Chapter Five: Morning After Glow
Nick stirred slowly that morning he looked up at the ceiling seeing the morning light dance across it. He thought about the night before and all that had happened and he smirked to himself. Even after almost three full years together they had never experienced anything quite like that before. He turned his head to the side seeing Alyssa still asleep on her side her hair splayed out on the pillow behind her somehow her pony tail have come undone sometime during the night. He rolled to his side and reached out his hand brushing some of her hair out of her face. She stirred moaning softly before opening her eyes. She saw him looking at her and grinned. “Morning…” She said sleepily.
He grinned and pulled her close running his hand through her hair. “Morning.” He replied placing a kiss to her forehead. “Sleep well?”
“Mmmmhmmm…” She said breaking from his grasp stretching out her body, “Good God I’m sore.” She remarked laughing a little.
“Sorry…” He added with a sheepish grin. He was sore as well as she was, it had been extremely taxing on both of them considering it had been months since they had any sort of experience like the night before. “So what are you doing today?”
“Well I’m taking a shower first then meeting with the architect to check out the first sketches she drew up for us while you go to the studio with the boys, then I’m meeting Lindsay for lunch to discuss her becoming my TA.”
Nick leaned in and kissed her silencing her for a few moments. He backed away and smiled at her making her chuckle at him. “So I have an idea tonight.”
“Hmm what’s that?”
“How about you come to the studio tonight for dinner and you can be the first to listen to the new album?”
Alyssa’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, “Seriously?”
“Yeah…” He replied already knowing exactly what was going to happen with the plan in his mind. “So how about that shower?” He said wiggling his eyebrows at her. She giggled and smacked his arm. “Hey now be nice to me.”
“God one night and you’re super horndog all over again.” She retorted laughing as he pinned her to the bed.
“Oh so you don’t want morning sex in the shower? Okay fine then I guess you’ll just have to wait until later tonight.” He replied getting out of bed and walking toward the bathroom completely naked. She thought for a moment and then got up practically running into the bathroom after him where he was turning on the water for their shower. “Ha knew you couldn’t resist.”
Alyssa rolled her eyes and stepped into the shower wetting down her hair letting the hot water wake her up. Nick got in a moment later and they traded places while Alyssa washed her hair then he did the same. Watching her rinse her hair he smirked and pulled her body to his grabbing the body wash and a washcloth. “What no loofah?”
He laughed a little as he squirted the coconut scented body wash onto the wet towel and lathered it up. He pulled her to face away from him and washed her back for her scrubbing the soap into her skin gently. She leaned back against him as his hands slipped around her waist and up over the front of her. She leaned her head back onto his shoulder and sucked on his neck. “Liss…”
Alyssa smirked and leaned up biting his ear lobe. “Fuck me…” She rasped softly making him stop his hands for a moment and turn her around. She wrapped her arms around his neck and backed them up through the shower spray and pushed him against the tile behind it. He turned her around and picked up her legs wrapping them around his waist allowing him entrance to her body. She threw her head back and moaned loudly as he struggled to keep them upright. He moved them over to the ledge setting them down on it thrusting inside her making her scream echoing off the walls of the bathroom. A moment later Alyssa pushed him away and repositioned herself facing away from him. He smirked and grabbed her hips pulling them toward him as he moved to enter her once more. She cried out and thrust back against him as he thrust wildly against her.
“Liss…I…fuck.” He muttered incoherently as they both neared their orgasms. Alyssa took one hand off her hip and with her own trailed it between her legs to move over her clit making her shudder and hiss as she felt her orgasm come on strong. It wasn’t much longer before he came as well both of them leaning on each other and the tile wall for support.
When they broke apart for a moment Alyssa turned and giggled at him, “Nothing like a quickie first thing in the morning to get you going huh?”
He laughed and kissed her. “Aren’t you just a barrel of laughs this morning.” He retorted matching her corniness.
“Okay wow we’re dorks.” She replied making them both bust out laughing. They finished up in the shower and both got dressed and ready for the day. Alyssa sighed as she looked through her closet grabbing a pair of jean capris and polo shirt. She got dressed and straightened her hair and then applied her usual light makeup before heading down stairs. “So are you heading to the studio?” She asked grabbing her thermos from him and gave him a kiss.
He nodded and walked them both out to their trucks, “Have a good day, I’ll see you tonight?”
“Yep I’ll be there.” She grinned giving him one last kiss before getting in the truck. He watched her pull out of the driveway before getting into his truck and pulling out going the opposite way she was headed. He drove off to the studio smirking to himself at how quickly they could fall into a routine like this. Spend as much time together as possible, relearning everything they’d overlooked throughout their friendship and relationship, yet still be able to balance their careers and life. He parked in front of the studio about 20 minutes later and got out going inside seeing AJ, Howie and Brian all just arriving. “Morning guys.” He said with a grin.
“Uh…since when are you so chipper at 8:00 in the morning?” Brian asked with a grin.
AJ saw the look on Nick’s face and snickered, “You got laid didn’t you?”
Nick’s cheeks flushed red for a second and he headed in to the studio room they had to go over the finishing touches on the album avoiding their conjecturing stares and whispers.
Meanwhile…
Alyssa sighed as she waited in the waiting room of the architecture firm. She picked up a copy of Architecture Digest thumbing through the pages seeing the various styles that were considered to be visionary. She smirked to herself falling on a page that highlighted bedrooms. Her mind wandered for a few moments to the night before and this morning. She sighed and smiled to herself thinking about how much they had changed as people and a couple in 3 years. It was definitely different now that she could tell for sure. Their chemistry had evolved and shaped into something a hundred times stronger than what she was used to. Yet at the same time it brought more comfort to their every day lives. They could just be themselves for lack of a better term. They didn’t have to try to be the popstar or the professor, they just had to be plain old Nick and Alyssa.
A few moments later Sandra, their architect walked out to greet Alyssa, “Hello Mrs. Carter.”
Alyssa snickered, “Oh no we’re not married yet.” She grinned blushing a little.
Sandra chuckled, “Sorry about that, the way Nick and you had acted the first time you were in here seemed like you two had just tied the knot.” She explained walking her back to her corner office.
Alyssa blushed at the compliment, “Yeah we’re engaged, haven’t even set a date yet.”
“How long have you two been together?”
“Three years, but we were friends for eight years before that.”
“Wow. So you two have known each other for eleven years that’s quite an achievement.”
“Yes it’s been tough sometimes but we love each other so it’s okay that we’ve been through so much.” She explained making Sandra smile at her. “That’s why we want to move to Monterey, we can get a fresher start there and really build our dream home to raise a family.”
Sandra grinned, “So here are some rough drawings I made for you, you both said you like Mediterranean styles and flagstone so I thought you might like this for the exterior of the home. It’d have all the essentials six bedrooms, an office, basement, recording studio that Nick specifically requested. A library loft in the attic, pool and balcony stemming off the master bedroom. Shaded balcony for entertaining and dining. Full chef’s kitchen.”
“Wow this looks amazing did you draw these yourself by hand?”
“Yep, I’m a little old school. My dad taught me everything by hand and I like doing my initial sketches by simple pencil and paper. Makes it simpler, I transposed these to pen so they’d be a little bit more permanent.”
“This is beautiful especially with the dock leading out to Nick’s boat. And all the space we’ll have for storage.”
“Exactly the garage will have lots of cabinetry and all the bedrooms will have built in wall bookcases to minimize the amount of floor space it would take up conventionally.”
“Can you make a copy of these for me? Nick would love to see these, I think it’s exactly what we were going for.”
“That’s great and as far as interior design I can recommend a great one in our firm here, he’s fantastic and really goes along with your preferences and personal style.”
Alyssa nodded and smiled, “That would be great, Nick and I are always trying to decorate our house now on our own but it’s a little hodge podge with our eclectic tastes.”
That afternoon…
Brian watched Nick flit around the recording booth as they set everything up for the girls that evening. All the guys had invited their significant others to be the first to listen to the new album aside from them and the record company. Nick moved around bumping into AJ both of them chuckling at their clumsiness. “Okay Nick…what’s gotten into you?”
“Or more importantly what have you gotten into?” Howie added with a knowing grin. None of them had seen him that happy in months. It brought a smile to all of their faces knowing that Alyssa and their new found strength had something to do with his turn around in his mood. Not only was he happy with his health and image, but now he was extremely happy in all aspects of his life.
“Guys just leave me be.” He remarked with a laugh. The last twenty-four hours had definitely boosted his mood, hell even in the last two months how close he and Alyssa had become had incredibly increased his mood.
AJ snickered, “So how was it?” He began hoping to trip Nick up some way to only further tease the hell out of him for what he already suspected to be true.
“What?” Nick asked as he sorted through sheet music and lyric notes he’d made over the months they’d been recording.
“The hot monkey sex you had last night and I’m assuming also this morning from the I got lucky dazed look you’ve got going on.”
Nick snicker-snorted and looked up, “Hot monkey sex?” He asked with a ludicrous grin and an eye brow arched at him.
“So are you denying it?”
Nick shook his head and kept quiet moving on to another stack of cds and demos. “I plead the fifth.”
“What?” Brian asked.
“You know the fifth amendment the right not to incriminate yourself or others during questioning.” He said matter-of-factly.
Howie sniggered at him and shook his head sitting on the couch, “I don’t know what I should be more shocked about, the fact that you won’t fess up or the fact that you actually KNOW what the fifth amendment is.”
“Oh go fuck yourself Howard.” Nick retorted with a stern look that quickly broke out into a wide grin.
AJ laughed heartily at the exchange and then got an idea, “You guys know how Alyssa is always more sarcastic after getting laid?”
“Umm sure?” Brian shrugged not actually knowing that about Alyssa but went with it anyways knowing it would probably result in a hilarious retort.
“Well I think it’s starting to rub off on him. You’re definitely wittier than yesterday.”
Nick sighed and sat on the couch putting his face in his hands then running them through his hair. “What do you want me to say? That Ali and I are sleeping together again? Will that shut the three of you clowns up?”
“Was it good?” AJ asked with a cheesy grin.
Nick rolled his eyes, “Don’t you have Kellie to dish gossip with? Why do you need to know everything about my sex life?”
“Uh because it’s interesting and whenever it’s really good you tend to keep it a secret. So that makes us all curious.”
“Well what about you and Leigh?” Nick asked.
“We’re doing just fine. It’s hard to find time lately with planning the wedding and the family being around 24/7 at least within the next few weeks until the wedding in early December the promo tour will at least give us some form of alone time when we’re in the hotel.”
“I better not have to have my room next to his or else we’ll be hearing bilingual moaning all night.” Nick joked back.
Brian giggled at Nick’s joke, “At least its better than Ali screaming ‘Oh God Nickolas’ all night.” He said imitating a high pitched girly voice.
“Oh I’m sure Kellie and AJ are going to be able to beat us this time around. What with their freaky ways.” Nick added. They all laughed hard for a few minutes then caught their breaths looking around at each other. There was a time when at this moment Kevin would break into the conversation with something equally funny or with a gruff ‘Okay stop clowning around let’s get back to work.’ Nick sighed and looked at Brian then Howie and AJ. “Do you guys ever miss Kevin being around?” He asked out of the blue. They were just a few short weeks away from releasing a brand new album, their first without Kevin at their sides. Nick wasn’t the only one feeling sort of awkward about the whole thing. All them felt different, weird even without their friend and former bandmate in the trenches with them this time around.
Brian shrugged, “It’s odd but think of it this way…would we ever have been able to create the album we created with Kevin here? Sad to say we gained a lot of creative freedom without eyebrows being around.” He explained with a slight chuckle.
Howie smiled and nodded, “Yeah seriously everything would have been like Inconsolable and In Pieces on the whole album if he’d have been here, you know how he is with his themes.”
“Yeah but still…It’s weird being four instead of five.”
AJ sighed and patted Nick on the back making him jump and wince. “Ah HA! You did fuck last night!” He said changing the subject.
“How do you know?” Nick said laughing.
“Oh because you jumped when I did this…” He said slapping Nick on the back again making him stand up and yelp.
“Mother fucker!” He yelped at him. “That’s not nice.”
“Well tell Alyssa to stop ripping up your back when you fuck her.” Howie retorted making them all bust out laughing again as they continued to prepare for that night and how they were going to have all their women listen to the most of the tracks they’d recorded for the album. Nick sighed hoping Alyssa would find the same meaning he had found in many of the songs they’d chosen to put on the album and some that had been pushed to being bonus material.
Author's Chapter Notes:
YAY! i'm so on a roll I finished chapter 7 and am working on chapter 8 i hope to get at least 2 more chapters done tonight woo! Hopefully some updating on my personal site as well. If you haven't checked that out please do so!
