His Paris Affair (The Albury Affairs) (23 page)

Though he couldn’t see or hear her he knew she’d left
because he couldn’t feel her presence in the room anymore. He always felt
bereft when they separated, even for a moment. He turned and stared at the
door, willing her to come back, to be his raft before he sank to the bottom
never to surface again. He could feel himself recede into himself and there was
rarely a way out for him after. But Melody and Reno had managed to open him up,
to love him without expecting anything in return. And now he had a little girl
who could love him something fierce if he did right by him, if his mother and
his past stayed where they were meant to be, in the past.

What was so wrong with dreaming, with wanting a different
and better life for himself with those he loved and who loved him back? Why
couldn’t he for once in his life be a dreamer?

He turned away from the door, from the mewing sounds of his
daughter and the comical voice of his wife as she spoke to Esme and walked into
the bathroom. He stared at himself in the mirror, the shadow in his eyes, the
only part of himself he occasionally allowed to lay bare. Getting emotional was
a sign of weakness and weakness was something he never showed no matter how
much he hurt, “Because weakness will get you dead,” he echoed the words his
boss told him the day he joined the gang.

But there was nothing wrong with dreaming; the problem was
when reality came in. Could he navigate the two to work for him?

* * * *

They stopped at the Parc de Champs de Mars to rest—well,
Ruiz rested, lying in the plush grass while Melody regrouped and tried to form
a new plan to get him out of his funk. They’d practically toured the entire
city and the sites that held appeal to him the first time around over a year
ago just didn’t seem to have the same enticement. He looked bored at each
place. What was left? Where hadn’t they gone yet?

Melody watched him and noticed he was gazing intently at
something. She followed his line of sight to the Eiffel Tower. She turned back
to him. His eyes were full of admiration for the aging beauty and the best part
was they hadn’t been up it yet.

She stood up dusting her pants. “Let’s go up.”

He pushed himself up on his elbows and looked at her.
“What?”

She pointed behind her with her thumb at the tall structure.
“Let’s go up.”

He shook his head. “We’ll never make it.”

She straddled him, grabbed hold of the collars of his jacket
and pulled him up. He snorted at the effort she was putting in it and took
mercy on her by following her up. She smiled, proud of her accomplishment. “Yes
we will.”

 
He pointed
behind her. “Have you seen those lines? They are as long as the Exodus!”

She shrugged, taking his hand and forcefully leading him to
the Exodus. “We’ll wait all day if we have to.”

He sighed, frustrated. “We don’t have the whole day
remember? You dragged me all over Paris for most of it.”

“Quit bitching.” She found the shortest line. “We are
waiting to get up there no matter what you say. Maybe the adrenaline rush will
spike some life in you. The other places I
dragged
you to sure didn’t.”

He went quiet after that and since he wouldn’t speak to her
anymore, she hooked her arm through his just in case he tried to ditch and lose
her in the waiting masses. It was like everyone had decided to visit the tower
that day. She found out then their queue was the shortest because they would
have to walk up seven hundred steps to the second level. She wasn’t looking
forward to it, but she’d reached the point where she would do anything to get Ruiz
out of his funk. It took an hour to finally get in. She wanted to weep when she
saw the steps. Ruiz snorted a laugh at her before he took her hand and led her
up the steps. By the time they got to the first level, she was panting, every
muscle in her body screaming bloody murder. She was sure she’d lost all the
remaining baby weight from her body and it was now soaked in her clothes,
slowly dragging her to the floor.

“Let’s look around, rest a bit,” Ruiz laughingly said, a
spark in his eyes.

Melody was pleased with herself, but she didn’t let it show.
She pouted instead, which was hard to do the way she was gasping for breath.
“How is it you haven’t broken a sweat while I’m soaked through!”

“Because unlike you I exercise.”

She glared at him. “Unlike me you didn’t accumulate ten
months of baby weight!” she retorted yanking her hand out of his. “Don’t touch
me. It was your fault in the first place and now I feel like I’m about to lose
a lung.”

He chuckled. “And I‘m not about to apologize for it. Come
on, lean on me as we walk around a little. It will steady your breathing and
ease the burning in your calves.”

She leaned against him and he wrapped his arm around her
waist, holding her up. “Will the walk also ease the burning in my sides and the
inferno in my chest?”

He chuckled. “Nope.”

She would have stuck her tongue out at him, but that too was
exhausted. They moved around the first level, looking at the posters and
reading the historical facts on them and admiring the historical artifacts—like
the part of the original spiral staircase used by Gustav Eiffel, but the most
beautiful part was the view of the city in the early evening.

Ruiz squeezed her to his side. “Come on, we have a few more
steps to go.”

She groaned comically and he laughed leading her to the
instrument of torture. The second level was smaller than the first but she was
glad there was somewhere to sit as they waited to get tickets for the elevator
to the top level. They were permitted to use the stairs all the way up—thank
God! She felt like she’d barely sat down when Ruiz came for her.

“Let’s go.”

“Just five minutes more,” she whined.

He smiled indulgently at her. “You wanted to go up the Eifel
Tower, remember?”

“Yeah, in a lift,” she grumbled taking his offered hands so
that he could pull her up to her aching feet.

“Then why didn’t we wait for the lift?” he asked after he’d
pulled her up.

“The other queues were way longer and I was worried you’d
bolt.”

“So you went for the short one.” He shook his head, his lips
in a suppressed smile. “Don’t you know short cuts have the worst consequences?”

“Shut up!” she chastised leaning against him.

He chuckled softly as he led her into the lift. All the way
to the third level, he held her to him and she cuddled against him, her head on
his chest. It was the most ‘together’ she’d felt with him in a long time. Not
even the other passengers staring at them bothered her.

Ruiz turned her head to face the outside and softly said,
“Look, you don’t want to miss this.”

The sun was setting and it was beautiful to see how the
light from the orange glow bounced off the buildings casting a gorgeous shadow
over the rest of the city beneath them. It looked beautiful and so close that
she felt if she reached her hand out, she could touch the setting sun. It
didn’t take long before they were at the top. Melody followed behind Ruiz, her
hands holding onto his pants belt as he made a path for them through the masses
for a better view. Once they got to the wall, he placed them in front of her
and between two hard masses. The view of the city was simply beautiful from
that height. Nothing complicated, no hardship and struggles just beauty
reflected as the lights in the buildings went on is some kind of orchestrated
symphony in response to the setting sun. Everything was beautiful and felt so
simple from up there, she kind of wished they didn’t have to leave. They
quietly stood there in each other’s arms, the noises around her disappearing as
a feeling of peace settled in her. She hoped Ruiz was in the same bubble she
was. They watched as the sun completely disappeared giving way to the moon then
the golden lights of the tower went on and all too soon the spell was broken.
The lights were to blame. They were so artificial.

As if he knew there was nothing left to entice them there,
Ruiz squeezed her arms and said, “Time to go.”

It was faster getting down and they were out in a matter of
minutes. They walked a few feet before Ruiz stopped and looked back at the
tower. She followed suit. The golden lit tower was a different kind of beauty.
It didn’t spin the same spell but it was worth awing over.

“Let’s go,” Ruiz echoed pulling her forward.

She tucked herself against his side as they walked to the
hotel. “Are you glad we went up?”

His arm around her shoulders pulled her into him and he pressed
his warm lips to her cool forehead in a tender kiss. “Yeah, I’m glad we went
up.”

The walk back to the hotel was quiet and it would have
worried Melody if he didn’t have his hand tightly wrapped around her hand. Ruiz
was thinking about something. What she didn’t know, but she hoped whatever it
was, it would help draw him out of his cave and maybe he’d be more at ease
about holding his daughter. She didn’t think for a second that he didn’t want
Esme. She just knew that whatever Clarissa had said to him had filled his mind
with doubts. She would say he was scared, but Melody couldn’t honestly say
she’d ever seen him scared.

She was looking forward to getting to their temporary home,
making herself a cup of coffee and cuddling with Esme, and maybe with Ruiz too.
She was surprised when Ruiz didn’t head for the elevator once inside the hotel.
Instead he slowed down his gait and looked around the lobby with a keen eye.
She suppressed a smile; he was inspecting the place. It was a good thing then
the doorman was courteous and inviting or he would have been immediately out of
a job. With every area they visited in the hotel, Melody felt like she was in a
different hotel. It resembled nothing like it was a month ago. Matthew had made
a great decision sending Ruiz to straighten the place out, now just to get rid
of her guilt for letting the place go to the dogs.

“You did a great job Ruiz,” she said shyly, hugging his arm
to her chest.

He looked down at her for a moment with a sweet smile before
he looked up again. “I was motivated.”

“By what?”

He shrugged. “The need to punish you, to get you back, to
forget you, to annoy Antonio,” he chuckled. “Let’s just say I thought if we
could revive the hotel together in the process we’d revive our relationship.”

Melody nodded, but something had her stumped. She stopped at
the door to the pool and turned to Ruiz. “Why punish me? For getting involved
with Antonio or for letting everyone down?”

He pushed the door open letting her go in first before he
followed, her hand still in his. “Both, but mostly because you let the place
fall apart. All I could think of was, I almost lost my sister and would have
never met her, and you almost lost your brother because of this hotel and—”

“I was being an unappreciative brat,” she finished.

Ruiz wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into
a hug as they walked around the pool. “Hey I don’t think that anymore. Now that
I know Antonio was practically holding you hostage, I don’t blame you for
choosing to lay low.” He was silent for a moment before he said, “So, what did
he have on you?”

Melody chewed her lower lip with uncertainty before she
finally blurted out, “After he tricked me into thinking we’d slept together I
tried avoiding him until one day he cornered me…he knew all these things about
Allan and if I didn’t do what he asked he was going to hurt my brother.” She
blinked back tears, tightly hugging Ruiz’s waist. “Then, my brother was all I
had left and I didn’t know what kind of reach Antonio had so I didn’t risk it.
I did as he asked hoping that I would find a solution out of my predicament
soon. Then I found out I was pregnant and I felt even more trapped. I didn’t
know if she was yours or his—though I hoped she was yours and it turns out she
is. I was having a baby and he had another hostage, someone else to threaten to
keep me in line. So I let him have the run of the place and he left me alone
and I just hid in the manager’s house and pretended nothing else existed except
me and the life growing inside me.”

 
Ruiz didn’t
respond to her confession. In fact, when she looked up at his face it was
completely blank of emotion. She would have thought he hadn’t heard a word she
said if it wasn’t for the twitch in his jaw and how tight his grip on her
shoulder had gotten as he held her to his rigid torso.

She knew better than to fish for a reaction. She already
knew what he was thinking.
Why didn’t you
call me, or your brother? Did you think I wouldn’t help you?
And more
accusations along those lines.

“You already know what I’d say?” he finally spoke, his voice
as hard as steel.

She nodded against his chest then whispered, “Yes.”

“I should spank you for being so—but that wouldn’t erase the
year he had you under his thumb.” And in a whisper he said, “And God, I don’t
want to dwell in the past any more. I’ve had enough of the damn past.” He
stopped and moved her to stand in front of him. He pinched her chin and pushed
her head up so that she was staring right in his eyes. He didn’t need to speak
because she could already see the warning in his eyes.

“Don’t ever do that again, do you understand?” he ordered in
a harsh tone.

Melody nodded her response then he pulled her in a hug and
kissed her forehead.

“Come on, I think it’s time I held my daughter.”

Melody wanted to scream and jump like she’d won the lottery,
but instead she cheered silently, biting her lips together to suppress the
threatening grin.

Ruiz pulled her away from him and stared at her with an
amused smile. “Such restraint. Has motherhood cooled you down?”

She shook her head. “Nope, I’m just saving it for the moment
I see Esme in your arms.”