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‘Please don’t what?’ Jake caught her hand and unhesitatingly drew her in tight to his chest.
Such eyes he had, Caitlin thought feverishly…piercing blue-grey, like mist swirling over a storm-ravaged sea…
Holding Caitlin against him was the most exquisite pleasure bordering on pain that Jake had ever experienced. Her soft yet slender curves fitted his embrace as though she’d been made for just that purpose.
The sound of the throbbing music, the approving cheers of the audience, the chink of glasses from the bar and the soporific scent of incense that hung over them like a heady cloud—they all faded away, leaving Jake with nothing but his overwhelming need for the woman in front of him.
His desire to make Caitlin his own in the most primal way a man and a woman could consummate their lust was testing him to the very limit. Already he was hurtling close to the edge of that self-imposed control. He knew he shouldn’t want her so much. Professionally, it had disaster written all over it, and personally he wasn’t ready to trust a woman. After what Jodie had done trust didn’t come easily. Both those reasons should make him stay well clear.
With a supreme test of will, Jake slid his hands up to Caitlin’s shoulders, where he briefly let them linger. Then he gently but firmly moved her away. Her eyes instantly registered surprise and confusion and Jake cursed himself for torturing them both.
‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ he murmured.
Caitlin bit her lip and inclined her head in a brief nod. Then she turned back to watch the band, crossing her arms over her chest as if to protect herself. Her beautiful hair cascaded down her back like the most luxurious black silk and Jake ached with every fibre of his being to reach out and touch it. He had been captivated by women before, but not like this—never like this.
What he needed right now was another drink. He’d have to be careful not to exceed the limit, because he was driving, and even another drink would be no consolation for his present sexual frustration. Sensibly, he decided against it. Instead, he stayed put to watch the band and decide which elements of the performance he could point out to Caitlin that might help her when the time came for her to make her debut with Blue Sky.
* * *
‘Hey, that was good. Where did you learn to play guitar like that?’
Mike Casey sat cross-legged on the living room floor, barefooted and tousled-haired, his guitar resting easily against his thighs. His brown eyes regarded Caitlin in admiration. She’d just given him a personal rendition of a well-known singer’s most iconic track, with all its attendant complicated chord changes and a few innovative ones of her own. He wondered if Jake or Rick had heard her play yet, because Caitlin didn’t just play a ‘little’, as she’d modestly confessed at her audition. The woman knew her way round a guitar as if the instrument were a natural extension of her own graceful hands.
Setting down her guitar to take a sip from the soft drink Mike had given her, she answered, ‘I had lessons when I was younger. I pestered my mum for them until she got sick of me asking and conceded. She really wanted me to learn the piano, so I made a compromise and agreed to learn that too.’ She grinned. ‘After a while I stopped having the lessons and basically taught myself.’
She shrugged, not wanting to make a big deal about her ability. Her reasons for learning to play both instruments had always been purely self-motivated. The plain truth of the matter was that her music and her books had kept her sane whenever life had threatened to get a little less dependable and reliable—like when her parents had announced they were leaving the country to join her brother Phil in America.
Phil was the ‘blue-eyed boy’ who, in their eyes, could do no wrong. An old familiar twinge of resentment surfaced but Caitlin quickly squashed it. At the time her sense of abandonment had been acute and music had been her only solace—an anchor in a world where nothing had made sense any more. She’d often wondered if that was why she had hooked up with someone like Sean. He’d entered her life when she’d been feeling especially low and he’d charmed her with his boyish smile, amusing jokes and the sense that he was a bit of rebel. She, poor fool, had lapped up his attention as though she’d been marooned on a desert island for years without seeing a single soul.
