Melody’s verdant gaze penetrated my soul as she smiled down at me. Her tearstained cheeks told me she was only smiling on the outside. As I admired the view of her breasts, visible through the taut, semi-transparent fabric of her tank top, she scooped her long auburn waves over one shoulder and bent to kiss me. God I loved those lips. I grasped at her hips, digging my fingers into the flesh of her naked ass.

“Fuck me, Cain. I want to forget all the shit and just feel good,” she whispered into my ear, sending shivers through my body like electric sparks.

She stretched up and swiped the tank top from her body, revealing her creamy, pert mounds to me as they bounced free. Reaching up, I cupped the firm flesh and rolled my thumbs over the tightened pink buds of her nipples as she slipped her body down over my rigid length, eliciting a deep, pleasure-filled groan from my throat and a breathy moan from hers. God, she was tight and wet for me. I loved that about her. She was always ready. Insatiable even. And no matter how many women I’d had in the past, none compared to the feel of being enveloped by her warm, yielding flesh.

Lowering my hands once again, I lifted and lowered her, slowly thrusting myself inside her. I clenched my jaw and watched her writhe and cup her breasts as she took over and rode my cock, rolling her hips as she moved. The amazing sensation she created coiled deep in my groin and I was almost ready to explode.

“I need more, Cain. Faster, deeper.” She grasped my hands, removing them from her ass and shoved them above my head. As she leaned over me, I captured a nipple between my teeth and grazed it, making her cry out, “Yes… oh God, yes! Make me come, Cain, I want to come over and over again so that it’s all I can feel. Love me, please love me.” There was an edge of desperation to her voice that spurred me on.

“I love you, baby. I love you so much” were the words that fell from my lips in a passionate reply.

I closed my eyes tight, fighting the desperate urge to find my own release, but when I opened them again and gazed up at her, Melody had been replaced by Kelly’s writhing body driving me toward my climax. Confusion washed over me as she took what she needed from me and I from her.

On the verge of a mind-melting orgasm, I awoke covered in sweat and with a raging hard-on gripped in my hand. My stupid fucking brain was mixing up the two women I adored yet again.

The fact was that I could be with neither of them.

I angrily turned the shower knob to cold and stepped under the icy torrent. Why the fuck did my subconscious insist on torturing me with things I could never have again?

It wasn’t. Fucking. Fair.

Once I was dried and dressed, I made my way out of the motel and down the road toward the coffee shop where I had bumped into Six the previous day. Pushing through the doors, I glanced around to see if anyone seemed to recognise me; but everyone was getting on with breakfast, oblivious to my presence. The smell of fresh pancakes wafted through the air, and my stomach growled in response, and so I walked over to the counter and placed my order. I took a seat on one of the high stools that Six had sat on, and an older woman came and poured aromatic coffee into a mug before me. I slipped my hands around the hot ceramic and inhaled the aroma of burnt caramel, which instantly transported me back to the morning I had drunk coffee with Kelly after I had shared the returning memory of Melody. I closed my eyes as a strange sense of homesickness washed over me.

Suddenly someone pulled me back from my daydream. “Oh, hi, Cameron.” I turned my head in the direction of the familiar voice and was greeted by the pretty smile belonging to the young woman from the library.

“Hi… um…” I realised she hadn’t given me her name the day before.

She blushed vivid pink, which was kind of sweet. And I trailed my gaze over her delicate features. She was slim and definitely the type of girl you could say was attractive. But she wasn’t Kelly. And of course that meant I had no interest in her sexually. The realisation created a sinking feeling in my stomach. The girl tucked her hair behind her ears. “Oh, gosh, sorry, it’s Chloe. How rude of me to ask your name and not give you mine.”

I held a dismissive hand up. “Hey, no problem at all.”

She shifted nervously from foot to foot. “So, are you coming to the library today?”

I inhaled a long breath and let it go slowly. “Oh, I don’t know, Chloe. I didn’t find out what I needed yesterday. I’m beginning to think I won’t find what I’m looking for there.”

She tilted her head inquisitively. “Oh… is there anything I can help with?”

“I don’t think so. But thanks for asking. I’m meeting with my… um… friend, Six later.”

“Six? Six the guy with the motorcycle and muscles?” The blush rose in her cheeks again and I smiled.

“Yeah, that would be him. Do you know him?”

She shook her head vehemently. “N-no… I mean I’ve seen him around… But no… no I don’t know him. Not… not really,” she sighed and an expression of sadness graced her eyes for a moment. “He’s intimidating… menacing.” Her cheeks flamed again as she turned her attention back to me.

I got the feeling she hadn’t intended to say the latter part of her sentence aloud. I chuckled and shook my head. “Yeah he kinda does look a little menacing. You want me to introduce you?”

The pink blush to her cheeks increased until I could have fried an egg on her face. “Oh, gosh… no… no. Oh. Well… I’d better go open up. Have… have a great day, Cameron.” She raised her hand in a little wave and hurried away.

My stack of pancakes arrived and I turned to devour them. So despite her words I had established that Six had an admirer in a cute Chloe-shaped package. Should I let him know? Or would doing so drag sweet little Chloe into a world of shit and pain? I shook my head at my train of thought. Okay, so I couldn’t remember Six entirely, but from what I could remember and from the feeling I got on seeing him, I sensed he wasn’t the kind of guy to hurt a woman. Yeah, I’d have fun filling him in on that little snippet of news.

Once my plate was empty and coffee cup was dry, I wondered what the hell I could do with the hours I had left before meeting with Six. I was under strict instructions—advice, anyway—to stay out of the public eye, which limited me greatly.

Once I’d paid for my meal, I left the coffee shop and made my way back to the motel. There wasn’t much to do that wouldn’t involve me being out in public, and so I decided I had a date with my iPod. I’d just have to be sure and skip past the songs that Kelly had put on there. I didn’t need anything to remind me of her smile, her eyes, or her smell. They were emblazoned on my brain for all eternity.

I arrived back at the motel and heaved a deep, disinterested sigh. I wasn’t in the mood for hiding out. I needed answers and fresh air. Neither of which were available within the four walls of the cheap, tacky place I currently was calling home.

I stuck in the ear buds and skipped to track four. The familiar music sent shivers down my spine, and the lyrics of “Duality” by Slipknot told me that I hadn’t exactly been living happily prior to my arrival on a whole other continent. Well, that’s if the songs had been chosen for a reason like Kelly’s had. The lyrics were angry and scathing and spoke of agony and an anger that I imagine I was experiencing when Melody died. Maybe that was the story behind the whole track list. I remembered the track that Kelly had asked me to listen to, “Set Fire to the Third Bar” by Snow Patrol, and the anguish the song brought to the surface. Bringing to mind the dream of finding Melody in a pool of blood and the same song floating through the air on what should have been a wonderful day, I began to question whether I should continue to listen to the playlist.

Against my own better judgement, I didn’t hit stop. The next track spoke of living in a world where nothing was as it seemed. There was an undercurrent of mistrust. And as I listened, I began to understand why that particular song had been put on there. It was how I felt about the Company. In the back of my mind, I knew that they had something to do with the death of my fiancée and the disappearance of my sister. The lyrics made a knot form in my stomach as the haunting voice of Trent Resner resonated deep within my bones. Yes, this was how I felt. These were my thoughts. I was questioning everything and everyone. Trusting no one. Not even the people I had previously considered my family. The only person I truly trusted apart from myself right then was Kelly. And she was thousands of miles away.

I closed my eyes and allowed myself the luxury of remembering her for a while. The way she pursed her lips and tried not to laugh. How she fit so perfectly around my body and in my arms. My dick clearly remembered too, stiffening in my boxers as the memory of her perfume and the smell of her arousal enveloped my senses. The way her skin felt beneath my fingertips.

For a brief moment I considered jacking off to the images in my head, but I knew the ache in my soul wouldn’t be eased by a quick orgasm, and so I kept my hands clear of the bulge in my pants. I fucking hated the distance. The distance between Melody and me couldn’t be overcome. But the distance between Kelly and me… Fuck, what was the point in torturing myself? I had to be in the US. But my fucking heart was back in Scotland. I could buy a plane ticket. I could go back. But then what about Rosa? Awww, fuck.

As the song ended, my head clouded with so many confusing and conflicting images and thoughts that my heart rate increased to an almost painful beat and sweat beaded on my upper lip. I was on the verge of some kind of panic attack and I needed to get out.

Regardless of what I had been “advised” to do by Six, I found myself wandering around the streets of Rose Acres. I came across a familiar-looking row of houses. One in particular stood out more than the others. It was a vacant property with a white door. I was drawn to the building, and without thinking, I found myself walking up the pathway. As I reached the property, an image of Melody lying in a pool of blood assaulted my memory. This was it. This was that house. My house. The place of Melody’s death. A lump lodged in my throat, and my eyes became blurry with tears as I stared at the closed door before me. The heartbreaking lyrics of her favourite song whirred around my mind, reminding that I was never going to see her beautiful face again. And I would never hold our baby in my arms. The pain of grief almost brought me to my knees as I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my vision so that I could walk away and leave the place that would no doubt haunt me forever.