His Paris Affair (The Albury Affairs)

by Christina OW

  “Oh look, they do have a door man,” Ruiz whispered in her ear.

  She pushed her arm back and elbowed him in the ribs. He made an oof sound and she smiled with satisfaction.

  “Bienvenue madame,” he said with a slight bow, stepping to the side and signaling them to pass by him.

  “Merci” she responded, walking in with her arm looped through Ruiz’s. There was something about the restaurant except the fact that it was empty and only one table was set. It felt familiar, like she’d been there before.

  She gasped, pressing her free hand over her pounding heart. Tears stung her eyes something she had grown accustomed to, but this time she didn’t hold them in check. She let them flow, “Oh Ruiz.” She sobbed.

  He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Happy belated first wedding anniversary.”

  Chapter Six

  Ruiz watched the emotions play over her face. He wasn’t sure what her reaction would be to his surprise. He was so scared he would blow it he hadn’t said a word to her in the car. In fact he was oblivious to her mood the entire way to the restaurant. When he stopped the car and turned to her all nervous and excited, he finally realized she was throwing one of her quiet tantrum. He didn’t want to ruin the surprise so he stayed quiet forced himself to stay quiet. An entire day and night of secretly planning this wasn’t going to be ruined by what he knew would be a silly argument. And now seeing her face, he was glad he prevented an argument. The joy on her face reminded her of the night thirteen months ago.

  They’d walked around for what felt like hours completely immersed in each other. Melody was laughing and crying a little—the waterfall had thankfully stopped at Jardin de Luxembourg—as she stared at her wedding ring. When they got to a fancy shopping strip on Avenue Montaigne, just steps from the Champs-Élyssés, L’Avenue came into view, Melody dragged him in. It was one of her favorite restaurants in Paris and though he would have preferred a hole in the wall kind of place and not the super swanky chic place, but he relented. It was a special occasion and the least he could do was have her wedding dinner at her favorite restaurant considering how casual the ceremony was. Melody ordered for the table, a pasta dish with morels and cream, and bibb lettuce salad with king crab, lime and olive oil. The food for lack of a better word was fantastic! And the apple tart, his mouth watered just thinking about it. It was so thin and crisp and the hot caramel on the side made it to die for. They ended up ordering another tart and stayed there talking for hours about their future—kids, where they would live and when and how they would break the news of their marriage to their family. Everything was so easy and wonderful then…he never saw the break up coming just after one month of wedded bliss.

  “Ruiz, when did you do all this?”

  Melody’s voice pulled him out of the past and brought him to the present. She had tears in her eyes and her smile wobbled. She looked beautiful, like the moment he slid the ring on her finger.

  He caressed her cheek, drying it in the process. “Last night after you left and sometime this morning.”

  She shook her head. “You weren’t very happy with me last night and you still planned all this?”

  He shrugged. Yes, he’d thrown his own little silent tantrum when she insisted on leaving for the night. Apparently there was something in the manager’s house she couldn’t be separated for a lengthy period of time from.

  “You like it?”

  “I love it.”

  Ruiz led her to the table helping her with her seat before he took his own. The owner, Louis, someone he’d grown very close to in the past twenty four hours—it happens one is dragged out of bed for a romantic gesture—came over to the table.

  “Bienvenue à l'Avenue. Et félicitations pour votre premier anniversaire de mariage. It’s a big moment for us as well and I hope you’ll make it tradition to celebrate your anniversaries here.”

  A shadow passed over Melody’s face that he almost missed before she nodded and smiled up at the owner and said, “I think we will.”

  Ruiz wasn’t sure what to make of it, but he took the change as a positive sign. He hoped it meant that he was getting closer to finding out her secret.

  “To make this moment even more memorable.” Louis turned just enough to beckon two waiters carrying covered food trays. They stepped forward and placed them on the table. With a grand display, they uncovered the dishes. Melody gasped and laughed, shaking her head at Ruiz. He smiled back, glad he’d managed to surprise her again. “For lunch we have pasta with morels and cream, and Bibb lettuce salad with king crab, lime and olive oil. For desert—”

  “Apple tart,” Melody finished with a laugh.

  “Bon a petite,” Louis bowed out finally leaving them alone.

  Melody kept staring at him with a slight shake of her head.

  “What?” he asked feeling a little self conscious.

  “This is the third most romantic thing you’ve ever done for me. I’m not only surprised I’m honored. Thank you Ruiz.”

  He nodded biting back his own emotions. He lifted his glass and she mirrored his gesture. “To a new start and hopefully a happy ending.”

  “To us,” she echoed.

  As they ate, Ruiz tried several times to pull Melody into a conversation, well into walking down memory lane with him but she barely spoke. Her words echoed in his mind and it stunned him that she actually meant it when she said she didn’t want to go down that road. Her quick smile, absent nods and little sounds of acknowledgement were driving him crazy! What was wrong with relieving the happy memories of them together? Some of those memories of the things they did together contributed to him falling in love with her. Yes, they agreed to start fresh, but that didn’t mean forgetting their past.

  Having had enough, Ruiz put his fork down and looked up, only to meet Melody’s searching gaze.

  “What is it?”

  She stared at him for a minute longer then shook her head, looked down and brought a fork full of food to her lips.

  “Mel, what’s up?” he pushed.

  She chewed slowly. Something she always did when she was thinking about something or trying to delay a confession. He found it both endearing and annoying. Patience wasn’t one of his strong suits—one of the many things he had to work on because Melody required a lot of patience from him. She set her fork down, dubbed daintily on her pink lips with her napkin before placing it back on her laps and finally looked up at him.

  “Ruiz?”

  “Yup,” he answered with calm that he didn’t feel. His heart was beating a mile a minute. It always did after the searching gaze, slow chew before the needle pricked the balloon. Sometimes it was bad news other times it was great news but his heart always beat a mile a minute from the suspense.

  “Why are you still in love with me?”

  That did nothing to slow his heart rate. It just worried him more. “What?”

  She looked down at her lap unsuringly before she looked back up again. Her brown eyes were filled with apprehension. “I think you still love me. I mean you did all this—planned a surprise lunch for me for our first anniversary, something I never thought about once. Of course I remembered our wedding day,” she added quickly and Ruiz was glad. That was a blow he wouldn’t have survived. He’d spent that day all day in his apartment reliving their wedding ceremony over and over again. “After what I did—I just don’t understand how—”

  Ruiz grabbed one of her hands out of the air—her hands seemed to do most of the talking when she was nervous—and brought it to his lips, kissing the inside of her wrist. She stopped her rambling with a gasp and her pulse jumped under her skin. He smiled discreetly to himself, remembering the first time he did that. It was at Riana and Allan’s wedding. They were seated right in front of the dance floor watching the kids because their parents were necking and completely in a different world. He was flirting a little, but not too much because he took Reno’s warning about Allan making him disappear without a trace to heart. He remembered he w
as staring at her, at the way her lips moved as she spoke, how her eyes lit up beaming as harshly as her smile when she saw the content look on her brother’s face or how she would stop speaking and listening when she heard Allan’s booming laugh and turn in search of it. The awe in her eyes as she watched and listened to her brother being happy made him both jealous and made his heart do a little skip. The skip had never happened to him before and it both amused and bewildered him. It was one of the moments when he was watching her and suddenly she began her nervous talk with her hands. He’d grabbed them both and one at a time slowly pressed lingering kisses over her pulse. She gasped and a rush of red spread from the sweetheart cut of her champagne dress up her neck to her cheeks. It was the most beautiful he’d ever seen her. Then Allan came to them with one eyebrow lifted in suspicion and she quickly pulled her hands away, took a gulp of wine and mumbled something about dancing with the kids. Of course Ruiz wasn’t going to be left there with his new brother-in-law so he went after her with a quick congratulations to Allan.

  “Melody, I love you. I always have and I always will,” he turned her hand in his so that he could weave their fingers together and they were palm to palm. “I think the first time I fell in love with you was at Riana and Allan’s wedding. I wasn’t sure then, but I should have figured something was up when I wanted to spend every minute with you.”

  Melody smiled shyly. “So it had nothing to do with wanting to get to know your niece and taking pity on me for getting stuck with babysitting duty for three days in Italy?”

  He chuckled shaking his head. “No, but I did learn something. Kids aren’t all that bad to hang out with and I was willing to do anything to spend time with you. I was in the dumps when we parted ways, but when you showed up at the resort…I don’t remember being so excited about anything before.”

  She nodded and a blush spread across her face. “I have a confession to make. I only thought about the deal with Reno because I needed a viable excuse to go to the Bahamas. If I told my brother I was following a boy,” she laughed, shaking her head.

  Ruiz wasn’t sure what to say. “You made up a merger just to see me again? That is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me. Thank you.”

  Her blush darkened. She shrugged her lips twisting in a pucker at the corner of her mouth. “I’m glad and you’re welcome.”

  Ruiz ate with his left hand, difficult but he wasn’t ready to relinquish hers. As if reading his mind she didn’t pull her hand out of his and ate with her free hand. “What would you like to do after this?”

  * * * *

  Melody hugged his arm to her chest as they walked back to the hotel. It was chilly, but that wasn’t why she clutched on to him like a life raft. He had been a little shocked and disappointed when she asked if they could take a walk. She knew when he asked her what she wanted to do after he expected her to say something along the lines of ‘make love’. He never expected her to say take a walk and the surprise and disappointment on his face made her laugh, but she was glad he agreed. It was some distance back to the hotel and she preferred that, she didn’t want their time together to end. The long walk gave them more time together and it also gave her more time to live in the little fantasy he was building for her before they got to the hotel. Before they got back to reality. Before she got back to Antonio. She tightened her hold on him and looked up just in time to catch him staring down at her. The look in his eyes was so full of love it almost brought her to tears and made the fear inside her grow a little larger.

  She was scared, afraid that she would lose him again, but this time it would be her doing. Why couldn’t she be strong and courageous like Loraine and Riana? They wouldn’t be waiting and watching. They would be doing something, fighting to be with the men they love. Loraine went up against two psychos and Riana faced a hell Melody wouldn’t wish on anyone. All she had to battle was one demented guy…who was up to something dangerous. She could feel it. Maybe, maybe if she knew what, she would be able to fight him then.

  She let go of Ruiz’s arm moving it so she could tuck herself against his side. He wrapped his arm around her hugging her to him, pressing his lips to the crown of her head.

  “You good?” he asked in a deep baritone that his voice always got when he whispered or when he was turned on.

  She placed one arm around his waist and held her other arm at his chest, fist folded around his jacket. Being near him warmed her, made her feel safe. After a year of not feeling that, she treasured that.

  She rubbed her face against his chest, taking in his unique scent before she looked up and smiled. “I’m great.”

  He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. “Good because I have something else planned for us.”

  “What?”

  He waggled his brows suggestively with a full blown grin on his lips. Melody laughed, shaking her head. How could she not? He always looked like a naughty little boy when he did that especially when he wanted to make love.

  “You are incorrigible!”

  He shrugged. “What can I say, you are addictive.”

  She rolled her eyes at that. “You had no problem getting over me this past year.”

  He shook his head, something deep and profound came over his eyes, making the green in them glow deeper. She couldn’t explain it, but her breath caught and her heart seemed to stutter at that look.

  “Get over you? That could never happen, even in my death. You were always in my heart even if I couldn’t have you in my arms.”

  In that moment, she decided to give him—give them both what they wanted. On tip toes, she reached for Ruiz’s lips and whispered against them. “Make love to me Ruiz, like you did that first time.”

  “On our wedding night?” he whispered back.

  She nodded. “Just like that.”

  She thought he would kiss her then, but instead he took her hand in his and pulled her into a run. She laughed at how fast he ran, tugging her along behind him as he pushed people out of the way. She’d never seen him this excited before—wait a minute she had. On their wedding night, the first time they were together. He’d run them out of the garden just like this and into the nearest taxi. The ten minute drive was spent with him kissing and fondling her because he couldn’t wait to touch her. It was clear it was annoying the driver just as much as it did her because it explained how fast he drove them to the hotel. Once there, Ruiz pulled a wad of bills from his pocket and pushed it at the driver before he jumped out dragging her with him and back to a run to the elevator and finally their room. It was a harder workout keeping up with him now just as it was then. She didn’t have twenty pounds of baby weight then.

  And just like their wedding night, when they finally got to the suite, he opened the door and stepped aside for her to enter first, his eyes trailed at her. She shivered and goose pimples filled her arms. She rubbed at them unconsciously. Everything was exactly the same.

  The room was bathed in candle light and soft sensual music filled the air. Laid out at her feet from the mouth of the door leading into the living area was a carpet of red, yellow and white rose petals that matched the candles spread around the room. Wow, she felt like a virgin bride all over again—standing at the door, debating whether or not to step into the lion’s den, primed seductively, tempting her of secrets to be unleashed in the arms of the man that stood behind her, staring her like a predator would its prey. Yes, she may have her back to him, but she could still feel his hungry gaze sear into her with so much intensity it made her body quake and her heart race like a winning horse at the Kentucky Derby that she could barely stay on her feet.

  Last time he carried her in, promising to repeat the process once they settled long enough to buy a house and make it their home. But until then, their business trips would also be their honeymoon. She liked the idea of having a two year long honeymoon, but she also liked the thoughts weaving in her mind of a home she could call her own with five bedrooms and a large backyard for the four kids they would have
and a guest house for visiting friends. They would live next to their siblings because she didn’t want to be far from her brother and she knew the Alburys must feel the same as she did. She would insist on holding Thanksgiving at her home and her sisters-in-law could fight over the other holidays. She could already picture it all and she never thought her dreams would be shattered and all their plans torn asunder.

  But at that moment, as she ambled into the suit she couldn’t help, but dream all over again—the house in the same Allan, Reno and Matthew had built their own, two brothers and one sister for Esme to play and care for, and planning Easter dinner and egg hunts at her home because all the other holidays were already taken; Thanksgiving was at Loraine’s, Christmas at Riana’s, New Year at Amy’s and the fourth of July was spent at the Sinclair cabin up at the mountains. A year away from her family and it felt like she’d been gone an entire lifetime.

  She followed the carpet of roses to the electric fireplace. “Oh Ruiz!”

  His footsteps were soft as he came up behind her. “This is why I didn’t invite Jon Luc,” he spoke right behind her.

  Laid out in front of the fireplace was the thick comforter in the same red cover as their wedding night. The same red and blue checked Maasai blanket that resembled a tartan that he bought from the African Market when they were in London. He had the same brand of champagne sitting in an ice cooler with two glass flutes filled half way with strawberry pieces, and of course white and dark chocolate covered strawberries. He’d taken them back to the happiest day of her life. Tears slowly ran down her cheeks as she looked at each item of the set up one more time then she closed her eyes committing it all to memory. She felt his hands on her shoulders and she moved back to lean against him, her back against his chest. She could feel how fast his heart beat, it mirrored her own.

  “Do you like it?” he whispered in her ear.