Interlude:
From The Heart
The moon shone through the curtains, and Dana shuffled quietly in her sleep. Brian stroked the top of her head, and listened to her rhythmic breathing... inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale... it was soothing. The black cotton of his sweatshirt was a startling contrast against her pale skin, and the light was reflecting over her smooth forehead. She looked beautiful, lying there vulnerable and small in the confines of the huge sweatshirt. It never ceased to fascinate him how Dana could look, and be, so sexy, yet fail to see it herself.
She stirred again, and then cuddled back down against his chest. Brian smiled faintly. Her hands slid behind his back, and Dana held him as a young child would hold a teddy bear. He closed his eyes, thinking. She was, essentially, a child. She'd never had an equal love, never really been treated properly by another guy, and lost her brother at a young age. Her memories of men, Brian decided, were less than good. She was young, and innocent. True he was no better, but he had the experience of the music business, and that cut innocent out of his repertoire. His three years age on her removed young too, relatively of course. 'God,' Brian whispered to himself, a wry grin coming across his face. 'I sound like a Dad.'
DDana mumbled absently, her words muffled by Brian's tee shirt and the thick cotton of her sweatshirt.
Brian jerked to attention, examining Dana to see if she was awake.
She made a few sounds, and murmured some incoherent words.
He quickly confirmed she was rambling in her sleep, and sighed patiently. Brian waited to see if she would say anything else. When she was silent, he drifted back into his thoughts. They could talk for hours about anything and everything. Brian had told Dana things that even Nick didn't know. Brian didn't know why he was so comfortable with her, or how she could smile and he would spill his heart, but he knew he liked it. It was relaxing, frightening, liberating and confining all in the same heartbeat. To let someone have so much emotional power over him scared Brian very much, but it relieved him of every secret he'd ever known.
Tyk wandered past, paying absolutely no attention to Brian whatsoever, and flopped down next to a heating vent. Brian smiled again. Here he was, a guy who had seen the entire world, some parts more than once; he'd meet thousands of people and created hundreds of memories, and Brian's favorite memory by far was lying on his couch at three o'clock in the morning, with his girlfriend and his dog, no one in the world aware of what he was doing or who he was with.
++Chapter Seventeen++Chapter Index++Main Page++
