by Casey Elliot
I quirked an eyebrow at him. “Not really your style, Sergei.”
As we walked toward the car, he let out a bark of laughter, a grin enveloping his face once more. “Of course not,” he said. “But, I know it’s yours… a gift from the family… one of many.”
I grinned wryly, halting at the passenger side. “So, I can drive then?”
Sergei waggled a finger at me. “Absolutely not,” he chastised. “Your license is expired. It would be illegal!”
I laughed and slid into the leather seat. I had missed Sergei. I had missed freedom. But, had it been worth it? Absolutely.
“Did you keep my bike for me?” I asked. The car was nice, but it was a poor substitute for the feel of a thrumming engine between my legs and the wind on my face.
“Of course,” he said. “But, I wasn’t going to come and pick you up on it. I’ve got some dignity.” He flashed me a wink and I laughed.
“What’s new then, Serg?” I asked.
He turned the key and the engine revved to life. Oh yes, I was going to enjoy driving this car.
“Many, many things,” he said. “I’ve got lots of work for you if you’re available.”
I tensed. “I just got out,” I said. “You know that I’ve got things to deal with first.”
He nodded as he pulled out of the parking lot, fumbling in the console for his sunglasses. I smiled when he put them on; they were the same damn pair he was wearing three years ago.
“I know, I know,” he said. “It’s just so hard to get good help these days.” He tensed his jaw. “And fuck, we’ve been through a few bad ones recently.” His voice was ice. It might have sent a shiver through a weaker man. I’d seen him make men cry with that voice before.
But, I knew it wasn’t directed at me. “I’ll think about it,” I told him.
His jaw relaxed. “That’s all I ask.” He turned and gave me a wink. “How about some food, huh? Get you something better than meatloaf and mushy vegetables.”
My stomach rumbled. “Let’s just grab something quick on the way.”
Sergei turned onto the highway and gunned it, the engine purring as we sped along.
“On the way where?”
“Home,” I said. “To Mel.”
A strained look passed over Sergei’s face. “She moved, man.”
“Moved where?” I asked, trying not to let my irritation show in my voice.
“We’re not sure,” he said. “She stopped taking our money about a year ago. We can find her for you though, no problem.”
I nodded, trying to relax back into my seat. Why the hell would she stop taking their money? What kind of game was that girl playing out?
“We should take care of a few things first,” Sergei said. “Then, I’ll get you to your girl.”
Melanie
“She’s fine, Melanie,” Joan assured me. “It was just a scrape.”
I sighed and leaned back against the tree, letting its shade envelope me and shield me from the hot, midday sun. “I just worry.”
“I know,” she said, chuckling. “Like all first-time moms. I remember when Jonah first got a fever, I practically ran him to the emergency room. It’s okay though. Just try to relax so you can do your exam.”
“You’re right.” I ran my fingers against the rough bark of the tree, grounding myself. “You’re right. I’ll see you later.”
“Bye.”
I hung up the phone and tilted my head against the tree trunk, closing my eyes. I supposed that if my daughter having an owie was my biggest concern these days, then I wasn’t doing so bad. Things could be worse. Things had been worse.
“Yo, Christopher!” a shrill voice called.
I opened my eyes to see Alexa bounding toward me, and I donned the customary mock scowl at her using my last name. She thought it was funny to call me Christopher or Chris in public. She thought most things were funny. The girl was the human embodiment of a ray of sunshine.
I pushed off from the tree and grabbed my backpack from the ground, swinging it onto my shoulders. “Hey you,” I greeted. “You’re early.”
“Mhm,” she hummed, nodding her blond head. “I wanted to hear about your date, see how you enjoyed that college meat.” She playfully elbowed me in the arm and I wrinkled my nose.
“Not so great,” I replied. At twenty-five, I often felt too old to hang out with the normal-aged college kids, but too young to hang out with the old people that audited the classes. I’d been asked out by a guy in the same kind of situation, only a year older than me, and Alexa had urged me to get out there and try it.
“In what way?”
“Well, as it turns out, I couldn’t get over the height difference,” I said. Then, I sighed. “And, I just don’t think I’m ready to date yet.”
Alexa, twenty years old, having never been in love, looked horrified. “Still? How longs it been now? Like three years?”
I grimaced. “On the dot, almost. It’s going to take me awhile, though.” I shrugged. “It’s not that I still pine after him daily, it’s just that I don’t have any desire to see anyone else.”
“Fair enough, I guess.” She smiled wickedly. “What did you say to Ryan?”
Another grimace from me. “I haven’t actually said anything yet,” I admitted. “Yesterday, I decided it was a later problem.”
She laughed, tipping back her head so that her curls shone in the light. “Oh, Chris,” she said. “You’re a charmer. I just don’t get you.”
“I’ll get around to it,” I said. “I’m a busy lady.”
“Speaking of which,” she said, sobering. “We’ve got an exam to contend with. Did you study?”
I scoffed. “Of course, I studied, Alexa. It’s not like I was out partying all last night.”
She self consciously ran her fingers through her hair. “That noticeable?”
I pointed to her neck. “It was the hickey that did it.”
“God damn it!” She pulled out her compact from her purse as we began to walk to class, examining the small purple bruise in the mirror. “I have to have dinner with my parents tonight,” she moaned.
Oh, to be young again. Well, younger, although I supposed that I had had to grow up pretty damn quick.
Alexa took a sharp inhale of breath beside me. “Oh… My… God.”
“What?” I asked, turning to examine her. I thought that maybe she’d found another hickey or something.
“Don’t look,” she said lowly. “But, the hottest guy to have ever existed is behind us.”
I chuckled. “Yeah?” I said. “Another Jared Leto lookalike?”
She shook her head, her eyes wide as she stole another look in her mirror. Alexa often stopped and pointed out hot guys to me. She was practically drooling though, which was a new one for her, even.
“God, he’s like six foot a million,” she said, dreamily. “Tattooed out the yin-yang. Definitely works out.”
I swung around, my eyes searching for the man she had described. It couldn’t be. It wouldn’t be.
It was.
“Oh my god, Chris!” Alexa hissed. “I told you not to look!”
I barely even heard her. Walking toward me, every bit the sex god—no, demon—that I remembered was Hunter Davidson. His dark eyes were trained on me like lasers, and his body rippled with each step he took.
“Do you know him?” Alexa asked excitedly. “I think he’s coming over here.”
My heart was thumping erratically in my chest, and I could feel every blood vessel pulse in time. It was everything I could do to keep breathing. Hunter had always had that effect on me, but now, it was enhanced. Why? Because I’d never thought I would see him again, and definitely not this soon.
“Mel,” he said smoothly when he reached me. I did my best to stand up straight, as his eyes dragged over my body, assessing me. “You look good.”
“What are you doing here, Hunter?” I spat.
He looked over at Alexa who was still standing there with her mouth hanging open.
I didn’t want her to leave, but I’d be damned before I admitted that to him.
Chapter Two
“I’ll catch up with you later,” I said to Alexa.
“Yeah, sure,” she said, her eyes still glued to Hunter. “Uh, don’t be late I guess.”
I nodded and she left. Once she was out of earshot, I turned sharply back to Hunter. “You have no right to be here,” I snapped.
He smiled. “It’s good to see you, too.” I felt a quiver from the way his eyes, hotter than hell, landed on my own and drew me in. Old habits die hard.
"I have an exam," I said, shaking myself free from his thrall. "And, you have to go."
"I'm not going anywhere," he said, his voice just as deep and melodious as I remembered. And, shit if he wasn't rocking those jeans and that tight tee.
"Whatever," I said, turning and storming away. I knew he wasn't following me. I could feel his gaze on my back, but I heard no footsteps.
“I’ll be waiting,” he called after me. He barely had to raise his voice for me to hear it. My ears were so finely tuned to every part of him, even after all these years, that I probably could have picked out his whisper from a cheering crowd.
I was as conflicted as I was the day the police came for him. I'd thought that, over time, my feelings for him might fade. Apparently, they hadn't. If they had, maybe I could have said something a little snappier, a little more firm, but instead, I had wavered before him as I always did.
God damn it. I was going to have to get my shit together. My daughter needed me to.
When I got to the class that our exam was being held in, Alexa smiled and patted the desk next to her. I walked over slowly, hoping that maybe the clock would strike one before I got there, and our invigilator would command us not to talk.
No such luck.
"Who was that beefcake?" she asked me quietly when I sat down.
I pulled out my pens and my student ID from my bag, setting them on the desk.
"An old friend."
Alexa snorted, "As if that was an old friend. That was an old boyfriend."
I shot her a look.
"What? I've got eyes. I saw how you were looking at each other. I'd say there's some unresolved tension there." Her eyes flashed. “Sexual tension.”
"One psychology class and you think you're Sigmund bloody Freud," I muttered.
Alexa sighed dreamily. "Where did you first meet him? A.K.A, where can I find one?"
I had to laugh at that. "At a bar; of course," I said, "Where all the shady dudes are."
Alexa turned to face me and waggled her eyebrows. "The only thing shady about him was how he literally blocked the sun, he was so big."
I shook my head in amusement. "Hon, you have no idea."
Just then, the invigilator started handing out the exams. Alexa and I wished each other good luck, but then it was down to work.
Well, sort of.
Could I be blamed for not being able to fully concentrate on my exam? All the memories that I had tried to suppress after Hunter's incarceration came flooding back to me, his massive hands cradling my face the night before they took him, holding me close. In retrospect, I knew it was because he knew that they were coming for him. At the time though, it had seemed so out of the blue, so gentle. God, for everything we'd been through, I'd go back to that moment a million times if I could.
But, that was the past.
I started writing furiously after I realized that I'd spent so much time off in space that I was at risk of running out of it. Even Alexa finished before me, which was highly unusual. She gave me a quizzical look as I left, but I merely shrugged at her.
Not only was I daydreaming, but I was also stalling. If Hunter said he would be waiting, then he would be waiting. I’d have to face him sooner or later. I just didn’t know what to say.
Hunter
I was very good at waiting… for certain people and things, anyway. That's what happens when you're in prison. You wait. And, I would always wait for Melanie.
It hadn't been quite the reunion I'd been hoping for, but what could I expect? That didn't mean I would back off, though. She might have contempt for me now, but she'd come around. She always did.
In the meantime, I watched all the college kids walking around; enjoying what I assumed was their last week or so of school before summer break. I smiled at a few of the girls when I caught them looking, but my thoughts never strayed from Melanie. Even though the perky little college co-eds like her blond friend were younger, nobody at this school could ever beat out my Melanie for pure sex appeal.
She looked exactly the same as I had pictured her for the past three years. And fuck, did she look good.
After a couple of hours, students began to filter out of the building that I'd watched Melanie disappear into. At first, I thought that she might try to sneak out a back exit, but I knew her. She was a fighter, not a runner. I'd caught her off guard earlier, but she'd be at my throat before she ever ran away from me. Again, at least.
Just as I expected, sometime later, Melanie walked out of those doors, blinking at the sunlight. When her eyes adjusted and she saw me, she frowned. She began to stride toward me, but a male voice called her name from behind her. I bristled as a guy around her age seemed to pop up out of nowhere. He was average height for a guy, but still, about an inch shorter than her. Still, it pissed me off. I approached them.
"……. didn't call me," I managed to make out from the conversation. The guy seemed pretty dejected. What a fucking idiot, as if he had a chance with her.
"I don't have time for this right now," she said, her eyes darting anxiously to me. "I'll talk to you about it later."
She turned to walk away, and he grabbed her arm. He hadn't seen me yet. He was about to.
"Get your fucking hands off of her," I snarled.
Suddenly noticing I was there, the guy looked up at me in surprise. He immediately released her arm.
"Do I know you?" he asked.
"You don't want to," I said lowly. "Now go."
"I can fight my own battles, Hunter!" Melanie protested. I had to smile at that, even if I ignored it. "If I see you near her again I'll rip your balls off."
The guy, whoever he was, didn't need much more prompting than that. He tore out of there, leaving Mel and I alone.
"God damn it, Hunter!" she cried. "What gives you the right?"
I quirked an eyebrow at her, "What do you think gives me the right? You're mine."
"Ha!" she exclaimed. "As if I stopped being yours the moment you abandoned me and your daughter so you could go play whipping boy for your best friend, the Russian prince!"
"You know it wasn't like that," I said lowly. "And, it's not like you didn't benefit from it."
Her eyes blazed. "Benefited from it? Because they gave me some money to compensate me for you? Like you were some fucking goat that they'd misplaced?" Her nostrils flared. "I don't have time for this. I have to go."
"I'm coming with you," I stated evenly as she began to turn away.
She froze and looked up at me. Her chest rose and fell with her angry breathing, but I tried not to let my eyes linger downward. Considering how fantastic her tits looked in her tanktop though, it was no easy task.
"What makes you think that it's okay for you to come back like this and just impose your presence on me?" she asked. "After all this time? After everything?"
I could see the hurt in her eyes, and I longed to pull her to me, but I was patient.
"Because I told you I'd always come back for you," I said. "And, I meant it."
She laughed grimly. "So, now you're back… and what? You want to tell me you've changed? That you're a better man now?"
I laughed. "Oh, Mel," I said coolly. "I haven't changed at all. Not a damned bit. And, you wouldn't have me any other way."
The look in her eyes told me everything I needed to know. It was still there—the love she'd held for me three years ago. It still burned bright in her, untempered by the passing of time.
Even now, as angry as she was, it threatened to consume her.
"I have to go," she said. "I have somewhere to be."
She turned around, and I easily kept up with her.
"Going on another shitty date?" I taunted.
"Going to pick up the daughter you left behind." Her voice was cold and, for a second, she reminded me of Sergei. I wasn't sure why she hated him so much when they had always been so similar. The only real difference was that she actively suppressed her darkness, whereas he happily let it consume him. Madly, more like.
"I'm coming," I announced.
"It’s a free country," she said. "But, I hope you brought bus change."
"You catch the bus?" I asked. It seemed so unlike her.
She nodded. "Life as a single parent is hard," she said, her voice dripping with malice.
I put a hand on her arm—gently, not the way that man had. It never took more than a whisper of my touch for her to stop.
"I've got something better."
Chapter Three
Melanie
"Nice car for an ex-con," I muttered as I slid into the passenger seat of his shiny new Camaro.
"A gift from a friend," he replied.
I snorted, a friend; of course. How long had Hunter been out before Sergei was plying him with gifts again? That man was straightforwardly devious.
I directed Hunter to the daycare, but was otherwise silent. I had to suppress a laugh when we got out of the car, and I watched him approach the front gate, which was painted a vibrant orange. He looked like he'd stepped out of a biker bar and straight into a children's book. The effect was comical.
Nonetheless, he walked with the same ease and surety into the inner play area as he did everything. I had to give him props for that. I'd never seen that man nervous, never seen him anything but strong and unyielding. He might not fit in with his surroundings, but he'd make his surroundings fit in with him. It was his aura.
God, it was attractive.
I dragged my eyes from him to the surrounding area, looking for Emmy in all of the ruckus. She was in the sandbox in the back corner, and I frowned. Always the damn sandbox. She'd be trailing sand around the house for days.