I sat at my piano.

Silence swam through the stilled darkness of the loft. Like waves lapping at my bare skin. Cool and soft. It was almost enough to convince me I wasn’t submerged. Suffocating where I drowned.

Seven years.

Seven years I stood on the foundation of my loyalty.

Now the evidence of my treachery lie twisted in my sheets upstairs.

My perfect torment.

A faultless penalty.

In the end, I knew I was gonna lose her, too. It was the way it always went down. Coming so close to something great right before it was ripped away.

Joy nothing but a cruel-hearted tease.

But I couldn’t help but feel some of it—joy.

Wrapping me in ribbons just the same as her caress. This girl who’d been breathing all that vibrant life into me.

Her belief.

No fear. Just life.

A huff of a breath pressed from between my lips. That energy—a steady rhythm that beat through my blood—hadn’t abated since I’d held her in my arms six hours ago. She’d drifted into the most peaceful kind of sleep, stealing mine and affording it, too.

The stark conflict of what she made me feel was mind-bending.

But it didn’t matter how hard I tried to shun it. It was right there. Nipping at my heels and prodding at my spirit.

My fingers twitched as the faintest whisper of that song glided through my veins.

Life.

I pulled in a breath, drawn, fingers at the keys. Emotion knotted tight in my throat, and I set my foot against the soft pedal to keep it muted.

I rasped out a gush of air from my lungs when I pressed my fingers down, the strike of the chord like a flash fire across my skin.

I played, the sound subdued against the darkness of my loft, amplified in her spirit that seeped down from above.

There was nothing I could do. Nothing to keep it from pouring out.

The overflow.

Spilling.

Crashing.

Flooding.

I got lost in it, gliding through the feeling.

In the music that danced all around me, waiting on me to reach out and take it. Make it mine. Give it life and beauty.

That beauty and the unrelenting pain.

Two always seemed to go hand in hand.

Everything intensified, and I gave myself over to the song. To the lyrics that twisted and grew. The words meant for her, murmured silently on my tongue.

They felt real. Just like she said. Meant to be.

They flowed through my mind like the chords flowed through my fingers.

That space between us alive.

Bigger than before.

Consuming.

Everything sizzled and the hairs at the nape of my neck stood on end. Attention rapt. Hunger throbbed in my gut and became a thriving entity when I felt fingertips glide down the bare skin of my back.

The ground fucking shook.

She was the first girl who’d ever given me chills. The first one to make me think there might be something better out there than the constant disappointment. Than the torture of the day to day.

She wrapped the comfort of those slender arms around me, her lips pressing fast to the top of my shoulder.

“Magic,” she murmured. “You play the drums for the world to see, and they have no clue about the talent that’s hiding inside you.”

She leaned in closer, the words a promise against the shell of my ear. “My little drummer boy.”

A groan climbed straight out of my spirit and dove into the atmosphere. I snatched her wrist and swiveled around.

Alexis stood there wearing nothing but my sheet wrapped under her arms. A torrent of that white hair fell all around her in soft, seductive waves, making her glow, that knowing shimmer that glinted and danced within the passion and strength of those striking blue eyes.

A clash of the deepest sea and the darkest heavens.

Starshine.

“And you are a fucking vision.”

I slowly stood and Alexis took a step back. I was wearing nothing but my underwear, my cock raging like a beast as it fought against the thin fabric.

If I was giving in, I might as well take it all.

Her attention dropped to where I was straining for her like a madman. Like she felt the weight of my body’s demand. A rush of that red crawled across her chest and climbed the delicate slope of her neck.

I couldn’t see it in the shadows, but I felt it. Could feel the heat. The attraction that flamed.

The need and the confusion that lapped in that space that came alive every goddamned time.

Maybe it was what had finally thrown me over the edge. Maybe it was what had me edging her back, stalking toward her as she clutched that bottom lip between her teeth, one of those affected, sweet smiles fighting to break free.

She kept backing up with every step I took in her direction. A tiny gasp escaped her when her back hit the windowpane. I pressed both my hands over her head. Trapping her.

Because fuck.

I didn’t want to let her go.

She was lit up by the cityscape, like the girl was the focus in some kind of precious portrait. A shimmery silhouette. A light in the darkness that held me captive.

And I was thinking foolish thoughts.

Wondering if I just might find my way out of the darkness and finally break free if she lit the way for long enough.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me, gorgeous? Are you trying to send me straight outta my mind?” I followed the curve of her jaw with the tip of my index finger.

She shivered beneath it, head tipping up as I trailed it down. I let it glide the length of her delicate neck and across her collarbone.

I leaned in closer, two of us breathing the other’s breath.

“I hope so, because I’m pretty sure I’ve already lost mine,” she murmured.

“Alexis.” It was a groan. I pressed her tighter against the window. “Now that I’ve had you, I don’t want to stop.”

She lifted that brave chin, making more of those demands I had no idea how to heed and even less of an idea of how to resist. “Tell me you need me.”

I gripped a handful of the sheet covering that tight, sweet body. “I’ve never needed anyone…anything…the way I need you.”

I gave it a tug, and the satiny material pulled free, pooling like a beggar kneeling at her feet.

This angel that was nothing but temptation.

Bare.

Soft.

“Lex.” I splayed my palm across the beat of her heart, right between those gorgeous tits. I cupped the right one, thumb brushing her pretty pink nipple, fucking loving the way it pebbled and grew tight.

Loved the way she panted when I trailed down, brushing the delicate skin of her soft belly before I cinched my hand down tight on her hip.

She gasped. “Zachary.”

“What do you need?” It was all a demand.

She didn’t hesitate. “I need you.”

I spun her around, her hands flat to the window. I wound the long locks of her hair into my hand, mouth at her ear. “You are so goddamned sweet. So gorgeous.”

My opposite hand rode the path of her spine, that damned star taunting me with its promise. Her ass jutted out as if on command, and I palmed her round bottom.

She shuddered, her sweet voice going rough with desire. “Zee.”

“I know, baby. I know exactly what you need.”

I shouldn’t. It should be so fucking foreign that I didn’t have a clue. But somehow, this girl made me remember myself, exactly the way she made me remember my piano.

I tightened my hold in her hair, guiding her lower, demanding all she had to offer.

“Perfection.”

Knees shaking, her breaths came harsher and harder as I tugged her hips out and closer to me, her hands pressed to the window to keep her standing.

I was overcome with the reality of it.

I didn’t ever want to see this girl fall. Never wanted her to darken or dim.

Wanted her to shine forever.

Which meant what I wanted most was to snuff out her threat.

Keeping hold of her with one hand, I twisted out of my underwear, kicked them free from my feet. I held my dick at the base, rubbing just the tip through her slick heat, so wet and ready for me.

Lust gripped me everywhere, spirit crushed by a devastating need.

I drove home, and Alexis screamed.

Like she wasn’t anticipating the full intrusion of me. Like she was just as unprepared as I’d been for the chaos that had devastated me when I’d found her standing at my door earlier this evening.

That had been the moment she had loosed something intrinsic in me.

Now I didn’t know how to hold it back.

So, I took her the way I could feel her taking hold of my heart, my hands splayed wide and gripping her ass while I pounded into the sweet, tight clutch of her body.

Her walls grasped at my cock.

It spun my mind with earth-shattering bliss.

I fucking loved that she let me take her bare. Like this precious girl needed me as close as she could get me. Like it might erase some of the bullshit fighting to separate us.

I let my thumbs run the crease of her ass, teasing her into a frenzy of need as I fucked her wild. She begged my name.

Zachary. Zachary. Zachary.

I fell into the spellbinding power of it. Into the feel of her body and the sound of her gasps. Got lost in that energy that pitched through the air.

Alexis tumbled over the edge.

I could feel her sinking in everywhere as she took me with her.

My body bowed as I came. Exploded. Mind-blowing, earth-shattering pleasure.

My fingers dug deeper into her hips because I didn’t ever want to let her go.

If I could, I’d let this girl take me wherever she went.

Finally, her knees went weak, and she sagged forward. I held her up, one hand scooping up the sheet in the same second I swept her into my arms, carrying her back to my bed.

Without a doubt, I was the biggest fool who’d ever lived.

Because that was exactly where I wanted to keep her.

* * *

My cell vibrating on my nightstand pulled me from sleep. I groaned and blinked into the breaking day.

Blindly, I swatted for it. Truth of the matter? I didn’t want to move. For a second, I just wanted to relish in the feel of her curled up in my hold, her head on my shoulder and that sweet body tucked up close to mine.

I finally focused on my phone when it rang again.

Baz.

I accepted the call and pressed it to my ear, voice gruff with sleep. “This better be important, asshole. Not even six in the morning.”

And I was getting about the best damned night of sleep in my life. Last thing I wanted was to get roused from the dream. This fucking perfect, impossible dream.

“Got a call from Ash a half hour ago. Willow’s water broke in the middle of the night. They’ve been at the hospital for a few hours. Looks like it’s happening soon. Shea and I are heading that way. It’s family time, brother.”

A shot of fear jolted through me, worry I could never shake. The need to keep this family tight. Safe.

Alexis stirred and shifted to look over at me with concern.

“It’s early, isn’t it?” I asked him.

I could feel Baz’s easiness through the phone, his own anticipation blazing through. “Nah, man, like three weeks. Shea says that’s cool. If he’s ready, he’s ready.”

That fear shifted to excitement, and that feeling of commitment pounded through my veins. “All right. Be there in a bit.”

I ended the call and let the phone drop to the bed.

My world skidded to a stop when I glanced over at the girl who was staring at me from where she was propped up on her elbow, at the ready to be at my side the same way I wanted to be for her.

She was so fucking pretty. Gorgeous in that humble way, and that feeling tightened in my chest. That feeling I couldn’t allow her to make me feel but she was pulling from me anyway.

I should tell her I needed to go. That I’d see her later, all the while knowing I was shutting her out.

Because I couldn’t afford for her to get any closer to me. Couldn’t afford whatever the fuck was happening between us.

I should’ve ended it right there, because after last night things were more intense than they’d ever been.

I should.

Instead, I smiled and patted her sweet ass. “Come on, we have a baby on the way.”