Unlikely Harmony, page 6
I dropped the bottle of lube and condom on the mattress and braced myself on my elbow on one side and cupped his face. I was so close to my speaking limit for the day, so I chose my words carefully. “We’ll talk more later, but I need you now.”
Jasper blinked three times and nodded even slower. It was the only confirmation I needed. I tore the top of the wrapper with my teeth and quickly sheathed my aching cock before coating my fingers in the thick lubricant and running the tip of one around his ass.
I grabbed one of Jasper’s hands that had been fisting the comforter and turned it palm up. I traced some of the things I desperately wished I could speak into his trembling skin. OK?
He nodded and I gently pushed the single digit inside him.
More? I traced the question against his sweat-slickened flesh and added a second finger at his shaky, stuttering, “Y-y-yes.”
For longer than I thought I could manage, I lazily moved in and out of him, grazing across the sensitive spot inside and grinning with his twitching response.
Right up until he gripped my forearm, digging his nails into me and lifted his head slightly. “Fuck, Sebastian, I need you. Please.”
His pleading shot an arrow to my heart, my resolve and most definitely my already raging hard-on. I nudged the backs of his thighs and couldn’t help but smile when he gripped them, holding his knees to his chest. I teased the puckered opening with the head of my cock, but after less than half a second, his frustrated growl drew my attention from my ministrations to his rapidly reddening face.
“How the fuck did I not pick up on the fact that you’re a Dom sooner? It took way too fucking long to get to this point for you to be anything else.” His breathing in between his epithet-filled complaining was labored and rather charming. “I’m ready and I need you. Please, Sebastian!”
Having so much control over the wiggling mess beneath me was an addictive feeling. Unfortunately for me, the weeks leading up to this encounter had lowered my normal resolve. Adding in the knowledge that the man who had invaded my fantasies since our single encounter was the same man who had frustrated and tempted me as we worked together meant this was going to be a lightning round. Not my first choice.
And if he agreed to going beyond today, we most definitely would come back to that demanding attitude. The thought of tempering his strong will sent a zing of delight down my spine.
In one smooth, barely controlled thrust, I entered him, my eyes devouring every response from Jasper, big or small, from the sharp exhale to the flutter of his lids against his high cheekbones. The head of his cock glistened with pre-cum as I moved in and out of him faster than I wanted, driven by a nearly all-consuming need.
I braced my arms on either side of his head and drove into him three more times before his deep, guttural groan accompanied the warm spray of liquid that spread between our bodies. The tight grip I barely held on my own self-control released as stars burst in my vision and I fell from the precipice of solidarity into the blissful sea of ecstasy. I dropped onto Jasper, spent and shocked at the power of the moment we’d shared.
The distant voice of my consciousness reminded me that I needed to clean myself and the trembling man beneath me, but every muscle screamed in protest. After longer than normal, I finally peeled myself from Jasper and stumbled into the bathroom, disposing of my condom and cleaning the sticky liquid from my abdomen before taking the cloth in the bedroom and repeating the action on Jasper’s stomach. For the first time, I noticed the gentle sloping lines which softly defined his muscles.
My gaze roamed down the length of him as I reached to pull the cover over both of us. The garish scars marked his legs and managed to knot my gut. I wanted more than anything to press for details, not only because hypothesizing the pain he must have been in to come by the raised lines on his skin was causing me to grind my teeth but also because I found myself with an unusual desire to know more about the man.
He stared up at me from beneath barely opened lids as he wiggled deeper under the duvet. “Please tell me your sister isn’t home, because otherwise we have a lot of things to explain.” He yawned widely. “And it’s all your fault I don’t have the energy for that.”
I grabbed his hand and chuckled as I shook my head. I traced a number four in his palm, the time Siobhan was due to arrive home. There was another two hours until her arrival. I laced my fingers through his and buried myself under the thick bedding beside him. It was going to be a very, very long two weeks until I was, hopefully, able to have the kind of conversations I knew we needed.
Jasper rested his head on my shoulder and within moments, his rhythmic breathing indicated he’d fallen asleep.
Damn, I loved that.
Chapter Ten
Jasper
Normally, pacing helped when I was anxious for no good damn reason, but as I made the fifth circle around the area rug in my living room, my nerves managed to kick up another notch rather than decline.
What in the actual hell had I done?
Sebastian was definitely a gorgeous man. I snorted. And the bastard knew it. But adding in the fact that he was the same mystery guy I’d had a stupid fixation on since our encounter at Devour took my crush from something best defined as a ‘starstruck juvenile fanboy’ reaction to something far more dangerous. The dreams that consumed me when I’d fallen asleep after the most mind-blowing orgasm of my life had managed to bleed into the past two nights of restless slumber.
The dirty, heated fantasies were easy to deal with. It was the ones that went deeper—images of me and Sebastian hiking through the picturesque mountains or lying on sun-soaked beaches—that sent me into a tailspin.
Working with him had become harder the more my childish infatuation had increased, but I could push that aside with the knowledge that nothing more would come of it. But we’d crossed a line not only physically, but emotionally, that I wasn’t sure we could erase.
I made another lap around the room behind my futon.
We’d not only reconnected, but the earnest tones he’d used as he revealed that he’d actually looked for me, tried to find me, affected me in ways I wasn’t sure I was capable of handling. It was more than the sex, more than the revelation that the desperate, needy and hotter-than-hell hookup hadn’t, in fact, been our first time. More, even, than his usually distant self cradling my hand in his as we took an all too brief nap, his immediate and unquestioning acceptance of the scars that were still far more visible than I wanted hitting a part of me far deeper than I was willing to admit.
Because there wasn’t a chance in hell that Sebastian was interested in anything more than a fling while we worked together. I couldn’t risk letting down the walls I’d constructed around my heart.
The fact that I was even tempted to, that it was even a possibility, was another thing I wasn’t fully ready to deal with. I snagged my fingers on a small tangle in my chronically knotted hair as I combed them through it and continued to pace, looking for a simple solution to the very complicated situation I found myself in.
Mountain after mountain of possible problems—all the things that hadn’t actually happened but that my brain tricked me into believing could—sprang up before me in my mind’s eye, casting their dark shadow over my mood and encapsulating me in a tumultuous world of my own creation in my head.
Fucking anxiety.
I’d lived with the physical and mental scars for so long and had gone through enough therapy that I should have been able to manage my thoughts just a wee bit better. But I still managed to find myself so deep in my own thoughts that I nearly didn’t hear the alarm on my phone that I’d set to make sure I wasn’t late for rehearsal at Sebastian’s house, the first of five he’d scheduled with an end goal of recording his masterpiece as soon as he was allowed to sing.
I checked the time on the device I still held in my hand and allowed myself a small exhale. I still had ten minutes before I needed to make it to the station in time to catch the train that would take me to Red Cedar. Slowly, I set down my phone, then curled and relaxed my toes and fingers in unison and shook out my arms and legs. Years of experience had taught me where I carried my tension and how to release it.
The simple exercise got me through so much, yet remained an effective tool to temper my anxiety. After a few moments, I collected my things, double-checked the locks on my door to make sure they were secure then jogged down the metal staircase that led me out into the crisp fall air.
During the short commute to Sebastian’s neighborhood, I tried to focus my attention on running through the notes in my head. Even though music had been a huge part of my life since I’d been five and had picked up my first violin, over the past decade it had become essential. Moments like this, where I could drown out all the other noise around me and stay lost in the push and pull of the tones playing only for me, brought a serenity and calm I couldn’t find anywhere else and gave me the ability to put on the carefree attitude that was mostly genuine and only slightly embellished.
I hopped off the train in Red Cedar and walked the short distance to the impressive manor Sebastian called home. The slightly sarcastic and wholly inappropriate greeting I’d been formulating died on the tip of my tongue when Siobhan opened the door instead of Sebastian.
Her placating expression dissolved into a knowing smile and, as much as I tried, I couldn’t stop the heat creeping up my neck and engulfing my cheeks. “Good afternoon, Ms. Chevalier.” I tipped my head and hoped I was imagining things. Certainly Sebastian wouldn’t be one to kiss and tell.
Or fuck and tell. Probably a bit more accurate.
Siobhan gripped my bicep and leaned forward to softly kiss my cheeks before ushering me inside. “Hello, darling.” Her blue eyes, identical to her brother’s, sparkled with mischief that did absolutely nothing to calm me. “My brother suddenly decided he needed to freshen up just before you arrived.” Her Cheshire cat smile widened. “Rather strange, isn’t it?”
My mouth turned into the Sahara, which was completely insane. We were both damn near thirty and Siobhan wasn’t a disapproving parent, but his—based on the practically giddy expression on her face—highly supportive sister. I shouldn’t be fighting the urge to fidget like a virgin on prom night.
Instead, I shrugged in a move I hoped looked exactly as nonchalant as I most definitely did not feel. “He’s your brother. You know him better than me.”
Siobhan offered a small ‘mm-m’ and turned to lead me into the kitchen. “I think you’ve come to know Sebastian rather well.” She cut a salacious look my way as she poured tea into a ridiculously dainty cup that I hoped she didn’t expect me to drink from. My hands were shaking far too much to handle anything quite that fine.
Aside from a few flirtatious and borderline X-rated texts smothered between far more serious ones working out dates to rehearse, Sebastian and I hadn’t talked about where we stood after taking our relationship from professional to…something else. I couldn’t get a clear read on if Siobhan was fishing or whether she actually knew that her brother and I had done so much more than practice the last time I had been there.
I barely contained the sigh of relief when Sebastian chose that particular moment to stroll into the kitchen and save me from answering. That was, until I actually looked at him. His dark blond hair was still slightly damp from his shower—and that fact alone was far more enticing than it should have been—but the soft blue cashmere sweater complemented his eyes in a disarmingly perfect way.
I studiously tried to ignore the stone-washed jeans that hugged his lower body so well that I wondered if they had been custom designed just for him. I will not whimper. I will not groan. I will keep my shit together. I repeated the mantra over and over to myself as I fought the urge to readjust my own painfully tightening pants.
Sebastian studied me for an uncomfortably long moment before lifting a single eyebrow and damn near eviscerating any self-control I’d managed to employ in front of his sister. “Ready to rehearse?”
If I thought his appearance alone would melt me into a puddle on his kitchen floor, it was nothing compared to the raspy tenor of his voice, still roughened from lack of use, something that only served to make it even more addictive.
I swallowed three times in a desperate attempt to moisten my parched throat before responding. Instead, I nodded and grabbed Phoebe’s handle where I’d set her on the floor beside my chair. I gave Sebastian a small smile to make up for my sudden complete lack of manners and scurried out of the room that had rapidly become far too warm.
As soon as I made it to the music room, I popped open Phoebe’s case and pulled her out, caressing my fingers over the strings for a moment before gently dragging the bow across them to release the sounds that would center me.
And, hopefully, not make me look like an overly anxious fanboy in front of the first man I’d found myself lusting after like a lovesick puppy.
Chapter Eleven
Sebastian
“Don’t fuck this up.”
Siobhan’s words were enough to pull me back into the kitchen just as I’d stepped across the threshold, anxious to go find Jasper. “What in the world are you talking about?”
She rolled her eyes and rose from her seat with a grace that I knew would make our mother proud. Her silk pantsuit made a swishing sound as she closed the distance between us and cupped my face in her hands. “You know you’re the other half of me and we have a bond that is indescribable and unbreakable.” She offered a soft smile. “But if you pull your Sebastian Chevalier diva bullshit and hurt that man, I’ll kick you in the balls.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head, vacillating between laughter and shock. “Mother would throw a fit if she heard you talking like that.”
Siobhan patted my cheek before releasing me and chuckling. “We both know you’ve said and done far more scandalous things.” She tipped her chin and shot her patented dimple my way, the one that had gotten her out of far more punishments than should have legally been allowed when we were kids. “But I like him. And I like what he does to you. So just…be the Sebastian I know, not the one you use to traumatize interns and producers, okay?”
Instead of answering, which would be highly embarrassing since I was certain that the emotions clogging my throat would make my voice crack, I kissed the tip of her nose and turned to leave. Only when I was three feet from the room did I call over my shoulder, “Have a good day at work.”
It was a definite dismissal so I could get Jasper alone—and naked. Definitely naked.
The notes escaping the music room wrapped around me before I’d even reached the doorway, enticing me in an irresistible way. Yes, the man was distractingly charming and deceptively attractive, but more than his looks and the hedonistic pull he had on me, it was his talent that drew me in. I paused at the periphery of the room, drinking in every inch of the man and the masterpiece.
Just beyond his right shoulder, my favorite siren statue caught my eye and nearly ripped every molecule of oxygen from my lungs. By the gods, this man was my siren. But instead of luring me to my death with his song, he was tangling me in far more dangerous knots, ones that wound around my heart in a way I had once believed impossible.
His chocolate irises sparkled as he caught a glimpse of me and dragged his bow back toward himself with a grin. “Ready to get to work, boss?”
Siobhan’s words replayed in my head, along with the unfamiliar tightening around my chest. She was right, as much as I hated to admit it. The prima donna I’d become so well known for being needed to take a back seat if I had any hope of exploring more than a working relationship topped with scorchingly hot sex.
I walked slowly across the room and shook my head even slower. “No.”
He drew his eyebrows together and curled his lips downward in a pretty damn adorable pout. How in the hell had I thought I could deny my attraction, as uncharacteristic as it might be, to the man standing before me?
“No?” He parroted the question back at me and set his violin down in the case at his feet. “Are you feeling okay?”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed his hips, drawing him toward me. “I can do things other than work, you know.” Once again a familiar chord struck inside me as I spoke, reminding me to pay attention to how much I was talking. Deliberately choosing each word that left my mouth was more than frustrating.
But this was something I refused to write on a fucking note. “We never made it on that date—before or after sex.”
He fucking whimpered in my arms and damn near melted into my embrace. Somehow, he was systematically breaking down every brick of the arrogant, controlling persona I’d so carefully crafted.
His gaze darted around the room and he bit his lower lip. “Does your sister… I mean to say, did you tell her about…this? Us?” He shook his head and looked at the ground. “Not that there’s an us, but—”
I hooked a finger beneath his chin. My first impression of him certainly hadn’t been a favorable one, but in this moment I couldn’t for the life of me remember why. “Siobhan is my twin sister and annoyingly attuned to me. I didn’t tell her anything that happened, but I’m certain she picked up on the drastic improvement in my…less-than-stellar attitude.”
His cheeks reddened and entirely inappropriate visions of turning other parts of his body red flashed in my mind. By the gods, what is this man doing to me?
I dipped my chin to catch his gaze when he lowered it again. “Is it okay if I tell her?”
He wound his arms around my waist. “Tell her…all the naughty things we did the other day?” His grin widened. “Or maybe divulge some of our secrets from Devour?”
I groaned and tightened my hold on him. “How about we just stick to the fact that we are dating and keep the rest to ourselves?”
He sobered for a moment. “Yes, it’s okay if you tell her.” The cheeky smile returned. “But you’d better sweep me off my feet for this romantic date so you aren’t lying to her.”
