Once we’ve made it safely to the other side of the street, I slow my pace. “Am I supposed to be listening between the lines?”
Gavin tilts his head as if trying to determine what I mean. Understanding hoods his gaze and he silences me with unspoken words.
Shaking his head, he picks up speed. “If you’re this worried about how wrong everything can go, why do you want to do this?”
“This meaning the music or you?”
“Both.”
I take my time letting my ice cream melt in my mouth and then lick my lips. He watches me closely and I’m suddenly very aware that we’re not alone. The streets are busy, people still enjoying Austin nightlife.
“I guess,” I begin, lowering my voice and leaning toward him, “I expect it to be worth it.”
My words hang heavily in the air between us.
“Ready to switch?” Gavin says, straightening his back and handing his cup of chocolate over to me when we enter the hotel lobby.
“Sure.” I give him mine, our fingers grazing as he takes the cup. The electricity from the charged connection zaps my mind blank and all I can focus on is the need building inside of me. Somehow we’ve reached the elevator, but I don’t want to walk away yet.
Surely our one night will cure me of this. It has to. Because nothing could be worse than wanting and not knowing exactly what it is that I want.
“You’re going to have to stop it with those looks or whether or not Mandy Lantram signs us is going to be the least of our problems.”
“What looks?”
Gavin is staring intently at me with careful restraint in his eyes. Has he been talking to me and I missed it?
He takes a huge bite and I have to wait for him to finish it before he answers me. He shifts his body weight forward, leaning into my space as we wait for the elevator.
“You give me these looks sometimes—like that one,” he points his spoon at me. “Your eyes go dark and right now, without Dallas or anyone else around to stop me, all I can think is how good this ice cream would taste if I was licking it off your body instead of this plastic spoon.”
He shrugs like he didn’t just send me up in a flaming inferno of need. I flew too close, got burned, and now I want more.
The elevator opens and I walk inside and jab the button displaying the number of my floor. Just mine, not his. He watches me, the surprise evident on his face.
He stands with confusion pulling his features inward. “Dixie, what are you—”
I will make it impossible for him to say no, somehow. I have five floors on the elevator to figure it out. My heart rises into my throat as we make our way upward.
Taking his hand without permission, I pull him from the car the second the doors open. I let go long enough to retrieve my key card from my bra and slam it into the slot on the door. Thankfully it cooperates, and we enter my darkened room. The curtains are open and the streetlamps provide enough of a glow that I can see my way to the bed.
I place my ice cream on the bedside table and lift my tank top slowly over my head. Facing Gavin in my jeans and strapless black satin bra, I sit down tentatively on the edge of the mattress. I’m waiting for him to grab me, to hand my shirt back to me, and tell me to stop this nonsense right this instant. But he doesn’t. His eyes are lit from somewhere inside of him, shining brightly with desire, and he’s staring intently in a way that I would mistake for anger, but he’s still here. He’s not running or storming out.
“You know what I love about music, Gavin?” I say softly, leaning back slightly on my elbows.
He says nothing, but his eyes meet mine and I force myself not to shrink away from the fevered stare engulfing me.
“I love that you can’t pin it down, can’t control it. Music is free. It’s unpredictable and alive. You can’t own it or buy it or sell it. Not really. No matter how hard people try. It belongs to no one.”
“Like you,” he says evenly.