Page 58 of Dedicated
“I don’t know what this means for our music. The publicity or whatever, but I’m willing to give it a shot. I kinda can’t… not.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I said, then hooked a finger under his jaw and kissed him.
His hands landed on my hips, squeezing tight, relaxing, then squeezing again before holding there, a kind of Morse code of desire that transmitted shivery joy all over me.
I peeled his clothes off slowly and kissed him everywhere, touched him everywhere. And when he was naked and sprawled, arching his body into my mouth and my hands, I held him down and straddled him, burying his slick cock inside me so slowly that old tufts of carpet caught in his nails from where he clawed it. I wanted all of him, every square inch of skin against mine. We gasped and rocked together, and when I yanked him upright, he wrapped his hands around my waist, licking and biting at my pulse while I whispered filthy combinations of word and sound that soared through him and bled out as heat in the cheek I cupped in my hand.
His orgasm caught me and pulled me under, and I rode the quake of his thighs and the pulse of his cock until I spilled against his abdomen. And I was certain, as I had never been of anything else in my life, that this was how we were meant to be.
Is there a certain song you’re most proud of?
Evan:They’re all like children in a way, I guess? Not that I’ve ever had any children.
Les:That you know of…
Evan:That, yeah. Shh. But personally? “Collide.”
Les:Oh wow. I thought you’d say “Blue” since it’s killing the charts.
Evan:Remember writing “Collide,” though? We started with one line.
Les:One measly line, yeah. That’s all I had.
Evan:And then we just went back and forth, handing off words and notes, just throwing stuff out there. That thing composed itself. We were just along for the ride.
Les:Yeahhhh. You’re totally right. And we came up with the same-sounding chorus at the same time. That was some eerie synergy.
Chapter 34
We slept in Evan’s bed that night, and the next morning was just sunlight and bird chirps, minus the territorial war still ongoing on my side of the cabin. I woke happy. So fucking happy. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d woken with a genuine sense of joy. Always there was this vague dread and pressure, and this morning there was only the warm scent of Evan’s skin at the nape of his neck where I buried my nose and fell back asleep.
He was gone when I woke again. Running, I figured. He’d already made coffee, so I whipped up some breakfast before going down into the basement to tool around for a while. I had one more song that had been in my head, and I thought we could tack it onto the album as a bonus download. It was called “Hard Ache,” and it was for him.
Push me pull me, I’m out of control…
I rapped my pen against the notebook, then scrawled the last verse.
“Something else?” Evan asked, appearing in the doorway, drying sweat from his hair with a towel. He was drenched and looked delicious, color high in his cheeks, blue eyes bright and awake, and wearing a grin that seemed tailor-made to get me hard.
“Maybe.” I gave him my best sly smile and laid my notebook over my lap.
“Do I need to be awake at 3:00 a.m. to hear it?”
“Nope, I’m saving it for the studio. You can hear it then.”
Evan wanted to get into the studio as soon as possible, while the energy was still fresh, so we’d agreed to take only a single week off to do nothing once we got back to Nashville in a couple of days before going into the studio. Of course, I’d let my imagination go wild concocting ways we could fill that downtime.
While Evan was in the shower, I called Byron and let him know we wanted the studio time, so he could set it up. I was still talking to him when Evan finished up and strolled down the hall with a towel wrapped loosely around his waist and his shoulders dewed with water droplets. His fucking body was going to be the death of me. He tilted his head at me, chin jutting to the phone in inquiry, so I put the call on speaker.
“Ev’s out here now,” I said.
“Porter. How goes? Les was just telling me the album’s in the bag and it’s good stuff. Got anything I can take a listen to?”
Evan glanced up at me to check before he said anything, and I nodded. I’d been known to be superstitious about letting people listen to the rough cuts we laid down prior to going into the studio.
“Can send some over in a little bit. You heard from Levi, lately?”
“Not in a couple of days. Itching to end this charade?” Byron chuckled.