Just a Little Heartache (The Brotherhood #5) - Merry Farmer Page 0,15

a lifetime since he last talked to him, since he last feasted on the sight of his kissable lips and sparkling eyes. They’d sat for hours at the pub, casting the play and discussing details of the script and the songs. Blake had read through all of the scenes Niall provided prior to auditions, but he didn’t know the whole story, so Niall told it to him.

By the end of the evening, Niall was left with the feeling that he knew bits and pieces of Blake well, just like the sides he’d handed out to those auditioning for the show, but he didn’t know the whole story. He was certain Blake had been flirting with him…right up until Blake winked at the barmaid, making her blush, as he paid for their meal. Niall had gone home replaying every word that had been spoken between the two of them. He’d examined every look and every smile in his mind, attempting to decipher them. And then he’d beat himself off while imagining what it would feel like to have more than his knees entwined with Blake’s.

He still blushed when he thought about how good it had felt to do that as he approached the door leading backstage in the auditorium, where the play would be staged and where rehearsals were being held. There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about frigging oneself during university. Everyone did it. But it was somehow intimate and dangerous to envision a particular object of affection, someone who was now an integral part of his life, while doing so. Whether Blake would be horrified or flattered to be the subject of his fantasies was another story.

The debate raging in his head and his groin was halted as soon as he opened the backstage door and heard the strains of a haunting and unfamiliar piano melody. It was rich with emotion and went straight to Niall’s heart. So much so that he closed the stage door quietly behind him and crept as softly as he could past the heavy, black curtains in the wings and out to where the piano stood on the far downstage corner.

Unsurprisingly, Blake was the one playing the passionate song. Niall’s breath caught in his throat as he watched Blake’s slightly bent head, took in the pinch of emotion in Blake’s expression as he played. It had to be an original composition. Niall had never heard anything like it before. The style was entirely new. It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever heard.

When one of the floorboards creaked under Niall’s foot as he crossed the stage, Blake fumbled his song and jerked straight. His eyes went wide, as though he’d been caught doing what Niall had done to himself the night before, but when he saw it was only Niall who spied on him, he let out a heavy breath and relaxed.

“I thought I’d been caught,” he said, standing quickly from the piano bench and skirting his way toward center stage.

Niall shook his head and shrugged. “Why would it matter if you were caught playing what I assume is an original composition?”

Blake sent him a guilty look and rubbed the back of his neck where his curling hair brushed his collar. “My father doesn’t know that I was cast in this play,” he said. “He doesn’t really approve of my musical interests either.”

Prickles broke out along Niall’s back. He pretended to be casual as he crossed to the narrow set of stairs leading from the stage to the house, where a table had been set up for him for the rehearsal. Though nothing in Blake’s manner or expression said as much overtly, Niall had the distinct feeling that Blake’s father wouldn’t approve of his attraction to other men either. If, indeed, Blake was attracted to men. Niall still couldn’t figure that out.

“Were you planning to invite your family to the performance?” Niall asked as he removed his school satchel from his shoulder and put it on the table. A second, worse thought hit him, and he pivoted to face Blake, eyes wider. “Would he pull you out of the production at the last minute if he discovered you were in it?”

“He wouldn’t approve, but he wouldn’t force me to quit,” Blake said, following him to the table. “So you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Oh, I’ll worry about that,” Niall said, opening his satchel and taking out his copy of the script. It already had copious notes scribbled all over it in