Home > HATE (Madison Kate #1)(46)

HATE (Madison Kate #1)(46)
Author: Tate James

He reached out and touched my face gently, stroking his finger down my cheek, then raising my chin up so I'd meet his eyes. "Don't even worry, MK. You can just make bloody marys instead."

Kody shot me a teasing wink, then turned back to his training session with Archer.

I shook my head, confused as hell with his behavior, then left the gym with the intense sensation of eyes on my back. Except these eyes didn't make my skin crawl and my anxiety spike. They just made me feel... seen.

Not wanting to be alone for any longer than necessary, I hurried through to the garage. All the lights were off inside, though, and I seriously doubted Steele worked on cars in the dark.

"Crap," I muttered to myself. He'd said he had work to do... maybe course work? I didn't even know what the guys were studying at SGU. Shows how much attention I paid to anything that didn't further my revenge plans.

Not wanting to return to the gym so soon, I made my way upstairs and knocked on Steele's bedroom door. He didn't answer immediately, and I started to walk away just before the door opened.

"Madison Kate?" he called out, his words shadowed with surprise.

I turned back around to face him, feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden. He had headphones looped around his neck, and his hair was mussed up. Had he been watching porn or something?

"Hey, uh, I was just..." I trailed off, biting my lip and feeling like a total idiot. I was still angry as hell at him for playing me at the fight and for telling his stupid friends all about it afterward. But... I'd enjoyed the time we'd spent together before making out in the bathroom. Okay, fine, that part too.

He arched a lopsided, understanding smile at me. "You got bored as hell watching those dickheads work out, huh?" I nodded sheepishly. "Well, you can come hang out in here, but I can't promise you'll be any less bored."

His cheeks tinted slightly as he said this, and my curiosity got the better of me.

"Why? What are you doing?" I stepped into his room as he held the door open, then realized I hadn't actually seen the inside of his bedroom before. "Ohhh, I see."

Against one wall he had a large desk with an expensive-looking keyboard sitting on top. Based on the sheets and sheets of music pages scattered across the rest of the desk, the floor, even on the bed, I could guess what he'd been doing.

"Make yourself at home," he invited me, waving to the bed. It was really the only place for me to sit, seeing as his desk chair was clearly where he'd been sitting. "I was just... messing around."

I shrugged, sitting awkwardly on the edge of his bed and trying really hard not to snoop around with my gaze. It was a pretty simple room, masculine in the use of dark wood and cool gray-blue tones. The walls just held a few framed pieces of ancient-looking sheet music, but that was it. No photos or awards or trophies or... really anything personal. But maybe that in itself spoke more truthfully to Steele's personality.

"How come you're not using the music room?" I asked him after I'd gawked at everything I could see. "There's a full-size grand piano down there."

He sat back down on his desk chair, rearranging some of the scattered papers and setting them aside. "Yeah, I know. But... here I can connect my headphones to the keyboard so that no one else hears me play."

That explained the wireless headphones around his neck. I was suddenly so damn curious to hear him play, though. He'd said his parents wanted him to become a concert pianist, so he had to be good.

"Can I?" I asked, blurting the question out without thinking it over first. "Hear you play, I mean."

He seemed startled, and I sort of expected him to say no. But then he gave a small nod and set his headphones aside. "Just... stay super quiet, okay? So I can pretend you're not there."

It was an interesting request for someone considering a career that depended on huge halls of people watching and listening. But what did I know? Maybe that was a normal thing for musicians.

Steele arched a brow at me, and I mimed zipping my lips. That seemed to satisfy him because he turned back to the keyboard and rested his fingers ever so softly on the keys.

He paused like that long enough that I worried he'd changed his mind about playing for me. But I was wrong.

From the very first notes he played, I was lost to his music.

He poured his entire fucking soul into the piece he played for me. All his emotions, his hopes and fears and desires. It was utterly spellbinding.

At some point I found myself shuffling up his bed and laying down with my head on his pillow, closing my eyes and just letting the raw energy of his song wash over me.

 

 

26

 

 

I don't know how long Steele played his keyboard for, but it felt like all night. I drifted in and out of sleep, but the soothing sound of his music lulled me., When morning came, all was quiet.

Quiet and warm.

I breathed a deep sigh, my nostrils filling with the scent of clean soap and underlying grease and petrol. Steele.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep here," I whispered, knowing he was there by the radiating warmth beside me. I didn't open my eyes or raise my voice above that soft whisper because I loved that moment suspended between sleep and waking. I never wanted to rush it.

Steele shifted, the sheets rustling. "I'm glad you did," he whispered back, his voice rough with sleep.

Neither one of us spoke again for an indefinite amount of time, just lying there dozing. We weren't touching, but our bodies were close enough that it was strangely intimate.

Sounds of people awake in the house, footsteps in the hallway and doors opening and closing, finally broke our bubble, and I flipped onto my back.

"What time is it?" I asked, turning my head to the side just enough to look at him through my lashes. My mascara was probably halfway down my face, and I was still in Bree's black sweater dress from yesterday, but at least I'd taken the boots off.

His gray eyes found mine, and a soft smile touched his lips. "Time to get up if you're planning on attending classes today."

I wrinkled my nose, but scrubbed a hand over my face and nodded. "Yep. Classes." I sat up with a mammoth effort and cringed when I felt the bird’s nest that my loose braids had turned into. "Don't you usually wake up at the crack of dawn to work out with the other two stooges?" I arched a brow at him, but my insult held no heat.

After tugging the hair ties from my braids, I ran my fingers through to loosen the strands out.

Tucking his arms under his head, he just gave me a slow grin. "Usually. But then I'd have missed seeing you like this."

I frowned. "Like what?"

Steele shook his head. "Never mind." He yawned, then climbed out of his bed. "Hey, seeing as I let you sleep in my awesome bed all night..." He trailed off, pausing near the door and shooting me an over the top pleading look.

"Yes...?"

"Will you make my coffee this morning? You don't understand how bad that shit Archer makes is." He looked pained at the thought of it, so I snickered a laugh and agreed as we both left his bedroom—him, to the bathroom the three guys shared, and me, back to my own room. The fact that I had the only en suite bathroom in this section of the house hadn't escaped my notice.

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