Melody looked up into his eyes and found herself moving closer to him before she even realized she was doing it. “It’s definitely a once in a lifetime kind of adventure,” she said with a smile. Her heart started to thunder as he continued to gaze down at her, and she reached out to place her palms tentatively against his chest. He felt solid and strong, like the tower of refuge he had been for her during this entire bizarre event.
“It was your sorrow that called to me,” she admitted quietly. “The loneliness you speak of living with for all this time. I heard it when I played that piece of music. I felt your pain because it was so similar to my own. That music called to me, lived within me. I could feel you….” She ran her hands down his torso slowly and shook her head. “Does that make sense?” She looked back up into his eyes, acutely aware of how close he was to her. She felt the warmth from his body, and she ached to be enfolded in that comforting musical embrace once again.
“None of this, in all reality, makes any kind of sense,” he replied, his voice deep and hushed. “But what you speak of I, too, feel in a smaller measurement every time I look into your eyes.”
Her gaze traveled to his mouth and her heartbeat accelerated. She wondered, if the man’s lightest touch was full of the most amazing music, what would a kiss feel like? Was it bad to kiss a muse? A creature that, until several hours ago, she had not known to exist? Was it bad to be so forward with a stranger regardless of how incredibly sexy he was?
As if in answer to her, Liron’s arms slipped around her waist, pulling her closer against his chest. Lovely sounds filled her mind. They chased away all doubt, all sadness, all pain. There was nothing but music, and the sound of her pounding heart as it reacted to his nearness.
And then a blaring, obnoxious siren of sound that jarred her brain and broke the moment with a vengeance. Liron winced and shook his head. Melody blinked rapidly and stepped out of his embrace.
“What is that awful noise?” Liron muttered.
Melody gasped as she looked over his shoulder. “Oh my gosh!” she whispered. Half of his room had, once again, morphed back into the modern décor of her house.
Liron turned to see what she was looking at, but didn’t react with as much surprise as she would have. “Is this your home?” he queried.
“Yes,” she said, stepping forward. “This is what happened when I came here. Only I was there, and I was peering in on you.” She pointed to where she could see her piano. She frowned as she noticed rays of light filtering in from the kitchen window. “Holy crap, what time is it? How long have I been here? That noise is my alarm clock.” She turned to Liron. “What happened? How did the gateway open again?”
He stared into her living room for a moment before his shoulders slumped in an almost indiscernible measurement. But she noticed all the same. “Apparently, all you needed was something from your world, a reminder, to bring you back home.”
Relief rushed over her in waves, knowing that she was not permanently stuck in some strange dimension, but hard on the heels of that relief was disappointment. If she went back through the gateway, would she ever be able to see Liron again? Or would that be the end of it? Like a strange and beautiful dream?
She turned to face him and saw the same disappointment reflected in his eyes. He smiled, but not for the first time tonight, it looked forced. He stuffed his hands back in his pockets. “Well, Melody, I must say, it has been an honor and a privilege.”
She managed a smile that she imagined looked as pained as his did. “Liron, this entire night has been…extraordinary. Terrifying, but extraordinary.”
He took her hand and traced along the lines of her palm the way he had done to calm her earlier. “For whatever reason this happened, I will always be grateful. You chased away the loneliness, even if for a night, and made me remember what it is like to hear music, what kind of power it can have. I think I had forgotten that in my misery.” He met her gaze and shrugged one shoulder. “My only regret is that I did not have enough time to learn more about you.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he brought her hand to his lips and pressed a lingering kiss to her fingers. A heady rush of notes filled her to the point that it almost made her dizzy.
“Go on before it closes,” he murmured.
He released her hand, and she took a step toward her room, but hesitated. She looked at him for a long moment, trying to fix him into her mind. “You promise me you were never just a hallucination?” she asked.
He grinned, a real one that lit up his otherwise somber face. “What kind of hallucination would I be if I told you?”
She smiled. “I’ll never forget you.” Even as she said the words, her heart felt funny in her chest, achy and longing.
“And for that, my life no longer seems so dismal.”
He bowed at the waist, and Melody turned to hurry into her living room before she lost her nerve altogether. She strode the first few steps until the echoing of her footsteps on the stone floor became less pronounced as she walked across the hardwood. She stopped at her piano, let her eyes glance over the music that was still there, and she finally found the courage to turn around.
Everything was as it should be. Her house. Her door. Her life.
Why did it suddenly seem so much emptier? She hadn’t thought it was possible for it to feel any emptier, but she was wrong. A familiar ache settled over her heart, but the origin of it was different.
With a sigh, she sat down on her piano bench and her eyes fell on the black fabric of the shirt she still wore. She fingered one of the sleeves and smiled. She brought it up to her nose and inhaled. Cedar and violin rosin.
A little of the sorrow in her heart lessened. It really had been real. No dream, no deluded fantasy. Liron was real. He existed. And if she had been able to go through the gateway once, she bet she could do it again.
But first, she needed to take care of her blaring alarm clock before her head exploded. And then, she was calling in to work. She was beyond exhausted.
* * * *
Liron stared at the empty space where Melody’s living room had been a moment ago. There was nothing now, just the vacant corner of his room. The popping and crackling of the logs in the fireplace seemed as loud as cannon blasts, echoing throughout the hollow room. His home had been silent before, lonely. Now it felt desolate.
Melody had only inhabited his life for a chaotic whirlwind of an evening, but she had left her impression upon him completely. Not only was she an anomaly for being able to traverse the continuum and come into his world, but she had done so willingly because she’d felt such a strong pull to him. And though she had been utterly terrified, she had put her faith and trust in him blindly. She had accepted his care and his touch in a way that defied logic for him. When every touch or every attempt at tenderness had been met with contempt and annoyance from Elizabeth, Melody had relished it, basked in it, sought it out.
There had been no other women for Liron before Elizabeth. Aside from the loving touch of his mother, he had never known a woman’s warmth or caress. He’d ached for it from Elizabeth until her coldness had eradicated all hope of receiving kindness from her. And after she’d left, he had grown accustomed to his solitude. He couldn’t believe how his heart had revived with just one trusting gesture from Melody. Her hand in his, her defense of him as he’d shared his story, the way she had flung herself into his arms when Siegfried had startled her, the way she’d allowed him to soothe her with his embrace and unique talent. All of those things made his heart rage and roar with fire he thought had long since died out.
It was an exquisite discovery, an enchanting, remarkable resurrection of his dormant heart. And for the short amount of time she had been with him, he had almost believed he could create music again. Because his music, written in his deepest pain, had touched her so much she’d been able to go against the laws of physics and reach him.
But now she was gone. And the music was gone. All that was left was a lovely memory, a spilled bottle of wi
ne on his floor, and a white shirt lying somewhere in his bedroom. He had been dangled beauty for one second, like bait from a hunter trying to snare a beast. Now, he was alone again. It startled him how much he yearned to feel her in his arms, to bury his face in her hair and see if it smelled like the sunlight it was kissed with.
He let out a defeated sigh and turned back into his room. Siegfried was perched atop one of the chairs, preening himself. Liron smiled, walked by the bird, and held his arm out. The falcon hopped up onto his forearm with a screech.
“I know, she interrupted your sleep. Come on, you cranky bird. Let’s go to bed.” He started back toward the hallway. “But for the record, you frightened her as much as she did you.” He smiled to himself, remembering how she had leaned against him in the stairway. Perhaps she was gone, but he felt blessed to have had those moments with her at all. It had reminded him his heart still beat, that he was still a man, and that he was still alive.
Chapter Seven
Melody groaned and flopped the pillow down over her head to stifle the horrible blaring of her phone, which was almost as bad as the horrible blaring of her alarm. When it didn’t stop, she crawled out from under the pillow and fumbled around on her nightstand until she managed to get the receiver out of the cradle. “What?” she grumbled.
“Geez, hello to you too,” Nikki’s voice came. “What are you doing? Were you asleep?”
“I was.” Melody rolled over onto her back and rubbed her eyes.
“It’s one o’clock in the afternoon. Are you sick?”
“No, I was just up late.”
“Doing what?”
Melody sighed. “I couldn’t sleep. I was having…weird dreams.” It was close enough to the truth.
There was a pause on the other line. “Dreams? About what? Nightmares? Were they about your parents? Mel—”
Melody knew that tone in her friend’s voice, and she was not in the mood for it. “Nikki, so help me, if you say, ‘maybe you should see a therapist,’ I will kill you. Or at the very least stop talking to you for about a week.” She sat up and shoved her hand through her unruly and tangled mass of hair. She glanced down at the black shirt she still wore and smiled as she fingered the soft fabric. “And no, they weren’t about my parents. They were just weird. I drank too much wine before I went to sleep.”
“You were drinking? Why?”
Seriously? Did she have “basket case” written on her forehead? That was the only reason she could think of as to why everyone seemed to think she was one second away from insanity, or alcoholism, or any other psychological problem she could shake a stick at. “Because I made an Italian dinner and I felt like it. I’m twenty-seven years old. Do I need a note?”
“No, of course not. So, what were your dreams about?”
She’s really not gonna let up, is she? “Space travel,” she blurted. There, that should do it.
“Oh,” Nikki said. “That’s…interesting.”
Melody smothered her laughter.
“Anyway, I’m sorry to wake you up. I was just in the mall shopping and I went to see you at work, but they told me you’d called in. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Melody smiled at her friend’s concern. “I’m fine, Nik. I just played hooky like when I was in high school.”
Nikki giggled. “All right, well, go back to vegetating. I won’t bug ya.”
“Talk to you later, Nik.” She hung up the phone and lay back against her pillows with a grin. She felt different than usual, not quite as depressed. Her heart didn’t feel as heavy. And every time her mind wandered, it wandered right back to Liron; to his silky hair and luminous blue eyes. To his patient understanding and compassion. To the way he had cared for her and calmed her, held her. The way he had looked at her right before her alarm clock had brought them screaming back to reality.
She felt like a schoolgirl with a crush, and she didn’t care. For the first time since her parents’ death, she didn’t feel like facing the day would be the equivalent of walking through molasses with cement shoes on.
She wondered what Liron was doing, if he was thinking of her, and if she would have the ability to travel to his world again if she tried. Deciding she had nothing better she wanted to do with her day, she swung her legs out of bed and headed to her closet. First things first, she was going to make sure she was not in her pajamas. If she managed to go through the gateway again, she wanted to at least look presentable. She maybe even felt like looking a little bit sexy.
After selecting an outfit that was casual, but still had a little bit of sass to it, she headed for the bathroom to take a nice, long shower.
* * * *
It was around three o’clock when Melody was finally ready to sit down at her piano and see what kind of magic she could weave. She’d showered and made herself look decent in her good jeans and a black tank top with a sheer black blouse over it that came off the shoulders. It had tiny, shiny black beads interspersed throughout the fabric that sparkled in the right light. She’d pulled her hair up in a clip and left her bangs and some loose tendrils framing her face. She’d also put some makeup on, which was more than she usually did unless she had to go to work. Even when she’d gone out with Rob, she had only put on light foundation and some mascara. Today, she added a touch of smoky eye shadow, a soft, peachy blush and some lip gloss.
She felt jittery, but in a good way, charged with adrenaline like when one was getting ready to go out on a date.
She stared at the music score for awhile, wondering if the gateway would open again, hoping it would, and then wondering if she’d lost her mind. If she was any kind of practical, she would put the music away, be happy she’d made it back home at all, and would never again dabble with things she didn’t understand about the universe. Obviously, she wasn’t practical.
Sure, traveling to a different dimension unexpectedly had been horrifying. But when she’d gotten used to her surroundings, and learned more about Liron, the idea became more intriguing than scary. She wondered what other secrets the world had to offer.
She smiled and started to sit down on the piano bench when knocking sounded at her door. She instantly bristled. She did not want to deal with Rob right now. The man did not know when to quit.
Annoyed that he had interrupted her, and that she would probably need to blow him off her step with dynamite, she strode to the door and yanked it open.
Rob stood there with his sleazy grin, but it morphed into a look of shock when his gaze glanced over Melody. “Whoa,” he murmured. His smile went from shocked, bypassed sleazy, and became demonic. “You got all dressed up for me. How did you know I was coming?”
She huffed and put her hand on her hip. A couple of silver bangles she’d placed around her wrist jangled with the action. “I did not dress up for you, Rob, and save your coercion tactics. I have a date.” She got tremendous satisfaction out of his reaction. He looked like someone had just shot him in the butt.
“A date?” he snapped. “With who?”
She smirked. “With the man who wrote that music Nikki bought me.”
It took him a couple minutes to actually figure out what she meant. She saw pain flash over his features from thinking too hard. “So, basically, you mean you’re playing the piano all night again?” he grumbled. “You got dressed up to sit at the piano? How boring is that?”
She scowled. “I got dressed up because I wanted to. And sitting at my piano is what makes me happy. Just like target practice makes you happy.” She rolled her eyes. “At any rate, I’m not free tonight.”
She’d seen children who’d been spanked who didn’t look as disgruntled at he did. “Great, now I’m being replaced by a musical instrument.”
“Music was always first in my life, in case you didn’t remember me telling you I was a musician.”
“You said you used to be a musician.”
She frowned and folded her arms. “I’m sorry, is my line of work going to be a problem for you? Because, by all means, go
on back across the street. No one’s forcing you to stay here.” For some reason, she was having a difficult time finding the small smidgen of charm she usually found in Rob. He was annoying her, and all he cared about was himself. His interests, his wants.
“Dude, what is with the attitude lately, Mel? All I want to do is go on one stupid little date with you. You have something better to do? Besides plunk away on your keyboard?” He snorted. “Like that’s a productive pastime.”
Anger flared to life inside of Melody. How dare he insult her music? That was like insulting her soul, and insulting her parents as well. “All right, you’ve overstayed your welcome. If you really want to go out with me, I suggest leaving me be for a few days. Because right now all I really want to do is kick you in the nads.” She grabbed hold of the inner door in one hand. “I’m not even addressing what you just said to me. And if you can’t figure out why that upset me, you should probably never come back here again.” She didn’t wait for his response. She just shut the door. She didn’t have time for this. Arrogant, belligerent idiot….
She went back to the piano, sat down, and started to pound out Liron’s music. She used far too much force, fueled by her aggravation and imagining that all the keys were Rob’s eyes she was poking out. She didn’t do the music justice, blasting through it with the grace and skill of a buffalo.
When she got to the end of it, she looked over her shoulder, but saw nothing that was any different than her usual sofa, door, and walls. She heaved a sigh and let her shoulders slump as she turned back around. “Okay, Melody, get a grip,” she muttered. She shook out her hands to release tension, cracked her neck, and poised her fingers back over the keys.
She thought of Liron’s eyes, his touch, his kind attentiveness and subtle, graceful sensuality. She remembered how he had infused her with music while he had held her protectively in his arms.
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