by Brook Wilder
“Don’t do that. Don’t make it a joke. Don’t brush it off like it was nothing.” He took her chin gently in his hand and tilted her face back around until he could look into her dark eyes, trying to banish the shadows he saw lurking there through will power alone. “And don’t ever, ever feel ashamed because of what someone else did.”
He stared at her for a long moment, tension rising in the air between them, as he tried to make her see the truth in his eyes.
“This isn’t your fault, sweetheart.”
“It’s not yours either, Christian.”
Christian jerked back at her unexpected words, realizing for the first time that the dark greasy feeling in the pit of his stomach wasn’t fear. It was guilt.
“I should have known,” Christian whispered. “I should have known that he would try and pull something like this.”
“No,” Melody said just as softly, shaking her head at him. “It was just bad luck. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. No one could have known that Enrique’s men would be there.”
Melody glanced up at him through a thick fringe of lashes, and for a moment he tipped forward and lost himself there, in the sweetness of her.
He was so close it was as if he could see all the way into her soul, could see all the dark, shattered places within her.
“Please Christian.” Her words were just as ragged. “I need you.”
Her words shuddered through him, and the darkness that had festered inside Christian rose up to meet hers, twining together in acceptance and love.
Their bodies met just as fiercely, and Christian had to pull back on his desire so that he didn’t hurt her again. But Melody wasn’t about to let him go slow or gentle.
She was like a wild animal as she dragged him towards the bed, and he wasn’t any calmer as she pushed him down until he was stretched out on his back, staring up at her with hunger and awe and all the love that was overwhelming him to the point that he couldn’t even speak.
His whole body was suddenly on fire her, and there was only one thing that would quench the flames roaring hungrily inside him. Melody. His wife. The woman he loved more than he’d ever loved anything in his life.
They stripped each other with shaking hands, both of them trembling like leaves caught up in the same storm with need and wild abandon. Christian wanted to growl in frustration at even that small delay, but finally she was moving over him. They both threw their heads back in bliss as she straddled him and took him into her body. Heaven and hell, all rolled into one.
Everything disappeared as she rode him. The bed they were on, the house they were in. The gang, his father, the whole world. It all receded until all that was left was him and Melody, and the ecstasy that shot through his body like lightning, his heart roaring like thunder in his chest.
It could have lasted mere moments, it could have lasted for an eternity, as he lay there, wrapped up so tight in her that he couldn’t tell where his body ended and where Melody’s began, but finally he couldn’t last another moment.
He watched her shudder and come apart above him, his goddess, his Venus, her head thrown back in absolution, and he was helpless to stop his own body from tumbling after hers.
They came together, and as his climax slowly receded Christian could feel some of the darkness inside him recede right along with it as he pulled her close against his chest.
They were both out of breath, panting, and covered in sweat, but he didn’t care. It didn’t matter. She was the only thing that mattered. Melody, and the life growing inside her. The life that they had made together.
Christian wrapped his arms around her. He knew he was holding her too tight, but he couldn’t force himself to let her go, not even an inch.
“I’m never letting you go again.”
He breathed the words against her hair, holding her so close that he could feel the shiver run down her body and then back up again. She turned her face against his shoulder so that she could look at him.
“Never is a long time, Christian.”
He met her gaze, not looking away, not blinking. He needed her to see that he meant every single word and each one was drawn from his very soul.
“Never again, sweetheart.”
Christian had to fight back the tight feeling that suddenly constricted his chest as Melody shook her head at him, laying her lips gently against his. After a moment, she snuggled back into his side and they lay like that for one sweet moment as they both recovered and Christian fought to get his possessive emotions back under control.
He held her like that for three breaths, but on the fourth inhale Melody shifted in his embrace, pulling herself up until she was sitting on the edge of the bed. She looked around the quiet room restlessly. It was obvious there was something that was on her mind, and he was patient, waiting for her to speak
“I’m not afraid anymore.”
“What?”
That wasn’t what he’d been expecting. But there was a quiet conviction in her voice that riveted him. It only grew as she turned to look at him over her shoulder. He could still see the jagged places inside her, and he could feel them start to heal with every word that fell from her bruised lips.
“I was lying here, right here, in the bed where Enrique…”
“Hush,” Christian said, stopping her with a finger pressed gently in front of her mouth, not quite touching. He couldn’t stand the thought of causing her any more pain, “You don’t have to say anything. Whatever happened…”
“No, you’re wrong. I do, Christian. I need you to know. I…” Melody trailed off for a moment, fighting for the right words to go on. “Nothing happened with Enrique. He just laid down beside me on the bed and fell asleep, and I was so scared because I knew… I know exactly what that monster is capable of.”
All he wanted to do was wrap her back up in his arms and disappear back into that magical place where no one else existed, where there was no past and no pain. But he could also see how important this was to her. So, he bit his tongue, waiting for her to go on.
“But I started thinking about you. About our baby. About our life together. And I wasn’t afraid anymore. Because I knew that no matter what happened, he would never touch my love for you. He would never be able to hurt that part of me ever again.”
Christian had to blink back the sting of tears at her softly spoken words. This time, he couldn’t stop himself from wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close once more in a quick but fierce embrace, before standing to put his own clothes back to rights.
Melody rose with a languorous stretch beside him, and he glanced at the clock on the expensive inlaid table that sat next to the bed. Panic hit Christian square in the chest.
“We have to get out of here, Mel. I don’t know how much time we have left before Enrique and his men get back, but it can’t be long.”
“No.”
The single word pulled Christian up short, and he spun around to look at Melody with a combination of disbelief and frustration.
“‘No’? What do you mean? You want to wait until he gets back?”
But Melody was already shaking her head.
“No, that’s not what I mean, Christian. We can’t go. Not yet.” She drew in a deep breath and looked up at him with something close to desperation back in her dark eyes. “Bianca is still here. He still has her. Enrique never intended on letting her go. She’s trapped somewhere in the house. We can’t leave without her.”
It was Christian’s turn to sigh sharply as her words hit him all over again.
“Well, hell!”
Chapter 22
Melody couldn’t make herself let go of Christian’s hand. She knew it would make it easier to navigate the dim hallways and mazelike floors of Enrique’s house as they tried to figure out where the bastard could be hiding Bianca, but she just couldn’t force her fingers to unclench his.
They pushed forward, creeping slowly from corner to corner, Christian always careful to make sure that she stayed
out of sight as he peeked to make sure that the coast was clear before tugging her after him to the next hallway.
They checked every single room that they passed, but it was slow going. Time was ticking faster and faster, and they were getting no closer to finding where Bianca was being kept.
After ten fruitless minutes, Christian turned to her with a hissed whisper.
“You know this house, Melody. You lived here for a year, didn’t you?
Melody flinched at the question, already shaking her head, wishing it was just as easy to banish the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“I didn’t really live here, Christian. Enrique made me stay on the second floor, and towards the end he mostly kept me locked up in the bedroom and I could only leave if he was with me.”
Even in the dim light, Melody could see Christian’s blue eyes darken with rage at her words.
“He’s dead,” Christian promised, his tone as sharp as it was quiet. “For what he did to you. For how he hurt you…”
“Hush. It’s over now. He doesn’t matter,” Melody said hastily, trying to divert his anger, “Let’s just find Bianca and get the hell out of this place. I don’t want to be here any longer than we have to.”
Christian nodded, struggling to pull his anger back in for a moment, but when he spoke again, his voice was lighter, less filled with the need to do violence.
“So, you have no idea where he might be keeping her? A tower? A dungeon, perhaps?”
Melody snorted, surprised that she could laugh at a time like this. She looked at him sideways, but he just shot her a tight grin and squeezed her hand in answer before moving forward once more.
It made Melody feel a little better that Christian was just as reticent to let go of her hand as she was to let go of his. She was starting to believe that he’d meant every word of his promise never to let her out of his sight again.
Warmth flowed through her at the thought, banishing some of the icy cold frost that had settled inside her since that first moment in the office, facing down Enrique. Watching him pull the gun on his men without blinking. Pulling the trigger without even flinching.
“He killed him.”
She hadn’t meant to say the word out loud, but now that she’d spoken she couldn’t keep the rest inside.
“What did you say?” Christian asked, looking at her now with concern.
“Enrique,” Melody said after swallowing down nausea at the unwelcome memory. “He shot the man who hit me. He was standing right next to me and his blood… It was everywhere. All over me. I swear I can still smell it.”
Suddenly, Christian was moving, and this time it was towards her. He didn’t stop until he had enfolded her in his arms and she was melting against him, like she knew she always would.
He drew in a deep breath before whispering the words soft and sweet against her ear, so that she felt them more than she heard them.
“I promise you. We are going to find Bianca. We are going to get out of here. And then we are going to go far, far away, and you will never have to worry about Enrique again.”
He kissed her then, sweeping his lips across her forehead, and Melody felt his promise settle inside her like a bright star that she held tight to as he retook her hand. The next moment, they were rushing down the hallway as quickly as they dared, still searching every room they passed for Bianca. But there was no sign of her.
They needed to figure out where Enrique was keeping the older woman. They just didn’t have time to sneak around and search the entire palatial home. There was no way they could look everywhere before Enrique and his men came back, and Melody knew it was likely that he still had men guarding the sprawling property while he was gone.
They were running out of time. And Melody didn’t know what to do. She just knew that she couldn’t leave Bianca behind. Not after the old woman had gotten tangled up in this mess because of her.
She held that thought just as tightly as she held Christian’s promise as they snuck around a corner. Christian rushed to stifle Melody’s scream of surprise as she nearly ran smack dab into another creeping woman.
“Amanda?” Melody asked in a whisper, too spooked to say anything louder.
Enrique’s cousin took a stumbling step back, both of them shaken as she shot Melody a guilty look, obviously steeling herself as Melody walked towards her.
But instead of yelling at her like Amanda expected, Melody threw her arms around the other woman, giving her a hug of gratitude.
“Thank you. For saving me. For saving my baby. Anything you’ve done, it’s all forgotten. I forgive you.”
All the tension went out of Amanda as she let out a quick breath, and they all took a step back.
Melody glanced over at Christian, whose expression was stiff with tension. But even though he remained silent, he did gift Enrique’s cousin with a nod of thanks.
“You found her,” Amanda said.
They were all still talking in a whisper, and Christian nodded again.
“With your help,” he added gruffly. “And we need your help again. Enrique is holding Bianca here somewhere. We need to find her.”
“No, you need to get the hell out of here before Enrique gets back,” Amanda hissed with a nervous look behind her.
It put Melody on edge, just thinking about the possibility of being caught by him again.
“He could be back here any minute! And if he finds you both here…”
Amanda grabbed them both by the arm and tried to hurry them towards the door, but Melody refused to be moved.
“We are not leaving here without Bianca,” she said staunchly.
“No, you little bitch.”
A harsh voice growled from behind her, and Melody whirled around in horror as four of Enrique’s men surrounded them.
“You aren’t leaving here at all. None of you are. Grab them.”
Chapter 23
Melody froze for a half of a second, but it felt like an eternity. Her gaze was trapped on the man who was rushing towards her, his face twisted in an expression she knew all too well.
All the hope, that bright star of light that had filled her up when Christian had first found her, began to gutter and go out a little bit at a time.
She turned and tried to run. She knew she had to get away from them, that she couldn’t let herself by caught by Enrique or his men again. But she’d only made it a step or two when she looked over her shoulder.
She watched one of the thugs punch Christian so hard that his head whipped around, and he stumbled backwards. By the time he found his footing again, Enrique’s man had pulled a gun from its hiding place at his waistband and had it levelled at Christian’s chest.
The sight of that had far more to do with her stopping than the man who had grabbed her. It was enough to make her surrender and do whatever they told her, her eyes wide and desperate on Christian’s as she tried to tell him without words that they would be okay. That somehow they would make it out of this alright, and together.
The man behind her held her wrists so tight together that she swore she could feel the bones grinding against one another. Two men tackled Christian much harder than they needed to. He’d already put his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
The last man moved to corner Amanda, and she stumbled backwards, about to turn and rush away, when his hard hands tangled in her hair and pulled her to an abrupt stop.
“Oh no,” the man who held her growled. “You’re not going to get away with this. Enrique will want to know all about how his cousin betrayed him.”
“I didn’t betray him, Jose, I swear,” Amanda said.
Melody could see that she was trying to think of a way out of this and that she was slowly realizing the truth that Mel had already discovered. There was no way out. They were back under Enrique’s power. Again.
But that didn’t stop Amanda from trying.
“I…I saw them escaping, and I was trying to stall. That’s all.”
Jose drew back one han
d, swinging it forward as he hit Amanda across the cheek with the butt of his gun. Enrique’s cousin cried out at the blow and stumbled unsteadily, one hand clutched to the side of her face.
Melody lurched forward, trying to help the other woman, but the man that held her from behind had her restrained too tightly, and she couldn’t move. All she could do was trip forward as they pushed them down the hall in an odd and unwilling parade.
Melody stumbled over her own feet as they dragged them down several flights of stairs, and in the back of her mind she wondered if Christian’s joke about a dungeon wasn’t real after all. It felt like they had descended far underground by the time they came to a heavy wood door with the padlock on the outside.
