His Paris Affair (The Albury Affairs) (14 page)

The back of her throat burned and she had to swallow to keep
from crying. “I abandoned you because of a secret that wasn’t a secret to those
it mattered to and a lie that I blew out of proportion because truthfully, I
was waiting for the end. Don’t get me wrong, I loved you then just as I do now,
but in my mind I was waiting for that one thing that would tear us apart like I
knew we wouldn’t last. It was all too good to last. And when that one thing
happened, I was too preoccupied on being right, on a self-righteous path
carrying this sanctimonious cross of being the victim that I didn’t give you—us
a chance.”

He lifted his hand to cradle the back of her neck, his thumb
drawing wet circles on her tear stained cheek in a tender caress. His eyes had
gone soft with what she hoped was understanding that she only cried more. She
was the traitor in this second part of their love story and she could only hope
he was slower to anger, slower to judge, slower to quit, slower to punish than
she had been.

She sniffed. “Ruiz, I have so many secrets and lies, I just
hope when that time comes—”

He pressed his thumb over her lips, cutting her off. His
other arm went around her waist, pulling her more onto him.

“My love, my heart, my soul,” he whispered as he lowered her
head onto his. She sobbed, but bit her lips shut to keep from crying and let
her tears run unchecked at the tender and loving way he said those words. “My
Melody, take me inside you.”

She looked into his eyes. They were shuttered. He was hiding
from her. Fear filled her as she wondered what was running in his mind. Why
didn’t he demand that she spill her guts? The look in his eyes…she would have
confessed all…that closed look frightened her.

His arm around her waist tightened as he lifted her. She
followed his lead and rose to her knees before slowly lowering herself onto
him. She gasped then bit down on her lower lip as he slid inside her. She was
so full with him…it felt wonderful! He pulled the blanket that was between them
away so that they were skin to skin. She loved how the light from the fireplace
bounced off his skin. It made his skin look sun kissed and exotic. And with his
long black hair he looked like a pirate from the eighteen century.

He held her still when she went to move. Wrapping his hand
in her hair, he tugged her head back and began kissing her lightly, branding
her skin with his scorching lips. With her hands holding onto his upper arms,
she closed her eyes and let the sensation of his lips on her neck, shoulders
and chest and that of his hand moving all over her body in tender, but
possessive caresses play a video of colorful desire behind her eyelids. She
felt him on her, inside her, completely and truly possessed and she loved it.

She didn’t even open her eyes when he lay her on her back,
but when he didn’t move, she did. She was about to ask him what was wrong when
she caught his eyes. She was so relieved she sobbed! They were open to her and
they spoke more words than Ruiz would ever permit himself to say out loud. She
wanted to tell him everything would be okay, that they would figure it all out.
But how could she when she wasn’t sure of that herself. So she lifted her knees
tucking them against his underarms. The change in position sunk him deeper
inside her and he groaned his entire body trembling but his eyes remained open
and fixed in hers. She couldn’t make him any promises just yet, but she could
show him how much she loved him and because of that love how hard she would
fight for them.

He began to move then, their bodies dancing to the old age
song of lust, love and desire and their eyes having a conversation of the
heart. She felt his need his determination with each stroke inside her, with
each deep kiss that he gave her and with his eyes wide open refusing to break
contact like he was afraid that if he did he would completely lose her. She
kept her eyes as open as her heart and instead they lost themselves in each
other until their bodies were too spent to do more than wrap around each other
and rest.

Chapter Seven

“Shh!” Melody said for the umpteenth time. “Jackie,
detectives don’t make as much noise as you are. You want to get caught?”

Antonio had taken another room at the hotel, and thanks to
Ruiz, a less extravagant one. She was surprised he didn’t make Antonio leave
the hotel all together because he had made it clear to Melody he didn’t want
them under the same roof. And amazingly, Antonio didn’t seem to care. He hadn’t
threatened her or used her as leverage against Ruiz. It made her suspicious.
The rat was up to something and she was going to find out what. So there they
were snooping in his room while Jackie’s granddaughter stayed locked up in
Melody’s room looking after Esme.

The sound of shattering glass made Melody jump, her heart in
her throat. She turned to where the sound came from. “What the hell Jackie?”

Jackie shrugged slowly sweeping the broken pieces of
whatever it used to be under the armoire “Don’t curse at me. It’s not my fault
it fell!”

“If you can manage not to bang the draws shut maybe we can
avoid breaking anything else!” she hissed and Jackie responded with an eye
roll.

Melody shook her head and went back to her search. She was
sure they would find something. Antonio was suspiciously secretive about his
things, he always had it with him and that’s why they didn’t find anything in
the room he keeps in the manager’s house when he feels like getting his rocks
off by terrorizing her. He always had his stuff locked up or always carrying it
around that—

“Briefcase, silver briefcase!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“
Quelle?
” Jackie
exclaimed moving to her.

Melody went onto her knees to look under the bed. “Remember
that silver briefcase that you said made him look like a drug dealer especially
when he wore that god awful white suit with all those tacky gold chains, rings
and watch and his over jelled hair?”

Jackie made a face and nodded. “
Oui
, I remember. He always left looking like that every second and
fourth Friday of every month and came back looking the same way Monday
morning.”

Melody looked up from under the bed and met Jackie’s
suspicious gaze with her own. “You don’t think…?”

She nodded, her eyes widening with an excited glint. “Yes, I
do think. Last night three dangerous looking men took a suite upstairs. Antonio
catered to them personally. The maids said he was sweating bullets when he
asked them if Ruiz was around. When they said no, all of a sudden he was
confident, even stopped sweating!”

Melody wasn’t sure if she should completely believe her.
Jackie’s had a tendency of being a little over dramatic at times, but that
didn’t mean Melody should completely dismiss her. She made it her business to
watch Antonio’s movement because to Jackie he wasn’t all that he seemed to be.
‘There is evil in that boy’s eyes’ she would say with a full body shiver
whenever their paths crossed.

Melody went back to looking under the bed. She pushed her
body half way under it before she was able to reach it. “Got it!” she announced
dragging herself and the case from under the bed. Once on her feet she set it
on the bed and looked it over. “It looks locked.”

Jackie snorted. “Like I said, drug dealer.”

Melody chuckled. “Locked briefcase equals drug dealer, got
it. It’s a lock combination. You think he has the code written down somewhere?”

Jackie shook her head. “He wouldn’t be that careless.”

They heard the beeping of the main door, signaling a keycard
had been swiped and access granted. They stared at each other in terror for a
moment before they dashed into the open closet, slowly and quietly pulling the
doors closed.

“What if he comes in here?” Melody whispered frantically.

“Shh!”

Melody held her hand over her mouth with one hand the other
tightly clutching the briefcase to her chest as they watched Antonio move
around the room through the holes in the wood web design of the doors. First he
threw his jacket onto the bed before he fell onto it himself onto his back. He
lay there for what felt like forever to Melody before his phone rang. He sat
up, pulling it out of his pants pocket then flipped it open and held it to his
ear.

“Tell me you have it,” he demanded passing his tongue over
his lower lip twice before he curled his mouth into a sneer, “
Merde!
Are you completely useless! How
hard is it to seduce one man and get him to give you the information I need?”
He punched the mattress repeatedly as he spoke.

What man?
Melody
thought, her hackles going up.
What was
Antonio up to? He better not be talking about Ruiz! And the whore on the phone,
was it Cheri?

“
Si
, I understand.
I understand that you’ve lost your touch, that you’ve lost your touch even in
the one thing you are competent at.” He jeered. “Get it done tonight. I want
that file!”

He made to throw the phone against the wall but seemed to
think better of it and dropped it on the bed, pushing himself off the bed and
onto his feet. He stomped into the bathroom and banged the door shut, the lock
clicking in place.

Melody let out the breath she was holding since he came in.
She went to push open the doors but Jackie held her still. Just then the door
opened and a fully naked Antonio walked out. Melody’s eyes bulged out as she
watched him strut around in his birthday suit. He was small and pale except for
his face, neck and forearms that had seen some sun. His back and torso was
covered in long black curled hair. Melody made the mistake of letting her eyes
fall below his waist. There from a dark patch of curls between his legs limply
bounced his small penis. It resembled a pig in a blanket. She found it
shocking. It was the second penis she’d ever seen and compared to Ruiz’s
it…would be cruel trying to measure them against each other.

Jackie snorted a laugh, her hands leaping to cover her mouth
when Antonio stopped, looking around the room suspiciously. They held
themselves completely still waiting to be discovered. After a few seconds he
shook his head and stomped back into the bathroom muttering words that
suspiciously didn’t sound French. Come to think of it, the French accent that
always seemed forced was gone when he ranted on the phone earlier. Once the
door was closed and the lock in place, they silently stepped out of the closet
and rushed for the door. Melody stopped, pulling Jackie’s hand away from the
handle before she turned it. If they used the main door, the beeping sound
would echo throughout the room, including the bathroom alerting Antonio of
their presence. But the connecting doors between the rooms wouldn’t. She walked
to the other side of the little living area and pulled out two keys. She didn’t
know what made her swipe them too when she took the keycard, but she was glad.
She quickly opened the first door then the second door that belonged to the
next room. Once they were through, Melody locked them both then collapsed
against the wall with relief.

“That was fun! We must do it again.” Jackie clapped
excitedly. “Now to open this briefcase, copy all the papers and put it back
where we found it.”

Melody groaned. She had forgotten that part, but it would be
easier and quicker returning it than retrieving it. She just hoped they would
have been able to open it in two days before Friday came.

Melody shook her head at the excitement burning in the old
woman’s eyes. It made her look ten years younger.

“Next time, let’s try not to break anything else, Sherlock.”

She held her thumb and index finger out to mimic a gun.
“It’s Bond. Jackie Bond.”

* * * *

Ruiz looked at his watch for the hundredth time as their
last interviewee walked out. Melody hadn’t joined them that day and he would
like to think he had something to do with that. He smiled to himself, his mind
flooding with the pleasures of the night before. As he had hoped, everything
had gone well and stretched into the night in magical pleasure. Whatever she
used to make her abandon him at night had taken a back seat last night and he
was glad. Though he was worried because she’d always made it seem very
important that she left to tend to whatever it was. He didn’t let himself dwell
on that long. Soon she would tell him what it was that reserved her night and
if it was nothing that threatened their future together he might just help look
after it.

A future…God they were finally getting a chance to have a
future together.

“This went a lot faster than when Melody was with us,” Jon
Luc commented pulling Ruiz out of his reverie.

“Yes it did, but don’t tell her that. I’d like her to be involved
with restoring this hotel to what it used to be and make it even better.”

“So you are not done punishing her?” Jon Luc asked with a
raised brow.

Ruiz sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “It might
have started that way, but it’s not like that anymore. I want us to rebuild it
together.”

“Like you are doing with your relationship? How did she like
the surprise?”

Ruiz patted his new friend on the back with a large grin on
his face. “She loved it. Thanks, I owe you one.”

Jon Luc nodded. “Well I’m glad, but…have you taken a look at
the flash drive?”

Ruiz groaned. “I forgot about it. Why don’t you just tell me
what’s in it?”

After a beat of silence Jon Luc said, “Proof that Antonio is
using the hotel to launder money.”

“What!” Ruiz exclaimed jumping to his feet.

Jon Luc stood up, pushing his hands into his pants pockets.
“
Oui
. He puts a large sum—though
nothing that will be flagged—in on Monday, then withdraws on Friday. He’s been
doing this since he took over as manager ten months ago.”