Twenty seconds later, his right foot tapped along. His breathing synced with the rhythm, and after another fifteen seconds, his head started bobbing, too.
I sometimes cursed my hypersensitive ears, but in that moment, I was grateful. I could exactly tell which part he was listening to. The beat had moved through the first bridge andcarried him to the second rise, marking the start of the vocals I still needed to record. For now, I had used a guitar in their stead.
When it hit, Sebastian’s whole face lit up. “Whoa.” His eyes snapped to mine, totally mesmerized. “This is legit,” he said, a little too loudly.
As the song hit its third chorus, he closed his eyes and let his shoulders sway along. His jacket rustled, but I tuned it out the second the thing I had secretly hoped for happened: his deep, enchanting voice began humming the melody I had written.
The sound rippled through me, from my head to my toes, before settling low in my chest.
No one’s voice has ever affected me like that. It made me want to write songs, albums, entire symphonies about him, for him, with him. It made me want to press my ear to his chest and listen for the quiet sounds not meant for anyone who wasn’t his chosen person—the ones that I shouldn’t even imagine.
My gaze drifted lower.
His bulge had lifted slightly, though not nearly as much as mine. Because damn. Just listening to him hum turned me on in ways it absolutely shouldn’t have, making me harder than I’d been in a long time.
“Wait.” He blinked his eyes open. “This is the track from the video!”
I forced my gaze away and nodded.
When the song ended, he sat up and grinned at me. “You’re incredible,” he said, pulling the earpieces out. “This is the kind of music I’d expect to hear on the radio or in concert halls.”
“I’m not nearly that good,” I muttered, lowering my head. “It’s also missing vocals. I tried recording a demo myself, but it wasawful. My voice is garbage.”
“You don’t have to downplay it. Even without vocals, this is gold. If my music had sounded anything like that, I might’ve kept singing.” He scooted closer, already eyeing my phone.“You’ve got more files on there, haven’t you? Can I be shameless and ask to hear another one?”
He crossed his legs, his knee brushing against mine, and leaned in so we could look at the screen together. His breath tickled my hand as I scrolled through the list, searching for something that could live up to the last track.
And then, for no clear reason, he leaned into me.
There was no more space left between us.
I had tried not to read too much into the little things before, but this wasn’t subtle. He was enjoying this. And I wasn’t about to pull away, either.
For the next half hour, I played him song after song. The more he heard, the more animated he became. Every time, he hummed along, making it nearly impossible for me to think straight. With him now also sitting so close, I could hear everything: the steady rhythm of his breathing, the subtle shifts when a beat surprised him, the quiet swipe of his tongue across his lips just before he started humming again.
During the fourth song, I lost all restraint and stared blatantly at him as he shook his head to the beat. The glow of my phone lit his face in the dark, casting soft shadows that highlighted his features. He was so lost in the music that he didn’t even notice me watching for half a minute.
But when he finally did, I couldn’t force myself to look away again.
My eyes dropped to his lips.
All I could think about were things that could—and probably should—never happen: what it would sound like if he sang one of my songs for real, what it would be like if he lived here and we could talk for days and weeks, not just hours, and worst of all, what his lips tasted like.
He pulled out the left earpiece and chuckled. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Your stare says a lot more than nothing.”
“I’m just flattered to hear you hum along.”
The smile faded as he furrowed his brows. “Humming?”
“You didn’t notice?”
“I was?” He laughed it off. “See what your music does to me? It took me so far out of my head I didn’t even notice what I was doing.” He winked, and my heart skipped a beat. “You’re amazing, you know that? It actually makes me reconsider my vow never to sing again. Maybe I’ll make an exception for you.”
My pulse quickened. “Don’t mess with me.”
