Heavy Metal Heart by Nico Rosso

tell—”
    “Not any.”
    Thankfully, he cut her off. She didn’t even want to say it. Not when she still glowed from the sex and wanted to hold on to the fantasy that something real had just happened.
    He slipped his hand around hers, lacing their fingers. “You don’t have to worry about anything like that. Not anymore. This changes so much. Knowing you’re real...changes everything.”
    “I’ve been real as long as I can remember.”
    “But not for me.” His intensity grew. “Remember what you said earlier?”
    “Don’t actually remember much talking.”
    He laughed a little, then took a long breath.
    “You were right, I have been writing songs about you.” He propped himself up on an elbow. “For longer than you know, Geen Eyes. Not that I knew you. It took years of fantasy, of waiting. You were on the way, though. And now you’re here.”
    “How can you think and talk so much after...” What was the best way to describe it? “Fucking like a god.”
    “I’m inspired.” He placed a kiss, then a bite on her neck. “By you.” The energy that had been growing in him suddenly stopped. His body was absolutely still. Grave and reverent, he confessed, “You’re my muse.”
    A fantasy she wanted to believe. But she wasn’t so swept up by his passion and his sex that she’d be taken for a fool. “You already got me in bed, you don’t need a line.”
    “I thought you understood. The legend. The fate.” He was no longer still, His breath came fast. Was he on something? His limbs nearly shook behind her. “You felt it. You had to.”
    “I felt a lot of things. But I don’t know if it was the same—”
    “Red and gold. And the black veins, like a leafless tree after a rain. But it’s not the wood that we know. It was blood. Ours.”
    Now he sounded crazy. The lush afterglow of the sex turned bitter. The connection she’d felt with Trevor, starting with the song, thinned to brittle plastic. She didn’t want to feel cheap. Was it fake? Was she just part of the show? The realness of everything she’d experienced started to slip through her fingers. Shame and anger began to burn.
    “Maybe you could write that into your next song.” She tried to keep her voice even, counterpoint to his building energy. “But we could just lie here and you could talk to me normally.”
    “Normal? We’ve lost normal now.” He tightened his hand around hers. “You, you’re not human anymore. The elements are in you. Like me. I can feel it. You have to feel it.”
    There was nothing to salvage. It had all rusted away. Maybe she could hide in her old life and forget this happened. It didn’t seem possible. But she couldn’t stay here after it had shattered. She moved out of his fingers, slid out from his arms and off the bed. Dammit, she had to take off her shoes before she could get her pants back on. She struggled with the buckles as she collected her clothes. Trevor sat up on the bed, watching her with shock.
    “You really didn’t know?” he demanded.
    “I know that I’m just going to edit this part out.” Shoes off, she got her jeans on. The panties were too bunched to be comfortable, so they went in the back pocket. “We’ll roll credits while we’re still in bed, but before the talking.” Bra and top fell into place. The fabric was cold and stale. Shoes back on. A return to the real world. Far too real.
    “Misty, you have to listen to me.”
    After this, she wondered if she could ever listen to his music again. He was crazy, or drugged. Or he thought her so feeble minded that he could use his bizarre poetry to keep her in bed. Either way, the betrayal was a cold slap. Getting out of this room was one thing, it wasn’t feeling safe. But it broke her heart that from now on his music would take her right back to this moment.
    He continued. “I’m not what you think I am. Few know. I’m only telling you because you changed everything.”
    “For a guy who’s so good with poetry, you’re laying