Just a Little Heartache (The Brotherhood #5) - Merry Farmer Page 0,67

was by his side, forcing him out of his chair.

“Come on,” Blake said, eyes shining with excitement. “We’ve been called on to perform.”

“I’m not interested,” Niall growled, rising with an apologetic smile for the spinster, then shuffling Blake over to the side of the room so he could reiterate with more meaning, “I’m not interested.”

“Of course, you are,” Blake whispered back, pushing him toward the door. “You haven’t changed that much. Stop fighting it.”

Jaw clenched, Niall let Blake hurry him out of the dining room. He had a feeling nothing good could possibly come out of the rest of the evening.

Chapter 14

Ten years dropped away in the blink of an eye, and all because Niall was there. Blake hadn’t felt so light or so young in a decade as he played his heart out, not caring who sang as he accompanied or what requests they made. It made no logical sense, but it was as though he were alive again, as though his blood had resumed flowing and his heart beating. He didn’t even have to be speaking directly with Niall for the comfort and joy of his presence to buoy him. He just had to look at Niall’s pinched, frustrated, vexed, beautiful face and the reluctant fire in his eyes to feel as though the door to his cage had been thrown open.

“Surely you will sing this one with me as a duet, Lord Selby,” Miss Lloyd asked, batting her eyelashes as she took her place by the piano, where all of the young ladies attempting to catch his attention had stood while singing.

“I’d be delighted,” Blake smiled back at her, heart light. Any chance he had to sing his heart out, quite literally, was a welcome one, the way he was feeling that evening.

He played the opening strains of the love song Miss Lloyd had requested, then started into his part. He glanced carefully at Niall as he sang. His heart leapt in his chest and he had to sing through a broad smile at the sight of Niall sitting with his arms crossed and a flat look on his face. Having Niall cross with him for flirting in public was as luxurious as fine chocolate.

And why shouldn’t he be happy? For the first time in a decade, his world felt right. Niall had finally come, swooping in with command. He’d come up with solid ideas to sell Montague’s estate. He’d had the presence of mind to think of hiring an investigator to find Annamarie and the children. And he’d not only allowed Blake to purge the bitterness of the last ten years of his life by listening to his story, he’d casually informed him that, in fact, he wasn’t a lone, perverted oddity in a world of upper class propriety and decorum.

He wasn’t alone anymore. Niall was back in his life, and he would be damned if he would make the same mistake he’d made ten years ago and let him leave this time. The fact that Niall appeared to be furious with him was the very best sign he could have hoped for. There was a very fine line between anger and passion, and even with the chasm of time between them, Blake could feel how close Niall was to crossing that line, just as he had always been able to feel a shift in Niall’s body just before he came.

“Bravo! Encore!” Lady Inglewood’s guests applauded when the song was over. Blake grinned modestly at the approval, gesturing to Miss Lloyd, who curtsied and simpered at him as though she were the focus of attention.

“Just one more song,” Blake said as the young women vying for his attention began arguing with each other about which of them would stand up with him next. “And this one is a solo. Written by my friend, Mr. Cristofori, as it happens.”

“How very exciting,” Lady Inglewood clasped her hands to her chest and glanced to Niall with an adoring look.

Blake shared that adoration, and a growing part of him wasn’t willing to hide it anymore. He’d suffered enough, and Niall had come when he’d called. “This is a song from a musical that Mr. Cristofori wrote and that we performed in together at university,” Blake explained as his fingers flew across the keys, remembering the opening notes. “It’s always been one of my favorites.”

He launched into the song, slowing the tempo and filling the flippant words with more meaning than Niall had ever intended when he’d composed the piece. He’d