Mail Order Stepbrother (8 page)

“You don’t have to tell me everything. Just don’t shut down when it gets hard.”

He pressed his lips to her forehead for a long second. “Maybe I just don’t want to scare you away. Not yet.”

“I can’t imagine there’s anything in your past that could scare me away.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. I just…there are things about my family I’d rather not dump on you until you’re sure you want to stick around.”

That should have set off alarm bells in her head. Instead, it made her feel guilty. “There’s something I haven’t told you about me,” she said, stepping out of his arms. “It’s been an issue in the past, guys going out with me because of it and not because of me, so I purposely didn’t put it in my profile.”

He grabbed her hip and pulled her back into his arms. “Let’s not talk anymore,” he said softly against her lips. And then he was kissing her in that way that made her belly flutter and her toes curl. In less than a minute, she forgot what she had been about to say. In a little more than a minute, she was leading the way into the bedroom.

***

Melanie still had a smile on her lips the following morning as she parked her car in her assigned spot inside the hospital’s parking garage. She licked her lips and imagined she could still taste Nash there. He’d stayed till morning, sharing her shower and feeding her an amazing omelet he’d thrown together with the random items long forgotten in her refrigerator. She definitely never starve to death as long as he was in her life.

And she wasn’t just thinking about food…

She climbed out of the car and grabbed her bag, reaching inside for her cellphone. She was about to turn when a heavy hand landed painfully on her shoulder.

“Why did you have to go and give her hope?”

Melanie turned, stuffing her hand back into her bag in search of the bottle of pepper spray her mother gave her years ago when she first moved to Dallas. She couldn’t find it, her fingers desperately searching, as she tried to appear calm as she looked up into Jack’s face.

“Eli’s doing quite well,” she said. “Have you been up to see him?”

“We were doing just fine until you put your nose into things. She was fine with the idea of giving him up, giving him to someone who had the time and the money to deal with his problems. But then you had to go and agree to this surgery, to donating your services and all that bullshit—“

“I only did what Tess asked for.”

He shook his head, his angry eyes never leaving her face. “You complicated what should have been a simple situation. Did it ever occur to you that I didn’t want to put the kid through the surgery? Did it ever occur to you that I didn’t want to have to deal with the stress and the expense of caring for him when he goes home? Did you ever think of what was best for me, for my wife, and for our personal situation?”

“Jack—“

“You just had to butt in, take control, and save the day.” He stepped into her, his spittle flying over her face as he leaned close and said, “Doctors like you make me sick. You see these patients as a challenge, something to prove your worth. You never see the human factor.”

He slammed his hand into the soft metal of her car door, inches from her side, and then walked away, gone as quickly as he had appeared.

It was a long time before Melanie’s hands stopped shaking.

Chapter 6

Melanie squeezed Nash’s hand lightly before letting go.

“Don’t forget—extra butter on the popcorn.”

He smiled that smile that never failed to make her heart skip a beat. “Could I possibly forget that after you told me half a dozen times?”

“Better not.”

She walked away, aware that he was watching her cross the crowded theater lobby. She felt like a teenager on her first date. She supposed this was, technically, their second date even though they’d seen each other every night for the past seven days. But it was the first time they’d managed to peel themselves out of her apartment long enough to do anything that resembled a date-like activity.

Not that she was complaining. She’d be perfectly happy to spend every night for the rest of her life in Nash’s arms.

She used the restroom, pausing to wash her hands afterward. She scrubbed them like she was about to go into surgery, a habit she was sure she would never break. As she finished, she realized a little girl about four or five was watching her closely from the safety of her mother’s skirt.

“Hi,” Melanie said, wiggling wet fingers at the small child.

The child’s big blue eyes widened as she shoved a thumb in to her mouth and hid her face against her mother.

“She’s shy,” the mother said, running an affectionate hand over her child’s head.

“There are worse things to be than shy.”

Melanie dried her hands and wiggled her fingers at the child one more time before she left. The little girl smiled around her thumb, and then hid her face again.

Melanie loved kids. Always had. And she seemed to have a way with them.

It was certainly nice to interact with a child that wasn’t suffering some debilitating heart condition, though.

She found herself wondering as she walked back into the lobby if Nash was interested in children. It was something they had yet to talk about. Melanie wanted kids…that desire was part of the reason she had joined the dating site in the first place. She wanted a husband, a couple of kids, the whole white picket fence thing. But she realized that she had failed to ask Nash what he wanted.

Maybe that was a conversation they should have before things progressed much further.

She spotted him standing off to the side of the lobby, a tub of popcorn and a coke in his hands. She couldn’t help the excitement that bubbled in her chest, that made her want to run up and throw her arms around him. She was about to do just that when she realized he wasn’t alone.

A woman, tall and redheaded, the kind of woman who looks professional enough to be a CEO of some technology giant, but pretty enough to be a model, was standing too close to Nash for their conversation to be random.

“The projections are interesting,” the woman was saying, “but it will be interesting to see what the final report spells out.”

Nash inclined his head slightly. There was a muscle jumping in his jaw, suggesting he was upset, but his tone was calm as he said, “I guess we’ll find out next month.”

Melanie slid up next to Nash and touched his arm. He immediately straightened and she could feel the tension rolling off of him in waves.

“Hello,” the woman said politely. “You must be Melanie.”

“I am,” Melanie said, surprised to hear her name on this stranger’s lips. “And you are?”

“Caroline. Mr. Coll—“

“Our movie is about to start,” Nash interrupted. “We should probably get going.”

“Of course.” Caroline stepped back, her expression filled with curiosity as she studied Melanie for a second longer. “Enjoy.”

Nash walked off briskly, making Melanie nearly have to run to keep up. They walked into the half empty theater and chose seats toward the center, settling back just as the previews began. Melanie leaned close and asked, “Who was she?”

Nash shook his head. “My assistant.”

“Really? What are the chances of running into her here?”

Nash shrugged, clearly not excited to talk about it. “She had some information for me that couldn’t wait.”

“Is everything okay?”

“It’s fine.”

He pushed the tub of popcorn into her lap and pulled his cellphone out of his pocket, clearly done with the conversation. Melanie decided not to push him, but she was very curious about this woman who worked with Nash every day. It distracted her from the movie—which wasn’t that great, anyway—and had her searching every face they passed as they left the theater afterward.

Of course, she didn’t see her again.

Nash helped Melanie into his car and turned the car toward her apartment, his fingers drumming to a tune only he could hear as they drove silently through town.

“Why won’t you talk about your work?” Melanie suddenly asked.

Nash glanced at her. “It’s boring. You don’t want to hear about it.”

“It matters to you. I want to know about everything that’s important in your life.”

He glanced at her, his face a mask in the moving lights of the passing street lamps. “Why don’t you talk about your work?”

Heat burst across Melanie’s cheeks as she sat back and stared out the windshield. He had a point. She had yet to tell him what she did for a living. She wasn’t even sure why she hadn’t told him. She was no longer afraid that it would be an issue—he certainly wasn’t the type to steal her prescription pad to self-medicate. And there had been opportunities. She simply hadn’t.

They drove the rest of the way to her apartment in silence.

Nash walked her to her door, his hand pressed lightly to the small of her back. As she stepped through the threshold, she turned, not sure what to expect. Nash’s face was again an unreadable mask as he stared down at her, that muscle again working along the edge of his jaw.

And then he buried his fingers in her hair and tugged her toward him, kissing her with an intensity that rivaled all the kisses that had come before. He pushed her backward, shoving the door closed with the heel of his shoe, pressing her up against the edge of the counter that marked the division of kitchen and living room.

He lifted her up so that they were face to face, his hands already pushing their way under the billowy material of her simple skirt. She felt his tug at her thin panties and knew she should slow him down, that they needed to think about this…but she couldn’t stop the ache that made her hands tug at the belt around his waist, that made her reach inside his jeans and guide him to her, that welcomed him inside of her.

She had never wanted anyone the way she wanted him. All he had to do was look at her a certain way, touch her with a simple caress of his fingertips, and this insatiable need built inside of her. The few other lovers she’d had…none of them inspired in her this level of want, this intense craving. She didn’t know what it was about him, but she couldn’t think straight when he was near her like this.

His hands on her ass, pulling at her, encouraging her…she tore at his shirt, her hands clutching at his shoulders, crying out as he thrust harder than her shattered nerves could take. It wasn’t just pleasure rolling through her like waves in the ocean. It was so much more. It was the connection of their bodies, of their souls, this need that was undefinable.

And when he exploded inside of her, when he buried his face against her shoulder, the heat of his breath washing over her, she no longer cared about the secrets he was keeping. As long as they had this, she couldn’t imagine anything big enough to pull them apart.

***

“He’s healing nicely,” Melanie said as she carefully pressed a fresh bandage to Eli’s chest. “You should be able to take him home tomorrow.”

“Really?” Tess’ eyes lit up the room. “Oh, that’s wonderful!”

“Just remember everything I told you about the healing process. And bring him back a week from Wednesday so that Dr. Jonah can check his incision.”

“Dr. Jonah?”

“I’m going out of town,” Melanie reminded her. “I’ll be gone all next week.”

“Oh yes, you told me already.” Tess dragged her fingers through her hair. “Everything’s starting to blur together, you know?”

Melanie nodded. “It’s been a lot of information. But you’ll be fine.”

She walked around Tess and retrieved the iPad she’d left on the seat of a chair. She paused in the doorway and watched Tess run a hand lovingly over her sleeping baby’s head.

“Is everything settled at home? You have a safe place to go?”

Tess looked up, confusion darkening her pretty features for a second.

“You mean Jack?”

Melanie had reported her run in with Jack in the parking garage to security. She’d heard that they filed a report against him with human resources and chances were good he would lose his job. It wasn’t what Melanie wanted, but he was a loose cannon. Someone had to do something.

Tess looked down at the baby again. “Jack moved out on the day of the surgery. I haven’t heard from him since.”

Melanie started to turn, but then paused again.

“Promise me you’ll be careful, Tess.”

“Of course,” she said with a soft smile. “I always am.”

***

“Yes, Mom, I’ll be there first thing Friday morning,” Melanie was saying into the phone as she unloaded the dishwasher—it was getting more use in the past ten days that Nash had been in her life than the whole five years she’d lived there. “My plane lands at eight, your time.”

“Good,” her mother said. “I need you to help me finish setting up.”

“Doesn’t Burton have servants or whatever to help out?”

Her mother groaned. “I hate telling them what to do. I feel like some sort of phony, bossing around a whole group of people who might have been my neighbors once upon a time.”

Melanie smiled, trying to imagine her mother instructing a stable of maids. She simply couldn’t see it. Her mother was too nice. Melanie, on the other hand, could probably take to that kind of life quite easily… Imagine, never having to make another bed or empty another dishwasher…

“Don’t worry. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

“Well, Alyssa will be here and she’s bringing her husband and kids this time, so there will be plenty of hands. Burton says her teens are quite helpful.”

“I didn’t realize she had kids.”

“Yeah, a boy and a girl. Burton said he thinks they’re fifteen and seventeen, but he couldn’t be positive.”

“They’re his only grandkids, and he can’t remember their ages?”

“Burton had trouble with little details like that.”

“Sounds like an old age sort of thing.”

Her mother laughed. “Don’t say that in front of him. He’ll disown you.”

He doesn’t own me.

Melanie opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of wine. As she poured a glass, she asked, “What about his son? Is he going to be there?”

“Alyssa says that she spoke to him and he was noncommittal, but she thinks she can talk him into it.”