“I’m okay with that,” I rasped. I squirmed a little as his cum started cooling on my back. “We should probably shower. Didn’t you say you were meeting with Michael this morning?”
Sean grumbled, “Yeah. What time is it?”
I looked at the clock on the nightstand. “It’s nine-fifteen.”
“Ugh,” he groaned. “That means no playing in the shower. I still have to get back to my place to change.”
I turned in his arms to kiss him, wincing when I rolled on cold cum. “I’ll let you go first then. Wouldn’t want you to be late.”
Sean carded his fingers in my hair and kissed me breathless. “I’d rather stay here with you.”
My phone buzzed, the sound loud on the nightstand. I rolled my eyes. “That’s probably Evan checking up on me.”
Sean let me go and chuckled. “You should get that so he doesn’t worry.”
He got up and headed into the bathroom while I sat up and answered my phone. “Way to cockblock, Ev.”
There was a few seconds of silence before someone said, “So it’s true.”
That was not Evan’s voice. I looked at my phone and saw a number I didn’t recognize. “Who is this?”
The voice on the other end was filled with disdain. “Seriously, Jeremy?”
I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. “Pierce? Why are you calling me? What the hell do you want?”
His tone dripped with condescension. “My friend, Karen Frost, told me you were playing at some shitty hotel on the Jersey Shore and fucking some thug off the streets.”
“I’m not…” Anger coiled in my gut. “You know what? Fuck. You. What I do is none of your goddamn business.”
“Jeremy…”
“No,” I snarled. “You don’t get to talk to me anymore. Lose my number.” I hung up and blocked the number Pierce had called from. My heart raced as my hands shook.
The bed dipped, and I felt Sean’s strong arms surround me. “Hey,” he said quietly. “Sorry for eavesdropping, but I heard you say Pierce’s name, and you sounded upset.” He pulled me close, and I let myself sink into his warmth.
I snuggled close, trying to wrap him around me like a blanket. “It turns out that woman from last night knows Pierce and told him I was here, and apparently, I’m fucking a thug off the streets.”
Sean snorted out a laugh. “She was pretty mad when I escorted her out of the dining room. I guess that was her revenge.”
“Bitch,” I muttered.
“You know,” he said with amusement, “you’ve cursed more in the last five minutes than you have in the last two days.”
I felt my cheeks heat with embarrassment, which was silly because who gets embarrassed fornotcursing? “Evan teases me about that all the time,” I said. “My parents belong to the snob circuit, as he calls it.” I waved my hand airily. “Cursing is for peasants.”
Sean’s body rumbled with a deep laugh. “Well, I am definitely a peasant then.”
He pressed his lips to the spot below my ear that sent shivers down my spine. “Come on, baby, let’s take a shower. Michael won’t wither away if I’m a few minutes late.”
* * *
Sean was morethan a few minutes late to his meeting with Michael, but the other man didn’t seem to mind. I hung out with him until Sean returned from changing, then I made my way to the dining room. The restaurant didn’t serve breakfast, so it was empty when I arrived. The sun hadn’t quite made its way to this side of the building, so the light in the room still came mostly from the overhead chandeliers. I’d given my corrected sheets to Sean to scan onto a flash drive so I could email them to the printer, so I started by practicing the other pieces for Evan’s wedding. After that, I lost myself playing the pieces I loved but hadn’t played in a while.
I finished a Chopin étude and checked the time on my phone. Movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned and saw a little girl sitting at the table nearest the piano. She looked about five or six years old, with light-brown skin and shoulder-length dark hair done up in box braids with purple beads on the ends. Clearly, purple was her favorite color because she had on purple leggings, the cutest tiny purple sneakers, and a purple T-shirt withFuture Queenprinted in large white letters on the front. When she saw me looking at her, she asked, “Are you going to play more?”
I held back a laugh because she seemed so serious and answered, “I am. I was just checking the time.” I got up from the bench and approached her. “My name is Jeremy. What’s yours?”
She stood up and solemnly held out her hand. “I’m Maya Barnes.”
