Page 12 of Hard Rock Tease
I ended up waiting for him. Noah strode in an hour later as I was sitting at the piano, playing a little melody I'd been up all night composing.
He looked as delicious as he had the day before. Dark hair falling over his face and dressed all in black like an angel of death. Morbid, but accurate. His cheekbones could have been chiseled by the gods themselves.
I tried to hide my attraction, but some small part of my reaction must have been obvious, whether it was my flushed cheeks or the way my breathing sped up. I'd worn a tank top under my blouse this time to make sure my peaked nipples wouldn't be noticeable.
I had no doubt they'd be stiff after an entire day of working next to this man.
"Thought you didn't have a fangirl crush," he said. "You're practically panting after me already. Try to restrain yourself."
"I'm not panting after you," I replied. "I'm pissed off that you're late when you made such a big deal about me being on time."
"I'm the rock star. You work for me, not the other way around."
"Wow, you don't have much of an ego at all, do you? What a change it is, to be around someone who has such a good head on his shoulders. What a difference from working with pompous jerks who have an overly inflated sense of self esteem."
I bit my tongue at the end of my rant, chastising myself for going off on him.
Noah snorted, but instead of looking upset, his lips twitched upward, almost seeming to crack a smile. "I take it you've worked with my type a time or two?"
"When you go to one of the best music colleges in the country, you tend to run into people with big egos."
He raised an eyebrow. "So how did you manage to stay so level headed?"
"Good upbringing." I immediately changed the subject. "How do you want to do this? Do you already have some sort of idea of what kind of song you want to write? Any beginnings of an idea?"
"I was working on something yesterday. I thought I was making progress until a certain person interrupted me." He gave me a pointed look.
"As I recall, you threw a temper tantrum and tossed all your papers to the floor before you even noticed I was in the doorway. You can't blame your frustrations on me."
It did leave me wondering though. Before Noah had noticed me, he had seemed different. Much more open and expressive. He'd been that passionate, emotional person I recognized from concerts. He'd only shut down when he realized someone was watching him.
Surely there had to be more to Noah Hart than met the eye. If I wanted this song to be a true reflection of the man, I needed to get under his skin and uncover the real person he was underneath it all.
I'd been up half the night worrying about whether or not I'd be able to come up with something worth playing for someone like Noah. I shouldn't have worried. The moment he sat down, Noah grabbed my sheets of music from my hands and tossed them in the garbage bin.
"Hey!" I protested. "I worked hard on that."
"Don't care," he said curtly. "Forget everything you learned in college. Nothing your teachers taught you is going to help you write a song with me."
"And how do you know? You don't know what I did or didn't learn at in school."
"Nothing I do can be taught in a classroom." As he spoke, his eyes burned with an inner fire. "It comes from the heart. From the soul."
"Is this how you write all your songs?"
He shot me a look, the fire in his eyes fading. "Just follow my lead."
He sat down next to me on the piano bench. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, every sense now tuned into Noah's presence. I could smell him. Something spicy, with undertones of leather. The masculine scent threatened to make me lightheaded. I let out a shuddering breath.
"Are you even paying attention?" he asked. "Or are you too busy having sex daydreams about me?"
"Don't flatter yourself."
But it was a lie. As Noah sat there, explaining what sort of song he wanted to compose, how he wanted it to sound, my mind was a million miles away. As he tinkered on the piano, playing bits of music here or there, I tried to take it all in, but I was overwhelmed. Not because I was in the presence of Noah Hart, rock star god, but because I was near Noah, a man who caused my every nerve to sing. I'd never felt such an attraction to someone so quickly before.
I hated myself for it. I didn't want to be a groupie fangirl, lusting after rock stars. My love for Noah wasn't based on sexual desire, no matter how hot, sexy, or gorgeous this man was.
But damn, was he hot, sexy, and gorgeous.
