Free Silent Scars (Surviving #4) by Ada Frost Page A

ever woken from a nightmare and felt anything but anxious.
    The rat scampered into the room, his claws creating an erratic scratching sound as he tried to gain traction on the slippery floor. Aloura turned, hands still playing, at the sound. A small smile toyed at the corner of her lips, but when she saw me, she gasped and jerked her hands back. The music stopped immediately, and my insides twisted.
    “Oh God, I am so sorry. I never meant to wake you.” She stood, sending the stool clattering behind her. The rat yelped and ran from the room. Aloura took a step towards the door but I blocked her path and held my hands up.
    “Don’t go,” I begged.
    “I really thought...I didn’t think...I’m sorry.” Her hands twisted together in a nervous gesture.
    “It’s your house.”
    “I know that, but you’re a guest. I forget it isn’t soundproofed.”
    “Aloura.” I stepped forward and lifted my hands to place them on her shoulders but caught myself before I made contact. I jerked a little because it had felt so natural to comfort her. “I slept like shit. I was taking the rat ...”
    She let out the cutest little growl.
    “ The dog needed to take a leak. We were heading out. I didn’t want to wake you. Then I heard you playing.” I lifted my shoulders and stepped back; we were standing far too closely. “You sounded amazing. Kind of made waking up a pleasure for a change.”
    She tilted her head to the side and regarded me.
    “I can go back upstairs if you want,” I offered, but I prayed she would let me stay.
    Her chest lifted with the breath she sucked in. She glanced at her piano before her gaze came back to me. “I liked hearing you. You helped kill the noises and fill a silence I need.”
    She regarded me a moment. I was ready to leave the room when she lifted her hand and pointed to a pile of throw cushions in the far corner. “You can use those or bring a chair in from the kitchen.”
    I bobbed my head but refused to leave the room in case she changed her mind and ran from me. I was being a selfish son of a bitch for backing her into a corner, but my head needed this right now, and I’d not felt a need like this before. A total craving for someone else to take away the noise. I headed over to the corner where five large floor cushions were piled. I scattered them in a makeshift cot and sat down on them. I pulled my shoes off and lay on my side to watch her.
    “What do you want me to play?”
    A pit formed in my stomach at the nervous quiver in her voice. I opened my mouth to tell her to forget it, and I’d go back to bed, but the words that came out betrayed my intentions.
    “Hell if I know. The last time I heard music was that confounded Disney song all the kids are crazy over. So anything but that.”
    She giggled and bobbed her head. A few moments passed as she stared at the keys. Then she pulled her shoulders back, lifted her hands, and with a whisper of a touch, caressed the keys, and then heaven surrounded me.
    Bliss.
    The hairs on my arms stood on end, my spine tingled, and goose bumps raced all over my body. She closed her eyes and lost herself to the music, and I lost to myself to her. She was faultless.
    I slowly sat up. I needed to see her, to watch her hands, her feet, her face. But more than anything I was jealous of the peaceful serenity that poured from her. I forced myself to stay on the pillows, and not go to her and absorb her. How was it possible to know someone for only a few hours and feel so connected to them?
    That’s when I realised there was nothing. For the first time in forever, there was nothing in my head but this, the music, her. I had no idea how she had done it. Had she drugged my steak?
    It was all her.
    Only her.

 
    My fingers glided over the keys as if they were an extension of me. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t be tempted to look to my left at the massive presence beside me. He looked wrecked when he first came into the room. His eyes were frantic, his skin