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She crawled under her covers and passed out the moment her head hit the pillow.
A crack of thunder woke her up some time later. She swam to the surface of consciousness and rolled over. The words that had snuck up on her in the shower came back just as strong.
She rubbed her eyes and blinked at the dark ceiling. Lightning flashed across the room and she swung her legs out of bed. She checked her phone. She’d only been asleep for a couple hours. Not nearly enough time.
Did you even miss me?
Did I cross your mind once?
Not even once?
Well shit. It wasn’t going to leave her alone, was it?
She took a deep breath and then headed for the stairs. She detoured to the kitchen for a glass of water before moving on to the music room.
Rain pelted against the windows, adding a rhythm to her thoughts that hadn’t been there before. She slid onto the piano bench, the wood cool on the backs of her bare thighs and flipped to a new page in the notebook she’d left there. Taking the pen out of the spiral binding, she quickly jotted down the words that hadn’t let her go.
Putting the pen down, she rested her hands on the keys before her. Carefully, she tested the notes and chords until she found what matched the sound in her soul.
The words came almost too quickly for her to catch them. They poured out of someplace she’d kept locked for too long a time.
Back and forth, her hands moved from the keys to the notebook, her lips constantly moving and repeating. She tried not to play too loud, not wanting to disturb Asa downstairs. But she must have because after a while she felt his presence hit the room.
She lifted her eyes to find him watching her from the doorway in dark blue lounge pants and no shirt. Momentarily distracted, she let her eyes linger on the hard packed muscles of his chest and abs. She hadn’t seen them since that day she’d hosed him off in Nikki’s backyard.
“Sorry,” she muttered. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t,” he said, his voice impossibly deep.
“I had to get it down. It wouldn’t leave me alone,” she explained with a small shrug.
He nodded once, his dark eyes never leaving her face. “It’s about your mom?”
Her smile was soft and sad. “How’d you know?”
“I could hear it.”
And didn’t that say everything about Asa? That she didn’t have to explain something complicated because he justknewwhat she meant.
“How have I lived my life up to this point without you?” she whispered, not really intending him to hear her.
But he did.
His beautiful chest rose with the deep breath he took and he slowly crossed the room toward her.
Lightning flashed across the room followed by a low rumble of thunder that pulled at her insides.
Asa slid onto the bench beside her and his eyes drifted over her chest and down. A large warm palm glided over her knee, up her thigh and his Adam’s apple bobbed. His gaze came back to hers, heated and dark.
“What are you wearing?” he asked, his voice a low rumble that matched the thunder inside of her.
She licked her lips and noticed her own palm pressed to the center of his chest. She flexed her fingers against his skin, feeling his heartbeat just beneath the surface. He covered her hand with his own.
“Zara,” he whispered.
Her gaze tangled with his and she reached up with her other hand to slide her fingers through his thick hair at the temple. She trailed her touch along his jaw and leaned closer. Wanting, wanting,wanting.
The hand covering her own fell away only to catch her behind the neck. And with a groan that would be burned into her memory for the rest of her life, his mouth met hers.
