I search my mind for a song I know will soothe her, one of her favorites, Yiruma’s River Flows in You.
Placing my hands over the black and white keys, I close my eyes and let the chords play from my mind to my fingers. I continue playing, completely lost in its high and low soft tones. I hardly notice I’m not alone in the room. That is, until I feel air brush my arm. I open my eyes and blink. Cole is standing across from me, his hands splayed on the black gleaming surface of the piano. My fingers falter, stumbling on the keys and end up sounding like someone banged on them. I let my fingers trail off.
I glance around wondering how he got inside the house and for just a second, I panic. Cole has never been in here before. His visits are restricted to my bedroom only. What if Dad finds him in here? I jerk back to look at the clock and breath out, relieved. We still have a few hours until he comes home. If he comes home.
“Elise let me in while she was on her way out. I checked to see if your dad’s car was outside before I snuck in.”
Wow. I didn’t even hear my sister leave.
“Are you okay?” he signs and speaks the words. He’s been teaching me a few words when we aren’t making out like crazy. Some of them I learned on YouTube.
Swallowing my nerves, I nod and go to him. I push on my tiptoes and press my lips against his in a kiss. He sucks in a breath, moaning softly before he pulls back and narrows his eyes at me.
“What?” I ask, as I drop to the soles of my feet.
“I’ve spent most of my life learning how to read people. I’ve spent the last few weeks learning to read you. What’s wrong?”
I remember the way my father yelled at him, glaring at him with so much hate. Then grandma’s story about Thomas and my father’s hate for his own brother.
“My father doesn’t like you,” I say, carefully watching his face for a reaction.
“I know,” he says. He doesn’t look bothered at all. “I’m messing around with his daughter. Of course he doesn’t like me. It won’t stop me from liking you or wanting to kiss the shit out of you whenever I think of you. Which is every single fucking second of the day.”
I shake my head, wondering if I should speak out loud my suspicions that my father not liking him is not caused by a mere irritation over a boy making a pass at his daughter. It’s more than that. I can’t really put a finger on what it is. My dad never liked my boyfriend in Ohio, but at least he was decent about it. Well, as decent as my father can be, which is glaring at a person until they scurry away in fear.
The scars on my arms prickle and I put my hands on them, running my nails along my skin to lessen the itch. “We have to be careful, okay?”
Cole’s eyebrows dip, his eyes holding mine, studying me. He lays his hands on mine, halting my progress and then lefts them, replacing them with his. He rubs his palms up and down my arms, in slow, deliberate motions and my mind explodes into a thousand different sensations. “We will be careful.” He tucks a lock of hair behind my ear and then tucks a thumb under my chin. “Chin up, beautiful.
“I have no idea what I did to piss him off, but when he told me to stay away from you, I intended to heed his warning. I was walking past your window when I realized I couldn’t do it. I could not ignore the pull I felt between us in St. Christopher’s.”
I shrug off the uneasiness inside my chest. He kisses my forehead, and then turns me around and sits on the bench in front of the piano, pulling me on his lap. He sweeps my hair to the side and places kisses along the length of my neck, and down the side of my arm. I shiver, gasp, fight for air and my heart flips around inside my chest. I press my thighs together, and I swear he knows what he is doing to me, if that chuckle is any indication.
Shifting on his lap, I turn to face him. He groans and I can feel him getting hard under me.
“Should I sit over there?” I point at the space on the bench next to him.
He shakes his head and gestures for me to play.
I scroll through my mind, thinking of my favorite songs. Something to express what I’m feeling, what I feel for this boy. I can’t believe how strong my feelings for him have become in such a short time. He hasn’t voiced his feelings yet but I’m falling hard for him, which scares the crap out of me. The only people who have the ability to evoke these feelings inside me are my sisters, my mom and Grandma. And now Cole, but with him, it’s different. Everything about him lights me on fire. His kiss, his touch, and the way he looks at me.
I let my fingers hover on the keyboard, and then slowly lower them onto the keys. He slides his hand to the nape of my neck, his hold possessive, before resting his chin on my shoulder.