Page 40 of Where You Are

Both sides seem to win out and join forces, and when she reaches her peak, she whimpers into my mouth and sinks her nails into my back, both to channel her orgasm and as a way to excite me and take me with her. Her climax triggers mine, and I let go. I come harder than I ever have in my life, spilling all of it inside her. When my body stops shaking, I collapse onto her, our joined bodies a sweaty, heaving, blissful mess. I heard her loud and clear through her words and her body.She’s mine.

Chapter Twenty

Melanie

On Tuesday afternoon,Kasey returns to pick up Luna, and while she looks ten times better than she did the other night, she doesn’t look one hundred percent refreshed and ready to storm back into life. She looks cautious, like she’s only managed to put an angry giant back to sleep, and is afraid to let herself breathe until she has left it a safe distance behind her.

Nevertheless, her smile is genuinely bright and full of relief when Luna comes rushing into her arms, and she holds her for an extra minute.

Once they drive away, I turn to Matt and sigh.

“Don’t tell me you’re taking off too,” he pleads with a resigned smirk.

“Sarah’s going to wonder where the hell I’ve been for the last three days,” I shrug. “Although I guess we’ll probably be telling people what’s going on soon, since I’ll be popping up on your tour,” I muse, raising my eyebrows.

“Well…” he responds as he steps into me and wraps his arms around my waist. “We can wait a little longer if you want. We have a few weeks, and I’ve come to like having this to ourselves,” he snickers, leaning in to give my jaw a playful nibble.

“Really?” I ask, giggling as his ministrations tickle my skin.

“Yeah,” he confirms, straightening back up. “The more time I spend with you, the less I care about when everyone else knows.

“It’s kind of fun isn’t it?” I ask, scrunching my face into a playful smile.

“Yeah, it kind of is.”

“Okay,” I concede, reaching up on my toes to plant a kiss on his lips. “And by the way, I want Jack to be the first person we tell.”

“Agreed,” he says, leaning in to kiss me once more. And unbeknownst to me, for the last time.

MELANIE

On my way home, I place a pick-up order at Maggie’s, intent on warding off Sarah with some deep-fried goodies.

I pay and accept a blue plastic cup of ice water from the waitress before sitting down in a nearby booth to wait for my order. I dink around on my phone, checking and answering emails for prospective design jobs that I can add to my schedule for the week. I’m just putting the last job in my calendar when I see a dark figure move in my peripheral.

I look up to see a charcoal grey suit sitting down across from me and I feel stunned, as if I just got hit by a fiery blast. Even though I’m sitting securely in a booth, I feel like I’ve been blown back one hundred feet, and everything around me looks hazy. I feel hot and dizzy for a moment before I regain my bearings.

“Anthony?” I ask the cocky smirk in front of me. “What…”

Chapter Twenty-One

Melanie

The morning air is balmy,and the cheerfully peaceful morning sun is glinting off the shimmery ocean water of the cove. The only sounds are birds chirping and water lapping at the sand. It’s the most beautiful, serene morning anyone could ever imagine.

Yet, I’m in hell.

I don’t feel the reassuring warmth of the sun. Its rays, rich with Vitamin D and serotonin, and its cheerful disposition are doing nothing for the blackness deep in my chest.

The ocean, which has never before failed to bring me peace, fails now. It’s no match for the cold storm taking place inside me.

I’m not this woman on the beach. I’m the mussel shell over there lying on the rocks. Cracked open and empty; a black, battered, hollow shell.

I come here every day hoping it will be different; that the sunshine and the water will work their magic and heal me. That this tight, rigid feeling in my chest, my back and shoulders will relent; that the gloomy and achy feeling will leave my gut. That the loneliness I feel without my family or the feeling of being wrapped up in Matt’s arms will subside just a little.

Being home with my family and finding the love of my life to start a whole new one with; that had been the prize I had my eye on when I was traveling around this big old world. Now, it is again, but in a different way. Now that prospect is what’s keeping me alive; from giving up. The hope that somehow, this will go away and I can be back home again.

The world and all its wonders were once my oyster, and now it feels like a prison, keeping me from my true freedom. I want to be home, where I grew up, with my family… with Matt. Not here, wondering if Anthony is watching, or even worse, having some minion of his that could be anyone on the street watching me. He knew so much about me and the people I love it was horrifying. Every day since I’ve been in Thailand, I’ve tried to strategize how I can go home without him finding out, but he’s proved to me, in so many ways, just what he’s capable of. He would know. He’d know the minute I landed. And then what he’d do…

---