Free Encore (Stereo Hearts Book 2) by Trevion Burns Page A

powerful I become, the more powerful you become. One day, after a lot of hard work and dedication, Simon is going to wake up and realize I’m in charge. Too famous to push around. Too big to control. Too big to move. And when that day comes…” He took her arm and forced her to look at him, waiting until he had her full attention. “When that day comes… When I’m in charge? I’ll give you everything you ever wanted. You’re up front with me. You’re on stage next to me. You’re singing beside me, not behind me. You’ll have your own album. Your own followers. Your own singing career.”
    “The black girl with the eye patch is going to have her own album and her own singing career. In America.” She chuckled. “Sure.”
    He cupped her cheeks and shook softly, unable to speak. Still frowning, his shoulders softened, and he tried to remove the round glasses from her face.
    She brushed his hand away.
    He took the brush-off, holding his hands up while giving her a look. A second later, he reached for the glasses again, and that time she allowed him.
    He let the frames fall to the floor, swallowing hard, licking his lips as his gaze latched onto the icy blue eye that she never showed in public. He ran the pad of his thumb along the skin under that eye, letting his other hand fall to her waist, squeezing so tight it was almost painful.
    Aria fell back against the wall, and when he moved with her she pressed against it until her entire body was flush.
    He leaned in, brushing the tip of his nose against hers.
    “Is this really how you want your legacy to begin?” she whispered.
    “My legacy has already begun.” His voice lowered. “When I walked into that house in Brooklyn, seven years old and alone, looked across the room, and saw you sweeping the kitchen floor? When you looked up and smiled at me? When you whispered in my ear that I should meet you on the roof to watch the solar eclipse? That is when my story began. Not a second sooner. Not a second later.” His eyes grew vulnerable. “I keep you, and you keep me. Right?”
    “Yoshi….”
    “Come with me, Aria.”
    She flashed back to the first time he’d whispered those very words to her, on that Brooklyn roof five years ago. She could still see his face back then, a little younger, a little fresher, with the kind of innocent gleam that could only exist before The White Keys got its claws into him. But his eyes, she noticed, were still exactly the same. The only facet of him that hadn’t found themselves a little darker, a little grittier, a little more tainted by the crazy new world they were immersed in.
    When she found herself unable to look away from his hazel orbs, sure they were turning green the closer he leaned in, Aria gasped in a breath.
    “One,” Yoshi whispered.
    She swallowed thickly, taking his vest in a fist and tugging, gnawing her bottom lip so strongly she nearly drew blood. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came, and when his hard stomach brushed against hers, sealing her to the wall, she knew they never would.
    Yoshi reached up and pulled the newsboy cap off her head, throwing it across the room before reclaiming her cheek. “Two…” He raised his eyebrows and took her waist in both hands, tightening his hold as he whispered. “Three—”
    “ Three .” Aria put her hands on his chest and pushed him back, finding her bearings in the nick of time, just as his lips were a breath from hers.
    His hold on her waist didn’t relent though, so her push didn’t take him far. He was back on her in moments, holding one arm on the wall over her head. His other arm encircled her waist, tugging her in. Their pelvises crashed and he leaned close, letting her feel every inch of him—even the parts he’d never dared until that moment—searching her gaze.
    Their chests were frozen, and the only sound that had filled the air a moment earlier—their strangled breathing—ebbed away, leaving them in complete silence.
    Then, Yoshi