Page 45 of Royally Wed
“Do you play?” she asked.
“Yes. I learned on a piano, actually. It was the first instrument I could play.” He rested his hands on the keys. They were cool to the touch. Smooth. Familiar.“My mother was a piano teacher.”
“Was?”
He pressed down, and a buoyant chord filled the air. C major. The first, most basic chord of the musical spectrum. “She died when I was in college.”
“I’m sorry.” Amelia’s hand crept closer to his arm, but stopped short of his sleeve. “I’m sure she would have been very proud of you.”
“Not today, she wouldn’t.” Asher shook his head. “She was quite theperfectionist.”
“I understand.”
He swiveled his gaze toward her and for the first time, noticed the tiny gold flecks in her eyes. Somehow she looked more regal up close. Vulnerable. Honest. “Do you?”
“I’ve spent the better part of my life trying to live up to my family’s expectations. Sometimes I wonder if I ever will.” She smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You sounded lovely today,but it wasn’t the same as when you played for me.”
“No, it wasn’t.” There was no use denying it. She’d heard the difference.
“Why?”
He sighed. He hadn’t talked to anyone about the stage fright before. Somehow, saying it out loud made it seem more real. “I’ve had some issues playing in front of people lately.”
“But not me?” She bit her lip.
Asher’s gaze dropped ever so slowly to her mouth.“Not you. No.”
Her lips curved into tender smile and this time, he could see it in her gaze. It seemed to shine from every part of her.
Asher had never wanted to kiss a woman so badly in his life. If she hadn’t been engaged... if she hadn’t been a princess... if there’d been no Holden Beckett, no crown, no royal wedding... he would have cupped her face in his hands, run the pad of histhumb over that decadent bottom lip of hers, and kissed her again. And this time, the kiss would only be the start of things.
It took every shred of self-control he possessed not to do it.
“Should I ask why you don’t have a problem playing for me in particular?” She swallowed, and Asher traced the movement up and down the exquisite column of her throat.
“No,” he said roughly. “You shouldn’t.”
That particular conversation was so full of land mines that no one would come out of it intact. Least of all Holden Beckett.
She’s not yours. Back off.
He slid a fraction farther away from her. “We need to talk about what happened at rehearsal today.”
She nodded wordlessly.
“You can’t come to my defense like that again. Things between Jeremy and me are...” Asher sighed. “... complicated.”
She blinked. God, she had the most beautiful eyes. Eyes that made him say and do things he knew he shouldn’t.“Complicated how, exactly?”
“He used to be my mentor.”
Amelia’s eyes narrowed. “Until?”
“Until two months ago when he took up with my fiancée.” Asher dropped his gaze to the piano again and he did his best to focus on the contrast of the ebony and ivory keys rather than the fact thatwhat he was doing with Amelia felt too much like what Jeremy and Serena had done behind his back.
He couldn’t touch her. He wouldn’t. Granted, Asher had his doubts about Holden Beckett and the true nature of his relationship with Amelia—a whole host of doubts—but that shouldn’t matter. He didn’t want to be that guy. The betrayer. Not when he knew what it felt like to be on the other end of theequation.
“I knew I despised him for some reason,” Amelia said.
