Page 25 of Savage Temptation
I towel off and do the best I can for my hair. I step out of the bathroom to find Jagger left a set of freshly laundered clothes on the edge of his desk. I rifle through to find gray sweatpants, a white T-shirt and a pair of socks.
I slip the T-shirt on and leave the other items for later, padding barefoot to the front of the lounge. I find Jagger sitting at a table close to the stage, a bourbon bottle open and two glasses in front of him. His glass is already halfway empty.
“Hi, handsome.” I take the glass from his hand and slip over his lap. He easily takes my weight and wraps his free arm around my waist.
“Hey, beautiful. Feel better?” His voice is rough, and it moves over my senses much like his callused fingers do to my body. With the same effect, too. Both make me want to fall into his love and never come up for air.
The bourbon burns across my tongue, sweet as caramel and sharp as old secrets, leaving a smoky warmth that settles deep in my chest.
He rests his palms on my bare thighs and his grin turns wicked when he realizes I don’t have anything underneath my borrowed shirt.
I scoot off his lap, batting his teasing fingers away. “Behave, lover boy.” While I showered, he’s turned on a few more lights over the back of the bar and a couple on the opposite side near the stage. Perfect.
“I spent a lot of nights on that stage playing that piano. I sang my heart out for the crowds that packed this place every single weekend. I was on top of the world back then.”
I walk toward the stage.
“And now?”
There’s that smokey, rough voice again.
I slip a look back at Jagger.
“Right now, I feel like I own it. I have you. You could have easily turned me away, but you didn’t. You are all I need in this world.”
Jagger pushes to his feet and walks slowly to me. He dips his head and presses kisses down the slope of my neck. “I told you the love I have for you is endless. It’s buried deep within my soul and no one will ever take that away from you or me.”
I pull his words into me and let them take root. I slowly turn in Jagger’s arms and press a slow, languid kiss over his lips. “Have a seat. I have something for you.”
Storm
This is fucking heaven. I’ve missed this woman for years. I searched everywhere for her and when there was nowhere else to look, I had no choice but to stop.
I stopped living, loving and merely existed. I didn’t truly take a deep breath again until tonight when this lovely creature burst back into my life wide-eyed and trouble on her heels.
Somehow she found her way back to me and I will do anything to keep her at my side. It’s fucking wild she was in my city for three damn weeks and I never knew it. This Oliver asshole has balls of steel and no understanding of how love works. I can only assume he thinks I forgot about the girl who ran away.
Never.
My eyes roam over smooth curves as Emilia walks to the stage. There’s not a more beautiful woman in this fucking world, wet hair and all.
“This song is for you, my love. I didn’t know if I would ever get a chance to sing this for you. Now I can.” She settles her weight on the piano bench and those delicate fingers I’ve kissed one hundred times caress over the bone-white keys.
Emilia’s sweet dulcet voice carries over the empty lounge and steals all other thoughts from me.
It’s just her and me. No patrons. No past to think about. Nothing I need to protect her from. At least, not in this single, precious moment.
I lean back, letting the bourbon bite my tongue, but the heat in my chest isn’t from the whiskey.
It’s her. Her voice. Her story, the forgiveness laced through every note. I soak up every damn sound, let it wind around my heart like barbed wire and silk. Both cut me open, but both keep me tethered to this moment, too.
Her voice shivers, softly at first, then gains strength. I hear the ache in every word, the hope, and the apology wrapped in longing.
She looks at me, into the core of my being, and there are tears shining in her eyes, glimmering even from across the room. That old ache stirs in my chest, the kind that comes from loving someone you thought you’d lost for good. Her lips tremble, but she doesn’t falter. Her words are laced with all the hopes of a second chance this world rarely gives.
She’s wearing my clean white T-shirt. It hangs softly on her curves, sleeves loose where her arms are too small for the fabric. It’s a fucking brand on her now, a warning to any bastard out there who dares to hurt her again. I’d paint the walls red for her. Leave bodies in my wake before I ever let anyone lay a hand on her.
Her voice soars for the last chorus, throaty and pure. It took courage to walk up there and show me the depth of her true emotions. My hands stilled from the powerful sight.
