Page 22 of Hard Rock Muse

And that feeling hadn’t gone away. Even the slightest of touches had my body responding, had heat flaring up between my legs. The throbbing inside me matched the pounding of my heart.

Julian trailed his fingers up my wrist and along my arm before settling on my shoulder.

“Your work has always been amazing,” he murmured. “I don’t know why you left the industry.”

Like a shock of cold water, I was hit with a force so painful it had me reeling. All air was sucked from my lungs as they squeezed in my chest.

I hastened to put several feet between us, jerking back from his touch. His eyes turned hurt and confused before they shuttered closed, just as guarded as they had ever been.

“So we’re good to go?” I asked, smoothing down my skirt with shaky hands. “You approve of the lyrics?”

Julian didn’t say anything, going quiet. I fiddled with the bottom button of my blouse to avoid his eyes.

“Yeah,” he finally said. “We’re good.”

“Great,” I replied. “Awesome. What’s next?”

“Next we show Cerise and get her input.” He pulled out his phone and thumbed a text with one hand.

“I thought this was your song?” I asked.

“Like I said, Cerise is a force to be reckoned with,” he replied.

Within seconds, the woman in question dashed though the door holding her phone in her hand. She practically vibrated with energy, immediately changing the mood of the room.

“Have you got something to show me?” she asked, her eyes lit up in excitement.

Julian nodded and went back to his piano without a word. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself before joining in with the singing.

Cerise’s expression was thoughtful as she listened, pursing her lips once or twice and nodding a few times along with the beat.

When we were done, we looked to her expectantly.

“Nice lyrics,” she said. “But they’re not Julian’s words, are they?”

We both blinked, taken aback.

“I wrote them,” I told her. “That’s what I was hired to do, right?”

“You were hired to help Julian write his own lyrics,” she corrected. “This feels like a song from Ever Darling.”

I flinched. Shit. She knew. I thought I’d managed to hide my old persona from her. When had she found out?

Then her words registered.

“You don’t like it?” I asked, trying not to sound crestfallen.

“It’s great,” she said as she stared me down. “But it’s not Julian’s song.”

Cerise turned to look to Julian, not saying anything, just tilting her head at him. He stared back, as if they were communicating silently. Julian had said the band was like family. She really must have known him well to be able to have a silent conversation like that.

Because Cerise was right. I’d spent one afternoon with Julian working on the meaning of the song, then I’d gone off by myself to write the rest. The words didn’t sound like Julian at all. Looking at it objectively, I knew that, but I’d just wanted to get this over with.

I let out a silent sigh.

This was going to be more work than I’d thought.

“You don’t have to rush it,” Cerise told us. “You’ve got time.”