Staccato (Magnum Opus #2) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,122
it’s not your song.” His voice—god, his voice. He didn’t want to believe his ears—he was too desperately afraid because this was everything he’d been begging for. “It’s my song. You wrote it for me.”
A sob escaped him, but just one, and he moved forward again until his cane told him there was nowhere left to go. He stood there, shins pressed to the elevated stage. He felt the heat of the lamp on him, and he didn’t turn his face away.
“The ending is wrong,” he finally said.
Adam’s laugh was choked with tears. “The last one I heard wasn’t finished. How does it go?”
At that, Nik smiled. In spite of himself, in spite of everything—he smiled. “I don’t know yet. I was hoping you’d write it with me.”
Another silence fell and then footsteps. He waited for something—anything. An embrace, a slap, a punch to his gut. But instead there was a gulf of unknown distance between them, and he couldn’t make himself reach out.
“Tell me how it ends.” Adam was close now—inches from him.
Nik’s hand rose to his cheek, and heat blossomed in his palm at the first touch of his skin in so, so long. “We’ll write it together,” he promised.
Adam laughed, turning his face against Nik’s hand, and lips he swore he’d never feel again pressed a hot kiss to his flesh. “Yeah? You sure?”
Nik dropped his cane and gathered Adam to him, sure and strong and perfect—all the pieces of their puzzle locking together. He nosed along Adam’s jaw, along his neck, hands in his hair, afraid to stop touching, afraid to let go.
When he was sure this was it, that maybe he wasn’t forgiven—but he might be, he finally turned his face and kissed him. It was open-mouthed, fearful, desperate, filled with the salt of tears that had cried oceans between them.
And, above all, there was relief.
Adam broke the kiss first, his voice full of soft wonder, and he cupped Nik’s face. “You sure?” he asked again.
Nik smiled and nodded and told his deepest truth right there to a bar full of strangers. “I love you, Adam. And I’m sure.”
Chapter 30
Coda
Adam breathed out, breathed in. He tried not to give into his irrational fear at the sound of the audience roaring and humiliating not only himself, but Nik, and every other person who had been working day and night on this show.
It was the prelude to the Rock Opera, which wasn’t even close to finished. It was still just an idea with a vague cast list and a theme that Cedric and Nik had spent sleepless nights working on.
But this wasn’t really about that—this night. This was Nik’s debut—his moment, his magnum opus. This was the song he had been composing for as long as Adam had known him, and it had an ending now.
Or something like it. It had a promise, at least, to stand together and not give up, allowing their love tangible form and meaning.
Adam was still stunned when Nik asked him to accompany him. And he was even more stunned when Nicolas Michaud—a man whose reputation and presence terrified Adam to his very core—had simply nodded like it was the easiest question in the world.
“Me?” he’d sputtered, and Nik had laughed and kissed him, then pressed the word yes over and over to his lips until Adam was helpless to do anything but agree.
And he hadn’t embarrassed Nik—or anyone, really. Not even himself. He probably owed everything to both Nicolas and Cedric, who worked him until his fingers bled to come up with something that matched the absolute ethereal talent of the man he loved. Because, ultimately, Adam would always be that man—that DIY punk asshole with the scratcher scars and eyebrow rings who wanted to scream into the void until he lost his voice.
But it didn’t take long for him to figure out that he could be this too. He could accompany Nik on stage for moments, and for the rest of the time, he would watch in awe and wonder and pride as Nik brought audiences to tears. As it should have been.
And the best part was the after—Nik crowding him up against the wall in a dark room where their moments whittled down to touch and taste and shared breath. It was Adam, fumbling with lube and shoving three fingers up Nik’s ass and feeling his hot, wet gasps against is neck as Nik tightened around his hand and begged for more.