Page 166 of I Dreamt That You Loved Me

“You ever lose your mind over someone? Can’t eat, can’t sleep, see their face every time you close your eyes…” He nodded as a guy yelled,yeah, man.“Haven’t we all. That’s what love does to you. Makes you lose your everlovin’ mind,” he screamed into the mic.

The crowd went wild. Pretty sure he could say or do anything, and they’d still go mad for him. What a superpower.

“This song is called ‘You Don’t Know Nothing About Love.’”

The bass locked in with the kick drums, driving the beat, and when Gabriel started singing a bluesy, soul version of a song I’d never heard before, I died.

He went from a low, growly rasp, like sandpaper and velvet that shot straight to my core to a high-pitched sexy scream that blew the roof off the building. He held the notes for so long, jaw quivering, that all the little hairs raised on the back of my neck.

My whole body was thrumming,vibratingas his voice reached deep inside me and bulldozed straight through to my heart. I moved with the undulating crush of the crowd, carried away by the sheer joy of seeing Gabriel in his element again, doing the thing he loved, and leaving it all on the stage.

He was still an incredible performer who fed off the energy of the crowd and tonight he was on fire.

Sweat dripped down his face and plastered his hair to his head.

As the night wore on, the buttons of his shirt magically came undone until his shirt was hanging wide open and his bare chest was on display, eliciting more screams from the girls behind me.

I wanted to catapult myself right into his arms. I wanted to lick his abs and taste his salty sweat on my tongue.

After playing for almost two hours, he wiped the sweat off his face with the hem of his shirt before leaning into the mic. “Last song of the night. Don’t forget to tip your bartenders and be sure to tell the special people in your life that you love them. This song is for my special someone. My muse. My first love. My last kiss. My soul’s desire. And quite literally the girl of my dreams. This song is called, ‘We Dream in Starlight.’”

He lowered his head and closed his eyes for a moment. Then he started strumming his guitar, playing solo with the spotlight trained on him. The room was hushed as if everyone was holding their breath.

My heart ricocheted off the walls of my chest when he started singing, his voice ethereal. Haunting. Soul-deep. Like a long-lost dream I never wanted to wake up from.

Everything else faded away, leaving just us. Twin flames who had ignited each other’s souls.

We dream in starlight/we speak in tongues/your sweet wine teardrops ink my skin…

My heart soared with his voice. Cracked down the middle when he pleaded and yearned for the lover who got away.

And if you asked me to kneel/I would fall to my knees/ kiss your feet, kiss your hands/caress your skin with my lips…

The song was quintessential Gabriel. A mix of poetry and madness. Sensuous and deeply romantic with an undercurrent of anger, regret, and melancholy.

But when I reach for you, you’re gone…oh, ohhh, ohhhh where’d you go, lover…LOOOOVER,he screamed.

Tonight I’ll wait on my knees/ for a sweet dream that never ends…never ends…never ends.

He finished on a drawn-out sigh. After a beat of complete silence followed by a collective sigh from everyone in the room, the crowd erupted in applause.

I didn’t even stop to think. I jumped onto the stage and threw my arms around him. His mouth was on mine, and we were kissing, and kissing, and kissing.

When we finally came up for air, I pulled back on a sob. “That was so beautiful.”

“Youreallyloved that song, huh?”

“Ireallyloved that song.”

Gabriel was the musician of my life, and his music was the soundtrack for everything great and good and beautiful and tragic that defined our love.

I knew I loved him. The words were on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t say them. Something was still holding me back.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

Cleo

The next week flew.