease," I reminded her, leading her into the bathroom so that she could admire the mark I had left on her neck.

"I told you I wasn't going to make things easy for you." She pushed her hair aside and looked at the blossoming blemish. "So, I guess this means we're both marked." Katie grinned up at me. "You're mine and I'm yours, and no one else is going to come in-between."

"Deal."

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need the bathroom. I need to start getting ready for tonight." And with that, she pushed me out and closed the door, still grinning widely.

So...what'd you guys think? Was it okay? Did you like it? Enjoy it? Love it? Hate it? Thank you for reading, and please review! I'll try not to take forever with the replies next time ;)