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In lieu of her crimson lipstick, she wore neutral lip gloss that offset her dark eye makeup. She headed to the wet bar and Jax told her, while still playing, “Open the Cristal in the refrigerator, please.”
“Of course,” she said in her tantalizing voice.
While she popped the cork on the bubbly, Jax and Lex poured their hearts and souls into their music.
She set out a glass on Jax’s table. Added one on Lex’s piano.
As she returned the tray to her station, Jax said, “A glass for you as well, Lily.”
She looked at him over her shoulder. “I’m still on the clock.”
“Do you do that just so he’ll command you?” Lex playfully interjected with a crooked brow.
She smiled beguilingly. “Perhaps.”
“Fine,” Jax said, drawing the bow slowly across the strings and pressing on the fingerboards with his left hand. “Have some champagne, Lily.”
“Well, put like that . . .” She did as instructed.
Jax and Lex continued on. She si
pped. Gave herself over, as usual, to the music.
This particular arrangement had the darkest tone of all their compositions. A more compelling theme. And a few minutes later, there were tears flooding Lily’s tawny eyes. Cresting the rims and spilling over.
The fat drops tumbled down her cheeks. Her breaths were shallow, her lips partially open, her highly tempting mouth quivering at the corners.
While he and Lex continued to play, she suddenly realized she was crying. Stood and crossed to the long table to the right of the entryway and reached for a tissue. The sight of her was a gripping one, moving him as much as the composition had moved her.
“Wait,” he said to her. Jax returned his violin to its stand. Lex didn’t stop.
Jax joined her. The backs of his fingers swept over one cheek. She gazed up at him, myriad emotions in her eyes. His thumb whisked away tears from the other cheek.
Things stirred and shifted inside him. His chest tightened. His groin throbbed. Everything about Lily aroused Jax and touched him on a level he’d long since forgotten about.
She swallowed down a lump of emotion. Quietly said, “You are both so broken inside.”
“Yes.”
His immediate and very honest response filled her eyes again.
“Hey,” he quietly said. “Don’t cry.”
But a few more tears fell.
Her gaze, though, did not falter.
“I know you have incredibly high standards for this CD,” she said. “Yet I don’t think you truly understand how gripping it is. You want more from it, because you’re expressing something meaningful from deep down. Maybe something you and Lex have suppressed for a long time. I get that. But . . .” Finally, she glanced around him and looked at Lex. “I’m not a dramatic person by nature. I love music, but I’m not used to it speaking to me this powerfully. I swear, you are not going to disappoint your fans. I found your individual work captivating. Yet this . . . it’s astonishing. It makes my heart hurt as much as it stirs a very dark passion.”
Her gaze slid to Jax again. His hands cupped her face.
She said, “Take it from a woman who knows how to keep all things emotional at bay . . . you both break through those barriers.”
Jax’s head dipped and he claimed her mouth.
He couldn’t help it. Couldn’t let another moment pass without tasting her lips.
He’d never lacked self-control. Until now. With her.
