The tour

Chapter 10

Ten minutes later Kristina was in the back of a huge black limo with Michael. He had had the courtesy to let her change, and Kristina figured Amy would have approved of her look. She was wearing a black dress that hugged her tiny figure and stopped at the middle of her thighs with a black cardigan over to conceal her otherwise bare arms. Michaels heart had skipped a beat when she emerged from her room wearing it.

'So where are we going?' Kristina asked.

'Well, I'm not exactly taking you out. In fact, I'm taking you in.'

'What do you mean?'

'We're going to my house,' Michael smiled at her. Kristinas eyes widened.

'You're taking me to Neverland?' Michael chuckled.

'No, not Neverland. I don't live there when I'm in the city. I'm taking you to my apartment in the Hollywood Hills. My chef there is preparing a meal for us.'

'Oh, okay, that sounds nice,' Kristina said. The two sat in awkward silence for a moment, not knowing what to say to each other.

Michael really wanted to compliment her outfit, but he knew from instinct that she would find it cheesy. But actually Kristina was slapping herself mentally for wearing the wrong thing. He hadn't said anything about it. She was a little hot in the limo, so she pulled up the sleeves of her cardigan.

'What's that?' Michael asked, pointing to a tattoo on Kristinas lower arm. It was a small, simple black drawing of an electric guitar.

'Oh, this? It's just a tattoo I got like a year ago. It's no big deal,' she said, trying to hide it.

'But it looks so detailed,' Michael said interested, pulling her sleeve back up, which gave Kristina goosebumps. She tried hard to concentrate.

'Um, well, it's a Gibson Les Paul. Probably one of the best guitars in the world. If I had the money, that's the one I'd get. But since I will never have that kind of cash, I figured I'd get the next best thing.'

'It's really cool,' he said, softly touching the lines of the tattoo with his fingertips, making it hard for Kristina to breathe.

'Do you have any tattoos?'

'No. My skin disease won't allow it. I'd really like to, though. But they probably look better on you' he said, straddling his fingers to her hand, and intertwining them, looking at her with a dark look in his eyes, that Kristina hadn't seen before. Was that lust? She never got to figure out, because at that moment the limousine stopped and the driver said:

'We have arrived, Mr. Jackson.'

'I've told you to call me Michael. Thank you, James,' Michael said, giving Kristina a hand to help her out the limo.

--

The dinner was absolutely delicious. Way better than the cupped noodles Kristina was almost succumbed to. The conversation glided without problems between the two as they sat at a table with a view of all of Los Angeles with soft music coming from the stereo. They laughed a lot together and the atmosphere was light and intimate. Kristina almost clapped her hands when the dessert arrived, she loved chocolate mousse.

'Wow,' Michael said with a surprised look on his face. Kristina stopped in the middle of devouring the entire plate.

'What?'

Michael chuckled.

'Where do you put all that food in that tiny body of yours?'

Kristina became embarrassed and laughed with him, hoping she wasn't blushing.