Page 101 of Final Serenade

“Do you want me to get the nurse?” I probed.

He shook his head, and the water droplets that had collected on the tips of his hair splashed across my cheek. “I’m fine.”

He was the worst liar ever.

I set my phone on the counter and stepped into the shower. In my clothes and with my makeup still on. I didn’t know why I did it, but my stupid heart demanded I hug him.

“What are you doing, doll?” Frank’s whisper drifted at me through the noise of the beating stream as I wrapped my arms around his naked body. My cheek rested against his shoulder blade and my fingers traced the scars beneath his layers of ink. His chest expanded and shrunk as he breathed through the steam.

“I’m providing comfort,” I said, kissing his back. Heat rushed to my lips. They didn’t want to leave his skin.

The water was ruining my shirt and my jeans, but I didn’t care. We were a wet bundle of nerves. An awkward embrace that lasted and lasted.

“Thank you,” he said finally, his body abnormally still and sagging.

“For what?”

“For staying with me tonight.”

“Do you really believe I’m only with you because of your good moves, Frank Wallace?” I whispered against his back. A ragged black rivulet of my mascara slid down his skin.

“Well…” He chuckled. “My real mother was a stripper, just so you know. The moves and the love of being in a spotlight are genetics.”

My lips stretched into a smile against his taut muscles. “You were phenomenal tonight.”

“You think?” His tone was cocky.

Despite being scared shitless, I tried to match the mood in his voice. Something told me he needed a pick-me-up. “For a guy who’s half-titanium? Heck yeah.”

“So…you’re not with me for my good looks and money, Cassy Evans?” He laughed softly. “If my memory serves me right, you said something different a few weeks ago.”

My palms ran up his abs and I pressed my body closer to his.A few weeks… It terrified me to realize how fast I was falling for him. They weren’t years, they were a measly couple of months, yet he’d managed to crawl into my heart and stake his claim.

I needed to feel all of him—the solidity, the heat, the ache, the weakness, the strength—to say what I was about to say. To say what I should have said a long time ago. “Do you know why I’m with you, Frank?”

“Do tell.” He drew one hand from the wall and laced his fingers with mine on his chest. The low thuds of his heart reverberated against the wet tangle of our hands.

“Because you make me laugh and because you make me happy.” I brushed my chin against his back. My shirt clung to his skin. “And no one has made me happy in a very long time.”If ever.

Music was the only constant in my life. Everyone else came and went. Just like my father. There was Levi, butRewireddidn’t belong to me.

Frank did. Yes, I had to share him with a whole lot of people. With an entire planet, to be more specific, but when he wasn’t playing the role of the brooding rock star, he was mine. Completely and irrevocably.

“You deserve to be happy, Cassy.” He brought our hands to his mouth. Soft as a feather, his lips lingered on my knuckles.

“I am when I’m with you.”

“Are there any other qualities of mine I’m not aware of that keep you coming back?” I heard a twinkle in his voice.

“You deal with my crazy schedule.”

“You deal with mine.”

“I guess we’re even there.” I laughed. “And you don’t ask me for things I can’t give you.”

“Are we talking about anal sex?” He bit my thumb.

“Really?” I gave him a light slap on the arm. “That’s where your brain goes after you almost pass out on stage?”

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