Right Here Waiting-Book 2 Of The Mad Mad World Series

Part 6

Richard and I lay curled around one another, enjoying the afterglow, drifting in and out sleep. Around a huge yawn, Richard murmured, "I hope we don't have the hotel's security people waiting outside our door to see who was getting chopped up by an axe murderer." I muffled my laughter against his shoulder, imagining the scene. "Or worse,having Till trying to break down the door because he thinks we're trying to kill each other. And then him spending twenty minutes apologizing to us while trying to sneak out the door gracefully because he's so embarrassed." Richard continued, laughing so hard he began to squeak. The tiny noise was so bizarre-sounding,coming from someone like Richard, it made my laughing fit worse. I slid off of the bed, pulling the sheets with me and rolled into a ball, trying like crazy to keep from howling.

"What's so...squeeek...funny?" Richard asked, leaning over the bed backwards, so he was looking at me upside down. He was almost helpless with laughter, his bright eyes sparkling at me.

"That noise, Kruspe! You're what, six feet tall and built like a damn brick wall, and you're making a noise that should be coming out of a mouse, not you!" I choked out. "What the hell is that?"

Richard flipped over and joined me on the floor, winding the sheets around both of us until we were wrapped up tight like babies in swaddling clothes. "I can't help it. I  caused Schneider to fall off of the drum riser one afternoon when we were messing about in soundcheck years ago. I don't remember what was so funny but I started squeaking and Schneider was sort-of squatting down next to his bass drum. You know how he is, right? He looked at me and lost it. Paul saved him at the last second before he went flying off the riser but Schneider laid there on the floor for at least five minutes, just dying of laughter. He'd try to stop and couldn't. I thought we were going to have to dump him in the shower to settle him down but thank God we didn't. Till came close to peeing himself, Flake and Ollie were in tears for hours."

Our laughing fit died down eventually, leaving us both tired but in a good way. Nuzzling into Richard's chest, I said, "I haven't laughed like that in a very long time, if ever. And despite the paperwork that ate Cincinnati, some of the shit we've dealt with,I'm having a good time."

"Same here," Richard sighed, kissing the top of my head. "I think this has to be one of the easiest tours we've ever done."

"And I have something to tell you that'll make it even better," I purred, running my tongue up the side of Richard's neck and under his left ear. He shivered and arched his head back so I could nibble my way back down his neck and across his collarbone. I slid my hand down his side, over his hip and wrapped my fingers around his half-hard length, teasing the big vein underneath with the pads of my fingers. The ghostly feeling on my own skin of what he was feeling forced a groan around my teeth that Richard echoed. I kissed him deep and hard, nipping at his lower lip carefully, and murmured, "I'm going back to Germany with you. To stay."

"What...Lilly,you're serious? You're coming home with me?" Richard gasped.His eyes began to shimmer as he stared at me, the merest hint of tears twinkling in the low, warm candlelight.

"Yes. There's nothing here for me," I replied, wriggling out of the sheets and sitting up. "I've already started working on my passport, getting my house sold, the necessities. When I got up here tonight and saw the candles, the presents, all this, I figured it was time to tell you what I'd decided. So...yes."

Richard sat up, slowly, silver tears sliding down his face. Rising to his knees, he took my hands and kissed them, then my lips. "You...you don't know how much this means to me, Lilly.  Are you absolutely sure? I don't want you to make a decision that might not be right for you in the end just to make me happy."