A red tainted Silence by Carolyn Gray Page B

and kissed it. I hissed from the pleasure the simple brush of his lips against my bare skin brought, the heat that flashed in my groin. “You’d better not do that anymore, Nicholas,” I said, growling deep in my throat, which only made him laugh. “Not here.” He kissed me once more, of course, showing the first hint of the mischievousness that would plague me from then on. “All right. I’ll behave. You want to write music with me?”
    “Yeah, I do. I think we’ll be good together, Nicholas. Really good.”
    “What about your brother? Don’t think he liked me much.”
    “Screw him. We don’t need him. We’ll do our own thing, once I get new keyboards.”
    “What happened to your keyboards?”
    Ah, shit. “Well, in his infinite wisdom, my brother chose that Harvey guy to be our lead singer.”
    “You wanted me?” he asked, a hint of, well, need in his voice.
    I stroked his arm in reassurance, smiling as he responded to my touch by burrowing his face into my neck. This wasn’t what I’d expected, but it felt right, me playing this role, giving him comfort. I chuckled to myself. Nicholas Kilmain’s white knight, that’s me.
    “You bet I did. But Adam didn’t care what I thought. I got sick after that, you know. I had the flu all this past week.”
    “So that’s why you fainted.”
    “Um, well, probably contributed to it. I fainted because of you.”
    “Me?”
    “Yeah, you. You dazzled me with your presence and I totally lost it.” I felt him chuckle against me. “So what happened?” I shifted a little and he eased up while I settled back, a little more comfortable. It was an odd thing, holding another guy. But he was kinda soft and so warm against me. I liked it.
    “So, yes, my dear sweet Nick, that big bad bastard Harvey stole all our instruments, and all my music.”
    He raised his head and looked at me. “That’s terrible. All of it?” I nodded. “Yeah. Everything I’ve ever written.” Everything I’d written for him, but now it didn’t seem like such a tragic loss. Getting to know Nicholas would produce new music. I knew that now. “That’s why I was at Harrison’s, looking at keyboards. You saw me there, didn’t you?”
    He nodded, then laid his head back down, kissing my collarbone and sending my thoughts tumbling into cartwheels for a moment. “Yeah, I didn’t want to bother you. I --
    What were you playing?”
    “You’re not a bother. And you know what I was playing.” 50 Carolyn Gray
    “The song I sang in the play.”
    “That’s right. Did you like it?”
    “I loved it. It was all I could do not to burst out singing.” I stroked his arm, closing my eyes. “I wish you had, Nicholas. I wish you had.” He stayed silent for a moment, then said, “Me, too.” We held each other for a long moment then, him soothing me just as much as I soothed him, our breaths rapid, our hearts pulsing wildly in our chests. He looked up at me, his gaze searching mine. I didn’t want this to be the first time to kiss, when we were both battered and bruised and scared, but I couldn’t help myself. He reached up with his hand and cradled my face, and a soft moan escaped me at his touch.
    I bent my head to his, brushing my lips across his mouth, tasting him as I’d dreamed of tasting him for so long. He sucked in his breath and pulled away, but just as quickly his lips found mine again. They were soft, full, yet so firm, so warm, so Nicholas. He whimpered as my tongue parted his lips, sought entry into the moist secrets of his mouth. Our tongues danced, not rapidly, but soft and slow as we comforted each other, reassuring each other that we would get through this, that everything would be all right.
    I felt dizzy, didn’t realize I was holding my breath until he pulled back with a soft, shy smile. “Breathe, Brandon.”
    I took a deep breath as ordered and laid my head back. “Wow,” I said. “I really did forget to breathe.”
    He chuckled. “You kiss nice, Brandon.”
    “So do