Page 81 of The Music Demon

When she opened her eyes, she looked around and gasped.

There they stood. On the terrace of the Greco-Roman building that looked like it had been designed for the gods. White filmy billows of fabric hung from the columns. They lifted in slight surges of breeze and came to rest when the air quieted. It was everything she thought it would be if it existed in fact. And possibly more.

Four sets of perfectly tuned windchimes, one at the roofline of each of the four corners of the pavilion. When disturbed by the movement of the breeze, the tones combined to reward listeners with a heavenly sound.

A fuchsia divan sat on the white and gray travertine, looking out over the inlet to the black mountain.

Lyric looked around. The setting revealed more than that she was a romantic. It revealed that she was a connoisseur of beautiful things with an extraordinary imagination. When he spoke, he sounded impressed.

“Beautiful. You’ve been hiding the soul of romance.”

Shivaun laughed nervously. She wondered what people in Black On Tarry would say if they heard that. By the time the O’Malley twins were steady enough on their feet to run about, their mother had given up trying to put them in skirts. Shivaun’d spent her entire life in leather to protect delicate Irish skin from the self-imposed abuse of the elements and reckless behavior.

No one who’d watched her grow up would’ve ever thought to call her romantic. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. The demon brought out things in her she hadn’t known were there.

She motioned toward the divan. “Let’s sit.”

For a time she looked out at the shadows of cloud formations moving across the water. Occasionally a streak of sun peeked through and created a dazzling display of diamond-like sparkles. When she was ready to talk, she angled her body toward him.

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Is that a threat?”

Ignoring the joke, she said, “I enjoy our time together.”

“As do I.”

“The talk we had about love… I’ve given it much thought and understand that you are what you are and can only change so much.” Lyric went stock still, waiting. “And since I’m set on no’ settlin’ for less than love, I will no’ stay with you longer, for fear that I may fall for you, hopelessly so, and doom myself.”

“Shivaun…” He couldn’t stop himself from cutting in. Lyric had a very bad feeling about the direction the surprise was going.

“No.” She shook her head. “Let me finish. I’ve made up my mind. I’m puttin’ an end to this while I can. Before I grow irreparably attached. But before that, I want to share sex with you. I want you to be the first male to know me in that way. I’m inexperienced. As you’ve guessed. And you’re very gentle and kind with me.” She gave a small derisive laugh. “If I did no’ know better, I would describe your manner as lovin’.”

Shivaun O’Malley was not particularly impulsive, with the possible exception of the demon. She was the sort of person who made decisions decisively. In other words, once she’d made up her mind it was rarely changed.

Lyric couldn’t point to examples of her being stubborn during his time with her. But he did know that personalities who master difficult skills have a mandatory streak of stubbornness. If it wasn’t there, they’d give up.

He searched her eyes while his mind raced, trying to pinpoint the exact thing that might make her rethink.

“I can’t think about not seeing you tomorrow.” Lyric’s voice sounded strange even to him. He was being truthful, too. He couldn’t imagine not seeing the incomparable female the next day and the day after that.

“This is the surprise? You’re… what? Breaking up with me?”

“Well, honestly, I did no’ think you would take it hard. Since you have no feelin’s and all. I thought you’d be pleased to score your conquest.”

Pleased!Lyric ran this over in his mind. He was the farthest thing from pleased. She’d said she wanted to pull back before she became attached, buthewas attached. Maybe he wasn’t in love per se. But he wasattached!

Lyric had run the range of experience available to demons countless times. He wasn’t a creature incapable of feeling. He was certainly, at that moment, feeling loss. Profoundly so. For the first time.

He almost laughed at the irony of that. Their first intimacy would be the loss of Shivaun’s virginity and his loss of the light that washer. He’d say no to the proposition if that would change things.

She’d paired the thing he wanted most - intimacy, with the thing he feared the most - losing her.

“What can I say, or do, to make you rethink this?”

She simply shook her head.

At that he decided there was only one course of action open. He would use every skill he’d acquired as a lover to try to bind her to him. He’d pleasure her to a sexual frenzy, a point far beyond ecstasy. Perhaps then she’d realize that he had value and that they were better with each other than without. Love or not.

---