Unintended Love: A contemporary romantic novella (8 page)

“Well...who? He’s not...” she stammered. She was taken off guard. What did Martin have to do with this?

“Did I tell you it was Melanie who saw the highway from almost 20 miles away?” Alex interrupted. “She has amazing eyesight.”

Rather reluctantly, Cary turned to him.

“Is that so?”

From that point, Alex took charge of the interview. He told the story, including Melanie by asking her questions directly. Cary had a difficult time getting a word in, and soon the assistant was signing that they were running out of time. Still, she made time for one more question. She turned and looked directly into the camera.

“There you have it folks, a wonderful, fantastic, story of survival. Two nights and three days lost in the wild. And this interview has been quite interesting and full of mutual admiration. I know I want to know, and everybody watching does too, did the two of you, attractive, still single people, hook up while out there? 

Melanie fought the urge to look down into her lap, but her cheeks burned. Alex came to her rescue once again.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “Miss James is an engaged woman.”

Cary looked disappointed.

“Wonderful! Well, thank you both.”

It didn’t take long at all for Cary Andrews and her crew to pack up and leave, and soon it was only Alex. He sat on the couch and made no move to leave.

The butterflies in Melanie’s stomach grew more active. “It looks like you’ve saved me once again,” she said. 

“That woman’s a bitch. What happened between us is nobody’s business.”

“Well, thank you, anyway.”

“No problem. I guess I’ll go then.” He looked at her for a long moment, and then he stood up. “You look beautiful in that dress by the way.”

It was awkward between them. Melanie started to hold out her hand but it felt wet and sweaty, and if she wiped it on her silk dress she knew it would make a dark mark.

“Hey, do you want to stay for breakfast?” she asked impulsively.

Alex flashed her a quick smile. “That would be nice,” he said, “but won’t Martin mind?”

“He might, but we broke up,” Melanie said quietly.

“What?”

“I broke it off with Martin,” she said more loudly.

Alex’s eyebrows rose in surprise but the corners of his mouth twitched with a suppressed smile.

“Oh, well then yes I would love some breakfast. We could go out though, if you want.”

“No, I want to cook for you. Just sit back and relax, it won’t take long.”

Alex looked around the room. “Do you mind if I look at your books?” 

“Go ahead.” Melanie laughed. “Pick a pile, any pile. They aren’t very well organized.”

When she returned from the kitchen, the sight of him sitting in the leather recliner by the fireplace, book in hand, with her fat tabby cat purring on his lap, made her heart expand in her chest. He looked like he belonged in her home.

Something about the sight of him there seemed natural and almost familiar. And it wasn’t that he reminded her of Sam, because they were nothing alike. Besides, Sam had never sat in that chair and he had barely tolerated her cat.

Alex looked up and their eyes locked. The small shock of something, familiarity or déjà vu, grew stronger.

“The pancakes are ready,” she said.

Breakfast was pleasant enough. Melanie found out a bit more about Alex, even though they stayed on fairly surface subjects. He told her he lived in a house that he was building on some family property, and that he rented a small place on the island through the summer. She also learned he only flew paid flights during the summer months.

“Why only the summer?”

“Because it’s the busy season and I’m helping my uncle out. Flying is more of a hobby for me really.”

“Then what is your vocation?” 

“My vocation?”

“How do you make a living?”

Alex grinned at her. “I do know what the word means, Melanie. I have a few websites I run. It pays the bills. What about you? You were a nurse, I know that. What’s your vocation these days?”

“I will have to figure that out. My husband was into dangerous sports as well as being a firefighter. I insisted he have a good life-insurance policy, so I’m okay for now.”

“What happened to your fiancé?”

“He wasn’t my fiancé. I guess I realized that he wasn’t who I really wanted.”

Melanie looked at him then, not able to say the words, but hoping Alex would understand anyway, that he was the one who she thought she wanted.

An awkward silence grew between them.

“Do you want more pancakes?” she asked finally.

Alex leaned back in his chair and patted his stomach. “I don’t think I have room.”

“That’s good, because I’m out of batter.”

Alex looked at her quizzically then pushed away from the table and took his dish, and hers, to the sink. Melanie watched him rinse them off and admired the easy efficiency of his movements.

She didn’t want him to leave yet, and the thought of it was almost painful.

“Do you have plans?” she asked.

“Plans?”

“For your day. Do you need to get somewhere?”

She was doing her best, but she wasn’t used to being forward with men. She wished she could just be direct and ask him to spend the day with her.

“I’m flexible,” he said. “What did you have in mind?”

She tried to read his expression. He looked open, but she knew that he wasn’t going to take charge this time. It was up to her. She glanced down at the table top and traced the wood grain with her fingertip.

“I guess I owe you an apology for how I treated you. I should have told you about Martin.”

“Yeah.”

Melanie looked up. “It just felt so good with you. I hadn’t felt like that in so long, and I didn’t want it to stop.”

“I didn’t want it to stop either.”

Melanie stood and went over to him. She looked into his eyes and smiled at what she saw in them. He wanted her like she wanted him. He bent down and softly touched his lips to hers.

“There is nothing to stop us now,” she said.

He kissed her again. This time not so lightly.

“Good,” he said, “Because I don’t want to stop.”

When he picked her up, Melanie wrapped her arms around his neck feeling surprised, but delighted. She felt light in his arms.

“Oh! Well, what now?” she asked.

“How about we try a bed this time?”

The memory of lying in the sun on a sleeping bag while he did magical things with his mouth quickly raised the level of her excitement. What delicious things could they do to each other in the comfort of her bed?

The mess of her bedroom flashed through her mind, but something told her Alex wouldn’t notice or care.

“Just down the hall,” she murmured into his ear as she kissed his neck.

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H
e tossed her on her unmade bed and began to unbutton his shirt, never taking his eyes off of her. She knelt on the bed, undid the belt on her dress, and pulled it over her head.

She felt vulnerable and very excited sitting in front of him in only her black lace panties and bra.

He took the last of his clothes off and stood before her fully aroused. Her eyes widened. He was so beautiful, every part of him, that she wanted to go to him. But he came to her, and then was on top of her.

They were both still for a moment, Melanie stunned at how good it felt to have the warm, solid length of him touching so much of her at once. Her body began to buzz with pleasure. He pushed up on his hands, taking his weight off her and kissed every inch of her face. As she looked into his eyes, it was as if she had known Alex forever, and that they were somehow connected in a very deep way. She felt her heart expand in her chest.

“Hello,” she said softly.

He smiled and kissed her. “Hello to you back.”

***

W
hen she came back to herself and opened her eyes she found him looking into her face with a very pleased expression. She felt grateful, but she wanted more. And she wanted to take him with her this time.

She pulled on his shoulders and he moved up. She wrapped her arms around him and held on tight. His moan seemed to come from some primal place deep within and Melanie responded with her own deep sigh.

He looked into her eyes and on his face was an expression so intense it sent a shock wave through her heart. It hit her that as fun as this was, it was also very serious. Her heart was involved, and as he moved within her an invisible connection was being formed between them. Invisible, but strong.

Until long afterwards, Melanie snuggled in his arms, feeling as content as she had ever felt. She seemed to almost vibrate with well-being and the warmth of Alex next to her quickly soothed her into a deep sleep.

When she awoke, Alex was sitting on the edge of the bed next to her.

“I need to go.” He said. He leaned down to nuzzle her neck. “Can I see you tomorrow?”

“Yes,” she said. “But if you keep doing that, I won’t let you go.”

She watched as he moved about the room, picking his clothes off the floor from where they’d landed and pulling them on. When he was done he came to her, leaned over and gave her a soft kiss.

“Thank you for breakfast...and lunch, and everything else. I’ll call you in the morning. Would you come to my place and I’ll fix you lunch? Then we can go do something if you’d like.”

“I’d like that.” She started to get up but he pushed her back down with a hard kiss.

“No. Don’t get up. I’ll let myself out.” 

Melanie, feeling drowsy and content was glad to stay in bed. She heard the front door close, but when she listened for the sound of Alex’s car door, she didn’t hear it. What she did hear, the loud revving sounds of a motorcycle, made her cringe with a sudden sadness and pain.

Images of Sam came un-beckoned to her mind. Memories of him on his bike looking so cool and proud and memories of him lying broken in the hospital after the accident. Then lying depressed in the hospital bed they had put next to the very one she lay in now. And then the darkest memory. The one she usually was able to push quickly away. Sam, as he looked lying in his coffin, the very last time she saw him. 

“Shit!” she threw the pillow that lay next to her across the room. “I can’t. I can’t. NO!”

Then she rolled out of bed. She was no longer sleepy and had a lot of thinking to do.

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S
he was up hours before his call the next morning. Her night had been a restless one, and when the clock on her nightstand read six o’clock she’d given up the thought of trying to get a decent night’s sleep. She’d gone to her favorite spot on her couch with a book she been meaning to read, and Angel had curled up next to her.

Her thoughts kept drifting away from the words on the page though, until she put the book aside. She sat, scratching behind Angel’s ears distractedly and listening to the quiet sounds of her house. There was the hum of her refrigerator, the birds outside, a breeze blowing the blinds through her open door wall so they tapped together.

Her home had been her sanctuary for almost a year and a half, since Sam’s death. She had just a few friends anymore because after the accident her entire life seemed to be taken up with Sam’s care. The people who were true friends had stuck around, but a sifting process had taken place. So it was her books, her home, and her cat, that had carried her through.

Then Martin had come into her life, and with him some hope for a different future. Being with him had reminded her that as old as she’d been feeling, she was only twenty-four. She could still have a normal life filled with love, and maybe even children someday.

Martin himself had not been the right man, but she owed him some thanks for showing her that the possibility was still there.

Now there was Alex, and what was she going to do about him? She was already falling for him. And falling hard. Soon, she would be in too deep to walk away. Flying planes and riding motorcycles, it seemed inevitable to Melanie that someday he would get hurt, or even killed, and she couldn’t go through that ever again. It was too much to ask.

She had to end it now before it really began, and she would have to tell him why. There would be no more keeping things from Alex. She owed him that much. Melanie felt her anxiety ease some after coming to this decision about Alex.

She was dozing when the phone rang, and her voice was full of sleep when she picked the up phone from its cradle on the side table next to the couch.

“Hello?”

“Hi. I didn’t wake you, did I?

“Oh, no..., I mean yes. I was dozing on the couch. I had a rough night.”

“Are you all right?”

This was her chance to tell him she didn’t want to see him, but it didn’t feel right to tell him over the phone. It was strange how different she felt than not much more than a week before when she’d told Martin the same thing. Then she’d felt bad but clear that it was the only thing to do. But with Alex, she felt wretched and completely torn. She took a deep breath.

“I’m fine. Just waking up is all.”

“If you want to sleep, you can call when you’re ready to make plans. I have things I can do in the meantime. I just thought I could take you to lunch and then you could come to my place. I’d like you to see it.”

“That sounds good.”

She would tell him at lunch, and then go home. She didn’t want to get into it on the phone. “I can meet you. Then you won’t need to bring me back.”

There was a short pause.

“Sure. That’s fine. Let’s go to Angelo’s. You like Italian, right?”

Melanie smiled to herself. “I love that place!”

“Okay then. Noon?”

“I’ll see you there.”

Melanie arrived at Angelo’s before Alex and ordered a glass of red wine after checking her watch and seeing that it was after noon.

She tried to follow just a few rules for her life to help keep her on track. Things that made sense to her, and now she could just do them automatically. The rules had served her well especially at times when life became chaotic, because they interjected a sense order. They were simple things really. She wrote out a list each morning of things to accomplish, brushed her teeth before bed, read two books a week and gave ten percent of her income to charity. And she never drank alcohol before noon.