Melody watched in rapt wonderment as every one of them seemed
to be perfectly in sync with each other, even though she knew they were jamming
and did not play together on a regular basis. She knew for a fact that Liron
had not played with them before. He hadn’t played anything in ages. The fact
that they were all so fluid with one another amazed her, but then, maybe that
was the way it was with muses.
If Liron could communicate such wonderful music to her
through touch, and she knew that muses could contact humans through dreams and
telepathy, she imagined their ability to connect and communicate with one
another was that much greater.
She watched him play, watched how all of them became carried
away with the music. The dancers started up again, followed by some of the fire
jugglers who moved in time to the music to create more of a show.
It was impossible not to get caught up in the enchanted
atmosphere, and given her love for music, Melody found it useless to remain
stationary. Gypsy hooker costume aside, she threw her usual inhibitions to the
wind and joined the others in dancing to the lively tune.
The music captivated and entranced her, and she found herself
swept away by the carefree simplicity of it all. The other dancers welcomed
her, laughed with her, and for the first time since her parents had died, she
did not feel that burdening weight on her shoulders and heart. She felt light,
happy, like her old self.
She linked arms with one of the other women and danced in a
circle, kicking up her heels and spinning with abandon. She even found herself
liking the way the gauzy skirt floated around her ankles.
She caught Liron’s eye from where she was dancing, and the
world seemed to fall away. The music dulled and her movements slowed. All she
was aware of was the throbbing sound of her own heartbeat in her ears. The
desire to dance suddenly dissipated as the blazing blue of his eyes held hers. They
burned a trail down her body, and she took a step closer to him, drawn to his
talent, his beauty, his touch, everything that made him who he was.
Almost simultaneously, he took the guitar from his shoulder
and set it aside, then made up the distance between them with a couple strides.
They stared into one another’s eyes for a long, tormenting moment before he
reached down and took her hand.
She didn’t ask where he was taking her as he started to lead
her out of the marketplace. She didn’t care. He could have taken her to the
freaking moon and she wouldn’t have blinked twice. All she cared about was
being with him, hearing his song. Nothing else in the world mattered to her
besides the rapturous music she heard when he touched her. It was music that
didn’t hurt, didn’t make her remember painful things. It soothed and healed. It
scorched and burned through her body in an erotic, lurid flame. He was the
greatest masterpiece she’d always wanted to create, but had never quite been
able to hear all of the notes of.
They traveled in silence out of the town and along the
shoreline back toward Liron’s home. His hand clutched hers with an urgency she
felt also. As they approached the cliffs where the angry evening waves pounded
against the rock with cacophonous vehemence, Liron tugged her off the main path
and down to the beach. He led her close to the shore and to the base of the
cliffs where they were out of danger of the waves, but could still hear the
thundering sound and taste the salt in the air.
He slowed enough to gently take Melody by the shoulders and
guide her back against the rock. He searched her eyes for a brief moment before
taking her face in his hands and crushing his lips to hers, releasing all the
pent up frustration and tension he must have been feeling from their many
near-kisses and subsequent interruptions.
Melody’s fingers gripped the front of his shirt as electric
fire sizzled through her veins, followed by a wave of sensual music. Not just
notes, but an entire score. While his lips played over hers, she could hear and
feel every instrument as if his mouth was conducting an orchestra in her body.
She gasped at the sensations, and he took advantage of her surprise, sweeping
his tongue past her lips to deepen the kiss and pull her further into the world
of melodic bliss he created within her.
She groaned and drew closer to him, kissing him back with an
abandon and wanton brazenness that she was unaccustomed to. The music he filled
her with increased until she felt it pulsing throughout every nerve and vein
with every beat of her heart. It was the soundtrack to the fervid dance their
lips and tongues were engaged in, and the most powerful aphrodisiac Melody had
ever experienced.
He pressed against her, trapping her between the rock and
himself in a vise she never wanted to escape from. She drew her hands over his
shoulders and down his back, caressing every sinuous line and taut muscle. He
entangled his fingers in her hair and tugged gently, turning her face upward
and exposing her throat. He tore his lips from hers and descended to her neck,
trailing his tongue and teeth across her skin in a way that made hot shivers
break out along every available surface of her body.
The music coiled within her, filling her until every one of
her senses was overwhelmed. She felt deliriously hot, and her hands roamed over
Liron’s back, chest, and torso as if they had minds of their own. She wanted,
needed, and
had to
touch him. It was a compulsion and a driving
necessity.
When he brought his lips back to hers and claimed another
kiss, her world exploded, imploded, and then shattered. Everything within her
went inside, outside, and every direction, erupting into a strange release full
of wonderful notes and magical sound. White-hot sensation flooded her, and she
didn’t realize she had cried out until Liron pulled back from her, withdrawing his
music enough for her to be able to reclaim some sense.
She blinked slowly, trying to clear the fog from her mind.
Her lips felt deliciously swollen, and her nerves hummed with delight. She
looked up at Liron, who had a soft, satisfied smile on his face, and her eyebrows
drew together in question. “Did I just, like…scream?”
He chuckled softly and reached up to brush back her hair with
a nod.
Heat flooded into her cheeks, and she buried her face against
his shoulder. “Oh geez, how embarrassing.” Although, she wasn’t completely
surprised. She knew music was powerful and that it could touch people on the
deepest kind of level, but she had never figured it was physically possible to
have some sort of near-orgasmic experience because of it. It wasn’t strange
that she had screamed because, well, it had been intense.
And fantastic.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” he purred, enveloping her in his
embrace while he buried his hands in her hair. “I wanted you to scream. It let
me know I was doing it right.”
She pulled back to stare up into his face. “You mean you did
that on purpose?”
His grin was wolfish. “Of course I did.” He gave a lazy shrug
with one shoulder. “The nice thing about being a muse is that there are ways to
arouse someone besides physical stimulation.” His eyes swept over her with a
ravenous look that heated her blood all over again. “Not that I would be
opposed to that.”
He trailed his fingers down her bare arms and brought his
hands to her exposed midsection. He rested his palms against her sides, stroking
small circles across her skin with his thumbs. Melody closed her eyes at the
warm, velvet contact.
“Humans are far too narrow-minded when it comes to intimacy,”
he continued. “Creativity can be just as stimulating as touch…if shared and
experienced correctly.”
She arched an eyebrow in a bland, teasing expression. “Well,
I’m pretty sure you don’t need any help in that department.” She flushed again
as she recalled the sensations. “I love music, desperately. It is and always
has been my passion in life. But I never thought it could touch me…you
know…like
that.”
He chuckled again and trailed a row of sweet kisses along her
jawline. “It is usually difficult for a human to feel a muse’s influence that
strongly. That makes you very special…that makes our connection very special.
It is something two muse mates usually share. Two mates who have learned one
another over time, who have adapted to each other and share the same vision.”
He shook his head and frowned thoughtfully. “I have never known of a human to
have the same connection with a muse, and definitely not this quickly.”
“Well, how many humans have been able to, how did you say it,
traverse the continuum?”
He smiled and brought his palm up to cradle her cheek. “None
that I know of. You are a rarity, Melody. A treasure I am tempted to keep for
my own, even though I do not have that right.”
The potency of his words, and the truth of them that she felt
within her own heart, made her shiver. The frightening part of all of this was,
the more time she spent with Liron, the more she shared with him and learned of
his world, the more appealing the thought of letting him keep her seemed.
She didn’t feel oppressed and despondent in this world full
of life and creation. And the music she heard with him didn’t hurt. Her heart
did not feel that awful heaviness when she was resonating with his song. For
the first time since that horrid day a year ago when that police officer had
come to her door, she felt like she could take a full breath.
With a soft sigh, Melody took Liron’s hands in her own. “You
know, Liron, that option is starting to look more and more promising, so you’d
better mean it when you say stuff like that to me.”
Faint surprise registered over his features, and he studied
her for a moment before he turned and led her over to a large log scattered
amongst driftwood and seaweed. She sat and shivered as the ocean air chilled
her exposed flesh. Belly dancing attire didn’t offer much by way of warmth.
“I mean every word I say to you, Melody,” Liron murmured as
he sat down beside her and slipped his arm around her shoulders. He pulled her
close to his body, sharing his warmth, and his wonderful scent invaded her
nostrils. It was intoxicating, much like the rest of him. “Always.” He all but
whispered the word, and it took root deep inside of her. “I have lived more in
this day with you than I have in many years. You have brought me more beauty in
two days than I have ever known. For however you want me, in whatever role you
choose to have me fill, for as long as you desire, I am yours.”
His words didn’t frighten her like they should have. It was
illogical because she wasn’t, by nature, a rash person. She thought things out
before she did them. She weighed the pros and cons of situations before making
decisions that could alter the course of her life—like thinking she might want
to spend the rest of it in an alternate reality with a man who, by definition,
was not human.
The rational part of her said she needed to go back home
where she belonged. But did she belong there? What did she have to go back to,
really? Everything she had loved was either gone or tarnished. There were
ghosts everywhere she went of a life she could have had, but now never would.
She felt like half a person in her world. She could be different in Liron’s
realm. She could start over, have new adventures and a new path. One that
wasn’t littered with remnants of a past full of heartache.
Besides, she was beginning to think that the rational part of
her had taken a leave of absence.
She chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully before turning her
eyes up to Liron’s captivating visage. “Those are heavy words, Liron. That
isn’t a light kind of commitment. What if I decide to take you up on it?”
It was a challenge she feared the answer to. After all, he
had had his heart ripped out, and he barely knew her. Words were lovely when
coming from such beautiful lips as his, but he was still a man. And in the heat
of the moment, men said things that—
All of her thoughts ceased abruptly as he brought those
beautiful lips down on hers again. Music barraged her, assaulted her, forced
its way into her where it flowed the blazing hot path of her blood to her
heart. She felt him in that music. Felt his gentleness and his compassion, felt
the essence of him in her soul while she tasted it on his tongue. She felt the
truth of his words, and the resolve of his commitment. He would be hers if she
asked him to be.
The question she had to ask herself was, did she want him to
be? Or a better question—did she have the courage to alter her entire life to
be his in return?
Chapter Eleven
“Liron, can I ask you a weird question?”
He looked over at her, huddled in front of the fireplace,
wrapped up in a blanket. She looked so comfortable, so at home in his world. He
poured them each a glass of red wine and returned to his own chair, offering
her one of the glasses. “You can ask me anything.”
She smiled and took a sip. She gazed into the flames for a
moment, then heaved a resigned-sounding sigh. “How do muses mate?” He frowned
at her and color crept into her cheeks as she shook her head. “Wait, that came
out wrong.”
He chuckled and sipped his own drink, waiting for her to
continue.
“I mean, is it like in my world? When you get married? With a
big ceremony and a marriage license and such?”
“Generally, arranged marriages are quite a big deal. They are
supposed to be ideal matches, so we have grand parties and showy spectacles.”
He rolled his eyes.
She giggled. “Was your wedding like that?”
“Unfortunately.” He sighed and glanced over at her. “I’m a
generally quiet person. I like my privacy and kind of wanted to keep my love
affair, or lack thereof, intimate and personal. Elizabeth wanted the big
hurrah, though. I actually think she was happier planning that behemoth of a
party than she was one day with me.”