Page 31 of Silver Edge
Cool air brushed across my skin, reminding me I was naked from the waist up. I quickly retrieved my towel, but he didn’t release my other hand. Instead, he kissed below my neck and, slipping his hand from mine, gently wrapped the towel around me, tucking it between my breasts.
“I want to know what love is, Scarlet. I’ve blocked out every emotion since my family died, and in that music everything flooded to the surface. For the first time, I didn’t feel dead inside. You need slow nurturing for a change, and I need a chance to let my heart heal and open to the possibility.”
I swallowed the lump forming at the back of my throat. “Possibility for what?”
“Love.”
Emotion stirred inside me, but was it love, fear, loneliness? “How do you know what love feels like? I was told by a clinician once that I would never be capable of that emotion.”
He shook his head. “I bet you were also told you could never enjoy physical intimacy without being high.” He tipped my chin up so I had to look into his eyes. “And I think we both just proved that’s wrong.”
I smiled, a real smile. One of dreams and the promise of something that could be. For once in my life, I felt…hopeful.
Chapter Fourteen
I reached for the door handle of Drake’s car, but he snagged it first. “Practice date, remember? I open doors for youandpay for lunch. That’s what guys do on a date.”
The odor of car fumes choked my reply, or maybe it was the worddate.Either way, I sat in the passenger seat without a word. To my relief, the interior didn’t possess that new-car smell or was doused in some obnoxious deodorizer. Instead, I smelled only the rain-fresh scent of shampoo and the earthy aroma that was all Drake.
He hopped into his side and closed the door. Turning the key, his car roared to life. My body enjoyed the vibration of a muscle-car engine; the rumbling sensation soothed the jitter from my joints and insides.
“Nice.”
“It’s the only thing I haven’t hocked or sold to keep Bands afloat.” He pulled out of the parking space and bounced us over a few speed mountains, heading toward the busy streets of downtown Atlanta.
“Hope you can turn things around, if that’s what you want.” I didn’t know what to say. The worddatekept echoing in my head, making it hard to think of anything else.
After one quick stop at a store to replace Drake’s cell, he maneuvered onto the highway and we were headed to the mountains. “I know this Battle of the Bands will work. It has to.”
“Why do you think the club has struggled so much? I mean, fancy degree and all.”
“Because I didn’t want it bad enough. I half-assed the job, because I never saw the vision of the place.”
The buildings flew by in a blur of tall gray. I gripped my knees and enjoyed the way the vibrations traveled up my legs, into my hands, all the way to my shoulders. “Then why didn’t you sell it and go back to your job?”
Once we were on the highway, he lowered his hand to the gearshift and I started to resent the quieter hum of the engine. The silence had created the first awkward moment between us.
He sucked in a long breath and I noticed a twitch at the corner of his mouth. “At first, I think I was punishing myself. I hated the world for taking my brother away, and despised myself even more for my sins. We’d been close once, I’d taken care of him most of his life. When kids teased him, I’d handle it. When he couldn’t deal with a situation, I dealt with it. When he couldn’t get a job, I found him one. Then one day he didn’t need me anymore and everything changed. He found himself; his talent erupted into a world of opportunities. He not only signed a major record deal, he opened the club.”
Stalling for an excruciating second, he clicked his blinker on and changed lanes. I opened my mouth, thinking he was waiting for me to speak, but I had no words. What was I supposed to do, say?
Drake gripped the steering wheel tight, his gaze transfixed in a hard stare ahead. “I didn’t relate to him anymore, and I pursued my own desires in life. I think I was a little jealous of how happy music made him. I’d never found that kind of happiness, except the temporary satisfaction of purchasing a luxury item. Money and women were my life. He had love and purpose.”
I’d never thought of happiness, only survival. How did I relate to a man with money and education and family? He should be with a socialite, actress, model, not a street reject.
“Scarlet?” he asked after a moment, his voice sounding shaky and unsure.
“Yes?”
“Can I hold your hand?”
Relief flooded me. “Sure.”
I turned my hand over, palm up, and he captured my fingers with his. It wasn’t the zap of want that electrified my system, or the breath that stuck in my lungs, but the lack of need to jump from the moving vehicle that surprised me.
He changed lanes to the HOV and hit the gas. “Can I ask you something else?”
“I guess.”
