Defying the Odds (22 page)

“He’s very charming. Smarter, savvier people than my mama’s been fooled by Justin, but I know I can’t trust her. She’d tell him where I’m at faster than you could blink.”

“How’d you get away?” Clay asked.

“I said something at a doctor’s office and ended up in a safe house for abused women. It was a miracle,” she said, her voice lightening. “I didn’t know there were people out there just waiting to help me out. You wouldn’t believe how nice the ladies at the shelter were. They restored my faith in humanity ’cause most of ’
em
were just volunteering. They didn’t get paid. They were there out of the kindness of their heart, and I sure wasn’t
gonna
waste their effort by going back to Justin. Lots of women do, you know? They go back, but not me. Once I was out, I never looked back.”

Clay hugged her tight once more, understanding what a huge achievement that was, to face the unknown because she knew she deserved better.

“I didn’t have anything. Just the clothes on my back and what few things I’d carried around in my purse. I left everything behind. My grandmother’s
ring,
the necklace my daddy gave me on my sixteenth birthday—I lost all of it.”

“Don’t ever wish to be anyone but you. You’re amazing.” Clay’s heart hurt for Melody and everything she’d gone through, but he was unbelievably proud of her too. “You had the courage to know you deserved something better, and you followed through with it. That takes guts.”

“Does it?” Melody
asked,
her voice suspiciously tight.

“I think so,” he whispered, his voice as strained as Melody’s.

Clay’s eyes stung. He found himself fighting a strange battle of emotions, pride warring with pain, love for Melody pitting itself against a rabid hatred for her ex-husband. The past was the past; it was over. Clay knew he probably should have let the memories lie, but he was happy he knew what had happened in Melody’s life that had led to their paths crossing for the first time on Thanksgiving.

“Clay?”

He took another long breath, still struggling to pull himself together.
“Yeah?”

“Make love to me.”

He didn’t even need to think about it. He knew Melody was right. That was what they both needed. He turned off the jets and stood, making Melody gape as she looked up at him. Then he leaned down to grasp her arms and pulled her to her feet.

“What ’bout the tub?” Melody asked and then gasped out loud when Clay suddenly swept her off her feet. Her arms flew around his neck. Her fingers dug into his skin as she squirmed in his grasp, turning her head to look down. “Are you sure you
ain’t
gonna
drop me?”

“I’m sure,” Clay said as he stepped out of the tub.

Melody clutched at him
tighter,
seeming stunned he could do something as simple as step out of the tub while holding her. “Clay, you’re wet and that tile’s slick and—”

“I gotcha,” he said with confidence. “You’re safe, Mel. I promise.”

Clay felt the tension fall out of Melody. She slid one hand from around his neck, down the slick rise of his chest. She placed her open palm over his heart as she whispered, “I am now.”

Clay had to take another deep breath to fight the sting in his eyes, and he walked across the suite with her as a distraction. He laid her down on the bed, then stood there staring at Melody with a sheen of goose bumps dancing over her pale skin and wet hair clinging to her full breasts.

He got that sensation again. His chest expanded with the emotions, making him feel like he’d shatter right there over how beautiful she was and how desperately he adored her. It actually choked him with the force of it. If he tried to speak, he’d lose it.

Instead he crawled onto the bed with her, savoring the feel of her wet, bare skin against his. He flattened his palms against the bed on either side of her head, and he studied her once more, seeing she was fighting the same level of emotional rawness. Her green eyes swam like sparkling emeralds, making it obvious she was near tears.

He leaned down and kissed her before it could get farther than that. Melody kissed him back with the same passionate enthusiasm she always had when they were together. Only now Clay understood just how amazing she was for embracing the passion between them when sex had been unkind to her in the past. She trusted him. More so, Melody trusted
herself
enough to know everything about this was right even if most people thought it was all wrong, and he wanted to make sure that trust was well-placed.

Right then he wasn’t a fighter and she wasn’t an abuse survivor. They were Clay and Melody, and their histories evaporated for the moment. He broke the kiss to move down her body. He pushed wet hair aside to
lave
his tongue over the taut, rosy peak of one breast. He sucked until it puckered against his lips, and Melody made a choked sound of pleasure.

Her fingers threaded into his hair as he moved over to the other breast, sucking and teasing once more. Melody shifted impatiently, making low, throaty sounds of desperation, and Clay understood she needed something more than slow seduction. He felt the same rabid need for mindlessness.

Clay released the tightened peak and grasped her waist in both hands. He lifted his head to look at her. “Tell me what you want, Mel.”

Melody’s chest heaved. Her hair was a tangle of honey blonde that clung to her face and shoulders. Her eyes were glazed with hunger. “Can you, um—” She licked her lips as her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. She leaned up on one elbow and then reached out, running a finger boldly over Clay’s bottom lip. When he parted to her and licked the pad of her finger in the same teasing way he’d licked her clit, Melody sucked in a sharp gasp of desire and whispered, “Lick me.”

He nipped her finger once more before a smile forced its way past the lust and emotion. Knowing she enjoyed his mouth made his cock swell harder than it already was. He moved down her body to slide off the bed and fell to his knees on the floor. He wanted to taste and lick her until she was writhing beneath him. He suddenly needed to feel her come against his lips like he needed air to survive. He knew his tongue couldn’t
lave
away all the pains of the past, but he was already starved for her and desperate to try.

He used his grip on her waist to pull her closer. Melody spread her legs enthusiastically and exposed herself to his hungry gaze. Clay groaned as he looked at her, open wide and waiting for him. He almost couldn’t breathe against the rush of lust. He was tempted to reach down and fist his dick against the urge to come because the sight in front of him was enough to push him over the edge.

“Clay.” Melody reached down and ran her fingers through his hair, pushing it off his face. “Is this okay?”

“God, yes,” he said quickly, knowing his stunned silence could be misunderstood. “You’re just really—”

Beautiful.
Gorgeous.
Wonderful.
Amazing.
Perfect
—Clay fought for the one word to sum up the wild rush of sensation surging through his bloodstream.

A smile quirked at Melody’s lips.
“Really what?”

Clay took a shuddering breath and let his gaze run up from her perfect, pink pussy to the smooth lines of her naked body, her lush hips and full breasts. Finally his eyes met hers.
“Really sexy.
You’re sexy, Mel. So fucking sexy you blow my mind. I feel like I’m
gonna
come just looking at you.”

Her smile blossomed and dimples appeared, making her entire face luminous. She was so open and trusting, so loving and radiant. Clay was awed by her and completely enthralled. He felt drawn to her pleasure like a moth to flame, and he couldn’t resist the lure to lean down and suck on her clit.

Melody gasped and arched into the caress of his mouth. Her legs spread wider. Her fingers fisted in his hair, holding him to her. He never gave her a chance to catch her breath and adjust to the pleasure. Instead he ran his fingers over the folds of her pussy, opening her to the assault as he licked and sucked and drowned himself in the sounds of Melody’s bliss.

Clay was so turned on his cock literally hurt, but he ignored it. He wanted Melody to climax hard and fast and violent as if the battering of ecstasy could wash out the bad memories he’d forced her to drag up. Small, broken sobs of pleasure burst out of her, mingling with half-formed phrases of pleading and appreciation. He felt the tightness in her body, the strain for release, and finally broke through the resistance by pushing two thick fingers deep inside her. Melody tensed, her head falling back against the mattress, her entire body curving upward from the ferocity of her climax.

“Clay!” she screamed, her hold on his hair tightening to the point of pain.

Melody’s entire body shook. Her pussy fluttered and clenched to the pulse of her climax, and Clay thought it was a minor miracle he didn’t come from the sight and sound of it. When he sensed her pleasure had crested, he pulled Melody even farther down the bed until her ass was at the very edge of it, and then sprang to his feet. He grabbed her legs, opening her wide.

He was mindless, wild, and hungry for the first drugging thrust that connected him to Melody. Being one with her was his ambrosia, his only addiction, his unique salvation. He didn’t even have a chance to prepare her before he was giving in to the weakness and plunging his cock deep into the tight, slick heat of her pussy.

Melody bowed to his thrust, a shocked gasp of ecstasy tearing out of her.

Clay’s head fell back under the tidal swell of pleasure. Then he was moving, letting Melody’s gasps and moans fuel his own raging need as he fucked her hard and fast, erasing everything except the blinding pleasure.

Melody’s body enveloped him over and over again as he slammed his hips against hers. His chest heaved. Sweat mingled with the lingering aftereffects of the bath. He could’ve come at any moment. The push of it was right there, threatening with every raspy breath, but he resisted until the moment when Melody abruptly shuddered with another orgasm.

He squinted against the need, seeing Melody’s head thrown back as she fisted the sheets and shook even more violently with the second surrender.

Clay fell easily.

He moved his hips to the throb of pleasure as he spilled inside her, surrendering completely to the hum of release. He never stopped being amazed at just how good it felt to come while buried deep inside her, and it didn’t matter that he was torn open and drained once more. If a climax with Melody was a small death, it was a death worth dying, and Clay rode it out until the end. He relished the pulse of pleasure, savoring every tiny aftershock of bliss until he felt like he’d bleed his soul into Melody.

The pleasure was cleansing once it ebbed to a warm buzz of contentment. He finally pulled out of her to crawl onto the bed and insure he wasn’t the only one who felt renewed. He was relieved to see Melody looked as satisfied as he felt. The flush of pleasure still stained her cheeks. Her eyes were closed, her face serene. Clay reached out and pushed wet wisps of hair off her forehead as he studied her. She blinked, revealing sated green orbs that stared up at him with a gratified happiness he wanted to remember forever.

“Better?” he asked.

“Yeah.”
She touched his lips once more and smiled. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” he said with a laugh. “You heal me, Mel.”

Her smile grew broader.
“Ditto.”

On the first day of the rest of her life—Las Vegas was the place to be.

Melody found herself awed with the lights and sounds. It pulsed with a life that was energizing. The casinos smelled like cigarette smoke, stale perfume, and adrenaline. It should have been off-putting, but oddly enough it compelled her.

The thrill drew Melody in, and she watched the gambling like a voyeur. Being on the outside let her see the excitement of the risk was in the not knowing, in the wild wish that this roll of dice would be the one that solved life’s problems. After it was over, win or lose, wasn’t nearly as exhilarating as those few heartbeats before the cards were dealt.

Hope was perfect. It was untouchable.
Untarnished.

If only life would always exist in the space between the risk and the outcome. She wanted to stay in Las Vegas forever. It was the space between for her and Clay. The lever was pulled; the slots were spinning; there was no going back. They were suspended in the place where hope flourished. The past didn’t seem to matter, and the future could be magnificent.