His Paris Affair (The Albury Affairs) (16 page)

“I don’t give a damn what you were just doing, but I do care
about what you are about to do.”

Through narrowed eyes she asked, “And what would that be?”

He reached behind her and pushed the door wide open. “Don’t
worry, you’ll like it,” he grabbed the back of her head and pulled her to him,
viciously taking her lips in a hard kiss. He pulled away and asked, “Any more
questions?”

She smiled up at him, licking her lips. “No.” she jumped on
him, wrapping her legs around him.

“Good,” he brought her head to his resuming his hard kiss as
he walked into the suite, pushing the door shut with his free hand.

* * * *

Melody stared at the door as it swung shut behind Ruiz. The
bang echoed right into her chest as his words replayed in her head. It couldn’t
be over, not like that.

“I need—I need to go after him. He didn’t let me explain,”
she cried desperately, struggling out of Jon Luc’s hold.

“Right now isn’t the time Melody, he’s too angry,” he argued
gently.

She turned on him. “What if he falls into another woman’s
arms while I wait here for him to calm down, what then? I can’t let that
happen!”

Jackie took her hands in hers. “Honey, where is he going to
get a woman to sleep with between here and his suite?”

Jon Luc cursed under his breathe. “Cheri. She’s been trying
to get some information for Antonio and I wouldn’t put it past her to seduce
Ruiz next. And in his current state…” He shook his head and gave Melody a
pitying look.

Her blood went cold.
God
it was him Antonio was talking about on the phone!
She couldn’t let that
happen. She wouldn’t lose him and especially not to her, not to that whore!

“I need to go!” she exclaimed backing towards the door.

“Wait,” Jackie exclaimed stopping her. “Take all your
belongings, move into the suite and make him see the mistake he made just now.”

“I don’t think that’s the right approach,” Jon Luc commented
skeptically, echoing Melody’s thoughts.

“It’s how I got my husband. We were married forty two years
before cancer took him,” she turned fully to Jon Luc. “Try to get her out of
her second marriage. Knowing Antonio, I’m sure there was something illegal
about it—besides the bigamy thing,” she finished with a dismissive hand wave.

With a faint smile Jon Luc said, “
Oui madame
. But be careful, Antonio may not like your move and with
everything that is about to happen, being near Ruiz is the best protection you
can get.”

Melody fisted her hands in her hair in despair. “I don’t
care about Antonio right now. For the year we’ve been apart, it hurt but I
always knew I’d get Ruiz back but now…” She clutched her hand to her chest
gasping. “It feels final. Right here I feel like I’m dying!”

Jackie hugged her tight then held Melody away from her.
“Let’s go pack.”

“And I’ll go work on your hopefully fake second marriage.
Au voir
,” Jon Luc said before he left.

They made quick work of packing Melody and Esme’s things.
They didn’t even take much just the bare necessities. Melody was so antsy she
asked Jackie to carry Esme as she carried the bags. She’d already pissed Ruiz
off, dropping his daughter because she was shaking so bad would be the final
nail to the coffin.

She wasn’t sure how long it took them to get here. Her mind
was filled with explanations, apologies and the amount of begging she would
have to do to get him to forgive her. She used her key card to get in and her
heart stopped the moment she stepped in. The bags fell out of her hands and
onto the ground with a loud thud. The noise was enough to get their attention
that they stopped mauling each other and looked up.

“No,” she croaked, falling against the landing table.
It couldn’t be
, her thoughts screamed as
she vehemently shook her head. She was just having a nightmare, that’s what it
was. “This isn’t real.”

Ruiz stood up, his pants hanging open, riding low on his
hips, “It was about to get even more real before you interrupted us. What the
hell are you doing here Melody, and with those?” he asked, pointing to her
feet.

She looked down. He meant her luggage. But that was
inconsequential at the moment. She looked up at him. His open pants that
exposed his black briefs and the obvious arousal, his chest filled with red lip
prints from Cheri’s lipstick that set a trail to his neck and ending on his
pink lips. She turned to Cheri. She was laying on the floor by the fireplace,
naked except for the barely there black thong. She was flushed, sweaty and
panting for breath, her swollen and red lips spread in a satisfied smug grin.

 
It was just a
few hours ago he had Melody on that floor, making love to her and now…

She turned to him rage blazing inside her. “You were going
to fuck that whore
there
?” she
yelled.

He shrugged combing his hand through his mused hair to push
it out of his eyes. “So?”

“So?” she echoed. That word and the manner he said it was
like a dagger through her heart.

“Melody,” she felt Jackie’s hand on her arm but she pulled
away. She didn’t want to be comforted. She wanted to hurt someone as much as
she hurt.

“So?” she repeated turning her gaze to Cheri. She still lay
on the floor, her breasts exposed moving up and down with each breath she took,
her legs spread wide like she was waiting for Ruiz to fall back between then
and of course that smug joker grin. She thought she won. Melody was about to
disabuse her of that notion.

She matched past Ruiz to Cheri. The bitch was so sure of
herself she grinned wider as Melody approached.

“You like being the hotel whore? Well then, I’m about to
expand your client list.” She grabbed Cheri by the hair and pulled, forcing her
to her feet. She screamed and cured as Melody dragged her past Ruiz and
Jackie—who didn’t attempt to stop her—to the door. She then opened the door and
literally put her foot on Cheri’s bare ass and pushed her out.

Cheri flew falling to her knees before she quickly stood
covering her two floaters with her hands. Such modesty when seconds before
she’d laid herself out not even caring Melody and Jackie were in the room.

“My clothes!”

Melody shook her head. “Why? I’m sure every male in the
hotel has already seen it all. And hey, this way, you won’t have to say ‘cunt
open for business’ with each john you meet. One look at you and they’ll know
for sure.” She went to close the door but stopped to say one last thing. “Go
back down on your knees, I promise you’ll have a line all the way down the
corridor in minutes, but please do that in the lobby.”

She slammed the door shut and turned around to meet Ruiz’s
glaring eyes, Cheri’s clothes in his hand. Melody barricaded the door. “You’ll
give her those over my dead body!”

He rolled his eyes. “No need to be melodramatic princess.”
He then grabbed her arm and pulled her away like a rag doll. She barely had her
footing when he let go and she fell onto one of the suitcases. Ruiz didn’t even
spare her a glance. He opened the door and handed Cheri her clothes.

Cheri glared then laughed when she spotted Melody on the
floor. She then dropped her hands from her breasts and pressed them against
Ruiz’s chest. “Why don’t we take this someplace else?”

Ruiz gave her a lopsided come heather grin. “I’ll call
you…soon.” Then he slowly pushed her back a few steps, out of the way and
closed the door. He turned to her and glared down at her. “You intend on
sitting there all day crying?”

Melody raised her hand to her cheek. She hadn’t realized she
was crying, nor what she felt more, rage or hurt.

When he kept staring at her like a spoilt brat, she knew
what she felt strongest—rage. She shot up with fists raised and murder in her
heart. She punched at his chest, kicking and screaming at him. “How could you?
How could you?”

He grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “
Basta!
For fuck sake, can you behave
like an adult for once?”

 
She pulled away
from him. “Behave like an adult? Ha!” She slapped him pushing his head to one
side then returned it with a back hand. “How is that for maturity?”

He touched his lower lip and that’s when she noticed she’d
cut him. The diamond from her mother’s engagement ring did some serious damage
judging by the bleed.

“Yeah Melody, real mature like when you fucked Antonio and
got pregnant just to spite me,” he chuckled. “I know you well enough to know
the motive behind hooking up with that toad. Knew it back then too when you
told me to get lost and then made out with him with me watching, but I never
thought you’d spread your legs for him.” She flinched at that. The words were
ugly but true. He pointed over his shoulder with a blood stained thumb. “What
are they doing here and with bags? If you think I’m going to let you move in
you are sadly mistaken.” He finished with a dry chuckle.

Everything inside her told her to declare the suite was hers
too, but he would only see that as just her being a spoilt brat throwing a
tantrum because she wasn’t getting her way and he might even move out as a
result. That was the last thing she wanted.

“Why would you do that to me, especially with that whore?”

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” he hissed with a sneer. He moved to the
liquor trolley and poured himself a whiskey. “She was here and I was horny.”

“Didn’t last night mean anything to you?” she cried.

He swirled his glass, staring at the brown liquid for a
while before he finally looked up at her with shuttered eyes and said, “Mel, go
back to your husband. I’m going back to my life before you happened to it. It
was much simpler that way. I always had my eyes open and my heart closed.”

There wasn’t even an ounce of emotion in his voice when he
said that. He really was shutting her out, ending it all. Unable to take it any
longer, Melody ran out of the suite and only stopped when she got to the
elevator. She held herself together right until the doors closed before she
broke down, screaming her pain as she cried her heart out. It was all too much
and she found herself on her knees rocking back and forth as the image of Cheri
and Ruiz on the floor played in her mind like a video stuck on a damn loop.

His body covered in red lip prints and Cheri naked wearing a
smug smile.

“How could you do this to me?” she screamed.

“Quit your whining!”

Melody looked up at the sound of Antonio’s harsh voice and
regretted it moments later because she had pushed her head right into his hand.
He fisted it in her hair and pulled her up. She sobbed her hands wrapped around
his abusive one.

“
Merde!
You are
pathetic! You find your boyfriend with Cheri and you cry like a baby instead of
fighting for what is yours.” Antonio shook his head, his lips curled in
disgust. “What else would I expect from a Sinclair? Spineless thieving
cowards!”

Melody kicked him in the shin. “Don’t talk about my family!
We have more honor in our pinkies than you do in your entire lecherous body!”

He growled, grabbed her chin and rammed her against the
wall. Melody whimpered releasing one hand to wrap around the wrist of his hand
that was crushing her jaw. “I want something from your boyfriend, a flash
drive. Get it for me or you won’t like the consequences!”

With false bravado Melody chuckled. “Good luck getting past
her father to get her. Yes, that’s right, Ruiz is Esme’s real father and I
thank God she didn’t come from your abhorrent body.” She looked him up and down
with disgust. “I can’t believe I even slept with you. You’re slimy and
repulsive.”

Antonio chuckled. “And who said we did?”

“Wait what?”

He sneered, “I wouldn’t touch a Sinclair for anything in the
world.”

That made no sense. “But I was—”

“Naked in my bed?” he finished with a shrug and a smug
smile. “I undressed you and put you there.” He looked her up and down with a
leer that made her tremble with revulsion. “I may have liked the view, but you
don’t have enough to give a real man an erection.” He barked a laugh. “Ruiz
will never look at you the same way after he’s tasted Cheri. Now she can give a
man a hard on.”

“You bastard!” she hissed.

He pinned her to the wall with his body and she almost
gagged, his grin on her chin and hair growing harsh. “Do as I say or you’ll
regret it.”

“All you do is threaten like a toothless dog—all bark and no
bite.”

“Oh really?” He released her and she worried what he was
going to do when she saw his hand swing. He punched her pushing her to the
adjacent wall of the compartment. She hit her head and sank to the floor, her
head swimming.

“How is that for bite?” he crotched down and leaned right
in, close to her face making her move back, “And no telling of our little
secret. That baby is mine until I have no use for her, is that clear?”

“I hate you!” she seethed, holding her head steady, trying
to stop the spinning.

“The feeling is mutual.”

* * * *

Ruiz did up his pants as he moved to the liquor tray. He needed
another drink. A stronger one if he was going to get through the day without
losing his mind. He poured himself three fingers of whiskey and tossed it all
back in one swallow.

“
Monsieur
Albury.”

He turned to the old lady with the decanter held out in
offering. “Drink?”

She shook her head no but he was barely paying attention.
His gaze had fallen on the wiggling mass in her arms. The baby’s face was
scrunched up like she was about to cry, her hands waving around as if she was
trying to draw their attention. Soon she would whine then it would be a full
blown cry. His insides twisted with the need to go to her and give her all the
attention she desired before she let loose one hell of a siren. But he held
that urge in check, tightening his grip on the decanter.
If only she was mine
, he thought then quickly yanked his gaze away
and poured the whiskey in his glass till it was three-quarters full. He placed
the decanter down so forcefully that it rattled the other glasses on the
trolley. He took a big swallow and like a moth to light, his gaze returned to
the baby. The old lady was rocking her with shushing sounds, giving her the
attention she wanted.