The next day, the Boys were back to work. They put on a fantastic show in Kentucky, said goodbye to Brian’s family after promising to visit during the holidays and then took off to the next city.

After leaving Kentucky, the tour took off into overdrive. Between rehearsals, performing and publicity—every day was completely full. Every night, Brian would get back to the hotel exhausted. On most nights, he was hardly able to undress before he fell asleep. Noelle had tried to keep up with both Brian and AJ backstage and behind the scenes, but things were so hectic that eventually she’d decided that it would be less trouble to just stay in.

It always felt so much lonelier to be alone in a group of people, didn’t it?

Weeks later, the tour finally stopped in New Jersey, where the Boys were set to perform a couple of shows. That night, Brian was supposed to get finished early. He had promised to get back to the hotel as soon as possible when the show ended, so Noelle planned a surprise.

While out shopping earlier that afternoon, she had walked past a lingerie store. Immediately, the idea sprang on her. Brian had yet to see everything that she had to offer him as far as the bedroom was concerned. After tonight, he’d have to be rushing back to be with her every night.

Not that their sex life was lacking. No, it was amazing. It had been from the beginning, but every girl needs to spice things up a bit sometimes, especially when she hasn’t been with her man in what feels like forever. Life gets in the way sometimes and you have to put everything back into perspective.

After making her first purchase, she decided to go to the drug store and buy some candles for a little mood lighting. At first, she’d gone overboard. Her arms were filled with red and white candles of every shape and size. Then, she thought about how completely humiliating it would be to set the smoke detectors off in the hotel and settled for only buying a couple to put on the bedside table.

She got back to the hotel that evening feeling antsy, excited and a little embarrassed. She tried to watch some TV, and she slowly ate the dinner that she ordered from room service, but when 9:30 rolled around, she jumped out of bed knowing that Brian would be back to the room sometime between 10:30 and 11. She showered and changed into the negligee that she had purchased. It was a black lace corset that left little to the imagination paired with frilly, lace panties of the same design. For good measure, she added thigh-high stockings with garter straps. She didn’t get what guys loved about them, but figured, ‘what the hell?’

When 11 o’clock rolled around, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and started to feel a little sick. The other guys that she’d dated loved this kind of stuff, but would Brian? He was one of the good ones. He was a church-going boy from Kentucky. Was she about to corrupt him? Would he laugh at her?

Quickly, she threw the hotel-issued robe on over her shoulders and started to blow out the candles around the room. Then, just as quickly, she changed her mind and started to light them again.

When 11:30 tolled, she was lying on the bed still contemplating her final decision and wondering where the hell Brian was. She assumed that a meet-and-greet had run long, so she settled in and waited.

And waited.

And then, she waited some more.

Sometime after 1 a.m., she drifted off to sleep.

***

Brian walked into the hotel room quietly. He knew that Noelle was going to be mad. He had promised her that he’d be back early, but he’d gotten caught up after the show. There are always a million things going on, but that night everything decided to malfunction and their manager had decided to call a late-night meeting. The good thing was that at least now he had the day off the next day.

The lights were off as he walked through the room, but there was a soft glow coming from the bedroom portion of the suite. Before walking in, he slipped his shoes and socks off of his feet and stepped inside, waiting to get the cold shoulder. When he entered, his mouth fell to the floor and he mentally kicked himself when the possibility of what he had missed out on was laid out right in front of him.

There Noelle was—beautiful, sweet Noelle—lying on the bed in the sexiest little outfit that his mind could have imagined.

Yeah, he’d always been a good boy, but even good boys like to have a naughty time.

The candles were still lit, but Noelle was sound asleep. Her dark hair was cascading over her face and her knees were pulled up slightly, close to her chest. When Brian got closer to be bed, he brushed a piece of her hair out of her eyes.

He saw the makeup smudged on her cheeks and wondered if she had been crying. The thought broke his heart. She had gone through so much trouble, and he hadn’t even been there to enjoy it with her.

He kissed the top of her head softly and her eyes fluttered opened. When she saw him she sighed and closed her eyes tightly again.

“I hate you,” she muttered as she felt around in the darkness for the blanket to cover her scantily clad body.

“I’m sorry, Baby,” Brian said softly.

He pulled his t-shirt off over his head and then climbed into the bed next to her and pulled the blanket up over them both. He wrapped him arms around her and pulled her close to him.

“Yeah, you’re sorry,” she joked. “Now that you know what you missed out on over here.”

Brian chuckled softly as he leaned in to kiss her soft lips. She turned her head.

“Uh-uh-uh,” she mumbled. “You missed out on all of the lovin’ sir. I was sleeping. Where were you anyway?”

Noelle yawned and finally opened her eyes.

“Working,” Brian replied with a sigh. “Everything decided that it wanted to break tonight and our meeting for tomorrow got rescheduled to tonight since everyone was there and whatever. The good thing is that now I have the day off tomorrow.”

Noelle nodded slowly. “That’s good. I miss you, Bud.”

Brian smiled and pulled her closer. “I miss you, too. Tomorrow, it’s just me and you. We’ll do something special, okay? I promise. No press. No fans. No singing.”

“What if I want you to sing?” she replied, laughing.

Brian rolled his eyes and shook his head, knowing that she never asked him to sing for her. “Then, I’ll sing.”

Noelle nodded again, liking the idea of having him all to herself the next day. When they’d been in Gainesville together, she’d been spoiled. She had him to herself all day every day. The fact that there was still the wife out there who refused to sign the divorce papers was just a nagging inconvenience even though Noelle knew it probably should have been way more than that.

“Okay,” she replied finally, “but I’m warning you. If you bail on me tomorrow, I’m sleeping in the empty room next door.”

Brian chuckled knowing that there was no way that he was going to let that happen.

“I love you, Noelle.”

“I love you, too, B.”

Noelle searched out Brian’s lips in the darkness and pressed her mouth to his.

“You know,” Brian said, smirking into her lips. “Our date tomorrow comes with stipulations.”

“Oh yeah?” Noelle replied, grinning along with him.

“Yeah,” Brian responded, pressing his lips against hers again for a short, sweet kiss. “You have to give me the lovin’ that I missed out on.”

Noelle laughed and pushed him away playfully. “No way. How am I supposed to know that you’ll hold up your end of the deal?”

“You’ll just have to trust me,” Brian answered as he grabbed Noelle around the waist and rolled her on top of him. “You don’t really think that I could sleep next to you all night while you’re wearing that, do you?”

“That was kind of the point.” She laughed as she moved her hand down toward the button of his pants. “I didn’t expect to be wearing this for that long.”

That was all that it took. With a grin, Brian reached around and pulled Noelle’s face toward his as he rolled them back over and took in everything that he had been missing for the last several days.

***

The next morning, Brian and Noelle slept in. They awoke around lunch time and quickly ate lunch. Apparently, Brian had planned a surprise for Noelle and they had to hurry so that they didn’t miss it. When they pulled up outside of an ice skating rink, Noelle turned to Brian with narrowed eyes.

“Brian,” she started softly. “Why are we here?”

Brian laughed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “You said you’d never been ice skating. Every person needs to try to ice skate at least once in their lives.”

“I’ve never seen snow either,” she replied. “Are you going to send me to Antarctica?”

Brian shook his head at her snarky attitude and climbed out of the car. He walked around to the opposite side of the vehicle and opened Noelle’s door. He took her hand to help her out of the SUV before turning to instruct the driver that they’d only be a couple of hours.

They walked around the back entrance of the skating rink and through the empty aisles. “Why isn’t anyone here?”

“They’re off season right now,” Brian replied. “I made a special request.”

Even though she was afraid of busting her ass and breaking her ankles, Noelle was touched by how much thought that he’d put into the day.

“When did you do all of this?” she asked when they stopped at the door to the skate rental.

“Yesterday,” Brian answered with a self-satisfied smirk. “Once I knew that we were going to have the day off today, I made a few calls.”

Brian handed her a pair of skates in her size and puckered his lips out playfully for a kiss. Noelle looked around quickly before obliging him. AJ’s threats of the press and media bullshit were always in her head and she hated him for it. They were obviously alone.

“You’re amazing, you know that?” she said as she sat on one of the wooden benches and pulled her skates on her feet.

Brian got up first and held his hands out to Noelle. Shakily, they made their way onto the ice. Brian stepped on first and held Noelle’s hand tightly. It didn’t end up helping. The minute that she stepped onto the slippery floor, she flew backwards and almost took Brian with her.

Brian couldn’t help it; once he saw that she was okay, he started cracking up laughing. Noelle, laughing along with Brian, laid back onto the ice and let her hair soak up the wetness beneath her.

“This is going to suck,” she said between chuckles. “And I have a feeling it’s going to hurt in the morning.”

“Come on,” Brian said, carefully extending his hand to her again. “Don’t be such a wuss. It’s fun once you get the hang of it.”

Noelle stood up carefully and held onto the side of the wall as she stomped across the ice.

“Don’t you know how to rollerblade?” Brian asked. “It’s the same principle. You’re just walking.”

“Quit yelling at me,” Noelle replied, pretending to be annoyed.

“I’m not yelling,” Brian laughed.

He reached out and took her hands into his. He started to glide backwards pulling her with him. After a little while, Noelle started to move her feet with him and when she was comfortable, Brian let go of her hands.

“See? It’s not that bad,” he continued all too soon.

Noelle tripped over a non-existent chip in the ice and went tumbling forward. Brian reached out his arms to catch her, but instead ending up breaking her fall. Brian groaned through his laughter and pulled his hands up to his face.

“So maybe this was a bad idea. You never said how completely clumsy and athletically challenged you are.”

Noelle smacked him playfully on his chest. “I’m going to find something that you can do and school you so bad. Do you surf?”

“You don’t surf,” Brian replied quickly.

“I could learn.”

“So could I.”

Noelle narrowed her eyes at him with a faux pout plastered to her face. “I hate you.”

“So you’ve said,” Brian chuckled and kissed her lightly. He wrapped his arms around her, not caring that the back of him was becoming soaked. “How about we just stay down here?” he whispered into Noelle’s lips.

She nodded as they laid there on the floor quietly kissing, completely oblivious to the fact that they weren’t quite as alone as they had once thought.