Dark Perception: The Corde Noire Series (31 page)

“
Have you eaten
today?”

“
I’m not hungry,
Nathan.”

“
You’re losing weight. I’m
sure Ellie probably thinks I’m torturing you after what she saw
today. I’ll bet she begged you to pack up your things and return to
the Quarter.”

“
Not in so many words, but
yes.”

Melinda felt his body stiffen. “I hate
to think you didn’t explain things to Ellie. I don’t want her
thinking ill of me.”

Melinda patted his firm chest. “Ellie
will always think no man is good enough for me, including
you.”

“
Why is that?”

“
Because you’re not Jack.
She’s been trying to push me off on Jack for years. No matter how
many times I told her I wasn’t interested in him that
way.”

“
But he was interested in
you. Still is, if you ask me.”

Melinda shrugged and cuddled closer to
Nathan. “Jack and I are like oil and water. Every time we get
together, we fight.” She smiled as she thought of Jack.

His mad
Maddie
.

“
No more talk about Jack.
The man’s an idiot.” Nathan sat up. “You fix yourself something to
eat while I get back to my paperwork.” He tapped his finger on the
tip of her nose. “I’ll go out later and pick up a pizza for dinner.
How does that sound? We can just eat and watch TV like an old
married couple.”

“
That sounds really nice,
Nathan.”

“
Get some rest. You look
beat.” Nathan stood and lifted her to her feet. He placed his arm
around her waist as he walked her to the front door. “And no more
keeping things from me, Melinda. I want you to be
happy.”

When Nathan opened her apartment door,
Jack was standing in the hallway.

“
Jack, what are you doing
here?” she blurted out.

Jack took one look at Melinda and then
lunged at Nathan.

“
You son of a bitch!” He
shoved Nathan against the wall next to the front door.

“
Jack!” Melinda screamed as
she tried to break up the men.

Nathan fought back, shoving Jack away.
They stumbled over each other and tumbled to the hardwood floor.
Nathan easily subdued Jack by climbing on top of him. Then his
hands went around Jack’s throat. Melinda could see Jack gasping for
air, his face turning a deep shade of red. She ran to his side and
began pulling at Nathan’s hands.

“
Nathan, you’re killing
him.”

“
He deserves to die,”
Nathan hissed, his face contorted with rage.

“
Nathan, stop it!” Melinda
tugged frantically at his hands. “He’s Denise’s son, for God’s
sake!”

Nathan instantly released Jack. He sat
back and Jack rolled over to his side, gasping for air. Melinda
hovered over Jack while Nathan stood from the floor.

“
Get him out of my
building.” Nathan gestured to the open front door.
“Now.”

“
Goddamn it, Nathan. Will
you shut up?” She worriedly examined Jack.

“
Don’t you ever talk to me
like that, Melinda!” he fumed.

“
You fucking asshole,” Jack
croaked. “Ellie told me about the bruises. What in the hell have
you been doing to her?” Jack clutched his throat.

“
Those bruises are none of
your damn business. That’s between me and her.” Nathan pointed to
Melinda.

“
Enough of this!” She
helped Jack from the floor, keeping her body between them. “Nathan,
let me talk to Jack.” She nodded to the front door. “Go back to
your place.”

“
I’m not leaving you alone
with him!” Nathan hollered.

“
Please, Nathan.” She
pressed her hand to her forehead, attempting to keep her cool. “I
need to speak to Jack alone.”

“
No, Melinda! I will not
allow it!”

Melinda had to come up with another
approach. She went to Nathan’s side and whispered, “You need to
consider your deal with Denise. You can’t have Jack running back to
her and telling her about any of this. You know what she’ll do. Let
me talk to him. Smooth things over.”

Nathan ran his hands over his face,
settling down. “I’ll be right next door if you need me.”

He gave Jack one more going over with
his dark eyes, and before he stormed through the open front door,
he slapped the intercom panel.

Shutting her front door, Melinda stood
gaping at the doorknob, trying to make sense of the jumble of
feelings tearing at her heart. Jack could be irrational at times,
but she had never seen him go after another human being like he had
attacked Nathan.

“
You need to pack your
things and get the hell out of here,” Jack insisted, his voice
still raspy.

When she faced him, Melinda could not
help but grin. Gone was the sophisticated man she had seen the
night of Denise’s party. He had replaced his tuxedo with his usual
rumpled jeans and T-shirt, and the sleek hairdo he had sported that
night had, once again, become the disheveled mop she remembered. He
was her old Jack, but in a way she wished he would return to being
the man she had encountered at the party. The handsome man who had
taken her breath away.

“
I’m not leaving, Jack.”
She pushed away from the door. “You should never have come here and
threatened Nathan like that.”

“
Is that from him?” He
pointed to her black cord necklace. “I know what that collar means.
The guy’s one of those sick perverts who likes hurting women,
Maddie. What does he do? Tie you up to the bed? Spank you? Whip
you? Is that what he needs to get off?”

“
Listen to yourself! What
in the hell is the matter with you?” She walked past him to the
kitchen. “What I do in bed with Nathan is my affair. You didn’t get
all hot and bothered like this when Collin shoved me from his car
in the middle of Rampart Street. Or when Neal hit me with his
tennis racket, or even when Mike pushed me to the ground at The
Grill Room.”

“
You didn’t give a damn
about any of those guys, Maddie. I knew that.”

She opened the freezer and retrieved
the ice tray. “But you know I care for Nathan, is that the
problem?” She banged the ice tray on the bar countertop and a few
cubes flew out of it. “Because I finally found a man who gives a
damn about me, you try to come over here and ruin it.” She snatched
up a towel by the sink.

“
That’s not it.” He shook
his head. “Maybe it is … hell, I don’t know.” He bellied up to her
breakfast bar. “When Ellie told me about the bruises and how bad
you looked, I went ballistic. I just wanted to come over here and
kill the son of a bitch.”

Melinda dumped the ice into the towel.
“You can’t keep doing this, Jack.”

“
Doing what? Protecting
you?”

She wrapped the ice up in the towel.
“No, rescuing me.” She stepped around the bar to his side. “You
don’t think I didn’t notice what you did with every guy I dated?
Warning me how bad they were for me, talking me out of seeing them
again, and telling all those jokes at my expense. I told you a
million times I didn’t want us getting involved because we were
better friends than we would ever be lovers. But here you stand,
still not taking no for an answer.” She handed him the towel. “Put
that on your neck.”

“
This isn’t about us,” he
argued, resting the towel against his throat. “It’s about you. He’s
dangerous, Maddie.”

“
Only to you,
Jack.”

“
My feelings for you have
nothing to do with this,” he vowed, his voice cracking with
emotion.

“
Your feelings?” Melinda
shook her head, her anger rising to the surface. “What exactly are
those feelings, Jack? I know you wanted me, liked being around me,
and were jealous as hell of every man I went out with, but never
once did you ever tell me how you felt.”

Jack tossed the towel on the bar.
“What, do I have to spell it out for you?”

Melinda folded her arms and glared at
him. “No, it’s too late for that. You never did understand that I
could never be with a man who wasn’t willing to tell me how he
felt.”

“
Why do you always refuse
to give us a try?” he pleaded. “Maybe you’re the one who needs to
face your feelings, Melinda. I saw how you looked at me the night
of the party. I know you found me attractive. We get along, we
talk—”

“
We argue,” she
countered.

He moved closer until his face was
inches from hers. “We’re good together.”

“
Good?” She rolled her
eyes. “I hate to think what—” But Melinda never got to finish her
sentence before his lips smashed against hers.

The exhilaration of Jack’s kiss
shocked her. There was a hint of sexiness to his kiss, blended with
an alluring sense of familiarity. It sparked something in her.
Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his neck and eased
against him. He parted his lips, and before Melinda could fathom
what she was doing, she found herself kissing Jack back. His hands
began to caress her hips, and when they reached the outline of her
breasts, she pulled away.

“
You want me,” he
whispered. “I could taste the desire in your kiss.”

Melinda took a wary step back. “No,
Jack. I belong to Nathan.”

“
You belong to me,
Maddie.”

“
You? How could I belong to
a man who has lied to me? Who has been deceiving me since the
moment we met?”

He caressed the curve of her jaw with
his thumb. “Because I love you … I’ve always loved you.”

“
You love me?” She tossed
her hands up. “Now, you love me. When I’ve given myself to another
man, committed to him, then you decide you love me. Why didn’t you
say anything before?”

“
I just figured it out. I
guess when you are closest to losing the woman you love, that’s the
moment you realize just how much you do love her.”

Closing her eyes, she rolled her head
back. “All those years we were together, and never once did it ever
occur to you to tell me any of this?”

“
I was afraid if I told you
anything you wouldn’t want to see me anymore, and I couldn’t … I
couldn’t let that happen.”

Melinda’s quivering hands pressed
against her hot cheeks. His disclosure rocked her to her very core,
not with dismay, but with relief. If was as if something she had
been denying for years, fighting to keep locked away, had finally
broken free. But love? Was she in love with Jack? Was that what she
was feeling? A comforting warmth spread over her like a blanket in
winter, protecting her against the cold. She did feel safe with
him, but could she ever trust him again?

Afraid of her emotions getting the
better of her, Melinda pointed to the front door. “You need to
go.”

“
What about what I just
said? Does that mean nothing to you?”

Her shoulders sagged with
exasperation. “What do you want from me, Jack?”

“
Tell me you love me,
Maddie. Is that so hard?”

She ran her hands along her arms,
fighting off a chill. “It’s not that easy. I have Nathan to
consider, and my feelings—”

He grasped her shoulders, shaking her.
“You’re not in love with him, Maddie. Admit it.”

She pushed him away. “I can’t walk
away from him.”

“
Yes, you can! You don’t
need him. I can give you everything you want. You know that. You
don’t need Nathan Cole to spoil you. Let me do it.”

Melinda took a step back, staring at
him in horror. “Is that what you think? I’ll leave him for you
because of the money? Do you know what that makes me sound
like?”

His hazel eyes burning with outrage,
he fixed his sights on her emerald and diamond necklace. “That’s
why you’re with him, right? Because he can give you all the things
you thought I couldn’t give you? But I can give you all of those
things. The fancy clothes, the expensive restaurants, jewelry,
anything you want. Just leave him, Maddie. Come with me, right
now.”

“
What am I, some prize to
be bought by the highest bidder? I may be many things, Jack, but I
have more respect for myself than that.” She opened the front door.
“You need to leave.”

“
Respect?” He yanked back
the sleeve of her blouse, exposing the ugly bruises on her wrist.
“You’re going to stay with a man who does this to you? He’s
dangerous. He will hurt you and—”

“
Get out, Jack!”

He flinched when she shouted at him.
“You don’t mean that, Maddie.”

“
Yes, I do. I’ve had enough
of this. You need to go.”

Dropping his head, Jack moved toward
the door. “This isn’t over. You know where I’ll be if you should
change your mind.” He barreled through the door and Melinda slammed
it closed behind him.

Her eyes swimming with tears, she
resisted the urge to run after him, and instead crumbled to the
ground. Heaving sobs of grief, her mind was inundated with images
of Jack. He loved her and she had sent him away. For years, Melinda
had thought she wanted nothing more than friendship, but that had
been a lie. It would have never mattered to her if Jack was
penniless or worth millions. All she had ever wanted was his love,
and now that she had it, she felt cheap and ugly.