by Nicole Green
“I don’t understand. We already had dinner. And it’s past nine,” she said.
He grinned, nodding in a gesture indicating she should hop out of the truck. “You will. C’mon.”
He walked her into the dimly lit restaurant with his arm around her shoulders. She spotted the “Open Mic Poetry Slam” notice scrawled on a chalkboard in the entry way and her eyes darted between it and his face at lightning speed. His grin widened as he watched her figure it all out.
“Oh Austin,” she said, her voice a low, sultry murmur that made him want to kiss her right there in the entry way with people moving in and out around them.
“I haven’t done this in about a year and if I suck, you brought the ear pain on yourself. And I fully plan on embarrassing you by letting everyone know you’re with me,” he said.
“I’m with you?” Her words were a near-whisper.
He looked deeply into her eyes, lost in their brown depths. “You’re with me.” Before he could do any more damage, he walked her into the restaurant proper and up to the bar.
“Austin Holt! Am I seeing things?” A fortyish, black-haired, brown-skinned woman placed a hand over her large chest.
“Hey, Myrtle,” he said.
She hurried around the bar and gave him a huge squeeze.
“And who’s this?” Myrtle asked. “You’ve never brought anybody with you and such a pretty thing.” Myrtle turned to Melody. She was certainly right about that.
“This is my friend, Melody. Melody, Myrtle. Myrtle’s the proprietor of this fine establishment,” Austin said.
The two women greeted each other.
Austin then said, “You have room for me on the schedule tonight, Myrtle?”
“Oh, I always have room for you, baby,” she said in her naturally smoky, sultry tone. “You can go on at eleven, right after Big Boy Leroy as he’s decided to refer to himself this week.” Myrtle rolled her eyes. “Y’all have a seat. I’ll bring you drinks. On the house. Austin at open mic for the first time since I don’t know when? Cause for celebration. Austin, I got you, Jack right? And Melody, what you drinking, darling?”
“Vodka tonic,” Melody and Austin answered at the same time. Melody locked a look on him that was caramel and sugar and everything warm and good. “That’s right,” she said. He didn’t even notice Myrtle leave. He was too busy noticing the way her brown skin seemed to glow under the low house lights. When he was able to tear his eyes away, Myrtle was behind the bar again.
“Let’s grab those seats she mentioned,” he said, putting a hand on her lower back and guiding her to an empty table. He took a seat across from her. She was smiling at him. “What?”
“I never expected this.” She looked around the dimly lit restaurant. “I’m glad we’re here, but I just—never expected this. Thank you,” she reached across the table and put her hand over his, “for bringing me here.”
He put his other hand on top of hers, stroking her knuckles with the side of his thumb. He hadn’t expected to come there. He hadn’t expected to do a lot of the things he’d done since meeting Melody. All of a sudden, he wanted to share everything with her.
“That’s Shawn up there now. He’s good, huh?” Austin turned his attention to the stage to distract himself from her. It was a good thing she was leaving soon. Whenever he started to have these kinds of feelings, things went downhill from there. He’d devastated Kristen and Donnie along with her. The whole thing had been a huge tangle of mistakes. He’d killed Isadora. And poor Regan had done so much for him, and he’d given her so little besides grief in return. He’d never be able to make up for that. For any of it.
“Austin, about last night…” Melody’s voice trailed off and Austin looked up to see Myrtle at the table with their drinks. Good. He needed one. The dark liquid burned in a good way going down. He held Myrtle at the table a moment, starting up a conversation with her to avoid a difficult one with Melody. They talked about the restaurant and how well business was going. After a while, he turned the conversation to Melody.
“She’s A&R.” His eyes landed on Melody. “You have any cards you can give Myrtle? She gets some real talent in here every now and then.”
Myrtle squeezed his shoulder. “Like this one right here.”
He chuckled.
“No. Sorry.” Melody smiled up at her. “I’m between jobs right now anyway. So I’m not sure how much I could do for anybody.” She gave Austin a look he couldn’t quite read. Turning back to Myrtle, she changed the subject to something about interior design and color schemes. Austin lost interest and turned his attention back to the stage.
When it was Austin’s turn, he listened to the soft neo-jazz music in the background on his way up front, thinking of what to say. He had it by the time he grabbed the mic. Smiling, he said, “I’m Austin Holt. Some of y’all know me.” He paused for shouts. “Yeah, I’m back. You can blame this one right here. My friend, Melody.” He nodded to Melody and he could see the brown skin of her cheeks redden from where he was. She earned a few wolf whistles and a lot of clapping. “So everything I do up here tonight, I dedicate it to her. This first one is called…” he hadn’t named it yet and came up with a title while staring at Melody. “So Beautiful.”
Austin had eyes only for Melody all the way through the three pieces he performed. He noticed no one’s reactions but hers. No one’s applause but hers. He made love to her with his eyes in front of a bar full of people.
When his time was up, and he walked back to the table, she stood and hugged him, murmuring against his ear, “You were a hit.”
“Really?”
“Didn’t you notice your standing ovation?”
He moved his fingertips between her shoulder blades. “What did you think?”
“You scorched me. In a good way.” Her cheek brushed his. “A very good way. Tease.” She grinned. She should be talking what with her wearing that dress and all.
“I take that as a personal challenge.” His hand slipped down her back. He let his fingers brush against a place that elicited a sharp gasp from her. Then he grinned and took a seat, clapping as the next act took the stage.
Chapter Twenty-Four
By the time they got in the truck for the long drive home, he could barely sit still. It was going to be a long ride. He tried to keep his hands to himself, but she wasn’t having it. She linked her fingers through his almost as soon as they got in the truck. Once they were on the road for a few minutes, she brought their hands to her lips. She pulled his index finger into her mouth and sucked it long and slow, grazing her teeth along it as she finally released it from her mouth.
He groaned and shifted in his seat. Tried to think about something, anything else but ripping that little red scrap of fabric off her body. Then she held their fingers up to his chin. No. He wasn’t going to get pulled into this trap, this sexy little trap of hers. She grazed her index finger along his bottom lip. Then she did it again and again, over and over. He sighed without thinking about it and her finger found its way to his lower front teeth. Fuck it. He wasn’t made of steel. He sucked her finger, letting his tongue do all the things to it he wanted to do to the rest of her. She finally pulled it away from him with a rich moan.
“You’re gonna pay for that,” she said before pulling his middle finger into her mouth. She made good on her threat. He almost let the truck drift onto the shoulder.
By the time they’d worked their way through each other’s fingers and ended with the thumbs, he realized they weren’t going to make it home without a pit stop. When he spotted the dark path he’d been looking for that he remembered from his high school days, they were over halfway home. By now, she was practically sitting on his lap, and he didn’t know how he was still able to drive with her busy hands all over his heated body.
He drove down the path a little ways and then pulled over to the side. Turning to her, he unleashed all the kisses and touches he’d wanted to give her while driving—wanted to give her since the last time they’d kis
sed. He backed her against the passenger side door, and her long legs wrapped around his waist. Her dress had ridden up her hips and his jeans pressed against her panties. He reached down and touched the fabric between her legs. Silky. His fingers moved lower and she arched her back, moaning out his name. Wet silk.
“Austin, please,” she whispered the words against his ear, fumbling with her dress until she pushed it down to her middle. It looked more like a bunched up red belt now than a dress. He stared down at the plump round mounds she’d just exposed and the chocolate drops at their apexes. Cupping her breasts with his hands he gave her mouth another hard, wet kiss before moving down to her breasts. Pulling one of her nipples between his teeth, he rubbed his thumb in circles against the other. She clamped her legs tighter around him.
He moved her panties to the side and pressed his fingers past the wet curls of hair, moved them against the sensitive, slick skin inside. He moved his fingers lower, pushing them inside of her briefly. She moaned in protest when he moved them out again. He made up for it by pinching the sensitive skin of her clitoris. While his fingers worked, his mouth went to hers and then her breasts and back again until she came with shuddering breaths. He wanted so badly to be inside her when she did, but he settled for pushing his fingers back inside her, stroking her until she came a second time. Afterward, she lay limp and happy against the passenger side door.
He then kissed his way down her body, stuffed her panties into his back pocket, and put his mouth to work, letting her know he wasn’t done without saying a word. After she came a third time, he pulled the skirt of her dress down and helped her slip the straps back onto her shoulders.
On the rest of the ride home, she nestled her head into his chest and wrapped her arms around him. They didn’t talk about what had happened or the fact that her car would be ready to go back to Atlanta in a few hours or Myrtle’s or anything else. He wanted her in his bed again that night, but he didn’t trust himself, having her be that close all night, after the heated time they’d just spent together. Driving home with her wrapped all around him was hard enough. He wouldn’t have wanted her any place else, but still, it wasn’t easy.
She yawned and shifted against him. He stroked her hair, using only his left hand to drive. What in the world was he doing? It was best not to think about it. Yes, she’d be gone soon and at least he had one helluva memory and a lot of other good ones from her being there. But it was best not to analyze or think and he was so glad they weren’t talking. It was the best and most comfortable silence he’d ever shared with anyone. He kissed the top of her head without removing his eyes from the road and then slipped his hand to her shoulder, trailing his fingers over the fine hairs there, raising goose bumps on her skin.
Her hand slipped between his thighs and unzipped his pants.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Will you be able to concentrate on the road if I do this?” She gently bit at his earlobe as her hand reached past his zipper and into his boxers.
“Sure,” he said, his breathing shallow.
She pulled out his penis and stroked it in a way that gave him tortuously slow, sweet pleasure as her lips nibbled at his neck and jaw line. Her strokes became faster, more insistent, and his breathing matched the pace.
It didn’t take long. It’d been so long since anyone else had touched him like this, and he’d never been touched by her like this. Outside of his head anyway. Still, he came so quickly that he surprised them both. Tucking him back in and zipping up his pants, she gave him a quick kiss before snuggling against him again.
Her eyes had burned into his all night. She was something special. She had to get out of there and it was good she was going, but he knew he’d never forget about her. Never forget one thing about her or her red dress.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Melody paced her room Wednesday morning—well, the room she’d come to think of as hers—while talking to Saeed. She didn’t go into town to work at the garage that day because it was ostensibly her last day in Sweet Neck. She had sent Saeed the demo, sneaking off to the post office one day at lunchtime to do it. He’d called her to tell her he’d listened for once. Thankfully. He’d Googled the Rhyme Doctor and had been curious. Also thankfully, he liked what he’d heard.
“I know, Saeed, but getting him to come to this showcase might not be all that easy.” Melody nibbled her lower lip. The showcase was now less than two weeks away. “My car is fixed now, and I’ve burned through all my excuses to stay here and if I brought it up to him now…I think he’d just get upset and refuse to come.” She’d racked her brain for excuses to stay in town, but couldn’t think of any that Austin might buy. No matter what she said, he’d probably be suspicious of her true motives for delaying her return to Atlanta.
Saeed’s tone changed immediately. “Melody, I did not say anything about you being in the clear. This showcase is still your last chance.”
“I know, I know.” Melody pressed a hand against her forehead. Austin had trusted her last night. He’d opened up and shared things with her in ways that couldn’t have been easy for him. She still hadn’t processed what had happened the night before at Myrtle’s or in Austin’s truck. Now she was being asked to get Austin to do the impossible. She’d brought it on herself, sure, but still. “I just, I need some time to think.”
“You do not have a lot of it.”
“Thanks.” Like she didn’t realize that.
“Well, I have to go. Busy day ahead of me. I will see you at the showcase, and this Austin, or else I do not plan on seeing you again. We understand each other?”
“Perfectly.” Melody flopped down onto the bed.
“Good. Because I will have some very important people with me. And if you make me look like an idiot in front of them, losing your job will not be the worst thing that has happened to you,” he said. Like he needed any help making himself look like an idiot.
It took a lot of strength to hold back the smart aleck remark he’d begged for with that one. “Yeah.”
She wrapped up her call and tossed her phone onto the bed. Pressing the heels of her palms to her forehead, she tried to think of ways to dig herself out of the mess she’d made.
#
Austin walked into the house, and she heard him clunking up the stairs in his heavy work boots. Her heart thumped harder with every step he took. She went out to meet him, and he grabbed her in the hallway near her room and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her off the ground. She forgot all about her conversation with Saeed and the stress it’d caused.
“Hi,” he said, burying his face in her neck; his voice was muffled by her skin. He set her down, but kept his arms around her waist. Nothing had ever felt better than being this close to him did.
She laughed. “Hi.” She turned to face him and pressed her forehead to his. “How was your day?” What are we doing here? This can’t possibly end well. I don’t sleep with the label’s artists. She thought as his lips closed over hers, and her stomach quivered. She sank into his arms. All she knew was that his touches turned her into melted butter. They made her forget everything else in the world.
“It was good.” He moved his hand slowly up and down her back. “Your car is all fixed up. New engine is in and ready to go.”
“Oh.” She tried to hide her disappointment.
“Does that mean you’re leaving?” he asked.
“I don’t want it to. At least not yet.” She pressed her body against his. He groaned and shifted a little, but not before she felt the hard ridge of his erection against her stomach.
He pulled back a little. “You’re going to have to eventually, though.”
She kissed his lower lip. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
“This isn’t a good idea.”
Yeah. She knew that. Reaching up, she gave him a full kiss on the lips. “I don’t want to talk about that, either.”
He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a long, deep kiss. “You’
re incredible,” he said between kisses. “This is all I think about ever since the first time we kissed.”
She reached for him again, drunk on his kisses and touches. She had a problem. She was never going to be able to get enough of him.
He pushed one hand into her hair, and the other slipped under the hem of her skirt. His hand crept up her thigh while he smothered her in kisses. Pushing her head back slightly, he moved his lips down to her throat. She let out a low moan and pulled him closer. She wanted to take him into her room right that moment and bend her over, but everyone would be sitting down to dinner soon. As if to prove her point, Leigh Anne called up the stairs, telling them dinner would be ready soon and she could use some help getting it on the table.
They walked down the stairs side by side. She said, “You know, Donnie’s not that bad of a guy.”
“Yeah, maybe not to you.”
“I hate seeing how you two treat each other. You’re lucky to have each other, you know that? Family is important,” Melody said, thinking of her own family.
“Speaking of families, you don’t talk about yours much,” Austin said.
“There’s not much to say. It’s been just me and my mother since my dad died. I was an only child, and my parents were only children, so I don’t have aunts, uncles, or cousins.” She stopped at the foot of the stairs, and he stood next to her.
“Tell me about your dad.”
“He was a musician, too.” She gave him a sad smile. “Jazz.”
He squeezed her hand and kissed her forehead.
“Then I was married, and that obviously didn’t work out. So I’ve always wanted a big family more than anything, but I’ve never gotten to have it. You have one, but at the same time, you don’t. And it’s because you’re stubborn, both of you,” Melody said.
“I’m sorry, but that’s just the way things are between Donnie and me. Ain’t never gonna change.”
