Page 77 of His Mansion

“I’m looking out for her too. Stop being an ass toward both your sister and me. Damn idiot.” Derrick’s deep rumble made Melanie hide a smile.

“Yeah, well, I’m still not sure I approve of you dating her, so don’t push it, spider-boy.” Kane hesitated then held out his arms. Melanie slipped from Derrick’s embrace to give her brother a quick hug.

Kane took his leave with only a few more suspicious glances directed Nathan’s way.

And then, they were alone.

Melanie made herself busy, unpacking and tucking her camping gear into the storage chest in the corner. Some of her bright happiness had disappeared, clouded by Kane’s accusations, but she figured it would pass. She just needed a few minutes to get her brain back on target and remember the past thirty-six hours.

An incredible thirty-six hours. It seemed too short a time for the changes she felt inside to have occurred.

“I swear, Mel, I knew nothing about this.” Nathan had the article in hand and a huge frown marring his face.

Shit. She hurried to his side and tugged the magazine from his fingers, tossing it to the couch. “I said I believed you. Nate—you’ve never been the kind of guy to go around hurting others. I don’t think you’re going to start with me.”

“But what if?—”

“What ifwhat? What could they print that could possibly hurt me anymore?” A huge sweep of emotions rushed her again. Incredible gratitude was the most prevalent, and that’s what made the words easy to say. “‘On the outside, Melanie Dixon appears to have healed, but in reality, she’s still a mess of scars.’ Nathan, if they had done this article even a few months ago that would have been true.”

“Oh, Mel.”

The late-afternoon sun shone in the windows, lighting the tiny living room. Derrick sat on her well-worn couch, his dark eyes watching her intently, his body poised and alert. As if ready to leap to her side on a moment’s notice, to either guard and protect, or to care for her more intimately. Nathan’s eyes revealed his deep desire to provide her the assurances he thought she still needed.

What she needed now was not what she’d required a day ago. Healing had arrived and it felt incredible.

“But, guys, it’s not a few months ago. It’s not even yesterday. It’s today, and right here and right now, I’m not the same woman. Because of both of you.”

She’d been turned inside out over the past two days. Stripped bare, in more than one way. Discovering she’d fallen in love with Derrick had filled her heart to the top with hope and happiness. Yet somehow, Nathan had done the impossible. He’d made the scars fade more than she ever thought possible.

The two of them had done it—Derrick by being willing to ask, Nathan by giving unselfishly. She couldn’t let things end this way. She wanted to give back to them both, the two men she’d come to care for so deeply.

Empty Chinese foodcontainers littered the floor around them. Contentment and warmth filled him as Derrick watched Melanie pull another laugh from Nathan.

When she’d made them grab takeout instead of eating at the restaurant, he’d wondered what was going on. Then she’d sweet-talked him into opening the gym so they could haul out mats and set up their own private smorgasbord, and it had made even less sense.

Until she’d started provoking Nathan. There was no way the man could continue to be gloomy over Kane’s accusations, not with Melanie applying her full power to teasing him.

She was a live wire—sheer vitality radiated from her every move. Not sexual in nature, but simple all-out energy.

He was going to explode with happiness. Seeing the woman he’d always knew she was emerge—it was a miracle, and he’d gotten to watch it occur. The barriers and walls were gone, her liveliness turned way up past high.

Melanie Dixon was a power to be reckoned with, and he was madly in love with every enthusiastic inch.

Derrick leaned on an elbow and enjoyed the interplay snapping between the other two.

“Like that’s a threat, monkey girl.”

“Oh yeah? You’re a good one to talk. Couldn’t even finish a basic 5.5 route.”

Nathan sniffed. “I’m anartiste, not a jock.”

Melanie tackled him back to the mat and tickled him.

“Stop it, not on a full stomach. I calldeliberate cruelty. Derrick, make your woman stop picking on me.”

Derrick wasn’t getting in the middle of this fight. “Hey, if she’s happy, who am I to hold her back?”

Melanie nodded curtly, a smug expression on her face as she straddled Nathan’s chest. “See? If I’m happy, then all is good with the world.”

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