He stared at themoon, and at the beautiful velvet stretch of the stars across the heavens. And then he laughed out loud at himself. "Talking to the night, eh, Condor?Standing naked on a balcony--and talking to the moon. Even the Blackfoot would call you crazy!"
He walked back into his bedroom, leaving the French doors to the terrace open. He liked the night air.
And nature's sounds of the night. The night could embrace a man as no woman could; and yet, there was a similarity there, too. Loving a woman was like loving the night. It wasknowing the dangers and respecting them; knowing all the secret fears and frailties and tenderly protecting them. Learning what was needed, and giving it.
He had failed once. And he had never thought to allow himself to care again.But this woman...
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Bryn was strong in her own right. He could make her stronger.
A scowl tightened his ruggedly handsome features.
Savage, he reminded himself.
He started to crawl into bed to go back to sleep. Instead he glanced at his bedside clock.
Six a.m.It was already Monday morning. He might as well get dressed.
Dawn was just breaking when he reached the oldFultonplace. They had picked up his drums and set them up on the second-floor landing yesterday afternoon, because they wanted to see the effect of certain camera angles before they started actually shooting everyone in full costume.
He was glad to see his drums. He could feel the rhythm flow through his blood when he climbed up the stairs and approached them.
As the sun blazed a streak in the sky, he picked up his drumsticks and heralded the morning with a wild and chaotic rhythm.
He was still pounding the drums when Bryn Keller walked in two hours later.
She felt the thunder of the beat long before she slipped in the front door.
The weekend had given her a certain courage and strength; she had done the right thing. It was hard now to pull away from him but it would be far more difficult if she allowed herself to be swayed.
Loneliness was easier when you became accustomed to it, and since she had cried herself sick after the breakup with Joe, she had become accustomed to managing on her own.
But when she heard the drumbeat, she knew it was going to be a long day.
Bryn closed the door softly behind her, but it wouldn't have mattered if she had slammed it. The sound wouldn't have been heard.
Tony Asp and Gary Wright were already there, standing in the rear of the ballroom and somehow managing to discuss the work for the day. MickSkyhawk was sitting backward on the piano bench, his long legs stretched out before him. Perry and Andrew McCabe--the last of the group--were lounging on either side of him.
Mick saw Bryn enter and waved at her. She smiled a little nervously in return and walked over to join him and the others. But her eyes strayed up the staircase as she walked through the entryway, and shivers rippled along her spine.
Lee was shirtless as he belted out the rhythm. A fine sheen of perspiration made his bronze torso gleam and clearly delineated the muscles in his arms and chest. His features were intense; his eyes were narrowed in concentration. He might have been alone in the world, alone with his drums and a primeval beat. It was somehow an awesome sight.Primitive, but beautiful. The sheer power of it, the male perfection and the thunder that touched the heart, were beautiful. "Want some coffee, Bryn?"
She started when she realized she had backed into the ballroom until she was almost on Mick's lap.
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"Yes, thanks," she murmured.
She was pretty sure that it was Andrew who set the cup in her hand, and she mumbled "Thanks" again.
"It's going to be a long day!" Perry sighed. Bryn smiled at him. "Why do you guys show up so early? You don't really have to be here through the tedium of all the rehearsals, do you?Especially this early."
"Ouch!" Perry chuckled.
"We do have to be here, love," Andrew told her, the soft flicker of his nativeCorkaccent not at all affected--just weary. "You see, we're like a miniature democracy. We vote on all decisions: musical, business and aesthetic. Our names and faces are out on the album so it's in our own best interest." "Oh,"
Bryn murmured. The drums were struck in another tempestuous burst of sound.
"It's going to be a long day." Mick reiterated Perry's words bleakly.
"A long day," Andrew agreed.
The pounding rose to a shattering crescendo, and then the silence became overwhelming.
A second later Lee came briskly down the stairway, wiping his face with a towel,then throwing it around his shoulders.
"Ah, good morning, Miss Keller!Let's get right to work, shall we? Hey, Mick, mind playing the piece for this? That recording is awful." His eyes, full of nothing but intense energy, turned to Bryn. "The sound will be mixed in the studio for the real thing, of course, but we're going to have to do better even to take it here for the cameras.Some decent speakers or something. Are you ready?" "Yes, of course."