Sabrina and Kate, who’d shown up a few minutes after Tru, apparently loved cheesy movies, and they loved to watch them together and tear them apart. Kind of like Mystery Science Theater 3000 but without the robots and with a hell of a lot more profanity.
Perfect stress relief. And with the other people around, it gave him the chance to interact with Tru without being alone with her.
So he tried to show her he wasn’t just a Neanderthal rock star. That he had a little depth.
Yeah, good luck with that.
As the movie wound down to an asinine conclusion featuring snowmobiles and way too much fake blood flowing in rivers through white snow, he’d pretty much fallen silent, laughing when someone said something funny and stopping after one beer and switching to soda.
But underneath it all, he still heard that music. Actually, he heard more of it now.
And then it was all he could think about.
“Hey, Sabrina, it was fun but I gotta skip out.”
Jimmy turned to look at him, and Baz caught concern in the guy’s dark gaze. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just need a piano.”
Jimmy’s eyes now flew open wide. “Seriously? You’ve been getting music together?”
Jimmy was a huge, his word, not Baz’s, fan of Baseline Sins, and the look on the guy’s face made Baz smile. Pure, fanboy anticipation.
He knew what it looked like because he got it whenever he heard about a new album from a band he loved.
“Yeah. And I need to get it out of my head.”
“Dude, please, you go right ahead.” Jimmy waved toward the door. “Work all night. The sooner we get more Baseline Sins music, the happier everyone’ll be.”
Rising to his feet, Baz gave Sabrina a twisted grin.
“I’m gonna run down to the music room. Sorry for cutting out early, but I got something stuck in my head and I wanna get it down before I lose it.”
Sabrina rolled her eyes but waved a hand in his face. “Sure, sure. Blow us off. Whatever.” Then she smiled to let him know she was joking. “I wanna hear it when you’re finished.”
“You got it, babe.” He leaned down to kiss her cheek, his attention so focused on getting to a piano that he barely realized what he was doing.
However, he couldn’t help but notice Tru watching his every move.
Was she jealous that he’d kissed Sabrina?
Yeah, how stupid are you? She doesn’t give a flying fuck what you do.
She’d avoided him all night. Well, not noticeably but she hadn’t sat next to him or initiated any kind of conversation.
But, damn it, he’d wanted her to.
“Tru, come with me. I’m gonna need your phone to record if mine craps out. My battery’s low.”
Every word was true. He hadn’t had enough time to charge his phone when he’d gotten back to his suite before coming here.
But, yeah, he had an ulterior motive. He wanted her with him.
Setting yourself up for a fall, asshole.
Fuck it. He didn’t care.
For a second, he thought she might just give him her phone but she nodded right away.
“Sure. But you can use my tablet. It’ll record longer and I’ve got the cord with me.”
Ah, Tru’s tablet. He barely ever saw her without the thing attached to her hand.
“A good woman to have around.”
He’d meant it as a compliment but he wasn’t sure she took it that way because she looked back at Sabrina, who watched them with wide eyes.
Then Sabrina cocked an eyebrow at him, a silent question which he refused to answer.
“Thanks for tonight. I had fun, babe.”
Which was completely true. Just not the whole story.
The elevator ride to the lobby was quiet. Either Tru knew he was trying to hold on to the fragments of a melody or she just didn’t have anything to say to him.
He really hoped it was the former, but he couldn’t dwell on it because the melody was morphing already, getting away from him.
By the time the elevator doors opened, he’d added a few measures and his fingers itched for the piano keys.
He practically sprinted for the atrium, blocking out everything but the music in his head. He had the vague sense of Tru’s presence, which calmed him in a weird way, but he couldn’t let that intrude right now.
Luckily, she didn’t say anything at all, and when he finally made it through the atrium to the music room, she had her tablet out and was pulling up the recording app as he sat down at the baby grand.
A second later, she laid the tablet out in front of him.
“Here you go.”
Then she took a step back.
“Stay.”
His gaze caught hers and held. And the music continued to play through his brain.
She probably thought he was a complete basket case with a whole lot of asshole thrown in. Hell, after last night, he really wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d smacked him and told him to fuck off.
So he really was kind of surprised when she nodded. Stepping away from the piano, she settled into the only other chair in the room, a small armless upholstered one that Greg had had delivered one day. Sebastian figured Greg had wanted Sabrina to have a decent place to sit when she used to sit and listen to him play. Before Greg had outfitted the studio at ManDown for him.
Greg was thoughtful like that. Then again, he’d probably given the task to Tru. Hell, she’d probably picked the damn chair.
Shit. Stop. Focus.
Pulling his gaze away from hers, he looked down at the keys and shoved everything except the music out of his mind.
* * *
Tru watched Baz as his fingers began to work the keys and music poured out.
It sounded nothing like the music she’d heard for the score. That music had a flow to it. This had definite breaks where the rhythm changed.
She knew it would sound much different when played with two guitars, a bass, and drums. She couldn’t quite hear it but she knew it’d be amazing.
It also didn’t sound anything like the other piece he’d played this morning. The piece he’d worked on after finishing the score.
She’d hear this in her sleep tonight. And she’d dream about him playing. Probably while he was naked.
Who would blame her, especially if they could see him now?
God, the man made her wet. Just by playing the piano. She wanted to squirm in her seat to relieve the ache building between her thighs but was afraid she’d draw his attention. And she didn’t want to be a distraction.
She loved watching him play. How he hunched over the keys and how the muscles in his arms bulged and flexed.
He played with so much passion that her body responded. Her lungs worked harder to draw in air. Her muscles tightened and clenched, especially low in her body.
The music made her blood beat along in time.
She knew the music would be nothing she’d ever choose to listen to by the time his band actually recorded it, but this . . . this was raw and melodic and completely Sebastian.
Because she was pretty sure he was so wrapped up in his music he’d forgotten she was there at all, she allowed herself to watch him unabashedly.
Since he kept his hair short, she easily saw his face. Cheekbones drawn into sharp relief by the furrow of his brows and the way he bit his bottom lip.
Then her gaze slipped down to his arms and, oh my god, she couldn’t breathe. The muscles bulged and strained, shown off by the short sleeves of another band t-shirt. She had no idea what this one said because all she could see were those muscles. So much strength.
Same went for his chest. Broad and muscled.
Christ, she was ogling him like a slice of cake.
She hadn’t even done this to the parade of actors who’d passed through their Hollywood offices. Sure, they’d been handsome and fit with nice smiles. But after the first two or three had tried to seduce her into helping them further their careers, she’d learned to look through them and not at them.