Page 66 of The Kiss Of Death
Sex should be an act of love. Not lust.
I pinched my eyes shut. “Stop.”
His mouth stopped nibbling on my neck, right under my violin hickey. He removed his hand from my crotch, and my body ached, already missing his touch. I opened my eyes, and his brows had furrowed, his face hovering close to mine, yet our bodies remained inches apart.
“If you swear no part of you wants the slightest bit of me, I’ll stop. If you admit you’re mine, I’ll stop if that’s what you want. Or I could give you exactly what you need. Two choices.” He teased my hard nipple from over my pajama with his forefingers.Oh, that feels good too.I pushed my chest to his, but he retracted, leaving me panting. “Are you mine, Dalia, or are you solely the annoying obsession I want to get rid of?”
“No.” I swallowed, not even knowing what I was telling him no for. Unifiers followed their hearts, but I had to think like a Tactician right now. I crossed my fingers behind my back toerase my words. “I do not want to be yours, nor want you like that.”
“Hmm.” He cocked his head to the side as if he could smell my lie. “If you’re not mine, then you’re nothing more to me than a pawn.”
“Fine by me.” My stomach churned; I’d never been a good liar.
He stepped back and opened the door, a faint smile playing on his lips. I released the breath I didn’t know I was holding. Why was he smiling? I had just turned him down, and he looked almost satisfied with the outcome.
“Thank you,” I said. “For respecting what I want.”
“You’ll come to me; it’s just a matter of time, but I’d prefer not to force you to realize this.” He pulled out his phone, tapped a few times, and then I received a notification on mine. “Text me when you’re done with the second music score.”
I glanced at the picture he sent me, immediately recognizing the grand staff with treble and bass clefs.
“Wait…” I frowned. “This isn’t for violin, it’s for piano.”
But Levi was already gone.
I was good for another shower, a very cold one, infused with holy water. I went to the bathroom and took sight of my reflection.
That bastard had given me another hickey under my violin one.
He’d marked me, and I had let him.
Yasmine entered our dorm with takeout from the pub. “You hungry? Got a vegan burger saved for you, though I already ate mine on my way back.” She paused. “Is that a serial killer wall?”
My gaze fixed on my creation: a wall adorned with Post-it Notes encircling the two music scores. Red ribbons and pins connected the codes from the violin score. Baron batted at the Post-its like a determined boxer.
I folded one of the Post-its into a ball to send it to him. “Thanks, but I can’t eat until I’m done. Then I’ll erase everything.”
I couldn’t shake the idea that something was wrong. First, with me, because of what almost could have happened with Levi earlier, which had left me in need of a distraction. The second wrong thing was the piano score. It was already well-written and neat. Nothing was abnormal at first glance; it was just a simple score that beginners could play. It was too simple, and Lucie wasn’t that type of composer. She was too creative to create something so basic. And why a piano score? Lucie didn’t play piano; she was a violinist just like me.
“Please don’t. This is cool, but is you-know-who supposed to be here?”
“No.” I crossed my arms. “And I prefer to do this without him and his constant judgment, or the way he distracts me. This is work. Not kissing under the doorframe and—”
Yas coughed, swallowing the rest of her fries the wrong way. “We need rules. No boys’ business in this room!”
“I couldn’t agree more.”No more Levi business.I circled the recurring pattern of a short cadence every thirteen measures. “This number, again.”
“Okay, it’s mystery time. Tell me all about it.” She settled on the floor, calling Baron to cuddle while throwing aside the bag of food.
As if teaching a class, I explained, “This number, thirteen, keeps coming back. In the violin score, this was when the melody was almost nonexistent to the limit of breaking the musical sentence. Yet in the piano score, it’s the opposite. Throughout the score, the piano is only an accompanist, a secondary character, if you will, who steals the show every thirteen measures.”
“Why thirteen?”
I turned back toward the piano score. “I don’t know. In some cultures, it was seen as death, like the tarot card, or rebirth. However, in the baseline, I spotted the same four notes from partition 1:Mi?, Mi, La?, Si?.They form the structure, representing Levi’s name, but this time, they accompany harmonically. It’s abassocontinuo, constantly repeating.”
Yasmine, perplexed, took a pillow to lie down. “It’s like you’re speaking another language to me, and I’m fluent in ancient Greek, so that says something.”
“Let’s just say there’s a connection in the structure. They’re linked, but it doesn’t make sense!” I tapped my pencil nervously on the wooden desk. “The violin is chaotic, like a tortured character, while the piano is soft, like a lullaby—complete opposites.”
