Текст книги "Rock Hard"
Автор книги: Olivia Cunning
сообщить о нарушении
Текущая страница: 22 (всего у книги 24 страниц)
Chapter 48
When Jessica heard the front door open, she hurriedly lit the candles she’d arranged on the dining room table to set the mood. She leaned to the side so she could watch Sed approach around the two-story high pillar in the foyer, but stayed in her chair and waited for him to join her. That had been a close call. Jace had left less than ten minutes ago. If Sed would have caught him here, she knew it would have gotten ugly. And ruined Friday’s surprise.
“What’s all this?” Sed murmured.
“I thought you’d be hungry.”
When he noticed she sat waiting for him in the tiniest of pink lace negligees, he growled in appreciation. She indicated the seat to her left. “Have a seat, sweetheart.”
Sed kissed her temple and then sat beside her. “Is this my surprise? You look beautiful.”
She flushed with pleasure. “Part of it. And thank you. How’s your throat feeling?”
“Not bad. I heal quickly. I can talk okay now.”
“No, you can’t.” She reached under the table and retrieved the gift bag she’d stashed at her feet. “Your surprise is in here. Have you been good for Eric today?”
He hesitated, looking at the ceiling in deep concentration, and then nodded.
Somehow she doubted he was being sincere, but she handed the gift bag to him.
“What is—”
She covered his mouth with her hand. “No talking, Sed.”
He reached into the gift bag and pulled out a small dry-erase board and marker. He didn’t even try to hide his disappointment. “I thought you’d get me something sexy.”
“If you use that to communicate instead of talking, I have another surprise for you.”
“Yeah?”
“You’ll probably like this one better.”
He uncapped the marker and wrote OK on the board.
She reached up and cupped his face in her hand. His cheek was rough with a day’s beard growth and she took a moment to enjoy the texture against her fingertips. She then kissed him tenderly. “If you’re a good boy, I’ll be a very naughty girl.”
VERY naughty? he wrote.
“Very, very naughty,” she murmured and kissed him again.
His gaze caressed her skin in a most distracting fashion. She was determined to get through this meal without pouncing on him, but now that he was here, she doubted they’d make it all the way to dessert. He’d be lucky if she let him finish his appetizer. Or start it.
School? he wrote.
“I’ve decided to finish law school—I have important work to do—but I’ll tell you about that later. Right now, you need to eat. Are you hungry?”
He nodded earnestly.
She removed lids from the containers of food scattered across the table. “I tried to think of things that wouldn’t hurt your throat.”
He watched her reveal one dish after another. You cooked all this?
She read his message and laughed. “No, sweetheart, it’s take out. I wanted you to enjoy it, not have to choke it down and pretend I’m not poisoning you.”
He took her hand and kissed her knuckles.
“So what are you hungry for?”
You, he wrote.
“That’s dessert.”
Let’s start with dessert.
“Don’t tempt me. I’m trying to take care of you. Help you build up your strength for your concert next week. And our little side trip on Friday.” The one Jace had helped her plan while Eric kept Sed distracted in the recording studio.
His eyebrows shot up. Trip? he wrote.
“You didn’t think I was going to be very, very naughty in the privacy of our own home, did you?”
He grabbed her off her chair and pulled her onto his lap. “How naughty?” he murmured against her throat.
“Unbelievably naughty. But only if you follow doctor’s orders to the letter. No more talking, okay?”
He blinked—meaning yes—and opened his mouth wide.
“You want me to feed you?”
He blinked again.
She reached for the bowl of macaroni and cheese. She turned to straddle his lap on the chair, holding the bowl between their bodies, and offered him a bite from the plastic serving spoon. While he chewed, she took a bite herself. Since she was feeding him, his hands were free to explore her body.
He seemed to like her new pink nightie. He traced the top of the frilled bodice, which was cut so low it barely covered her nipples. And with an expert flick of Sed’s thumbs, it no longer did.
He stroked both nipples in maddening circles while she fed him another bite of overcooked mac and cheese.
After he swallowed, she leaned closer and claimed his mouth in a passionate kiss. “I love you,” she said against his lips. It felt good to say it. Without hesitation. Without regret.
“I—”
“Shhh. Don’t talk. You don’t have to say anything. I feel it.”
He shifted his hips and she really felt it then. Hard, attentive, and pressing against her mound. And since they weren’t in a restaurant, she could ride him at the dinner table like a bronco all night if she felt like it. Jessica fed him another bite and rocked her hips to rub herself against him.
Sed stared into her eyes, his gaze so intense it made her heart throb. “I need to tell you something.”
“Write it down.” She tried to feed him another bite, but he turned his head to one side.
“You need to hear it.”
“Sed, don’t make me resort to duct tape.”
“I haven’t kissed another woman since I met you.”
She snorted with laughter. “Yeah right.”
“It’s true.”
“Sed, I caught you naked with three girls the night we got back together. I’m not stupid.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t have sex with other women, I said I haven’t kissed another woman.”
“Oh.” Her gaze dropped to his chin. Why did he think that was so important? “Why not?”
“I only kiss women I love.”
Her brow knotted with confusion. “But you kissed me that first night in the strip club and then again when you said you hated me on the tour bus.” And pretty much constantly ever since.
“I only kiss women I love.” He cupped her cheek in one hand and pressed his lips to hers. “Only you.”
She supposed that was his way of being true to her. She wondered why he’d waited so long to tell her. “I’m glad,” she whispered.
“Have you?”
When she opened her mouth to speak, he covered her lips with two fingers. “Never mind.”
“You act like you know what I’m going to say.”
“It’s none of my business.”
She captured his wrist with her free hand and pulled his hand away from her lips. “I have kissed a couple of men.” Jessica held his gaze so he’d know she was being serious.
He winced and she was pretty sure it wasn’t due to throat pain.
“But I didn’t enjoy it. There was no passion. Not like with you. Not even close.” She smiled at him gently, as both of his dimples made an appearance. And while she was making confessions… “For the record…” She took a deep breath. “I haven’t had sex with anyone since we broke up.”
“No one?”
Unable to meet his eyes, she shook her head. It was kind of embarrassing to admit how much he’d affected her. How he’d ruled certain parts of her life, even in his absence.
“Not once in two years?”
Her nostrils flared. “No! I said I haven’t. What? You don’t believe me?”
He took the bowl from her and set it on the table before wrapping both arms around her and hugging her against his chest.
“I should have never let you go, Jess. I should have gone after you. I should have fixed it. Whatever I had to do, I should have—”
She pulled back to look into his eyes. His watery gaze drifted to the ceiling as he tried to get a handle on his emotions.
“I have plenty of regrets of my own, Sed, but I’ve decided to let them go. You should too. We can’t change the past, but we can move forward.”
“So much wasted time.”
She shook her head. “No regrets.” She grabbed his chin to gain his attention and gave him a stern look. “And you’re talking way too much. If you say one more word, I’m cancelling our trip next week.”
That shut him up, but it didn’t stop him from expressing his feelings with his hands and lips. He suckled the pulse point beneath her ear and she gasped, her body instantly igniting with need.
“Before you get me too worked up, I should warn you that I have the first draft of a paper to write this weekend, so you’re going to have to entertain yourself while I hit the books.”
He pulled back to look at her, scowling.
“You’re the one who insisted I go back to school. Remember?”
He sighed and nodded.
“But tonight, I’m yours.”
He grinned and reached for the dry erase board. You don’t want to be a nurse anymore? he wrote.
She flushed and shook her head. “I was just afraid to go back to law school. The way Dean Taylor made me feel and that whole failure thing… I’m over it.” She grinned at him. “But I can still be your nurse. Tell me how I can make you more comfortable, Mr. Lionheart.” She ran a finger down the center of his chest.
Feed me, he wrote. Not the request she’d had in mind, but okay.
“What would you like? Mashed potatoes? Cheese soup?”
Something cold.
“Your throat’s really bothering you, isn’t it?”
He nodded. She shouldn’t have let him talk as much as she had. She would be a more attentive nurse from this point forward.
She scanned the table for something cold and soothing. “Gelatin? Or I can get a Popsicle out of the freezer.”
His hand tightened on her hip, telling her he didn’t want her to get up.
Jell-O is fine.
She claimed the bowl of orange gelatin cubes and fed them to him with her fingers.
Tell me about school today, he wrote and set the dry erase board aside.
“Um, okay. I found out I’m not the only one the dean has propositioned sexually. I also found out how Dr. Ellington gets her way and the reason she probably hates me in the first place.”
Sed lifted an eyebrow in interest, his tongue teasing her fingertips as he accepted her offering of gelatin.
“Ellington sucks the dean’s cock in his office. And I’m pretty sure it pisses her off that he calls my name while she does it. I heard him.”
Sed choked on the jiggly orange cube he’d just slurped down his throat. Before he could vocalize a protest, Jessica covered his lips with her fingers.
“He’s no threat to you, sweetheart. And now that I know what a slime ball he is, I’m no longer intimidated by him. I’ve dealt with his kind before. He can’t get to me. I won’t give him that power ever again.”
She could tell Sed was struggling with his strong protective instincts. He probably wanted to pound Dean Taylor into the ground which, honestly, she wouldn’t mind watching. After several deep breaths, Sed nodded at her to continue. She smiled and offered him another cube of gelatin.
“So I’m building a sexual harassment case against him. A big one. You might call it huge. His secretary knows all kinds of things that go on behind closed doors and she was happy to share information. She told me about a student who graduated a few years ago who is now a practicing lawyer. Apparently, Taylor harassed a friend of hers until she dropped out of school. Sound familiar?”
Sed cupped her cheek, sympathy in his blue eyes.
“Anyway, I went and talked to her lawyer friend this afternoon. She agreed to take on the case pro bono. I’ll be doing a lot of the leg work—building the case, contacting witnesses and stuff—because she’s so busy with her current case load, but I cannot wait to get to work on this. Taylor is not going to get away with that kind of behavior anymore. I wish I was done with school so I could cross-examine that bastard on the stand. One more year and I can put slime balls like him in their place. I had planned to become a defense attorney, but this is what I want to do. Protect women from jackasses who use their positions of power to sexually harass them. It pisses me off to no end.”
Sed surprised her by kissing her until she was breathless. When he pulled away, he gazed into her eyes with a new awareness.
“You get off on this shit,” he murmured.
She laughed. “Well, yeah, I guess so.”
“I get it now.” She could practically see the light bulb go on over his head. “God, baby, I’m sorry I ever asked you to give it up.”
He kissed her again, starving for her mouth. And she didn’t have to wonder if he kissed other women like this. He didn’t kiss other women at all. Only her. The bowl of gelatin slipped from her grip and landed with a ploppy-clatter somewhere on the marble floor. She didn’t care. She had to keep kissing him. Kissing him and holding his handsome face while she sucked at his lips.
She rocked her hips against him, rubbing her mound against the hard bulge in his pants. Too many clothes. Too many. She needed him. Inside. Desperately. Now.
Thank God he was a mind reader.
Sed reached between them, unfastened his pants, and released his cock. She cried out against his lips, unwilling to separate their mouths even when he slid the crotch of her panties aside and directed his rigid member into her throbbing flesh. She sank down, shuddering with delight as he filled her. Her feet found the rails under the chair and she used them for leverage to rise and fall over him. Faster, she rode him. Faster. Fueling her need. Still kissing him.
His cock, hard and thick, rubbed her in exactly the right spot each time it plunged into her body. He felt so good inside her. Perfect. Her pleasure built quickly to its climax. Pulsations of sheer delight rippled through her insides. She cried out into his mouth and shuddered against him.
Jessica stopped, unable to move. After a moment, Sed wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her onto the edge of the table. She cried out in protest as his cock fell free from her body and their mouths separated. He stood and pushed his pants down to his knees. She slid her hands beneath his shirt and lifted it to expose his tight abs.
“Nine more?” he murmured as he directed his jutting cock back into her eager body.
She wrapped her legs loosely around his hips. “I think I can handle five more. Tops.”
He grinned at her and slowly pulled out. Slowly. Slowly. In complete control. His fingers sought her clit. A spasm gripped her body and she shuddered.
“Only five?”
She chuckled. “Don’t wear yourself out. You have to go to the studio tomorrow.” Her hands shifted from his belly to his back and he shuddered. He surged forward, burying himself deep. Her back arched in ecstasy.
“Why?” he said breathlessly. “I can’t sing anyway.”
“You are too much of a distraction and I have to write my paper. I have to pass that class.” And she would pass. Failure was not an option. But she had other reasons to send him off to the studio. She had to make plans for Friday. The day she was going to ask Sed to marry her.
Chapter 49
Sed awoke knowing today would be the day. The day he would ask Jessica to marry him. Which would be a challenge since he wasn’t supposed to talk. She wouldn’t have a hard time convincing him to remain silent today. Yesterday, his throat had hurt. This morning, it burned and ached so bad he hesitated to breathe. But he could tolerate the pain. What he couldn’t tolerate was the idea that she might refuse to marry him. He couldn’t really blame her if she did. He’d been a selfish ass the last time they’d tried forever, but that didn’t change how much he wanted her to be his wife.
He watched her sleep for a moment, struck by her beauty and reveling in the knowledge that she slept in his bed—their bed—and she’d be there every morning for the rest of their lives. They would make it. Failure was not an option.
Sed leaned out of bed and scooped his pants off the floor. He removed her engagement ring from his pocket and held it up to the limited light filtering through the curtains. He didn’t have a plan. He just wanted the ring back in her possession as soon as possible. Like, right now.
He lifted her left hand and started to slip the ring onto her ring finger. She gasped and flung her hand to her forehead as she regained consciousness. The ring went flying.
He heard a tiny ping on the opposite side of the room before she said, “Why is the sun up? What time is it?” She lifted her head from the pillow to check the clock on the nightstand. Her eyes widened and she jumped out of bed. “Oh crap, it’s late. Why didn’t the alarm go off?”
Well, they hadn’t exactly been thinking about alarm clocks when they’d finally made their way up to bed the night before. An amused smile on his lips, he watched her dart around the room.
“Sed, get up. I’m going to hop in the shower.”
“I’m up.” At least that’s what he meant to say. His words sounded more like a bunch of rusty nails rattling around in a tin can. Sucking dry air all night? Yeah, not so good for the healing process.
Jessica climbed up on the bed to kneel beside him. She kissed his forehead tenderly. “Oh sweetheart, your poor throat.”
He remembered a time when he wished he were injured so she’d show him the affection he craved. He was rethinking that wish right about now.
She kissed his eyelids. The tip of his nose. “I know the guys need your input to record, but maybe you should stay home and rest.”
He reached for the dry erase board on the nightstand. He’d used it the night before to give her instructions on his care. He erased Lick my back, and replaced it with Keep me company?
She pouted. “I want to, sweetheart, but I can’t. I have to get to the library.”
Well, he didn’t want to stay home by himself all day. Drop me off at the studio, then.
“You sure?”
He blinked, meaning yes. She kissed him. Just the motion of his lips as he returned her kiss sent pain shooting through his throat. He produced a pained whine, which prompted Jessica to cup his face in both hands.
“I’ll be right back,” she murmured against his lips, drew away, and headed out of the bedroom, not towards the bathroom.
He puzzled over where she was going for a moment and then remembered her ring now lay somewhere on the other side of the room. He climbed from the bed and searched for it on his hands and knees. His fingers brushed over the plush carpet in a widening circle as he made his way toward the far wall. He couldn’t find it. His heart thudded with panic. He didn’t even realize Jessica had returned to the room until she straddled him and sat on his back. The heat between her thighs against his lower back sent his senses spiraling out of control.
“Are we going to play cowgirl and stallion?” she asked, rocking slightly and making him even more aware of the endless delights at the apex of her legs. “Can I take you for a little ride?”
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “I’ll give you—” Pain cut his teasing reply short. He winced. Jessica leaned over his back and shoved an orange Popsicle in his mouth.
He damn near had an orgasm as he slurped the cold liquid down his burning throat.
She kissed his shoulder and climbed off his back. “Better?”
He nodded, still slurping in bliss.
“As much as I’d like to take you out for a morning ride, I’ve got to get in the shower. You need to get ready too. Okay? The guys will be waiting for you and I’ve got to get to the library before it closes.”
He blinked, finding it hurt less than nodding, and waited for her to go into the bathroom before continuing his search for her ring, his dwindling Popsicle lodged in the back of his throat. He finally found the ring resting against the baseboard behind the floor-length curtains. He’d just climbed to his feet when Jessica exited the bathroom drying her hair with a towel. Her one towel. God, he’d never get tired of that beautiful sight.
She pointed toward the bathroom and he went to do her bidding, the ring concealed in the palm of his hand.
After his shower, Sed got dressed and then leaned against the bathroom sink. He stared down at the engagement ring he held pinched between his thumb and forefinger. Maybe he should buy her something bigger before he asked her. Something more like the ring Brian had bought for Myrna. Some countries had a smaller gross national product than what that ring had cost Brian. This cheap thing Sed had bought for Jessica in his starving-musician days bordered on pathetic. Insignificant in size and quality, true, but it did hold special meaning. At least it did to him. He’d carried it around with him for two years, hoping one day to return it to her. He was determined that today be that day.
“Are you almost finished in there?” Jessica called from the bedroom. “I need to do my hair and we’re already running late.”
He’d try the passive approach. A tad less passive than trying to stick it on her finger while she slept, but he couldn’t talk, so this method would make sense. He wasn’t being a coward. She’d find this simple action romantic. Right? Of course she would.
He set the ring on the edge of the sink where she was sure to find it and, heart thudding with a mixture of excitement and anxiety, left the master bathroom clean-shaven and ready to face a day of being silent in the studio. After Jess found the ring and they made love for a couple of hours to celebrate, that is.
Sed stepped up behind Jessica and planted a kiss on the side of her neck. Just thinking about that ring on her finger had him more randy than a teen who’d just touched his first real boob. Her shorts hindering skin on skin contact, Sed’s hands slid over the ridges of her hipbones and down between her thighs.
“Mmmm,” she murmured, “if you don’t stop that, we’re never going to make it out of here.” She glanced up at him over her shoulder. “You okay? You look a little pale.”
He nodded at her curtly.
“Your throat hurts, doesn’t it? Go eat another Popsicle. I’ll hurry.”
Another Popsicle did sound heavenly—and so did removing these shorts and bending her over the end of the bed for a quickie—but what he wanted most was to hear her reaction when she found her ring on the sink. He wondered if she’d even recognize it. He directed her toward the bathroom and gave her rounded bottom a playful swat.
She laughed and headed for the steamy room beyond the open door. He waited for the sounds of her excitement. And waited. The hair dryer switched on, but no other sounds came from the bathroom. Had she missed seeing it? How could she miss it? He’d set it right there in plain view.
Sed crossed the bedroom and peered through the bathroom door. Her engagement ring still sat untouched on the edge of the sink next to her hip. Any minute now, she’d notice it.
Any minute now.
Any minute now she’d… bump the ring with her belly? Shit! The ring skittered around the basin before plunging down the drain.
Sed darted across the room, nudged Jessica to one side, and stuck his fingers down the drain hole. Nothing but air and a bit of sludge. That’s what he got for being too cowardly to present the ring to her properly in the first place. And for not having a plug in the damn sink drain.
Jessica gave him an odd look. “What are you doing?” she called over the whir of the hair dryer. “Did you lose something?”
He shook his head and went to the kitchen in search of tools. He was sure he had a pipe wrench somewhere. He just hoped the ring had gotten caught in the trap and was not on its way to the sewage treatment plant. While he was in the kitchen, he grabbed a grape Popsicle from the freezer and stuck it in his mouth, allowing the cool liquid to bathe his burning throat. He then returned to the bedroom to wait for Jessica to vacate the bathroom.
Jessica joined him a few moments later, looking so stunning in her little green tank top with her hair just right, her lashes thickened with mascara, and her lips shiny with gloss that he temporarily forgot how to breathe. Thinking? Thinking was totally out of the question. She pressed her body against his and wrapped her arms around him, her hands sliding down his lower back toward the heavy weight pressing against his butt. He came to his senses just in time to catch her hands before she discovered the wrench in the back pocket of his jeans.
She smiled at him. “Are you ready?”
He lifted a finger at her to tell her he needed a minute and then closed himself in the bathroom, locking the door behind him. He didn’t want her to know he’d faithfully carried her ring around for such a long time only to lose it down the sink the first time it left his possession for more than five seconds.
He had one side of the trap loosened beneath the sink when she started knocking impatiently.
“Are you all right in there?”
“Fine,” he said, though he doubted she could hear him croaking beneath the sink.
He unscrewed the other side of the trap, trying to limit the amount of clanking he produced, and pulled the pipe loose. He rescued the ring from the sticky goo in the trap and rinsed it in the sink. It took him a moment to register why water started pouring from beneath the cabinet onto his boots.
Dammit! He shut off the water and reached for a towel to soak up the puddle spreading across the floor. Perhaps he should go back to bed and start over. Tucking Jessica’s ring back in his pocket, he took a deep breath before climbing under the sink to reattach the trap. If his throat never healed properly and he had to give up singing, he could mark plumber off his list of potential careers.
“Baby?” Jessica called, the concern in her voice evident even through the door.
He tightened the pipe on both ends, washed his hands, and threw the wet towel from the floor in an inconspicuous corner.
He opened the door to her anxious face. He eased out of the bathroom and closed the door against his back, pulling a face of disgust. “You do not want to go in there,” he said, his throat protesting every word.
She touched his forehead with her fingertips. “You’re all sweaty. Are you sick?”
He shook his head.
“I’m okay,” he rasped, cupping her lovely face in both hands.
“You’d be better if you’d stop talking.” She grinned and stuck something over his lips. He checked the mirror over the dresser. A pink smiley face sticker? Was she fucking kidding him? From her chortle of amusement, he decided she was. She handed the dry erase board to him. “You’re supposed to be using this, remember?”
He nodded obediently, removed the sticker from his mouth, and stuck it to the luscious curve of her breast above the neckline of her tank top. And then it occurred to him. He could ask her by writing it on the board.
Where my ring? he wrote and handed the board to her.
She read it and handed it back to him. Not exactly the excited, tearful reaction he’d been hoping for.
“What ring? I don’t know where it is, Sed. We’ll have to find it when we get back.”
He glanced at his message and realized he’d spelled “wear” wrong. Damn it. He erased the message with his wrist.
WEAR, he wrote.
She glanced at the message and patted him on the back. “You look gorgeous, sweetheart. It doesn’t matter what you wear.”
“Jessica.”
She flashed a sheet of smiley face stickers at him. “No talking, Sed.”
Funny how smiley face stickers were far more threatening than a roll of duct tape. Well, now what?
He followed her to the car, lost in thought. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to ask her to marry him today. Maybe the universe kept standing in his way for a reason. He climbed into the passenger side of the Mercedes and Jessica climbed behind the wheel. He gazed at her left ring finger, which was entirely too naked for his tastes. As far as he was concerned, the rest of her could stay permanently naked, but not that finger. That finger needed something material that proved to the world she was his. Eternally. Maybe he could get the ring on her while she drove, but her hand was all the way over there.
“I’d ask you what has you all introspective again,” Jessica said, glancing at him as she waited for the community’s security gate to open, “but you’re not supposed to talk. Will you write it?”
It’s just. He paused for a long moment, wondering what he should write. I love you.
She lifted his hand and pressed his knuckles to her lips. “And I love you.”
He grinned. Music to his ears.
Music.
That’s it. Her song. She needed to hear her song before he proposed. That’s what the universe was trying to tell him.
“And I love those dimples.”
He hated the damn things, but if they made her happy, he’d be sure to smile like a dipshit more often.
She dropped him off at the recording studio on her way to the library. “Do you want me to pick you up, or can one of the guys give you a ride home? I’m not sure how late I’ll be.”
I’ll get a ride, he wrote obediently.
She leaned across the car and kissed him. “I can’t wait until Friday. You better behave so I won’t have to cancel.”
He knew she was manipulating him, but when she slid her hand between his thighs, he didn’t much care. He couldn’t wait until Friday either.
When he entered the studio about thirty minutes later—he and Jessica had gotten a bit carried away in their good-bye kisses—Eric greeted him.
“I wasn’t sure you were going to show up.” He nodded at the dry erase board in Sed’s hand. “What’s that for?”
Talking, he wrote.
“You don’t need to talk to play violin.”
Eric picked up a case from the floor and opened it. A jet black electric violin sat nestled in its confines.
“I’m not—” Sed’s throat protested and he winced. He switched to writing again. I’m not playing violin, Eric. Forget it.
“You know it’s all the screaming you do that destroyed your throat.”
“So?” he croaked. Some lackey thrust a bottle of water into his hand. He opened it and took a soothing/painful swallow. He was really wishing he’d stayed in bed with a supply of Popsicles and his personal nurse beside him.
“We need something to replace it.”
Sed blinked twice—no.
“Temporarily, at least. Even if you can sing, you know you’re not going to be able to scream for a while. And I know you don’t want to be the reason we have to cancel a bunch more shows.”
Did everyone know how to manipulate him? First Jess. Now Eric.
Eric’s slim black brows arched over his piercing blue eyes. “Try it?”
Fine.
Sed lifted a hand to block the sparkling white gleam produced by Eric’s wide smile, the gloater.
“Here,” Eric said, thrusting a stack of music at Sed. “I was up all night finding the exact pitch for every scream in our set.”
Every scream? That must have taken him hours. Sed nodded in appreciation, looking over the pages of music and the new additions to their songs in red ink. Well, at least he had something to do while the rest of them recorded. He’d need a lot of practice to pull this off onstage in a week. He’d kind of forgotten to mention that his violin playing sounded like distorted saw blades wrenching through scrap metal.
