The Prelude (A Musical Interlude Novel) - By Kasonndra Leigh Page 0,57

to get out of the heated atmosphere of the club before she loses her food and no less than four mixed drinks on my shoes. Hagar steps out of the car, and comes to our side.

“Will the young Miss be alright?” he asks.

“She’ll be fine,” I answer, still holding her ponytail away from her face while she finishes using me as her human toilet.

* * *

The next morning, I awaken to a sight that scares the shit out of me. My sister stands less than a foot away from my face, and she wears this crazy grin making me think she has lost her mind.

“Well well, what’s going on here, big brother?” she gushes, unable to stop smiling. I take one look at her disheveled hair and the purse she’s carrying, and then I check my watch and say, “Maybe I should be asking you the same question, little sister.”

Her grin does fade this time and she gives me the innocent face. I’m well aware that Adriana has found someone. So have I. We’re unintentional partners in the same crime, defying the woman who turned us both into child prodigies. “Relax, I won’t tell Mother,” I assure her.

I glance down at Erin. We fell asleep on Erin’s couch, holding on to each other sometime after she managed to stop vomiting and dry-heaving.

“Yeesh! Somebody doesn’t look so well,” Adriana says and drops her bag on the floor. She moves toward us and places her hand on Erin’s forehead. Her head lies on my stomach, and her chest rests on a dangerously provocative spot. Her body hides the hard on I have each morning when I wake up.

Inhaling sharply, Adriana says: “I think she has a fever. I don’t know if we have any medicine for things like this.” Her affection for Erin touches me. She has never gotten so close to any of my previous partners. I can’t help but to smile.

“It’s just a hangover. Her best remedy will be time and sleep,” I answer and move to help Erin sit up.

I’ve fallen asleep on a couch with a beautiful woman I didn’t wind up fucking the night before. Something has definitely gone wrong in my head.

“I’ll go fetch some fresh clothes for her while you two, um, talk,” Adriana says, still grinning wide as she walks toward the hallway.

I glance down at Erin. She’s focused on me now. “Well hello there, Jaybird. Why do you have your hand over your mouth?”

She releases a short sigh. “Are you kidding me? I have both morning and puke breath. You should’ve put me in the bed and then left my ass.”

“What kind of jackass do you think I am?” I get the raised left eyebrow in return for my answer. “Don’t answer that.” We both share a small laugh.

“If I would’ve left, then I wouldn’t have been able to watch you sleep,” I answer truthfully. I don’t tell her about the part where I heard her talking to someone as she slept.

“Why would you want to do something like that?” she asks, her hand easing away from her lips, her eyes focused directly on mine.

“Sleep is a mystical thing, kind of like sex in a way,” I answer. “You can learn a great deal about a person while they’re sleeping.”

Scratching her forehead, she sits up and leans over on her knees. I reach over and move her hair away from her face. Taking her hair down was the one thing she managed to do before she completely passed out. She rarely wears it loose this way, and the length of it fascinates me. Men love long hair. On a strong-willed woman like Erin, the long locks can add the right amount of softness to drive me wild. I get a smile in return. I love how she has gotten more comfortable with me each time we go out together. I feel like some type of impossible mission has been accomplished.

“Tell me, Erin, am I worthy of your attention?”

“What a one-track mind we have, Maestro,” she answers and turns her head away, but not before she lowers her head down in her hands. The hangover headache has caught up with her.

“Hey. Take it easy. And I do have one goal at the moment,” I begin, “and it belongs to you, Ms. Angelo. That is, if you’ll have me.”

“And if I say yes, does that mean we’ll be kissing on the lips? The top lips, let me add.”

I don’t understand her reservations with kissing someone