Unfinished Sympathy (Absolution Book 1)

by Amélie S. Duncan

  I grimaced. “You don’t understand. I don’t want to be your kept woman. My dad thought my mom, sister and I needed to be bought. He would tell us that he’s going out with friends, but he was working extra jobs. He took out loans to buy me expensive violins and help pay for my lessons, competitions, and training. He died of a heart attack at one of those jobs we didn’t even know he had. It devastated us. I’d give up everything I have just to have him back. If only I knew…. It’s my fault he worked so hard. I won’t ever take more than I need from anyone again.” My voice broke and Paul placed his arm around me and held me for a while.

  “Your dad kept his financial and health problems from you all. He wanted to give you everything because he loved and believed in you. It’s not your fault what happened to him,” he said, trying to soothe me.

  I didn’t say anything though I didn’t agree with him. I did know we weren’t rich. I should have stopped my dad. If I had, he might still be here.

  “You don’t know that,” Paul said letting me know I said what I had been thinking out loud. “He loved you and tried his best. I’m sure he doesn’t regret helping you or your family…I must confess I never been with someone that didn’t want something from me. It’s what I’ve become used to,” he said, and bit his bottom lip.

  “Siena?” I asked.

  “And the others like her,” he said. “She had a goal. I gave her all she asked for, and more, but she didn’t feel that what I gave her was enough. She wanted more and thought marrying me would give her everything. She put all her efforts into it.”

  “I never liked her music,” I said, my face souring.

  He laughed. “She was good when she worked at it.”

  “She’s a horrible woman, and you didn’t deserve that,” I said. “I want to make my own way. I’ll feel more rewarded if I earn it. I learned it’s not good to let my needs overwhelm others.”

  He hugged me to him. “We’re quite the pair, but there will be times I won’t listen, and I hope you’ll learn to accept that. I’ve held back from interfering because I know you don’t want me to, but let me do some nice things for you sometimes, okay?”

  “Clear it with me first,” I said unwavering.

  He squeezed me. “You’re too fucking much. We’re going out tonight. It could be fun in a new dress, shoes, and a handbag. You’re already scheduled for spa time next door after you shop here. I need to rehearse, do a costume fitting, and talk with the director.”

  I lowered my brows. “Isn’t that something Eileen normally would do for you?”

  “Eileen wouldn’t be in trouble if they post her photo on Instagram,” he said. “I’m known and unknown, so I move freely, but Infinity is the number one album in the country.”

  I nodded, though it still bothered me. “Let me do something for you. I’d feel better than just taking stuff.”

  “Do as I ask, and that would please me.” He kissed me, then swatted my butt and laughed at my scolding. “Regan will bring you back later. I’ve left our numbers to call when you’re done.”

  I kissed him again. “No more surprises.”

  He held up his hands like he was innocent, but his smile was wicked. The man did whatever he wanted. Still, he had me crazy about him.

  The spa and shopping turned out to be fun, and the day wasn’t over. It was cooler at night, and I chose a black velvet dress with a satin tulle skirt and medium heeled pumps. I picked a leather backpack instead of a handbag from the shop and used the clutch bag I’d brought from home. My hair was in a braid down my back. With a little gloss on my lips and a printed scarf around my neck for color, I met Paul downstairs.

  He’d changed into a suit and was playing Beethoven on the piano. He played it better than I’d ever heard before.

  He stopped playing and turned around when he heard me. I cursed the heels that clicked on the marble entry, interrupting him.

  His gaze was warm on me. “You look beautiful.”

  “You say that a lot,” I said, and smiled.

  He came and kissed me. “Because it’s true.”

  The theater was spectacular, and the symphony was sublime. We didn’t need to speak to know how much we enjoyed the music. It was like going home. I fell for the presentation, and a most attentive date.

  We were invited backstage, and I stood with Paul as he spoke with the conductor and other people in the scene. I watched the players and envied the feel of the orchestra. I remembered how special performing was. When I was younger, I’d taken it for granted that I’d be playing forever.

  Paul was right by me, still introducing me as a violinist. He never wavered in his idea of me.

  When it was over, we walked out into the night air and stopped next to a streetlamp. I stared into his eyes and my heart skipped a beat. Even in the dim light, they were as entrancing as fire, and I was burning under them. We had no walls to build, no layers to peel away. I couldn’t pinpoint the exact time it had happened, but I was sure I had fallen in love with him.

  Paul

  “Play for me.” I brought the Stradivarius violin into the bedroom. “I want to hear how you play after you come.”

  A friend of mine had had the instrument hand delivered over to the home where we were staying.

  I wanted to hear her play her passion for me. When she played, she poured out her heart. When we had sex, she gave it to me. I loved how she reached for me even in her sleep. I kept her close and wanted her closer still. She was a part of me now.

  Pulling the covers back, I stared at her naked form and my cock stirred. I’d fucked her, and I was already ready to have her again. I was addicted.

  She went to grab her robe, and I took it away. “No. Play naked.”

  She blushed, but we both knew she wasn’t shy. “Play naked?” she repeated.

  “Yes, naked. Come on.” I slapped her ass. She slowed down for me to do more, but I sat back against the headboard and waited. “Later.”

  Aubrey took my promise, did as I asked, and picked up the violin. Like my piano, the violin was a part of her. The music she formed on it was in her soul and trapped inside. She needed to set it free.

  She played Dvořák. “I can’t come to Bohemia and not play Dvořák,” she explained. The instrument was superior, but it would have been dead without her life pouring out. She played stronger and more confidently.

  Then she looked at me and my breath caught in my throat. There she was, a radiant naked nymph, moving around the room, playing for me. She was so lost; I wondered if she realized she’d journeyed off script. Her Dvořák, Serenade for Strings, was forming into something new. I’d had to take the blame for the habit. It would have to be something she’d learn to balance if she was to return to her violin full time. It was a crime her music had stayed hidden. I had to change that. I’d get her back to Juilliard to hone her technical skills, and she would excel. It was in her blood. It was in her song.

  Now she danced close to the bed. I grabbed her waist as she passed and brought her tumbling down on the mattress.

  “I could’ve dropped the instrument,” she complained in breathless protest, but she didn’t stop me. She was just as eager as I was to have me touch her again.

  I cupped her sexy tits and lowered my head to lap and swirl my tongue against the stiff peak of her nipple, then switched to the other one, spreading her legs open so I could look at her. She was already wet with arousal and with me coming inside of her before, but she lifted her hip towards me, begging me to suck her clit before I fucked her.

  “You make me crazy.” I moved between her thighs and licked and sucked, and then pressed my tongue inside, my thumb rubbing on her clit. She panted and moaned in pleasure as she rocked her hips against my mouth, and I fucked her with it.

  “Oh…. oh fuck, fuck. Fuck!” she yelled out. Her thighs tightened as she vibrated on my tongue.

  My eyes met hers and I moaned and swirled my tongue through her before I lifted my head. Her pretty mouth parted in awe. Damn, there was nothing more
adorable. Every orgasm was a surprise for her. I chuckled to myself.

  I turned her over, pulling her smooth legs up to fuck her from behind.

  Running my hand over the soft skin of her sexy ass, I dragged my cock between her legs. Lifting her higher, I pushed my cock in all the way to the hilt. I stopped and groaned as I savored the feeling. I was so addicted to how hot and tight she felt. I didn’t even think of condoms.

  “I didn’t take my birth control pill,” she teased me, showing me she was open to role play. It was just one of the million things I enjoyed with her.

  I swatted her hard on her ass. “Too bad,” I said, and slammed my cock into her hard.

  She let out a moan. “I might get pregnant.”

  My dick throbbed inside her and I ground in deep. “Good. Let’s breed, baby.”

  She laughed and her pussy tightened around my cock, tugging on it. A sexy discovery, for another time. Now I wanted to feel her mouth on me.

  I pulled out and got on my knees on the bed. “Suck me.”

  She used both her hands to squeeze the base of my cock then slipped the head into her mouth. My breath staggered as I clasped the back of her head and slowly slid my cock against her tongue, back and forth, to let her adjust and take more of me in. She sucked in air as she breathed but kept working my cock, hollowing her cheeks as she stroked me. Her eyes were steady as her head bobbed.

  I groaned and swelled in her grip and her mouth, but I didn’t waver. I held a fistful of her hair and moved my hips, controlling how I fucked her mouth. She agreed, and I got off on just how much she wanted to please me.

  Aubrey had me close to coming, but I stopped and told her, “I’m coming inside of you.”

  After positioning her on her back, we both moaned at the feel of my dick entering her again. I bit into my lip to keep from coming as I pumped my cock into her. I wanted her to come with me. I moved a hand down between our slick bodies to rub her hard clit and get her closer to her climax.

  I stared down at her face, her half-lidded eyes, her lips parted as she fought to catch her breath. I loved when she let me see her uninhibited. My dick grew harder still, and I pumped my cock faster. I kissed her lips hard and her teeth grazed mine.

  “Paul!” she called out my name from her heart and I felt mine melting as she writhed in pleasure. She was so beautiful.

  Aubrey’s pussy clenched my cock so tight I came, shuddering hard. She wrapped her legs around me and pulled me down on top of her to hold me and let me know she still needed me close to her. She didn’t need to, though. I wasn’t ever letting her go.

  I kissed and held her for a while. I could have done that all day, but I had dropped a few rumors to my trusted friends in Prague that they might hear Aubrey play the violin on the Charles Bridge today.

  “How about we play outside?” I asked her after we dressed. “I have a keyboard and you can take the Testore.”

  She picked up her glasses and frowned. “I… I don’t know.”

  “It’s just the public,” I said innocently. A little lie.

  “Can I wear clothes?” she joked.

  “You’d make better tips naked,” I teased, and she hit my side. “It’s a fantasy of mine. You playing the violin nude and performing with me on the street. I have to practice, because tomorrow is the film. I’m afraid it’s the only thing we’ll have time to do today.”

  She groaned but said, “Fine. I’ll do it. Classical music doesn’t usually get much attention these days, but if someone finds out on social media—”

  “I’ll handle it,” I assured her.

  We walked to Charles Bridge again, which was becoming our thing. Once we’d set up, I followed her lead because I was curious where she’d take us. She played the usual Tchaikovsky and Dvořák, but then she surprised me by playing a little of Absolution. This was the first time she’d initiated playing the song. The surrounding crowd had grown and fallen silent to listen. She was leading the song off into the unknown. I followed her, and together we made new music. This was her call. She had to feel it.

  The applause came, and money filled the case. We gathered it up and distributed it to other performers on the bridge. Before the St. Johns of Nepomuk statue, she dug into her own pocket and made a wish.

  “You know the story goes they threw him into the Vltava River because he wouldn’t tell the king the queen’s confession,” I told her.

  She rubbed the plaque anyway. “It also says if you rub it, you can return to Prague again. I would stay here forever.”

  “That’s vacation talk,” I warned her. “Living in places you visit always has a way of bringing reality into things.”

  “You sound cynical,” she said, surprised.

  “Not really. Think about what made you happy.”

  I know I had thought about it. Prague had come to life with Aubrey. I’d been there a dozen times, but never had it affected me before. I had never felt so much.

  “Be happy with me,” she said, almost like a plea.

  She needed this moment and memory. She also needed affection and I would, as always, give it to her.

  I cupped her face and kissed her. She hugged me then, and I held her there for as long as she needed. I knew this trip wouldn’t be enough time with Aubrey. This special moment was imprinted on my heart and I marked it down as another precious memory of her.

  My phone buzzed. It was my dad. I excused myself and took the call. “Hello, Dad. Are you doing okay?”

  “I am,” he said. “I thought you should know that Gary’s taking bids for Emono Games right now. With all that’s going on with my health, I’ve decided to pass. Gary seemed more relieved when I told him. He also gave me a friendly heads up that the highest bidder so far has vowed to the shareholders to cut your soundtrack. Unfortunately, that doesn’t narrow it down.”

  “True,” I agreed. Dad had his share of enemies.

  I have my lawyer Ian and Gunnar working together on it with Gary’s legal team. They must pay the penalties. I don’t know if you’ll be able to keep the new music you’ve created.”

  My stomach muscles twisted. Well, Gary was friendly enough to tell us his plans to fuck me. There goes our song. But I could try to save it. “Tell Gunnar to buy Absolution, no matter the cost. It’s a top priority.”

  “I thought you could break the news to Aubrey before she hears about it later,” he said.

  I looked at her smiling over at me cautiously. There was no way I would bury her under worries when she was this happy. I forced a smile and waved at her to wait a minute and she went back to taking photos on the bridge.

  “Thanks, Dad, for the heads up,” I said. “You stop working and rest too. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  She approached as I ended the call. “Is everything okay?” she asked, her eyebrows raised.

  I placed my arm around her shoulder. “It is and will be. Play for me, please.”

  She groaned but smiled and set up.

  I listened and took it in this time. She was happy and free with me. What would she think when I pushed her out to play her violin and go all in on a job she still might lose? Would she keep me, or cut me out of her life like she had done to her beloved violin?

  I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let her go. Now I knew what it felt like when you want forever.

  Aubrey

  Paul’s call for the filming was set for three a.m. We separated for hair and makeup, and they took me to the trailers parked in front of Prague Castle for the hundreds of extras in the film. The costumes weren’t traditional. There was a steam punk influence in the styling corsets interwoven in with the long, flowing silk gowns that were the fashion of the time. When my turn came, the stylist braided my hair in an elaborate twist with face-framing ringlet curls similar to Giulietta Guicciardi’s, the woman Beethoven fell in love with at first sight and to whom he later dedicated his amazing piece, the Moonlight Sonata.

  I took a quick selfie and sent it over to Destiny, then called her right after becau
se I couldn’t wait to speak to her.

  “You look like you’re glowing,” she said over the phone. “What’s going on in Prague?”

  I touched my warm face. “Being abroad is fantastic. We’ve seen a lot of the sights and went to the theater.”

  “And made love all day?” she teased.

  “If that’s what you want to call it,” I whispered, afraid that professing love before Paul and I had even talked about it would jinx it, though I couldn’t describe our intimacy any other way. Every caress and touch was charged with feeling. Even now, I could feel that tug inside my chest from missing him. He had me hopeless for him already.

  We kept our conversation on Prague, sharing the places we’d both had seen and loved until a staff member came in and announced that they were ready to shoot our scene. I followed them inside the castle to the stateroom. It had been transformed into an elegant parlor with lights and cameras set up.

  They gave me a seat towards the side. I was meant to be a shadow from the past near the impeccable Broadwood fortepiano. I was excited to hear Beethoven’s music, even more because it was going to be Paul’s performance. The director, Sophie, hadn’t allowed the extras to see Paul as Beethoven or to hear him play, to capture a more authentic reaction to the sound. Though I’d heard him rehearse, I was on edge together with the rest of the actors, expecting his entrance. As usual, he didn’t disappoint.

  He wore a black frock coat embroidered in velvet, with matching knee breeches, a turquoise brocade waistcoat, and a turquoise-and-gold cravat. On his feet were buckled leather boots. His hair was wild like Beethoven’s, with elongated sideburns. He was breathtaking. I didn’t need a cue to react. I was genuinely smitten.

  Paul took a seat on the bench to warm up. He played Our Kiss, the music he’d composed for me. Tears pricked the back of my eyes as intense emotions gripped my entire being. With that song, he was holding me. We might have spent time apart, but he was right there with me now.