Spaces Between Notes Read online

  “Hell fuck,” she said on a breath, obviously startled. Her fingernails dug into his shoulders. “Niko, I—”

  Whatever she was about to say was cut off in a squeak as Niko dragged her the rest of the way to the edge of the countertop. He shoved her legs wide and dropped to his knees.

  “What are you— Agh!” There was a smack of skin meeting wall as Carys reached out to steady herself with one hand up and the other braced on the counter as he entered her with his tongue. He kept his thumb at her clit, circling quick and slow, quick and slow. He raised his mouth, taking her clit between his teeth and flicking his tongue against her until she squeaked again.

  He liked that little squeak, but he thought he could do better.

  Her feet scrambled against his back, jerking when he hit a particularly sweet spot inside her. “Niko, I— Fuck. Hell. Oh, god.”

  He didn’t mind her babbling when her words were so nonsensical. With one hand at the small of her back, he pulled her even closer onto his face, showing her his tongue was still useful for something.

  She rested one leg on his shoulder, pushing him into her. “I don’t know— Damn hell. What— Fucking Christ— Don’t stop.” Her hips bucked against his mouth while her fingers threaded in his hair, tugging and soothing and tugging again.

  He was so worked up that if he wasn’t careful, he was going to come from the sexy-as-hell noises she was making. It had been a long damn time since he’d had his hands on any woman, let alone this one. She’d owned his fantasies for weeks now, but this was better than anything he’d imagined.

  “Yes. I’m— Oh. I’m— Yes. Yes. Yes!”

  She screamed as she came, loud enough his ears rang even though her thighs were clamped tight around them. Her hand gripped the back of his head so he was smothered in her sweet pussy, but he couldn’t have cared less. Let his tombstone read he died with his face in the lap of a well-satisfied woman.

  Her limbs went loose and pliant. He stood, catching her as she sagged forward, and kissed her, sharing her taste. Her return kisses were small, shaky and breathless as she was, and sweet.

  So sweet.

  He raised a hand, cupping her cheek as he kissed her with slow, soft kisses. His eyes were closed, the roiling energy gone even though his cock still strained against his jeans.

  When he broke the kiss, he rested his forehead against hers, breathing in her breath. Her hand rested limply at the back of his neck, her fingers stroking absently, her legs still curled around his.

  Niko opened his eyes to find her looking at him, her cheeks hectic and her expression unreadable. She opened her mouth as though to speak, but after a moment, she closed it again.

  Well, he’d wanted her speechless.

  They continued to stare at each other.

  What he wanted to do was to take her in his arms, pick her up, and carry her out of that bathroom and up to her bedroom. He wanted to lay her down, to see her nude and lovely beneath his hands. He wanted to take her, to take his time and do it right, to hear her scream again while he was deep inside her.

  Maybe he would’ve done just that if the sound of loud footfalls on the stairs hadn’t made both of them jump.

  She blinked sporadically, staring at him with confusion in her pinched expression, but she didn’t even have to say a word. Something had changed in an instant. Something had put regret in her eyes.

  He took a step backward, letting his hand drop to his side, and stooped, picking up her jeans and panties. When he handed them to her, she clutched them low against her body as though suddenly shy that she was nude from the waist down.

  Niko opened the door wide enough to step out into the hallway without exposing her. He pulled the door shut as he stepped out and then came up short.

  Bennett was in front of him, his eyes narrowed, with the look of a man in search of a fight.

  Niko only smirked and stepped around him, heading out the back door. He had work to do, anyway.

  Jamie had a backyard, and for that, Niko was grateful. It was also good timing that he was working on something portable.

  After the incident in the bathroom, Niko had glanced in the window of the house to see Carys and Bennett arguing, fingers flying. After what Bennett had seen, Niko had no doubt what they were arguing about. He wanted to march in there and tell that prick where he could shove his opinions, but he couldn’t.

  Or maybe he could. Bennett could read lips, couldn’t he?

  Getting into an argument with Bennett was a bad idea. He’d just end up looking like the asshole again, yelling at the poor deaf kid. It would make him want to punch things, and that never ended well for him.

  So he’d packed up all the supplies he’d gathered and headed for the peace and quiet of Jamie’s house. He’d texted Jamie to tell Carys he was going to work independently for a few days and had been annoyed at his friend’s response.

  Jamie: That’s probably a good idea.

  Niko’s mother had done that when Del aggravated him to the point he was yelling, screaming, and throwing his toys across the room. She’d put him in the corner to be by himself until he calmed down. Like Carys hadn’t been riding his last nerve. Like Bennett wasn’t sticking his big, ugly nose where it didn’t belong.

  It wasn’t any of Bennett’s business what was going on between Niko and Carys. Why Carys put up with that shit, the way she acted as though Bennett should get a say in her life, was beyond him.

  That first afternoon, Niko hadn’t gotten any work done. He’d dropped everything off at Jamie’s and gone home to his TV. He waited for Jamie to show up with Micah, but he never did. They were still playing the “Let crazy Niko get over his hissy fit” game.

  That afternoon, Carys texted him incessantly, but Niko ignored it. In fact, he ignored all twelve texts and the text from Jamie telling him to stop ignoring Carys’s texts.

  One of his girlfriends had called it “stonewalling.” In Niko’s experience, when it got to the point they wanted to talk about something, everything was about to go south. He’d never seen the point of those kinds of conversations. There was even less of a point now, especially when Carys could only talk at him.

  She thought he needed to talk to let off steam. Hell with that idea. Hadn’t he just shown her a much better way to vent his frustration? It was the reason why make-up sex was the best. There was still that pissed off edge that begged to be worked out, and that was the kind of arguing he could get behind. Literally.

  Good, deep doggy-style dick. Yeah, he could do that.

  Never did seem to work that way, though. No, Carys wanted to save him. Screw that idea.

  Niko sent Carys a text, and it was all business, so she couldn’t say he was ignoring her. He said he’d be back by the end of the week with the finished product and made sure to add that he’d then move on to other projects. He knew he couldn’t stay away from her forever. He had a job to do.

  He did erase her messages without reading them, though.

  The next morning, when he arrived at his friend’s house, Jamie had already left for work and Micah was nowhere to be found. Niko helped himself to the contents of Jamie’s fridge in the name of breakfast.

  He munched on a bacon roll with one hand and sorted through his tools with the other. Everything was ready, so he looked around for the plans.

  They weren’t there. Niko frowned and looked again. A third time. Nothing. He tore apart his truck, but by then, he had a feeling he knew exactly where the plans were.

  At Carys’s. Inside the house. Of course.

  He debated doing the manly thing by not stopping for directions. Unfortunately, the design he’d chosen was too intricate. He debated going with a more basic design, but that didn’t feel right.

  So much for distance.

  He drove to Carys’s house. She was home, of course, and so was Bennett.

  Niko considered his plan of attack and decided he should knock on the door. If he let himself in and Bennett caught him again, there would be more scowling. Then
again, Bennett only had two modes when it came to Niko: frowning and scowling. He had nothing to lose.

  On the heels of wondering if Carys would fire him if Bennett demanded it at this point, Niko wondered if she’d already fired him. Maybe ignoring those messages hadn’t been the best idea. Then again, they were deleted and gone. Nowhere to go but onward.

  Decided, Niko headed for the back door. He stopped short along the side of the house when he heard music. Someone was strumming a haunting melody with a guitar.

  “You play beautifully,” Niko heard Carys say as he drew closer.

  Niko was surprised to hear his little brother answer. He’d wondered what the hell the kid was doing with his time. Jamie must’ve dropped him off to earn his keep.

  “Thanks.” Micah cleared his throat. “Guess it’s the one thing my bastard ex gave me that couldn’t get him arrested.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Niko rolled his eyes. Heaven forbid Carys withhold from asking a personal question.

  “Oh.” Micah laughed nervously and plucked at the guitar. “He’s a thief, among other things. You know, he stole my heart and practically everything we owned. He liked to spoil me and gave me all sorts of things: jewelry, books, a new guitar every couple of months.”

  “A healthy collection of bruises.”

  Christ, Niko thought, but Micah sounded more sheepish than insulted when he answered. “Yeah. Plenty of those, too.” He sighed. “You must think I’m an idiot.”

  “Hmm. No. I think sometimes, when you see the good in someone, it’s easy to excuse the bad.”

  Micah didn’t answer right away. He played the same haunting song he’d been playing a minute before. “His name’s Holden. My ex. I was at a bar.” He tittered. “You know, college and fake IDs.”

  “It’s a rite of passage,” Carys said.

  “Right. Anyway, he was with the band—the house band—and I’d noticed him. It was hard not to.”

  “Musicians are hot.”

  “Yeah. So at some point, he steps up to the mic by himself when the rest of them go take a break, and he says, ‘This is for the little hottie in the corner,’ and he winked at me.”

  “So smooth.”

  “Right? Then he sang me a song.”

  “Music is an aphrodisiac.”

  “Oh, man. I was so easy it’s embarrassing. It was good for a while—really good—but then I figured out where his money came from.” Micah’s voice was tight with emotion. “When I confronted him about some of the not-so-great things I’d found out, he turned into this person I didn’t know. He told me I couldn’t tell anyone because I was an accomplice now, that I’d go down, too.”

  “What a prick.”

  “I freaked out, and then he was all, ‘Don’t worry, baby. I’ll take care of you. I’d never let anything bad happen to you.’” Micah scoffed. “It took me a while to figure out that if he actually cared about me, he wouldn’t have dragged me into his bullshit in the first place.”

  Just as Niko was finally going to tear himself away from the wall he’d been leaning on, Micah continued. His voice was so soft that it was hard to hear, and Niko crept closer to the window.

  “You know what? I really don’t think that’s it, either. That he didn’t care for me, I mean.” He picked out another tune on the guitar, this one sweet and soft. “He wasn’t all asshole, you know. When he was playing or singing, he was all tenderness. All the niceness was in his music, and I think that was his problem. He didn’t know how to act the way he felt. He could play his feelings, but he couldn’t say them, couldn’t live them. It’s not that he didn’t care. I think caring about someone just got warped in his head.”

  “Believe me. I understand that,” Carys said. She sounded sweet and consoling. “Will you play something for me?”

  As Micah began to play and sing—kid had a good voice—Niko decided now was a great time to get in and out of the house without being noticed. As he moved to the back of the house, he wondered why Micah had never told him any of that touchy-feely crap. Holy hell, the kid had been totally snowed over by that Holden prick. If he’d told Niko any of that crap, he could’ve told him to man up. Micah wouldn’t have let himself get taken like that—not on Niko’s watch.

  Niko came up short just as he slipped in the back. He could see the door to the music room, his old room, was open. Bennett was leaning in the doorway, listening to Micah. Niko took a step inside, and the floorboards below him creaked. He winced and froze, waiting for Bennett to turn his head.

  It didn’t happen. Of course it didn’t happen. Bennett couldn’t hear him creeping around. Relieved, he darted quickly to the laundry room where he’d set the plans down as he gathered his tools the day before. It was still there.

  Grabbing it, Niko hurried for the back door. He tripped and very nearly sent his head through the window of the door. He would’ve shouted, but he couldn’t. As he righted himself, he laughed inwardly. It was the first time his lost voice had come in handy.

  He looked down to see what he’d tripped over, and Maestro stared up at him, the look on his face the picture of kittenish innocence. He mewed and put his front paws on Niko’s shoe.

  Niko leaned down and gave the kitten’s head a little scratch. Then he turned Maestro around and pushed him gently in the direction of the music room. Bennett’s shoes were untied, and he hated when Maestro attacked his dragging laces.

  Shooting a thumbs up of approval at the kitten as he stalked toward his prey, Niko hurried out the door. If anyone cared to look, he knew damn well he had a smug grin on his face. Mission accomplished. The hours of watching James Bond when he was a kid had finally paid off.

  It had taken a full four days, but the arbor was finally finished. In a stroke of good timing, he finished on a Friday, which meant Jamie was available to help him manhandle the thing into the bed of his truck for transportation on Saturday.

  Jamie was standing in his kitchen, scratching his head and staring blearily at the empty coffee pot as though he could will coffee into existence, and Niko could hear the shower going somewhere in the house. He went around the counter and flipped the coffee pot on.

  “Oh.” Jamie blinked and stared as comprehension settled in. “Guess that would help.”

  Shaking his head, Niko grabbed Jamie by the wrist and yanked him toward the back door.

  “Whoa. Hey. What are we doing?” Jamie asked, stumbling after him. “We’re getting farther away from the coffee.”

  Niko paused and pointed at his wrist in the universal sign for time. It was 10:00, not 6:00 in the morning. Jamie shrugged, looking sheepish. “I went out last night.” He yawned and waved his hand. “I’ll be fine. Lead on.”

  Outside, Jamie perked up. “Oh! Do I finally get to see it, then?”

  About a dozen snappy comebacks came to mind, but Niko was getting used to suppressing them now. He just swept his arms wide, indicating the tarp-covered arbor. He and Jamie moved to opposite sides of the object and lifted the covering off. Jamie stood back, pursed his lips, and whistled.

  Even Niko could admit it was a beautiful piece. Small and elegant, it sported criss-crossed latticework up the sides and arched at the top where the wood was solid; a cover for the occasional rainy day if one was so inclined to sit there. It was a small bench, big enough for two people only if they were very fond of each other. Niko had carefully sanded every piece and stained the whole thing a pleasing mahogany color.

  Jamie gave him a strange look, and Niko waved his hand in a “what?” gesture.

  “Nothing,” Jamie said with a shrug. “I was thinking you’re in luck. Carys is out of town today. If we hustle, we can get the front lawn finished and then she can drive up to a whole new world tomorrow.”

  Securing the arbor took almost an hour. The upside was that Niko didn’t have to harass his brother to get his ass moving. Jamie handed Micah the keys to his car and climbed into Niko’s truck so he could fill him in on what Micah had been up to with the front lawn.
/>   There was a lot in the conversation Niko didn’t understand, but he caught on to the fact they were talking about various kinds of plants. Niko had always appreciated the look of his mother’s garden, but he didn’t care enough to learn the names of the plants or flowers. Anything that needed that kind of maintenance was just asking for trouble. That was half the reason the house looked so run down in the first place; the plants were either overgrown or dying.

  Sometimes, though, a fresh start was the kick in the pants people needed to start good habits.

  They got down to business right away, spreading river rock to form a path between patches of grass, bushes, and flower beds. Micah was busy digging deep holes for a trio of trees with red leaves, and it was amusing to watch him take such care. He measured the space between each tree several times over before he planted. He looked so smugly satisfied with his work that Niko shook his head. He gathered his little brother to him for an obligatory noogie, and Micah shoved at him and grinned.

  The three worked together easily through the morning and afternoon. Mostly, Niko followed the direction of the other two, prettying up the lawn with ridiculous things like decorative boulders. When it was all done, he had to admit that the effect was worth the extra labor because the lawn looked great.

  “And now your masterpiece,” Jamie said, hands on his hips as he looked at the arbor still in the bed of his truck.

  They placed the arbor at the apex of a swell on the lawn, where many homes would’ve had a large tree, and Niko made sure he was the one who adjusted and anchored it so it sat just right.

  When they were done, they all collapsed on the grass, spent from a hard day’s work. That was how Carys found them, sprawled all over her front lawn.

  “I see how it is. The cat’s away so the mice will play, hmm?” she teased as she parked her car.

  Niko could see the exact moment Carys actually noticed her lawn. Her eyes went wide, and her head swiveled around as though she didn’t know where to look next.

  In the end, though, her gaze lingered longest on Niko’s arbor. She stepped forward and ran her hand along the pattern of criss-crossed latticework. She looked up at him. “You made this?”