10
She rode him slowly, dreamily, in the moonlit darkness.
Eric’s hands found her hips, his palms warm and smooth against her skin. His fingers dug into the flesh of her waist as he pulled her against him, working to bury himself way up deep inside her.
Melody let go, surrendering to the exquisite sensation of being filled from within. She screwed down against her new lover, driving him home. Shifting her weight forward and back, she ground her clit against the top of his hard cock.
They built up a steady rhythm — him thrusting up from beneath, her bumping and grinding against him. They screwed lazily, hungrily, not caring about anything except the raw, primal need to get each other off.
“Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck…”
Melody found herself saying the words without even realizing it. There was no stopping them, no taking them back. Her climax built like a slow, inexorable force, rising up hard, looming high before finally crashing over her in wave after wave of delirious release. When it was over every stretch of her skin was covered in goosebumps. Her whole body was shaking.
Her legs were still trembling when he finished inside her. Eric’s ass left the bed, his whole body frozen mid-thrust as she felt him go off, splashing her womb with strong jets of his hot, thick seed. Melody locked her thighs around his, grinding herself downward to make it good for him. As the last of his spasms wound down Eric smiled up at her, the two of them sharing the same knowing, blissful look.
“You’re so beautiful,” he told her, stroking her face. He was still inside her. Still connected.
Slowly his hand dropped downward. It closed smoothly over the jeweled pendant around her neck.
“This is beautiful too…” Eric murmured.
The amethyst sparkled as he rolled it in his palm. It seemed to absorb the cold moonlight, turning the jewel a deep, dark violet.
“Uh, thanks,” Melody replied.
He fingered the amulet almost lovingly, running his thumb over the intricate golden setting. Eventually she rolled off of him, pulling it gently from his grasp.
“Let’s sleep,” she said, snuggling against him again. “Big day tomorrow. Lots to do.”
Eric nodded and pulled the covers back over them both. His warm, heaving body was as comforting as ever.
Melody was asleep in a matter of seconds, not minutes.
She woke at the crack of dawn. Or what seemed like dawn, anyway.
Looking out the window, Melody could see the sun’s rays diffused with a strange greenish hue. It was a slight tinge, just enough to be noticeable. Just weird enough to cast bizarre shadows over the manor house grounds and plantation fields.
None of it mattered. She couldn’t wait to get started.
Extracting herself carefully from Eric’s sleeping form, she slipped back into her undergarments and snuck out of the bedroom.
But not without first swiping his key.
She figured it was old enough, and close enough, that if she jiggled it around enough it might also open her door. Luckily, she never had to find out. Standing practically naked out in the dimly lit hallway, the doorknob to her room turned the second she placed her hand on it.
Somehow, it had been unlocked.
“Thank heaven for small favors?” she muttered under her breath.
She was sure it’d been locked last night. Then again, she was frantic. Not thinking straight.
Back in her own room, Melody’s ball gown still hung from the same wooden peg. She shimmed into it reluctantly. It was better than nothing.
Get looking, the little voice in her head went off. Now, while everyone’s still asleep.
She left the shoes. They’d be too loud against the manor’s hardwood floors, plus they hurt like hell. A stream of forbidden acts ran through her mind, and Melody began picking out the ones she’d do right now for some jeans, a T-shirt, and a comfortable pair of sneakers.
The hallways was empty again, both sides. She wondered where Lurch had gone, and almost laughed as the hilarious image of him wearing an apron and cooking breakfast popped into her head.
“I’ll have three eggs, Lurch,” she snickered. “Sunny side up.”
Treading lightly, she made her way back down the staircase. She wanted to finish searching the conservatory first, and then go from there. Room by room was her best chance of finding the egg. She’d do the bedrooms last, hopefully later on, when no one was using them.
Melody turned the corner into the conservatory and stopped dead.
The piano was gone.
It seemed strange, almost impossible, that it had been moved sometime during the night. Then again, Evermoore was shaping up to be strange in every way. Its halls, its occupants, and especially its guests.
Hey, you’re one of its guests too, she reminded herself with a smile.
Last night had been crazy. Sleeping with Eric, even crazier. One night stands were never her thing, and she wasn’t even sure that’s what this was. It was more like she’d been terrified, chased through the manor’s darkened halls, and Eric’s strong arms had been her salvation. Her refuge.
“Any port in a storm,” she shrugged, gliding barefoot across the big room.
You did a little more than just pull into port, though.
She sighed. Yeah, going forward it was definitely going to be awkward. Melody certainly wasn’t looking for a relationship, especially given her past track record. Almost every guy she dated ended up disappointing her, and usually in the most cataclysmic of ways.
Isn’t that your own fault though? the little voice asked.
In truth it was. Every romance she’d been through started out the same: excitement, lust, love… all puppy dogs and unicorns and rainbows. Melody would usually glide through the honeymoon phase of the relationship, enjoying the ride for what it was, but knowing in the back of her mind the inevitable fall would always come. ‘The disappointment of truth’ she once called it. The sorrow of knowing.
By the time she’d been hurt a half dozen times, Melody swore a solemn vow not to let her powers interfere with her personal life. And yet, that never happened. Just as they’d ruined her prom, her inane abilities also ruined whatever she usually had going with her significant other.
Examples were everywhere. Bobby was perfect in every way, until in ‘reading’ him one morning she found out he was suppressing a huge, even violent anger problem. Breaking up with him had been difficult, especially because she couldn’t tell him why she was ending things, but she was strong enough to do it anyway.
Leaving him drove her into the arms of Andy, who made her very happy for almost a year. Thinking it was okay to pry a little, Melody had peeked into his mind only to see that more than half his thoughts centered constantly around comparing her against his ex girlfriend.
Reading her boyfriends was always a problem. Every time she vowed not to do it, she broke down and did it anyway. It was always the same: just a touch, just a hint, just a tiny little glimpse… something to tell her that this was the one. That this particular guy was the good one, the right one, the one without an irreconcilable past or a troubled future.
Anthony had the hots for a girl in his apartment building — he’d be actively cheating on her in a matter of weeks. James was attentive, and a true gentleman, but he secretly liked men a little more than women. And Scott…
Scott’s mind held a secret so dark, so disturbing, she deleted his number and never took another call from him. Ever again.
Melody had given up on dating more than a year ago now. And she hadn’t looked back.
All of these things threaded their way through her mind as she searched the rest of the fancy, wood-paneled room. Aside from the piano being gone, half the stuff in the trophy case had been swapped out. She saw new things, old things, even a few things she couldn’t recognize. But nothing even remotely resembling the jeweled egg she’d been tasked by the Order to bring back.
Maybe I should wake Eric…
It would make looking faster, that’s for sure. At the same time, something told her not to do it. A sense of independence. A desire to accomplish the task all on her own. And yet, on the flip side of the coin, Xiomara’s voice urging her to hurry up. Reminding her that when it came down to it, this might be their final chance…
A breeze flowed in somewhere off to her right. Melody followed it, stepping out through a pair of glass-paned side doors and onto a small patio on the side of the house.
The air smelled fresh, but with an underlying heaviness to it. Almost like a moisture, but without the dampness. She looked up, out over the road. Beyond the road, into the fields…
The mist was still there.
Somehow, the strange grey mist was still shifting and churning. Only now it was closer. Much closer.
It’s taken over half the field. Or pretty close to that.
Sure enough, the fog that had enveloped the silver gate yesterday was now halfway across the lush green field she’d managed to cross. All evidence of the treeline beyond was now obliterated. There was only the mist, heavy and thick.
Melody turned left and right. The fog stretched in a huge oval too, all the way around. The road she’d come up yesterday disappeared straight into it.
So much for finding my way back…
The thought worried her, but only for the briefest of moments. She didn’t even have the egg yet. And she wasn’t leaving without it.
“Focus, Mel,” she said, pinching herself on the arm. “Focus!”
It was one of her biggest weaknesses, getting distracted. She’d tried all sorts of meditation techniques to keep herself honed in on certain things, but no matter what she did, Melody always found herself thinking about — and often working on — ten things at once.
She scanned the small patio, then looked beyond it for anything interesting. She was on the same side of the manor as the carriage house. It was a little ways away, but she could see the blacksmith out there again, bent over and working on something. It was the same man she’d waved to on the way in.
Maybe he knows something, Melody figured. She could talk to him, maybe even get something helpful out of the conversation. And it was still very early. The man might speak more freely if there was no one else around.
It made sense to at least try.
She started off barefoot through the wet grass, enjoying the feel of it between her toes. She was in her element. This was the reason they’d sent her. Melody raised her head, a smile of grim determination curling across her lips.
Whether he wanted to or not, the man was certainly going to tell her something.