Tango Love

by Nicole Flockton

  Her skin tingled and desire was, once again, pooling between her legs. She shivered as she continued on her slow exploration of her body. Melinda reached the neatly trimmed curls between her legs and let her fingers linger.

  Slowly, she started to stroke herself. Her flesh was slick and it wasn’t from the shower. She’d been in a perpetual state of arousal since she’d shared the tango with James. The more she thought about the dance and what it had led to, the more aroused she became.

  Melinda let her fingers go on their own journey. They knew exactly what she liked and wanted. Instead of her fingers, she imagined it was James’s fingers there stroking in and out, tickling her clit. She could feel the pressure building again. Her breathing quickened and so she increased the pace. A long, low moan ripped out of her as her orgasm hit. Her hand was dripping with her desire.

  Melinda sank down to the tiles, her legs having no strength to hold her up. She let the water wash over her. If she didn’t get control of herself she’d be making herself come every half hour.

  What was she going to do if James never wanted her again?

  Somehow she managed to finish her shower without the need to slake her desire again. She dressed in jeans and a clinging sweater. She picked up her cell to make a call to Jenna and noticed she had a couple of text messages from Jenna and a missed call from James.

  Text messages or voicemail? What to do? She longed to hear James’s voice but didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

  The text messages won out. She read through them quickly. Even though Jenna was eager to see her, she had been called into work and couldn’t meet up as hoped.

  Melinda sent a text back telling Jenna she would meet her at the café around the corner from her house tomorrow for lunch. Hopefully by then she and James would’ve talked and maybe had another wonderful night together. She didn’t want to think of any other alternative—like James never coming back.

  Jenna’s response was a quick, Can’t wait to hear all about the night. Have a fun day together. If only Jenna knew Melinda was sitting on the couch all by herself

  She wished Jenna didn’t have to work today. She needed her best friend to talk to. To see if Jenna could understand what to make of James’s disappearance. That is if she could get Jenna off the subject of her and James spending the night together. She hoped Jenna would be satisfied with a basic rundown of the events. Melinda didn’t kiss and tell. It was too tacky, and she especially wouldn’t kiss and tell about everything she and James had shared and done.

  She’d avoided her voicemail for long enough and pressed the button to connect her to her mailbox. The message was short:

  “Hey Melinda, something important has come up that I have to deal with now. I’ll call you when it’s convenient.”

  Convenient! He’d call her when it was convenient.

  God, if that wasn’t a polite brush off then she didn’t know what was. If it was such an emergency why hadn’t he woken her up when he’d left?

  She was so stupid. In a moment of clarity last night she’d known it was going to be a big mistake sleeping with him, but her stupid girl emotions took over and she’d got sucked into the moment.

  Well if that was the way he was going to play it fine, when it was convenient for him to call her, she wasn’t going to be available.

  Melinda picked up her purse and slammed the door as she left, giving a little wince as it shuddered in the frame. Great. That’s all she needed to do, break the damn door and have to get it replaced.

  She stomped down the steps and headed towards her car. She was going to go shopping and she wasn’t going to answer her phone even if it was James.

  Chapter 6

  Melinda waved her hand around to shoo the annoy mosquito that was buzzing near her ear away. It took a few moments to realise that it was her phone buzzing and not a bug.

  Without looking at who was calling she answered it.

  “Hello.”

  “OOOH did I interrupt?” Jenna’s chirpy voice sounded in her ear and Melinda tried not to groan. She finally registered that she was lying on the couch. She’d fallen asleep there last night, doing the pathetic lovelorn girl, sitting up waiting to see if James would come home.

  He hadn’t.

  “No it’s fine.”

  “Are you okay, Mel?”

  Melinda really didn’t want to have this conversation on the phone, she would much rather have it face-to-face with Jenna.

  “Not really,” she started and then looked at the clock on the wall. “Look do you want to meet earlier than we were going to?”

  “Absolutely, shall we meet in half an hour?”

  “Sounds great. See you then.” Whether it was her tone or the fact that her and Jenna had been friends for years but she was glad Jenna knew what she needed.

  Melinda hung up the phone and dragged her sorry, self-pitying ass off the couch and into the shower. She wasn’t going to spend another minute wishing that James was going to walk through the door. Clearly what they had was simply a one night stand and she had to learn to deal with it and move on. And if he came back, well she’d deal with it when it happened.

  It was only a short walk to reach the café, but it was enough for her to try and get herself under some sort of control. She sat at an outside table and ordered a glass of soda. What she really wanted was a glass of wine, but it was still too early for them to be serving alcohol. The sun was warming her back and a soft breeze wafted over the table, lifting the corners of the paper napkins.

  She didn’t have to wait long before Jenna arrived. She could see the anticipation on her friend’s face. She wanted all the details. Melinda couldn’t help it, her eyes started to well with tears when Jenna sat down.

  “Well?” Excitement laced that one word.

  The dam broke and Melinda burst into tears. She heard Jenna’s chair scrap along the ground as she scooted closer to her. She placed her hand around Melinda’s shoulders.

  “Oh honey, couldn’t he get it up long enough to give you a good time?”

  Jenna’s attempt at a joke couldn’t have been further from the truth and Melinda wailed even harder. She honestly didn’t know why she was acting this way. She’d had guys not contact her after spending the night.

  Why was James different?

  The only reason she could think of why her reaction was so severe, was that James owned her heart totally. Melinda hadn’t known how much she’d loved him until they’d shared their wonderful night together. She knew that whatever happened in the future she would never feel what she’d felt with James the other night with any other man.

  Her life was so screwed.

  Jenna was shaking her shoulders. “Mel, get a grip. We’re in a public place.”

  Jenna’s words jolted her out of her misery. She’d never lost control like that in public before. In fact she hardly ever cried over a man.

  Melinda took a deep breath and blew her nose using one of the napkins. She stole a quick look around behind the napkin and saw that, fortunately, the café wasn’t that busy so only a couple of people had seen her emotional outburst.

  Jenna pushed a glass of wine under Melinda’s nose. Somehow, while she was losing it, Jenna had sweet-talked a waitperson into bringing her some alcohol. “Now, would you mind telling me what the hell that was all about?”

  Melinda took a fortifying sip and gathered her thoughts before she spoke.

  “I can’t explain what happened. I saw you, you said one word and I just lost it.”

  “That’s a cop-out Mel and you know it. I heard you on the phone, remember? Something’s up and I’m guessing it involves James and the night you spent together. I guess it was a fizzle after all?”

  “Oh Jen, you couldn’t be further from the truth. He could get it up and boy did he know how to use it.”

  Melinda watched as her friend’s eyes lit up. Uh-oh, she’d just crossed that invisible line between keeping things quiet and spilling all. Jenna now wanted all the intimate details.
She held up her hand to stop any questions coming out.

  “This is not a men’s locker room, Jen. I don’t—I won’t—kiss and tell. All I’ll say is that after the other night my life is never going to be the same again.”

  Melinda could tell that her words had shocked Jenna. Her friend’s mind was ticking over, wondering what the hell Melinda meant. Jenna was taking in what she’d said and trying to come up with five instead of four.

  “So am I to assume that you are now in a relationship with James?”

  That was the million-dollar question. A question Melinda didn’t have an answer to.

  “Honestly, I don’t know what we have, Jen.” She took another sip of her wine. “I haven’t seen James since about five yesterday morning.”

  “Five AM, yesterday?” She questioned incredulously.

  “Yes, I gave him one last kiss before I fell into a deep sleep. When I woke a few hours later the bed was empty, the house was empty and I have no idea where he’s gone. He didn’t come home last night.” She closed her eyes, trying to recall if there was anything about James’s actions after she’d given him that kiss to suggest to her that he was going to run out on her.

  There was nothing.

  “Actually,” Melinda continued as she opened her eyes again and looked at her friend. She could see the confusion in Jenna’s eyes. “That’s not true, I have a voicemail saying he had an emergency and would call me when it was convenient.”

  Jenna let out a low whistle, but was prevented from saying anything else as the waiter arrived and asked if they were ready to order. Melinda hadn’t looked at the menu and wasn’t really that hungry, but she gave it a cursory glance and then decided to order the pasta special for the day.

  “Right, hand over your phone,” Jenna demanded after they had placed their orders and the waiter had walked away.

  Melinda dug her cell out of her purse and gave it to her friend. Jenna’s face gave nothing away while she listened to James’s message a couple of times.

  “Geez Mel, that tells you absolutely nothing. Is there an emergency or is it just a brush-off? Did he seem like he was using you? Like you were just a convenient bedfellow?”

  She thought back to the night they’d spent together and everything they had shared. Melinda shivered as she remembered the wicked things James had done with the champagne and his sinful tongue.

  There was no way he hadn’t been with her one hundred percent of the way. They’d shared something really special, not just lustful sex.

  She shook her head. “No Jen, he wasn’t using me. What we shared was too intimate to be just a casual fling.”

  Melinda gave a small laugh as she watched Jenna pretend to fan herself.

  “From the way your face just heated then Mel, I’d say you were having some pretty x-rated thoughts.”

  The waiter arriving again with their meals halted the conversation. Melinda may have publicly lost it with her bout of tears, but there was no way she wanted their conversation to be overheard.

  She took a large mouthful of her pasta to avoid acknowledging Jenna’s comment. There had to be a valid reason for why James had just upped and left. Maybe there really was an emergency. It seemed too convenient, though. An emergency right after they’d spent the night driving each other crazy. Way too convenient. Now wasn’t that becoming the catch phrase for the day?

  “Okay, so this is how it stands so far Mel.” She held up a finger with each point she made. “One, James lays his claim on you when you start flirting with another guy.”

  She should’ve realised Jenna wouldn’t let anything go. Once she had her claws stuck into a juicy topic nothing could sway her from her final goal—getting all the details she possibly could.

  “You saw that?” Melinda had completely forgotten about her incident with Mr Heavenly Shoulders.

  “Of course. I was watching,” she scoffed. “James’s eyes never left you from the moment we entered the club.”

  Melinda was completely shocked by Jenna’s declaration. She’d had no idea James had seen her arrive. The first she’d known of his presence in the club was when he’d tried that lame pick-up line.

  “I didn’t notice.”

  “Well honey, that guy was seriously interested in you Friday night.” Jenna went back to holding up her fingers. “So where was I? That’s right, number two. You guys heat up the dance floor with the sexiest tango I have ever seen. The club was still talking about it two hours after you’d both left. Three, you guys have a night of hot, wild sex, the best you’ve ever had.”

  Melinda started to interrupt. Her face was flaming hot and she was sure it was glowing bright red.

  “No, don’t try and argue. You may have fooled me with the tears when I arrived but everything you’ve said and done since then has told me otherwise.”

  When she was on a roll Jenna was like an unstoppable freight train.

  “So now all we have to work out is, if there is a real emergency or if he is running scared.”

  Jenna took a mouthful of her food, a clear sign that, for the time being, she had made her point and now it was up to Melinda to contradict her. Jenna’s last comment about James running scared was interesting. Was it possible? It didn’t seem likely. He didn’t seem the kind of guy to get scared by anything.

  “Why would you say he was running scared?” Melinda asked, intrigued by the possibility.

  “Because he’s just discovered he has feelings for you. Guys run at the first sign of commitment, you know that. Remember Brad? Need I say more?”

  Ahh yes, Brad. She would have to bring him up, the guy who had promised Melinda the world, but when it came down to the crunch had run for the hills when she’d had a pregnancy scare. That had been when she’d looked at life and love through rose coloured glasses. She’d been young and Brad had been her first love.

  Now, with the maturity of a woman who has experienced more of life, she knew that they would never have lasted. What she’d felt for Brad paled significantly against the emotions James had generated in her. If she was being honest with herself, James had piqued her interest from the first time he’d stepped into her house. She can truly say now that that was the reason she accepted his application to be her housemate. Melinda also knew the total devastation she would suffer if she returned home and found that James had moved out.

  “Jen, we’ve been living together for a couple of years now. Surely if he had feelings for me he’d have acted on them sooner. He hasn’t exactly been celibate you know.”

  “And neither have you Mel, except maybe for the last few months. When was the last time he bought a girl home?”

  Melinda thought about it for a moment. Initially she would’ve said to Jen that it had only been a couple of weeks. Then she recalled something that had hit her Friday night, and now thinking about it more clearly, it had been a couple of months since he’d brought someone home. They had shared quite a few Friday and Saturday nights drinking, watching TV and eating takeaway pizza or Chinese.

  “Umm...I guess it’s been a while.”

  “I rest my case, councillor. You guys have been dancing around each other and finally James took the chance and made the first move. Only it seems to have freaked him out and my guess is he has no idea what to do next.”

  A frisson of hope blossomed inside of her. How she wanted to believe Jenna. It would be a dream come true if James returned her feelings. Unrequited love was the pits.

  They finished their lunch without conversation. Melinda thought back over everything that had happened since James had tried his lame pick-up line on her.

  She gave a short gasp as something James had said to her came rushing back.

  “What?” asked Jenna. “You look like you’ve just had an epiphany.”

  “Maybe I have, Jen. While we were sharing hot steamy kisses, he said ‘You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to do this’. I know I answered something sassy back, but I really wasn’t thinking at that stage. I was just feeling, but now
that seems really important.”

  “Well there is no time like the present to ask him that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “James is headed in this direction and from the expression on his face I’d say he’s as lost as you are.”

  Chapter 7

  Melinda turned to look in the direction Jenna had pointed. Sure enough, James was metres away from the café. His head was down, his hands in his pockets and by the slump of his shoulders it looked like he had lost fifty dollars and had found five cents instead. Should she call out to him or should she just let him walk past? The decision was taken out of her hands because at that very moment he looked up and locked eyes with her.

  As cliché as it sounded, the world stopped for Melinda. All the hustle and bustle of the now busy café melted into the background. Her entire focus was on James and his entire focus was on her. She’d had no idea what he’d been thinking prior to seeing her but, even though he was still a fair distance away, she could feel his eyes burning into her soul.

  He nodded his head as if he’d come to a decision and started walking towards their table.

  His gaze held Melinda captive and even if she’d wanted to, she couldn’t have moved. She really and truly loved this man.

  “I love him,” she whispered out loud.

  “About time you admitted that. Now why don’t you get off your ass and put the poor guy out of his misery?”

  That was another thing Melinda loved about Jenna. She called a spade a spade and generally her advice was spot on. Before she lost her courage, she scraped her chair back. She reached into her purse and extracted some cash to pay for lunch.

  “Thanks Jen, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”