Page 22 of Bewitched By the Phantom
The organ player grins beneath his black half mask. “I’d rot there with you if you asked me nicely,” he teases.
Nadia sneers at him, but the organ player only grins wider, clearly into her.
“Enough,” Claudia growls. “We’re not losing because you lot can’t work together. Pull your big girl panties on!” She looks over at me. “Now, we need a new song. The two of you are the lyric writers. We follow your lead.”
Erik studies me closely. “We have a song.”
I’m shaking my head before he’s even finished speaking. “No, we don’t.”
Claudia frowns. “Well, do you or don’t you?”
“We do,” Erik says the same time I say, “Nope.”
Which really doesn’t help clarify matters.
Claudia narrows her eyes on me. “So you’ve been writing a song together?”
“No!” I growl. “He’s been stalking me and that’s how he knows the song.”
Erik doesn’t deny it. He just laughs when Claudia whips her head toward him. “It’s the perfect song to sing.”
“I don’t think we should,” I argue.
Claudia stands. “Sing it.”
I jerk my head toward her. “What?”
“Sing it and we’ll decide if we’re gonna play it or not.” When we still hesitate, she gestures at me. “Go on, Chris.”
“It’s not exactly . . . ready,” I try lamely.
Erik grins over at me. “I think you’ve got it. I’ll play piano.”
And then he sits his pretty ass down and starts playing the same fucking melody from my dreams. His smirk over at me tells me he knows it. I cross my arms in annoyance, scowling at the masked asshole.
“We have to do this, Chris,” Claudia points out. “Come on.”
“Fine,” I growl, moving over to the piano and shoving Erik over so I can sit on the bench next to him. “Don’t let this go to your head,” I warn him.
“You’ve already gone to my head,” he replies softly, bumping his shoulder with mine. “I follow your lead, angel.”
I start to sing the song from my dreams, the one that I’d woken up with tears in my eyes over. I close my eyes now, not wanting to look at anyone as the lyrics fall from my lips. I’m singing from memory, both from my dream and from something older, something I don’t really recognize, and when Erik joins in, it feels as electric as the dream had felt.
His shoulder touches mine, sending shivers through my body, and not just from the nerves of singing this in front of the others. I peek open my eyes and glance at him to find himalready watching me, his gaze bright and hungry like I’m a song he’s trying not to forget.
His fingers fly over the keys as the lyrics come to an end, and the room falls into silence. The air feels charged, like static electricity dances across my skin. No one says anything as we look at each other. He reaches up, his fingers about to touch my cheek, and I don’t stop him. He’s leaning in, and I’m holding my breath.
The rehearsal room door opens so violently, it makes me jerk. When Raoul pokes his head in, everyone in the room collectively takes a breath.
“Who was that singing?” Raoul asks just before his eyes find Erik and I sitting at the piano. “Oh.”
“You fucking ruined it!” Erik’s drummer groans. “We were about to get a show and your dumbass fucked it all up!”
“Seriously,” Claudia grumbles.
Raoul’s eyes darken and he looks at me again. I flush. “I see.”
He dips back out before I can say anything, closing the door behind him. Claudia immediately comes over.
