Sebastian Stone had been created for me.
A thrill rushed through my nerves, because I hadn’t made music in so very long.
Together we strummed.
Sebastian’s voice rasped at the shell of my ear, the lyrics broken and unpolished as he whispered the beginnings of a soul-baring song.
You.
Came like a storm.
In the distance.
Coming closer.
I felt comfort and surety in the choice we’d made.
The jump we’d taken.
And together, we fell. Fell into the song, our fingers finding our own perfect rhythm on the strings. Fell into the words, our spirits and tongues coming together to tell our story.
Fell further into beauty.
Fell into a sea of stars that blinded my eyes. Where we floated in a high place that belonged only to us. A place that didn’t belong to this world.
In a place where Sebastian and Shea Stone would never end.
ANXIOUSLY, I POUNDED ON the hotel door. I paced two steps one direction and then two steps in the opposite, before I rapped my knuckles on the wood again.
“All right…all right…cool your fucking jets, man, I’m coming,” echoed from the other side.
Metal scraped before the door opened enough for my baby brother’s face to come into view, brown hair a mess, baggy boxers sagging on his narrow hips the only thing covering up his tall, lanky body. “Where’s the damned fire?”
Upstairs, still asleep in my suite.
I shouldered into his room. “What, I can’t just stop by my baby brother’s room to say hi?”
“At seven thirty in the morning? Uh…no.” Slanting a hand through his bedhead, he narrowed suspicious eyes on me. “What’s up?”
“Who said anything was up?”
He barked out a knowing laugh. “I don’t know…you come in here at the ass-crack of dawn, day after your birthday, mind you, cheesy-ass grin on your face and a bounce to your step. Looks like something’s up to me.”
He was right. Couldn’t wipe the fucking grin from my face even if I wanted to.
Which I didn’t.
Never felt so good in all my life.
“Yeah…you’re right. Something’s up, and I wanted you to be the first to know.”
Ten minutes later, I was letting Austin’s door slam shut behind me, and hauling ass back to our suite.
With all of me, I needed to get back to my girl.
Sliding the keycard through the slot, I unlatched the door and slipped inside. A stilled quiet echoed back as the sun climbed past the horizon. Rays of morning slanted across the city. Right now, it was probably the most mellow it could possibly be.
Crazy, considering I was the most wound up I’d ever been. Last night I couldn’t catch even a wink, hadn’t even skated in the direction of sleep as I let everything that’d transpired over the night catch up to me.
Fuck, was I floating on air. Riding on the commitment and music we’d made, something so fucking brilliant and intense and real that I’d felt it sinking in, becoming one with my bones. Same way as I felt that girl sinking deeper into my spirit last night, holding me hostage with her voice and freeing me with her words.
Sure. People were going to say we were rushing things. Say both of us were nothing but irresponsible fools diving heart first into this unending ecstasy that could only shift. Trouble just waiting to swallow us whole.
I didn’t give two fucks about that.
Wasn’t like I’d ever been known to play by the rules, anyway.
And when it came to Shea, I was ready to break them all. Bust up all the presuppositions and projections, those stating we were setting ourselves up to fail before we ever got the chance to fly.
She was the answer for my soul.
I headed straight for the stairs, footsteps light, not wanting to wake her. Unlike me, Shea’d been snuggled in my arms, long lost to sleep when I’d finally untangled myself when I couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling I needed to talk to my brother.
At the top of the stairs, I paused when I looked at the bed on which we’d done all that consummating.
Empty.