As he disappeared around the corner, I let out the breath I’d been holding. Clearly, I’d completely lost my mind. My lips buzzed from our kiss. I should have run away. I should have slapped him! Instead I let him maul me… again.
Stressed. That was it. I was stressed and overworked and it didn’t help that when I’d pleaded for the second time this week to get out of the stupid Freshman Seminar project, my professor had threatened me. Again.
I was going to have to start practicing late at night if I had any hope to impress the professors at the end-of-the-year recital. My scholarship depended on my ability to play.
My ability to make the professors believe I was worth the free ride they’d given me at this school.
Shaking thoughts of the dark stranger away from my head, I decided to stay in the same practice room he’d left. After all, I was already there and it wasn’t like he was coming back.
Maybe some of his talent would rub off on me.
I didn’t play like that.
I wasn’t raw.
I was practiced.
To be out of control the way he was? To let the music decide what it was going to do and when — I didn’t have that. I was lacking in the passion department.
My professors all said my music was perfect — but cold.
If I was cold — he was on fire.
Two hours. I had two hours to practice before I had to meet up with my class partner and go over plans for our project.
I set my notes and music on the piano and focused on the keys. My fingers tingled as I touched the ivory — they tingled when I thought of his hands.
For once in my life I wanted to know what it felt like to be free.
But something told me — the guy who had just left this room was anything but — he was trapped, and by the conviction in the song he sang — it was all his own doing.
Chapter Nine
Music is life — maybe that’s why I’d abandoned it for so long. I didn’t feel like I deserved life — not anymore. —Gabe H.
Gabe
I leaned against the wall as the music from the practice room filtered faintly into the hallway.
She was perfect.
Her timing.
The way the notes flowed together.
But I felt nothing.
The moment had finally come, the moment when music no longer made me feel. I wanted to hate her for barging in on me, for correcting me, for being so annoying and pretty at the same time.
For being one of those girls who actually fascinated me.
She’d tasted good. Kissing her had been a giant-assed mistake, because for some reason, I knew her lips were going to haunt me, the way her mouth felt against mine.
The last time I felt something while kissing someone was four years ago and that hadn’t ended well.
Her spunk reminded me of Kiersten.
Great, that’s just what I needed… to lust after my best friends fiancée.