Fragile Bonds Page 23

  It’s time to put the poor man out of his misery. “Xavier, it’s almost perfect. I don’t want a different necklace, I just want you to fix this one so it represents what we are now.”

  He cocks his head to the side, confused by what I’m saying. I turn to my left and hold out my hands, pulling Jacob into my lap. “We need to add a ruby to this necklace. Right at the point of the heart.”

  Xavier wraps his arms around us, finally understanding what I’m trying to tell him. Our relationship isn’t about two people, there are three hearts at stake this time. “I love you so much, Melanie.”

  Tears dampen my cheek and I’m not sure whether they’re mine, his, or a combination of both. All I know is that I have a piece of my heart and soul back.

  “Okay, why don’t I get the little man out of here so the two of you can celebrate properly?” I laugh into Xavier’s shoulder because I had completely forgotten that his brother was sitting at the table with us. “And Mel, I seriously owe you one. You had him about ready to piss himself, it was great!”

  “Bad language, Unca Braydon!” Jacob kisses me on the cheek, not easing the grip he has around my neck. “Melly, do I have to go now?”

  “Didn’t you say your uncle promised you ice cream?” I don’t want to send him away right after making this huge production about how all three of us are equally important, but I need a little more time with Xavier before we start settling into whatever our life is going to be from here on out. “I bet you could get him to take you to the go-carts, too.”

  Braydon gives me a look of mock disgust. “That’s how you’re calling in your favor? Go-carts for the kid?”

  “Not even close, Braydon, but we have plenty of time to tally up all the favors you owe me.” I kiss his cheek when he leans over to say goodbye. “Jacob, I promise your daddy and I will be home before bedtime, okay?”

  “Melly, are you going to live with us now?” Jacob asks. I don’t want to answer him because Xavier and I technically need to talk about that, but I take a chance because I’m more confident in my answer now than I would have been twenty-four hours ago.

  “Do you want me to move in with you?” I ask, genuinely interested in his response.

  “Yes, yes, yes, yes!” He’s jumping up and down in the middle of the dining room, earning us more dirty looks. At this rate, we’re going to be kicked out before we can order and that’s fine by me. I would be just as happy going to pick up burgers with my boys as having an amazing steak.

  “I think we might be able to make that happen.” I wink at him, sinking back into Xavier’s arms. I turn my head, feathering kisses along his firm lips. “What do you think?”

  “Definitely doable,” he agrees, wrapping his arms tightly around my waist. “Now, go with your uncle so we can eat and get home.”

  Chapter 24

  I take a deep breath as my hand grips my house key tightly, hoping everything is set for tonight. Showing Melanie that I don’t ever want to lose her again has turned into a bit of a production. Braydon was in charge of getting Jacob to the restaurant and then keeping him occupied until a later than usual bedtime and I swallowed my pride to call in Tyler for the icing on the cake.

  “Oh my God, Xavier, this is amazing!” Melanie exclaims as we walk through the front door of the apartment. And it really is. Every surface is lined with tea lights and wildflowers. When I made the request of Tyler, he seemed impressed that I insisted on these bouquets rather than traditional roses because Melanie has never been a fan of the overpriced blooms.

  I lift Melanie’s fingers to my lips, kissing the back of her hand before pulling her close to me. We sway back and forth in the middle of the living area, dancing to the music of our hearts beating together. My hands slide down her arms and around her narrow waist as she drapes her arms over my shoulders. The only emotion I see in her eyes tonight is pure bliss and I vow to keep that look there for as long as possible.

  “I wanted tonight to be perfect,” I whisper in her ear, loving the way she shivers at the feel of my warm breath passing her neck. “I’m not sure I will ever understand what I did to deserve a second chance with you, but I will thank God every night that I have this time. When I fell in love with you the first time, I thought there was nothing that could possibly make me love you more, but I was wrong. For the past nine months, I’ve been amazed by your strength, humbled by your compassion and I’ve done the impossible.”

  Before I can say anything that will ruin the high we’re both riding right now, I trace the line of Melanie’s spine with one hand, not stopping until I’m able to weave my fingers in her gentle curls. I close the distance between us, crashing her lips to mine in a kiss so intense I feel her body sink against mine. I reach up with my other hand to lower the zipper on her dress, never breaking the seal of her mouth against mine.

  “Is this okay?” I ask, only stopping to lead Melanie to the bedroom when she nods her acquiescence. When I turn around, I see her standing before me in a simple white lace bra and matching thong. I swallow hard, desperately trying to catch my breath at the sight of her nearly naked body so close to me. My tongue traces along my bottom lip as the need to taste every inch of her skin overwhelms me.

  “Make love to me, Xavier,” she pleads breathlessly. It’s not until she’s mere inches away from me that my gaze drops to the floor to see that she’s still wearing her heeled sandals. Someday, I plan on making love to her while she’s wearing nothing but those heels, but not tonight. “You were the first man I ever loved, and I want you to be the last. Please, don’t make me wait any longer.”

  No matter what my plans for the night might have been, there’s no way I would have been able to refuse her pleas. She reaches between our bodies, releasing the button on my slacks. After lowering the zipper, I feel her hands slide inside the waistband, easing my pants over my hips as I kick off my shoes. I close my eyes, sucking in a sharp breath as Melanie takes control, slipping her hands inside my boxers to cup my ass cheeks tightly before pushing the cotton down my legs.

  Her hands move deftly to the front of my shirt. With every button she opens, she places a delicate kiss down the center of my chest. I slide the shirt off my shoulders, reaching behind my neck to yank off my plain white undershirt with one hand.

  When I look down, I see Melanie looking up at me from behind hooded eyelids.” I love you, Xavier,” she says tenderly. My eyes go out of focus as I feel her take my aroused flesh in her hand, stroking from root to tip. Her grip around my shaft tightens as I watch the tip disappear between her supple lips.

  She continues working me with her hands, reaching lower to cup my sac as she caresses my length, never relenting as she takes more of me into the back of her throat with each stroke of her mouth. When I feel a tingle low in my spine, I push her off of me, pulling her close so I can kiss her. There’s no way in hell I’m going to allow more than a year of celibacy to dampen our reunion.

  “I love you so much, Melanie. So. Fucking. Much.” Each word tumbles from my lips in between a series of quick kisses before I capture her pink, swollen lips again, this time for a long, intoxicating kiss. “I need to be inside of you.”

  “I’m yours.” She reaches for my hand, pulling me to the side of the bed. After making quick work of releasing the clasp of her bra, I place my hands on her shoulders, easing her until she’s lying on her back, her chestnut curls fanned across the crisp, white linens.

  The scent our combined arousal fills the room. That alone is enough to keep my body on the brink of a monumental explosion. I take a moment to appreciate the toned lines of her body, the contrast of her summer tan and the alabaster skin that has never seen the sun.

  I lie next to her, taking my time to gently caress every inch of skin I can reach while feathering kisses from her neck to her shoulders, and continuing down her chest until I reach the valley between her firm breasts. I lower my mouth to one tightened nipple, sucking her into my mouth before gently exhaling across her damp flesh. As I continue taunting one
side with my mouth, I take her other breast in my hand, kneading the plump flesh, watching as Melanie writhes on the bed.

  “Xavier, please,” she begs, arching her back as I continue exploring her body. The tips of my fingers dip beneath the white lace, across the top of her patch of neatly trimmed curls.

  “I like this,” I praise her, sliding one finger between her slick folds. Her hips rise again, pressing her mound harder against my hand. “So impatient, my love.”

  As I continue working her into a frenzy, sliding one finger slowly in and out of her damp core, my cock begins to ache. I toss my head back as I feel her lithe fingers grip my length, stroking in time to my assault on her body. No longer able to wait, I position myself over her body, sliding her panties to the side.

  “Do you trust me?” I ask, praying she says yes because I’ve just realized that I forgot one very important thing. I’ve only been with one woman in the past five years and we were tested regularly.

  “Completely,” she says confidently, reaching between our bodies to line up my steely erection to her entrance.

  The moment I feel her body enveloping mine is nirvana. She’s so fucking tight, I know I’m not going to last long. Her muscles clench tighter the deeper I push and she begins to move in time with me. It’s as if no time has passed since we were joined this way, our bodies still move in unison.

  “I never want this to end,” I say, hovering over her, staring into those eyes so dark they’re nearly black. “Never.”

  Her nails dig into my back, pulling hard enough that I have no option except to allow my body to fall on top of hers. My breath is coming in erratic gasps as I continue rocking into her in a series of deep, languid thrusts.

  My tongue delves between the seam of her lips, savoring the sweetness of her mouth. It’s in this moment, as I’m buried to the hilt inside her body, that I know there’s no turning back. This is the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with, as long as she’s willing to have me.

  I continue driving into her as I tangle my hands in her hair, holding her so she can’t turn away from me when the emotions become too intense.

  As both of us reach the pinnacle, ready to tumble into sated ecstasy, incoherent praises fall from our lips. Melanie screams my name as her body convulses around my engorged length. Hearing her repeatedly professing her love for me is all it takes and I push into her two more times before my body shatters in release.

  We lie on top of the comforter, the weight of Xavier’s arm draped over my body seemingly the only thing keeping me from floating away. That was, without question, the most insanely erotic encounter of my life.

  “Are you okay?” I ask him, worried that he might be having second thoughts now that we’ve made love. I’m not sure what I’ll do if that happens, but I know it’s a possibility.

  “I think that would be an understatement,” he responds, still struggling to catch his breath. “I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but I’m going to say it again. I love you, Melanie. Thank you for being patient with me.”

  “Xavier, I never stopped loving you. For the longest time, I thought I was destined to grow old alone because you were the only man I wanted to be with and I couldn’t get over you no matter how I tried.” I take a moment to compose myself, feeling emotions bubbling deep within my chest.

  “It’s always been you,” I promise him, feathering gentle kisses along his breastbone. “Once I knew there was a chance of having the one thing I always wanted back in my life, there was no way I could walk away, even when I was scared out of my mind.”

  Xavier wraps his arms around my shoulders, holding me as I rest my head on his taut chest. “Melanie, I don’t want--”

  I’m left wondering what Xavier doesn’t want, as we both stiffen at the sound of the front door closing.

  “Why are all those candles everywhere?” Jacob’s innocent voice echoes through the apartment.

  “Because your daddy wanted to do something nice for Melly tonight.” Braydon’s rich baritone voice is barely audible, but I can’t help but smile at the sound of him calling me the name that only Jacob normally gets away with using.

  “Is it her birthday? Is that why we went to the restaurant and Daddy gave her a present?” I smile, offering up a silent thank you to Alyssa for trusting me take care of such a wonderful little boy.

  “Unca Braydon, why is Melly’s dress on the floor?” Jacob shrieks and I wish the earth would open enough to swallow me whole. I should have known better than to strip as Xavier led me to the bedroom, but in that moment, no one existed except the two of us.

  “She might have dropped it. I bet she wanted to get out of her fancy clothes as soon as she could.” Braydon seems to be the quick thinker out of all of us. I wonder if that’s a skill he’s had to hone over the years to get him out of trouble. “Should we go for a walk and see if we can find your dad and Melly?”

  “Yeah! Can we go to the park, too?” Jacob squeals.

  “Maybe for a little bit,” Braydon replies. His voice grows louder when he continues speaking, “I bet they went for a walk since it’s such a nice night. Maybe we’ll see them while we’re down at the park playing.”

  Xavier and I are both biting our lips, trying to keep from laughing as we hear the front door close again.

  “Way to go, Melanie! You almost got us busted by the kid,” Xavier teases. His fingers dig into my sides as he tickles me, causing me to squeal as I jolt out of the bed. “Get dressed so we can go for that walk we’re supposedly already on.”

  “Does Braydon need that quick tongue often?” I laugh, rummaging through the drawers for something I can wear on a walk. I find one pair of shorts I left here and grab one of Xavier’s t-shirts.

  “More often than you’d know.” Xavier pulls out a pair of khaki shorts and a tight black t-shirt. Seeing the way the cotton pulls across his broad chest, I want to stay in the bedroom and strip his clothes off again.

  We both finish getting dressed and duck out the back door of the building so we won’t run the risk of Jacob seeing us leaving since we’re supposed to already be on our walk.

  “So, are we going to move your stuff into my place tonight or wait until the weekend?” Xavier inquires as we walk, hand-in-hand, down the road adjacent to the complex.

  Maybe I should be hesitant to move in with Xavier, but I’m not. I can’t imagine spending another night apart from the two men in my life. We’ll have to talk to Tyler about getting out of my lease, but I’m hopeful that it’s one of those times when being best friends with the leasing manager will work in my favor. Otherwise, I’m going to be paying rent on an apartment I don’t live in until my lease is up.

  “I can do most of it while you’re at work,” I say, tilting my head to rest on his shoulder. “And a lot of the stuff will be donated to Goodwill, so I’ll call and set up an appointment for them to pick up what I’m not keeping. No sense in having three households worth of furniture.”

  I want to ask him what he wants to do with everything in storage, but I know that will spoil the moment. Some of it may have been our furniture at one point, but all of it is the past. It’s time for us to set a steady course into the future, burying the bad memories and everything associated with them.

  “You’re not fighting me on moving in?” Xavier asks, genuinely surprised. I understand that feeling, but I think that we’re finally on the same page. There’s no more fighting what we feel for one another and personally, I can’t wait to dive into a future with the man I love.

  “Nope. I intend on spending every night for the rest of my life sleeping next to you, so it’s pretty pointless for me to have a place of my own.” I look up into his sapphire eyes, satisfied to know that the fine lines at the corner are no longer caused by his overwhelming grief.

  What we share might not be conventional and there will be people who criticize us for moving on together so soon after Alyssa’s passing, but we’ll be the ones who know the truth. If it hadn’t been for t
he wish of a dying woman, we might have both lacked the courage to ever fight for what we wanted.

  Epilogue

  I feel like the king of my castle as I watch Melanie putting the final touches on our first Thanksgiving dinner. I told her she didn’t have to go to all the trouble, that we could go out to eat, but she insisted on hosting her first holiday meal now that we’ve settled into our new home.

  It wasn’t a month after Melanie moved into my apartment that we realized we needed to find something bigger. It’s not that we were cramped in the apartment, but it never felt like home to any of us. It was a stop-gap, a place she helped me find while I decided what course my life was going to take.

  Alyssa always said everything in life happens for a reason. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been reminded of that over the course of the past year. Most recently, when I called my realtor and told her what Melanie put on her dream home wish list. It turned out that they had just listed a home the day before that covered nearly every item on the list and is in the same school zone, so Jacob didn’t have to move to a new school a couple months after starting kindergarten.

  “No running, young man,” I scold Jacob as I hear him thundering down the staircase. He still has days when he misses Alyssa, but for the most part, he’s doing remarkably well. And Melanie, bless her heart, encourages him to talk about Alyssa so he can hold onto the memories he has of her for as long as possible.

  “Is it almost time to eat?” Jacob asks before offering to help Melanie put dinner on the table.

  “Just about. Tyler’s hanging out in the living room, so we’re just waiting on your uncle to get here.” I lead Jacob into the front room so he’s not under foot. I could just see him stepping in front of Melanie as she carries the turkey to the table, causing an epic meltdown. My normally level-headed girlfriend has been beyond high strung this week, wanting Thanksgiving to be perfect for Jacob. “Why don’t you sit and watch the parade with Ty?”