Page 94 of Resonance
“Come back with me,” I said, and then to his befuddled look, “On the tour I mean.” Owen and Ru had both been adamant that they could handle everything for the next week and a half, so after a few hours of hard consideration, I’d called Ryder and worked out a return plan to meet up in Springfield. We’d canceled one show the day I left, but true to the promise he’d made that day, he and the promoter had waited for my call before scrapping the rest of the tour.
There were only three shows left, and I didn’t want to leave anyone hanging or break the contract, even if I knew with absolute certainty now that I was done with all that. Maybe not with music, because playing alongside Owen had started to give me a taste for writing and composing again, but I didn’t care to resume life as a touring musician. I’d meant what I’d said to him.
Owen rubbed his cheek against my shoulder and turned it into a head shake. “I can’t. I mean it sounds like it could be nice, but that’ll just be weird, and my apartment’s gonna be ready again, so I need to get that all sorted. And I’ll feel like you’re afraid to leave me alone again or something. Which… isn’t undeserving because I kinda fell apart for a minute there. I got scared and insecure. Scared you were gonna be one more thing I’d lose.”
I angled on the couch and pulled him on top of me. “I’m big. Makes me harder to lose.” Owen narrowed his eyes for my literal interpretation, but I cupped the back of his neck, pulling his mouth to mine, and brushed my lips over his as if I could sweep those doubts and insecurities from them. And maybe it wouldn’t happen immediately, but in time I hoped it would. “Loving someone’s a leap of faith. The scariest one there is.” I drew back a scant inch so I could meet his eyes. “And I know you know that, but just remember we’re making that leap together.”
“I know,” he whispered solemnly, and then a smile curled up one side of his mouth. It stretched corner to corner until it became a grin.
“What?”
Owen ducked his head.
“That was really cheesy, wasn’t it? I told you I was out of practice.” I started to shove him away but he clung to me obstinately, still grinning.
“It was really sweet and kinda swoony… and, yeah, a little cheesy. But that’s not a complaint! Just an observation. Please feel free to practice it often.”
“I’m more of a hands-on emoter.”
“God, don’t I know it. And you’rereallyexpressive then. We can practice that right now, too.” Owen ground his hips against me insistently until I wrapped my arms around him and flipped him so that he was under me. I kissed him until he arched into me and let out a breathless whimper.
“God, would you please fuck me already? The doctor said it’s fine.”
“The doctor said a week. So we wait.”
“I thought you were more of a rebel than a rule-follower. It’s so annoy—” His breath hitched as I licked up his shaft through his pajama pants.
Easing the waistband down over his hips, I swiped my tongue over his slit and took the head into my mouth, giving it a hard suck before releasing. “Want to finish that sentence? Got something else to add?”
He buried his fingers in my hair. “Nope. Not a goddamn thing.”
* * *
I startledawake to Owen’s hand on my shoulder.
“Okay?” I asked, heart already double-timing as I started to sit up.
Owen’s eyes were huge in the darkness, but he nudged me back down. “I’m fine.” He hesitated, dropping his head on my chest, warm breath stirring the hairs there before he lifted again to meet my gaze. “I think I know what happened. At the shop. I mean, I’m not sure, and I really don’t want it to be true, but I don’t know. It’s not any better than Aiden, though maybe a little because he’s your brother after all. But fuck. I think I’m right,” he repeated.
It took me a minute to clear the fog and try to assemble the rapid-fire spill of words into some kind of coherence. “What?”
“Right before I passed out, somebody said something in the Hoard, and it sounded a tiny bit familiar, but the memory kept kinda fading in and out. I woke up just a little while ago and was lying here—not at all creepily watching you sleep or anything which… you are total back porn, in case you don’t know that…”
I tried to prompt him back on track with a lift of my brows.
“Ivy.” He exhaled. “Or not Ivy directly, but her boyfriend. He’s such a douche. He’s been to the shop a bunch of times, though, obviously, knows what’s in the Hoard, and Ivy had my keys earlier in the day when I went to lunch, and I think she must have left the Hoard unlocked, because I swear I can’t remember unlocking it that day, which is why I was right there when they broke in. Maybe she didn’t think I’d check it or that I’d forget. I was about to lock it up for the night. But I guess I still left the alarm off unless…”
I groaned. “Unless you didn’t and he had the code, too.”
“But why would he break the window if he had the code and a way to get in?”
“Try to make it look more like a random robbery than an inside job, I guess? You said you heard the beep before the glass breaking, right? Shit, I don’t know. I’m not a detective. Fuck.” I ran my hands down my face. I didn’t want it to be true, but it made a lot of goddamn sense the more I thought about it. At least as much sense as Aiden breaking in. There’d been little to take from the register, but the items stolen from the Hoard were pretty damn targeted. High-dollar sales opportunities, but not so rare that they’d cause suspicion if put up on an auction site. Except for the new Jessup Polk albums. I happened to know for a fact Jessup had only given those to me so far. But Ivy wouldn’t necessarily have known that. I wasn’t sure about Aiden.
“Goddammit.” I swung my legs over the side of the bed. Owen was beside me in a flash as I grabbed my phone from the nightstand.
He touched my arm, and just that single caress grounded me as he said, “I’ll make some coffee.”
Aural Addiction, Episode #23 transcript: