“And you must give me another shot at beating you in car racing.”
“Agreed—but your outlook isn’t good,” she said, dangerously distracted as he nibbled her earlobe. At this point, I’d agree to almost anything.
“And now that you’ve agreed to three things, my guess is you’ll also agree to be my girlfriend,” he finished victoriously. He flashed her a wide smile and tugged up her shirt, exposing her stomach and a scarlet bra.
The heat between them, skin to skin, shocked them both. Melina rolled her hips into Joshua, locking her legs around him. Joshua’s hand skimmed her chest, fingering the lace edge of her bra.
“I have a few conditions of my own,” she said.
“Shoot.” Joshua watched her carefully as his hand ran up her side, hooked her bra straps and tugged them down.
All at once, Melina was exposed. Elated. Electrified. She drew a sharp breath as Joshua reached for her, his eyes never leaving hers, and she struggled to come up with her conditions.
“You must agree that my shoes are not ridiculous.” Her feet found his at the other end of the couch and she nudged him playfully.
“Agreed.” His hands stroked her hair, her cheek, her sides.
“And you must agree to plenty of nights out. I’m willing to take turns on who chooses.”
“Agreed.” Joshua’s arm tightened around her and his head bent down to taste her breast.
“And—” she gasped as Joshua’s kiss sent her into a spiral of pleasure. “And you must agree to plenty of nights in,” she finished, flushing at the implication.
“Like this?” he asked innocently, his body stilled.
Is he going to make me spell it out?
“This is a good start,” she coached, her hand moving deliberately up his leg to where she could feel his reaction.
“Like this?” His nails scraped the skin on her back, from waist to shoulder blades, igniting every nerve. She ground her hips into him in response, her hands blindly searching for a button as he kissed her.
“Getting warmer.”
Melina poured need and hunger and promise into their kiss, searching his mouth for a switch to send him over the edge.
But he teased her, taking his time, touching her and lighting her skin on fire. Her fingers roamed across his stomach, down the trail of hair from his navel, and finally found the metal button at the top of his jeans. With a pinch, she opened the first button, twisting the soft denim to open one, two, three more.
“Take me to bed, Joshua Danford,” she whispered.
Joshua’s voice was hoarse and heavy with need. “Agreed.”
***
Joshua sat up, clasping Melina’s bare chest to his, and swung his legs from the couch to the floor.
“What are you doing?”
He stood up, his hands cupping her butt as he carried her toward the bedroom. “Just what you asked. Taking you to bed.”
Melina’s head swiveled, taking in the king-sized bed in an otherwise sparsely furnished room. Just as she was prepared to unwind her legs from around his hips and stand, one hand tightened under her, holding her in place.
“Not so fast,” he chided, and his other hand pulled back the dove gray comforter. “I want to look at you.”
Melina felt herself flush again as he laid her gently, reverently in the center of the bed. Her blonde hair fanned out around her head as he stroked her softly down her arms and torso, standing between her knees at the side of the bed.
Joshua’s gaze smoldered as he watched her, his hand opening the button on her jeans, sliding the zipper down slowly and deliberately. Melina felt a rush of self-consciousness and moved her hand to cover her chest.
Joshua froze her movement with a twitch of his eyebrow.
How could I fall so completely under his spell?
Joshua’s jeans gaped from where she’d unbuttoned them, but they still clung to his hips so she brushed his legs with hers to pull them down further.
Joshua chuckled. “Impatient? We’ll get there,” he promised, and stepped out of his own jeans before finally pulling off hers. He slid his hands under her thighs and shoulders and turned her ninety degrees in the center of the bed before sliding across the cool sheets beside her.
His body was a furnace. Melina snuggled closer to him, watching Joshua’s expression carefully as his hands roamed her body, exploring. His head bent to kiss her again—mouth, neck, breasts, stomach—and she wondered at his unhurried touch.
This was new. It was virgin territory—with Richard, and with other lovers, each action was a means to an end. Kissing, undressing, fondling; these were simply the steps on a routine playlist.
But now these encounters felt as if she’d been missing an essential ingredient, like soup without salt. This passion was different. It was alive with the promise of something more intimate than sex.
Joshua paused his exploration, his head hovering over her stomach, his hand skimming the inside of her thigh. A mischievous grin lit his face.
Plbbbbtt!
“Aack!” Melina shrieked, her body contracting as Joshua blew a raspberry on her stomach.
Joshua laughed, pressing a fast, hard kiss on her lips. “Don’t look so serious. This is supposed to be fun.”
Suddenly, the butterflies of worried anticipation fled Melina’s stomach and she relaxed, actually grinning as Joshua slipped off her panties and his own boxers.
“I’m having fun.” Melina stretched, bowing her back and luxuriating in the enormous bed and the beautiful man who traced dangerous circles with his tongue lower and lower on her belly.
Melina arched as he reached her core, every nerve tingling with the slightest change in pressure or rhythm. Still, Joshua refused to hurry, winding her up and cooling her down without taking her all the way to release.
It was frustrating the hell out of her.
“You’re torturing me,” she accused.
“Never. Just taking the time to do it right.” Suddenly, Joshua sat up. “Let’s see, how can we make this more fun?” He rolled onto his back, pulling Melina to straddle him. His kiss changed, more demanding, his tongue reaching for hers.
Melina could feel him hard beneath her and her excitement built. She bucked her hips and he hissed, his arm reaching for the drawer in his bedside table. He withdrew a foil packet, ripped it and rolled it on.
Joshua tugged Melina’s hips back over him, his molten chocolate eyes never leaving her face. She moved on him, teasing, feeling him respond hot and hard.
“I think I’ve imagined this happening fifty different ways, but never quite like this,” Joshua rasped, pressing himself toward her core.
Melina rocked on him, picking up his rhythm, letting her hands roam his chest. Her mouth held a sly smile. “Only fifty? I think we can come up with a few more.”
“And try them all out,” Joshua bucked and Melina felt heat build inside her. He pulled Melina closer, taking her breast in his mouth, gentle nips with his teeth making her cry out as he pushed her higher and higher.
Melina finally broke, her head thrown back, her body scattered as she felt a wave crash through her. Joshua held her tightly, driving her higher before tipping over the edge himself, like a roller coaster roaring to climax. Aftershocks that rocked Melina again and again.
Sweaty and sated, Melina collapsed against Joshua’s chest, feeling his chest heave beneath her.
“Melina Avgerakis, you are an amazing woman,” Joshua whispered, planting kisses across her forehead as she lay on his chest.
Melina was quiet, searching for the words that matched the surprise and elation bubbling inside her. This wasn’t just sex—it was the first time she felt cherished not just for her body, but also for herself.
“And Joshua Danford, you are a revelation,” Melina’s voice rumbled in her throat, trying to convey the weight of how and why she felt different.
His eyebrows furrowed in a question.
“Let’s just say I got to see a side of you I never expected,” Melin
a hedged.
“Like my backside?” Joshua grinned.
“That too, you goof. I meant this boyfriend thing—it’s good. It’s more than a label you stick on people who are having sex.”
“That’s because it is more than sex,” Joshua wiggled his eyebrows and grinned. “It means we’re together, we’re a team, we’re a couple. Haven’t you ever had a boyfriend before?”
The instant he said it, Melina froze.
Joshua’s offhand comment hit far too close to home. He wrapped Melina tightly in his arms, pulling the comforter over them. “Melina,” he whispered. “Mel, I’m sorry. It was a stupid thing to say.”
She kept her face buried against his chest, unwilling to look at him. “It’s true,” she finally croaked. “I haven’t.”
“Mel, you don’t have to—”
“I do. I have to say it. I’ve never had a real boyfriend. Sex, yes. Affair, yes. Boyfriend? Someone who treated me like an equal? No.”
Joshua’s chest rose with a steadying breath. “Then we start here.”
SEVENTEEN
“Your girlfriend,” Melina ventured, “is she the type who sleeps over?” She was asking permission.
“She is definitely that type,” Joshua said solemnly. They lay curled together as their breathing returned to normal. “She sleeps over and then requires Darth to make her a complicated coffee in the morning.”
“Darth?”
“My espresso machine. He whooshes like Darth Vader, sounds a bit evil actually, but he’s harmless. He makes a good latté, or whatever foofy drink you prefer.”
“Mmmm, latté,” Melina said, contentedly. “Is your girlfriend the type who eats breakfast, too?”
Joshua’s arm reached over her body, lacing his fingers with hers, hands tucked under her chin. He was enjoying this third-person discussion, watching Melina push her luck. “She likes her eggs poached, firm whites, slightly runny yolks. Better yet, eggs benedict. Real hollandaise.”
“Of course,” Melina said. “She has great taste.”
“What about your boyfriend?” Joshua asked. “Is he the type to get up early and go running, or sleep in and not get dressed until noon?”
“Not get dressed, I like that,” Melina said, pulling Joshua closer around the curve of her back. “I’d say he definitely won’t be getting dressed until noon.”
She rolled toward him, kissing him suddenly. “And he should forget about that run. He’ll get plenty of exercise.”
***
“I’ve got a question,” he ventured.
“I’ve got an answer,” she said, confident.
“You haven’t told me much about your family. I’m wondering—why?”
“What do you want to know? I mean, there’s not much to say about them.” Melina sounded less confident now. “I told you, my folks are in Indiana and my little brother’s in college in New York. My older sister is in Florida with her husband and kids.”
“I guess I mean, what are they like? Tell me about them, or tell me why you don’t like to talk about them.” Joshua hesitated, not wanting to spoil their night, but hoping now might be the time to finally dig deeper. “Or maybe just tell me about something from when you were a kid.” He hoped that request would be easier.
“My mom, she wanted to be a concert violinist,” Melina said. “She trained with the best her folks could afford, which wasn’t the best, but it was good enough to get her into a music school. Her skills really took off her first year and she thought she could get into an orchestra as a real, full-time professional.” Melina’s narrative felt detached, but Joshua listened intently.
“The summer after her freshman year, she went back home to her folks in Indiana and she picked up where she left off with her high school boyfriend, my dad. Well, they weren’t very careful, and by the end of the summer she was pregnant.”
Joshua shifted his arm around Melina as she continued. “Her folks wanted to kill her, wasting all that scholarship money, wasting everything they invested and all the time she invested in her music career. They would have thrown her out of the house, but my dad asked to marry her. He got a union job right out of high school and so he was doing pretty well; he could take care of a family.”
“So my mom had my older sister April, and suddenly she was just a mom, not a ‘promising young talent’ anymore. I think she was angry, knowing what she was missing after a year of college with pretty much unlimited freedom, to go back to her small town, under the shadow of a shotgun wedding and her parents. And my dad is a nice guy, he’s good to her and worked hard to support our family, but he’s not exactly well-cultured, if you know what I mean.”
Joshua nodded slightly and stroked her hair. This was the most Melina had ever shared.
“So within a few years, I came along, and that was supposed to be it, a family of four, but then they had an ‘oops’ and my little brother showed up, seven years later. That actually turned out to be a good thing, though. Because my mother probably figured that if she couldn’t grow up to become a famous violinist, she could still coach one of us to be that.”
Melina’s tone soured. “My sister had absolutely no interest in music, and honestly, she can’t even sing ‘Happy Birthday’ on key. My mother forced her to play the piano and violin for five years before she finally rebelled, quit them both, and joined the softball team. She was awesome at anything physical, even when we were little, and she always beat me and made sure I knew it. I think my mom knew that my sister wasn’t musical, but that didn’t keep her from trying.
“I started music younger, the same time April did, and I wasn’t really old enough to quit when she did. I just faded out. I stopped practicing and even started making intentional mistakes, like doing the phrasing all wrong, stuff that contradicts a musician’s instinct. I think my mom let me quit because she assumed I didn’t have talent, like my sister, but it was really more of a lack of interest. I just didn’t care.
“My mom pinned her last hope on my little brother and finally, someone with her genes really got it. He’s amazing, and he’s finishing his third year at Juilliard—he’s that good. I think he has a real chance to be a professional musician with a classical orchestra, not just part of some wedding quartet.”
Melina stopped suddenly.
“How long has it been since the last time you saw them?”
“Three years.” Melina curled more tightly into Joshua’s arm.
“So what happened with your mom? Did she ever go back to the violin?”
“She did. She joined a community orchestra and she’s first chair—the lead violinist. She takes it very seriously. I remember one time, when I was about seven or eight, I was out skating with my sister and I fell really hard on the sidewalk.
“My sister was halfway down the block and didn’t see me, and I had bloody knees, so I took off my skates and limped back home in my socks. By the time I got home, they were pretty bloody, too, and I was crying so hard I kept tripping.
“My mom was on her way to one of her concerts, and she was all dressed in her orchestra gown, and I ran up to her to get a hug. But she put her hand on my shoulder and stopped me short, told me I’d ruin her dress if I got blood on it, and marched me into the bathroom to clean up my own knees. They took forever to heal because I didn’t know how to get the dirt out of the scrapes.”
Melina’s breath hitched, immersed in the pain of that moment more than twenty years ago. Joshua held her closer, thankful for her gift, that story, but wondering what it cost her to tell it.
“It hurt,” he said, simply.
“Yes.” Her knees. Herself. Her mother’s rejection when she most needed comfort.
Joshua let the quiet close around them, sensing Melina needed to be alone with her thoughts for a while. Eventually, they slept.
***
“It’s not really fair, you know,” Melina said.
Joshua stirred, his hand skimming her hip and the curve of her waist, pre-dawn light peeking through the windows. “What�
��s not?”
“I told you about my family, but you haven’t told me about yours. Not much, anyway. All your stories about growing up with your brothers—what are they doing now?”
Joshua breathed out slowly, flipping the pillow to the cool side before curling closer to Melina, planting a row of kisses on her bare shoulder.
“You’re stalling,” Melina giggled.
“Maybe,” Joshua said. “Maybe you’re distracting me.”
She rolled to face him, lacing her legs through his but fixing him with her gaze.
“It’s complicated.”
“Try me.”
“Well, Charles—my older brother—is in Alaska. He’s a deckhand, working through the different fishing seasons. And Frederick’s in Africa doing humanitarian aid, building clinics and stuff.”
“That doesn’t sound complicated. It sounds great.”
“Well, it’s not what it seems. Charles works the boats because it’s pretty much the only work he can get—most employers think twice before hiring a ex-con.”
Melina sucked in her breath.
“Yeah. Charlie makes a pretty mean drunk. A bar fight got out of hand, and he ended up causing permanent damage to a guy.” Joshua searched Melina’s face for a reaction. “After he got out of jail, I did what I could to help him, but he doesn’t want help. He just wants to get to the payday when they bring in their catch, and then he goes off and drinks it. When the money runs out, he goes back out fishing.”
Sounds of the city waking up and the first streams of traffic reached them. “Frederick always wanted to be a doctor, but my family didn’t have money for tuition, and scholarships and loans still didn’t cover it. He worked two jobs and tried to get through it, but he took too many shortcuts. His senior year, he got caught cheating and got kicked out of school. So that’s why he’s in Africa, trying to live his dream of practicing medicine even if he can’t get licensed.”
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