Page 74 of Crescendo

There was no chance I wasn’t kissing her. But I wasn’t saying no—not to a chance to play the piano alongside her after her musical awakening. “I think you’re underestimating howwell you do with it already,” I said, but I slid aside to make room for her, and she sat down with her side pressing against mine.

“I think you’re underestimating how good you are,” she said softly, looking at me from the corner of her eye. “Do you realize I spend all my free time listening to your work?”

She wasn’t usually this forward. Being cool and normal around her was hard enough when she wasn’t. I suppressed the shivers down my spine from those words delivered soft but sure with those damn eyes on me. “Still listening to that hackneyed score fromOver the Moon?”

She laughed, not breaking eye contact for a second. “Lydia, I’ve looked up every chord in every section of every song in that score. As well as some other scores.”

“Oh. Well.” My head buzzed. I should have had a better response. “Just in the past couple days?”

Her gaze glinted, more intense. “I’ve had more time to sit and think about music the past couple days. You’ve been busy with other things.”

“Ah…”

“You’re driving me out of my mind,” she said quietly. “Play with me again.”

This was a dangerous route of conversation. But I couldn’t help it—I found myself drawn to the piano next to her like I was drawn to her body, my hands moving by themselves, and I settled on the piano. “What key?”

“Eb Minor.”

“Confident. I like it.” I set my fingers on the keys, and I lost it a little when she said,

“You like a confident girl?”

“I like… I like a girl with a lot of passion for what she does.”

She glinted a wild-eyed smile my way, and I thoughtyou’re not the only one out of her mind right now,but I played the chords, pouring it from the heart—dramatic chords turningaround and around again, an almost pop rhythm to it, like my mind circling the drain going around and around the same few thoughts about Ella’s face and wanting her lips against mine again. The music exploded when Ella jumped in on the upper register, and it said so much more than words did—the chaotic and dramatic sound of it, hooking around a motif that wedged its way into your mind and wouldn’t get out. Like she was for me. Like I was for her.

She did what we never did—spoke while we played, her voice slipping out like she didn’t mean to speak. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“What—what doesn’t?”

“You’ve been so perfect, being there for me in all the ways I need the past few days. The past two weeks. That’s not what somebody does when they… they don’t like you anymore after seeing you break down.”

“Ella, that’s not—” I fumbled the notes, struggling to catch back up, my face hot. “It’s not that.”

She slammed down a triad hard enough to make my head ring, an almost feral energy in it, and it was—as much as I didn’t need that right now—unbearably sexy. “Why aren’t you talking to me?”

“I’ve been talking to you. We spend just as much time together—”

“You know what I mean.”

“I…”

“Lydia.” She looked at me with fire in her eyes. “I don’t have the… the… emotional regulation right now to handle these feelings. I feel like I’m losing my mind. I never stop thinking about you.”

“I mean, why would anyone stop thinking of me?” Levity didn’t work. Or maybe it did. She flashed a dangerous, wild grin my way.

“Why won’t you bloody well just kiss me?”

I looked back at the piano. “We said it was casual.”

“If you’re trying to make it casual, why are you making it so you’re the only thing I can think about?”

“You did well with your composition assignment. You’re clearly doing well thinking of music, too.”

She laughed. “Whyare you being difficult?”

“Seems to turn you on.” Shouldn’t have said that.

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