When Juliet had emerged from her bedroom, her hair deliciously tousled and finally looking fully rested, she had been stunned at the sight of the food he had ordered. “I could have cooked,” she told him as he handed her a plate and silverware. Dan had shrugged, taking his own plate and leading Juliet to the dining room table.
“I couldn’t have, and I figured it would be nice for you to wake up to some delicious food, instead of having to cook something.” He was a notoriously bad cook, apart from making breakfast. He could manage eggs and pancakes and bacon-anything more than that and he was at a loss.
Dan smiled to himself, thinking that he’d enjoy cooking breakfast for Juliet in the morning. In the meantime, he feasted his eyes on her, taking in the improvements that full rest had made in her. He had watched TV while she slept, and when that had palled, he had begun writing a song-one inspired by his host.
He could hear the tune in his head, but he would wait until he was back among his brothers to work on the melody-or at least, until he was away from Juliet. He wanted it to be a surprise for her, assuming things went well.
Dan sat at the sound board, watching Juliet in the vocal booth. She had gotten dressed as soon as she finished eating, and it hadn’t been easy for him to restrain himself from picking her up and carrying her back into the bedroom; she was wearing black, tight-fitting corduroy pants and a dark green tee shirt that set off her dark hair and olive complexion perfectly.
The cords were held up by a pair of black suspenders that only served to emphasize her curvy figure- particularly her full breasts. She had left her hair down, but now that she was in the vocal booth, she smoothed it back, her small, deft hands twisting and wrapping it into a bun that she skewered with a pencil after securing it with an elastic.
He cued up the track they were working on; it was his favorite time of the evening, after the main staff of any studio typically went home. It was a time for messing with arrangements, getting creative, trying new things.
He sat back in his seat, preparing to listen critically. One of the skills he had cultivated through years of working in the musical industry was to separate his affection for a performer from his judgment of their performance. It was for this reason as much as anything else, he knew, that Juliet had asked for his help. She could trust him to tell her when something wasn’t working.
She caught the cue, and began to sing. Dan didn’t have the lyrics memorized yet; he was listening for the overall feeling, the tone of her vocals. She got through the pass, and Dan leaned into the intercom mic. “Try singing that second part one step higher in the verse,” he suggested.
“Like this?” She considered a moment and then he heard her singing the part; it still wasn’t quite right.
“Drop it a third.” She tried it again. “Perfect.” He re-cued the track and listened to Juliet as she hit the section, nailing the part this time. He smiled to himself, calling her into the control room to listen to it.
She sat down next to him and he played it back; he caught himself watching her more than he was paying attention to the recording, and pushed his mind back onto the matter at hand. He liked to watch her when she had the particular abstracted look on her face that meant she was focused on something. There was something beautiful in the slight tension at her brow, at the distant look in her eyes as every part of her listened.
“What do you think?” he asked her when the track finished. She sat back, still with that abstracted look on her face for a moment.
“I like it.” She hummed to herself, slightly higher than the vocal she had just recorded, and Dan knew that she was finding the harmony she would add in, shaping the fabric of the sound she wanted.
“Want to work on the harmonies?” he asked. He wanted to keep things as businesslike as possible, but he was distracted.
“Sure. We can set a delay and do a few passes with playback in the booth.” Dan nodded and watched Juliet’s small, capable hands dancing across the boards, setting a delay of ten minutes on the system.
She picked up a timer and spun out of the chair, heading into the vocal booth; he followed right behind her. “Let’s just try the first one naturally, and see what we get-then we tweak from there.” Dan nodded, putting on a headset and listening for the playback. He listened to the warm tone of Juliet’s lead-in and found his note, joining in on the chorus.
The night wore on and both of them gradually became giddy-between caffeine and natural fatigue, they were cracking each other up. They had moved into the live room and started work on the percussion for one of the tracks, and finally they ended up back in the control room, listening to what they had recorded. Dan kept glancing at the huge, worn couch that Juliet had apparently slept on before he had arrived.
“Let’s take a break,” he suggested, feeling like his jeans were uncomfortably tight. He had stolen a few moments as they had worked to kiss her neck-had pulled her into his arms in the vocal booth and sealed her lips during the recording delay, making a little game of it to see how quickly they could both recover. There was no one in the studio; even the cleaning crew would be gone for the night.
Dan guided Juliet over to the couch, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her deeply. He knew he should wait until they were back at the house, but he had been holding himself back for hours. Every time he had kissed her had been like adding coals to the fire of his lust for her.
Every time she had stretched, exposing just a tiny slice of tattooed skin above the waistband of her low- slung corduroys, he had forced himself to look away rather than put his hands all over her-which was what he had really wanted. Juliet broke away from the kiss, looking up at him with a faint smile on her lips.
“Oh, this is going to be
“No one to disturb us,” he observed, cupping her full breasts and teasing them through her bra. “And isn’t it a little thrilling to be doing this in a studio?” He raised an eyebrow, kissing her lightly. Juliet giggled.
“It is, actually. I’ve never fooled around in a studio before.” Dan dropped his lips down from her mouth and found her throat, nipping and kissing her sensitive skin. Juliet moaned softly, tilting her head back to give him better access. Dan closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of her warm body and the perfume she used, his hands moving back down to the hem of her tee shirt. He pulled it up, breaking away from her neck to bring it over her head.
He let it fall at their feet and smiled, looking down at her; she was wearing a black satin bra, and he wondered-in the part of his mind still capable of thought-if her panties matched.
He reached around to Juliet’s back and undid the clasp, gently working the bra away from her skin and letting it join her shirt. His hands went immediately for her breasts and he began teasing her nipples, loving the sound of her moans as they swiftly hardened under his touch; he even heard the hitch in her breath that signaled her arousal.
“God, do you have any idea how fucking hot you are?” he murmured, leaning in to kiss the base of her throat before brushing a path down past her collarbones, kissing every inch of her breasts before bringing one of her nipples to his mouth and sucking it.
“Oh-oh, Dan,” Juliet purred, leaning up onto the balls of her feet and arching into his mouth. Dan smiled to himself; he had wanted for years to hear her moan his name. He felt greedy-he wanted to hear her moan it over and over, wanted to hear her scream it, even.
He wanted to feel her writhing with pleasure she couldn’t contain. He switched from one nipple to the other, sucking, licking, and even playfully nibbling the sensitive nubs until she was trembling in his arms, pulling at his shirt with hands made clumsy by need.
He pulled his shirt over his head and crushed her body against his, claiming her mouth again. He was so hard, his cock was aching with need, throbbing from desire. He fell onto the couch with Juliet on top of him, taking in the feel of her curves as he worked his way down to the waistband of her pants.
“I need you,” he whispered, unbuttoning and unzipping her cords. Juliet smiled against his lips and wriggled out of the tight pants, somehow managing to remain on top of him. Dan reached down between their bodies and cupped her pussy; he couldn’t see but felt the material of her panties was the same as the bra material-and it was already wet.
Dan felt Juliet’s hands on the waistband of his jeans and he smiled, bringing his hands up to push the fabric down off of his hips. He squirmed, trying to get out of his clothes without Juliet having to get up.
When they were both in their underwear, Dan grabbed at Juliet’s hips, pushing them down even as he thrust up, pressing their bodies together. Through the thin barrier, he could feel the heat of her body and Dan moaned,
