Overture - Skye Warren Page 0,6

Samantha changed everything. For the first time I actually wanted to stay alive.

I never would have shackled a woman to me. Never would have had children of my own, but Samantha… she’s in a different category. The judge granted her custody to me, but from the moment he signed that piece of paper, I belonged to her.

My head lowers. I’m determined to exorcise my sexual demons with this woman who clearly wants this, who can handle it and walk away unscathed. Our lips meet. Every muscle in my body remains as hard and cold as marble. Desperation courses through my veins. How can I keep Samantha safe from this? From me?

An image of Samantha’s face flashes through my head, her eyes closed in ecstasy, a low sound of pleasure vibrating through her throat. My eyes are closed, too. That’s all I can see. I grasp the jaw of the woman I’m holding, then slide my hand to her neck. My other hand slides back to clench in her hair—something is wrong, this isn’t what her hair would feel like. I pull hard enough that she makes a soft sound of protest.

My eyes snap open. What the hell am I doing?

I take a step away from the woman. She deserves more than a man who’s imagining someone else. And Samantha deserves more than a guardian who thinks about her while fucking.

Kimberly’s breathing hard. Her hand goes to her throat, where the skin is still red from my grip. “I knew it would be intense with you. But that was—”

“A mistake,” I say, trying to soften my voice. Failing. I’m hard all over and nothing that happens in this room can fix that. “I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

In fact I really didn’t kiss her. Our lips were a millimeter apart before I stopped. That’s how close I came to finally finding relief, and all I feel is betrayal to Samantha.

The sensual haze slowly lifts from the reporter’s eyes, replaced with that shrewd journalistic instinct I should never have let into this house. “Because you’re seeing someone else?”

“Does it matter?”

“It might matter, if it’s something worth writing about.”

My eyes narrow. “You have an accusation? Come out and say it, Ms. Cox.”

“I’m a journalist. I only have questions.”

“I shouldn’t have kissed you because you’re here to do a story on Samantha Brooks, the prodigy, the soloist, who has incomparable talent and a hell of a bright future. You’re not here to take your clothes off for me. Unless that’s a perk that comes from Classical Notes Magazine now.”

She flinches, which makes me a true bastard. She’s done nothing wrong except be damn good at her job. It’s the only way I can get her to back off the damn story.

There is no story.

Nothing has ever happened between me and Samantha, and that can’t change. No matter how badly I want her. No matter how hard I ache for just one taste.

CHAPTER FOUR

String players, like violinists, tend to have larger brains. This is due in part to the complex motor skills and reasoning required to play the instrument.

SAMANTHA

The string vibrates on a C sharp, the note echoing in the chamber after my bow lifts.

Silence descends in slow degrees. I could be turning the page to my sheet music or tightening a string. I could be doing any number of things to continue practice, instead of sitting with my violin across my lap, the bow clutched artlessly in my fist. I have lived a thousand lives in the dramatic rise of a musical piece, feeling the intensity grow, the complexity develop. This moment in my life should have been marked by an entire orchestra, bodies moving in harmony, instruments an extension of bone and flesh.

Instead there’s only a curious quiet, so rare and therefore precious.

I feel the answering stillness in the room next door. He could be shifting pieces of paper, noiseless and precise. He could be examining numbers and tactical formations on the flat privacy screen, but I know he’s noticing the lack of music. We’re connected enough that I can tell he’s wondering what I’m doing.

I’m wondering the same thing.

Booted footsteps cross the gleaming parquet floor. Every aspect of this room has been designed to enhance sound, and it turns his approach into a military drum. He appears in the archway. The doors remain open every afternoon, even though my practice must disturb his work. Liam North takes his responsibilities seriously.

And I’m his responsibility.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, crouching in front of me, taking in