Page 46 of Not Another Love Song

“I knew it,” he whispered, voice shaking. “Perfect. I knew you were capable of it.”

Her eyes snapped open.

The room bounced and shook in front of her face.

Just earlier that day she’d been warned—Don’t let anyone tell you what you’re capable of. Even if it sounds like a compliment.

His lips grazed across her pulse.

She jumped, standing from the chair, slipping out of his arms, and stumbling to the computer. She fumbled to hit the space bar with the cello and bow in her hands, stopping the recording. Just the cello piped in through the amp and wires. It didn’t record—it didn’t hear her.

She spun to face him. Black eyes stared back at her. He sat in the chair, legs spread wide from where he’d cradled her, thick bulge in his dark denim jeans. He breathed sharply, dragging in air, staring at her like she was prey, stalking her.

And maybe that’s what she was.

How many other young musicians were “anything but ordinary”? How many other girls did he bring back to his apartment to make music with, confusing their senses with praise and blaring speakers?

Why would he do this? Why would he have her over in the first place? And she realized with a sharp breath—

First chair.

Was she here to be humiliated? Was this revenge for taking away his spot, his legacy? And had she made it easy for him, by being half gone for him before she’d even walked through the door?

Xander’s eyes blinked back the heat, brows knitting together. “Gwen?”

She flinched, and cleared her throat. “I have to go.”

Placing Ruby and the bow down on the ground as softly as possible, she snatched up her tote bag.

“Go? What’s wrong?” he asked, starting to stand up gingerly. “You were just starting to feel it.”

Her head snapped to him, gaze cold. With Mabel’s warning running through her head, she spat, “I didn’t come here for a lesson.”

With legs still shaking from her climax, she darted out of his studio, passing the dark bedroom and the expensive furniture and the uneaten tacos, throwing the door open wide and taking the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator.

She flew out of the building like she was being chased, and it only took half a block to realize that she wasn’t.

Gwen buckled over, leaning on her knees and catching her breath.

Perfect. I knew you were capable of it.

She shook her head, trying to clear his voice from it, along with all of Mabel’s warnings. Things she said about Nathan and Ava that seemed to echo—

“Miss, are you all right?”

She jerked her head up. An older woman walking her corgi had stopped and was staring at her.

“Oh, I’m fine. I just—”

—had Xander Thorne’s fingers in my underwear.

“I’m fine,” she settled on, waving the woman away.

The corgi barked at her, like it knew she didn’t belong on this street. Or like it could smell Xander on her.

Gwen hefted her tote on her shoulder and walked briskly to the nearest subway.

Her heart pounded with the hum of the city, and she tried not to think about how her core was still throbbing.

---