by Angelo, Judy
He caught up with Patrick in the locker room. “Done sulking yet?” he teased. “You know I’m the man on the tennis court so what’s up with the pouting like a girl?”
Patrick hung a towel around his neck then turned to glare at him. “I had a bet on that. Fifty bucks.”
“Oh, yeah? Who with?” Sloane was not surprised. His friend was always pitting himself against him even though Sloane was bigger, faster and more physical. It had always been that way since they first met in the fourth grade and although Patrick was far superior in all things technical – stereos, computers, video games – he was still way past competitive whenever they faced off in any kind of sport.
“Marc.” He gave Sloane a guilty grin. “I know, I know. I need to put down this vice but I was so sure I’d beat you, with you being rusty and all. You haven’t been on the court all year.” Then he shrugged. “And besides, you’re a married man now. Everybody knows once you get married you put on weight and get sluggish.”
“Man, I’ve only been married two weeks.” Sloane walked over and slapped him on the shoulder. “Give me at least a few months. I’ll grow a paunch and go to seed. Promise.”
That made Patrick laugh, then he jerked his head toward the benches. “Listen, I want to talk to you,” he said. “Let’s jam over there for a second.”
“Sure.” Sloane shrugged, went back to grab his towel off the hook, then sauntered over and dropped himself onto the bench. Patrick plopped down on the other end. “Ever since you dropped that bombshell,” Patrick began, “you and I haven’t really had a chance to talk.” He cocked his head to one side. “Now tell me, why the heck did you keep this thing a secret all this time? The guys and I were ribbing you just a couple of weeks before you announced your engagement. You didn’t say a word. What’s up with that?”
Sloane chuckled. “You’re not going to believe this, but I was probably more shocked than you were.”
Patrick looked at him askance. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” Sloane said, giving him a smug grin, “when it comes to whirlwind romances this was the ultimate. When you guys were on me that day, I honestly didn’t know I’d be walking down the aisle months later.”
“Huh?” Patrick’s face was a study in confusion.
“I know, I know, I’ve got a lot of explaining to do.” Sloane laughed softly but despite his casual exterior he wasn’t as calm as he was pretending to be. He had a lot of explaining to do all right, even to himself. He’d taken a huge leap without even giving it the level of thought he would have given a minor business deal. And all because a woman he’d met almost twenty years earlier had asked him for a baby.
Had he made the biggest mistake of his life?
If he’d asked himself the question the first night of his honeymoon he’d have probably said yes. But now?
He smiled to himself. No freakin’ way. He’d taken that leap of faith because, as strange as it seemed, from the day Melanie came into his office, somehow he’d known they were meant to be together. It was like his destiny had walked in the door. Yeah, it sounded corny and he was hard put to explain it, but that was just the way he felt.
Sure, her response in bed that first night had given him a shock, but after that…
Sloane’s eyes glazed over as his mind flashed back to his days…and especially his nights…in Jamaica with Melanie. After she’d had that first orgasm – and he still couldn’t believe he’d been the first to give her that experience – it was like she couldn’t get enough. Of course she was a bit hesitant the next time, but she loosened up quickly and then she had her second orgasm and then her third. And as the night passed, and as she got bolder and more demanding, he stopped counting.
And she had this cute little pout that she used when she didn’t get her own way in bed. He loved it. If he wasn’t careful, he’d soon be falling in love with his wife.
“Earth to Sloane.” Patrick snapped his fingers in front of Sloane’s face. “What’s that smirk about?” Then he shook his head. “You know what? Don’t tell me. I have a feeling that what’s on your mind should stay there.” He swiped the towel across his forehead. “So you beat Michel to the punch, and then you have all of us guys catering to you at your wedding and we still hardly know your other half. When are you going to bring her over to the house? Jacqueline’s dying to meet her.”
“What about next Sunday?” Sloane asked, happy to change the subject. He still didn’t know how he was going to explain his sudden marriage, not without revealing the baby element. And he had absolutely no intention of going there. He made a mental note to think up a good story before the subject came up again.
“Sounds good to me. You guys can come over for dinner.”
“Thanks. Melanie will have a ball with Thierry and D’Jean.” Sloane got up and walked back to his locker and grabbed his bag.
“Hey, you never know,” Patrick called after him. “Seeing the kids might inspire her to want one of her own. She’ll soon be harassing you to get her pregnant.”
Sloane just chuckled. If Patrick only knew.
***
“Come on in, Ken.” Melanie gave a nod of acknowledgement as her financial controller peeped around the door. She returned her gaze to the spreadsheets she’d laid out across the conference table in her office. “You’ll have to go through these numbers with me again because this is not looking good.”
As Ken walked over he gave a heavy sigh. “I know and that was what I was telling you before you left on vacation.”
“It wasn’t a vacation,” she said, her tone just a tad bit defensive. She hardly ever took time off from work and the one time she did, it was like everyone kept mentioning it. Workaholic that she was, she couldn’t help but feel guilty.
“Sorry,” he said, his tone apologetic. “Your honeymoon.” And then he gave her a weird look, almost like he still couldn’t believe it.
Well, it had been a shock to everybody, including her. She glanced down at her wedding band. She still couldn’t believe it herself. She was a married woman.
But now there were other, more pressing matters on the table. Literally. She pulled her eyes away from the ring and focused on the papers spread out on the table. “Now tell me what these numbers are saying.”
By the time her meeting with Ken Ferguson was done Melanie was feeling sick to her stomach. The film studio she`d bought was turning out to be a money-sucker rather than a brand new star in her portfolio of companies. She’d made the wrong call with that one and she was pissed.
When Ken left she flung herself down into her chair and stared ahead, her eyes unseeing, as she ran her dealings with Rapid Films through her mind. She’d let her next in line, the chief operations officer, handle most of the assessment as he had seemed so caught up with the project. She'd joined the discussion in the later stages when she met the former owner and CEO of the company who painted such a rosy picture of its potential that she’d bought it – hook, line and sinker, as they say. He’d been a charismatic speaker and a brilliant negotiator but she’d always been a tough nut to crack, so why had she folded on this one?
But the thing that really baffled her was that she’d gone through the numbers, line by line, with her VP of Finance. It had looked like the new acquisition would turn a profit immediately. How could they have been so wrong?
And with competition heightening in the media industry, that was not a mistake she could afford to make.
With a hiss of frustration she got up and walked over to the window overlooking Rue Rene-Levesque below. She needed to clear her mind, put this behind her, at least for the moment. She drew in a deep breath and, absentmindedly, she began to twist the ring on her finger.
Suddenly conscious of what she was doing, she looked down at the band of gold glittering up at her. An involuntary smile softened the tight set of her lips and her mind immediately went to Sloane. She couldn’t help it. She still found it hard to accept that he had married her…her, of all people.
With all the women he could have had, he had chosen her. He was so weird but she couldn’t be happier that he was. Because of him she was now happily married, working on getting pregnant and, wonder of wonders, having great sex.
Her smile widened into a grin. Who would have thought that she would have a bigger appetite for sex than Sloane Quest himself?
As she stared out the window her mind drifted back to the last time they made love on the island…on the starched white sand of their private beach…under the light of a tropical moon.
Yes, a tropical moon, because it had all seemed so surreal, with the distant chirps of crickets in the trees, the sound of the gentle breezes rustling the leaves overhead, the fragrant frangipanis filling the air with their perfume, and the soft twilight of the moon bathing their naked bodies. They’d been bold enough to lie there on the massive towel they’d commandeered from the pool house, and they’d made love...over and over and over again. It was their own private beach, after all. And if a wayward stranger had happened upon them she would not have flinched because it was the last night of their honeymoon, their perfect night, and she never wanted it to end.
As the memories came floating back it drove all thoughts of the present from her mind and Melanie felt a subtle heat, a now familiar heat, rising up her body. Her heart picked up pace as the heat spread until it tickled a most intimate part of her anatomy. Good grief. She was standing in the middle of her office and she was horny as heck.
“May I come in?”
Melanie swung around just in time to see her assistant peeping around the door.
“I knocked but I didn’t hear anything so I decided to check if you were in.”
That must have been a really soft knock because Melanie hadn’t heard a thing. Or maybe she’d been so caught up in her heated memories that the sound had simply not registered.
“Are you okay?” Tamara asked, a look of concern on her face. “You look flushed. Are you coming down with something?”
“No, I’m fine.” Quickly, she turned away and walked back to her desk. “Did you need something, Tamara?”
“I just wanted to bring you this FEDEX package that just arrived. It’s probably the storyboards from the ad agency. I know you wanted to get them as soon as possible.”
“Great. Please leave it on top of the credenza. I’ll open it in a minute.” Then, adopting a very businesslike air, she reached for a folder in her desk and pretended to be engrossed in its contents. “Is there anything else?`` she asked, without looking up.
“N…no, that’s all,” Tamara replied, sounding nonplussed by her boss’s unusually cold reception. “I’ll go now.”
Melanie breathed a sigh of relief as she closed the door behind her. She glanced at the time at the bottom of her computer screen. Three thirty-six. Was that all? No matter that she had tons of work to do, she was ready to leave office for the day.
She raised her finger to her lips, her mind on Sloane as she wondered what he was doing just then. Right at that moment, was he as horny as she?
She smiled to herself then shook her head. In all her thirty-three years this was the first time she’d found herself scheming to ditch her duties and run off and jump into bed with a man. And it was all Sloane’s fault. He’d turned her into a wild woman.
She had no idea what Sloane was up to, but work day or no work day, she was going to call him. If luck was on her side, he’d answer his phone and she’d be able to convince him to play hookie with her.
She picked up the phone and dialed his number.
CHAPTER TEN
“Naughty, naughty.”
Sloane’s voice drifted up the stairs to Melanie and she immediately left the bedroom and ran downstairs to greet him. She was halfway down when she saw him at the door, tall and rugged and ever so handsome in his dark business suit, his tie already loosened and hanging around his neck. He was bending to drop his briefcase to the floor but when she came running he looked up and his face broke into a smile.
“There’s my girl,” he said, as he straightened and looked at her with open admiration. “Sexy.”
Melanie paused at the foot of the stairs and gave him her most seductive smile. She knew she looked good. She’d dressed in a scarlet teddy that opened in the middle to show off her navel and the skimpy bikini panties underneath. She did a little pirouette for her admirer then walked right up to him, went on tiptoe and gave him a kiss full on the lips. Then she stepped back. “I’ve been waiting for you,” she said, her voice husky with want, “and I’m ready.”
“Then let’s do this,” he growled and bent down to press his shoulder into her middle. When he stood up it was with her over his shoulder in a fireman lift and then he was climbing the stairs two at a time as he headed to their bedroom, the one he’d converted from a bachelor’s den to an abode fit for a royal couple. And she knew he’d done it just for her.
Sloane deposited her in the middle of the bed then headed to the bathroom, sliding his jacket off his shoulders as he went. “Just give me a minute,” he said as he began to unbutton his shirt.
Within seconds Melanie heard the shower and she settled back into the pillows and smiled. She remembered Sloane's surprised response when she’d called to say she wanted him in bed. Now.
Apparently, someone had been in the office with him because he cleared his throat and gave her a generic answer. “Uh, yes. I think we can make that happen. Let’s make it four-fifteen, shall we?” And then he’d hung up and she’d spent the next minute laughing her head off. She could just imagine the thoughts racing through his head. He was probably wondering why in the world he’d married this crazy woman who had gone from nun-like state to wanton in a matter of weeks.
She didn’t get much more time to gloat over her newfound self confidence because within minutes Sloane was striding out of the bathroom, stark naked, his manhood one hundred percent ready.
“You wicked woman,” he said as he climbed onto the bed beside her. “I had an operations meeting this afternoon. I had to tell the team to cancel as something very important had come up.” Then he chuckled. “I wasn’t lying.”
Melanie reached out to slide her hand over his shoulder and down his arm, enjoying the feel of his smooth skin and taut muscles. “I never did anything like this before,” she said, her eyes sliding over his chest and down to the soft hairs forming a V down below. “It’s crazy but I couldn’t help myself. I was so…”
“Horny?” He put out a hand and started some exploration of his own, sliding his palm up to cup the soft roundness of her breast.
“Yes,” she said in a whispered gasp, as his thumb grazed her nipple.
“When I see you,” he said not ceasing his torture, “I’m always horny.”
And then he lowered his head and captured that tortured nipple in a kiss so sweet that she arched her back, wanting so much more.
That afternoon Sloane delivered on his promise, making sweet love to her till the sun began its slow descent behind the hills, painting the sky with swathes of red and yellow and gold.
For Melanie it was the most wonderful way to end her day, lying there in the arms of the man she was growing to love. Yes, she had to admit, with each passing day Sloane was becoming more and more a part of her life, her being. What she was feeling, she realized, had nothing to do with wanting his baby. What she was feeling was all for him.
As she lay there in the crook of his arm, his hand caressing her body which was still warm from lovemaking, she sighed and looked up at him. “I still can’t believe this is me, skipping work for sex. This is so unlike me.”
He laughed softly then touched his index finger to the tip of her nose. “That was the old you. You’re a super sexy woman who loves to make love. Nothing wrong with that.”
“But I never used to like sex,” she protested.
“You never had the right man to show you what love is.”
She dipped her head and tucked it under his chin. Her face pressed against his chest, she spoke again, her
voice slightly muffled. “They both told me I was the problem. And then…they got frustrated and left. I thought…it was all my fault.”
Sloane made a sound deep in his throat, an unmistakable grunt of disgust. “The men in your life, they were nothing but jerks. Sounds like they didn’t even try.” Then he wrapped his arms around her and lifted his hand to stroke her hair. “If you’re the problem, you’re definitely a problem I love to have. Did you know I get hard every time you’re around?”
She pushed away from his chest and looked up into his face. “No way. You’re lying.” It was a sweet lie, but she didn’t want that. He didn’t need to flatter her. With her slender body and fairly small breasts she was never going to win a prize for ‘sexy’. The fact that he wanted her when they were in bed was more than enough for her.
“I can prove it,” he said, his eyes never wavering as he looked at her. “Next time you want to test what I told you, wherever we are, whether at home or away, just rest your hand right here and check what you feel.” He took her hand and placed it on his groin. And he really was hard – or at least semi-hard – even though they’d just made love.
Melanie gave him a playful glare. “Sloane, I can’t do that. Not out in public. It’s…indecent.”
He shrugged. “Well, you asked…”
She laughed. “Okay, I’ll take your word for it. I believe you.”
He tapped her on the nose again. “Never question that I want you. You should have no doubts about that.”
And she didn’t.
But she couldn’t help noticing that nowhere in his declaration had he mentioned the word ‘love’.
***
“Aaw, he’s so cute.” Melanie knelt down and stretched out her arms to two year-old D’Jean but he made no move toward her. Instead, he clutched his mother’s skirt with a tiny fist and popped the thumb of the other hand into his mouth, staring back at her with big blue eyes.
“Go on,” Jacqueline said, giving him a nudge. “Go give Melanie a hug.” That only made him cling tighter.