Page 63 of Love Me Darkly
Remembering the paper bag in her lap, Melody tore it open, her stomach twisting and rumbling at the smell inside. She took the time to spread two layers of napkins over her lap to keep her dress clean before digging in.
“You been to Lake Charles before?” she asked between bites.
“A few times back in my army days. There’s a base there—Fort Polk. I did some training and stayed on base for a few months at a time. Never made it to New Orleans, but we hung out in Lake Charles a lot. I remember enjoying it. You ever been?”
“No, I came straight to NOLA when I left Texas.”
The chicken tasted like sludge on her tongue and her stomach lurched. She had just opened the door for him to ask her what had brought her here. If he asked, she would have no choice but to explain, because he had already proven that lying to him only prolonged the torment. He would have the truth one way or another.
Instead of stepping through that open door, Mateo glossed over her slip-up with another question.
“How’ve you been? Sorry, I haven’t been able to come see you the past few days. Lots going on at the field office.”
Melody found a renewed interest in her chicken now that Mateo had changed the subject. She chewed and swallowed before answering.
“Busy. The club manager has his panties in a twist over Glow Night. No one wants to risk pissing off Roman.”
He scoffed. “Is it that serious?”
“It absolutely is. He won’t have a good time if even the slightest detail isn’t handled to his exact specifications. And if Roman isn’t having a good time …”
“Then everyone else is having a bad time.”
“Yep.”
“I don’t like it,” Mateo\ grumbled, fiddling with the dial controlling the radio. “You seem stressed. You’re not eating.”
Melody didn’t remark on that, pretending to be too engrossed in her food to talk. He seemed content with that, finding an R&B station and cranking it up while she ate. Once Melody was finished, she shoved all the trash down into the bag and shoved it into the backseat. Then, she settled against the back of the seat and stretched with a yawn. The long day combined with a full belly to make her eyelids heavy. The rocking motion of the car now that they were on the highway lulled her toward sleep. She fought it, wanting to talk to Mateo and pepper him with questions. She was so curious about him, his life, his thoughts and feelings. She was starving for every morsel he would give her, no matter how small. Melody had never known what it was like to own little pieces of someone—their secrets and their desires, their pain. Mateo made her crave those little slivers, and she longed to collect them all until his heart was in the palm of her hand.
She turned her head to stare out the window, incredibly saddened by the knowledge of how impossible that was.
His hand fell on her thigh and he squeezed. “Go to sleep. We got three hours and I need you perky for our date.”
He followed that with a soft chuckle, as if he found her cute as she adjusted to make herself more comfortable. With the rhythmic bass of the music and the weight of Mateo’s hand on her thigh, Melody quickly drifted off to sleep.
Mateo glanced at Melody from the corner of his eye as she stirred awake. Her timing was perfect, as they were about ten minutes from their first destination. He kept his focus on the road, but reached out, his knuckles finding her shoulder before tracing a path up to her cheek. The decision to take her out of town for the night had been an impulsive one. Once the idea had taken hold of him, he hadn’t been able to let it go. At first, the typical logic of his mind argued against it. With the case, there were so many spinning plates to balance, so many details to oversee. There was also Donovan’s warning, and the potential for Carlisle’s interference.
It didn’t take long for his heart to take over the thinking, overwhelming the voice of reason in his head. No further moves could be made until they heard something useful over the Solstice wiretap, and Caleb Morgan was brought in for questioning. There was nothing to be done that couldn’t wait a day or two, leaving Mateo free to execute his plan. He’d acted on his impulses with relish, climbing the fire escape of Melody’s apartment and breaking in. He’d spent an hour preparing for her to arrive home from work, selecting the things she’d need in her overnight bag and rifling through her closet before finding the dress she now wore. He’d left long enough to pick up dinner from what he now knew was one of her favorite restaurants, and returned, sitting on pins and needles while waiting for her to come home and discover him.
Now that he’d gotten her away from New Orleans, his excitement had reached its height. He couldn’t wait to show her what he had in store. He almost—almost—hated to wake her. She’d slept like the dead through the entire drive, her fatigue clear. She’d been under a lot of strain lately, and he wouldn’t ignore his own part in that. She deserved this night, and he would make it good for her. Hopefully, her little nap would be enough to keep her on her feet for the next few hours.
“Hey,” she murmured, nuzzling her cheek against his hand. “How long was I out?”
“We’re a few minutes away. We even made a stop about an hour ago, but you slept through that too.”
“Sorry, I’m such a shitty road trip partner. I’ll do better on the way back.”
“You’ll do whatever you want on the way back and I’ll be fine with it. You needed the rest.”
A soft smile curved her mouth. “And what about you? Are you sleeping well?”
As it always did in her presence, his mouth ran away with him before he could think over his response. “Not half as good as when I had you in my bed.”
He glanced over to find her clenching her hands together in her lap, head lowered. She always withdrew when he spoke with such bald honesty. He could imagine such candor was difficult for someone like her to handle. Survival had required her to close herself off, to present a false face to the world. He couldn’t expect her to lower that mask completely just because he’d made love to her and called her beautiful. It would take far more than that for him to earn what she withheld.
“Are you always so blunt?” she asked.
“Yes, because I learned the hard way how short life is and how little time we have to express what we feel to the people we care about. I lost my chance to say so many things to the people I’ve lost, so I make it a point to tell people what I want them to know, because I never know when my last words to them will be the last.”
