A Song For Us (Fallen Tuesday Book Two) (A Brothers of Rock Novel) (15 page)

He opened her pants as Carina
fought to do the same to him. Gray kissed up her chest, her throat, her chin,
and finally tasted her mouth again.

After a minute of deep kissing,
they were standing in nothing but a pair of boxers and panties. Carina took the
lead and tugged at Gray’s boxers. When he popped free, ready for her, Carina’s
small hand gripped him. With just one pull of her hand on him, Gray groaned and
closed his eyes for a moment. He needed to calm himself…

When he touched between Carina’s
legs, he could feel the waiting warmth and moisture, even over her panties. He
stepped forward and guided Carina to the bed. She slid back to the pillows and
when Gray caught up to her, he was on his knees and he went for her panties. He
had to peel them off her body.

The sweet scent of passion began to
fill the room.

Gray ran his hands up Carina’s
legs. With his right hand, he touched her, two fingers sliding in, then out,
and then began back to her body. His fingertips tingled and twitched. He wanted
to touch Carina everywhere, but there was no time. The look in her eyes began
to command him, a sudden change of routine that Gray welcomed by climbing on
top of Carina. They were so close to becoming one, to sharing that passionate
moment of togetherness. The urge to lower himself started to become impossible
to resist.

But Gray had to resist; he needed
protection.

Then he could take care of Carina’s
needs.

*

Carina never wanted a man inside
her so badly. She was past the point of being nice and calm about things. Her
hand had touched Gray’s thickness. Now the rest of her body wanted to feel it
too.

“Don’t let me down Mack,” Gray
whispered as he reached across the bed to the nightstand.

Carina couldn’t believe how wrapped
up in Gray she had become. The thought of protection had slipped her mind
completely. She was ready to let Gray in without considering the possible
outcomes of her decision. Never before had she been this way. Never before had
she trusted a man sexually like she did Gray right now. Never before had she
felt beautiful enough for someone else to enjoy.

Carina stared at his muscles stretching
down his long arms to his tight stomach.

“Yes,” Gray said.

Gray took the protection from its
foil wrapper and prepared himself. When he took his hand away, Carina touched
him again. She gripped tight and pulled, never feeling so alive and bold at the
same time. Gray looked surprised and that only made it better.

When Carina let Gray go, she put
her hands on the bed and gripped the sheets in anticipation. Gray touched the
insides of her knees, sending chills up and down her body. The mix of her
warmth and the chills was the most incredible feeling. She lifted herself a
little, wanting Gray to love her.

Love was the word that came to mind
right then.

Love me… just please, love me…

Her lips began to flutter, her mind
tempting her to tell Gray to love her, but Carina bit her bottom lip and
watched Gray come forward. He was gentle as her body began to shudder. Gray
lowered his body to hers, thrusting once, thrusting deep, holding in place so Carina
could find her breath. She hadn’t even realized she was out of breath until she
tried to moan and nothing happened.

“It’s okay, baby,” Gray whispered
with his lips at her ear. “I’ll take care of you.”

Carina caressed Gray’s back and then
pulled at him.

“Please,” she managed to whisper.
“Please… yes…”

Gray began to move with Carina’s
body, telling her that his concern was her needs and her satisfaction. The slow
passion grew into a lustful fury. Sometimes she moaned, sometimes she didn’t
have the air to do so. Sometimes she couldn’t make a sound because Gray’s mouth
was on hers.

The climatic waves rolled through
her. Carina honestly couldn’t tell when one climax ended and another began. All
she could feel was a warm, tingling sensation that was controlled by Gray’s
perfect body.

“Carina, sweetheart,” Gray said. He
straightened his arms, lifting from her body. “Look at me.”

She breathed heavily as she stared
into Gray’s eyes.

“I can’t hold back,” he said.
“You’re too much right now.”

Carina nodded. “Go. Now.”

She never felt so empowered by her
own body before. With her command, Gray thrust and let himself go. The
explosion within her body jolted her up, crashing to Gray’s chest. She closed
her eyes and based in the pleasure for a moment.

Before she knew what was happening,
Gray rolled to his back, taking Carina with him.

He was no longer inside her body,
but he was now holding her, stroking the random strands of hair from her face, and
caressing her body with his fingertips. He was continuing to love her whether
he realized it or not. A sense of honesty came over her like she never thought
possible.

“I want to write songs,” she
whispered.

“What?”

“I want to write songs.”

“Now?” Gray asked.

Carina smiled. “No, not right now.
But for a living. I mean, with my life. You asked what I wanted to do with my
life and music. I’m telling you. I want to write songs.”

Gray touched her face. “Then you
should. You’re so talented, Carina.”

“I don’t want to be on a stage in
front of a million fans,” Carina said. “I just want to write songs. And sell
them… I guess.”

The corner of Gray’s mouth
flickered. “You want to write songs for other artists.”

“Yes. I can tell the stories. The
artists can then share them.”

“That’s poetic in itself.”

“It’s what I want,” Carina whispered.
“You asked, so I told you.”

Gray gently put Carina’s head to
his chest. “Thank you for telling me, Carina. You never know what can happen in
life.”

Carina let out a long breath. “I’m
sorry I heard that phone call.”

“I’m not,” Gray said. “The next few
days, weeks, maybe months are going to be hard. I want to be honest with you
about that. I want to be honest with you about everything.”

Carina slid her hand along Gray’s
bare body. When she reached his navel she knew she could have kept going and
tempted him again, but there would be time for that. This moment, however, would
never exist again, so Carina slid her hand into Gray’s hand.

“I’m right here,” she whispered.
“And if you need me, I’ll always be right here.”

Carina closed her eyes, felt Gray
kiss the top of her head, and then was serenaded by the beating of his heart.

(15)

Carina opened her eyes and truly
believed she would be in her bedroom in Liering preparing to force herself
through another day so she could work that night and see bands on stage perform
songs she didn’t write.

Yet, as she looked around, Carina gasped
when she saw she was in bed next to a rockstar. Carina was still naked. She giggled
softly and then lifted the covers more to look at Gray. He was on his side, but
that was okay, she could still his muscular back and his ass.

What a great ass…

Carina’s body burned. She let the
covers fall and Gray rolled to his back. He looked at her as he yawned.

“You’re still here,” he whispered.

“Where else would I be?”

“I don’t know,” Gray said. “Wasn’t
sure if you would be up and out or not.”

“I have nowhere to go,” Carina
said. “And if I stay with you here long enough I’m probably going to be out of
a job.”

Gray touched Carina’s hair. “That’s
okay. We can find you a new job.”

Carina laughed. “So you’re a
rockstar, a lover, and a job hunter.”

“Perfect,” Gray whispered.

He slithered his way to Carina and
kissed her. She couldn’t help but take full advantage of the situation before.
As Gray’s tongue slipped into her mouth, Carina rolled to her back and pulled
him on top of her. She knew what she wanted and she had found the confidence to
go after it.

Carina stared at Gray the entire
time he loved her again. From his deep eyes down to the rippling muscles of his
stomach, she wished she could spend all day exploring Gray. When Gray finished
and rolled away from Carina, she cuddled up next to him, keeping the covers on
them, keeping the heat between them.

“Well then,” Gray said as he let
out a deep breath.

“Sorry. I couldn’t resist.”

“You could have, but you didn’t
want to.”

Carina looked at Gray and smiled.
“Problem?”

“None.” Gray hugged Carina. “Can we
talk about last night?”

“What about last night?” Carina
asked. “There was quite a bit that happened.”

“What you told me,” Gray said.

Carina swallowed. She should have
known Gray would be the man that wouldn’t let it go. He would talk about it,
push her toward it, and be the voice that Carina could normally ignore if it
was coming from herself.

“Don’t worry about that,” Carina
said. “I was caught up in the excitement of yesterday.”

“You were speaking from your
heart,” Gray said. “Please don’t question your heart.”

“I won’t,” Carina whispered.

She knew she couldn’t question the
fact that her heart would to belong to Gray.

Gray’s cell phone beeped and he let
out a groan.

“Bad news?” Carina asked.

“No. It’s Luke. Studio time.”

Gray threw the covers off and sat
up on the edge of the bed. Carina kept the covers over her and watched Gray’s
muscular back. She wanted to dig her fingers into those muscles while he thrust
at her.

“Do you guys always write like
this?”

“No,” Gray said. “The first album
we wrote over years, you know? This is new. Sitting and writing like this.
We’re just taking advantage of the time I have here while we can. There’s a lot
that has to be done with the songs once they’re recorded. These are more or
less first drafts.”

“They all sound good,” Carina said.

Gray looked over his shoulder.
“Thanks. I’m going to grab a shower… if you’d care to join.”

“That sounds tempting,” Carina
said. “But studio time…”

Gray shook his head. “I never
thought I’d meet a woman who would make being a rockstar feel like a job. Congrats.”

Gray stood and walked out of the
bedroom. Carina’s eyes memorized every part of his body. When she got out of
the bed, she grabbed her panties and her t-shirt. She had no idea what made her
feel so comfortable with Gray, but she was. She walked down the hallway and
looked at the bathroom door. It was very tempting to join Gray, but an urge to
write music had her heading toward the living room of the basement.

 The keyboard was still in the
living room area of the basement, now standing against the wall. Carina touched
it and then retreated for a second.

“Come on,” she whispered.

Carina lifted the keyboard and
placed it on the coffee table. She sat on the couch and stared. She turned the
keyboard on, pressed on one of the ‘C’ keys, and then she sat back. There were
so many ideas in her head of songs she had written already. They were right
there, ready to be played.

Carina looked and listened. The
water was still running in the bathroom. Gray would be in there for a few more
minutes.

Carina summoned the confidence and
sat up straight. She touched the keys and exhaled.

This was no big deal. It was just
music.

Nobody else would hear it.

*

Gray heard the first note and his
ears perked.

He opened the curtain and walked to
the door, his naked body dripping wet. When he opened the door, there was
silence. Maybe he had just heard the note. Gray waited a few seconds and then
began to close the door again.

Then the sweet, nervous sound of
someone playing a song began.

It was Carina.

Gray stepped back into the bathroom
and quickly shut the water off and grabbed a towel to cover up. Gray crept down
the hall. The song was beautiful. The basement had a natural reverb. Gray
closed his eyes and listened deeper.

This song was certainly something Carina
had been working on. As her nerves settled, the song became flawless. He smiled
as he thought about what she told him the night before. She didn’t realize she
was already a songwriter. This song was incredible; it just needed the right…

Before Gray could finish his
thought, singing began.

No…

Gray had to pick his jaw up off the
floor. Was he really hearing this? Not only did Carina write music, she wrote
lyrics, and she could sing. Oh, she could sing. The notes were spot on and
Gray’s heart was racing.

As he approached the living room
and the couch he wondered if he was being intrusive to Carina. But he couldn’t
help it. He had to see it for himself. At the back of the couch, Gray looked
down and lost his breath. Carina was sitting on the couch wearing only a
t-shirt and panties. His body and mind began a war. He wanted to focus on the
music, but it was hard to do looking at Carina in such a position.

Carina continued to sing, leading
into a chorus and back to a verse. She then hit a sour note and the singing
stopped. So did the music.

“Shit,” Carina said. “I wish I had
my notebook.”

Gray took a few steps back and then
cleared his throat. Carina jumped up and turned around. “Holy shit. Gray, you
scared me.” Her hair was messy from the sleep and sex. Her eyes were wide.

“Hey,” Gray smirked. He couldn’t
keep his eyes off her erect nipples pressing against her shirt. She wasn’t
wearing a bra.

“I thought… were you… what did you
hear?”

“What did I hear?” Gray asked. “I heard
perhaps one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard.”

“No. You didn’t.”

“Carina, you’re talented.”

“Stop.”

“Listen to me.”

“No. I need to get changed. I need
to figure out what I’m doing. I can’t… I just can’t.”

Carina walked around the couch, avoiding
eye contact. Gray sidestepped and blocked her path. She looked up and halted.
Her eyes were so big and pretty.

“You can be afraid,” Gray said.
“But it’s only because it’s real and it is so hard to imagine it not working
out.”

“Says the rockstar.”

“Because I know the feeling you
have right now. You want to be a songwriter, Carina?” Gray pointed to the
keyboard. “That was a song. And you wrote it. That needs to be recorded so we
can pass it around.”

“Pass it around?”

“Yes. Would you sell that song?”

“Sell? Gray…”

“Is this your dream?”

Carina put her head down. Gray
wasn’t going to let her off the hook that easily. He took her face into his
hands and slowly lifted her head. Her eyes were glossy and full.

“Let the fear go,” Gray said.
“You’re afraid of what you’re capable of. Don’t be.”

“You really think someone would
record that song and put it on an album?”

Gray nodded. “I do. How many songs
do you have?”

“A lot. I like to write songs.”

“Oh, baby. Every time I think I’ve
seen it all, you do this to me.”

“Do what?”

“Play the keyboard. Sing. Look so
damn sexy. You’re driving me crazy right now.”

“How crazy?”

“Crazy enough that I’m standing in
a towel and you’re standing in panties… yet my mind is thinking about music. I
want to get you to the studio and do this. You have to record this song.”

“In front of the other guys?”

“Baby, I’m telling you,” Gray said.
“You have to do this. You have to break this fear.”

“What do I get in return?”

Carina winked. She was a firecracker
and Gray never wanted to let her go. He couldn’t picture her leaving for
Liering and staying there. That wasn’t where she belonged. She belonged…
wherever Gray was.

“You get me tonight,” Gray said.
“How does that sound?”

“Tempting,” Carina said.

Gray finally took his hands off Carina’s
face. “We better get dressed for real now.”

“Yeah. We better.”

At the bathroom, he paused and
looked back to see Carina going into the bedroom.

“I mean it all,” Gray called out.

Carina poked her head from the
bedroom. “What?”

“I mean it all. Your music. Your voice.
You. It’s beautiful, Carina. You’ll realize it soon.”

Gray scrambled to get dressed and then
rushed Carina to the studio. The last thing he wanted was to give her a chance
to talk herself out of doing this. What he had just heard was a great song that
deserved to be recorded, even in its most basic form, so Carina could hear what
she was capable of creating.

As luck would have it, Gray managed
to get to the studio before the rest of Fallen Tuesday. He sent off a quick
text to Luke, asking him to linger for another hour before coming. Luke replied
with a crude joke about Gray and Carina finishing what they had started on the
piano bench. While it wasn’t a bad idea, there were bigger things to take care
of.

Gray got everything set up for Carina,
including pen and paper so she could write the lyrics down.

“You’re going to play and then
sing,” Gray said. “Two tracks, two takes.”

“I have to sing without playing?” Carina
asked.

“That’s how we record.”

Carina held her breath as she sat
behind the piano, pressing keys, finding her courage. Gray slipped out of the
room and to the sound room. He spoke to Carina from there. He gave a slow five
count and then pressed the button to begin. The first few seconds were dead
air. Gray thought Carina was going to freeze up on him. When she began to play
the tempo may not have been perfect but that was okay. This was a practice
recording and nothing more.

As Carina played, Gray started to
formulate an idea in his mind. The song was just too good to let go. Carina
played it with the same passion she wrote it with. He knew it. He could feel
it. Gray paced back and forth.

Carina finished the song perfectly
and Gray stopped recording.

“Was that good?” she asked in a
hoarse voice.

Gray walked into the studio and
took her by the face. “You did amazing.” He kissed her. Once. Twice. Three
times… the flicker of his tongue…

Stop. Stop.

Resisting Carina was very hard to
do, but he pulled back and then pointed to the microphone and headphones next
to him.

“Time for vocals,” he said. “Got
the paper ready?”

Carina had it on the piano. Gray
took the sheet and studied the lyrics. They told a perfect story of someone
getting lost and then using the truth to find their way. They were powerful
lyrics.

“I’ll be right back,” Gray said.

Back in the sound room, he prepared
for the vocal recording and then grabbed another set of headphones. When he
returned with them around his neck, Carina looked confused.

“What are you doing?” she asked.
“No offense but it was easier to record when you weren’t in the room.”

“That’s not going to happen now,”
Gray said.

“Why?”

“Because we’re singing together.”

Carina’s eyes went wide as Gray put
the headphones on. He pointed to Carina’s headphones and she hurried to put
them on. Gray had no real experience in singing except when Luke was somewhere
in an arena interacting with fans and he and Jake and Trent would keep the
songs going.

Gray gave thumbs up and then with
the touch of a button the song began to play. The first thing he saw was the
look on Carina’s face change. That shocked look was the realization that what
she was hearing was something she wrote and played.

When it came to sing, she closed
her eyes. The first verse was all hers. At the second verse, Gray came in and Carina
opened her eyes. She looked right at him. It was as though they were singing to
each other. The chorus they shared and then the third verse Gray left Carina to
herself again. In an amazing improvised recording session, Gray managed to get Carina
to record and sing, while adding his own voice just to show the rest of the
band the potential of the song. In his mind he could already hear the finalized
song. He could play the piano while Luke and a female singer performed it. That
romantic yet ballad personality of the song would make it huge.

The song finished and Carina took
her headphones off.

“That’s how you write a song,” Gray
said. “You did that, Carina.”

“My heart is racing,” she admitted.
“Like I’ve never felt before.”