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Through Lily’s research when her father had told her of this job opening, she’d learned that Lex and Jax had grown up together in a wealthy household in Paris as child prodigies. Their instructor later became their conductor when they’d turned nine and had been invited into the international orchestra they’d toured with for numerous years. The large ensemble was so popular that it was featured on PBS and HBO, and had produced an extensive catalog of chart-topping CDs, DVDs, and digital recordings.
Yet she’d also read that Lex and Jax hadn’t collaborated with each other since they were twenty-one.
Seven years ago.
Interesting.
So what had happened to make both men abruptly leave the orchestra and go their separate ways . . . and yet Jax remained so full of angst and torment after all this time?
Has to be a woman.
And perhaps that was why they were presumably struggling to work together.
Intrigued, Lily’s imagination churned with all sorts of romantic ideations, particularly the potential of a love triangle. She took that thought a step further and wondered if the two men had shared a woman—one who’d ultimately had to choose between them.
The shattered love affair she’d conceptualized while listening to Jax’s music returned to her. There’d been unmistakable passion and pain in his execution of each note.
A hell of a lot of passion.
A hell of a lot of pain.
A little tremor ran through her as her curiosity mounted.
And against her better judgment—though she simply couldn’t help herself—sinfully delicious scenarios began to play in Lily’s mind . . .
Chapter Two
Jax stepped out of the oversized hexagon-shaped shower set against one wall, featuring floor-to-ceiling columns and pristine glass panes between them. He reached for a towel and slung it low around his hips. Then he grabbed another and rubbed the strands of his black-as-night hair.
The opera had helped to take the edge off his earlier volatile mood. He’d easily lost himself in the music and the drama of La Bohème . . . and a few glasses of Cristal. But the after-party had been a huge bust from the moment he and Lex had entered the upscale venue, the Bayview restaurant in San Francisco’s Financial District.
There’d been plenty of opera fanatics there to gush over the cast, but also equal numbers of classical music fans who were through-the-roof ecstatic that Jax and Lex were working together on a new CD. All well and good, except when they’d been pressed to give the crowd a sample of their latest creations.
Jax had had a valid excuse for not performing—no violin on hand. But there’d been a grand piano in the corner of the restaurant, overlooking the bay, and no clean break for Lex.
He’d deflected, regardless. In his usual amiable, charismatic way. Declaring the compositions were top-secret, heightening the mystery and anticipation, and claiming their music would be revealed to this special audience only when absolutely perfected. They deserved that much from the duo, he’d added.
And then Jax and Lex had gotten the hell out. Just twenty minutes after they’d arrived.
Under normal circumstances, they would have struck up the band and invited the opera leads to join in. But these weren’t normal circumstances. And while he and Lex were playing exceptionally well on their own, they were having a bitch of a time finding the right groove with each other. The old groove that had once come so naturally to them.
This disturbed them greatly. Jax knew Lex had begun to doubt they should follow through with this current project as much as Jax had.
The problem was, they genuinely wanted to reunite musically.
But a ghost remained wedged between them.
Katarina.
Instantly relegating thoughts of her and the past to the far recesses of his mind, Jax left the stately bathroom and entered the even more cavernous master suite he occupied.
Though he drew up short when presented with an ass that sparked all sorts of dark, lascivious thoughts.
In a heartbeat.
Despite it not being a backside he was familiar with, Jax quickly deduced that the woman leaning over his mattress, plumping the mound of pillows, was none other than his new butler. A female butler.
And Jesus Christ, what a fantastic way to meet her.
