Free Steady Beat by Lexxie Couper Page A

to the microphone. “It’s not switched on,” he said to her, grabbing the pole in his free hand and moving it aside. “But right here is the sweet spot for the space.” He turned her to face him, his gaze meeting hers. “Ready?”
    She blinked. “N-no music?”
    He smiled and shook his head. “Just your voice. Need to know what it’s like raw. That okay?”
    Pulse pounding in her ears, she nodded.
    His smile widened and he lowered his head, nudging his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry about the women.”
    She let out a wobbly breath. “Don’t be. I have no claim on you.”
    He brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “I’d like you to though.”
    She swallowed. Oh God, could she be falling for him? This quickly?
    “Forget about Strings and Jax and Levi,” he said when she didn’t utter a sound. “Just sing for me, babe.”
    And before she could answer, he dropped her hand and walked into the shadows of the room.
    Leaving her alone in the centre under one muted light.
    She drew a long slow breath. Closed her eyes. Thought of her dad.
    Thought of Noah’s lips on hers.
    And began to sing.
     
    Noah’s stomach clenched. His heart smashed into his throat. He tore his stare from the woman framed in the converted space’s warm golden light to stare at Samuel beside him.
    “Holy fuck,” he murmured. “Do you hear that?”
    Samuel didn’t answer.
    Noah shot Jax a quick look. “Can you hear that?”
    Jax didn’t answer either, his stare locked on Pepper.
    “Christ, Holden,” Levi spoke, his voice a scratching whisper. “What did you bring us?”
    Noah swung his stare back to Pepper, his whole body thrumming. Chills rippled up his spine, over his flesh. He’d never heard Nick Blackthorne’s words sung so beautifully.
    So tormentedly exquisite.
    Holy fuck, Pepper Kerrigan could sing.
    No, that was wrong. An understatement. Pepper Kerrigan had the voice of a goddess.
    She stood in the light’s muted beam, the words to “Whispers in the Night” flowing from her with such sublime power and haunting pain Noah could barely draw breath.
    Holy shit, why wasn’t she already a professional singer?
    “Fuck me,” Samuel murmured beside him, his stare locked on her. “I’ve never heard a voice like it.”
    Pepper continued to sing, the anguished words of love lost, of dreams and hopes destroyed filling the room. The band had rehearsed here every time they were in New York, but never once had the lyrics to “Whispers in the Night”—a song Noah always suspected Nick had written for his one true love—resonated so potently. Pepper’s voice rose above the silence of the space, rich and dynamic. She attacked the notes with haunting power, drawing on the depths of her chest in the song’s darkest moments, soaring with clarity and silken intonation on the lighter.
    “Jesus,” he breathed.
    His cock pulsed. His balls rose up. He stared at Pepper, his gut tight.
    Tight. His chest, his stomach, his groin. Tight and straining for the woman singing.
    “I don’t believe I’m saying this after the way I behaved,” Samuel muttered at his side, “but she’s…”
    Noah shot his friend a quick look, smiling at the shocked awe in Samuel’s voice. “That she is, mate. Want ice cream on that humble pie?”
    Samuel didn’t answer.
    Nor did anyone speak again until Pepper finished the song.
    The last chorus left her, soft and raw and so ripe with grief and heartache and longing a lump filled Noah’s voice. He stared at her, mesmerized.
    She was life and love and everything he wanted, and she’d come to him.
    He was never going to let her go.
    “And I want to beg but I can’t find the words,” she sang, eyes closed,
    “And I want to cry but I can’t find the tears
    And all that’s left is the shadow of your heart and the ghost of your smile
    And the whispers in the night.”
    The last line rung out, raw with broken dreams. She held the moment, commanding the silence with the memory of her voice.
    And