by Brook Wilder
“But I hate crying. It makes me feel all weak and girly and I ugly-cry. You know… some people have a pretty cry, but that’s not me. I get all red-faced and my nose runs, and it’s really not pretty at all.”
Christian cut off her words with a quick, angry kiss, and when he pulled back that same anger was in his eyes. Not at her. But for her.
“First of all, you are beautiful no matter what you do. Crying, not crying. All of it. So gorgeous I can’t think sometimes when I’m around you. And secondly, you, Melody Mires, are the strongest, most amazing and capable person that I know. I would never call you weak, especially not for crying. Honestly? I must look pathetic next to you.”
Melody gasped as his words hit her, sincerity ringing like a bell in each one. She stared into his gaze, awed at this man that had crashed into her life, just as she’d begun to lose all hope of ever finding someone worthy of trust.
The words just tumbled from her mouth, but she meant every one of them.
“Honestly, Christian? I don’t think I will ever deserve you. But I’ll try to.”
He let out a bitter laugh.
“You won’t have to try that hard. Melody, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry for everything. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to protect you and our baby.”
Melody shook her head in denial, but she couldn’t speak. She couldn’t even begin to form the words to tell him that it was not his fault, that he hadn’t done anything wrong. To convince him that she and their baby were safe.
So, she did the only thing she could do. She kissed him again. This time, trying to tell him without words all of the emotions and riotous feelings that were drowning her and carrying her away.
She felt lost, adrift in the ocean once more. But Christian tethered her, keeping her safe. His strong arms around her sheltered her from the driving storm. She leaned against him. His heartbeat was the steady pulse that led her home. Straight back towards him. Always him.
Slowly, Christian trailed kisses across her damn cheeks, down the line of her jaw and neck, until he reached the curve of her shoulder. Melody shuddered at the feel of his featherlight touches. As soft as a warm summer breeze on her skin.
She could feel his love for her in every single kiss. In every brush of his fingertips. And it had the heat curling inside her once more, desperate for him.
Melody reached for his clothes, and she bit back a groan of frustration when he stopped her again.
She shot him an irritated glare, but he just shook his head, a small smile teasing the corners of his lips. But then he grew serious, almost solemn as he held her hands in his.
“Let me love you, Mel. Let me take care of you. I need this.”
Christian whispered the words roughly against her ear, and a different sort of storm altogether blew through her. One of desire, tempered by love, made even more intense by the emotions still raging inside her.
Melody could tell that he was holding his breath, waiting for her answer, and slowly she nodded. Giving herself to him. Trusting him completely to take care of her, not to hurt her.
Christian let out the breath he was holding in a shuddering exhale that shivered through her. Neither said another word as he drew her back up to her feet, drawing her body close against his as he led her back upstairs.
Melody felt like she was walking into a dream as heaviness settled warm and fuzzy through her body. A strange lethargy invaded her senses, but instead of dulling them it only made them sharper, more attuned to Christian and every touch he gave to her.
Slowly, so slow she thought she might die from impatience, he undressed her. Inch by meticulous inch he revealed her naked skin to his hungry gaze, and the lethargy grew inside her. Alongside a heat that settled and pooled low and liquid between her thighs.
Clothing slowly made its way to the floor, and Melody wanted nothing more than to strip him bare, shove him to the bed and climb on top of him. But whenever the ache got too sharp she would remember his words. His request. To let him love her. To let him take care of her. And all she could do was let him.
An eternity later, she was finally bared completely, and he teased her with brief, all too light touches that drove her wild, before drawing her over to the bed. He laid her down gently, both of them wrapped up in warm darkness, and the silence was thick, interrupted only by Melody’s quickly indrawn breaths and moans of impatience.
Melody stretched out on the bed like a cat, restless and needing him so hard it hurt. She looked up at him, and the expression on his face made her breath catch. She was drowning in his love. There just wasn’t room to feel fear or panic or any of the other emotions that had haunted her. She was too wrapped up in Christian to feel anything but need and desire.
Helpless against the ache riding her body, Melody held out her hand towards him and waited.
Chapter 10
Through heavy lidded eyes, Christian watched her reach out to him. He let out a breath that shuddered through him, as his gaze raked her beautiful body. She was laid out like a goddess before him. A feast that made his heart pound and his mouth water. She was just so god-dammed gorgeous, she stole his breath away completely. His lungs hitched in his chest.
Never, not once in a million years, would he have expected that he would find someone like her. Christian knew they would never have the most traditional relationship. Usually it was meet, fall in love, get married. He grinned to himself. He had always liked doing things the hard way, Hub said. He and Melody had just done things the other way around, that was all.
They had gotten married first, and then they had gotten to know each other. And the more he learned about her, the harder he fell. How could he have not fallen in love with someone as sweet, as kind, and as strong as she was?
Despite everything she’d gone through in her life, she was still fighting for what she wanted, fighting to live the life that she’d dreamed of. She had a spirit that just wouldn’t give up, and he respected the hell out of her for it.
And now they were bringing a new life into the world. A helpless little baby that would need its parents to take care of it. Christian made a silent vow to himself, and to Melody, that he would always do so. To protect. To cherish. Always.
Rough emotion tightened in his chest as he laid the most tender kiss across her stomach, where that precious life was growing. It had been a shock, but he’d always wanted a houseful of kids one day. And he couldn’t imagine a better mother than Melody. He knew she would fight tooth and nail to love and protect their child just as much as he would.
As always, she awed him. A complete miracle. A piece of heaven he’d been granted. Pure paradise, just lying there, naked and waiting for him.
Christian didn’t know what he’d done to deserve her in his life, but he would be eternally thankful. And try to make sure he deserved her.
Slowly, he trailed kisses all over her body, marveling at the silken softness of her skin and the instant way she responded to him.
Christian forced himself to take his time, worshipping her, overwhelmed with emotion that threatened to choke him until he couldn’t speak. He tried to show her without words just how much he cared about her and cherished her.
Time passed so slowly that he almost felt like he was in a waking dream. Christian could feel Melody start to grow restless and needy beneath him, but he still didn’t rush, he still didn’t hurry his movements or his touch.
He just grinned up at her as he continued to learn every single inch of her body with his hands and mouth, his tongue and teeth. Trails of love bites left a faint red line from her collar bone down to her breast, and Melody gasped as he lapped at the tight peak of her nipple.
God, he loved the sound. He would die a happy man if he could hear that sound just one more time. He could spend a lifetime just listening to the different ways she gasped and moaned beneath him.
His own body was painfully hard and getting harder with every passing second, but he tried to push it away, to ignore it. He wanted to focus on her, everythin
g he had on her, on giving her as much pleasure as he could.
He kissed up her inner thigh, smiling at the way she shivered and trembled beneath his lightest touch, and when her legs fell wide apart, granting him access to her sweet haven, he was lost. It was pure heaven.
Melody was already slick and ready for him, but he wasn’t. Not yet. He wanted to have her crying out and bucking wildly for him. And then he wanted to make it last as long as he could. He wanted to give her everything that he had to give, and he wanted her to take it all.
Christian placed his mouth over her soaked center, teasing her with his lips and his tongue. He didn’t stop until she was grabbing his hair and moaning his name and still he didn’t stop. Not until she came apart completely beneath him. It was addictive, the taste of her. Like honey and something as wild as the night that he didn’t have a word for.
Slowly, Christian crawled up her body, leaving more kisses behind as he went, teasing her with his touch all the way.
“You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Christian whispered gruffly. He couldn’t keep the enormity of his emotions trapped inside and they burst out into words.
“You must not have seen too many beautiful things then,” Melody said on a husky laugh.
Christian frowned. He moved until he could cup her face in his hands. Tracing the sweet, familiar lines of her forehead, her cheekbone, her stubborn jawline.
“Don’t say that. How can you not know how beautiful you are?” he asked her wonderingly.
She was like the sun to him. Almost too bright to look at.
Melody just shrugged, and he knew that others in her life had beat her down, had told her she wasn’t pretty enough. He wanted to strangle them all. She really had no idea just how gorgeous she was.
He vowed he was going to show her.
She reached out for him and he slid between her thighs as if he’d always belonged there. He shook his head, marveling at her. She wouldn’t believe his words, but he would show her with his body just how beautiful she was to him, inside and out.
“Please, Christian. I need you,” she whispered, her voice ragged with need. “Now. I need you inside me.”
Christian held his breath a moment before he sank deep inside her, and he froze for a moment, just like that, connected to her as deeply as two people can be. It felt like coming home.
He moved his hips, over and over again, sinking into paradise as they moved together, losing themselves in each other.
What started off slow and sweet soon turned wild and fierce. Melody clawed across his back as she clung to him, panting, and she whispered his name like a prayer as she came apart once more. She squeezed him like a vice, so tight that he had no choice but to follow after her, throwing his head back as his entire body shuddered with a bright pleasure that blinded him.
It took a long time for Christian to come back to himself, and after a few moment he collapse on the bed next her, still holding her tight in his arms. He never wanted to let her go. He just wanted to stay like that, together, twined like two puzzle pieces that fit perfectly.
Her back was snuggled up against his front, and his arm was wrapped around her middle, idly caressing her belly where their child was growing inside her.
Christian blinked back the sting of tears at the feeling of peace and happiness that filled him, as he just laid there with her, drowning in her, his body completely satisfied and still carrying her sweet scent.
Suddenly, he found himself talking. Softly, slowly at first, tentatively, as he told her all the hopes and fears and dreams that he had for their baby, for the life he wanted to be able to give their child.
He would do anything to give Melody and the baby the life neither of them had enjoyed. He would fight like hell, fight tooth and nail, to make it happen.
Christian talked about where they would go after this, and what they would do next. The words just flowed, soft and steady, and all the while he thought of that bag of money that Craig had pushed into his hands. That no one else had seen him take or knew that he had.
He had brought it inside and hid it in a kitchen cabinet earlier in the day, but besides that he hadn’t touched it. Hell, he wasn’t even sure how much money was in the damned thing.
Enough to get us out of here. Enough for a clean start.
He didn’t mention the money out loud, just talked about places he’d seen, places it would be nice to live, to have a house, to raise a child.
“What do you think about that, Mel?” he whispered, he wasn’t sure how long later.
She didn’t answer though, and when he looked down at her she was peacefully asleep in his arms. Trusting him completely.
Warmth like he had never known before filled him to the brim. He’d never known anyone like her in his life. She truly was his miracle, even if she did see it yet. She would, one day. He would make sure of it.
Christian kissed her one last time on the cheek before slowly, carefully extricating his limbs, trying to crawl out of the bed without disturbing her.
At the doorway, he turned to catch one more look at her, just because he needed to. He needed to make sure for himself that she was still there. That she was still safe.
He turned and walked down the stairs, leaving her sleeping, unaware, in the bed.
Chapter 11
Darkness surrounded Melody. A black so thick that, as hard as she tried, she couldn’t pierce it. Her hands were outstretched in front of her as she tried to feel her way to safety, but she couldn’t see them. And she couldn’t see any of the obstacles in her path. She was rushing forward blindly, quite literally.
It was so heavy around her that she could almost feel it pressing in on her body, like she was trying to swim through an oil slick. It coated her skin with grease and filled her mouth and nose, choking her, making it impossible to breath, impossible to scream or cry for help. Not that it mattered. She knew there was no help in this place.
Panic was there, along with fear. A terrible, all too familiar old friend. She could feel it coiled like a snake in the pit of her stomach as she stumbled forward, trying to find her way to the light. Trying to find her way out of the darkness, but she couldn’t see where she was going.
Her eyes were opened as wide as they could go, and she still couldn’t see a damned thing except for the endless, despairing dark. She would be lost there forever. She would never escape. Her breath hitched. She would never see Christian again, or get to hold him or kiss him or tell him that she loved him.
As she watched, though, something in front of her shifted. It was so minute she almost missed it, but, yes there it was! Something new. The tiniest pinprick of light like a single star burning faintly in the distant night sky. But it was there, and it would guide her towards the light and out of the darkness. She knew it would.
Biting back the fear that made her legs shake like jelly, Melody forced her body to keep moving, running now as fast as she could towards the light. It was getting bigger and brighter with every step, and as she passed out of the dark, squinting around at the brightness, she let out a whoop of laughter.
The sound of joy, though, quickly morphed into a scream of denial.
She knew where she was now.
She was back in the room where it always started. The long, endless hallway in Enrique’s palatial home.
Melody wanted to cry. She wanted to fling herself to the floor and give up. But before she could even move, heavy booted footsteps sounded behind her.
She didn’t want to turn around and see, but she didn’t have a choice. It was like she was a puppet dancing on someone else’s strings. But she already knew exactly what would be there. It didn’t make it any better when she looked behind her and saw Enrique.
As always, he was the monster out of her nightmares. Everything was the same. The hallway, the man, the awful look of rage and contempt in his black eyes. Only this time, something was different.
He was holding her baby in his arms. Her baby!
Terror flooded her body, but it wasn’t the same fear that had held her frozen before. This one propelled her forward, rushing towards Enrique instead of away from him. Because she could only think of one thing. He had her baby. And Melody had to save her child. She would do anything, fight anyone, to protect her baby. Especially from someone like Enrique, who only knew how to destroy the people around him.
Terrified, Melody screamed at him, trying to beat him with her fists, to claw at him, anything to make him let her baby go, but it was like there was a glass wall separating them, and she couldn’t get to him. She couldn’t get to her child.
Wildness filled her and she pounded against the invisible wall until her hands were bloody and her fingernails were torn and ragged. She didn’t care. The only thing she cared about was the tiny, helpless bundle that Enrique clutched in his arms.
