Rhythm of My Heart

conflicting emotions.

She could spend the rest of her life standing here, content to watch him perform. At the same time she knew this would never be enough for her. Because now that she’d experienced his music in person, she wanted more from Zachary.

She wanted everything. His music, his tempo, his dedication… His heart. She wanted him with a compulsion that shook her to the core.

Her heart pounded so hard it took a few seconds to realize it was the only beat she now heard. Zachary sat on his throne, drumsticks in hand, staring at her.

“Th-that was stunning.” Words could never adequately describe how his playing affected her.

He shrugged. “Just messing around.” His words were light, his eyes were not. They were heavy-lidded and dark, and his gaze was hungry.

“Feel free to continue messing around. Don’t stop for me.”

He turned his attention back to playing and rapped on a drum again, just once. “Can’t do it, Tiny.”

“Can’t do what?”

“Play when you’re looking at me like that.”

She couldn’t help it, couldn’t not look at him like she was. She closed her eyes. “That better?”

“No. I have a massive erection, and playing my drums is not going to help me lose it.”

“Your playing is incredibly arousing.”

“It’s not the drums that have me aroused. Not the music either.”

Her breasts swelled, her nipples tightening. She opened her eyes again, found his gaze centered on her, hungrier than before. “Pacey?”

“Yeah?”

She recalled what he’d said last night about his other talent with his sticks, and her belly seemed to flip upside down. “You don’t really do that with your drumsticks, do you?”

“Oh yeah, beautiful. I really do.”

He held her gaze for just a second too long, and the air between them filled with a deafening silence. So silent, Eve feared Zachary would hear her heart pounding.

She crossed one leg over the other, squeezing her thighs together, but that only increased the ache and the throbbing. “Ouch.”

The drummer blinked. “Ouch?”

“Ouch,” she concurred, then explained in detail, “Splinters.” Yeah, actually, no. Splinters were the furthest thing from her mind.

Zachary chuckled hoarsely. “Splinters?”

“Believe me, no one wants to get splinters down there.” Her throat felt like sandpaper.

“The sticks are varnished. No fear of splinters there.”

“And your unvarnished ones?”

“I choose my tools carefully, oh, cautious one.” The air snapped and shimmered. “You know, I could make you come without laying anything more than my varnished tools on you.”

Eve blinked. “Prove it.” Her belly tumbled once more, this time in anticipation.

His voice had dropped, the deep baritone coming out soft and low, like a rumbled caress. “It’ll be my pleasure. And yours. Step closer.”

She did. Walked over until all that separated them were his drums and cymbals. She placed her hands on one of the drums and leaned forward. “Can’t get closer than this.”

“Close enough. For now.”

Jonah tapped his foot once, the rise and drop of his knee the only clue that he’d moved. That, and the reverberation through the drums as a low, soft boom echoed through the foyer.

The sound vibrated through her arms and down her body. She jerked in surprise. “Wh-what are you doing?”

“Proving a point.” And his drum boomed again, a little harder.

This time the vibrations hit not only her arms, but her lower body as well, where it was pressed against the drum. The sound and feel echoed through her hips and groin.

She blinked.

Zachary smiled a knowing smile.

“Zach—”

“Shh. Just feel the beat.”

He began to play then, continually, a soft, sexy beat. Slow and seductive.

She tried to concentrate. Tried to identify the song but in the end gave up. The vibrations shivering through her made thinking too difficult.

The tempo was hypnotic, and Eve closed her eyes, letting it draw her in, letting her heart pick up the rhythm of the sound and pulse in time with it. But it wasn’t just the music that caught her. It was the movement of the drum. The gentle, ongoing throb. It wasn’t just her heart pulsing. Her groin pulsed too. Each beat shuddered through her pussy, a gentle tap against her clit. Or maybe it was around her clit, or under. No, the tap seemed to surround it, surround her whole groin.

The slow, steady vibration that had begun as a pleasant beat soon changed, increasing in tempo. Her pussy pulsated harder, and she clenched, realizing, almost belatedly, how arousing the rhythm had become.

A heartbeat in her pussy, stimulating, teasing.

She opened one eye and looked at him, stunned. “Za—”

“Uh-uh, Eve. Not one word. Close your eyes.”

She obeyed, speechless as moisture pooled between her legs. On some level she tried not to let go, not give herself over to the sweet harmony of Zachary’s drums, but on another level, a deeper one, she knew she didn’t stand a chance. She shifted closer, pushing herself harder against the drum.

He rewarded her by playing a little harder, a little faster.

The contented sigh that escaped her lips melded with the sound of percussion in the air around her.

And then the beat changed, slowed. Rather than a cacophony of sounds and taps, only two remained. One deep and steady, the other lighter, from the drum she rested against.

Before she could question it, something tickled down the front of her shirt. A soft whisper from her throat to her waist.

She tugged heavy lids open.

Zachary’s arm was stretched toward her, and as she watched, he drew his drumstick up again, this time tracing the outline of her breasts.

Her breath caught.

“You’re very beautiful when you’re aroused.” The tip of the drumstick found her nipple, circled it in a whispered caress.

She hardly noticed. Zachary’s brown eyes had darkened. They held her spellbound.

“The way your lips part, and the tip of your tongue wets the lower one?” His gaze dropped to her mouth. “Sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

His drumstick drifted over to her other nipple.

Eve’s chest felt heavy, as though her breasts had swelled beneath his attention. Her nipples were stiff beads of pleasure, and each sweep of the stick over them made her tingle.

“It makes me want to know how those lips would feel around my shaft, how your tongue would wet my cock.”

Eve swallowed at the image he painted. It made her want to wrap her lips around his shaft, lick him from root to tip.

“Here’s what I need you to do, Tiny.” He stroked the tip of one stick up her chest and neck, and traced her mouth with it.

How he kept the touch so gentle, so erotic, Eve had no idea. Years of experience with his sticks was her only answer.

“Lose the skirt. Get rid of it. Good as you look in it, and…” He stopped, cleared his throat. “And you do look