Chapter 68
Chapter sixty-eight
Cole · Now
Check Yes Juliet – We The Kings
Carter snarls when I make him run the track again, grumbling about pretty boys and their pretty boy faces.
I sink into the chair and flip my middle finger up.
He kicks the bass once and flicks his sticks in the air, before leading into a marching snare. He props one stick flat on the batter head, and bounces it with the other.
Then, he snags his coffee off the floor and downs it as the perfect beat pours through my headphones.
Fucking show off.
Saint yawns from his hunched position on the floor. Axel snores beside him, mouth wide, arm flung over his face.
We’ve been in here for over twenty-four hours now. Turns out once we got started, I couldn’t stop.
It’s been a long time since I felt a fire while sitting in a studio, pouring over music. Now it’s not just a spark, it’s a fucking ember, burning bright and begging me to feed it.
Music has always been my motivation. From sitting on my mum’s lap playing piano, to my old man teaching me the drums. Even the violin I picked up in secondary school just for shits and giggles. I’ve never not loved music, but I lost the passion somewhere along the line.
Now, it’s back with a vengeance and I’m not about to give that up for a good night’s sleep.
I push the talkback as the final cymbal hit trickles through the headphones. “I’ll take it.”
“Great. Thanks,” Carter deadpans, giving me a pointed glare as he shoves his stool back. “I need your girl to get her arse back here asap. She’s one take and done, just how I like it.”
Saint grunts. “What he said, I’m fucking knackered. Can we go to bed yet?”
A soft laugh sounds behind me, one full of joy and light.
My stomach flips.
I spin, chair teetering backwards when Hendrix steps into the doorframe.
“I’m glad to know you missed me, guys.” She crosses her arms over her chest with a grin. “Because, I happen to be in need of a place to stay, so I’m hoping you won’t mind me sticking around for a while.”
“Stay forever,” Axel croaks, one eye cracked.
I narrow my gaze and scan every inch of her face. “Why do you need somewhere to stay, Rixie?”
“The estate agent is pretty confident my house will sell soon, so…” She drums her fingers on her arm, her eyes glinting gold under the LEDs.
The room blurs around me until she’s the only thing I see. “You’re selling your house?”
“I mean I can take it off the market, if I need to.” She shrugs a shoulder, lip stud tucked between her teeth. “But then there’s the whole thing about me now being unemployed.”
“What about your studio?” Carter asks, his brow furrowing.
“It’s not mine anymore,” she says, as if she didn’t just blow my entire world to smithereens with four single words.
“So, I’m homeless and jobless.” She hisses air through her teeth, her gaze locking with mine.
“You wouldn’t happen to know someone who can help a gal out of a pickle like this, would you? ”
Is it cool to kick your feet and squeal as a thirty-one-year-old man?
I swallow hard, ignoring the little voice telling me to just do it anyway. “Maybe.”
She arches a brow, her steps measured as they carry her across the control room. She stops between my spread legs, arms dangling at her sides. “Yeah?”
“You gave up your studio?”
“No.” Her lips twitch. “I just let go of a dream that didn't belong to me.”
I curl my fingers around her hips. “And your house?”
“I outgrew it.” She slips a hand around my neck and pushes her fingers into the back of my hair. “But the thing is, London is real pricey. Who can afford a place in this city alone?”
You, a few times over too.
“Royalties looking a bit low lately?” I tease, my thumb dipping under her hoodie and tracing her skin. “That’s concerning.”
She drags a nail over my nape, sending a lick of heat down my spine. “Hm. Should probably find someone with a spare room.”
I lean back. “Riley might take you in.”
“She won’t. She rather enjoys having her own space.”
“Oh, that is quite the pickle then.” I brush my thumb over my lower lip, a smirk curving my mouth.
Hendrix sinks into my lap and ghosts her mouth over mine. “You fancy a roommate, dude?”
I flick my tongue over the seam of her lips.
She shudders, pupils dilating, hands trembling when they land on my chest.
Axel groans. “They’re about to shag, aren’t they?”
I squeeze Hendrix’s hip as I turn to him with a blank expression.
“Ax.” Saint tuts, his fingers deftly rolling the paper in his hand. “You should know by now they’ve got that whole exhibitionist thing going on.” He looks up and waggles his brows at Hendrix. “Plus, I think Rix might be into sharing. She practically begged me to be their third a couple weeks ago.”
“Piss off.” Hendrix snatches a stick from Carter’s loose grip and tosses it.
It bounces off Saint’s head.
He only grins. “There’s my girl. Stop being a soppy git. It’s gross.”
“I’m doing something here.” She scowls.
He holds his hands in the air in surrender. “Sorry. Please continue…”
“You’ve ruined it.”
“Well, this is just delightful,” Carter says as he saunters over the floor. He twists his fingers into Saint’s hoodie and drags him off the floor. “We’re leaving now.”
“But—”
“Out.” Carter’s gruff tone leaves no room for argument.
Saint glowers before shuffling across the floor.
He stops at the side of me, grabs Hendrix’s head and slams a kiss to the middle of it.
“Thank you for holding on, Rix,” he whispers, then he’s gone, Axel and Carter trailing after him.
Hendrix watches the door as it swings shut.
I palm her cheek and bring her face to mine.
She cups my cheeks and presses a sweet, warm kiss to my mouth.
“I set up a meeting with In Stasis in a couple weeks,” she says, draping her arms over my shoulders and threading her fingers together.
I brush my thumb over her cheek, my fucking heart skipping a beat. “Yeah?”
“Noah was very excited to get my call.”
“You’re gonna start writing again?”
“Yeah. I’m still gonna do some mixing on the side though,” she tells me, her lips trailing along my cheek. “I’ve heard there’s a band currently in need of a mixing engineer, so might as well use my expertise for good.”
Fucking Saint. “I told Saint not to ask you.”
“He didn’t.”
I hike a brow, pulling back an inch.
“Axel said something to Riles.”
I shake my head.
“Fucking big mouths, the lot of them.” I wrap my hand around her thigh, the other sinking into her hair. “What is going on with those two anyway? Axel is tight-lipped other than saying they’re friends.”
“They are friends.”
“Just friends?”
“For now.” Her eyes glitter, and my body vibrates at the sight.
Hendrix Moore has always been the most beautiful woman in the world. But Hendrix now, on my lap, in my studio, chasing the dreams we discovered sixteen years ago, is nothing short of breathtaking.
Fucking stars glittering, universe shattering, heart-racing beautiful.
A gritty guitar lick spills through the open door and wraps around us. My stomach swoops, my heart fucking soaring at the sound.
Our melody.
Our music.
Our legacy sweeping through these halls.
Hendrix laughs, the melodic sound sparking every inch of me.
I cup her cheeks and kiss her until she’s clinging to me, breathless.
And fuck if I’m letting her go this time.