Page 34 of Bewitched By the Phantom
“Holy fuck.” She presses a hand to her forehead. “What do you think about this? Is this good? Is it bad? I don’t know how to react.”
“I . . . don’t know,” I admit. “I have no idea how to feel right now.”
“You were there all night!”
I wince. “That was before I knew he’s also my Phantom.”
“Chris,” she says again and I look up at her. “You were there all night.”
My wince deepens. “I was.”
Her face changes to curiosity. “And how was it? Be honest.”
The groan rips from my throat. “The best I’ve ever had.”
“Girl,” she says, drawing out the word. “Then what does this all matter?”
“Claudia! He’s been practically stalking me!” I say.
“Yeah, but . . . do you know how to scream the high notes because of this man or not?” she points out. “He legit made you better. And while I do think he’s a straight weirdo for the way he’s gone about it, I mean . . . what harm was there in it?”
“I can’t believe this,” I grumble. “I thought you of all people would be firmly on the ‘he’s bad news’ side.”
“Yeah, well . . . I’m in a rock band. I have a tattoo of a dead rat on my ass. We’re literally here at a sketchy competition contemplating if your stalker mentor is worth enough to not report him to the police.” She raises her brow at me. “Plus, it sounds like you had a very good time last night.”
I groan and cover my face with my hands. “That’s it. I’ve lost my mind. Clearly.”
She shrugs. “We’re all a little batty honestly.” She pats me on the shoulder. “So . . . did he leave the mask on the whole time?”
I nod. “He did.”
She grins. “Kinky. I kind of like that.” She purses her lips. “I’ve been eying their drummer?—”
“Claudia!” I growl. “This is a serious matter. What am I supposed to do?”
She raises her brows. “Fuck him again?”
“Claudia!”
“What?” she grunts. “That chemistry is great for the competition. You two still have to sing together tomorrow again?—”
“What?” I gasp. “What do you mean?”
“Oh. Were you busy when they made the announcement?” She laughs and playfully shoves me. “The label liked what they say and said they’re adding a real elimination round now with the duets.”
“Of course they change the rules again,” I growl. “Are they changing the bands around?”
“Nope, same as before. But this time high stakes and a preferred different song.” She shrugs. “Ted specifically said we need to keep our vibe from before. They ate that shit up. The more you fuck him, the better our chances.” She pats me on the shoulder. “Also, your buddy Raoul was looking for you not even ten minutes ago. Pretty sure the pretty boy wants to fuck you, too.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I growl. “I’ll go find him.”
She points her finger at me. “Okay, but our solo rehearsal time is in a few hours. Make sure you don’t miss it. The duet rehearsal is after that.”
“I’ll be there,” I reassure her, before wandering off to find Raoul.
/-/-/-/
I findRaoul in the common area tuning his guitar, his pretty blonde hair hanging around his shoulders like he’s one step away from walking the runway at a fashion show. Raoul has always been like that, put together and edgy. I often teased him that he’d be a model one day when we were kids, but now that he’s an adult, I realize he really did have that potential. At six foot five, the man is an attractive, rock giant. Hell, he looks like he belongs on the set of a vampire movie, and yet also feels like sunshine. He’s the complete opposite of Erik.
