Tangled Hearts (Passion in Paradise)

by Sarah O'Rourke

  “You finally believe me? You don’t think Brad’s a threat?”

  “Whether Weller is your stalker or not, babe, he wants you. In my eyes, that automatically makes him a threat.”

  “No, it just makes him a pain in our ass, but enough about him,” Melody corrected with a tired yawn. “What do you mean by we might be looking in the wrong direction.”

  Helping her slip on her coat over the thin sweater she now wore, Cal sighed. “Zeke pointed out that the ways this asshole has come at you… it doesn’t read like a man. Attempted poisoning… a hit and run. They’re crimes that put distance between you and your assailant. If you look at it from a strictly analytical standpoint, these crimes…”

  “You think it was a woman,” Melody summarized, finally catching the gist of what he was trying to say.

  Cal shrugged. “Maybe. Zeke seems to think so, anyway. Question is, have you pissed off any chicks recently that I don’t know about?”

  “Well… there was that barista the morning we met. As I recall it, she was less than pleased with both of us, but you’re the one that called her a bitch. If anything, she’d be stalking you,” Melody retorted pertly, flashing him a sweet smile. “Honestly, I don’t really make a habit of collecting enemies, Cal. Men OR women. Other than with you, I don’t really have arguments with anyone.”

  Cal chuckled. “Glad to know I’m the lucky bastard that you’ll fight with.”

  Leaning forward to rest her head against Cal’s strong chest, Melody immediately felt more secure when his arms closed around her. “You know, I’d fight for you, too, if you needed me.”

  “I know, baby,” he murmured against her temple as she slumped against him, her eyes fluttering before they closed completely.

  “This has to end, Cal,” Melody muttered into his chest sleepily.

  Burying one hand in the hair at the back of her head, Cal’s fingers tightened against her scalp. “It will, Melody. I promise, it will.”

  “Okay, lovebirds,” Millie Daniels’ kind voice called as she breezed back into the room, “Let’s get y’all sprung from hospital hell.”

  And as Melody opened her eyes, she knew nothing much could sound better than that.

  Chapter Twenty-One: Even Loud-Mouthed Lunatics Need Lovin’ Sometimes

  “Babe,” Cal groaned between sweet, searching kisses from a little demon determined to make him reconsider his moral high ground, “It ain’t happening. Not yet. You’re just torturing us both and it won’t do any good. I won’t change my mind.”

  “Cal,” Melody whined, her body pressing closer as she rolled toward him in the bed. “Don’t be a prude.”

  Nearly choking on a bark of laughter, Callum shook his head. “You’re joking right? A prude?” he echoed with no small amount of incredulity. “Really?”

  “I’m forced to call them like I see them, and circumstances would indicate that I’m merely stating facts, not maligning you,” Melody challenged condescendingly , moving until her chin rested on his bare chest, her eyes daring him to make a move. “C’mon! It’s been three days already.”

  “Babe. Love you. Love every single part of you. Especially love that tight, hot pussy. But even with all that, this ain’t happening,” he denied, hissing through his teeth when her tiny, devious hand slid between them and moved quickly to slide into his silk boxers. Hell, he thought underwear would dissuade her…or at the very least, slow her down, but he was quickly finding that Melody could be a persistent little minx when she was horny. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he growled when her silken fist closed around his dick.

  “Exploring,” she retorted succinctly, her dogged gaze narrowing as an impish smile played at her lips. “Just lie back and rest your head, sweetie, and I’ll do all the work. You won’t have to lift a finger.”

  “Princess, I promise… you keep trying to discover new territory, and a lot more than my finger is gonna get lifted.” Biting back a low moan of pleasure as her hand moved over his straining erection, Cal finally found the wherewithal to capture her wrist and pull her talented little hand away from him. “You’re hurt,” he managed to grind out as he felt her blunt little teeth nip the cord in his neck as she muttered her frustration.

  “I was hurt,” she corrected even though her words were muffled against his skin as her tongue stroked over her bite. “I’m all better now.” She tried to convince him.

  “The stitches still in your forehead and bruises on your body say otherwise,” Cal denied gruffly, his eyes moving over the yellowing bruises marring one side of her face and peppering one whole side of her body. “If you think that I’m gonna do anything that might hurt you….ooomph,” he gasped as Melody threw one leg over his body and fluidly moved to straddle him. “Woman, what do you think you’re doing?” he asked when her delicate little hands braced against his chest and her hips rolled against his, her blinding smile victorious.

  Scooting back until her ass rested against his muscular thighs, Melody shook her head, not to be refused. “Okay, Sergeant Stingy, it’s time to listen to me.”

  Chuckling, Cal arched an eyebrow. “Well, I gotta say, I’ve never had quite so sexy a commanding officer, but something you should know about me, Mel, is that I’ve been known to defy orders a time or two in the past if I believed the order endangered the overall mission. And my mission right now is to make sure that my beautiful woman stays healthy and whole in the face of a whack job trying to make her otherwise. What you propose is in direct opposition to my directive. Sorry, sweetness, but our hormones are just gonna have to go on hold for the time being.”

  “You know, even loudmouthed lunatics need some tender lovin’ sometimes, Cal,” Melody admonished, leaning forward until her soft lips teased his. “Give me ten uninterrupted minutes to try and change your mind. If you really want me to quit after that, I will. No complaints, no tears,” she bargained, trailing feather-light kisses along the line of his shadowed jaw down the center of his throat and over the hard planes of his chest. Pausing when she reached the center of his sternum, she lifted her dancing eyes to stare up his body at him. “Well?” she asked impatiently. “You can handle a whole ten minutes, can’t you? If your convictions are truly that strong, nothing little old me does will change them, right?” Melody questioned innocently.

  “Right,” Cal grunted, knowing with complete confidence that his tiny spitfire was about to use more torturous techniques than the Taliban in an effort to get her way. Watching as she undulated her body seductively against him, he mentally began to count to a hundred in a bid to distract himself from how incredibly edible her body looked. Christ, couldn’t the diminutive terror see that he was only trying to protect her? The last thing he wanted was for her to do something her body wasn’t ready to handle, and god knew, he wasn’t a particularly gentle lover. Although, every time he touched Melody, her passion had burst into flame and she’d begged him for more.

  “You’re thinking too hard, Callum” Melody chided as her velvety lips moved across his chest until her lips hovered above one flat brown nipple. Flicking her tongue against the flat nub, she smiled wickedly as his breath caught audibly.

  “God dammit, woman!” Cal cursed, his head twisting against the pillow as the point of her slick tongue drew circles around his nipple before biting it gently. “You’re playing with fire,” he warned as she giggled and moved her head to the opposite nipple.

  “Then burn, baby, burn,” Melody declared huskily, lifting her torso so that she could pull her short satin nightshirt over her head.

  “Christ, that’s just mean, Melody,” Cal growled, his fists clenching against the mattress as the urge to reach for her warm body beat at him. Only his conscience kept him from taking what she feely offered. Well, that and the certainly that the guilt would kill him if he accidently hurt her while making love to her. No, he thought firmly. No, orgasm, no matter how good it felt, would be worth the risk of hurting her healing body.

  “I’m not mean, I’m horny,” she info
rmed him as she licked her lips and lifted her hand to cup her breasts. “Come on, Callum. Don’t you want to take a little taste?”

  What a stupid question, he thought grumpily, eyeing her tits as though they were the last meal he might ever get offered. “Not hungry,” he muttered, trying to pull his eyes away from her body, but those hard little nipples of hers kept taunting him and his stare remained glued to her.

  “Liar,” she accused lightly, rubbing one hand against his still covered hardened dick. “But even on the off chance that you are telling the truth, I, for one, am starving.” Catching the elastic hem of his boxers, she tugged gently and freed his cock. Smiling, she released a shuddery breath as she stared down at the mushroom cap of his dick, the hot flesh flushed an angry red color.

  Seeing the excited glint in her eyes, Callum nearly released a decidedly unmanly whimper himself. He wasn’t sure how in the hell he was going to survive the next few minutes. “God, Melody,” he gasped as his sexy tormenter slowly leaned forward, her breath cascading over his aching length. “Babe, are you familiar with the term cruel and unusual punishment’? Because, this is the very definition of it.”

  “Hmmm,” Melody hummed, markedly unconcerned as her pink tongue darted forward to rub the sensitive skin just beneath the ridge of his dick before slowly moving to lap at the drop of pearly fluid leaking from his tip.

  Arrows of pure pleasure found their mark, piercing Callum’s formidable willpower in a killing shot. “Fuck!” Cal blurted, his hips surging as the heat of her mouth covered the head of his dick and her tongue fluttered against his slit. “Melody, please, baby,” he entreated roughly, unsure whether he was begging her to stop or keep going at this point.

  “Please, what?” Melody questioned between blisteringly hot licks of her agile tongue. “Is that a ‘Please stop,’ or a ‘Please, more,’ Soldier Boy?” she asked with a throaty chuckle.

  She didn’t laugh long as the humid heat of her mouth caused his hips to buck, sending his cock deeper into her mouth. Hearing her low moan as his dick flexed against her tongue, he couldn’t help burying a hand in her long, silky hair, tangling the strands around his fingers as his short nails scratched her scalp. “Ain’t been called a boy in years, Melody. What you’re holding in that devious little hand is all man, and if you don’t fuckin’ stop teasing, your ass is gonna feel the palm of my hand,” he rumbled tightly. “If you’re gonna suck it, then fuckin’ suck it,” he ordered, fucking up into her mouth with a short, shallow thrust of his hips. Her lips smiling around his dick was all the permission he needed to go surge a little deeper, the biting pleasure consuming him as her cheeks hollowed while she obeyed his order.

  Cal clenched his jaw as Melody hummed a carefree response as her nails scraped against his chest erotically. Staring down at her, he decided that she looked like a goddess kneeling between his bent knees, her head bobbing up and down over his groin, taking him deeper into the steamy depths of her mouth on every descent. One minute bled into another as her sinful mouth labored to push him past his limits. He’d thought he had the endurance to survive her wicked game, but he’d thought wrong. Tightening his fingers in her hair, he tugged gently, pulling her lips from his glistening shaft. Looking down his body at her with half-closed eyes, he shook his head when Melody grinned wickedly. “You’re done, babe,” he shared in a gravelly voice thick with desire.

  “Only if you’re surrendering. I’ve got four minutes left if you’re not,” she informed him tartly.

  Dropping a hand to stroke his cock, he sighed. “You’re sure you’re feeling okay?”

  “I already told you I feel fine, Callum. Would you like a sworn statement from my doctor vowing that I’m in perfect physical shape to tolerate your intensely satisfying love-making?”

  “Would that be possible?” Cal asked hopefully.

  “No, it’s not,” Melody denied flatly, rolling her eyes as she settled her very slick pussy over his groin, his cock resting between the plump folds of her sex. “But, you could try trusting me. I know it’s a novel concept, but I swear all the couples are trying it these days,” she declared facetiously.

  That’s one of the things that he loved about Melody most. She wasn’t afraid to make fun of herself, and she definitely wasn’t hesitant about making fun of him. In fact, she did it on a regular basis. “You’re lucky I find smartass women a turn-on,” he returned, gripping her hips to shift her over him so that he could slide smoothly into her tight cunt. “Fuck, you always feel like slick satin around my cock,” he groaned as she took him to his root.

  Several grunting, panting, gasping minutes later, Cal knew Melody was riding the knife’s edge, that painfully pleasurable moment where her body craved the final push she needed to climax. He might have been biased, but it was his very strong opinion that no woman could even come close to being as beautiful as his… especially during these pivotal seconds. Her face glowed, her eyes closed, and her body was poised for a powerful, mind blowing release. He loved watching her like this.

  “Cal! So close,” she whimpered as she rode him hard, her hips shuttling back and forth as she chased her orgasm. “I need to cum,” she begged, opening her eyes to stare into his beseechingly. “Please, honey!”

  Hooking one hand around her neck, he pulled her lips to his as his other arm wrapped around her lower back and he powered up inside her, desperately trying to ignore his own throbbing balls. Fuck, if she didn’t hurry, he was going to beat her to the finish line, and that could NOT happen. Not on his watch. He had a strict ‘ladies, first’ policy. He hadn’t taken his own pleasure before the women he’d fucked that hadn’t mattered to him at all, and he’d be damned if he did it with the one woman that mattered above all others.

  Kissing her deeply, he groaned into Melody’s mouth as he felt her walls beginning to contract around his pounding dick. “That’s it, baby. Gimmee that wet pussy,” he growled, moving his lips across her cheek until he reached her neck, offering it a love bite.

  “Yes!” Melody cried as she threw back her head. “Cal, yes!”

  Feeling her body begin to shudder and the walls of her sweet cunt begin to convulse, Cal knew she was finding it as her hips churned frantically against him. “That’s it, Princess,” he murmured, staring up into her bliss filled face. Her sheer beauty robbed him of breath as her lips parted on a shout of ecstasy. “Fuck, yes,” he growled, unable to remain still as he rolled her to her back and came above her. Thrusting deep and true, he caught her scream of completion with his mouth as his body took over, pumping hard and deep, his own release coming on the heels of hers.

  Collapsing over her, Cal lifted his head when he heard Melody’s muffled laugh. Pressing a final kiss to her sweaty neck, he lifted his head to smile down into her happy face. “Finding something funny, Princess?”

  “Nope,” she denied, trying to school her face into a suitable post-coital expression. “It’s just…I think it’s safe to say I was wrong,” she continued as she cleared her throat. “You, sir, are definitely no prude.”

  Cal’s answering laughter was cut off as his cell phone rang on the nightstand.

  “Nooooo! I only just got you back in the mood after a three day dry spell,” Melody complained. “Just ignore it,” she urged, looping her arms around his neck as she tried to direct his lips back to hers.

  “You know we can’t do that,” he returned with an amused grin. “It could be about the store or, better yet, it could be your brother.”

  “Fine,” Melody grumbled unhappily as she subsided and reached past her for the phone, “But if it’s RJ, he and I are having a discussion about his lousy sense of timing.”

  “I’m sure your big brother would love that conversation,” Cal stated, looking at the phone, “but, this is the sheriff,” he shared, swiping the phone before pressing it to his ear. “You’ve got Valentine,” he greeted the Sheriff.

  Carefully keeping his face expressionless and his responses limited to a series of yeahs, nopes, and grunts, Cal watched a
s Melody grew more impatient beside him as she strained to hear what Zeke was communicating. Finally sighing, Cal nodded even though the other man couldn’t see him. “Thanks for letting me know, Sheriff. I’ll share the pertinent details with Melody. Keep me in the loop if you learn anything else, will ya?” he requested in a low voice as he watched his woman tilt her head and narrow her eyes at him. “Thanks again, man,” he said before jabbing his thumb against the end button on the screen.

  “Well?” Melody questioned edgily. “What was that all about? And don’t say nothing. Paradise’s sheriff wouldn’t call without a good reason. Zeke doesn’t strike me as the type of guy that stands around shooting the shit on the phone.”

  Momentarily ignoring her inquiry, Cal adjusted the pillows he’d fallen in love with when he’d started sleeping in Melody’s bed behind his head. She’d said they were filled with goose down or some such shit when he’d asked about it last week, and damn, he was down with whatever it was that made ‘em so fuckin’ comfy. He’d never slept on anything more relaxing than those fuckin’ pillows. Like sleepin’ on a cloud. They just didn’t get shit like that in the Army, he thought with a sigh as he got himself settled in to chat with her.

  And he knew this would take a while. His Melody liked to know everything… especially when it concerned her.

  “Don’t make me stuff that pillow down your throat. I doubt you’d look very manly when you’re involuntarily spitting feathers for the next month, so I’d start talking if I were you,” his woman advised him in a voice that chilled his blood. Melody could be a real hardass when she took a notion, and he knew she was rapidly approaching her bullshit threshold.