The Pool Boy - Nikki Sloane Page 0,55
have recognized she was starting at the beginning.
The melody was . . . beautiful.
It took its time and reminded me of someone breathing in deep breaths.
When she began to softly sing, the hairs on the back of my neck stood. Goosebumps lifted on my arms. While the volume of her voice was low, the intensity behind it was so powerful I tightened my hold on my glass of water.
It made me a willing slave, unable to do anything but listen to her music and try not to disrupt her. The moment was magic, even more than the last time I’d heard her sing, and I didn’t want to break the spell.
Her song was about desire. How she was a prisoner beneath it and whoever she was singing about had such power over her. She sang it was scary, but . . . she didn’t want them to release her. She only wanted more.
My pulse sped so fast, I wondered if my heart was going to explode. She couldn’t write for two years, and now it seemed like she couldn’t stop.
Was this the song she was creating . . . for me?
Because I wanted it to be, but—fuck—I really wanted it to be how she felt about me.
Erika strummed her guitar, singing to herself as she stared off into the empty room, concentrating on the lyrics and the notes. When she ran out of song, I was lost. It was fucking heartbreaking there wasn’t more.
“Is that my song?” I asked.
“Jesus Christ!” she cried, jerking backward.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” I pushed the door open and stepped into the room while she glared up at me. Her heart was pumping hard with shock, judging by how rapidly her chest was moving, but it would probably match mine. I was still recovering from hearing part of her song.
“Is this like your thing?” she asked. “Sneaking up on me when I’m naked?”
I laughed. “Do you want it to be? It worked out pretty great last time.”
She pointed to the glass of water I was holding, and I handed it to her. She took a long sip, and warmth spread through me at this simple act of sharing. We’d shared way bigger things than this, but I liked it anyway.
I sat down on the couch beside her, resisting the urge to sit too close. I didn’t want her to feel like I was crowding her.
She pretended it wasn’t important to her, when it clearly was. “How much did you hear?”
“All of it, I’m guessing.” I was dying inside but did my best not to show it. “I mean, of what you have so far, I think.”
She clutched the guitar so tightly, her fingers squealed against the veneer. “And?”
“And . . . it’s amazing.” Hopefully, she understood how serious I was.
It seemed like it because air seeped out of her in a relaxed sigh.
“Is it the song for me?” I asked.
Her eyebrows pulled together, creating a crease between them. “I . . . This wasn’t what I was working on this morning.”
Interesting.
“Another song?” I grinned. “You weren’t hearing music for two years, and all of a sudden, it’s nonstop.”
She cocked an eyebrow, unamused. “Are you going to tell me your dick is magic again?”
“Do I need to? I think the evidence speaks for itself.”
She smiled and shook her head, humoring me. It made the long curtain of her hair shimmer, and I slid closer, looping a strand around my finger. The atmosphere in the room shifted, becoming intense and serious.
My voice dipped to a hush. “Still haven’t answered my question, Erika.”
Her eyes were wild and her expression anxious, like she worried her answer was signing the song rights over to me alone and for all time. I opened my mouth to tell her that wasn’t true. She hadn’t even finished—
“Yes,” she whispered. “It’s for you.”
I kissed her, because how could I not? I’d only heard part of the song, but I’d wanted it so badly, it felt like an enormous gift. No, not felt—it was a gift.
Our kiss wasn’t like the ones we’d had before.
Until this moment, kissing her had been foreplay. Part of something larger, working toward a goal of getting us naked and sweaty. But this slow, deep kiss wasn’t about that at all. It echoed what she’d sung about, how she was scared but didn’t want to be released. Our mouths moved together, silently singing how we both wanted more.
The intense kiss faded until she ended it. If I had any