Page 143 of The Ruse

“What kind of room?” she asked.

“A room with a piano.”

“Oh, that sounds nice,” she said. “Did you play it?”

“For like three hours.”

“Really?” she asked, seeming surprised. Which made sense since I was pretty sure the only time she’d heard me play had been that first time we’d met, at the Hastings’ house on Thanksgiving. “That’s a long time.”

“I might have been trying to distract myself from how good of a time a certain girl might have been having with a certain classmate of mine.”

“Yeah?” she asked, like she really hadn’t expected me to be thinking about her so much when we weren’t together.

“She’s kind of amazing, and so my jealousy was totally warranted.” I gave her a cautious smile, my heart beating faster since telling a girl how I felt about her wasn’t exactly something I had a lot of success with. I squeezed her hand. “In fact, every guy at the party was probably jealous of her escort.”

“I doubt that.” Elyse slipped her free hand onto my forearm. “But I bet she would have preferred to listen to you play instead of being at that stuffy party.”

“I guess I should have crashed the party to let you know I was having a concert,” I said.

“You should have.” She leaned closer as we walked down the empty hall. “Guys who play the piano are basically one of the hottest things on my list.”

I laughed. “I thought it was ‘bad boys.’”

She shrugged. “Fine, so it’s actually bad boys who play the piano that are my real weakness.”

“You have a very specific taste,” I said, my heart fluttering. I licked my lips. “Which tells me I should probably play the piano more often so you can remember how hot you think I am.”

“You totally should,” she said. “Though, I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with remembering that.”

“No?” I arched an eyebrow, not recalling if she’d ever said she found me attractive before.

“Come on.” She playfully shoved my arm. “You know you’re the hottest guy at our school.”

“Well, of courseIknow it.” I winked. “I just didn’t know if you’d realized it yet.”

She rolled her eyes but smiled to show me that she liked talking about this. “Pretty sure it’s one of the first things I thought of when I saw you.”

We came to the lounge area that I’d found the day before. The grand piano was visible in the corner through the glass doors. There was a beautiful water feature in the center of the room, and various couches and chairs were placed in clusters here and there.

“Looks like we have the place to ourselves,” I said, opening the door and pulling Elyse inside with me.

The lights were off, but there were several windows along the far wall that let the moonlight in, casting the room in a soft glow.

“Think we’re allowed to be in here?” Elyse whispered, as if afraid we were doing something wrong.

“The door was unlocked, so…” I shrugged.

“So no breaking and entering for us tonight. Dang it.” Elyse snapped her fingers, like it was a missed opportunity. “I was really hoping this was my chance to have a night of mischief.”

“I should have pretended to pick the lock, huh?” I said with a smile. “Then I’d look like a true bad boy.”

She laughed and leaned her back against the wall just inside the door. “I guess we’ll have to save the lawbreaking type of stuff for another day.”

“Ah yes,” I said, leaning my shoulder against the wall beside her. “Gotta keep dangling that carrot over your head, so you’ll want to keep hanging out with me.”

“Pretty sure you don’t have to bribe me to want that.” Her eyes lifted to mine in the darkness.

And when she looked at me in that way, instead of making me feel all jittery and nervous like it had the first few times we’d hung out together, it just made me feel warm. At peace.

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