When Angels Fall (5 page)

When Melody touched his hand, even he had felt the shock, yet she hadn’t moved away. Alec could control the electricity, like switching off a fuse. It came in handy when he shook hands. However, if he wasn’t expecting physical contact then someone ended up getting a shock that was violent enough to make them jump back and grab their arm in pain, and that was at the very least. He’d chalk it up to really bad static electricity. They’d generally look confused, then agree with him. For this reason he preferred winter. Gloves and heavy coats at least dulled the shock, even if it didn’t eliminate it completely.
So how the hell did she manage to keep contact?

“Didn’t that hurt you?” He was anxious as he stared at her arm.

“No, it was just a little bit of static electricity. I’m harder than that.” She smiled at his perceived overreaction.

He looked at their entwined fingers. No one had held his hand since his beloved Grace, and she had been gone almost sixty years. An overwhelming urge to take Melody in his arms and kiss her coursed through him, but he suppressed it. One heartbreak was enough to last him this very long lifetime. Still he did not let go of her hand. Alec hadn’t realized how much he’d missed this simple intimate gesture until this moment.

Melody’s smile widened as she looked down at their hands. “I’m going to need that back at some stage.” She made no effort to move.

“Aye, I s’pose you will...but not just yet.” They sat in silence for some minutes, watching passers-by heading home from work, parents walking with children, asking them about their day. Alec winced slightly at the pain this common, yet beautiful, sight gave him.

“It seems I’m not the only one with demons following me.” Melody leaned closer.

Eventually he looked at her face and saw the gentle curve of her mouth, and worry in her eyes.

A strand of loose hair brushed her cheek and he raised his free hand to move it. The color in her cheeks warmed his hand as he gently swept the lock back. His fingers skimmed her face as her eyes closed at his tender touch, and she leaned her head toward his hand. Before he could stop himself, the palms of both of his hands were on either side of her face, he twisted his fingers in her hair at the nape of her neck, and he kissed her—a kiss of deep longing and urgency. Her reciprocation was immediate and willing.
Alec’s body trembled in fear as he kissed her. He had been fighting this moment since he saved Melody because he was afraid...
Afraid of what?
Afraid it would feel like a betrayal to Grace. Afraid that he couldn’t love that way again, or give himself completely. Yet here he was, and her lips were soft and warm, and the only thing that scared him was how
right
it felt.
His thoughts were consumed with the woman in his arms, how she looked, smelled, tasted; despite this, he knew he was holding part of himself back, and as if Melody sensed it she broke the kiss, gasping.

Alec let his hands drop from her hair and they looked at each other, bewildered. The intimacy, like the kiss, was broken.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. I’m here to protect you, not seduce you.”

“It’s fine.” Melody’s voice was a higher pitch than usual. “It was nothing, we just got caught in the moment. Besides, I owed it to you.”

“I didn’t want payment...” His voice trailed off. “It won’t happen again.” This time his voice was a command to himself more than a statement for Melody.

Alec thought he saw a flash of hurt in her eyes before her determined face masked it.

“I need to go, I have to work tonight.” Her pitch was back to normal, but there was a hardness in her voice that Alec hadn’t heard since that morning in her flat. Just like the clouds above, Melody’s mood had darkened significantly.

He wanted to apologize, to say that he didn’t mean it, to take her back in his arms and kiss her again, but he knew that would just lead to more confusion for them both. “Come on, I’ll give you a lift.” He stood and turned to look at her.

“It’s fine, I’ll walk.” Melody was pissed off. If the steeliness in her tone wasn’t a dead giveaway, her body language was. She sat back, with both arms and legs crossed.

“Well then, I’ll walk with you. The traffic will be atrocious anyway. It makes more sense to walk.” He smiled, unrepentant; she wasn’t getting rid of him that easily.

She pursed her lips and wrinkled her nose and forehead with a frown.

“Fine, make yourself useful.” She picked up her shopping bags and dumped them unceremoniously on the bench next to him.

“Yes, ma’am.” He dutifully picked up the bags. The worse Melody’s mood was the happier he felt. He assumed that if she were angry with him, it would be easier to avoid the temptation she unknowingly offered. She would not want him too close, and that suited him just fine—at least, that is what he tried to convince himself.

As they got up to leave for her home, the rain that had been threatening finally decided to make an appearance. A full downpour started within seconds, and Alec quickly grabbed Melody’s hand and started heading in the opposite direction from her flat, dragging her along with him.

“What the hell are you doing?” She easily pulled her slick hand from his grasp, and stood still while staring at him.

“I live two minutes away in this direction. You have a choice; come back to my place and get dry, then head to work, or come back to my place and I take you home in the car.”

“That’s it? Those are my choices?”

“You could stay here and drown, but I don’t fancy it. I said I’d protect you, Melody, even if it means from yourself.” An exasperated grumble issued from him as he grabbed her hand again and kept moving toward his home.

It was obvious she was reluctant as she attempted to literally dig her heels in, but her life was at risk, and
no
was not an option. Just when he thought about putting her over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift, knowing it would really piss her off, he decided against it. He didn’t think that kind of closeness was the best idea for him at the moment. Fortunately, the firm grasp he had employed proved unbreakable, and she’d succumbed to his tyranny. She was even keeping pace with him by the time they reached the beautiful Georgian terraced house he called home and his grip had loosened somewhat, but he still held her hand.

They entered the small recess of the doorway, though it offered little respite from the rain. Upon reaching the door, he finally let her hand fall from his before extricating the house key from his sopping jeans. Melody followed him into the small vestibule.

“You wouldn’t bloody believe it!” she said sounding half-annoyed and half-amused.

Alec turned to see the rain had ceased, and bright sunshine was now breaking through the clouds. It gave Melody an angelic glow as she stood in the doorway. Wet and ethereal, she was a siren come to lead him to ruin.
Yeah, but what a way to go.
He smiled despite his uncertainty.

She closed the door and the illusion was broken.
Get a grip, man.
Alec hung up his jacket and Melody did likewise. They tried to shake off some of the rain, but it had little effect; the short downpour had soaked them through.

Alec reached for the main house doors and turned to face his guest before opening them. Melody’s mouth gaped, her gaze fixed past him on the hallway. He would never admit it aloud, but he really did like impressing her.

“You should close that, unless you want to trap flies.” He smiled at her, his face full of amusement.

“Okay, I obviously do a good impression of a wide-mouth toad, but wow...just...wow.” She rotated her head at odd angles, trying not to miss anything.

The hallway was magnificent, the coving a dazzling white against the pale yellow of the walls. A small amount of period—she guessed Regency—furniture sat under the stairwell, including attractive dark wood desk.

“Is this a hotel?” she whispered sheepishly, after her earlier excited outburst. She expected some snooty receptionist to come out and tell her off for dripping on the marble, a black-and-white checked pattern, that complimented the room beautifully.

Alec laughed loudly, making her jump. “God no, it’s my house.”

“What? Your whole house? You don’t have a flat in here or something?” She hoped the surprise in her voice didn’t offend him.

“The whole house, all six bedrooms, are mine.”

Melody’s eyebrows raised and a cheeky grin started to appear on her face. “How many bedrooms does one man need?”

“Okay that’s enough talk about bedrooms.” He looked at her with what she could only describe as an amused frown. She shrugged back with a “what did I say?” gesture and look.

He smiled, shaking his head. “I’ll give you a tour, but I think we should dry off first.”

He handed her the shopping bags and she did a quick rummage to look for a change of clothes. “Damn, everything’s wet.”

“Not to worry. I’m sure I’ve got something if you want to change while your clothes dry. That’s unless you want me to drop you straight home?”

“Hmm, I think I’ll manage to stay for a little while.” Her voice was full of sarcasm, while in her head she was doing a little song and dance.
Please let me stay, please let me stay. I don’t want to go back to my dingy flat. I don’t want to be alone anymore.

“Good. Then I’ll cook us some dinner and I’ll drop you at work later. There’s a bathroom behind the staircase to the right. I’ll grab you something to wear in the meantime.”

Melody made her way in the direction indicated, while Alec bounded up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time. When she opened the door, another pleasant surprise awaited her. It was an elegantly styled bathroom. There was a wooden bench in a glass cubicle big enough for a six people, body jets lined the gray-tiled back wall, and a showerhead the size of a large serving platter hung from the ceiling. There was no way she would miss this opportunity. She turned to look in the large mirror facing the shower, and thought she didn’t look too bad for someone who’d had bugger-all sleep and just been caught in a thunderstorm. One meek tug was all it took to pull off the tape holding the gauze to her neck. The wound was nowhere near as angry as it had been earlier, but it still looked rough. The old dressing went straight into the bin under the bench before she added more dressings to her mental to-do list.

After turning the shower on, she stripped while waiting for it to heat up.
I can’t wait to get those jets working
. The idea of all those jets hammering her body was bliss, in more ways than one. Just as she was about to step under the water she heard a knock at the door.

“Just a minute,” she called, quickly grabbing a towel and tucking it around her body. The short length barely covered the essentials.

As she opened the door she received her most pleasant visual experience of the day; a shirtless Alec, also wearing only a towel and holding a large plush robe. It was almost more than she could stand. Conflict raged within her because she was still angry at him for apologizing about the kiss, especially after she had wanted him to so badly. When he had, it was breathtaking, and he had been so strong and in control. The kiss had set such a blaze in the deepest part of her core that she was surprised she didn’t self-combust. Despite this, she sensed he was holding something back. There seemed to be urgency in the kiss, as if it would be the first and last one they ever shared. She was determined to make sure it wasn’t the last.

Now, he stood before her, his eyes deep pools of lust and longing, and she reveled in his stare. She forgot about the park and her anger at his rejection—
he
had kissed
her
, after all. Now she wanted to feel his caress again, know his taste, and get better acquainted with the hard body she couldn’t stop admiring.

He raised his gaze back to hers. “Great minds think alike, it seems. I just thought I’d better bring you something to put on before I jumped in the shower.”

“I’m sorry, did you want this shower?” Her voice was coy; her thoughts were anything but.

“No, it’s fine. I have six to choose from upstairs.” Blinking appeared to be low on his list of priorities as he continued to stare.

It’s now or never, girl!
The deep breath she took fortified her before she spoke in what she hoped was a very nonchalant way. “Oh, all right then.” She turned around and dropped the towel at her feet as she sashayed into the extra-large shower cubicle.

She permitted herself a single look over her shoulder, a brief smile playing across her lips at Alec’s gaping mouth.

“You should close that, unless you want to trap flies.” She stepped under the waterfall shower, letting it envelop her.

The warmth of the shower on her cool skin felt like tiny pinpricks, though her body had slightly warmed from within, due to her bold tactic.

Seconds later a voice was right in her ear like it had been on their first encounter. “I haven’t done this for a very long time, Melody. I don’t have any... protection.”

She leaned her head back from the water streaming above to find herself resting on his naked chest. A thrill of longing shot to her center—it wasn’t only the shower making her wet now.

“It’s not something you forget, Alec, and I don’t think lack of condoms will be an issue. I know I have a clean bill of health, I’m fairly sure you do too, and believe me, pregnancy won’t be an issue.” In a flash her smile dropped, as the torment of that personal demon came to the forefront of her mind. Fortunately, he couldn’t see her face, and the feel of his body against hers made her refocus within seconds.
You have a very good reason to smile, live in the now, girl.
Her tone became teasing as she said, “Besides, you said you weren’t going to seduce me, so I decided to seduce you.”

“I don’t know if I can give you more than this. I don’t know if I can do that again.”

She turned around, keeping continual contact with his skin. “I’m not asking for anything but this.” She reached up, placing her hands at the nape of his neck and when she exerted the very slightest pressure, he inclined his head toward hers. When their lips met, there was no urgency, just the sheer pleasure of the moment. He kissed her deeply, his tongue as warm as the water that cascaded over her body. She released her hands from his neck and moved them down his chest, down his stomach. Finding the towel, she gave a firm tug and it fell to the floor. Pulling out of the kiss, she looked down to find a generously proportioned erection. Looking up through her lashes, she gave him an impish smile as she began to kiss his chest, her tongue circling his nipples.