Liron's Melody by Brieanna Robertson Page B

grow
to love you? After you got to know one another?”
    He shifted his attention to meet her gaze for a moment, and
Melody clamped her mouth shut. What was the matter with her? That was none of
her business and definitely not her place to ask. She was curious and
intrigued, but that didn’t give her the right to pry into the man’s personal
life. She should be happy he was explaining anything to her at all. “I’m sorry,
Liron. That was rude of me. You don’t have to answer that.” She looked down at
her lap and toyed with the hem of the shirt.
    His baleful blue eyes stared at her for several moments
before he reached a hand out to her. She scooted forward and slipped her
fingers into his, relishing the way the gentle music filled her mind and soul.
    “Melody, understand something. For whatever reason, my music
provided a way for you to travel to this dimension. I didn’t know that was
possible. For it to have occurred even in a smaller measurement, we would have
had to share a very strong connection. And not only that, but when the gateway
opened for you, you had to have the courage to go through it, to reach out to
me.” He caressed the back of her hand with his thumb. “I have been isolated in
this house for longer than I can remember. I don’t know what made you step
through that portal, but you did. You can ask me anything you desire.”
    He let go of her hand with a lingering touch and turned his
attention back to the fire. “No, she never grew to love me. I did everything in
my power to make her happy, but she never warmed toward me. She accepted me on
our wedding night with a sort of grudging duty, I suppose, and after that, she
slept in a different room. She would not come to me. Maybe I repulsed her. I
don’t know.”
    Melody snorted and he looked back over at her. She rolled her
eyes. “Any woman who could find you repulsive is off her noggin,” she grumbled.
    Her comment made his beautiful smile chase away the shadows
again, and he chuckled. “You are good for my self esteem,” he said. He paused
for a second before he added in a low voice, “You’d better be careful. I might
decide I want to keep you.”
    Heat flooded her body, and her heart skipped a beat. She
didn’t know which was more unnerving…his bold statement, or the fact that she
didn’t find it to be that unappealing of an option.
    “Anyway,” he continued. “To make a very long, boring, and
painful story short, our marriage was a sad excuse for a relationship. It was
six years of me aching for someone I could not have, who lived with me, ate
with me, tormented me with her beauty every time she walked into a room. We
both continued to inspire humans the way my kind have always done, the way we
were taught. We existed together, but separately. And one day, she came to me
and told me she was leaving. That she had fallen in love with the human man she
was inspiring, a classical composer.”
    “Nice,” Melody muttered. “I guess they were going to make
beautiful music together.” Her words were so sarcastic she could almost see
them dripping acid. But she was rewarded with another chuckle from Liron, and
it warmed her heart.
    “You have a way with words, Melody, and a way of taking the
dark stain out of this miserable part of my history. I thank you for that.”
    She smiled and continued to toy with the hem of his shirt,
wondering why it was she could go out with Rob over a dozen times and have him
fawn over her, but only feel annoyed, yet have Liron say one line of praise and
feel flushed and bashful. Rob…he seemed like he existed a thousand miles away,
like he was only a small part of a distant memory. At this point, her entire
life seemed like a distant memory.
    “Was the classical composer she was hot for named Aaron
Channing?” Melody queried.
    Liron raised an eyebrow and looked at her. “Yes.”
    She nodded. “When I went searching for who had written that
music score, I did some research on Elizabeth and found out