I spun her around just as the music came to an end. Her back collided into my chest and my hands landed on her hips, keeping her trapped against me. My gaze slid over the back of her slender neck and I saw the way the tip of her ears pinkened.
“You’re a fucking thorn, Julianna.”
“We’ve established that,” she said coyly.
The guests clapped, and I grasped her hand in mine, guiding her away from the dance floor. My father came forward, bringing everyone’s attention to him. The sound of a spoon clinking against his champagne flute brought a hush to all conversations. Silence followed and he finally spoke.
“Indeed, it has been a lovely evening,” my father said.
There were murmurs and nods of agreement and he smiled. “My daughter-in-law has settled-in quite well with us and I couldn’t be happier to see my son in love.”
I scoffed at that and Julianna pinched the inside of my elbow.
“Civil and in love,” she muttered. “They are watching us.”
Goddamn it.
My father turned toward us. “I think we can make this evening even more lovely if Julianna would play the cello for us. I’ve heard she is a talented player and I can’t imagine a better moment for her to show off and play. Julianna, would you do us the honor?”
My body went cold, my heart pounding in my ears.
Time slowed.
Julianna released a panicked breath and I watched as she took shaky steps toward the center of the ballroom, where a chair had been put in place for her.
All the lights dimmed, except for the grand chandelier over her head. My chest tightened with unspoken grief.
A cello was given to her and I watched.
I bore the brunt of our tarnished past, feeling its poison sink into my veins.
She sat down, her dress pooling around the chair, and she arranged the instrument between her knees. Her head came up; our eyes locked as she placed the bow to the strings.
There was a single breath between a mocking silence and the first note she played.
Her fingers wielded the strings like a lover’s caress, her bow striking each chord with a sweet madness. Her grey eyes never wavered from mine and it killed me.
Julianna played the cello with such melancholy, each note hitting a different tune until she created a song of mad, ugly love – so beautiful, brutal and… pained.
Two lost lovers colliding together, with tainted memories and too much bitterness.
It was cruel and haunting. So fucking beautiful…
Her body became one with the cello and I watched her feeling the music, letting it bleed under her skin and into my soul.
The cello’s fury bounced off the wall of the ballroom and her agony bled through her bow and into the strings she played. The tempo intensified, becoming almost crazed as Julianna continued to play – her fingers wielding the strings masterfully and her bow sawing though the chords, sorrow bleeding into each note she played. Julianna tortured that cello like a mad woman.
Her tune finally slowed to a crescendo and came to an abrupt end; it was almost like she had ripped apart two tortured lovers.
And Julianna broke, right in front of my eyes.
She killed me.
Looking like an angel and my goddamn nightmare.
Julianna
The moment my tune came to an end, I had forgotten how to breathe.
Our eyes were still locked together, his dark gaze still trapping me in place. My lungs clenched and my heart twisted in my chest.
I could almost hear Gracelynn’s voice echoing in my ears – telling me how good I played, how proud she was of me.
But it wasn’t Gracelynn’s memories that broke me. It was the look on Killian’s face. That tortured expression. Like he had just seen a ghost from his past and maybe he had.
I carried Gracelynn’s ghost on my shoulders and Killian’s lover in my eyes. I was Julianna, but I was also the ghost that haunted his dreams.
How unfair it was.
That our story had come to this.
Nothing more but wrath and sorrow.
Nothing less than a tainted past that wrote our future.
There was a single breath of silence before the ballroom erupted in claps and loud whispers. Killian and I both flinched, our gazes finally breaking apart.
My breath was lodged in my throat as I watched him walk away, disappearing behind the pillars, and tears burned the backs of my eyes.
William came to me first and I quickly took his out-stretched palm, glad for the help and stood up. Soon enough, I was surrounded by guests. Some praising how well I played; others asking where I had learned to play, while a few gentlemen were just vying for my attention.
They crowded around me and I didn’t know what to do, my attention elsewhere – on the man who had just disappeared behind the pillars – leaving me with these vultures as my heart hammered against my ribs.