"Their story reminded me of me and Angela.”
“Oh yes?” He arched an eyebrow interested “Tell me more, Elphaba.”
Melissa smiled and punched him playfully.
“I’m not Elphaba. I’m Glinda”
Gabriel frowned.
“Really?”
"I know this seems totally improbable looking at me... But it's the truth. Despite your opinion, I wasn’t the strange and rejected school’s girl, I was popular... loved and envied by all, as well as Glinda. When Angela moved to my school we were thirteen old. She was a total nerd” Melissa smiled at the memory “With the coke-bottle glasses and everything else. She liked cheesy clothes and she wore two ridiculous braids in her hair. Totally different from the rest of the staff, especially me ... Like Elphie, only missing the green skin.”
♬
In the next morning, when she woke up, Melissa Bittencourt felt foolishly happy. She still couldn’t believe the incredible moments she had spent beside Gabriel. Pulling the blankets aside and stretching for a long time, the girl got out of bed. As she prepared to do her morning hygiene, she noticed a paper near the door. It wasn’t there the night before.
Curious, Melissa hurried to pick him up, noticing what she already suspected. It was a note from Gabriel, inviting her to breakfast in the hotel restaurant at nine o'clock.
Euphoric, Lissa ran to the bedside table and picked up her cellphone to check the time. She had twenty minutes to get ready. After a quick shower, the girl dressed in her usual jeans and long-sleeved shirt. There was no time to dry her hair, so she just took the excess of water and combed it. She sprinkled some perfume and she was ready. As she left the room, she noticed a security guard standing outside her door.
“Good morning, miss!” He greeted her politely, but with a serious expression.
“Good Morning!” Melissa returned and shrugged when he said nothing else, hurrying to get out of there, because she was late.
The security guard followed.
"Let me help you" He said, preparing to call the elevator.
"Will you accompany me to the restaurant?"
“Yes.”
The elevator opened and he waited for her to enter. He tapped the desired floor and the doors closed. The silence was disturbing, and Melissa was curious.
"Are you Gabriel's security guard?"
"No, miss”.
"Hmm." Melissa frowned. "From the hotel?"
“Neither.”
She was starting to get scared. Realizing her distress, the frowning man tried to explain.
"I'm your bodyguard, miss. Mr. Montgomery assigned me to this function.”
“What? My bodyguard? I do not need a bodyguard! And who the hell is Mr. Montgomery?” The security guard looked at her puzzled.
“Arthur. Mister Arthur Jackson Montgomery”.
“Ah! The nanny...” Melissa smiled. “Hey... What’s your name?”
“Pietro, miss”
“Well, Pietro... First, stop calling me "Miss". That's too corny. Moreover, I believe that this is a misunderstanding. I don’t need a bodyguard.”
“I’m only fulfill orders, miss. You need to clarify everything with Mr. Montgomery or Mr. Voss”.
Melissa couldn’t help but roll her eyes to such formality.
“Oh, I'll clarify. You bet it does.”
When they reached the restaurant, all the good mood Melissa had dissipated. She didn’t want a strange man following her everywhere.
Gabriel was a distant table, in a separated room of the restaurant, far away from other guests. Some of his bodyguards were scattered across the site, doing the usual round. Melissa walked quickly to the singer, furious. Gabriel had no right to make such a decision without consulting her those. She was convinced that Pietro was following her, and this even more irritated.
However, once outside spotted by the singer, all the fire of her anger out off when Gabriel stood up and smiled at her, adorable. It’s sucks to be so enchanted by him. All he needs was a simple smile and her stupid heart started beating uncontrolled.
“Good Morning!” He greeted
“Good morning...” She answered with irregular voice.
Gabriel pulled out the chair for her to sit.
“I thought you wouldn’t come over” Arthur said, without taking his eyes from the newspaper he was reading.
It was good have Arthur there. Melissa could concentrate on harassing him instead of flirting with Gabriel.
“Good morning to you too, Arthur.” She said.
“Forget him” Gabriel asked smiling “He is angry about yesterday.”
“I thought it was our day off.”
“Yes” Arthur said, still avoiding eye contact “It was your day off. Not his.”
“What? Really? You lied to me, Gabriel?”
“It was not like that... I...”
“We had an important meeting and he canceled. Incidentally, he sent a message canceling.”
“Arthur... It wasn’t that important! I've apologized.”
“Man, are you dumping Gabe?” Melissa laughed heartily “That's very childish!”
Arthur ignored her.
“Did you have a good night?” Gabriel asked, ignoring the manager sulking.
“Yes. But this morning I was annoyed with this watchdog that Mr. Montgomery got me.”
“Mr. Montgomery only following orders” Arthur said, then sipped his coffee, without looking at them.
“Gabriel!” Melissa claim “I don’t need a bodyguard.”
“You do. This will not be discussed. What you want to eat?”
“Your heart!” It was supposed to be a poorly created response, but Gabriel turned it into a shameless flirt.
“I don’t have a heart. It’s now yours.”
Melissa shivered and Arthur choked on his coffee.
“You may be less obvious?” Arthur complained, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
Gabriel laughed to the point of shedding tears.
“He's only joking, Arthur” Lissa said, more to calm herself than the embarrassed assistant.
“Calm down, my friend” Gabriel gave him a pat on the back “We are only three of us here. There is no danger at all.”
“Right. Let's talk about what was to have been discussed yesterday.”
While the two embarked on a conversation about pocket show of Gabriel in Times Square, Melissa got up and went to serve in the pompous buffet. There was so much food she didn’t even know where to start. She decided to eat only fruits and take some milk. Her nervous system was still shaken by Gabriel's words, and the girl was afraid that her stomach didn’t hold anything heavier. She returned to sit and concentrated in food. For her peripheral vision realized Gabriel moving in his cellphone every time Arthur was distracted by the papers he was explaining to him. Minutes later her phone vibrated. It was a message from him. Curious and a little nervous, she opened the chat.
"What envy these strawberries.
They taste out of your mouth and I didn’t."
Melissa felt her face grow hot when she realized that he expected an answer. Arthur continued his boring monologue and Gabriel just nodded without really paying attention. Quickly, the girl entered.
"You don’t taste because you don’t want.
I am right here."
She sent and watched his reaction. Gabriel sat up and ran his hand through his hair. Certainly, he didn’t expect something so straightforward. Once Arthur was distracted again he replied.
"I want to kiss your mouth.
Now."
With heart pounding and breathing erratic, Melissa wrote.
"Your room or mine?"
The answer came quick as lightning.
"Yours.
10 min."
With a feigned cough, Melissa wiped her mouth with her napkin and sighed as if satisfied.
“Thank you for the invitation…” She said lifting-up. “Now I'll let you work in peace.”
Neither of them said anything,
just Arthur merely nodded. Melissa calmly walked to the exit of the restaurant, but as soon as she was in the outside of restaurant, she virtually run… The bodyguard followed her, but this time it didn’t matter.
In the room, she waited anxious the moment that Gabriel would appear. She didn’t understand how she was being so reckless. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d kiss Gabriel, but it seemed like that.
The singer not long came. He knocked on the door and entered without waiting for permission. Melissa, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, stood up and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, Gabriel pressed his lips to hers, silencing her with a fierce kiss.
She never gets used to the intensity of what he felt when she was with Gabriel's lips on hers. It seemed that could float, while his presence held her to the ground, stuck to him.
Without realizing how, Melissa found herself once again on the lap of the rockstar when he settled on the bed.
“Gabe...” She tried to say something, anything, but Gabriel chose that moment to go to kiss her neck, making a good, unknown heat take the body of the young woman. “I... We...” She tried again, but she didn’t know how to speak. Not with him kissing her in a way she'd never been kissed.
“Mel...” He brought his lips to her ear. “I want to kiss your whole body.”
Right. She wasn’t sure what was going on with herself to allow Gabriel advances, but she was no fool and knew from his speech, as well as male hands began to go to the side of her body, if she didn’t do something, the good time was going to end badly.
“We better stop...” She said panting as he slid a fingertip down the side of one of her breasts. It was impossible to silence a low moan. “Gabriel, really... I don’t...”
He looked intently and she wanted to dive into those eyes. She wanted to let him continue, she wanted not to be afraid, but just she couldn’t.
“I'm sorry, I...” She kept trying to find words.
“Calm down...” He stopped gently. “We’ll not do anything. I promise. I will not do anything you don’t want.”
That was the problem; in her deep down she wanted. She just wouldn’t be able to handle her own reaction.
She squirmed on his lap, annoyed with almost mesmerizing way he looked and the conflict between her body and mind. One side wanting to surrender, another begging for her to depart.
“No...” He moaned softly and used his hands to get hold of the female waist and keep her stopped. “Don’t move...”
She froze, feeling him, and she took a deep breath. It was not the first time she felt an excited man but the realization terrified her, making her try to leave the male lap.
“Hey...” He held her as she almost fell out of bed while trying to get away. “You don’t need to pull away. Damn it! You're beautiful and I like to be looking at you, feeling you... We’ll don’t need do anything.”
She sighed and went back to settled on his legs but was still well attentive to any movement that would indicate that he would try something else.
He smiled at her and slowly opened the jacket she wore and withdrew, leaving her with a shirt. She was without wristbands and certainly, without the makeup hiding the scars, he avoided to look female wrists, but picked up one of her hands and looking her straight, he took the fingers of the girl to his face in an awkward affection, sliding her fingers along his skin and kissing the small hand until she came to relax and she began to stroke him on her own.
“It would be so easy, you throw me on the bed and just do whatever you want...” She said wistfully and, as to confuse him, she began distributing wet kisses across his face. Gabriel couldn’t know, but this was the scene that was repeated in Melissa's mind.
“No...” He replied confused. “No matter what I want to do, if you don’t want it, we will not do anything.”
“Maybe I want...” She went on to attack his lips, kissing him recklessly, biting his lip, teasing him until he was once again with his hands walking down the side of her body.
She was really horrible, Melissa pondered when the hands of Gabriel took possession of her breasts. She was teasing him when she had no intention of continuing.
Was it that she had done before? When everything happened? That's what her mother said that she had caused too... Maybe it was her fault and...
“Mel?” The voice of Gabriel called. “Babe, what's wrong?”
Only when his fingers slid down her face that she realized she was crying.
She shook her head, trying to get rid of thoughts.
“Nothing...” She answered, shyly. “Can I?” She asked, bringing her hands to his coat, intending to remove the garment.
He shook a nod.
“Will you tell me what's wrong?”
It was her turn to deny speechless.
“Just kiss me, Gabriel.” She put her fingers to his neck, pulling him closer. “When you kiss me, nothing is wrong.”
He wanted to pursue the matter, but he would never deny your kiss her, especially knowing that a simple kiss could make her feel better.
“Just kiss me...” she repeated. “And if you promise to stop when I ask, we can do what we were doing before...”
He looked her a little more before taking his hands to the hem of her blouse she wore.
“I'll stop whenever you want.” He said seriously. “Do you trust me, Mel?”
She looked to his hands and sighed when she saw them disappear beneath the fabric of her shirt. She closed her eyes tightly, just feeling the warm, soft feel against your stomach. It was so different.
“Trust me, Mel...” he repeated. That was not a question. That was a request.
She opened her eyes and, though she was tense and frightened, smiled uncertainly at him.
“I trust.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - YOU AND ME
“And I don't know why
I can't keep my eyes of you”[20]
G abriel let out a low curse, when someone knocks on the door and prevented him from continuing to explore Melissa's body.
"Gabriel, you have appointments!" Lissa flinched against the singer's chest as Arthur's irritated voice reached her.
“What the fuck!” Gabriel complained again, but he laid a kiss on her forehead before pulling her out of his lap." We'd better pick it up before he breaks the door."
Melissa nodded and rushed to put on the jacket that the singer had removed.
"Do you need a few minutes?" She asked, slightly embarrassed, when the singer, instead of following the door, continued to stand by the bed, taking a deep breath. She didn’t need to look to know he was still aroused. "I can distract him while you use the bathroom."
"That would be even worse and certainly more compromising”. He finally walked to the door and opened it, revealing his assistant with a face of very few friends.
"If you continue to make my life so difficult, I swear my first New Year's resolution will be to resign.”
Gabriel didn’t answer, even though his friend's threat was empty, he knew he was even complicating things for the manager.
“Easy, nanny.” Lissa bit into it. "That way you're going to collapse before the new year starts."
"Melissa..." Arthur gave her a look that made her shudder slightly. He was really annoyed, so the girl fell silent. "It's best not to test my patience today.”
The girl raised her arms in a mocking gesture of surrender.
"You" The assistant pointed to Gabriel. “You should be ready now. The first interview is scheduled for 30 minutes. And you..."Arthur's gaze met Melissa who had an annoying smile on her face just because she knew it would make the guy even more nervous. “You need to get ready too.”
“Me?” Lissa stared at him, blankly. “But the show is just the night and...”
“The interview, Melissa. Did you hear what I said?”
“Calm down, Arth. You don’t have to be so rude.” Gabriel interceded.
“Why do I have to participate in the interviews? Gabriel is the star, n
ot me...”
“You don’t need to attend all, but some journalists want to talk to the winner of the competition and has the photos to the Entertainment...”
“Photos?” The girl jumped to her feet. “But I hate photos, and...”
“30 minutes, Gabriel”. The assistant didn’t let Lissa finish, and before she could continue to complain, he left the room behind.
Both, Melissa and Gabriel, stared at the open door through which Arthur had passed.
"I'd better go, or I'll be late." Voss stepped forward to lay one last kiss on the Melissa's lips, but his arm was caught by her icy hand.
“Interviews, Gabriel. And photos... I...”
“It’s okay, Mel. When you realize, it is over.”
"But what if someone ask me something that I can’t answer? And I really hate photos.”
The singer took the girl's face and made her look at him.
"I'll be there with you. "He promised, as if that made it all better. To Melissa, it only made things worse. "And if they ask anything you don’t know how to answer, we will not answer. I'm almost an expert on that. Don’t worry.”
Lissa just stared at the singer, trying to find some excuse to justify her escape from the situation.
“I can still give up... Angela will understand... You find a real fan easy... The tour didn’t really begin.”
“Mel!”Gabriel shook her slightly. “It's just stupid questions. It'll be over before you know it.”
Since she had nothing to do, Melissa shook her head in agreement and, after watching the singer leave the room, she collapsed on the bed, where she stared at the ceiling thinking about how she allowed Angela to convince her to participate in that madness.
If she didn’t love her friend so much, she would be able to squeeze her into that situation. She was planning on calling Ang and raving when Arthur returned to her room, and in this time, he was followed by Gabriel's makeup artist she'd met at the Texas show.
“Hi doll!” Lorys smiled excitedly at her. “Let's have fun.”
Melissa just nodded as she watched a sulky Arthur lay some clothes on the bed.
Broken Angel (English Edition) Page 18