Andrew
Heavy autumn rain pelted the windscreen. The wide screen on the side of the building played something, but he couldn't even make up what commercial it was. Orsino was blessed with warm summers and mild winters, but the transition between them was usually abrupt. In November, they could already be said to be in full winter. He reached for the climate control and set the temperature even higher.
He was waiting for the light to turn green when the phone rang. He didn't want to talk to anyone, but he checked the screen anyway.
Marvin Stark? The boy wouldn't bother him unless it was an emergency.
"Hi, Marvin. What's wrong?"
"Umm, sorry to call you... I know it's late and... I need your help."
He sounded frantic. He sounded nervous most of the times, but this was a whole new level of anxiety.
"Anything. What happened?"
"You can come in at any time without triggering the alarm, right?"
"Marvin, calm down. Tell me what happened."
The boy drew in a deep breath.
"Vy got locked out of the House. She's been in the rain and I'm afraid she will catch a cold if she stays out all night."
That did not make any sense.
"Where is she?"
"In the pool house. When she got back from meeting the courier, she found the doors locked. And now she's still out."
"What meeting?" he asked confused.
"I wanted to send my mother Lauren's autograph for her birthday tomorrow, and I couldn't go to the pickup point so Vy took the envelope and when she got back the doors were closed. Can you help her?"
"If I bring her in the House, I'll have to report that she was out past curfew."
"No!" Marvin gasped. "You can't do that. It's not her fault. It's my fault. Please."
"Calm down. I won't get her disqualified. I'll work something out. Don't you think about opening the door for her. You don't need to be both thrown out of the competition."
"Ok. I trust you."
Of course he did. If Marvin hadn't trusted him, he wouldn't have done something as stupid as telling a Captain such a serious breach of the competition rules. He turned the car around, and drove as fast as he could back to the Bracciano estate. He'd have to come up with a good reason for going back to the House at that time if anyone asked. He wondered what would he do if it was anyone other than Vy. Would he report the breach if it was a contestant from another team? Probably not. That rule had nothing to do with their talent, and as such it wasn't a rule Andrew felt any particular eagerness to enforce. The network had their own reasons to keep the format of the show as it was, but for him only the music mattered.
It could have been anyone and he would have come to their rescue. But it had to be her.
If the alarm wasn't triggered it meant that she had indeed returned before curfew. If the door was locked, someone on the inside had locked it.
Better not go into the House.
He left his car at the outer edge of the parking lot and hurried stealthily through the pouring rain. The path to the secret door also led from the front of the property to the back. Once he was on the other side, he went straight to the pool house. It was so dark inside that he couldn't see if there was anyone inside.
"Damn," he said when he hit his shin on a chair.
He turned on the flashlight on his phone trying to see something inside.
"Vy, are you here?"
His light revealed a pair of jeans on the back of a chair. A t-shirt on the table. He changed the direction of his searches when he caught a glimpse of lace.
"I'm here."
He turned the light instinctively to the corner the voice came from. Vy was getting off the floor, rubbing her eyes. Her long hair fell in wet ringlets on her shoulders. A towel that had probably been wrapped around her hair fell as she got up. She was holding the bathrobe tight around herself.
"Turn that off, please. I don't want anyone to see light in here."
Anger rose in him to hear her talk as if he was the one putting her in danger. He held on to it to avoid thinking about her, naked under that shapeless white bathrobe.
"A little late to be so careful, don't you think?"
"You know what they say. Better late than never."
This really set him off. She didn't seem to acknowledge in how much trouble she was. Didn't she realize that he could get her thrown off the show for this transgression?
"How could you be so reckless?" Andrew said. "Even if you don't get caught, if you catch a cold, everything you worked for in this competition goes up in flames."
Maybe he expected her to back down. To admit that he was right and feel duly ashamed of her recklessness.
"Why do you even care?" she asked. "Don't you have your own team to look after?"
He should not have been surprised of her reaction, let alone get angry himself. A part of him tried to hold him back, but he shut it down. He'd been holding back too many feelings for too long. She had no idea what it felt like to lose what meant most to you.
"Having a team doesn't mean I can just sit on my ass when a stupid kid risks wasting her chance."
"I hate to tell you, Mr. King, but this show isn't the only chance I'll ever get. If I don't win this, I'm not going to crawl somewhere and never sing again."
"Of course you won't give up, but don't tell me you don't care about winning."
"Oh, I do. And I will win because TC is a million times better than you."
"Then why didn't you call him to help you? How much do you think he cares about you?"
Chapter 13
Vy
She had walked right into that. Whatever their rivalry was, her new mentor was not a good card to play against King. She heard bitterness and pity in his voice. She didn't need that. Damn Nikki! For the second time, she was wet and humiliated in front of a man she admired. The fact that for the second time, King felt sorry for her made her angry at him. It wasn't what she needed from him.
"I didn't call anyone to help me," she said. "This is my mess and I'm dealing with it. And don't you worry about me and TC. I always knew he was an asshole but he will make me into a better singer."
"He's manipulating you, not helping you. Cruelty and arrogance aren't the marks of a mentor."
"You? You talk about cruelty and arrogance? You have both of them in spades and you fancy yourself a good mentor. At least he doesn't hide what he is."
"Why do you think I'm cruel?"
His tone had changed from the heated argumentative voice to a low, cold curiosity. She opened her mouth to reply but nothing came out. Why would she say he was cruel? Arrogant, yes. But cruel? He hadn't demonstrated cruelty at any time, to any one, and yet it hurt to be around him. Every time he looked at her, she felt like he was cutting her open. Every polite word, every distant smile.
She took a step back. She needed space to think, to breathe. To her shock he took a step forward. She backed away again, and he didn't hesitate to follow her as if they were dancing. She reached out without thinking. The whole scene was so unreal, she needed to check he was really there. She brushed her fingertips along his jawline. His short-cropped beard prickled her fingers, and under it, his skin. Warm.
"Stop it," he whispered.
"Stop what?"
"Just... Don't..."
Her eyes were getting used to the dark. She watched his mouth shaping the lying words. He was asking her to stop although he was the one putting this spell on her. Her breathing sped up, something in her depths coiled tighter, urging her to run away, but the feel of his body close by held her captive like gravity.
He remained motionless, as if he could see her in the perfect darkness. She didn't need light to see the intensity in his eyes. That look kept her up every night after the incident by the pool. How many times had she gone to sleep remembering that look? How many times she had dreamed of a moment just like this?
There was no one around them this time. Whatever the hell had almost happened in September
was about to happen then and there. Maybe it was just another dream. Maybe it was TC's stupid insistence on making King want her manifesting in Vy's sleep deprived subconscious. Maybe she was imagining King's lips pressing against hers.
If it was a dream, she was running a hell of a fever. Her cheeks were burning, and every inch of her skin tingled and wanted to be touched. Andrew's arm around her waist, pulling her closer, holding her so tight... it had to be a dream.
His hand sneaking under the robe, cupping her breast, holding her beating hard in his palm. She had dreamed that often enough. She had craved his touch for weeks.
Why was she still holding back? She should enjoy it before the alarm clock would cut it short. She sighed and parted her lips. Andrew's tongue sneaked between them, invading her mouth and her mind. She had never been kissed like that. She answered him, hoping that enthusiasm would compensate for her lack of experience.
Andrew
Nothing had ever felt sweeter than the moment when she surrendered. Her body arched into his while he plundered her mouth. She'd been driving him insane for months. He was done lying to himself. He wanted her. Not on his team, but in his bed.
He wondered briefly if there were any cameras. Probably not. The main purpose of this place was for people to change their clothes. The mere worry about cameras should have warned him that he was doing something wrong. But he already knew that. She was too young to know any better. She couldn't even guess how massive a scandal would be. Knowing that he might harm her had held him back for weeks. The dam inside had shattered and he forgot why this should never be.
Lighting struck somewhere close. For a moment there seemed to be daylight outside the window. When the thunder reached them, she held tighter onto his shoulders.
"Are you afraid?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"Only of you."
The whispers fell from her lips between ravenous kisses. He was too far gone to make sense of the words. Their meaning eventually reached his addled brain and he knew he had to pull away from the embrace. It physically hurt when he tried to take a step back. He pressed her even harder into the wall and her little moan clouded his judgement again.
He cupped her cheeks in his palms and forced himself to tear his mouth from hers. Her whimpers weakened his resolve. His lips were magnetically drawn to hers.
"This is dangerous," he said, brushing her lips with his as he spoke.
His self-control hung by a thread.
"It's not dangerous. It's just a dream," she said, and she leaned in to kiss him again.
He didn't know how long it took to be able to speak again. His hands learned her contours, from her cheeks, down her neck, over her breasts, down to her hips, pulling her closer to him and pushing her into the wall at the same time.
"You're not dreaming," he barely managed to whisper hotly. "We're both here. Flesh. And blood."
She pulled him back into another kiss, and he forgot himself until they had to stop to get their breath back. He burned with the need to push the bathrobe off her shoulders, to worship all of her with his hands and lips. He couldn't make himself loosen the embrace. He couldn't get enough of her trembling body pressed hard into his.
"Of course it's a dream," she said in a dreamy voice. "Andrew King would never do this."
Those words slashed clean through the fog of mad desire. What was he doing? What kind of man was he to jeopardize her future like this? She gasped in pain when he squeezed her hard in his arms for the last time. He took a few staggering steps back.
"I'm sorry," she said immediately.
What was she sorry for? He should be the one begging forgiveness. Except... he didn't regret it. If anything, he regretted they stopped.
"It should have never happened," he said. "I assure you that it won't happen again.".
"You won't tell anyone about it, will you? Please?"
He nodded without understanding why she was the one asking that. He tried to calm down, think what he should do next. Why had he come at the pool house in the first place?
"It's still raining hard, but you shouldn't stay here all night."
With me.
"I would get kicked off the show if I alert them I'm out," she said.
He looked out into the raging storm. Could he find the secret entrance after all those years? Even if he found the place, maybe they had closed it off when they renovated the mansion.
"There might be another way," he said. "I knew a secret passageway on the side of the mansion. It should get you to the hall outside your music room."
"What are we waiting for then?"
"Not sure if I can find the entrance," he said.
"We can stay here," she said.
The sliver of hope in her voice made him dizzy. She had no idea how much he wanted to keep her there all night. The mere thought scared him. He had to get away from her as soon as possible and he could only do that if she got back inside.
"Get dressed," he said.
Thunder rumbled, covering his thickened voice. He kept his back to her training his attention on the wind whistling outside, on the heavy rain pelting the tiles around the pool and the leaves of the big trees that surrounded the house and kept them safe from prying eyes from the upper floors.
The sound of fabric against skin insinuated into his ears, fanning the ember of desire he desperately tried to extinguish. All he had to do was turn around and he could have that which he wanted most. She had shown him that she desired him. How easy it would be to give and get the solace they both needed…
"Done," she said.
They walked out in the pouring rain and went around to the side of the house. Even with the full moon and the constant lightning, he couldn't see the entrance beyond the hedge. He slipped in the small space between the hedge and the wall, and felt blindly with along the wet bricks to find the edges of the door while branches and thorns caught at his clothes.
A bolt of lightning scarred the sky and he felt Vy's hand clutching at his upper arm. He flexed his biceps instinctively and she jerked her hand away as if it burned her. He took in a deep breath and fought the urge to push her against the wall and continue what he had done to her in the pool house.
He licked his lips, and despite the cold rain drops that washed his skin, he could still taste her.
"Maybe we should go back," she said.
He clenched his fists and rested them on the cold wall while rain poured from the sky. He shook his head to dispel the temptation. They were both soaked to the skin by the time he found the door. He pried it open and took her hand, pulling her inside. He put his foot in the door to stop it closing again. He had to leave the house the same way to keep his involvement secret.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Their bodies were pressed together in the narrow confines of the hallway.
"Music room 1 is on the right," he said, trying to override the effects of her proximity on his body.
He pointed to the room where she had unknowingly sung "Slow Like Honey" to him. It was pitch dark and the only effect of his gesture was that he had brushed her breasts with his forearm. Her small intake of breath made him dizzy. Before he could do something stupid again, Vy had walked away into the darkness, out of the narrow corridor, into the hallway. She had probably felt her way across the walls because in a few seconds she was gone.
He remained there, propped against the cold wall, staring into the darkness.
To his surprise, he heard sounds coming from the music room. A door opening and closing. The scraping of a chair on the floor. Then a few ranges on the piano, which turned into a melody. One of his.
He didn't have to wonder if it was Vy or not. Her voice made Dark Dream her own. Vy sang about a girl losing herself in her lover. He rushed out into the rain before the song was over.
Chapter 14
Vy
Round three had finished a few hours earlier. Vy still shook from the emotions of singing live for the first time. She, Marvin and Helen
were safe, but Bryce had lost. And Nikki. She was vaguely annoyed that she hadn't gotten the chance to sing against the… witch.
IBC organized a sending off party in the common room as they did after each round. That was going to be the last one until the end of season party. Eight people went into the semifinals, but the four who didn't make it to the finals stayed in the House for the last two weeks, as a backup, in case one of the finalists couldn't perform.
Bryce was trying to reassure them that he was happy to have made it that far. Marvin was moping for having lost his roommate. Helen was moping for obvious reasons. She was watching Nikki Dawson, sitting alone in a corner of the room. Her BFF Michelle had made it into the semifinals, and she didn't seem inclined to comfort her.
The blonde dabbed a napkin under her eyes, in the telltale gesture of someone who didn't want tears to smudge the mascara. She looked like a kicked dog as she slunk out of the room. No one tried to stop her. No one followed her.
Except Batman.
Vy grabbed her jacket and went after Nikki, shaking her head. Why did she always need to jump to the rescue? And why rescue someone like that total… witch?
Nikki disappeared down the hallway that led to the pool. Vy looked out the window at the November snow falling incessantly outside. She banged her head against the door frame. She was a summer person. She liked sandy beaches and the hot breeze on the seashore. She loved the smell of heated tarmac under the scorching July sun in Orsino. She did not fare well in winter. And she didn't even have a pair of mittens or anything.
She snatched the door open anyway.
Nikki sat frozen on a chair, staring at the pool.
"Leave me alone," Nikki said when she saw her.
"Not when you look like you're going to throw yourself fully clothed into the pool," she said. "I did that in September, as you might remember, and I can share with you that it wasn't pleasant. I'm betting that late-November is downright dangerous."
"For fuck's sake, how can you be so damn chirpy all the time?"
Dark Dream (Love in Illyria Book 1) Page 10
