Carly was back home by late Saturday afternoon. Nick had to finish up recording with the guys and then take a later flight home. It was already arranged that BSB all fly home together, plus they had to abide by the security rules so Carly had to take the long flight back home alone.
She sighed happily as she rested her head back on the seat and closed her eyes. Her visit to Nick had been well worth the effort. It had turned out even better than she had imagined it would. She felt chills thinking about it now. From the moment she first saw Nick until the moment she left him had been like a dream come true. She smiled when she thought about when she first arrived at the studio to surprise him. The look on his face had been priceless and so worth it. His face went from showing shock to surprise and then elation. It was thrilling to see how happy he was to see her; it’s what she had hoped for. And then when she whispered into Nick’s ear and he whisked her away while the boys were laughing was wonderfully thrilling as well. But the best part was getting back to his or theirs rather (at least for the night), hotel suite and Nick making sweet, sweet love to her. Her body had yearned for his touch, his embrace, the feel of him inside of her. The sex was the best it had ever been and they had relived it three times before she had to get on the plane again to fly home.
His goodbye to her was bittersweet; he didn’t want to her to leave although they both knew it would only be hours until they were together again. He acted like a man truly in love; a man who was committed to her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Even though there had not been a proposal, she suspected that that wasn’t too far down the road. After all, he had confessed to her over the phone just a few days ago that maybe they could try to have a baby… Carly’s lips curled up into a big smile. A baby with Nick… that would be heaven.
Nick was so happy to finally get home after a grueling week of recording sessions and late nights. It had been a productive and successful trip and he was happy he had gone, but happier still that he was back home now. He collapsed on his bed and within seconds he was out cold, open-mouthed and snoring.
Carly had been home a few hours now, cleaning and organizing her house. When she had walked in the door previously, she had noticed the blinking answering machine and yet she chose to ignore it. She did not want to deal with any messages right now. She thought that maybe Derek was calling or her mother or maybe even Rinda and she just didn’t want to deal with them right now. She looked at her cell phone to make sure it wasn’t Nick trying to get a hold of her because he couldn’t reach her on her cell, but when she saw that the phone was on and operating fine, she was convinced that Nick’s voice was not on her answering machine.
Carly awoke the next morning to a loud knock on her door. The knock was insistent, so she quickly jumped out of bed, grabbed her robe and slippers and padded towards the door. Knock! Knock! Again.
“I’m coming! Just wait a sec…” Carly yelled, stifling a yawn, a bit perturbed at the unwelcome intruder. She flung the door open to see Nick standing there, smiling. He was holding a handful of roses, which he thrust into her arms and then he grabbed her and kissed her.
Carly was in shock, but recovered quickly and smiled. “Hey you! You’re back!”
“Yep, I am! Good morning, sleepy head. It looks like I woke you!”
“Yeah, you did.” She smiled sheepishly.
“Car, do you know what time it is?”
“Uh, no, I just woke up, silly.”
“It’s 10 am, baby!”
“What?! No way! I never sleep in!”
“Yeah, well, you just did. Did you get to bed late?” Nick said, stepping inside, but unintentionally leaving the door ajar.
Carly stifled another yawn. “I don’t remember what time it was when I crashed, but I was exhausted. I’m guess I’m jet-lagged plus you kept me up almost all night on Friday!”
Nick grinned. “Well, I’m not going to apologize for that. That was fuckin’ awesome!” He said, throwing his arms around her and spinning her around.
“Wow! My God, you’re in a good mood! What’s going on, Carter?” She tried to get her bearings once he set her down and then looked at him suspiciously.
“Nothing! I’m just happy to see you that’s all and I got plenty of sleep!”
“Yeah, apparently.” Carly said, grumpily. “Didn’t you have a late flight?”
“Yeah, but I was able to sleep on the plane and I crashed as soon as I got home. I got 8 hours sleep.”
“Well, goody for you.” Carly said, sarcastically. She couldn’t function until she had some caffeine in her and Nick’s pleasant mood was annoying her at the moment.
“Do you want some coffee?”
“No, I already stopped at Starbucks. Oh shit, I didn’t get you anything – I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, thanks a lot! Well, you brought me roses, so I guess I can forgive you!” She smiled and walked into the kitchen to find a vase for the arrangement.
“So, it looks like you have a few messages. Did you listen to them?” Nick noticed the fast-blinking answering machine on the counter.
“No, I wasn’t in the mood last night.”
“What if I had been calling you?” He pointed out.
“Aw, but I already thought of that. I looked at my cell and it was on and I figured you’d call me on that first, so I thought I was fairly safe in assuming that you weren’t one the callers.”
“Well, you’re wrong. I left you three messages on your machine – I lost your cell number and I really needed to get a hold of you!” Nick said, leaning on the counter, watching her put the roses in a vase full of water. Carly looked up suddenly.
“Are you serious?” She finally asked, holding her breath.
“No, but I almost had you, didn’t I?” Nick broke out in a full-on laugh, giggling like a little boy.
“You dick!” Carly exclaimed, forgetting how her “potty mouth” came out whenever she was around Nick. Her usual good girl personna just vanished whenever she was around Nick Carter. He had corrupted her; brought out the bad girl in her and she actually kind of liked it.
Nick was still recovering when Carly casually walked by him and spanked him lightly on the butt.
“You witch!” Nick exclaimed as Carly hot-footed it towards the living room with Nick in hot pursuit. They ended up tumbling on the couch, giggling and kissing, trying to catch their breath.
“Remember what we did the last time we were on this couch?” Nick said, raising a lascivious eyebrow.
“Yes!” Carly was still giggling.
“You so wanted me that day!” Nick teased.
“I did not! You seduced me!” Carly tried to defend herself.
“Oh, yeah, right. Who was going down on me right away!”
“Only after you went down on me! You have no argument here, Nicky. Let’s face it, I was an innocent victim.”
Nick fake coughed. “Uh, yeah,” cough, cough, “Right. Innocent! In spite of all your protests, you still wanted me. I bet you fantasized about me when I was gone, didn’t you?”
Suddenly Carly turned away, embarrassed, flushing bright red.
“You did, didn’t you? I was just kidding, but now the truth comes out!” Nick laughed.
“Comes out. Interesting choice of words!” She bantered back, regaining her dignity.
“Don’t change the subject. What did you think about in the privacy of your own mind? I want to know!”
“You would! You’re sick and twisted! I’m not going to tell you!”
Nick grabbed her and kissed her. “Tell me.” He whispered and it sent delicious chills down Carly’s spine. How could she resist that voice…
“All I will say is that my mind replayed our sexual escapades a few times.”
“That’s so safe! I want to hear the juicy details. Tell me exactly what you thought about.” Nick leaned in even closer, whispering so close to her ear that she could feel his breath tickling it. She was going weak and her body was responding to him again. She knew that she was soaking wet and wanting him so badly…
Out of nowhere, the bad girl once again emerged. “I…I thought about your lips on mine, your tongue touching mine, your hands and mouth on my breasts and your tongue on my…” she paused, “clit and then the feel of your body on top of mine as you made love to me. The feel of you inside of me… oh God…” she couldn’t finish, the thought of it all making her yearn for him with every fiber of her being.
“Are you wet, Carly?” Nick whispered again, this time, gently reaching under her robe and nightgown, pleasantly surprised when he was met with her bare flesh and not fabric. His deft fingers, found her opening and smoothly moved in and out of her, producing gasps from Carly .
“Oh, yes, you are wet, very wet.” Nick whispered again, knowing he was excruciatingly hard now; his cock straining against his jeans.
Carly exclaimed suddenly, emitting cries of pleasure as Nick’s fingers rapidly delved into her depths, rubbing against her clit and causing her orgasm to surface. Carly held onto Nick as her body rocked against him, shuddering her climax.
Carly undressed as Nick pulled down his jeans and underwear and thrust inside her until they were both gasping and coming, holding onto each other for dear life. While they were lying there, trying to recover, they heard a voice suddenly at the front door.
“Hello? Anyone home? Carly?” It was Derek.
“Oh crap!” Nick and Carly said at the same time and frantically grabbed their clothes.
“Just a second!” Carly yelled, grabbing for her nightgown. She had just pulled it over her head and Nick had pulled his pants on when Derek appeared.
“Oh, there you are! Oh, shit, I’m sorry you guys!” He backed away when he realized what he had interrupted.
“No, it’s okay, man. It’s your house.” Nick said, trying to be gracious. Carly glared at him and Nick motioned for her to go get dressed. She grabbed her robe and made a mad dash to the bedroom.
Derek was in the kitchen, making some coffee. Nick casually sat down at the kitchen table.
“Hey, is this awkward or what?” Derek laughed, turning the coffee pot on.
Nick laughed nervously. “Oh, yeah, but we’re all adults here, right?”
“Yeah, you’re right. I’m okay with it if you are. “ Derek laughed. Nick was such a cool guy. He really did like him.
Then Derek noticed the blinking answering machine. “Oh, okay, now I know why Carly didn’t call me back. She didn’t even listen to her messages.”
“Oh, you were the one who called?” Nick asked.
“Yeah, it was me. I wanted to talk to Carly about something and you, too, of course.”
“What’s up?” Nick was glad to talk about anything but the big elephant in the room; the fact that Derek had just walked in on them right when they had just finished screwing.
“Well, here goes… I’m getting married.”
“What?!” Carly had just finished throwing on a t-shirt and jeans and was on her way out to the kitchen when she heard Derek’s confession.
“Who to?” She demanded, taking a seat next to Nick at the table.
“You’re not going to believe this, Car, but to Rinda.”
“No way!” Both Carly and Nick said at the same time in shock. That had been the second time in a few minutes that they had both said the same thing at the same time. In less serious circumstances they would have played with the whole “jinx” aspect of it, but now was not the time for games.
Derek laughed, though at their shocked faces and exclamations in unison. “Yes, it’s true.”
“Alright, sit down and tell us everything.” Carly demanded.
“God, so bossy.” Derek laughed. She couldn’t help but smile at that. He looked good and he looked well, happy. And she was happy for him, but with Rinda of all people and so soon! Rinda never had wanted to get married, at least not for a long time. This was just too shocking to believe.
“Watch out Nick, she might be the one to end up wearing the pants if you’re not careful.” Derek teased and Nick laughed.
“OK, shut up you two. Derek, how the hell did this happen?”
“Alright. Well, after you kicked me out last Tuesday, she called me and asked me to meet her at Starbucks. We had a long conversation there that turned into lots of long conversations at her house for the next four days. We spilled our guts to one another, confessed our deepest, darkest secrets and basically learned how to forgive one another. She told me everything – why she had acted the way she did with me, why she treated you the way she had…”
“Yeah, we talked about that, too.” Carly smiled and Nick looked at her. He didn’t know about that, but he was glad they had worked things out. “I was wondering if you were coming back to get your things.”
“We spent every waking moment together, Car, getting to know each other all over again. She’s a changed person; we both are. We both called in sick to work and worked all our issues out with one another. I swear it was the best therapy we both could have gotten. And after we were done, we realized that we had fallen in love. We felt that if we could spend four days straight together like that and get along so well, we could spend an eternity together and that we didn’t want to wait to do that. So, I proposed, she accepted and…” he paused, watching Nick and Carly hang on his every word. “…the wedding is in two weeks.”
You could have heard a pin drop, the silence was so overpowering. A million thoughts were rushing through Carly’s mind: what, why, how and what, why, how again! This was surreal; like a dream. Her ex-boyfriend was marrying her best friend and she would probably end up marrying her best friend’s ex-boyfriend. She couldn’t have written a better script for a soap opera if she had tried.
“Carly, are you okay?” Nick asked, noticing that all of the blood had suddenly rushed to her face. “Breathe, Carly, breathe.” He said, rubbing her back.
Carly took some deep breaths and it actually helped. “Thanks, I’m better now. I just can’t believe this. Are you sure you are talking about Rinda? My best friend, Rinda?”
Derek got up to grab the coffee pot and laughed. “Yes, Carly, the one and same. I know this is shocking and sudden, but it’s what I want, what we both want. And I know this is weird, but I really want you guys to come the wedding – both of you.”
“Coffee?” Derek looked at Nick and Nick shook his head.
“Fuck coffee! Derek I still can’t believe this! I have to call Rinda!” She ran out of the room to call Rinda from her bedroom.
“So, Nick, how are you with all this? I know this is all fucked up – this situation we’ve all four got here, but I figure we can all deal with this like mature adults.”
“Hey, man, can I be honest with you?” Nick asked.
“Please.”
“I’m just glad you’re marrying her and not me!” To that Derek almost choked on the sip of coffee he had just taken and laughed hysterically.
