FascinatingRhythm by Lynne Connolly Read Free Book Online

She moved toward him so he could do more,
loving the intimacy. “Whoever you are, whatever you choose to do, I’ll be your
friend. I won’t abandon you again.”
    Tears sprang to her eyes. She laid her hand over his to stop
his movements. This was too important for her to allow him to distract her.
“Then you admit that’s what you did?”
    He lowered his gaze, stared down at her body, but she didn’t
feel the least embarrassed. She could still see his lips move enough to read
them. “Yes I did. I thought it was for the best. You needed to be here. I
couldn’t take you with me.” He paused, swallowed. “Sabina, I found more that
night than I dared dream about, but what could I give you? An itinerant
musician’s life on the road? I didn’t know what would happen to me and I didn’t
want you waiting for me. I couldn’t offer you anything. I didn’t want to give
you hope.”
    Lifting his chin, he met her gaze. The bleakness in his made
her cup his cheek again, stroking it, touching his ear with the tips of her
fingers. “Then you succeeded,” she said.
    “Forgive me?”
    “Would I be here if I didn’t? I forgive you.”
    A smile wreathed his face, lighting his eyes and curving his
mouth. “Thank you.”

Chapter Four
     
    Relief surged through Hunter, so powerful that it swamped
him. He hadn’t realized just how much that had weighed on him until she said
those three words. Her eyes met his fearlessly, and he could see the truth
written there, that she wasn’t saying it to please him. She meant to give him
her forgiveness, and it sliced through him like a clean cut from a scalpel,
lancing a festering wound he’d tried hard to ignore.
    And ultimately failed. Pushed it back every time it reared
its ugly head. Told himself he was doing the right thing. Over the last few
months, ever since Murder City Ravens’ manager had told them he’d arranged a
concert in Malmö, he’d thought about finding Sabina and begging her
forgiveness.
    He could never forget that midnight hair and the way it
sifted through his hands like the finest silk. How soft her skin felt under his
hands. Fuck, how she tasted. Nobody, and he hadn’t exactly stayed celibate, had
taken the shock of those revelations away from him. They’d only had one night,
and then he’d fled. He’d always planned to leave, but not like that. She’d
scared him off, the intensity of his feelings for her that first night and the
terror that he’d never go anywhere, never do anything if he stayed for her.
    At the time he knew he couldn’t ask her to join him. She was
starting a promising career, interpreting different languages for the deaf,
working at a high level thanks to his mother’s influence. Living in a London
bedsit, working gigs in pubs where they were sometimes paid in beer—how could
he ask her to do that? But how could he give that up?
    Together with the terror that had haunted him most of his
adult life. The fear of going deaf, a fear he couldn’t control, that made him
ashamed.
    “I’m so sorry.” Even that made relief surge in another wave.
    “Prove it.” Her eyes heated and he knew what she wanted.
    Now that he could do. In spades. Already thirsting for
another taste, he took her mouth, reveling in the way her lips fit against his,
the way she welcomed his tongue, gave him her own. He wanted to kiss her all
night, but then he’d be denying himself other treats.
    Reluctantly, he broke the kiss, pulling away slowly, opening
his eyes to gaze into her rich, dark-chocolate depths, her eyes such a
startling contrast to her pale skin and her black hair. Her cheekbones, high
and prominent and her firm jaw, not the delicately pointed kind but determined,
giving her face strength instead of a fairytale sweetness.
    He moved down to the places he knew she liked, and those he
had yet to discover. Down to her breasts, sucking her nipples one after the
other until they became hard, crinkled peaks and she was moving restlessly
under him. His