Heart's Reward

by Donna Hill

  They all toasted the newly engaged couple.

  “Open your gift,” Melanie said, putting down her drink.

  Claude pulled the top off of the box and inside were two plane tickets to Paris. His eyes widened in surprise. “Paris.”

  “The City of Lights. You said how hard you were working and that this week’s break would be the last one for a while. I wanted to make it special. Our plane leaves tomorrow.”

  He cupped the back of his hand behind her head and pulled her toward him. “It will be the perfect place to experience our engagement.”

  After piling up plates to go, hugs, kisses and well wishes, one by one the family said their goodbyes and headed to their respective homes.

  “If you two handsome men will excuse me, I’m going to send Evan home and straighten up the kitchen.” She started to get up and Claude pulled her down into his lap, setting off Melanie’s giggles.

  “What if I don’t want you to go?” he said deep into her ear that sent a shiver from the bottom of her stomach right up the center of her body. He nuzzled her neck.

  With great reluctance Melanie tore herself away from the cocoon of Claude’s arms and went to the kitchen. She blew him a kiss.

  “Get a room,” Alan teased.

  Claude lowered his head and chuckled. “You were right, man.”

  Alan relaxed against the overstuffed cushions of the couch. He put his feet on the matching ottoman. “I usually am, but what about this time.” He reached for his glass of wine.

  “About me needing to find someone.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t think it would be my sister.” He chuckled.

  “Are you cool with that?”

  Alan leaned forward and rested his arms on his thighs. He looked right at Claude. “I love my sister. All I want is for her to be happy. Since she lost Steven all she’s done is pour herself into the business. She’d been so busy putting other people together she put her own life on the back burner. If I could choose anyone for her it would be you.”

  Claude’s lips tightened as he nodded his thanks. “She’s some kind of special, man.” The awe of it was in his voice. “I mean…from the moment we met. I know that sounds really corny but it’s true. I couldn’t stop thinking about her.”

  Alan grinned. “Mel does have that effect on people.”

  Claude rested his right ankle on his left knee. “Yeah, I thought for a while that something was going on with her and Rafe Lawson.”

  Alan threw his head back and laughed. “You’re kidding. Rafe? Rafe is the poster boy for ‘ladies man.’ I’m surprised that Bradford was able to wrestle him into agreeing to use the service at all.”

  “He had his eye on Melanie. No doubt about that.”

  “As much as Rafe has his eye on any woman. It was probably her not falling all over him that was the attraction.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right.” He paused for a moment, somewhat reluctant to broach the subject, but he knew Alan would be honest with him. “What was Steven like?”

  Alan’s brow rose and fell. “Hmm. Steven Ellis was a great guy. No other way to put it. He adored the ground that Mel walked on. He was much older than her. A professor at the college she attended. They met, dated, married and then before we knew what happened he was gone. It was a tough time for all of us. Everything was so hush-hush back then. The stigma. The fear.”

  A frown of confusion creased his brow. The words rang in his ears. Stigma. Fear.

  Alan’s gaze darted away for a moment. “AIDS-related pneumonia. That was the official diagnosis,” he said in a faraway voice. He shook his head in sadness.

  The air rushed out of Claude’s lungs like he’d been punched in the gut.

  “We told everyone it was a heart attack. Back then it just wasn’t something that you talked about.”

  His frown deepened. “But…how?”

  “Steven had been in a bad car accident a few years earlier. He’d received a blood transfusion.” His silence said the rest.

  Claude swallowed. The tightness in his chest cut off his air. He folded his hands on his lap. “My God. And Mel,” he looked at his friend with questions and empathy in his eyes.

  “Tore her up. For five years she got tested every six months. Then once a year. Miraculously she always came up negative. The doctors cleared her totally about two, maybe three years ago. I think the only people who really know what happened are Steve’s family—who sued the hospital for millions—Cynthia and me. The kids have no idea.”

  Claude drew in a long, shaky breath and slowly exhaled. Why hadn’t she told him something like that? Didn’t she trust that he would understand? Did she think he would stop caring? She’d lied to him.

  “I know what you’re thinking. I can tell by the stunned look in your eyes.”

  Claude’s eyes jerked toward Alan. “What?”

  “You want to know why she didn’t tell you. She will. I know my sister.”

  Obviously Claude didn’t. He didn’t know her at all.

  Chapter 20

  Alan had said his goodnights and gone up to bed. The house was quiet. The night was still. A sprinkling of stars glittered in the night sky. The full moon cast an ethereal glow. Her ring caught the light and sparkled in a burst of color. She smiled as joy took life and ran through her veins. She had never felt so happy or so at peace.

  Claude gazed down at Melanie. Her eyes were half closed. He could see the gentle outline of her smile in the muted light. She was happy. He’d done that for her. That was all he wanted to do. He wanted to make her happy and live every day to see the joy in her eyes and on her lips.

  That could never happen. Not now. He squeezed his eyes shut as the pain of the unthinkable shot through him. Life without her. After he’d waited so long.

  She’d lied to him. He needed to hear her tell him why. Without the truth how could they ever go forward? They would be stuck in this place of distrust that he’d found himself in. They could never build a life together on a foundation of lies.

  “Claude…”

  The single word was spoken so softly that he thought he imagined it.

  “Claude…” She turned slightly toward him.

  He opened his eyes and looked down into her upturned face. His heart banged in his chest. She took his hand and held it.

  “Can we go for a walk?”

  “Now?”

  She bobbed her head. “The coastline is incredible. The stars are out. The moon is full. A warm breeze is blowing off the ocean. I want to share that with my husband to be on the first day of our engagement.”

  His stomach twisted. His heart ached. He touched her cheek. “Sure.”

  Melanie tucked herself against Claude, resting her head on his shoulder as they walked along the bluff and down toward the shore.

  Warm, moist air blew lightly around them, sprinkling them like fairy dust, and Claude silently prayed for a magic wand to make the incredibly devastated feeling that knotted his insides go away. He wanted the conversation with Alan to have never happened. He wanted to turn back the clock. He wanted Melanie to tell him the truth on her own without any prodding from him. It had to come from her or it would never be right again between them. He held her tighter and kissed the top of her head.

  “Steven and I used to walk along this path,” she said quietly.

  Claude’s body momentarily stiffened. He barely breathed.

  “It was the only thing he looked forward to…toward the end.” She paused for what seemed like an eternity and for a while Claude thought she wouldn’t say anything else. She would just leave things like that, unfinished and unanswered. But then she spoke and the words, the hurt, the fear, the acceptance flowed from her and into him, joining them in a way that he could not explain.

  “I…I thought I would die too when he came home and told me.” She hesitated. “He’d been feeling ill, tired. He was looking worn and wasn’t eating. I told him he was working too hard and he needed a vacation. He insisted that we would take one as so
on as the semester was over.”

  He felt her body shudder against him as she drew in a breath. He held her a bit tighter.

  “I finally convinced him to see a doctor. They started talking about T-cells and life expectancy, experimental treatments, drug cocktails…and our world began to come apart.” She swiped at her eyes.

  Her anguish was palpable and he couldn’t bear to have her relive that heartbreaking time in her life. Not for him. Not even to appease his need to know the truth. It wasn’t worth her pain.

  He stopped walking and turned her to face him. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to tell me.”

  “But I do. I should have told you in the beginning, before we slept together. Before we had sex without protection. But I wasn’t thinking. I was being selfish and needy. That wasn’t fair to you. But I was afraid. I lied. I told you the story we’ve been telling people for years. Even now, with all the information, the treatments, the miracles and success stories, the fear and stigma still remain.” She lowered her head to hide the tears that slid down her cheeks. “I don’t think I could have stood to see the look in your eyes.”

  “Look at me.” He lifted her chin and forced her to look into the depths of his love for her. “No matter what life throws at us, we can beat it if we trust each other.” His dark eyes moved soothingly across her pained expression. “You have to believe that you can trust me. Trust me with your secrets, your joys, your sorrows, your hopes. And I have to believe that of you. We are putting our lives and our hearts into each other’s hands.” He cupped her face in his palms. He lowered his head and kissed away her tears, then leaned back.

  “The first thought that came into my head wasn’t fear for myself but the fear of realizing that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me, and it scared me to think that was the way we were going to start off our relationship together—hiding things from each other.”

  Her throat tightened. “I lived in fear. Month after month. Never knowing if this test result was going to be the one…” She blinked rapidly to stem the flow of tears. Her face squeezed together as she fought them back. “The only thing that held me together after I lost Steven was staying busy and helping other people to find and fall in love. But all the while I wanted what they had.” She sighed heavily, turned away from his penetrating eyes and began to walk again.

  He moved quietly beside her.

  “I dated. But never anything serious.” Her smile was rimmed with sadness. “I didn’t dare let it go that far. Everyone always wanted to know how I can be so good at what I do and not have a man in my own life.” She drew in a long, slow breath. “I could because I knew what love felt like, what it looked like, what it was like to hold it in your hand and watch it fly away.” She sniffed. “Finally the doctors gave me a clean bill of health. I breathed easy for the first time in years.” She gazed up at him. “Then I met you.” Her throat tightened. “I saw possibility again. I wanted a chance to live and love again.” Her shoulders shook as emotion overtook her.

  Claude pulled her into his arms, wrapping her in his warmth, in the strength of his love. “You don’t have to be afraid of anything. Never, ever again. I promise you.” He lowered his head and kissed her, slow and sweet, sealing his bargain with her heart.

  She melted against him, drawing on his strength, holding onto the love she held in her heart for him.

  “Let’s go back,” he whispered along her moist lips. “I want to show you exactly what I’m talking about.”

  The moment Melanie’s bedroom door shut behind them, Claude began a leisurely exploration of her body, marking his territory with a touch, a kiss, a nibble. Nimble fingers unbuttoned the one closure, and the cream-colored silk and jersey ankle-length overtop drifted to the floor. The matching wide-legged, accordion pants and fitted top soon followed.

  Melanie took his hand and guided him into the bathroom. She turned on the tub, added aromatic bath salts and turned on the jets of the Jacuzzi.

  “Let me entertain you,” she said, unbuttoning his shirt and freeing him from his slacks.

  The mirrored space filled with steam and the heady scent of jasmine and patchouli. They pulled off the rest of their clothing. Their bodies grew moist from the steam.

  Melanie pressed her damp body against Claude’s and took his growing erection in her hand. Her tongue dipped and teased his right nipple. He groaned deep down in his throat and sucked in air through clenched teeth while her slender fingers encircled him, moving up and down in slow, practiced strokes until he jerked and quivered within her grasp.

  An uncontrolled urgency rose up within him and he moved her up against the sweaty black and white wall tiles, lifting her and draping her legs over the bend in his muscular arms.

  Her cry became trapped in her throat when Claude’s single hard thrust pushed up inside of her, gluing her to the wall, sealing her to him.

  She linked her fingers around his neck and buried her head against his chest as he effortlessly lifted her up and down onto his rock-hard shaft even as he stirred his hips in a circular motion, making her dizzy with delight.

  She felt the rush of her climax begin to overtake her. She tried to outrun it, to make it last, but she was losing ground.

  “Oh, God, oh God…Cl…oooohh, agggg…”

  His palms clasped the firm globes of her behind and he could feel the shivers running through her as her body became a conduit of electricity that he thrust in and out of her. It shook her, stiffened her muscles, coursed through the blood in her veins and she came in strangled, powerful bursts that opened and closed around him in rapid succession until she was limp and trembling.

  Through sheer force of will he pulled out of her, his erection jumping in protest at leaving the wet, hot cocoon. He lowered her legs to the floor and she leaned against him.

  “I thought this was your show,” he teased, leading her, dreamy-eyed to the waiting Jacuzzi. He helped her get in and he followed, both of them sinking into the swirling hot depths.

  They sat so that her back was resting against his chest. The steam enveloped them, giving them the sense of being part of a dream.

  Melanie closed her eyes, reliving those final seconds before her climax. A shiver ran along her spine. Her clit jumped and throbbed under the water. She moaned softly as Claude cupped her breasts, his thumbs rubbing across her hardened nipples. He played with and caressed them until Melanie swore they would explode. He nibbled the back of her neck and dipped his hands beneath the scented water. He spread her thighs and slid his middle finger up and down her slick folds, dipping in and out of her center.

  “Slide down and lean back against me,” he instructed. “Spread your legs.”

  The force of the jets rushed against the hot pulse of her womanhood. A strangled cry shot from her throat. Her head spun. The pleasure was so sudden and so intense that she shook from the force of it, wanting it but fearful of its power.

  “Relax.” He massaged the inside of her thighs. He took her right leg and draped it over one side of the tub and then did the same thing with the other leg. She whimpered helplessly against the sensations that rocked her.

  Claude secured her against him by wrapping one arm tightly around her waist. With his free hand he fingered her, playing along with the force of the water, and her hips began to move. They rose and fell in rhythm to his manipulation of her and the force of the hot pulsing water.

  “That’s it, baby.” He slid a finger inside her and she came hard and fast. “Enjoy it. Ride it.” He kissed the back of her neck as her body bucked and she moaned, moaned until there was nothing left but her soft whimpers. “I…I can’t wait any longer,” he groaned. “I can’t…” He gritted his teeth against the need for release that was building inside him like a monsoon ready to hit the shore.

  Melanie summoned her last ounce of strength and pulled herself up. She turned around to face him, straddling him. For a tantalizing moment she hovered above his throbbing erection before slowly lowering herself onto him and riding h
im to ecstasy.

  Somehow they managed to untangle themselves, wrap up in towels and tumble into Melanie’s bed.

  Her limbs ached. Her vagina throbbed. She’d never felt so good and so thoroughly loved in all her life. If this was any indication of what being married to Claude was going to be like, she was definitely going to have to spend more time in the gym. She giggled.

  “What’s funny?” he murmured against the back of her neck and spooned her closer to him.

  “Oh I was just thinking that if I plan to keep up with your sexual acrobatics for the rest of our life together, I was going to have to stay in shape.”

  “Hmm. My sentiments exactly.” He gently squeezed her breast and slid his hand down between her legs. She was already wet and the realization raced through him. She wiggled her behind against him. “Don’t start something you’re not ready to finish,” he warned.

  "Who said I wasn't ready?" She covered his hands with her own, one above and one below and gently guided him to do exactly what she wanted, all the while she erotically rotated her behind against his rising shaft. She pulled his hands away and turned fully onto her stomach. She took two pillows from above her and shoved them under her pelvis and rose up on her knees. She tossed him a come hither look from over her shoulder and that was all the invitation that he needed.

  Epilogue

  Fortunately, Melanie and Claude’s flight to France was scheduled for the evening and they delighted in being able to sleep well past ten in the morning. And they wouldn’t have gotten up then if Melanie hadn’t scooted away and locked herself in the bathroom, while she laughed hysterically at Claude’s baleful pleas of “just one more time.”

  Laughing until tears were in her eyes, she turned on the shower full blast and after a long, hot, solo shower and darting away from Claude’s playful grasp while she got dressed, Melanie took over the kitchen and prepared a lumberjack breakfast for the two most important men in her life.