If Liron could communicate such wonderful music to her through touch, and she knew that muses could contact humans through dreams and telepathy, she imagined their ability to connect and communicate with one another was that much greater.
She watched him play, watched how all of them became carried away with the music. The dancers started up again, followed by some of the fire jugglers who moved in time to the music to create more of a show.
It was impossible not to get caught up in the enchanted atmosphere, and given her love for music, Melody found it useless to remain stationary. Gypsy hooker costume aside, she threw her usual inhibitions to the wind and joined the others in dancing to the lively tune.
The music captivated and entranced her, and she found herself swept away by the carefree simplicity of it all. The other dancers welcomed her, laughed with her, and for the first time since her parents had died, she did not feel that burdening weight on her shoulders and heart. She felt light, happy, like her old self.
She linked arms with one of the other women and danced in a circle, kicking up her heels and spinning with abandon. She even found herself liking the way the gauzy skirt floated around her ankles.
She caught Liron’s eye from where she was dancing, and the world seemed to fall away. The music dulled and her movements slowed. All she was aware of was the throbbing sound of her own heartbeat in her ears. The desire to dance suddenly dissipated as the blazing blue of his eyes held hers. They burned a trail down her body, and she took a step closer to him, drawn to his talent, his beauty, his touch, everything that made him who he was.
Almost simultaneously, he took the guitar from his shoulder and set it aside, then made up the distance between them with a couple strides. They stared into one another’s eyes for a long, tormenting moment before he reached down and took her hand.
She didn’t ask where he was taking her as he started to lead her out of the marketplace. She didn’t care. He could have taken her to the freaking moon and she wouldn’t have blinked twice. All she cared about was being with him, hearing his song. Nothing else in the world mattered to her besides the rapturous music she heard when he touched her. It was music that didn’t hurt, didn’t make her remember painful things. It soothed and healed. It scorched and burned through her body in an erotic, lurid flame. He was the greatest masterpiece she’d always wanted to create, but had never quite been able to hear all of the notes of.
They traveled in silence out of the town and along the shoreline back toward Liron’s home. His hand clutched hers with an urgency she felt also. As they approached the cliffs where the angry evening waves pounded against the rock with cacophonous vehemence, Liron tugged her off the main path and down to the beach. He led her close to the shore and to the base of the cliffs where they were out of danger of the waves, but could still hear the thundering sound and taste the salt in the air.
He slowed enough to gently take Melody by the shoulders and guide her back against the rock. He searched her eyes for a brief moment before taking her face in his hands and crushing his lips to hers, releasing all the pent up frustration and tension he must have been feeling from their many near-kisses and subsequent interruptions.
Melody’s fingers gripped the front of his shirt as electric fire sizzled through her veins, followed by a wave of sensual music. Not just notes, but an entire score. While his lips played over hers, she could hear and feel every instrument as if his mouth was conducting an orchestra in her body. She gasped at the sensations, and he took advantage of her surprise, sweeping his tongue past her lips to deepen the kiss and pull her further into the world of melodic bliss he created within her.
She groaned and drew closer to him, kissing him back with an abandon and wanton brazenness that she was unaccustomed to. The music he filled her with increased until she felt it pulsing throughout every nerve and vein with every beat of her heart. It was the soundtrack to the fervid dance their lips and tongues were engaged in, and the most powerful aphrodisiac Melody had ever experienced.
He pressed against her, trapping her between the rock and himself in a vise she never wanted to escape from. She drew her hands over his shoulders and down his back, caressing every sinuous line and taut muscle. He entangled his fingers in her hair and tugged gently, turning her face upward and exposing her throat. He tore his lips from hers and descended to her neck, trailing his tongue and teeth across her skin in a way that made hot shivers break out along every available surface of her body.
The music coiled within her, filling her until every one of her senses was overwhelmed. She felt deliriously hot, and her hands roamed over Liron’s back, chest, and torso as if they had minds of their own. She wanted, needed, and had to touch him. It was a compulsion and a driving necessity.
When he brought his lips back to hers and claimed another kiss, her world exploded, imploded, and then shattered. Everything within her went inside, outside, and every direction, erupting into a strange release full of wonderful notes and magical sound. White-hot sensation flooded her, and she didn’t realize she had cried out until Liron pulled back from her, withdrawing his music enough for her to be able to reclaim some sense.
She blinked slowly, trying to clear the fog from her mind. Her lips felt deliciously swollen, and her nerves hummed with delight. She looked up at Liron, who had a soft, satisfied smile on his face, and her eyebrows drew together in question. “Did I just, like…scream?”
He chuckled softly and reached up to brush back her hair with a nod.
Heat flooded into her cheeks, and she buried her face against his shoulder. “Oh geez, how embarrassing.” Although, she wasn’t completely surprised. She knew music was powerful and that it could touch people on the deepest kind of level, but she had never figured it was physically possible to have some sort of near-orgasmic experience because of it. It wasn’t strange that she had screamed because, well, it had been intense.
And fantastic.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” he purred, enveloping her in his embrace while he buried his hands in her hair. “I wanted you to scream. It let me know I was doing it right.”
She pulled back to stare up into his face. “You mean you did that on purpose?”
His grin was wolfish. “Of course I did.” He gave a lazy shrug with one shoulder. “The nice thing about being a muse is that there are ways to arouse someone besides physical stimulation.” His eyes swept over her with a ravenous look that heated her blood all over again. “Not that I would be opposed to that.”
He trailed his fingers down her bare arms and brought his hands to her exposed midsection. He rested his palms against her sides, stroking small circles across her skin with his thumbs. Melody closed her eyes at the warm, velvet contact.
“Humans are far too narrow-minded when it comes to intimacy,” he continued. “Creativity can be just as stimulating as touch…if shared and experienced correctly.”
She arched an eyebrow in a bland, teasing expression. “Well, I’m pretty sure you don’t need any help in that department.” She flushed again as she recalled the sensations. “I love music, desperately. It is and always has been my passion in life. But I never thought it could touch me…you know…like that.”
He chuckled again and trailed a row of sweet kisses along her jawline. “It is usually difficult for a human to feel a muse’s influence that strongly. That makes you very special…that makes our connection very special. It is something two muse mates usually share. Two mates who have learned one another over time, who have adapted to each other and share the same vision.” He shook his head and frowned thoughtfully. “I have never known of a human to have the same connection with a muse, and definitely not this quickly.”
“Well, how many humans have been able to, how did you say it, traverse the continuum?”
He smiled and brought his palm up to cradle her cheek. “None that I know of. You are a rarity, Melody. A treasure I am tempted to keep for my own, even though I do not have that right.”
The
potency of his words, and the truth of them that she felt within her own heart, made her shiver. The frightening part of all of this was, the more time she spent with Liron, the more she shared with him and learned of his world, the more appealing the thought of letting him keep her seemed.
She didn’t feel oppressed and despondent in this world full of life and creation. And the music she heard with him didn’t hurt. Her heart did not feel that awful heaviness when she was resonating with his song. For the first time since that horrid day a year ago when that police officer had come to her door, she felt like she could take a full breath.
With a soft sigh, Melody took Liron’s hands in her own. “You know, Liron, that option is starting to look more and more promising, so you’d better mean it when you say stuff like that to me.”
Faint surprise registered over his features, and he studied her for a moment before he turned and led her over to a large log scattered amongst driftwood and seaweed. She sat and shivered as the ocean air chilled her exposed flesh. Belly dancing attire didn’t offer much by way of warmth.
“I mean every word I say to you, Melody,” Liron murmured as he sat down beside her and slipped his arm around her shoulders. He pulled her close to his body, sharing his warmth, and his wonderful scent invaded her nostrils. It was intoxicating, much like the rest of him. “Always.” He all but whispered the word, and it took root deep inside of her. “I have lived more in this day with you than I have in many years. You have brought me more beauty in two days than I have ever known. For however you want me, in whatever role you choose to have me fill, for as long as you desire, I am yours.”
His words didn’t frighten her like they should have. It was illogical because she wasn’t, by nature, a rash person. She thought things out before she did them. She weighed the pros and cons of situations before making decisions that could alter the course of her life—like thinking she might want to spend the rest of it in an alternate reality with a man who, by definition, was not human.
The rational part of her said she needed to go back home where she belonged. But did she belong there? What did she have to go back to, really? Everything she had loved was either gone or tarnished. There were ghosts everywhere she went of a life she could have had, but now never would. She felt like half a person in her world. She could be different in Liron’s realm. She could start over, have new adventures and a new path. One that wasn’t littered with remnants of a past full of heartache.
Besides, she was beginning to think that the rational part of her had taken a leave of absence.
She chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully before turning her eyes up to Liron’s captivating visage. “Those are heavy words, Liron. That isn’t a light kind of commitment. What if I decide to take you up on it?”
It was a challenge she feared the answer to. After all, he had had his heart ripped out, and he barely knew her. Words were lovely when coming from such beautiful lips as his, but he was still a man. And in the heat of the moment, men said things that—
All of her thoughts ceased abruptly as he brought those beautiful lips down on hers again. Music barraged her, assaulted her, forced its way into her where it flowed the blazing hot path of her blood to her heart. She felt him in that music. Felt his gentleness and his compassion, felt the essence of him in her soul while she tasted it on his tongue. She felt the truth of his words, and the resolve of his commitment. He would be hers if she asked him to be.
The question she had to ask herself was, did she want him to be? Or a better question—did she have the courage to alter her entire life to be his in return?
Chapter Eleven
“Liron, can I ask you a weird question?”
He looked over at her, huddled in front of the fireplace, wrapped up in a blanket. She looked so comfortable, so at home in his world. He poured them each a glass of red wine and returned to his own chair, offering her one of the glasses. “You can ask me anything.”
She smiled and took a sip. She gazed into the flames for a moment, then heaved a resigned-sounding sigh. “How do muses mate?” He frowned at her and color crept into her cheeks as she shook her head. “Wait, that came out wrong.”
He chuckled and sipped his own drink, waiting for her to continue.
“I mean, is it like in my world? When you get married? With a big ceremony and a marriage license and such?”
“Generally, arranged marriages are quite a big deal. They are supposed to be ideal matches, so we have grand parties and showy spectacles.” He rolled his eyes.
She giggled. “Was your wedding like that?”
“Unfortunately.” He sighed and glanced over at her. “I’m a generally quiet person. I like my privacy and kind of wanted to keep my love affair, or lack thereof, intimate and personal. Elizabeth wanted the big hurrah, though. I actually think she was happier planning that behemoth of a party than she was one day with me.”
“Are all of your marriages arranged?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s a tradition that goes back longer than I know the history of. It’s a family’s choice whether or not they wish to arrange a marriage for their children. Many muses marry for love and love alone. In those cases, the ceremony is not nearly as enormous. And we do not require a license to marry. In the simplest of ceremonies, all a couple need do is stand before two witnesses and pledge their vow to one other. That is considered legal and binding.”
He glanced over at her as she seemed to turn this over in her mind and quietly sip her wine.
“You say there have never been any humans who have been able to come to this realm before?” she finally asked.
He shrugged. “I’m not sure. I have never heard of any personally, but that does not mean there never has been. I imagine if it is possible for you, it could be possible for others…if the connection was strong enough.”
“Like the connection I have with you,” she assumed, meeting his gaze. “The one we share through your music.” At his nod, she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and chewed on it until he was sure she was going to gnaw it off. “Do you think it’s possible for a human to stay in this realm?”
“I don’t see why not.” He frowned in thought, set his glass down and rose from the chair. He went to kneel in front of her so he could look up into her eyes. “Why the interest?” He quirked an eyebrow and offered a playful smile. “All this talk of marriage ceremonies and humans remaining in the muse realm…. You plan on staying awhile?” He reached up to tuck back an errant strand of her golden hair. “Plan on making me your mate?”
He meant only to tease her, but she met his gaze boldly, with determined focus and said, “And if I am?”
His heart tumbled over itself several times to the point that it robbed him of his ability to draw in a breath. His eyes widened and he stared at her, trying to gauge if she was serious or only playing with him. When she didn’t crack a smile or start laughing, his breath came out in a whoosh and he shook his head. “Melody, that option sounds promising, so you had better mean it when you say things like that to me,” he murmured, paraphrasing her words from earlier.
A warm, soft smile split her lips, and she reached out to thread her fingers through his hair and trail them down the length of the strands. “I mean every word I say to you,” she said. “Always.”
His heart started to beat double-time, and he closed his eyes as he let her words fill up every dark, lonely space inside him with radiant hope. What would it be like to be with someone who actually desired him? Who set him on fire every time he looked at her and accepted his music into herself like it belonged there and she craved it? Who looked at him with warmth and affection in the depths of her eyes instead of cold apathy? He had long ago stopped imagining that he would ever have such a thing. Could it be possible that Melody—this amazing woman who felt him across the continuum, traveled to his world at will, who made him hear symphonies unlike anything he had ever experienced—could really want to give him the greatest gift in existence—her love?
To his surprise, she set her wine glass down and moved out of the chair. She sat in his lap, straddling his waist and wrapping her long legs around his hips in a way that almost caused him to spontaneously combust. He sucked his breath in and placed his hands on her hips as she shifted her weight in order to sit comfortably, resulting in her being even more intimately pressed against him. “What, are you trying to kill me?” he teased, his voice coming out gruffer than he’d ever heard himself sound.
Her satisfied giggle almost undid him, and as she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her delicate hands in his hair, he groaned and let his forehead fall onto her shoulder helplessly. He was so starved for affection, his body had no idea how to react to it, how to process the burning ache she created within him.
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