Kevin couldn’t get Morgan out of his mind. He had gone to bed with the smell of her perfume still in his clothes. He woke up the next morning from vivid dreams of her, feeling her in his arms.
Even though his mind was filled with thoughts of Morgan, Kevin was able to make it through their public appearances that morning, with no one realizing how distracted he truly was.
After a break during the rehearsal that afternoon, he walked back to the stage and heard a familiar voice. He saw her talking to AJ & Nick, Tessa standing next to her. He also noticed Nick was grinning like an idiot – a sure sign that he was interested in Tessa!
“Is this a private conversation, or can I join in?” Kevin asked, coming up behind Morgan, kissing her cheek.
“Kevin, I was just introducing Tessa to Nick & AJ. I’m sorry I didn’t introduce you yesterday. Kevin, my goddaughter, Tessa Anderson; Tessa, Kevin Richardson.”
“Nice to meet you, Tessa,” Kevin said smiling, then gave her a small hug. He then stepped back, taking Morgan’s hand. “Can I talk to you for a minute, Morgan?” he asked.
“Sure. Tessa, I’ll be right back, ok?”
“She’ll be fine, Morgan! She’s with me!” Nick said.
“That’s what she’s afraid of, Nicky!” Kevin said over his shoulder, smiling.
Kevin led Morgan off the stage & out into the hallway where they could have a small amount of privacy. He stopped & leaned against the wall, pulled her to him and kissed her passionately, feeling her arms wrap around his neck.
He broke the kiss slowly. “Damn, I’ve been wanting to do that all day!” he smiled at her.
She never moved from her embrace and kept her arms around his neck. “So, what did you want to talk to me about? Or was that an excuse to get me away from the others?”
“The kiss was just a part of it. I do want to talk to you though. You don’t think this is moving too quick, do you?” he asked, frowning slightly. “If you want me to back off, I will.”
She reached up, touching his jaw, “I don’t want you to back off. But I have learned that if you never take an opportunity, it will pass you by & you won’t get the chance again. But I do think it was the right choice of not taking it further last night; it gave us the opportunity to think about the choices we have.”
“My heart & mind agree with you; my body disagreed with that decision last night, though!” he laughed.
“If it makes you feel any better – it was the same for me too!” she laughed.
“So, why did Tessa call for you last night? She seems ok today,” Kevin asked.
“She had gotten some anonymous & obscene phone calls last night. It turns out that the phone calls weren’t directed at her; they were meant for me,” she said quietly, looking away from his eyes.
Kevin immediately became tense, tightening his arms protectively around her. “What do you mean?” he asked.
She told him about her ex-boyfriend, Marcus, whom she had broken up with six months earlier. He had not been very happy about the situation and had started to harass her. When the phone calls became threatening, though, she had filed a police report & gotten a restraining order.
After the third phone call last night, Tessa had gone into a panic & called Calvin, Kris’s cousin to see if he knew if the group was at ‘The Dungeon’. When he had said that they were in fact there, she had told him that Morgan needed to come home immediately! When Morgan walked through the front door at home, Tessa had grabbed her in a huge hug, refusing to let go. Morgan had called the police, holding onto a sobbing & near-hysterical Tessa, and filed yet another police report. “Tessa was so scared last night, she slept in my bed with me & Diana,” she explained, a small smile on her lips.
“So it was pretty crowded in your bed last night, huh?” Kevin smiled down at her. “Hmm, three females in the same bed; sounds pretty interesting to me.”
He got a soft slap on the arm for the remark. His smile faded though, when he asked, “Did the cops do anything last night?”
“They said they would file the report and call me in the morning to let me know what will be done. I still haven’t heard any news, even though I’ve called three times! The caller I.D. on my phone said it was from a payphone somewhere in the city. He could’ve easily been down the street for all I know!”
Kevin could tell she was on the verge of panic. He put his hands on the side of her face, making her look at him. “Look at me, Morgan! No one is gonna hurt you or Tessa; not while I’m around!”
She saw the intense emotions in his eyes: concern for her safety & anger at the potential danger she was in. He leaned down suddenly, kissing her deeply, wrapping his arms around her once again.
He heard her moan, felt her pull herself against him, his body immediately responding to hers. He felt her hands move down his chest, towards the top of his jeans and he groaned. He reluctantly broke the kiss, whispering in her ear, “We have to stop, Morgan! God knows, I don’t want to stop, but if I don’t get back out there, they’ll start looking for me,” he laughed. “I don’t know about you, but I do not want to get caught in an interesting situation that would embarrass us both!”
“I agree,” she said. He could feel her trembling against him. They both held onto each other, trying to get their bodies back under control, their breathing back to normal.
A few minutes later, they heard footsteps, then saw Brian come around the corner. “There you are, Kev! We were about to…Oh! Never mind!” Brian said, his embarrassment obvious. “Sorry, but all AJ said was that he saw you two come this way.”
“It’s ok, cuz! Morgan & I just needed to talk privately about a few things. We’ll be back in a few minutes,” Kevin told his cousin, grinning.
“That’s what you told AJ 30 minutes ago!”
Brian said over his shoulder as he turned and walked back into the arena.
Kevin looked down and was pleased to see that Morgan’s smile actually reached her eyes. “I had a feeling he was gonna do that. AJ gets left out of things, he wants to see who he can get in trouble.”
“And you were the main target this time, it looks like!” she giggled.
“You & me both! Come on. Let’s get back in there, so we can finish up this rehearsal. I’ll just be glad when tonight’s over & we get a VERY well-deserved, three-month vacation!” He put his arm around her shoulders as they went to join their friends near the stage.
