She gave him an embarrassed smile, starting to sit up. “Don’t get up now,” he told her, pulling her back down against him. “I’m perfectly comfortable.” Juliet blushed, hiding her face against his chest. Feeling suddenly as though he was in a dream himself, Dan pulled her up, looking into her eyes. “You kissed me,” he told her, unable to resist smiling. Her eyes widened.
“I didn’t.” Dan laughed, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her body against his.
“You did. You told me you were glad I was here and then you kissed me.” Juliet blushed again and tried to squirm free of his arms. “It’s true, isn’t it?” he asked her, brushing his lips against her forehead. Juliet shook her head, avoiding his gaze and renewing her struggles to get free.
“I was sleeping,” she muttered defensively, ducking her head down. Dan brought her face up.
“You’re glad I’m here. You like me, I know you do.” Juliet bit her lip and Dan couldn’t restrain the urge; he closed the tiny distance between them and kissed her, running his tongue over her bottom lip until she let him in. He kissed her deeply, his arms tightening around her as she began to respond.
After several moments, she pulled away and he let her. “You’re so annoying,” she said, the heat in her voice belied by the way she couldn’t quite help smiling. “You’d better not be laughing at me.” Dan shook his head, trembling with the effort of holding back the chuckle he felt building up inside of him. He kissed her again briefly.
“I happen to like you too,” he told her, running his hands through her hair. He let his hands roam over her body, looking into her eyes to make sure she knew he was being honest. “Christ, woman, I’ve liked you for years. You’re incredibly hot, talented, smart…” Juliet blushed, shaking with laughter even as she gave him a playful smack.
“As if you didn’t have women falling all over themselves for you,” she replied, sitting up but staying close to him. Dan laughed, reaching out and taking her hand.
“You’re not like them,” he told her, pulling her down onto him but not letting go of her hand. He brought it up to his lips instead, pressing a kiss to her palm. “You’ve never fallen over yourself for me, for one.” Juliet snorted, looking up at him through her eyelashes and Dan thought that she had no idea how utterly alluring she looked when she did that.
He leaned in and kissed her again; pressing her body against his so that he could feel every inch of her, feel the heat of her through the thin fabric of her pajamas. He could feel her nipples hardening as he deepened the kiss, letting his hands run over her curves. He moaned into the kiss, nipping at her bottom lip playfully. He could feel himself getting hard, just from the contact of their bodies.
Mindlessly his hips pushed up into Juliet’s as he tried to ease the ache in his throbbing cock. He broke away from the kiss, letting go of her and brushing her hair back from her face.
“How awake are you?” he asked, looking into her eyes. She was more awake than she had been before, but he could still see the marks of fatigue on her face. Juliet’s eyes were dreamy with arousal, but she gave him a tired little smile.
“About 60 %,” she answered. Dan took a long, shuddering breath and fought down his rising lust. He could wait. He’d waited for years. Another few hours wasn’t going to make a difference.
“Go curl up in bed then. I’ll get dinner and then we can go to the studio and get some work done.” Juliet stared at him for a moment; Dan gave her a playful shove and sat up to kiss her on the cheek. He brushed his lips along her jaw to her ear and whispered; “There is plenty of time for me to fuck your brains out when you’re not sleep-deprived. Go sleep.”
Juliet turned her head and claimed his lips, giving him a long, lingering kiss before she stood and meandered toward her bedroom, shooting him one last inviting look over her shoulder before she went in to rest.
***
They were in the studio again; Juliet had insisted on driving her own car, and after her hours-long nap, Dan couldn’t argue with her. He had ordered delivery from a high-end restaurant in town, salads and grilled chicken and steak and pasta.
When Juliet had emerged from her bedroom, her hair deliciously tousled and finally looking fully rested, she had been stunned at the sight of the food he had ordered. “I could have cooked,” she told him as he handed her a plate and silverware. Dan had shrugged, taking his own plate and leading Juliet to the dining room table.
“I couldn’t have, and I figured it would be nice for you to wake up to some delicious food, instead of having to cook something.” He was a notoriously bad cook, apart from making breakfast. He could manage eggs and pancakes and bacon-anything more than that and he was at a loss.
Dan smiled to himself, thinking that he’d enjoy cooking breakfast for Juliet in the morning. In the meantime, he feasted his eyes on her, taking in the improvements that full rest had made in her. He had watched TV while she slept, and when that had palled, he had begun writing a song-one inspired by his host.
He could hear the tune in his head, but he would wait until he was back among his brothers to work on the melody-or at least, until he was away from Juliet. He wanted it to be a surprise for her, assuming things went well.
Dan sat at the sound board, watching Juliet in the vocal booth. She had gotten dressed as soon as she finished eating, and it hadn’t been easy for him to restrain himself from picking her up and carrying her back into the bedroom; she was wearing black, tight-fitting corduroy pants and a dark green tee shirt that set off her dark hair and olive complexion perfectly.
The cords were held up by a pair of black suspenders that only served to emphasize her curvy figure-particularly her full breasts. She had left her hair down, but now that she was in the vocal booth, she smoothed it back, her small, deft hands twisting and wrapping it into a bun that she skewered with a pencil after securing it with an elastic.
He cued up the track they were working on; it was his favorite time of the evening, after the main staff of any studio typically went home. It was a time for messing with arrangements, getting creative, trying new things.
He sat back in his seat, preparing to listen critically. One of the skills he had cultivated through years of working in the musical industry was to separate his affection for a performer from his judgment of their performance. It was for this reason as much as anything else, he knew, that Juliet had asked for his help. She could trust him to tell her when something wasn’t working.
She caught the cue, and began to sing. Dan didn’t have the lyrics memorized yet; he was listening for the overall feeling, the tone of her vocals. She got through the pass, and Dan leaned into the intercom mic. “Try singing that second part one step higher in the verse,” he suggested.
“Like this?” She considered a moment and then he heard her singing the part; it still wasn’t quite right.
“Drop it a third.” She tried it again. “Perfect.” He re-cued the track and listened to Juliet as she hit the section, nailing the part this time. He smiled to himself, calling her into the control room to listen to it.
She sat down next to him and he played it back; he caught himself watching her more than he was paying attention to the recording, and pushed his mind back onto the matter at hand. He liked to watch her when she had the particular abstracted look on her face that meant she was focused on something. There was something beautiful in the slight tension at her brow, at the distant look in her eyes as every part of her listened.
“What do you think?” he asked her when the track finished. She sat back, still with that abstracted look on her face for a moment.
“I like it.” She hummed to herself, slightly higher than the vocal she had just recorded, and Dan knew that she was finding the harmony she would add in, shaping the fabric of the sound she wanted.