Melanie: *swoon*
Tyler: *brushes off shoulders* My work here is done.
Melanie: *rolls eyes* I love how modest you are.
Tyler: It’s my best quality.
Melanie: I wouldn’t say that.
Tyler: What?
Melanie: I’ll see you at 5!
Tyler: smh
10
Melanie
“I’m so sorry, Tyler. I feel awful.”
“Stop apologizing. It’s not your fault.”
“But we’re going to be late, and it is my fault!”
“Your boss called with a legit emergency. That’s not your fault.”
“I’m not so sure I’d call it an emergency,” I grumbled.
“She was in a car accident…”
I let out a sigh. “I know, and I’m glad that she’s safe. I’m just upset that it had to happen right when I’m meeting your family for the first time. I must seem like a complete tart.”
He laughed at me. Laughed! “My sister doesn’t think you’re a tart. Trust me. She’s totally cool with it, and we’re only thirty minutes behind schedule. We’re fashionably late. See what I did there?” he asked, wriggling his eyebrows.
“You’re such a dork,” I said, rising to my tiptoes to kiss his scruffy cheek. “Are you sure it’s okay?”
He kissed the tip of my nose as we strolled side by side, my arm wrapped around his firm bicep. “I’m positive. Dinner is not until six. We planned for five so we could have cocktails, but it’s really not a big deal.”
“If you say so.”
We’d been dating exclusively for about a month and everything was going great. Aside from our difference in opinion about music, we had a lot in common and got along well. We compromised when it came to television and movies, which helped when it came to our at-home date nights, which were becoming increasingly more frequent. Simply put: we couldn’t get enough of each other. We hadn’t slept together yet, but things between us were getting hot and heavy and I knew that next step was right around the corner. Maybe tonight if I played my cards right…
“Here we are,” he said as we approached a brick high rise on Park Avenue. His sister and her husband must have been loaded. He hadn’t mentioned their wealth before. Suddenly, I felt more nervous. He stepped forward, but I stayed still. “Hey, what’s going on?” he asked, stopping outside the door and turning to face me.
“Your sister lives on Park Avenue?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. Is that a problem?”
I shook my head. “No. I just wish I’d known.” I looked down at my black pencil skirt and royal blue scoop neck blouse combo and felt like I was naked. His sister probably wore Chanel and Louboutin and there I was in my Melanie Katsaros original. Gah!
“And what difference would it have made?” he asked, running his hands up and down my bare arms.
“I don’t know.”
“You would have been stuck in your head about it a lot earlier, right?” I nodded. We really had been spending a lot of time together. He knew me too well. “Didn’t I tell you she was going to love you?”
“Yes, like a thousand times.”
“So it shouldn’t matter how much money is in their bank account, right?”
“Right.”
“You ready?”
“Yeah. Thanks for the pep talk.”
“Any time.”
He took my hand and pulled me through into the building, nodding at the suited doorman who held open the large door for us.
“Mr. Scott,” the doorman said.
“James,” Tyler returned.
My eyes went wide as I took in the white marble lobby. I’d momentarily forgotten that Tyler had moved in with his sister and her husband after his parents died. He lived in this kind of luxury at one point in time. We stepped onto a gold elevator and a man in a suit identical to the doorman pressed the button for the penthouse.
Ohmygod.
“Relax,” Tyler said, turning his head and kissing my hair.
I cleared my throat and released the iron grip I had on his hand. “Sorry.”
The elevator bell dinged and the doors opened to a stark white hallway with black marble floors. Tyler tugged my hand again, leading me off the elevator and towards the double doors at the end of the short hallway. We were about ten feet away when the doors opened and a beautiful woman with Tyler’s blue eyes appeared, smiling at us.
“Ty!” she said, pulling Tyler in for a hug.
“Han,” he greeted. “This is Melanie. Mel, this is my sister, Hannah.”
“It’s so great to finally meet you!” Hannah said, surprising me by pulling me in for a hug. “Tyler has been talking about you non-stop. I feel like I already know you.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too,” I said when she released me.
“She’s more gorgeous than you let on, Ty,” she said.
“Jesus, Han. Lay off.”
“Am I being too much?” she asked, giving me a wink. Tyler was blushing now, and I knew she was teasing him. “It’s just that he’s never brought a girl home before. There are years of pent up big-sistering I have to get out.”
“That’s not a thing,” Tyler said.
“It’s not?” she asked.
“I definitely think it is a thing,” I contributed.
Tyler scowled at me. “You’re on my side.”
“Am I?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Yes. You two have just met, you don’t get to start ganging up on me in the doorway. At least wait until after dinner.”
“Okay. Truce,” Hannah offered.
Tyler put his palm on my lower back and guided me farther into the penthouse. Penthouse. There was so much to take in. Everything appeared so clean and white, but also homey, in a strange way. Tyler guided us into a room to the left of the front hall, it appeared to be a lounge of some kind. There were a couple of loveseats facing each other, and a small bar in the corner.
“Beer or wine?” Tyler asked me.
“White wine would be nice.” I preferred beer over wine, but the occasion seemed more appropriate for wine. Tyler gave me a questioning look, and I smiled and nodded.
“Where’s Pres?” he asked Hannah. I guessed that was her husband.
“He’s in his office. Work emergency.” She smiled apologetically. “He’ll be down in a few.”
Tyler brought me and his sister glasses of wine, then returned to the bar to pour his drink. I sat down on one of the loveseats, his sister sat on the other, and Tyler sat beside me with a short glass of amber liquid. Whiskey, perhaps?
“So, Melanie. Tyler tells me you’re a fashion designer.”
I turned my wide eyes to Tyler. “Embellish much?” I whispered. Not quietly enough though, because Hannah laughed. “I just play around…”
“She doesn’t play around,” Tyler said. “She designs a lot of what she wears, and she’s working on a wedding dress for her friend.”
Hannah’s eyes lit up. “A wedding dress? Really? Wow...I always used to doodle dresses and stuff when I was younger, but I never dreamed of designing something that could actually become something, you know?”
Oddly, I knew exactly what she meant. “Yes, I started the same way. Then I started going to thrift stores and craft stores with my allowance and the money I made from babysitting and creating things based off my drawings.”
“Wow, that’s so cool. Are all of your designs repurposed thrift store finds?”
“No, none actually. That was my direction in high school but once I got to college and took some design classes, I fell in love with boho-chic. I’m actually working on a line that’s sort of conservative boho-chic. I really wanted to design something that could pass as professional work wear.”
“That’s very cool. Did you design what you’re wearing now?”
“The top, yes.” I held my arms out to the side so she could see the how the fabric fell around my waist. “It looks like it’s tucked into the skirt, right? But it’s not.”
/> “Wow, that’s so cool. I wish I could commission a few pieces from you. I love your style.”
My face heated. I wasn’t used to being complimented on my designs since generally no one ever knew they were mine. “Thank you.”
“Of course!” Hannah smiled.
We spent the next few minutes talking about our favorite designers and the best places to shop. Tyler inserted the occasional comment, but mainly left Hannah and I to speak in a language he didn’t quite understand. He’d said as much.
By the time Hannah’s husband made his appearance, I had a pretty good idea of what designs in my closet Hannah would like.
Maybe I’d bring something over one day…
11
Tyler
Melanie and my sister were hitting it off better than I’d ever expected. I was glad to see her so relaxed considering how tense she’d been on the way over. I had planned on taking an Uber, but when I was waiting for her to finish her work emergency, I knew she’d need the walk to calm down. I was hoping the wine and conversation would have her so laid back that she wouldn’t get pissed at me for what was about to happen. For not being completely honest with her…
“Preston! There you are. Come meet Melanie,” Hannah said, looking behind me and Melanie.
Showtime.
Melanie and I stood, turning to face my brother-in-law together. I heard Melanie’s gasp as I stepped forward and gave him a bro hug.
“Melanie, good to see you again,” Preston said, smiling at my frozen girlfriend. I nudged her with my elbow.
“Mr. Parks, it’s good to see you, too.” She held out her hand, and he took it.
“Call me Preston, please. I hate being called Mr. Parks, even at the office.”
“Preston,” Melanie said, trying the word out. The two syllables rolling awkwardly off her tongue.
Preston smiled. “What have you got there, Ty?”
“Whiskey, neat.”
“Macallan?”
“Glenfiddich.”
Preston laughed. “Always after the best?” I smirked, knowing he was going to try to make me look bad. “Melanie, this clown you’re dating threw a huge party his senior year of high school when his sister and I were out of town for business. They drank all my liquor, expensive shit, too. I think one of the bottles was over twenty thousand dollars.”
Melanie looked at me, still wide-eyed. “Twenty thousand dollars?” she asked no one in particular.
Preston nodded. “Yeah. The little shit puked it all up the next day, too. We got a call from our housekeeper the next morning, and Hannah had to come home early to take care of him.”
“I didn’t mind,” Hannah said. Whenever she had to do something maternal for me, she always added the disclaimer that she didn’t mind, so I wouldn’t think I was a burden, even though I knew she was really pissed that time. She could say it as often as she wanted, but I still knew it wasn’t exactly convenient for her to have to take care of her younger brother when she was still basically a child herself. She should have been enjoying being a newlywed instead of becoming an insta-mom to her ornery teenage brother.
“Anyway,” Preston said, taking a seat beside Hannah and placing a kiss on the side of her head. She closed her eyes at the contact and smiled. My sister hit the lottery with Preston Parks, literally and figuratively. So had I. “I’m guessing the work emergency that held you up, Melanie, was the same one that held me up.”
“Oh, I guess it was. I’m glad Brianna wasn’t hurt.”
“The woman works too hard,” Preston said.
“She does. It’s why she’s the best.”
“Indeed. She speaks very highly of you.”
“Oh, um…”
Preston laughed lightly. “Don’t worry. She doesn’t know you’re dating my brother-in-law.” Melanie looked relieved, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. “Tyler here keeps his professional life and his personal life completely separate; I assume you’d want to do the same.”
She looked at me, then back at Preston. “Yes, please.”
“Not a problem. What’s for dinner, Han?”
While my sister went into a lengthy description of the menu, I placed my hand on Melanie’s leg, just above her knee. She then crossed her legs, letting my hand fall to the sofa cushion. She glanced at me briefly, and I knew what she was saying.
“…”
***
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me Preston Parks is your brother-in-law!”
I ignored the scalding tone of Melanie’s voice, instead opting to appreciate the fact that she was finally talking to me again. We had a nice dinner with Hannah and Preston. She spoke to the two of them at length about this, that, and the other thing, but she only spoke directly to me when absolutely necessary. It did not go unnoticed by Hannah, who whispered in my ear when I was hugging her goodbye that I should have told her about Preston.
I took Melanie’s coat from her and hung it on the hook on the back of my apartment door. I was surprised she even came back to my apartment with me, though I’m not entirely sure she realized she had since she silently fumed the entire way here.
“I don’t typically share that information because of work.”
“But we’re dating, Tyler. I understand why you might not want to share that information with a coworker, but I’m your girlfriend.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You should be. You completely blindsided me. I was feeling bad enough being late, and then having that bomb dropped on me? How embarrassing. Everyone knew but me. I just saw Preston last week and he said nothing, but he knew, didn’t he? He knew I was your girlfriend?”
I nodded, feeling a little ashamed, but not much. I still didn’t think it was a big deal, but I understood why she did.
She flopped down on my bed and kicked off her shoes. “I’m so mad at you.”
“I know,” I said, kicking off my shoes.
“Like really mad.”
“I know you are,” I said as I unbuttoned my shirt. She eyed my fingers as they released each button. “I’m sorry.” I tossed my shirt in the laundry basket on the floor of my closet.
“Hmm?” She was staring at my naked chest.
“I said I was sorry.”
She looked up at me, snapping out of her lust induced haze. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It just didn’t come up. Honestly. I didn’t think about it until Hannah invited us to dinner and I realized you’d recognize him. I wasn’t intentionally keeping it from you. I don’t volunteer the information because he owns the company. He took it over when his father retired a few years ago. I got my job on my own merit, and I don’t want people to assume I got it handed to me because Preston is family.”
“I never would have thought that about you.”
“I know, babe. But other people would.” I unbuttoned my slacks and they dropped to the floor. Melanie was once again distracted. I walked over to my dresser and pulled out a t-shirt, tossing it at her.
“What’s this for?”
“You’re sleeping over.”
“I am?”
“Yep.”
She stood up from her place on the bed and I thought she’d make a move to leave, but she didn’t. Instead she pulled her blouse over her head, tossing it on the loveseat. Standing in front of me in her black skirt and a black lace bra, beautiful wasn’t enough of a word to describe the sight. Neither was breathtaking. Melanie was all those things and more. She reached behind her and unzipped her skirt. It fell to the floor revealing a black lace thong that matched her bra. She kicked her skirt off her feet, and it landed next to my pants. I liked seeing our discarded clothing next to each other on the floor like that.
I looked back to Melanie and she took a step towards me. There was heat in her eyes, probably the same heat that was in my eyes.
Another step.
That was all it took.
12
Melanie
Tyler and I were a mess of lips and hands an
d tongues.
His hands went straight for my shoulders, sliding the straps of my bra down my arms. My hands felt up his pecs and down the ridges of his abs. He worked out a lot, and I loved feeling the hot benefits under my fingertips. Our mouths were fused together, breathing each other in and tasting each other’s wants. With a groan, Tyler pushed me back so I landed on his bed. He crawled over me, and his forearms framed my face as he looked into my eyes.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Say the words, Melanie,” he demanded. His voice was rough, full of need. Need for me. I’d never felt so powerful.
“Yes, I want this, Tyler. I need you.” I emphasized my point by lifting my hips to meet his. I let out a small moan when my sensitive parts met his very hard parts.
He kissed me again, then rose to his knees. He was still straddling my legs when he pulled me up so I was sitting flush against him, then he reached his hands around my back to unclasp my bra. He pulled it off, tossing it onto our growing clothes pile on the floor. He pushed me back down onto the bed and looked down at me for a moment. I about came out of my skin when he reached his hand into his boxer briefs and squeezed.
“I want to fuck you so bad.”
“What are you waiting for?” I asked, grabbing the backs of his strong thighs and pulling him back down on top of me. I loved the feel of his weight on me, the pressure…
Tyler kissed me as he ran his hands down to my hips and pushed my panties down. I helped wriggle them the rest of the way off. Then I did the same with his boxers, feeling the length of him hit my upper thigh as he kicked his shorts off each foot. It was big and heavy, and I couldn’t wait to feel it inside me. Tyler ran a finger through my wet center, and I spread my legs, letting him know I was more than ready for him. I rocked my hips as he dipped and rubbed, teasing me to the point of squirming.
“Please, Tyler.”
He let out a dark chuckle before reaching for the drawer of his nightstand. He ripped the foil wrapper open with his teeth. I laughed as he spit out the piece he’d torn off, but my humor quickly turned to desire as I watched him roll the condom on. God, he was beautiful.
Simply Irresistible: A Totally Sweet Love Story Page 5
