Had he actually missed me? It hadn’t even been48 hours since I saw him last. Did he miss me or just the sex?
I steered clear of any vulnerability yet again. “It’s only been 2 days. You can’t possibly have missed me yet.”
I thought I caught a flicker of disappointment before his gaze dropped to the floor.
“I always miss you when you’re not in my bed,” he said, throwing me a wink.
There it was.
That line being redrawn in the sand.
I swallowed down the thickness in my throat, willing away the sudden dejection at his clarification of what he’d missed. Not anything real or vital about me. Just the fun. The sex.
“You want the grand tour?” I asked, changing the subject so I didn’t have to think about it anymore.
“Sure, princess,” he said, tossing his towel onto the bench. “Show me where you spend all your time away from me.”
I took him up the steps and down the long hallway, pointing out rooms where other shows rehearsed. I creaked open the door to our large rehearsal studio and guided him through the dim room. The tall windows let in gloomy light, so I could show him some of the more impressive bits of set.
He followed me into the smaller rehearsal rooms, asking me questions as we went. We wandered back downstairs to the atrium, where it had turned unsettlingly quiet. It looked like most everyone had found their way home.
I nudged open the large double door to the little theater. “This is where we’ll rehearse right before we take it to the real stage on Broadway.”
Ben turned on the flashlight of his phone, pulling me into the theater. It smelled a little musty, and the darkness felt heavy as we wound our way through the theater seats. Ben pulled me toward the baby grand piano to the left of the stage.
“I’ve never heard you play,” he said, guiding me to the piano bench and pressing my shoulder down so I’d sit. “Will you play for me?”
I laughed him off. “I’m not very good. If you want to hear someone who can actually play, ask David. He’s brilliant.”
I’d had several years of lessons, but my instrument of choice had always been my voice. David, on the other hand, could play whatever instrument he picked up.
“I don’t want to listen to David play every note of whatever song perfectly. I want to listen to you play it. And I want to hear you sing.”
My breath caught in my chest, my fingers shaking as they brushed over the keys lightly without pressing down.
“Please?” he pressed.
I let out an unsteady breath and played the first chiming notes of my slow melancholy solo in the first act ofWretched. My voice echoed through the dark theater with a ghostly resonance as I began singing. My fingers fumbled on the keys as I reached the middle of the song. And then Ben’s hands were on mine.
His lips caressed my throat, and I could smell the lingering scent of rain and his spiced cologne as his breath whispered through my hair. “I could listen to you sing all day. It’s like a siren calling to me.”
I shook my head even though he couldn’t see it in the dark. “I messed up the notes when I was playing,” I said.
“It was beautiful anyway.” His fingers swept my hair off my shoulder and his lips caressed the spot where his fingers had just been. Goosebumps broke out across my skin, his touch a gentle breeze on a hot summer day. “I don’t expect perfection, princess. I’m far from perfect.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, willing his words to ease my doubts and soothe the raw edges of my soul.
He pushed back the piano bench. “Come here,” he urged, pulling me closer, his voice rasping in the dead silence of the theater.
I straddled his lap. “Did you run all the way here in the rain to fuck me on a piano?” I asked, curious if sex was why he came or if it was more.
He lifted me off his lap and onto the piano. The dissonant chord struck a stark contrast to the quiet shadows that surrounded us.
“No,” he answered firmly. “I ran here because I couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing you for another 24 hours.”
He tucked my hair behind my ear and pulled me toward him, capturing my mouth with his, stealing my breath with a deep kiss. A kiss that felt like a confession. I allowed myself to be enveloped by him, opening my heart to what his body was telling me.
A loud click sounded in the theater, startling us, followed by the gentle hum of electricity. Our moment shattered like a vase tipping off a table.
