Page 37 of Uncharted Desires
He shoots me a toothy grin and crosses his arms over his chest. “Surprise me.”
I lean over the guitar and place my fingers on the threat board. I don’t have a pick on me, and I’m too wiped out from my recent orgasm to fetch it, so I close my eyes and finger-style a tune I’ve recently heard on the radio.
My brows furrow as my fingers dance around and I get lost in the music, all my problems suddenly fading into the background.
There’s something magical about music. It takes you out of the present moment and transfers you wherever you want to be.
Problem is, with the comfort of my apartment around me and Blake’s presence carving into my consciousness, I’m not sure I want to be anywhere else.
“Wow,” Blake's voice reaches me as I finish the last notes. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
I open my eyes and meet his. Something about the way he’s eyeing me, with a mix of surprise and appreciation, makes me shift uncomfortably, the guitar suddenly too heavy for my lap. I rest my forearms on the box. “Yeah, well. I picked it up after my surgery. I needed something to fill the time.” I shrug. “It was either this or heavy drugs.”
Blake smiles. “You made the right choice.”
The amazement is still present on his face, and I cannot hold his stare any longer. I rise to my feet and turn to place the guitar on the rack. I sigh heavily, hoping the next time I look at him, Blake will return to being his usual, slightly neurotic self.
“So,” I say as I turn back around. “Now,are you ready for that lunch?”
*
Blake
A chilly breeze caresses my skin through my clothes, and I shift my body weight to the left as Sawyer takes a turn.
I could get used to this—wrapping my arms around him as he speeds through the city streets, maneuvering between cars.
Or maybe I already have.
In his usual fashion, he didn’t tell me where we were going. Only this time, I found myself not caring in the slightest.
Scooting closer to him on the seat, I take in the landscape of the unfamiliar neighborhood. How is it that I’ve lived in this town my whole life and only now begin discovering its secrets?
Sawyer takes another turn and we’re now driving through a narrow alley between blocks until the roar of the bike dials down and he pulls to a stop by the curb in front of a tall, brick building.
“What is this place?” I ask as I dismount and fumble to take off the helmet.
The second Sawyer’s messy hair comes into view, I can’t help but smile. As intense and square-jawed as he usually looks, the disarray on his head makes him seem particularly unthreatening.
“You’ll see,” he says as he takes the helmet from me and throws both of them in the trunk.
I furrow my brows and look both ways down the sketchy-looking alley. “You’re telling me you can’t leave them unattended back home, but you’re willing to do ithere?”
A stray cat meows somewhere in the distance as if proving my point.
Sawyer chuckles. “I’m more at home here than I am back there.”
And before I can ask him what he means, he grabs my wrist and leads me toward the scraped, wooden door with no sign around it.
The strong odor of leather and cigarettes hits me as soon as he opens it, and after we walk inside, it takes me a while to get used to the semi-darkness.
“What the—” I mumble as he leads me in farther.
We’re in a… bar. At least, Ithinkit’s a bar.
A few lone fables stand in the middle of the room, surrounded by what I assume used to be chairs. And directly in front of me, by the opposite wall, is a small stage with a few people fumbling with musical instruments but not playing.
I can barely make them out through the thick smoke lingering in the air.
