Page 84 of The Darkness is Calling

“Meaning?”

He shakes his head.

“It doesn’t matter. I want to come.”

I freeze slightly, and he lets his hand drop to his side, a crease forming between his brows.

“You don’t want me to come?”

“I do,” I answer, to remove that worry. “It’s just...”

This time, I have a hard time finding my words. He still waits.

I inhale deeply and let the air out loudly.

“Every time I invited someone close to me to a recital, something terrible happened to that person. The only one who seems immune is Oksana. The first time, my mother died. Then, years later, my father was attacked. That was when I almost gave up the piano.”

“But you like playing,” he says, confused.

“I adore playing. Losing myself in music and making the people around me feel that magical energy the sounds transmit. But I have been afraid all this time. And now...”

I run a hand through my hair.

“This is the first recital of this level that I am performing after so long.”

It takes him less than a second to understand.

“And you’re afraid that if I come, something bad might happen to me.”

“Yes.”

He smiles with a warmth rarely seen in a man like him, but one I seem to receive more and more often.

“This recital means a lot to you.”

I nod slowly.

“Then I will be there, for you, and nothing will happen to me.”

He kisses my forehead and whispers, “I promise.”

I don’t know why, but a wave of tears floods my eyes, and I surrender to his delicate touch. Especially when he cups my face in his large hands and kisses my lips.

It’s not just a kiss, but one that leaves its mark through the desire I feel in the way his tongue dominates mine and his lips move perfectly over me.

In the end, after he leaves me without a single lucid thought in my mind, my legs on the verge of giving out, he kisses my lips briefly and whispers. “Now I want you to play the piano. Only for me.”

His request surprises me.

“Seriously?”

“You have no idea how deeply you enchanted me with your music from the first day you came here. You signed my sentence in that very moment.”

His metaphor it’s not comforting, making me press my lips into a thin line.

“Very encouraging, especially after what I just told you.”

“Everything will be fine, dusha moya.”