Hitting the Right Notes (7 page)

Darya leaned over and lightly kissed Eric’s lips. She could feel the surprised eyes of the cheerful couple.

Those two were definitely not going to sit back and watch, they also soon found each other in a passionate kiss – turning the lunch into an annoyingly romantic double date. She could do with some sweetness.

Let’s show who is the rockstar kisser here,
Darya dared herself. She was done being the new shy girlfriend. She winked at Ali and Margo accepting the challenge, and grabbing surprised Eric’s jaw into her hands, pulled him closer.

Eric could smell freedom in the wind. The countryside was beautiful and under different circumstances, he would love to drive around for hours to admire the view, but right now his only goal was to get to their destination as quickly as possible.

It was after the lunch that Darya came up with this brilliant idea to rent a cottage in the countryside and spend the weekend there. Probably it was the fear that Alison and Margo would not give them any privacy if they stayed in the city, or that endless calls from her assistant, who was asking her to get back to their business meetings, would stick.

It was already Friday and he had not even noticed it. Eric had lost the count of time since they had arrived in Milwaukee the night before the show. It felt like a whole life had passed since then.

Darya humming happily as she drove their rented car.

“It’s been a while since I have done something this reckless,” he said, stating the truth. Eric had been living an impossibly boring life since he had recovered after long years of anxiety and depression. He was feeling more secure living his life easily – no much stress, no unplanned steps. As long as things were under control, he knew he could handle them. Now, Darya’s appearance had changed his life again… As once had done DaYa the rock goddess…

“Why not? You’re so young! Life is meant to be fun,” there was pain in her voice when she spoke the words. Was Darya also thinking about the past as often as he did? “I don’t want to over-think about my life. I am happy the way I am. I would not want to be anyone else or anywhere else.”

“Nothing you regret?”

“A lot. But I am not going to think about it for the rest of my life. I’ve moved on.”

“Sounds easy,” Eric let out a nervous chuckle. She was now so easily talking about moving on and letting go of the past, as if it was not a huge deal, as if it had never been a story which had ruined more than one life!

Yet, here he was in a car with the woman of his dreams – able to reach for her every moment and kiss her and not be afraid that she would vanish once he woke up, because she was not in his dreams, but in real life.

The cottage was a tiny isolated construction. No other houses or cottages around – just the two of them surrounded by perfect nothingness. Eric felt a touch of unease as they entered it. Even a week ago if he was offered to spend a day with DaYa he would’ve agreed to give all of his life for that and move to an uninhabited island or an unknown planet or desert… Now, as they were in the middle of one, it was a bit creepy.

Darya, though, didn’t show any sign of unease. Even before placing the key into the lock she had made a big ceremony of turning her phone off and gave a promise not to turn it on until Sunday evening when they were to head back.

She had been jumping and screaming and enjoying the colorful pieces of home décor with so much joy, that Eric could thank the designer who had put all those mismatching colors into the tiny room, which was their living room.

“So, what shall we start with?” asked Eric trying to be the rational adult one in their newly formed couple. “Shall we go find a supermarket somewhere? Are you hungry?” What was one supposed to do when dating his dream star? Act as normal? Try to make them happy?

Darya, who was now admiring the extra colorful cottage, was nothing like the rock goddess he had thought her to be, but this little woman with so much energy and flaming hair was so adorable, that Eric probably could live with the disappointment…Or better, to say the stinging pain in his heart. Every single moment he wanted to scream that she had been so different, that he had watched each and every of her interviews countless times and she had never been someone to be so happy about the handmade colorful pillows. He was not going to talk about it. She didn’t want him to know who she was and he was going to play at that game with her. Anything she wanted – just to keep her close to him.

“How about we check the shower and then the bedroom?” She had changed into a very playful mood.

Oh my god, this woman is going to be the end of me… How am I going to survive this?
Eric knew he was blushing. Not that he had had enough experience with women during the thirty years of his life, but even if he had, he was sure he’d be lost in this woman’s eyes exactly in the same way he was now. Darya felt like a fire – insatiable, warm, intriguing and challenging.

“Shower sounds good,” he mumbled. At least that could help him ease some of the steam building inside of him. “You want to go first, while I’ll look for… towels?”

Darya laughed and grabbed his wrist in time to prevent him from fleeing the room.

“We are not going to need any towels, don’t you dare hope to hide from me.” Her eyes were burning with wildness. Eric knew if he looked into them for a bit longer, he was going to melt, but even if his life depended on it, he was never going to be able to tear his eyes off her.
Ever
.

Eric was silent and breathless as Darya walked to the shower, which was as colorful as all the other rooms. Darya quickly found some candles in the drawers with sweet fragrance. Probably such cottages were always rented by couples and the owners had prepared everything a romantic heart could dream about. Would he ever think that his tough rock star was going to be such a sweet romantic person? No, but as their clothes were peeled away and piled on the floor and the strings of warm water ran down his body, Eric’s mind stopped running comparisons between the reality and imagination.

All he could do was feel – feel those tender hands running up and down his body, feel the sensitive touch of her lips, feel the bewitching glare of her eyes.

Eric’s heart was so full with emotions; he was afraid it was going to burst out of his chest. Never had he ever desired a woman like this. Never had he ever been filled with so much contradicting emotions. Her body was so soft, so trusting. Every move Darya made, every deep breath she took was asking for one thing – to be loved. And Eric made love to her. At that moment he knew for sure – whoever this woman was, he was in love with her.

Eric’s body was a work of art. Darya loved exploring the hills and valleys of his chest.

He was shy and Darya felt like a real seductress. It had been a while since she had allowed herself to simply feel things. Right now, with Eric, she let her emotions and senses lead her body move as it wanted to, dancing while it listened to their heartbeats, worshipping the body of the young man, who was looking at her with awe and adoration in his eyes.

For the first time in many years, Darya had the sudden desire to sing while she was making love to Eric. Something felt so right. She knew she could turn into melody every touch of his fingers, every caress and silent sound he made. Darya wanted to be again the brave woman who loved to sing about everything she felt.

She paused and looked into his eyes. Eric panicked for a moment.

“Is anything wrong? Did I hurt you?” He asked through ragged breaths.

“No, my dear, no. I wanted to have a moment to admire you.”

Then he relaxed again and let her eyes feast on his beauty. Eric looked much younger than his actual age when he was open like this. Darya could see an adult who had managed to still preserve some of the most valuable qualities from his childhood, but on the other side he had had experienced pains and sufferings beyond his age. He was a strange mixture of ages, which made him seem ethereal – untouched by time; more than human age could ever mean.

Eric’s dark deep eyes were honest. She had not seen such eyes in years. Every man she had met after her breakup with Jay seemed shallow. Maybe it was only now that she could see a chance for her old wounds to recover. Maybe the long years of breakup after Jay had left her were not enough and she needed to be here and now, to feel the love pulsing through the veins of this young man to know there was a chance for her to start anew?

Darya put all of these emotions into every move her body made. She could not talk about the past, but she tried to show it to him through her body, tried to make his heart feel the unspoken words, which were coming from the deep hidden nooks of her fragile heart. For a moment, Darya knew that their hearts were beating as one – in perfect unison and synchrony – at that moment she was completely open to him.

As her body was caught in tormenting pleasure, Darya collapsed on top of Eric and in his arms she felt cherished and protected.

“I love you,” he whispered and she believed those words. She could feel the weight and depth of those words. They did not claim feelings developed within a day or two, but spoke of much older – untold and unrevealed history. She didn’t know where they were coming from, how this young man could have such deep feelings towards her or why she was to trust them, but she did with all her heart. Darya could not return the same depth of feelings to him just yet, so instead of feeding this moment with vain words she kept silent. She would cherish Eric’s confession as long in her heart as was needed for her to be able to return them to him. She gave that promise in silence and sealed it with a kiss.

Eric’s breathing evened and she knew he had fallen asleep. His face was peaceful, a lazy happy smile lingering on his lips. Sleep was not in a hurry to visit Darya that night – there was so much to think about – her hurried irrational steps – trapping herself with a man she had just met in a cottage in the middle of nowhere, being ready to abandon everything only because she believed there was some truth in the words this man spoke. She had been reckless; and if Darya had learned one single lesson from all of her four decades of life, that was the lesson which promised trouble every time she dared to open her heart to someone.

Lying in Eric’s arms, Darya was trying to understand whom she blamed and hated the most – Jay for ruining all her dreams and her faith in men, or Eric, who was now here trying to prove the opposite, to make her
feel
again.

Was there even such a thing as restored faith? Or was it a guaranteed failure from the start?

Darya knew she was a coward as she continued remembering every moment of her past failures. What in Eric’s arms triggered such thoughts was a mystery to her, but Darya felt betrayed by her own heart that she allowed herself trust his honest eyes and sincere words. A deep nagging feeling inside her would not silence and let her sleep – and she knew this was only calm before a storm. But what a pleasant calm!

This time it will be different
, Darya promised to herself. Sometimes she found it ironic that after years and years of disappointments she was still looking for a chance to believe and trust a person. Here was her perfect chance – lying next to her, sleeping peacefully and smiling in his dream.

A smile broke across Darya’s lips. What if she did want to trust him? What if all her worries were overreactions to her fears and all she needed to do was to put them all aside and simply live?!

Darya leaned over and placed a light kiss on his temple. Her eyes felt heavy and she finally allowed sleep to flow over her body and calm her storming thoughts. She couldn’t wait for tomorrow’s day, when she would wake up next to him.

The smell of freshly brewed coffee nurtured Darya’s nostrils and caused her eyes to slowly open. In the tiny cottage one could hear every sound. And now, she could swear a whole army had invaded their kitchenette and were either making war or breakfast. She was tempted to get up and go see what he was doing, but her lazy eyes closed again. She felt like a cat, who was so happy, that all she wanted was cuddle and purr.

A kiss woke her up again.

“I don’t know how you like your coffee. Sweet? With milk? Cinnamon?” he asked holding a huge mug of fresh coffee, which immediately filled the bedroom with its scent.

Darya was almost tempted to tell him about her favorite breakfast – chocolate croissant with beer, but decided to maintain her image in his eyes for now.

“No sugar if we have any sweets for breakfast.”

“We do. I drove to the nearest supermarket in the morning.”

“
My hero
.”

“I could feel the weather was going to get worse, so I thought it was better to do the shopping while you were sleeping.” He explained with such adorable enthusiasm in his voice.

“You can feel the weather? Is that a superpower of something?” She had meant it as a joke, but Eric’s expression suddenly grew sad – there was so much more hidden behind those deep dark eyes so many concealed emotions…

“It’s… um…I am pretty sensitive to such things. My body reacts to it… I…Can I explain it later, please?”

“Sure, babe, relax.” She tried to sooth him, ease the thoughts that had been tormenting him. No matter what he was hiding from her, Darya knew he was doing his best to make this moment amazing for her and she promised to herself to wait until he would be ready to open up to her. How could she judge him, if she was hiding her own secrets in every corner of her past?

“So, coffee and a croissant?”

“And another kiss, please,” she added. She loved being lazy. It was something Darya didn’t afford herself often, but Eric somehow inspired her to pursue all her guilty desires.

“Always.” His kiss was tender and caring; his lips had found treasure and were so careful touching it. Darya’s naughty tongue invaded his mouth and all the innocence of the kiss was gone turning it into a passionate declaration of desire. “This was the reason we skipped the dinner last night…” Eric tried to protest between the kisses. He had managed to place the coffee mug a relatively safe distance from them.