Page 6 of Melt With You

She knew what he meant, and she gripped his hand and nodded.

Head pounding, Rowan sprinted to the gymnasium, but the door was already locked. He glanced up to see inside the windows of the big building, watching as the very last of the lights clicked out.

How late was he? He’d thought he had the timing down by now.

Feeling desperate, he ran back to the parking lot, saw the last few stragglers pulling out. People calling out to each other, making plans to hook up in hotel bars, or at The Old Pro, one of the local pool halls that had been a hangout in high school and was still around. He thought he recognized one of Dori’s friends climbing into a long silver Lincoln, and hopped in his car to follow her.

Maybe she’d lead him to Dori.

God, he hoped so.

Chapter Three

If she and Bryce hadn’t broken up, would Dori be going back to Luke’s high-end suite at the fanciest hotel in town?

Not on your life. Dori wasn’t the type of girl to have a final fling right before the wedding, something to give her a few moments of pleasure and yet make her feel guilty for the rest of her life. She knew that some of her friends had done exactly this, had fucked an old flame or a stripper at their own bachelorette party, considering any moment before the ‘I do’ to be fair game. But Dori wasn’t like that.

She wondered if part of the appeal of going with Luke was the crush she’d had on him in school. And then she stopped wondering as Luke walked into the room after her and headed directly for the mini bar. He mixed each of them a drink, using two of the small bottles per glass, and then he clinked the two together before handing one over, saying ‘Salut’ as he sipped his drink.

In the light, he was different. Back in the gym, he’d still possessed some of the charming boy inside him, the boy she remembered from all those years before. But now that she really saw him, she realized he was startlingly grown-up. And Dori wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

In many ways, he was far more attractive as an adult than he’d been as a teenager. He had that beat-in sexy look of someone who’s had more than his fair share of erotic encounters, a knowledgeable gleam in his hazel eyes when he gazed at her, as if he could read every last one of her thoughts. But he was someone her mother would have said hadn’t lived up to his true potential. Here he was, with forty breathing fire right over his shoulder, and what did he have to show for it? He’d become an exec for some high-end fixtures company, which he’d told her all about in mind-numbing detail during the car ride over. Faucets and handles and specialized shower sprays. He’d tried to describe the images as if he were talking about art – the polished chrome of the hardware, the basin-style sinks that filled up to look like fountains in Italy – but he’d failed to show any real enthusiasm. All she could think to herself was: how fucking boring was that? He hadn’t followed his dreams, which had once been to run a newspaper, or to be a writer, an ace reporter. Instead, he’d gone for the money. Now he had two marriages behind him. An expensive leather suitcase on the spare bed looked as if it had seen a lot of use.

She shut her eyes for a moment as she sipped her drink, seeing two visions: the Luke she’d known so long ago and the one with her now.

‘I always wanted you in school,’ he said.

She opened her eyes and smiled. She still hadn’t decided whether or not she was going to fuck him.

‘But you were so sweet,’ he continued. ‘You would have thought it meant love.’

Dori’s stomach tightened. He was right. She would have. Love was the key when she was in school. True Love Always was what everyone was after, a goal that she’d traced over and over on the outside of her battered blue binder. TLA. Three little letters that she’d spray-painted one evening with Violet on the back wall of The Majestic, her friend urging her on as she added her initials with Rowan’s, entwined for eternity.

She watched as Luke reached for his X-pod. He set the slim device into the stand on the night table between the two beds, effortlessly rotating through the music selections with the ball of his thumb in a way that made Dori press her thighs tighter together. She could imagine his thumb on her clit, rolling in a similar circle, and she wondered if he was touching the X-pod in that manner on purpose. Foreplay by a Cherry Computer X-pod: there was something she’d never seen in one of their ads. But then she recalled that Violet had recently told her about a Wifi device, one that would plug into your MP4 player and vibrate to the rhythm of the songs of your choice. The future was much more complicated than even Woody Allen had imagined in his classic movie Sleeper.

Luke didn’t stop until he landed on Macy Gray’s ‘Sex-o-Matic’. Did that dissolve the magic spell for Dori? Did she wish he’d kept up with their retro trip down memory lane? No. She felt thankful for the break from the past.

‘Wouldn’t you?’ he asked, stepping closer and nuzzling against her. He moved his body with hers and, as before, she could feel that he was hard. Everything was different from high school, wasn’t it? She could just fuck him now, if she wanted. She didn’t have to push him away. Didn’t have to worry about her reputation, or tell him that she wasn’t that kind of a girl. Because they were all that kind of girl now, weren’t they? She and her single girlfriends. Not one of them held out for love any more. There was no point, was there? No point in pretending.

When Luke moved back slightly and looked at her again, she knew she was going to sleep with him. But the words still stung. Then it would have been for love. So what was it for now? Pleasure, she supposed.

Was that enough?

Luke’s lips erased thoughts. Kissing him soothed her: the way he held her face firmly in one hand while he brought his lips to hers, the way he made her feel as if he were enveloping her with his sturdy body, keeping her safe. But that sensation was simply an illusion. That’s all it was, she had to keep reminding herself. She’d been with enough men by now to know that the safe feeling evaporated when the climax faded. Sometimes even before. It was why she’d been so grateful when Bryce proposed. The thought that she would be able to roll over in the morning and find a warm figure next to hers, not an empty pillow. She’d never have admitted this to her girlfriends. She knew exactly what Violet would say: ‘Men don’t keep you safe. You keep yourself safe.’

But sometimes the loneliness was overwhelming. Was that why she was with Luke tonight?

‘Do you remember going to Rocky Horror?’ he asked her suddenly, pulling back from the kiss and looking into her eyes.

‘Yeah, of course.’

‘I always thought you were so sexy when you were all dressed up as Frank-N-Furter,’ Luke confessed, and Dori felt a shiver rush through her. She’d felt sexy back then, and powerful, because of the clothing – the costume – and the make-up. Because nobody could see her real emotions beneath the attire.

‘You always looked as if you could take charge,’ Luke continued, and she sensed that he was nervous.

‘In what way?’

‘You know,’ he said again. ‘In bed. You looked so fierce stomping across the stage. Belting out the songs.’

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