Tangled Hearts (Passion in Paradise)

by Sarah O'Rourke

  “I know; I’ve been working right beside you which is how I know that we both need a break. You and I both know that you are in good shape right now. We’ll go for a week and by the time we get back, all your inventory deliveries should be here. We’ll return in time to stock your shelves and computerize all the stock just like you wanted.”

  “But…”

  “I already talked to Abel. He agreed that we could have our orders redirected to his office and he’d hold them for us until we returned. He’s got a whole empty room to store the stuff and his assistant, Maggie, rarely leaves the office. We’ll be fine to go.”

  “Well, you’ve just got it all figured out, huh?” Melody pouted, more than a little affronted that he’d arranged all this behind her back. Honestly, it was her store, dammit.

  “Don’t get angry with me, Princess,” he chided gently. “Look, after today, I just think it might be better if we got you away from here for a bit.”

  Melody glared at him. “Callum, nothing happened today besides the fact that I accidently ingested a food to which I’m allergic. That’s all.”

  “So you think….I’m not convinced. Please, Melody. I’ve already gotten everything covered for us. Come away with me for a little bit,” he pressed. “Let’s get away and spend some time… just us.”

  “How is that different from the time we spend together here exactly?”

  “There we’ll have room service and little mints on our pillows,” he rationalized with a wink. “C’mon, I want you to myself for just a few days.”

  “Aren’t you afraid that if we spend too much time together I might end up killing you?” she asked curiously.

  “Baby, only people we really care about an awful lot can make us that angry. So, I say bring it on,” he returned with an unworried nod.

  Well, hell, Melody inwardly cursed. “Fine. But I’m paying my own way and I’m getting my own room.”

  “We’ll see,” Cal chuckled, dropping a kiss to her upturned nose.

  “Yes, we shall,” Melody huffed, eerily feeling as though the battle lines had been drawn between them.

  Chapter Sixteen: Naked and Naughty in Nashville

  As Melody stood in line behind a pair of nattering grey-haired ladies animatedly discussing the Grand Ole Opry show they were taking in later in the evening, she prayed for patience... or divine intervention and steadfastly ignored the presence of the horse’s butt standing to her right. Of course, there, in the stately lobby of The Hermitage Hotel located in the heart of downtown Nashville, she once again realized that her Lord and Savior was ignoring her calls. It was no matter; she’d already promised herself that no matter how much Cal pissed her off, she would act like the mature, sophisticated woman she was, with or without the Almighty’s assistance. She would be the lady her mother and grandmother had raised her to be if it killed her, by Heaven.

  And trying to be a proper lady just might be what dispatched her to her Eternal Rest, too, she thought with a touch of bitterness as she lifted a hand and rubbed her throbbing temple while she wondered if she could develop a brain tumor overnight. Taking a deep breath, she mentally coached herself to think of serene streams and babbling brooks running through an emerald green meadow. Wait! Was that a bossy lumberjack marching toward her carefree daydream??? No, dang it! She refused to allow that towering asshat that kept insisting on micromanaging her life into even her daydreams!

  No, she was going to find a way to remain serene and passive while standing here in this very classy hotel lobby beside the world champion for being a domineering, dictatorial dickhead. Besides, hotel management would probably frown on her current fantasy of using one of the heavy sculptures adorning their polished tables as a murder weapon. No, she’d keep her cool, dammit. At least until she got the infuriating ass behind a closed door where the only witness to the crime she was prepared to commit would be the minibar she intended to raid right after the deed was done Oh yeah, once she got the overgrown bully alone, all bets were off! The gloves were coming off and she was going to strangle him with her bare hands.

  Because, honest to God, the insufferable pain in her ass was becoming almost unbearably alpha the longer they spent together. He’d taken over nearly every aspect of her life in the past month and had grown incredibly successful at bending her to his will. Okay, maybe she was overstating a little, but not by much, she thought, cutting her eyes toward her own personal giant of a bodyguard again. She told herself to relax and enjoy his devoted attention, but from the moment he’d bundled her into his truck this morning, he’d insisted on paying for everything.

  And that royally pissed her off.

  Because after being Brad Weller’s little trophy girlfriend/fiancée, she was NOT interested in ANY guy paying her way.

  Nope. Nuh uh. Not happening again.

  Gas. Lunch. Heck, even the long sleeved tee-shirt she’d bought as a souvenir at the Civil War Battlefield - - the man had insisted on footing the bill for every-freaking-thing. She appreciated it – she truly did. But enough was enough.

  Learning that he’d booked them into one of the premier five star hotels in Nashville was her breaking point. Mostly because she’d been prepared for the Holiday Inn…not, well…this! Looking around at the expensive décor, she bit her lip. Not even Brad had ever taken her somewhere this nice and he’d been going to marry her. This place was the kind of hotel that either the very wealthy or the very in love used. While she didn’t know much about Cal’s finances, she seriously doubted that he made a sport out of wasting money (especially since, like her, he was going to soon be opening his own business), and the second option wasn’t something she could think about if she wanted to maintain the tiny bit of sanity that she had remaining.

  “Cal,” she whispered out of the side of her mouth again, “I really think…”

  “Shut it, Princess,” she heard him growl back in a low tone. “I already told you… this is where I want to stay,” he told her again for the fourth time. Leaning toward her, his eyes shined wickedly as he whispered against her ear, “Listen, babe, I fully intend to finally get you both naked and naughty in Nashville, and I’m gonna do that in a nice place on a soft, luxurious bed.”

  She wanted to hiss, spit and claw his glittering eyeballs from their sockets at his bald assumption that this week away would somehow become a romantic retreat for them (because it wouldn’t, despite the fact that her lady bits were cheering wildly), but knew it would draw attention to them. And the last thing she needed was a jury of her peers hearing from a bunch of Nashville’s finest how her sanity finally snapped and she’d removed Cal’s penis via his windpipe. Clenching her jaw to keep from giving him the cursing that he so richly deserved, Melody instead forced a tight smile to her lips as the little old ladies moved to the side and the concierge beckoned them forward to the check-in desk.

  “Welcome to the Hermitage Hotel, sir. How can I help you today?” the stately man behind the counter greeted them respectfully.

  “Actually,” Melody said hurriedly, “I think we’re in the wrong place. We’re sorry!” she apologized quickly as she tried to pull Cal out of line by his arm. Of course, it was like a mouse trying to move a skyscraper… a complete and total failure. He merely chuckled at her antics and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her into his side and holding her there.

  “Don’t mind her,” he told the other man with a wink. “She’s just not used to my idea of a good time yet. I booked a suite for us last week under the name Callum Valentine,” he informed the now-amused man behind the counter as Melody tried to twist flesh from Cal’s body as she pinched his side.

  Growling under her breath when he swatted her hand the way most people swatted irritating gnats, Melody heard the man in front of them tapping away at his keyboard while she glared up into Cal’s determined face. “Does it even matter to you that I don’t want to stay here,” she hissed.

  “Nope,” Cal denied easily as he exchanged a smile with the man checking into the hotel at thei
r left. “She’s a bit high strung,” he informed the other man as Melody smacked his chest. “Never knows how to just let herself be spoiled, y’know?”

  “Got one here just like her,” the elderly man beside them laughed as he jerked his head toward the unamused elderly woman at his side.

  Melody swapped a commiserative look with the older woman. “Maybe if our men weren’t insistent on acting like dominating cavemen, we’d be more easily moved.”

  “Preach that from the mountaintops, dear,” the little old lady’s aged voice agreed with a nod of her white head.

  The concierge took that opportunity to interrupt their bonding moment by clearing his throat. “I’ve found your reservation, Mr. Valentine. Everything you requested is in order, sir, and all the arrangements have been made,” he shared evenly, sliding two key cards across the granite counter to them.

  “Everything he requested? Arrangements?” Melody echoed suspiciously, staring at the widely smiling man. “What arrangements? What’d he do?” she bit off, narrowing her gaze on the hotel employee. Getting no response, she turned her attention to Cal’s satisfied face, she asked again, “What’d you do, Cal?”

  Both men ignored her queries as they shook hands and the concierge gestured for the uniformed bellboy. “This couple will be staying in Executive Suite 2A, Shane. Get them settled in, would you?” the concierge ordered before smiling toward her and Cal again. “Shane will take you up, sir. Madam. Enjoy your stay at The Hermitage,” he said with a small bow at them.

  “Oh, we will, man,” Cal chuckled, offering the man a little wave before turning to the younger man waiting for them with their bags already loaded on a rolling cart. “Lead the way, Shane. We can’t wait to get our stay underway.”

  “Well, one of us can’t,” Melody grumbled, following behind the rolling cart as Cal settled a hand on her lower back and guided her down the carpeted corridor toward the elevator.

  Several minutes later as she stood in the opulent hotel suite, Melody swallowed hard as her eyes filled with tears. Dear Lord, but Callum was making it extremely difficult not to fall in love with him. Staring at the vase of colorful tulips (her favorite flower which she’d mentioned to him in passing ONE time), she shook her head. “Does that damn man listen to everything I say?”

  “Unless it’s something stupid like you telling me we could never work, yeah. I listen to everything you say.”

  Turning on her heel, her eyes widened as the found Cal leaning negligently against the arched doorframe that separated the bedroom from the sitting area. “I thought you were going to take a shower!” she blustered, her cheeks reddening as she realized she’d been talking out loud. AGAIN.

  “Have you seen the shower yet?” Cal returned with a shrug. “I’m afraid I’ll get lost in there…thought maybe you’d come hold my hand,” he continued hopefully. “I take it you like the flowers,” he went on, nodding toward the fragrant bouquet as he strolled toward where she stood, her bare toes digging into the thick piled carpet.

  Looking down at her feet, she grimaced. She’d discarded her shoes the moment Cal had tipped their bellboy and sent him on his way. Now, standing in her bare feet as he came toward her, she knew how a deer felt when the headlights got shined on his unsuspecting self. “How in the world did you get them to find you tulips in January? Those must have cost you a fortune, Cal.” she rambled, licking her suddenly dry lips as she made herself meet his eyes.

  “Worth it to catch you smiling the way I just caught you smiling, babe,” he declared with a grin, dropping his hands to the curve of her hips when he stopped in front of her. “Now, about that shower…”

  “Hold it right there, Mr. Grabby Pants,” Melody ordered, gently, but firmly, pushing his hands away from her. “There will be no coed showers, Cal. And I suggest you get on the phone right now and find us a room with two beds. Either that, or you can make yourself real comfortable on that tiny couch tonight,” she warned, jerking her head toward the gorgeous, but small dark leather sofa sitting against the wall opposite the huge flat screen television mounted to the wall. “Seriously, I don’t know what you thought you’d accomplish by renting this suite, but…”

  “Do you like it?” he asked, cutting her off as he wrapped his long, muscled arms around her again and pulled her against him.

  “Wh-what?” she floundered, her voice a little breathless as she inclined her head to meet his soft gaze.

  “I said, do you like the suite?”

  “Well, it’s beautiful,” she admitted, looking around the room at the tasteful furniture. Decorated in shades of cream and rich chocolate, it was coolly elegant while still remaining inviting.

  “Then, my goal was accomplished.”

  “Huh?” she grunted, frowning as she tilted her head and considered his relaxed expression.

  “I wanted to stay somewhere that I thought you’d be comfortable relaxing and letting down your guard, Melody. I saw this place online and liked it. I thought you would, too.”

  “I do like it. Truthfully, I love it,” she confessed softly, her body slowly warming as his warm hands slid underneath her simple black shirt to stroke the sensitive skin of her lower back.

  “Then, babe, my mission was a success,” he stated lightly, dropping a gently kiss to her forehead. “Not gonna lie to you… I saw that bed in there in the pictures and fantasized of about a hundred ways I wanted to slide into that tight little body of yours, too,” he confided huskily as he lowered his head and pressed a kiss against the side of her neck, “but, if that doesn’t happen, I’m still gonna have the memory of your face when you saw those flowers. That alone made this trip completely worth it to me.”

  “I just wish you’d told me that you wanted to stay somewhere so… fancy,” she murmured, her words slightly muffled by his chest. “I would have pitched in on the cost and…”

  Cal’s laugher echoed in the still room, cutting her off. “Babe, I’m not exactly poor. I spent twenty years in the Army climbing through the ranks with no wife or kids. I don’t exactly suffer from a lack of funds. Between what I’ve saved and my retirement, I live quite comfortably. I can even afford to tack on a few dependents when the time is right. Will you please stop worrying about money?”

  “I don’t like not paying my own way,” she shared anxiously, her body stiffening against his.

  “I’ve told you that you’re mine, Melody,” she heard Cal say for the eightieth time since they celebrated Christmas together. “I will always take care of what belongs to me.”

  “And I’ve told you that I don’t belong to you or anyone else. I’ve tried belonging to a man before, Cal. It didn’t go so well for me.”

  “Because you were involved with a boy dressing up in a man’s clothing, Mel. Real men don’t treat women the way you were treated. Let me show you the way this works when a man wants his woman the way I want you, babe. The difference between him and me will be like fire and ice. Complete fuckin’ opposites. And you’ll have the added benefit of knowing that I’ll be worth your time. I think I’ve already proven that much,” he pointed out, nestling his face into her neck while his arms tightened around her.

  Moaning as she felt his velvety tongue stroke the hypersensitive skin between her neck and shoulder, Melody fisted her hands in the soft cotton of his shirt. “M-maybe we c-could do the casual thing,” she suggested shakily as his strong white teeth grazed her pulse as one of his hands moved up her side to curve around her lace covered breast.

  Lifting his head, Cal arched one eyebrow as his eyes darkened ominously. “The casual thing,” he repeated irritably, his hand tightening around the globe of her breast. “Please, enlighten my hillbilly ass and define the casual thing, Melody,” he demanded, his deep voice stern. “And please, bear in mind that if I don’t like what you say that I’m very fuckin’ likely to wanna paddle your gorgeous ass. So, since I’m a smart man and I’m pretty sure I know exactly what you’re thinkin’, please, baby, keep talkin’ for me. My hand is just itchin’ for you t
o move those lush, plump lips of yours.”

  “Now, Cal, there’s no reason to make threats. We’re both adults here,” Melody said, hesitating slightly. Surely, he was just trying to intimidate her to get his own way. Sadly, she couldn’t give him the committed relationship he seemed to want. She could, however, meet him halfway and perhaps, they’d both get some of what they wanted. Because she couldn’t deny any longer that she desperately yearned for the bliss he could bring her body. She’d experienced it once… and she wanted it again.

  And the only way to get it was to be completely honest with him.

  “C’mon, Princess…spit it out. Tell me what casual is,” he invited darkly while his thumb worried the tip of her breast with one hand and the other stroked the soft, vulnerable flesh of her lower back.

  “Casual is…you know, friends with…”

  “Say. It,” Cal demanded, enunciating each word when she paused, his blaze blistering her with its almost feral heat.

  “Benefits,” Melody breathed, gasping when the harsh sound of the sharp crack of Cal’s hand connecting with her ass split the room. “Cal!” she yelped as his palm connected again, this time causing her to jerk in his arms as a fierce heat bloomed in her left ass cheek. “Stop it!” she yelled when his hand made contact with her bottom for the third time.

  “I warned you, woman,” he bit out through his grinding teeth as he glared down at her, still holding her tightly against him. “I have zero fuckin’ interest in bein’ your plaything, babe. I’m not a trained monkey; I won’t scratch your itch just because you twitch your delectable ass in my direction,” he warned, palming her throbbing buttock and squeezing forcefully. “Friends with benefits,” he sneered at her, “isn’t going to happen for us. You want my cock…you take my heart, too. It’s a mother-fuckin’ package deal,” he informed her, setting her away from him as he stomped out of the room.

  Melody jumped in place when she heard the bathroom door slam. “Well, shit,” she muttered, hanging her head as she wished she could call her words back. While she’d been busy tryin’ to protect her own heart from future pain with her offer of no-strings sex, she hadn’t spared a thought for what her suggestion would do to Cal’s. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she whisper cursed as she began to pace the length of the sitting room. Obviously, she’d underestimated the depth of his feelings for her. Sure, she knew she turned him on – that cement nightstick he’d been pressing against her while he’d held her clearly indicated that he thought she was physically attractive. She just hadn’t been sure if the physical attraction would translate into the components necessary for a real and lasting relationship. Now, though, as she slumped to the sofa and sat, silently defeated, she could see that she’d been blind. Since Cal had bulldozed his way into her life, he’d been showing her he cared. Protecting her. Helping her. Being that ear she so desperately needed to listen.