FascinatingRhythm

by Lynne Connolly

  Chick showed no annoyance, now he had the field. “Beverley knows, so I suppose that means Jace knows. Did he tell anyone?”

  “No time,” Jace said. “We overslept.” By his side, Beverley gave a muffled laugh. Jealousy grew inside Hunter. He wouldn’t have that pleasure for a while.

  “Okay, here’s the thing. I fixed a couple more gigs after Copenhagen. We had nearly two weeks before Berlin, which seems a shame, so I got us something. With Beverley’s help. That woman could confuse Einstein. Fucking amazing the way she can cut a deal. Of course, she learned from the best.” A smattering of applause followed, but not a long one. “Anyway, gang, we’re doing two squares. Tiananmen and Red. I’m hoping for a freebie in Trafalgar when we do the UK to finish the deal. Always like things to go in threes.”

  Stunned silence followed for the space of half a minute. Hunter stared at Riku, who stared back, and eventually a grin spread over his face. “Fuck, yeah.”

  All Hunter could think of was Sabina. “You know I’m going to Uppsala for Sabina’s operation, yeah?”

  The corner of Chick’s mouth turned up in a sneer. “That’s the first thing you think about?”

  “Yeah.” Why should he justify himself? “We’re friends and she’ll need me.”

  Chick shrugged. “Keep your eyes on the prize. Both squares are being televised, and since MTT are doing it, they’ll syndicate it. Big deal, people. Don’t blow it.” MTT was one of the biggest music networks around. They specialized in live music events, which meant the concerts would be shown just about worldwide. Fuck. Reality sank in. Hunter pulled out his phone. “Dates?”

  “The twenty-third for Tiananmen and the twenty-seventh for Red.”

  “Sabina’s op is on the nineteenth.”

  “So you can still make it. Just. This is a must, Hunter. Compulsory. Sound checks, interviews, everything.”

  A low murmur went up, growing louder as people discussed the concerts. Except for Jace and Beverley, who went back to sleeping. Presumably Beverley had told him when she knew, which would have been yesterday. She rarely kept anything from Jace, and if he’d been unoccupied, he’d have told the rest of them. That meant it had only been confirmed last night.

  He forgave Chick for not telling him before, but still had reservations. He needed to look up flights, see if he could shuttle between concerts. Chick shut down that idea. “Leave between the two concerts is canceled.”

  “Are we in the army now?” Riku asked. He glanced at Hunter. “Sorry, man.”

  Hunter grimaced. “Thanks.”

  “Nope,” Chick said. “It’s a pain in the ass getting into and out of those countries, so once we’ve crossed into their space, I want us to stay there until the concerts are done. Then you have a week until the next one. If you leave after the first one, Tiananmen, you might not get back in time. I don’t want us going off in all directions, not for these gigs. We’re rock musicians, people, and they won’t want us wandering around.”

  A chuckle rippled around the vessel.

  That meant a week when he could keep in touch with Sabina only by phone and video. Even if he left as soon as possible after Red Square, he’d be gone a week. Shit, what was this? He should be excited. Fucking thrilled, but the clash meant all he felt was anxiety.

  Stupid fucking idiot. He’d made no promises to Sabina, and she to him, deliberately. They couldn’t, with their lives as unsettled as this. Who knew when the Murder City Ravens train would derail? And what would Sabina do after her operation? Recovery took some time and the university hospital wanted to check on her frequently, so she’d be stuck near Uppsala. He’d rack up the air miles, sure he would, but the time between the two new concerts was crucial for Sabina’s recovery. He wanted to be there for her, wanted to make up for the times when he wasn’t. Wanted to prove that this time she could trust him.

  Hunter gave his attention back to the clouds outside his window.

  “Hey, man,” Riku said after around ten minutes. “What’s that?”

  “What are you talking about?” Irritably he turned away from the riveting view.

  “You were beating something out on your leg.”

  He hadn’t realized he was doing it, but thinking of Sabina had sent him tapping out that rhythm, the way her pussy clenched around whatever part of him happened to be in her when she came. Shit. But Riku wouldn’t know that.

  “Do it again.” Riku lifted the lid of his laptop and the computer sprang into life. A close-up of a fleshy flower, probably an orchid, graced the screen before Riku brought up one of his sophisticated music programs. He bought them, hacked them and redesigned them so they would do what he wanted them to.

  Hunter, without any computer or software to help him, obligingly did it again.

  “Hot,” Riku mumbled, noting something down. “Like it. Primal, unthinking. What were you thinking of playing it on?”

  He hadn’t thought that far. “Drum kit.” His inner musician kicked in, screaming for attention. “Maybe a touch on the vibes, right at the end.” He frowned. “We do have vibes, don’t we? Not electronics, the real thing.”

  Riku glanced at him. “Filthy fucker, I know what that is.”

  “Better not.” He glared at his colleague and friend.

  Riku held up a hand to ward him off, laughing. “Whatever. This is a great start. I know where we can take this.” He grabbed his capacious music bag and found something inside it. A small keyboard, which he turned on and set a few switches. “Listen.”

  He tapped out a few notes. Then he bent them, using the joystick at the side. “Crude, but you get it. If I take that and I bind it, then I add the vibes and feed them into the Kaoss pad, I can go somewhere.”

  Hunter liked it. Weight landed on the back of his seat as Zazz hoisted himself up, leaning over them. “What’s that?”

  Hunter beat out his rhythm, adding the double at the end, when she clenched him twice in fast succession, and Riku overlaid his part. “Don’t have anything for that,” Zazz said. “Or should I just say, ‘hey, I know’ and swing right into a note-perfect version of Lady Be Good?” He sniggered.

  “Like the old movies?” Donovan was getting into the act now. He was sitting behind Jace and Beverley, across the aisle from them.

  Jace had his arm around her but he wasn’t asleep. “Get it down. I can do something with that.” Donovan, being the bass player, worked closest with Hunter. His lady was reading, but she glanced up and smiled at Hunter and Riku, then went back to her book. Younger than most of them, Allie still showed a maturity they sometimes lacked.

  “So that’s why they take joint songwriting credit,” someone murmured at the back of the plane. One of the sound men, maybe.

  Jace sniggered. “Yeah, dipshit. Did you think we made it up as we went along?”

  Chapter Nine

  Sabina missed Hunter so much. She hadn’t imagined she would, what with the rush before the operation and the wonders of modern communication to keep her busy. They exchanged emails every day. Even Skyped once. He tweeted and texted to her phone, and she returned every one.

  Right before the Copenhagen concert, he’d sent her an email about playing Tiananmen and Red Squares.

  She tried to be thrilled for him, and she was, she truly was, but her heart ached when she finally hit “send” on the email that told him not to worry, she’d be fine. She’d cope, she said, even managing a joke about being unconscious most of the time.

  “I’ll come,” he texted back, and she could hear his voice, firmly assuring her. Maybe soon she’d hear his voice for real. Or maybe never again.

  No longer sure she even wanted him there because of what it meant to his career, Sabina texted back. “Playing those places is as important to you as my operation is to me. I’ll be fine. I’ll take my laptop and phone into the hospital and contact you from there. We don’t have to be in the same room.”

  “For some things, we do.”

  Then he’d Skyped her. Her operation was set for Tuesday and t
his was Saturday. She’d drive up to Uppsala on Monday to have the preliminary blood tests done, so she decided to take an early night to prepare.

  Not that she could sleep. She sat on the bed in her comfortable but pin-neat room at Emmelie’s composing an email to her family when the Skype signal flashed. She pulled up the window and answered the call.

  The picture of Hunter onstage faded, replaced by the man himself, sitting in what looked like another hotel room. “Do you have a home?” she signed.

  He grinned. “And hello to you too. Yes, I have homes. One in London and one in New York. I like New York.”

  “I’d like to see it one day. Not your home of course, but New York.”

  “You’ve never been?”

  “No, I’ve been to Florida, but nowhere else in America.”

  He frowned. “If you come to New York, you’ll come to my apartment. Murder City Ravens is due to go there at the end of the year, to finish the tour there. That’s where it all began this time ’round, at Madison Square Garden. It’s where V decided to join us and where we really started.”

  She’d be jealous of the beautiful V, except that she had a man who had a life and work of his own, so they traveled to see each other. Sabina hadn’t allowed that possibility to occur. Hunter had never asked, for one thing. This was the first time he’d mentioned that he wanted to see her a significant time after the operation. She couldn’t stop a wistful, “You’re in Europe until the end of the year?”

  “Yes. You could come with me to New York.”

  Had he forgotten? “I can’t fly. Not for at least a year after the procedure. They don’t want to risk anything.”

  His face fell and the light left his eyes. Maybe she had come to mean more to him, as he had to her, but she couldn’t count on it.

  He looked up and it was as if he was looking directly into her eyes, no barrier between them. “You need a distraction. Take off your top.”

  “What?”

  “You heard. Do it.”

  Again she wished she could hear his voice, but his command told her he meant it. This time as he signed, he talked.

  A thrill shot through her, sharp as electricity. Oh yes. “Do you share your room?”

  He paused, stared at her, then a slow smile crept over his face. “Of course. With Riku. He’s watching, just out of view. You like that, or do you want me to get rid of him?”

  She swallowed. He was only playing—wasn’t he? Riku wasn’t there. Of course they were a big name now, and he’d had his own room in Malmö.

  The uncertainty was driving her crazy. In a completely good way.

  She dragged her top off and cast it aside. Underneath she wore a sheer lace bra. She shimmied, enjoying the way his expression sharpened when her breasts moved.

  “Take it off.”

  She shook a warning finger and then signed, “Too repetitive. Think of something else.”

  He grinned, his blue eyes hot. Then he stripped off his own top.

  She groaned low in her throat, the vibration skittering through her whole body. He deserved a reward for that. But she signed, “Is he watching?”

  He spoke, keeping his words distinct. “Oh yes. He can’t keep his eyes away from you.”

  Slowly she reached around and unclipped her bra, then let the straps slip down but kept her arms up, stopping the bra from falling away. If she pressed her arms together, she could create a modest cleavage, something she wasn’t fortunate enough to possess normally.

  The warmth in his eyes increased. He leaned forward and signed. “Riku likes it. He says your breasts are beautiful. He wants to touch them. Show him.”

  She let the bra drop and waited. A small smile creased his lips, creating an almost-dimple at the corners of his mouth. “I think they’re beautiful too. Can you make your nipples hard for me?”

  Time for some payback. “Can you make your cock hard for me?”

  “Too late. I’m so hard I’d limp if I tried to walk.”

  She didn’t know if that was possible, but then she wasn’t a man, so she’d take his word for it. “How about Riku?” She kept her voice low. Years of training and practice enabled her to feel the way air passed through her vocal cords, meaning she could vary her pitch somewhat. Her residual hearing didn’t help with soft sounds.

  “Riku is panting. He wants more. He says if you give him more, he’ll go crazy for you. He’s playing with his crotch, stroking his erection. Do you think he’ll get it out for you if you give him what he wants?”

  “I don’t know.” Uncertain, she bit her lip. Why that should reassure her she didn’t know, but it did, as if he were in the room with her, speaking, his breath hot against her skin.

  Lifting her hands, she tweaked her nipples, twirled them between finger and thumb, trying to do as he asked. Get them hard for him.

  She stared at the screen and watched him lick his lips. “Can you see me talking okay?”

  She nodded.

  “Riku wants to know what’s going on. See you and tell me what he wants you to do.”

  A suspicion crossed her mind. What if this was real? What if Riku was really there? Yes, okay, he was hot, but she didn’t want him, and she didn’t really want to share. But when she thought of doing it with someone watching, especially someone as crazy sexy as Riku, her pussy throbbed and moisture seeped between her thighs.

  Go with it, let it take you.

  Soon she’d tell him to leave her. They’d have to part, she couldn’t see any other way. But for now, she was the girlfriend of the sexiest man on the planet, and she’d better make the most of it.

  He could be filming her to watch later. Watch what she was doing for him.

  She caressed her breasts, palmed them, watched him.

  “Strip,” he said. “Let’s see what else you can offer.”

  “You’ve seen it.”

  “I have. But Riku hasn’t. I’ve seen it, tasted it and fucked it. And I’m really thirsty for you now.”

  Did he lower his voice? She’d like to think he did.

  Taking her time, she undid her jeans and left the bed just for a moment to take them and the rest of her clothes off. She came back. He was waiting for her.

  He’d stripped too. “Only fair,” he said with a grin. He’d set the screen back a little on his bed so she could see more of him. His cock was hard, red and leaking. He took it in one hand and gave it a pump. More liquid spilled out of the tip.

  “I’m hungry too,” she said. “How’s Riku?”

  “The same.” He worked it again. “Do me a favor, sweetheart. Sit with your legs apart. Let us see that gorgeous pussy, wide open and waiting for us. Then do what I say.”

  Swallowing away her doubts, she did as he asked, spread her legs, splaying them on either side of her laptop and adjusting the screen a little so he could see her body. But now he couldn’t see her face. She typed. “Is that what you want?”

  He shook his head. “No. Sit a bit further back so we can see all of you. It’s no good if I can’t see your eyes and your mouth.”

  She scooted back, adjusted the screen again. “Is that okay?”

  “More than okay. We’re sitting here, cocks in hand, waiting to see what you’ll do next. Now put your hands on your breasts again. Tease them.”

  She did so, surprised at the intensity of feeling because stimulating her breasts didn’t usually work for her when she did it.

  “Oh that looks so good.” He worked his cock again. She wanted to be there to do it for him.

  “Now imagine it’s Riku behind you, taking your breasts in his hands. What would you like him to do? Do it, because believe me, Riku will do anything you want.”

  Would she like a ménage? “Would you do this for real?”

  He paused, and in that moment she knew what he’d say. “We’ve done it before. But in answer to your question, no. Not with you. You’re mine. I don’t mind him looking, but that’s all. I get to touch. Nobody else.”

  His eyes showed a wildness she did
n’t know how to interpret at first, then she realized. Fear lurked there. Afraid for what? To say what he just had, or to acknowledge it? She couldn’t ask him because she was afraid too. Of what he’d say. He might shut her out the way she’d seen him shut out other people. Those journalists at the press conference, for example. She didn’t want that to happen to her.

  “So you’d like to show me off?”

  “Maybe. I’m proud of you, you know that?” He smiled, worked his cock almost lazily, then cradled his balls. She watched, trying to memorize it for when she saw him again and had his cock in her hand.

  “You like?”

  “Oh yes. Now take one hand from your breast, let us see it. And put your fingers down there. Spread the lips of your delectable pussy. We can already see your clit. It’s hard and red.”

  She spread her hand, let it traverse the distance between her breasts and her hips slowly, remembering what he’d said about her skin, how silky it was, how he loved to touch it. His tongue flicked out and touched his lower lip, as if searching for her taste. He’d done that after he’d gone down on her, tasting her on himself, he’d said.

  Spreading her pussy lips, she exposed her clit. She wanted to touch. “Would Riku touch me there?”

  “No. I’d do that. He’s still caressing a breast. But he wants to touch and he asks my permission. Yes, I say.”

  She shuddered and her mouth fell open just a little as her muscles relaxed into the fantasy. “He’s touching me now.”

  “He is. Watch me.” Her eyes were sliding closed, but at his words she forced her lids wide open once more. “I can see your arousal in your eyes. Your pussy’s wet, isn’t it? Soaking.”

  Nodding, she slid a finger along her pussy, gathering the juice, then smoothed it over her clit. “You look gorgeous. I want you.”

  “You have me. What do you want me to do?”

  “I want you to fuck me. Slide your cock deep.” As she spoke, she pushed her finger deep inside, using her third finger to touch her clit. Not very effectively, but it kept her arousal going.