“You did great, Noah,” she said enthusiastically.
He smiled proudly, “I know!”
Karina laughed, and Noah chattered on, “I saw my Dad and my brother both taking tons of pictures of me! They'll put them into my scrapbook!”
Karina smiled and ruffled his hair, “And deservedly so. You were magnificent!”
He smiled and called out his thanks behind him as he scampered off to find Amanda and share his victory with her.
She saw Ryan take a deep breath, and she reached out and grabbed his hand as Kyle Austen Reed stepped up to the mic, clipboard in hand.
“Here we go!” she whispered, and he surprised her by leaning down and giving her a quick but passionate kiss on the lips before facing forward to listen to his introduction.
The thundering applause which had been a staple of every single appearance of Kyle Austen Reed on the Hope Falls High School Auditorium stage that evening died down, and he stepped up to the mic.
“Thank you, thank you,” he said sincerely, “Again, I'm Kyle Austen Reed. And I want to thank you for being the best audience I've ever had the honor of appearing before. That's the truth. I don't say that lightly. I certainly don't say it to every crowd that I speak in front of.”
Karina rolled her eyes. She had personally heard him use that exact line on over a dozen occasions, and couldn't imagine that the crowd would take it seriously. However, they proved her wrong by erupting in a wave of cheers, applause, whoops and hollers that put all of their previous efforts of the night to shame. Kyle encouraged it by stepping back from the mic and hanging his head slightly, in a performance of modesty. He then gestured dramatically back at the audience, as if confirming that, indeed, THEY were the ones who deserved all the credit. Much to Karina's chagrin, they ate it up with a spoon.
When the raucous cheering at last quieted, Kyle stepped back to the mic, quickly and subtly consulting the clipboard. She knew this trick, it was an old acting technique, and she had seen Kyle use it on more than one occasion. It was actually an impressive skill, and she did give him credit for it.
He had trained himself, like many actors do, to glance at a piece of paper and memorize a chunk of the text written on it, usually about two or three sentences in length, pretty much instantaneously. In this way, actors at auditions could do cold reads (auditioning with material they had never seen before) while still emoting directly towards the casting agents or into the camera, with only the briefest glances down at the papers they were reading from to get the next few lines.
It also came in handy in situations like Kyle Austen Reed now found himself in, because he could introduce the acts without looking as if he were reading about them from a paper. He could look like he had really taken the time to learn all about each of these people.
When it comes to acting, Karina reflected, it's like the wise man once said. It's all about sincerity. Once you learn to fake that, the rest is easy.
“Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have to be honest with you about this next act. We've really saved the best for last. Ryan Jackson Perkins is not only incredibly talented, but also a close personal friend of mine...”
Ryan shot Karina a puzzled look, and started to ask a question, but Karina anticipated it and replied with a shake of her head before he could even voice the words, “It's no big deal. He was introduced to you earlier tonight, and you were standing with me - someone he knows. In Hollywood-speak, that makes you close personal friends.”
“Ok, but how does he know my middle name?”
Karina shrugged, “I don’t know, he must have asked Sue Ann. But coming from Kyle Austen Reed, I would consider the fact that he is using it a compliment.”
Ryan looked skeptical, but turned his attention back to the stage.
“You know him from his many shows at Sue Ann's Cafe, and it's my pleasure to be the one to welcome him to the Hope Falls Town Follies stage tonight. Please put your hands together for Hope Falls' own, a true rising star, Ryan Jackson Perkins!”
Ryan strode confidently out on stage to rousing applause, and Karina was surprised to find herself clapping and cheering with the rest of the crowd. She normally wasn't a very outwardly demonstrative person, but Ryan really brought out that side of her, and she had to admit...it felt natural, and real. She liked it.
When Ryan reached the center of the stage and stepped up to the mic, Kyle Austen Reed stood behind him and clapped him on both shoulders as if they really were the best of friends. The applause naturally started up again, and Ryan looked as if he'd never felt happier or more at home than in front of a crowd.
Ryan began speaking into the mic, and the crowd immediately hushed so as not to miss a word.
“Thank you all so much,” he said, sincerely, “I wouldn't be up here tonight without your support. And I also want to thank a very good friend of mine, from the bottom of my heart. She played a big role in my standing before you right now, and she's very special to me because of that, and many other reasons."
“And, you know, this person said something really meaningful to me tonight, that I really took to heart. She told me that if you live and breathe the stage, if it's in your blood, that means that anytime there is a crowd and a mic and an opportunity to perform, you jump at it.”
Karina began to see where this was going, and she stiffened. But at the same time, she couldn't help the small smile that was playing around her lips as she said to herself, “Well played, Ryan. Well. Played.”
“That's why I know she won't mind me calling her out here on stage to perform with me tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for my friend and yours, Karina Blackstone!”
Karina's breath caught in her throat. She had never, not once in her life, been announced to the stage with her real name. It was a surprisingly affecting experience. She felt her heart swell as she walked out onstage, waving at the crowd.
This was all too wonderful. She was in her hometown, performing to a hometown crowd, and walking across the stage toward the man she had no doubts she was beginning to fall in love with. She felt that this was what life was meant to be, and she couldn't imagine anything better.
Her gaze and attention were so laser-locked on Ryan that she barely even noticed when Kyle Austen Reed bussed her cheek as they crossed onstage, him heading to the wings, her heading to mic. She couldn't see anything but Ryan.
She stepped up next to him, leaned into the mic, and called “Hey, there Hope Falls!”
When yet another wild round of applause died down, Ryan leaned up and said, “If you don't mind, I'd like to share with you a tune that Karina and I worked up the other night. It's brand new. You'll be the first people to hear it, actually, other than the two of us...”
“So, be kind!” Karina joked, and the crowd chuckled.
“It's about that thing that happens when you first meet someone, and sparks start to fly. And you only want them to see the best side of you. But more than that, you start to only want to BE the best side of you, and you find yourself becoming a better person because of them...”
“It's what we lovingly refer to as the Honeymoon Phase,” Karina interjected, and the crowd again chuckled.
She and Ryan looked at each other, and she felt sparks so intense that they actually knocked her back a half a step.
Ryan smiled that sweet, enigmatic smile of his, and said, “It's called Love Is The Key and we hope you enjoy it.”
With that, he began strumming the familiar melody that they had created on the night of the tryouts. She watched his face, as mesmerized as the audience members who had never heard the song before, as he sang the first verse. She was grateful for her pitch-perfect musical memory, which enabled her to almost effortlessly remember the lyrics, melodies, and rhythms of songs once she had memorized them initially. She understood even as it was happening that her performance this evening could not be attributed to concentration or focus, because she had none. She was completely caught up in the moment.
She fe
lt herself coming in on the chorus, as she should – lending her voice to Ryan's, harmonizing, their voices rising and falling together. They blended together seamlessly, combining to create a sound more beautiful by magnitudes than either of their admittedly already lovely voices were on their own.
Then, during the second verse, when she was singing alone, she realized that this performance felt different than any she'd done in the past for yet another reason. She was performing a song about falling in love, which she'd written with someone she was falling in love with, and she was singing directly to that person she was falling in love with.
There had never been another performance of her life which had been as raw, as real, as TRUE as this one, perfect song with Ryan was.
Then, almost before she knew it, she heard their two voices, in flawless harmony, holding out the final note of the song. She heard Ryan strum the final chord. She heard the music fade away, and she felt herself swept up in the emotion of the room as the entire auditorium burst into screams and cheers.
In a far corner of her mind, she realized that the entire audience had risen to their feet, that they were whistling, stomping, and clapping for all they were worth. She was barely aware of their chant of, “Ryan! Karina! Ryan! Karina!” and only vaguely realized that Kyle Austen Reed had taken the mic and was closing the show.
All of these things, while they registered in some far back corner of her consciousness, seemed as if they were taking place a world away, in a parallel universe that only had the tiniest thread of connection to her own.
She, in that moment, was completely and utterly wrapped up in her own world, a world which only had room for herself and one other person.
Karina Blackstone, who had only ever had eyes for the cheering crowd, at this moment only had eyes for Ryan Perkins.
Chapter 11
Ryan was flushed with excitement, and energy, and didn't feel as if he'd ever come down. Performing with Karina tonight was a high the likes of which he had never felt. Mind, body, and soul – all of these felt completely wrapped up in this new and thrilling sensation.
He hadn't been able to stop talking to Karina about it. All night long, first backstage, then at the after-party that Henry had put on at the community center, and even now as they unlocked his office door in the back of the cafe to lock up the money collected from the show.
He realized that he must sound like a yammering broken record, but he really could not help himself. He was so hyped up on adrenaline and new experience he just couldn't shut up about it. Luckily, she didn't seem to be tiring of hearing him re-hash the experience, in fact, she seemed nearly as excited as he was.
Finally, he took a break from talking and laughed at himself.
“Man, to someone as experienced with performing as you are, I must sound like a total idiot,” he said self-deprecatingly.
“No you don’t! It was fantastic! It felt almost as new for me as it felt for you, I swear!” she exclaimed sincerely.
He turned the dial of the safe combination, opened the door, and put the cash box inside.
When he turned around to start talking to Karina again, his eyes widened in surprise at what he saw. She stood in front of him in only her bra, panties, and mile-high stilettos. A lock of her lustrous black hair fell over her shoulder, brushing the curving mound of her magnificent breast on that side. For some reason, his vision locked there.
Although the entire picture of a near-naked Karina before him was spectacular, for some reason he could not tear his gaze from the place where that shiny, soft curl just barely touched the top of her firm, round breast.
His breath caught in his throat and he felt himself starting to get hard. His brain seemed to short circuit, and he was left to the mercy of his sensory input. As if in a trance, he reached out and brushed that small curl away from her delicate cleavage, which was now heaving as her breath quickened.
His fingertips traced the side of that gorgeous fleshy mound, now encased only in flimsy black lace, and he felt her quiver under his light touch. He liked that. He liked that he had the power to make her shiver, to play her like he played his guitar, to have the flesh of her body respond to his slightest touch in the same way that the strings of that instrument did.
When his fingertips reached the bottom of her lacy bra, he brought his palm up and cupped the underside of her breast, taking her nipple – still encased in its lace binding – between his thumb and forefinger and manipulating it until it stood at attention.
He heard Karina moan, and the sound brought him back to himself, suddenly, in a snap.
This wasn't part of the plan. No matter how connected they felt, sleeping with her only a few weeks after meeting her held no part of a traditional courtship, in his opinion. It wasn't how he operated, and it wasn't respectful.
He caught his shuddering breath.
“No,” he whispered, “Not here. Not now. Not like this.”
Ryan tried to slip past her out of the office, but she moved quickly so that her body was blocking his path.
“Oh, yes,” she whispered seductively, pressing her body up against his, “I think this is going to happen right here...”
With that she reached behind her and unfastened her bra, letting it slip from her shoulders, giving him a complete, breathtaking view of her magnificent, full breasts. They were smooth and caramel colored, just like the rest of her glowing skin, and they were tipped with hard, dime-sized, chocolate brown nipples.
“...I think this is going to happen right now...” she continued softly.
With that statement, she took both of his hands in hers and placed them on her heaving mounds, molding his fingers to cup them, and arching her back to grind her nipples into his palms.
“...and I think this is going to happen exactly like this,” she concluded huskily.
With that final statement, she undid his fly in one swift movement, and slid her hand inside his boxers. With a firm, confident grip, she took hold of his shaft and began slowly stroking it, in rhythm with the way she was grinding her breasts against his palms.
His whole body shuddered, and he passed the point of no return. He forgot about trying to avoid this situation. She wanted him to make love to her, and he was going to do exactly that.
Karina had spoken, and his body had voiced its agreement. Ryan’s conscience had been out voted two-to-one. So he gave himself over to the opinion of the majority, and decided since this was going to happen, he would surrender himself to it with everything he had.
He gripped her wrist firmly and pulled her hand out of his pants. He could see by the disappointment that flashed in her eyes that she thought he was going to put a stop to the whole thing, but he was so far past thinking about stopping that he barely remembered ever wanting to.
Rather, he raised her hand up and, looking directly into her eyes the entire time, he slipped her fingers inside his mouth one by one, swirling his tongue around each one in turn, and suckling them. Then he licked her palm, getting plenty of moisture onto it.
Never letting go of her wrist, he used his other hand to swiftly push his jeans and boxers down around his knees, at which point he slipped off his shoes and stepped out of them, as well as his pants and undershorts.
Without breaking eye contact still, and without loosening his grip on her wrist, he moved her hand back down to his now fully erect penis, wrapping her slick fingers around it.
He leaned his head in close to hers, until their foreheads were touching and they were looking into each other's eyes from only the tiniest of distance, and then he intensely and softly barked out just one word, and it was clear it was an order.
“Faster.”
Her breath had been completely suspended throughout this entire ritual, but when she heard him say this, it rushed out of her in a gasp of pleasure. She began stroking him up and down, pausing only every four or five strokes to run her wet palm over the head and change the angle of her grip.
As she did this, Ryan slipped his t-sh
irt over his head and then roughly pulled her panties down her legs to her knees, where she followed his lead and stepped out of them.
He straightened, and she could see by his facial expression, as well as the sweat building on his forehead, that he was greatly enjoying her ministrations.
He reached out and took her nipples in between each thumb and index finger, rolling them back and forth, teasing them to the very height of their potential. She was absolutely sure that her nipples had never been bigger, or harder, or experienced as much sheer pleasure as they were right now, under the titillating care of Ryan's fingers.
Their foreheads were pressed together, and they still stared into each other’s eyes as they gave each other pleasure. Karina didn't think she'd ever felt such an intense connection with a human being.
Ryan covered her mouth with his, his tongue slipping past her lips exploring her mouth like she was a precious treasure. As soon as his tongue met hers a desire rose up in her like she had never known before. Karina wanted more, more kissing, more touching, more Ryan.
Sensing Karina’s urgency Ryan slid one hand firmly down her belly, coaxing her thighs apart when he reached the apex between her legs. As she moved her legs further apart, she started to step out of her heels, but Ryan broke their kiss and commanded, softly but in a voice that brooked no argument, “No. Leave them on.”
Karina slipped her foot back into her high-heeled shoe, and her entire body thrilled at being controlled, being ordered, being told precisely what to do.
If it had come from anyone but Ryan – a man that she trusted so completely and that she knew respected her, mind, body and soul – there was no telling how she would have taken it. This was a first for Karina; she had always been in complete control of all of her sexual encounters.
But coming from Ryan? It aroused her more than she could remember ever having been aroused in her life.
Ryan slid his hands between her legs, running his fingers lightly up and down the wet folds of her core.
“I see you like this,” he said, a wicked smile on his face.
Sweet Harmonies Page 12