“Will you put your final stamp of approval on it?” Darcy’s exasperation rang through. “Because I think we sound amazing together.” There was a slightly breathless quality, like she was mystified by what they’d done here today.
Juliet understood it, because she felt it, too.
“I don’t know, maybe this was the perfect song for us. Maybe the label chose ‘Porchlight’ and chose us to duet because theyknew the energy we’d bring fit the song. But… I think it really works,” Darcy pressed, her eyes bright and excited.
She got that way, Juliet had noticed both last night and this afternoon. Darcy took on this energy when they were passing ideas back and forth, when they weren’t at each other’s necks. And she was loath to admit, but it was a little contagious.
“Tell me that you hear it, too,” Darcy insisted. She didn’t ask, shetoldin a way that edged right into Juliet and took hold of her.
She folded her arms over her chest, also feeling that energy course through her. “What makes you think I don’t?” She asked, challengingly, rather than directly answer.
Mostly because, in this moment, she could see in her mind’s eye the way Darcy’s eyes would spark at it. The way Darcy looked in interviews when Juliet tested her, and she wanted to see it live, in-person.
That want drove her even further, and she dropped her hands back behind her, bracing on the flat part of the control panel so she could lean back and angle herself properly up at Darcy. Daring her to give in to the bait on Juliet’s hook. “Haven’t you had enough people telling you how talented you are in the last year? You need me to add to it?”
There it was, that flash over Darcy’s face. Not insult – because Julietwasn’tinsulting her – but rising to the occasion.
She saw it in the way Darcy set her sharp jaw, even before she leaned in. Almost like she was looming over Juliet given the few inches she had on her, but… it wasn’t intimidating. She simply took up space. Like she couldn’t give Juliet her own air to breathe, not until Juliet gave in.
Juliet’s breath caught in her throat at her proximity, subconsciously licking her lips.
“In this specific instance, yes,” Darcy affirmed, her voice low and firm. “If you hate all of my other music, that’s yourprerogative. But forthis, I need you to tell me. Because what I’m hearing right now is incredible.”
Her comment aligned with the climax of the bridge playing in the background in the air between them, and Juliet shivered at the sound.
“Okay. Since youneedit…” She trailed off, pointedly, arching Darcy a look. If she would give in to complimenting Darcy, she was going to let her know she was only doing it because Darcy essentially begged for it, first. “You were right. We took ‘Porchlight’ and gave it a new twist that I think sounds really fucking good. Now, are you happy?”
Despite Juliet’s unyielding tone, the smile that bloomed on Darcy’s face was devastatingly sexy. The only word she could think to assign to it was utter satisfaction, complete with a rising flush on her cheeks and a bright gleam in her eyes.
So apparently Darcy felt the same mixing of passions – that thrum in the core of her body, mixing with the feeling of fulfillment when she struck gold with her music – as Juliet did.
She couldseeit in Darcy right now, and she knew the way her blood was thrumming through her veins, a little faster, a little hotter, was the same she felt while listening to their song.
Interesting.
So very interesting, but also not something Juliet should focus on. Not a rabbit hole she could let herself go down, not at all.
Not with Darcy Kincaid, that was damn certain.
She still wasn’t even sure she liked Darcy, in spite of the tentative truce they currently existed in.
Not that Juliet had to like a woman to have a sexual relationship with her; she’d gone down that path enough with other women in the industry she’d likely never want to have even a casual friendship with. Her personal feelings didn’t need to beinvolved when it came to sex. In fact, it was easier when those things were kept separate.
She had no reason to believe that Darcy was interested in women, also. Throughout multiple points today, during their collaboration, she’d leaned in close to Juliet. Their shoulders pressing together, ignoring polite personal space – just like she was right now. But for all she knew, that was simply who Darcy was. Operating in her own world, swept up by the music.
And Juliet would never – fucking ever – reveal her attraction to another woman in this industry, first. The best rule of protection was making sure the other women she slept with revealed their own… inclinations before she did.
But she wouldn’t lie to herself and say that it had been anything less than a raw titillation to all of her fucking senses, working so closely with Darcy for hours on end.
Juliet hadn’t slept with anyone in well over a year. She’d been busy. Busy with her album, busy with promotion, now busy with her tour. Even when she’d had time to decompress, she’d spent a lot of it in the art studio or volunteering at the hospital. She’d love to have that as an excuse as to why being so close to Darcy needled at her so deeply.
But realistically, she could have had sex with a woman last night, and she’d still have been driven to distraction by Darcy all afternoon.
Physically, Darcy’s appeal was more than obvious. Juliet had been aware of her bone-deep attraction to Darcy from day one.
But when they’d both hit their stride in ‘Porchlight’ and had gotten into the harmonies they’d worked out, when she’d heard Darcy’s voice – finally in the same key, the right rhythm – as her own…
She’d felt it to the very core of her being. Echoing through her body, making her feel like she was vibrating on a different frequency.
