by Christina OW
Why is he making me do this? Is he trying to teach me a lesson? These people don’t respect me they’ll think I’m joking! She turned her head slightly to catch a glimpse of Ruiz from her peripheral view. Maybe if I asked—no begged him, he would do this himself. She snorted rolling her eyes. And what lesson would I have learned from that? That I can’t do a thing without him holding my hand? She took several deep breaths. You can do this Melody and if things get hairy, Ruiz will just take over. With one more deep breath she looked up and groaned.
Cheri, the hotel’s very own welcoming party, walked in. There was a sway to her barely clad hips as she looked right past Melody to Ruiz, her red lips split in a seductive smile. She had gone all out with her appearance for this meeting, even dropped an extra button on her shirt. With her hands flat on the desk, she leaned over, exposing more of her bra-less breasts to the three of them. Her smile widened when she got a reaction from Jon Luc when he whistled and she winked at him in what Melody called street corner appreciation.
“Monsieur Jon Luc, Monsieur Albury,” she drawled out Albury with a sexy sigh before she turned to Melody with a bored dirt under my shoe sneer, “Madame.”
Melody’s brow shot up at that. The guys got sexy sighs with their names and the Madame she gave Melody was as if she was forced to spend the day in the French sewers.
“Oh this is going to be fun,” Ruiz chuckled behind her.
Yes, it will be. It’s going to be the most fun I’ve had in a year. Melody smiled up at Cheri, her mind already spinning on the number of ways she was going to torture her, give her an interview from hell before Melody fired her. She thought it was going to be a bad day, and it would be, but having Cheri come in first... Ruiz truly did love her.
“Cheri. Please, sit.”
* * * *
“Damn idiot!” Melody yelled as she filled the ice bag with ice. After just a few hours and seven new ex-employees, they’d had to cut the day short because one of them was rocking a broken jaw. “You didn’t have to punch him!”
“Are you kidding me!” Ruiz yelled from where he stood in the middle of the living room of his suite. “He insulted you.”
Melody rolled her eyes at that as she went to him. She’d gotten used to the insults, the rude innuendos. “Yeah and you broke his jaw for it—and the desk! Do you have any idea how much furniture costs?”
As she went to place the ice bag on his bloodied fist he yanked it from her grip and threw it on the table.
“He asked if you were fit to give it up yet!” Ruiz hissed angrily as he glared down at her.
Melody shrugged picking the ice bag up and taking hold of his wounded hand by the wrist. He tried to pull it away but she held on to it tight and pressed the bag on his knuckles. She expected a hiss or something, but nothing. All he did was glare down at her, breathing out of his nose like a raging bull. Actually, she contemplated her head cantered to the side as she watched him, he did resemble a raging bull the way his face was scrunched up and red, murder in his eyes with smoke coming out of his flaring nostrils.
“Mel, stop your mind wandering and answer me, why the hell did he say that to you?”
She sighed again, letting go of him and moving into the bedroom to get the first aid box from the ensuite bath. She found him standing by the bed, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared at her.
“You know he might sue you…after they get him off the straw and he can eat with a spoon again.” His lips cracked in a small smile. She took that as a good sign, his anger was depreciating. “Of course they’d have to wheel him into the court house after you used his back to break the desk.”
He rolled his lips into his mouth in an effort to hide his smile. “Mel, weren’t you just moments ago chastising me for kicking his ass?”
She shrugged as she smiled at him and pulled him down to sit on the bed. She then sat next to him and opened the first aid box, pulling what she would need to clean and tend to his knuckles. “I’m a girl, and girls like to have a big strong man defend their honor.”
He snorted, “Yeah, they also don’t know their own damn mind!”
She pressed the cotton ball of antiseptic on his wound making him hiss and jump.
“Damn, girls are also vindictive!”
“Don’t you ever forget it,” she returned with a satisfied grin. Then soberly she said, “Thank you, for defending me.”
He nodded, “Any time.” He cupped her cheek with his free hand. Melody leaned into the touch, loving the roughness against her soft cheek. His tender caresses always made her feel warm and bubbly inside. “You know I’d do anything to protect you.”
“I know,” she sighed closing her eyes.
“So why won’t you tell me what Antonio has over your head?”
Her eyes popped open and stared right into his that were dancing with worry. Damn! Melody cursed silently as she pulled away, turning away from him to avoid his eyes and busing herself with putting everything back into the first aid box. She had decided to tell him everything because she wasn’t very good at solving her own problems. Jackie had made that point clear. And Melody needed her husband—her first husband—to keep his vows to her. Jackie had made that point clear too. But…Melody needed to do some groundwork first. She wasn’t going to just let him run into danger blind and without back up. Antonio talked a big game but she’d learnt to never take anyone at face value.
Jeb…She shivered just thinking about it. She could have easily been Loraine. She’d heard of bodyguards arranging kidnappings of their charges but stalking and at that level? It was a first.
“So what’s in the flash drive Jon Luc gave you when we left? The hush hush way he did it one would think it contained national secrets,” she said, hoping to change the subject.
She felt Ruiz’s fingers under her chin and she sighed. So much for hoping, she thought, her eyes fluttering shut. She couldn’t help it. His touch, the feel of his skin against her own—for lack of better words—it was pleasure equal to paradise. She followed his guide until she was facing him again. His hot breath caressed her face and her lips fell open just imaging his own parted, moist, readying to kiss her. It made her whole body ache with want. Keeping her eyes closed, she inched closer, needing to feel more of him…just a little more.
“You don’t have to tell me now if you don’t want to,” he whispered against her lips causing a tingle to spread through her chest. “Just don’t go yet. I want to hold you for a minute.”
Her eyes slowly slid open meeting his own. They shone with earnest, pleading with her to give him this one thing. If he only knew she needed his arms around her, had for a very long time. She nodded and his lips twitched in a smile before he pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his large strong arms around her. Melody wrapped her own arms around him, tight, her face tucked into his neck taking in his scent that was just him. It comforted her, always did. She felt him move back, more into the bed before he lowered back slowly, with her safely clutched to his chest. Once he was laying flat on his back he toed off both their shoes and then turned to his side, placing her on the bed, but still keeping her close. He intertwined their legs, her skirt pushing up to her thighs, until they formed a perfect knot, keeping them pressed together from toe to her face to his neck. She could feel his heat through their cotton shirts but that didn’t excite her as much as her bare thighs against his rough jeans. She pushed closer into him, riding her skirt higher to her hips until she could feel him fully, pulsing against her thigh. She wanted to push her leg higher, rub against him but he held her still.
Kissing the top of her head he said, “I could make love to you until we are both breathless, but right now I just want to hold you. Maybe kiss a little, touch a little…but I want us both to be conscious of this moment, of us together not mindless with lust and ecstasy. Just like we used to be before we got married.”
Melody felt her eyes burn with tears. “It’s not safe travelling down memory lane Ruiz,” she whispered back.
He tipp
ed her chin up so that they were face to face. “Why not? I think that’s exactly what we need to do. Remind ourselves why we were so in love with each other.”
She swallowed hard. “Were?”
He nodded, pressing his forehead against hers for a moment before he pulled back looking her in the eyes. “If you truly loved me, with all your heart, you would have trusted me.”
“But Ruiz after—”
He shushed her. “And if I truly loved you, I wouldn’t have let you go so easily. We both have issues in our past that brought us to the decisions we made a year ago. All I’m saying is, let’s start again.”
Tempting, what he was proposing was so tempting, but things weren’t the same. Over a year ago, when they were falling in love, they didn’t have huge threatening obstacles standing in their way. She wasn’t keeping an equally huge secret from him that would test his love, his trust for her double of what led her to running from him a year ago. He would hate her for this, there would be no forgiveness.
“What about Antonio?”
“Forget about him. You are my wife not his. I don’t care what stupid paper you signed here.”
“Ruiz—”
“You don’t sleep with him and I’m sure you have separate rooms.” When she went to protest he pressed his thumb over her lips. “Don’t even try to lie to me. You were tighter than a fist when we made love last and there is no way that would have been possible if you shared a bed with that idiot. Which makes me all the more curious why you married him in the first place—but, I’m not going to push anymore about that. When you are ready you’ll tell me and we’ll fix it together. Just don’t say no to this.”
Melody nibbled on her lower lip fighting indecision. She didn’t want to hope, but how could she not? This was a chance for them for their family. They owed it to Esme to at least try.
She nodded her assent. “Okay Ruiz Albury, let’s fall in love again.”
His lips spread in a wide grin before he kissed her. “Let’s fall in love again, Mrs. Albury.”
A shiver ran through Melody at that. It felt so good when he called her that, when the words rolled off his tongue like a lovers caress. “I love it when you call me that; the way you say it.”
“Aha,” he pulled her into him, pressing her tighter against him. His lips hovered over her parted ones as he said, “Well Mrs. Albury, I’d like to get to the kissing and touching now.”
* * * *
With a groan, Melody pressed her forehead against the top of the new—but inexpensive in case Ruiz decided to slam someone else on it—desk, and covered her head with her hands. She had hoped things would be different on the second day but all she’d managed to do is hold Ruiz down almost sitting on him several occasions when a fired employee exploded at her. It was normal, no one took firing easy, but her employees were taking it rather personally. Some broke down in tears and others yelled, cursed and screamed and all she was getting out of it was a splitting headache.
She felt Ruiz’s hands on her shoulders and she spread her hands on the table to give him room to massage her. He had the best hands—hard and heavy against her softness. It always made her feel like clay when he ran them over her body, massaging her, caressing her and all the other little things that turned her into a horny putty in them.
She sighed as he took her tension from her. What she would give to just disappear for a few hours…or a day. Yes, definitely a full day of relaxation with her family. She tensed again and sensed that Ruiz had noticed. She prayed he wouldn’t ask her about it. It wasn’t the time to tell him about Esme, not in the middle of all this mess.
“Hey, how about we go out for a few hours and relax, maybe have a late lunch.”
Lunch! It was two in the afternoon and they hadn’t eaten yet. Maybe that’s why she was feeling a little lightheaded. Stress and hunger and with a nursing baby it left her a lot more drained. Esme, she needed to feed Esme. She groaned, rolling her forehead on the cool surface. How did working moms handle all of it?
“Come on, babe.” Ruiz pulled her up off the desk and up on her feet. “Jon Luc, your not invited.”
Melody gaped at how blunt Ruiz was. She learnt from her debutant days that there was a more polite with all the fake regrets to tell someone they weren’t wanted and blurting it out wasn’t it. The social class she was raised around was the pit of all that was vile but politeness was gospel even between people who hated each other. If her mother were alive she would have pinched him for his rudeness! So she did just that, pinched him. But apparently it didn’t hurt because he stared down at her with a confused look on his face.
“What?” Ruiz blurted out.
“You could have been a little polite about that.”
He scoffed rolling his eyes. “You want me to write him a disinvite with an apology card?”
It annoyed her sometimes when he made fun of the way she was taught to do things. He called it ‘uppity nonsense’ and that she needed to learn to live in the real world, like Loraine. But what he didn’t seem to understand was she and Loraine were raised differently. Melody’s parents were always present and never held back their affection which made it easy for Allan and her to do as they were told. Loraine was ignored most of her life and her rebellious nature exposed her to the world and more often to the worst side of it.
Before she could get a retort off her tongue Jon Luc stood and pushed them towards the door. “Don’t worry about it, Melody. I have some work I need to see to anyway.”
Melody smiled up at him. “Well then, just make sure to order something to eat from the kitchen. We have a long day and you can’t go through it hungry.”
“Oui. Merci madame, for your concern,” he returned with a smile.
Ruiz grumbled under his breath before he audibly said, “Great, let’s go.” Then he grabbed her arm and pulled her out the door making her run after him. Once they got outside, he bundled her into his rented Jaguar so fast she didn’t even feel the last of the winter chill as spring settled in. Still peeved she stared out the window at the passing scenery stubbornly refusing to either look or say a word to him, but that just annoyed her more because he didn’t even try to interact with her.
After a few minutes, the car came to a stop. She sat still, waiting for him to get out and come around to open her door, but as the seconds ticked by, she didn’t hear his car door open and finally she forced herself to turn around and face him. She caught him staring at her with a passive look on his face except for that one raised eyebrow. She hated that eyebrow! She always felt like, with that little gesture, he was saying ‘what was the brat throwing a tantrum over now’.
“Is this where we are going to have lunch, in your car?” she bit out. When he didn’t respond she half yelled pounding her fists on her lap. “What? Would you stop looking at me like that?”
“Melody—” he rolled his lips into his mouth with a shake of his head. “No. This isn’t happening, not now.” He opened his door and got out. He banged the door closed so hard the car shook. She stared at him opened mouth as he walked around the front of the car to her door.
“That was mature of you,” she said sarcastically once he had her door opened. Ignoring his hand and averting her eyes from him, she stepped out like a true debutant, sliding on her Gucci sunglasses knowing it would annoy him and sauntered to the door of the restaurant. There she stopped, waiting for him to open the door for her. And once he got to her, just to annoy him further she said, “You couldn’t find a place with a door man?”
She felt his hands on her shoulders and none to gently he spun her around making her yelp as she lost her footing. He grabbed her upper arms steadying her and bringing her close to him.
“I know you don’t like me making fun of your,” he paused and his eyes darted around like he was trying to find a less offensive word for what he had in mind. Then he shook his head and sighed. “For lack of a better word, uppity way of life. I know I promised I’ll stop and I’m going to try harder to keep my promise, bu
t you need to meet me halfway and you can do that by stop acting like my mother.”
Melody gasped then pouted feeling a little chastised. Being compared to his mother was the last thing she wanted or needed. She knew very well his feeling about her mother-in-law and her social lifestyle. Melody always guessed it was one of the reasons why he’d been reluctant to date her in the beginning—that she was shallow, fake and cared more about how she was perceived by her peers. Melody knew ladies like that, she was friends—more like had to be around them because they came from the same circle—with some and Allan had dated a few. He was always bored out of his mind around them but always acted as he was expected, like a gentleman and ignored them when he could. But he was different with Riana—always present, always attentive and so free—and Melody liked the change.
Melody herself shaded those ‘friends’ after high school when she’d decided what she wanted to do with her life. With no parents to influence her decision, it was quite easy to pick hotel airing just harder to convince her brother she could do it. After all she had done to get him to not only support her, but help her make her dreams of owning her own hotel come true…she felt even more ashamed.
She placed her hands on his chest and leaned into him. “We’ll meet each other halfway. New resolutions for a new beginning.” She smiled, meaning the words. If they were going to start fresh and make it work, they couldn’t make the same mistakes that led to their separation.
He smiled softly down at her and kissed her gently. “I have a surprise for you.”
Giddy, she bounced on her toes. “I love surprises! What is it?”
He chuckled turning her around to face the door. He kissed the top of her head and whispered mysteriously. “It’s something that’s a month over due.”
What? She thought to herself as the door swung open exposing a boy in his teens dressed in the official waiter’s uniform.
