His Paris Affair (The Albury Affairs) (12 page)

“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 was 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.