Mad for Mel--The Morelville Mysteries--Book 7

by Anne Hagan

  I grinned at the wide eyed Erin as Shane replied back, “No deal. That’s a sucker bet.”

  Talking to Shane but looking back and forth between Voll and Donaldson, I said, “Well I’d bet that Foote took out a rival for her hubbies job,” I smiled again at Erin, “but I’ll bet you’re going to be very glad to be in police custody when hubby finds out that you two were plotting to murder him. He probably won’t be very happy at all when he hears that.”

  Erin Voll had the nerve to smile sweetly. “I’m not worried about him anymore,” she told us. “I have Conal now.”

  “You mean Floyd Donaldson over there?” I pointed at the sullen man chained to the bench, trying to stare me down.

  “His name’s Conal Floyd,” she informed me.

  Donaldson couldn’t stay out of the conversation. It was his turn to smile as he ground out through his teeth, “It’s Preacher, bitch, and all you got was laid. I don’t want you around anymore than he’s going to want you when he finds out what you’ve been up to.”

  Erin’s smug look turned to shock.

  “Poor you,” I told the conniving young woman. “No man, no drugs, no trust fund money either and you’re going to jail to boot. Ain’t that a kick in the teeth?”

  Chapter 22 – Date Night

  Dana

  12:05 PM, that Same Day

  Morelville, Ohio

  I decided to take matters into my own hands. I wanted a romantic evening just for the two of us as much as Mel did and she was working way too hard to pull anything off herself; anyone with sense could see that. The stress of one more thing on her plate and our mother’s both hounding her about it was something she just didn’t need.

  Putting my talent for scheming and plotting to better use, I started planning out a date night for us at home. I searched the kitchen and found most of what I needed to make chicken cacciatore, the dish that had Mel swooning the first time I’d made it for her.

  “Come on Boo,” I called to her. “We’re going for a little walk.” I hooked her to her leash and we headed over to the store so I could pick up some fresh mushrooms. Canned just won’t do for a fancy feast!

  It was warm for February and, since it was lunchtime on Saturday, people were out and about in the village. I looped Boo’s leash around the awning post at the front of the store where she was happy to entertain the two Mennonite children waiting patiently for their mother, whom I could see inside, talking with my dad at the counter.

  Mama wasn’t in view when I went in and I hoped that meant she was working on getting her nail salon ready to open and I could avoid her questions but my dad’s “Hi there Dana” brought her right out of the little store office.

  “Sweetie, what brings you in? I thought you and Mel would be off on some grand adventure today.”

  “Mel’s at work Mama.”

  “On Saturday? Again? But, it’s Valentine’s Day.”

  “You and Dad are working on Valentine’s Day,” I pointed out.

  She waved me off. “That’s different.”

  I didn’t see the difference but I really didn’t want to argue. “She’ll be home in a little while.” I changed the subject, “I need some fresh mushrooms. Please tell me you have some.”

  “Of course, but why? Are you cooking? Aren’t you two going out tonight somewhere special?”

  “Mama, please. Since Mel has to work, I’m making a special dinner for us tonight. I want to do this for her. We decided to take a weekend away together a little later when we can plan it all out properly.”

  She nodded. “I see. Well, I suppose that’s something.”

  Even though I was frustrated, I held my temper. “It’s just fine. Everything’s fine, really. Now, about those mushrooms?”

  “In the cooler case. I got some nice portabellas in yesterday, as a matter of fact.”

  “No, no. Just the regular buttons for slicing.”

  “You’re making cacciatore, aren’t you?”

  I smiled.

  His customer gone, Dad jumped into the conversation too. “Oh, Mel’s going to love that. I know I do!”

  “We’re not invited Marco. It’s for Mel,” Mama told him sternly. He stuck his lower lip out and pretended to pout.

  “Mel does love it and, don’t worry; I have plenty of chicken. I’ll make enough for you to have some...tomorrow.” He smiled and all but skipped back to the counter as another customer came in.

  Mama followed me over to the produce case. “Do you have candles?” she asked.

  “What?”

  “Candles, you know; for romance.”

  Wrinkling my nose, I told her, “I don’t think Mel’s really the candle type.”

  “Baloney. She’s all about fire: the fireplace, the fire pit, the barbecue pit...”

  When I didn’t respond right away because I was thinking about how I could work the fireplace into my evening plans, she continued, “When I was decorating your place, I got a few tea light holders and I’m pretty sure you have candlestick holders up on a shelf in the pantry. I have tea lights and candles.”

  “Fine, Mama. Just add them to my bill.”

  “No charge. Consider it my contribution. Now, what are you making for dessert?”

  As I looked at the baked goods racks, I replied, “I was hoping you’d gotten in some good stuff from Amoretto’s that I could just doctor a bit.”

  “We did; yesterday. They did a whole Valentine’s line of pastries. They sold out of here like hotcakes.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle at the analogy. Still, that left me momentarily stumped. I walked around the grocery shelf that divided the store into two fairly long aisles. There was no cherry pie filling; only blueberry, which I knew Mel didn’t care for. I asked Mama if she had any cherry in the back.

  “No ma’am,” she said. “Sold the last one this morning. You’re a day late and a dollar short.”

  “Never mind then, I’ll think of something. I’ve got to get going. Boo’s outside waiting.”

  When we got home, I called Hannah and was happy when she answered the phone.

  “It’s Dana,” I told her. “I hope I’m not interrupting you at work?”

  “No,” she said. “I only work on Saturday’s once in a while. We did all the big baking for today already.”

  “Bet you had a busy week! Are you and Jamie doing anything special tonight?”

  “Ya, later,” she told me, her German accent seeping out. “She’s working until 6:00 though. What about you and Mel?”

  “That’s just it. Mel’s working too and I don’t know exactly when she’ll be home so I’m making something that will just get better the longer it simmers.”

  “Good plan.”

  “I’m a little stuck for a good dessert though. That’s why I called. If tell you what sorts of things I have on hand here or that I can get at the village store, can you help me figure something out? There just isn’t time for me to run into Zanesville and pick up anything else up.”

  Hannah laughed at my off the wall idea but she agreed to play along. We spent the next few minutes going back and forth over recipes ideas and ingredients.

  “I’ve got it,” she said, “and Mel’s going to love it. In fact, so will Jamie. How about I come down there and we make enough for all of us together? I’ll pick up what you don’t have here in Zanesville.”

  “You don’t need to go to all that trouble.”

  “It’s no trouble. It’ll be fun.”

  Hannah showed up an hour later with white chocolate, good cocoa and strawberries. We got right to work making up what she called red velvet molten lava cakes.

  “Sweetie, these look amazing.” I said to her when we were nearly done and then I hugged her. “I’ve seen them all chocolate before but never red velvet. Great idea; thank you so much!”

  “My pleasure,” she told me shyly.

  Her muted response reminded me of the Hannah of old, right after she’d left the Amish order. I’d hugged her before, but I was afraid I’d some
how overstepped my bounds this time. Stepping back, I told her, “I’m sorry. Is something wrong?”

  “Just a friend on my mind, is all.”

  “Anything I can do to help?”

  She shook her head no. “Not really. She’s just struggling right now with...with everything. You and Mel are so happy and me and Jamie too and...”

  “And you want the same for her.”

  This time, she nodded.

  “You have a big heart Ms. Hannah. Listen, if you need me, call me. And,” I said as I crossed to the dry sink where I’d tossed my wallet, “I’m going to give you a little something for coming all the way down here to help me today and buying half the stuff we needed to do this to boot.”

  She started to protest but I raised a hand to stop her.

  “I want to do this.” I took out fifty dollars, nearly all I had in cash, and moved to hand it to her. “You use this money tonight on a nice evening out with Jamie or you take your friend out with it.” I gently took hold of her right hand and pressed the money into it.

  “Thank you,” she replied with a slight smile.

  ###

  Mel

  5:52 PM, Saturday, October 14th

  Morelville, Ohio

  “I don’t know what you’re making but it smells so good, I could smell it out in the driveway,” I told Dana as I trooped into the house, finally at the end of the longest week in my life.

  The table was set with the good china someone had given us as a wedding present that we’d never taken out of the box and there were candles waiting to be lit. Dana was barefoot but back in the blue dress she’d worn what seemed like ages ago for the dinner that never was at Adornetto’s.

  “These are for you. Best I could do so late in the day. I’m sorry baby.” A little embarrassed, I offered up the bouquet of red and pink carnations I’d been able to come up with in my last minute attempt to do something romantic for her.

  “Don’t you be sorry. I love them and I love that you got them for me.” She stood on her toes and bussed my lips with a kiss. “Go get out of that uniform and into something comfortable but don’t take too long. Dinner’s ready.”

  “Everything’s all wrapped up,” I told Dana as we ate. “All of the main players are now in holding somewhere and will be there until at least Monday before they’re arraigned.”

  “So no more work for you this weekend?”

  “No more work for me and, I don’t want to talk about work anymore this weekend but we do need to talk about your future; writing or security and investigations? Both? What do you need to get set up if you decide to go into business for yourself after all?”

  Dana put up a hand to stop the thoughts spilling from me. “Babe, there’ll be time for lots of talk about all of that later. I don’t really want to talk about work right now either.”

  “Okay. I love you, you know.”

  She smiled brightly. “I love you too.”

  When we were nearly finished, I asked in my best hopeful sounding voice, “Is there dessert?”

  “Of course there’s dessert,” she said. “Why don’t you take our wine, go into the family room and lay in a fire? I’ll just do a quick clean-up out here while dessert warms up just a little and I’ll be in.”

  “Deal!” I got up, picked up our glasses and the wine bottle and sauntered off to the family room to make fire. Boo, who’d sat patiently waiting for any sort of scrap from the table at all, started to follow me but, when she realized her mama was staying in the kitchen, she did an energetic about face and went right back in there.

  After I got the fire going, I contemplated setting us up comfortably on the floor but I knew Boo wouldn’t let us relax as long as we had food and there was, after all, dessert to think about. I poured us each a little more wine and set them on the end table by the couch instead and then took a poker to my little blaze to adjust things just a bit.

  The terrier bolted into the room and over to me. I turned to see Dana standing just inside the doorway with two plates of the best looking little cakes I’d ever seen on a plate. She hand one to me when she reached me and then we took seats.

  I marveled at what I had in my hand. “This looks too good to eat. Is it red velvet?”

  “Well if you don’t eat it, I will!” she said as she nodded in answer to my question.

  I quickly cut into it with my fork. The liquid center oozed out. The taste was beyond amazing. “Babe,” I started, “this is unreal. How did you make these?”

  “It wasn’t hard but, I admit, I had a little help. It was actually Hannah’s idea. She came down and we made them together.”

  “Well, my compliments to both chefs.”

  Boo cooperated and let us have a little peace once we moved to snuggle on the floor after dessert. She went to her own pillow closer to the flames.

  Dana got down carefully in her dress. As I lay down beside her, I took a deep breath and relaxed into her.

  The fire was hot and so was my wife. The combination was working to finally melt my stress away. I just held her for several long minutes and tried to blank my mind of anything but her. I stretched as she kneaded a shoulder and the base of my neck with strong fingers. I rubbed her lower back in return but soon was lost in the taste of her lips as she caught mine with a kiss.

  We spent several long minutes kissing, lost in each other until I felt her shiver against me.

  “Cold? The fire’s died down a lot.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Sure you will...in the bedroom where I can get you out of that beautiful dress and get you all warmed up in other ways.” I raised an eyebrow at her.

  We took our little celebration to our room. For good measure, I moved Boo’s bed she rarely used, outside the bedroom door. I didn’t want her crawling in with us just yet...

  ###

  Dana

  I

  slipped my arms around Mel at the same time that she was reaching for me and we embraced. The warmth of her skin on mine, our breasts pressed together...I felt like this was where I had always belonged. We kissed again.

  With my eyes closed I opened my mouth and felt Mel's tongue flicker against my lower lip. I opened my mouth wider inviting her in. Her mouth and tongue were so very soft and it felt like she was massaging the inside of my mouth as she began to tentatively explore. I softly stroked her tongue with my own. Our kiss deepened as our tongues continued to tease and caress and soon her hands were running up and down my back. She cupped both cheeks of my ass and pulled me in tighter. I moaned.

  She pulled out of our kiss and took her time as she licked the length of me making me shudder and a moan. Back moments later for another kiss, she pulled out another groan from me. She didn’t linger long with her kiss this time. Instead, soon her tongue was swirling inside me, licking deeply. Her tongue worked hard, tasting my depths, providing delicious pleasure.

  "Oh god, it's so good," I moaned. "So good."

  Mel didn’t stop. Instead, she stepped up her game. Her hands found my ass again and grabbed it, lifting it, exposing even more of me to her mouth. She began tonguing me deeper, more insistently, not relenting for a second. A hand snaked up to caress my breasts. She made eye contact with me and grinned when she got to see the effect she was having on me.

  When she had me groaning even more loudly and often than before, she removed her tongue from my folds and clamped her lips around the hard bud of my clit. She licked, sucked and kissed it insistently.

  “Yes," I exclaimed as I felt the jolting electricity of her tongue and teeth.

  Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more, her fingers found my opening and she began stroking me gently. Trying to urge her to quicken the pace, I bucked harder.

  Completely in tune, Mel quickened the pace of her thrusts and her oral efforts and I bucked even harder in pleasure. She hung on.

  It was torture as she varied the pace, giving me stretches of intense fucking followed by slower thrusts. I wasn’t content to take that passively and
I met her slower thrusts with harder bucks.

  "Come on, fuck me," I urged her. She finally complied. She took the nub of my clit between her lips and applied gentle sucking pressure as her fingers fucked me deeply.

  "Come on," she said back to me. “Cum for me baby, cum for me."

  I came. Hard. I could feel myself coating her hand as I rode my orgasm all the way through. I gripped her tight to me then shuddered in pleasure and shock as she replaced her fingers with her tongue as my orgasm coursed through me and kept me bucking.

  Finally spent, I lay back, chest heaving. Mel reclined beside me as she rubbed a hand lazily over my stomach.

  I turned to face her and caught her eye. “Don’t get too comfortable over there,” I told her. “You’re next.”

  A long time later, as I drifted off to sleep, I felt Mel stirring behind me. She had an arm slung possessively over my side; her soft breasts pressed against my back. She exhaled and I could feel her warm breath against my neck. She mumbled something, nuzzled closer to me, and became still again.

  Epilogue

  Mel

  Some time, well after midnight, Boo started barking from somewhere else in the house. I sat up and tried to look around in the darkness. At my movement, Dana woke up.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, her voice rasping from sleep.

  “I left Boo outside the door when we came to bed. She’s kicking up a fuss in the kitchen, it sounds like.”

  I got out of bed and, thinking there might be someone or something outside that had her riled, I quickly threw on sweats and a t-shirt.

  It wasn’t until I got half way to the kitchen, and Boo charged to meet up with me, that I heard a knock on the door. As I drew closer, I heard a female voice say, “I don’t think they’re here.” Then it was quiet.

  Boo was right at my feet as I reached for the deadbolt. Just as a clicked it backwards, a wail cracked through the stillness of the night beyond the door. A baby began to cry.