Melody clasped her hand tightly around Christian’s before he could take even a single step away from her. She was not about to be left behind in the creepy old house, standing there all by herself while he went and looked for… whatever it was he thought he might find.
No thank you. She’d had more than enough surprises for one day. She honestly thought that, if she had to deal with any more, she’d probably just crumble to pieces right then and there.
But she made sure to keep her face straight, not revealing any of that to Christian, as he set off to explore the old farmhouse.
When Melody had first walked inside, she’d been shocked by the state of the place. Chairs and tables were overturned, boxes had been knocked over and lights broken. Hell, even some of the furniture, though there wasn’t much of that, had been slashed as if by a box-cutter, leaving ragged tears in the dated, dusty fabric.
They walked through the house together, as Christian checked and double checked all the locks on every door and window, before they made their way back downstairs.
“Well, the good news is that it looks like no one has been here for a long time. A few years at least. The bad news is…”
Christian trailed off, grimacing as he glanced around the place and Melody could see the guilt flare once more in his bright blue eyes.
She tugged him around to face her, not stopping until he finally looked over at her.
“Hey, this isn’t your fault,” Melody reminded him gently. “There was no way you could have known the state this place was in or that we would have to come here on such short notice.”
Melody drew in a deep, steadying breath as she took in everything around her.
“Well, while we’re here we might as well do something about it,” she said, sending a small, stiff grin towards Christian.
She made her way into the kitchen, trying not to look too closely at anything. She opened the cabinet beneath the sink, shooing away cobwebs. Just as she thought. Whoever had broken into the house, more than likely teenagers looking for a good time and a way to ease the boredom of living out in the country, hadn’t been too concerned with messing with the cleaning supplies.
Melody grabbed the rubber gloves and various bottles of spray and cleaner and finally a few scrubbers that were tucked in the back. She pulled them all out and smiled up at Christian, the first time all day that she’d felt even a glimmer of humor.
“You feel like getting dirty?” Melody asked through her grin, surprising a bark of a laugh from Christian.
God, how she’d missed that sound!
He waggled his eyebrows at her.
“With you? Any time. Any place.”
“Well, how about right now, and… the bathroom?”
Melody’s grin grew wider as he grimaced but good naturedly took the cleaners and the extra pair of gloves as she handed the supplies over to him.
“You go ahead. I’ll get started in here,” Melody said, with a grimace of her own as she took in the sorry state of the kitchen. “No way am I cooking in here while it’s like this.”
Christian still hesitated, and Melody knew it was because he was afraid to let her down. He was worried because he wasn’t by her side when the attack happened, and he was afraid that if he wasn’t by her side now, something else would happen to her.
Although, what he thought would happen to her in that dusty old house she couldn’t begin to get, unless it involved inhaling a mouthful of dust and choking.
Warmth filled her at the look of concern on his handsome face, and before she could stop herself she was back up on her feet and walking towards him. She melted into his embrace as if they’d been doing just this for decades instead of just a few short months.
Melody kissed him. Soft and sweet at first, but then it grew into something so much more that it stole her breath completely away. He consumed her, had heat flaying her entire body with whips of pleasure, as his hands dug into her hips, pulling her even closer.
They were both breathing fast and ragged when Melody finally pulled away, her lips swollen and tingling with his kiss, as if she had stolen a part of her and kept it with her. He would always part of her now. She knew that.
“I’ll be fine,” Melody said after she’d had a chance to regain her breath and slow her racing heart. She shooed him on his way before he could act on the furious heat that she could see burning in his sapphire gaze. “I promise you. I’ll scream for help if something happens.”
“You better,” Christian said gruffly, taking a reluctant step back. He gave her one last smoldering, protective look before dutifully heading for the bathroom.
Melody just stood there for a moment, still rocked by the storm his kiss had kicked up inside her. She waited as he walked down the short hall, opened the door to the bathroom, and walked in, armed with industrial strength cleaner and a scrubber brush.
“Oh my god. This is disgusting.”
Christian’s words were muffled by the bathroom door, but his horror wasn’t at all. Melody shook her head, biting back a laugh and marveling that he could lift her spirits with just a few words.
And a soul searing kiss. Don’t forget about that.
Melody swallowed hard, sobering as she turned back to the kitchen and the mess that was waiting for her inside. The counters were coated with a thick layer of dust that had been caked with grease, and she was more than a little terrified to open up the refrigerator and see what was going on in there.
She decided to start with the easiest bit, wiping and sanitizing all the surfaces first, the worn kitchen table, and the island that sat in the middle of the room.
Melody threw herself into cleaning, grateful that the action was holding her thoughts at bay. And when memories of Enrique’s men storming into Christian’s house or pulling a gun on her, started to surface, she scrubbed that much harder until it went away again.
It became a pattern of sorts, almost a game. As soon as her thoughts started to tip back to what had happened, or her emotions started to freeze with that old familiar fear, Melody would roll up her sleeves and find another spot to scour until it shone, all the while imagining it was her own memories she was washing clean, her own terror that she was scouring away.
Melody lost track of time as she cleaned, just glad to have something to distract herself. To have something keep her mind and body occupied. But as the day wore on it became harder and harder to keep the memories and emotions at bay.
Each time they came, it was more of a struggle to get them back in the dark corners of her mind, where she could lock them away, but she continued to fight throughout the day.
Melody finished cleaning the kitchen but was still full of a restless energy that pushed her to keep moving, not to stop. Because she knew that, if she stopped, it would all crash down on her, overwhelming her completely.
She finished up the kitchen and moved on the living room, attacking it with so much gusto that she had dust bunnies and bits of fluff and stuffing flying up in to the air. She righted all the furniture, wiped down all the surfaces, and vacuumed every single thing that she could, filling up the garbage can twice over with all the trash and debris.
Christian was still tackling the bathroom as Melody made her way up the stairs to the single bedroom and attacked that with just as much anger and determination as the downstairs. Sheets and blankets and pillows all went into the washing machine as she wrestled with the mattress, flipping it over and sweeping it clean.
She replaced the mattress pad and all the sheets on top with the freshly cleaned ones. She even shook out the curtains before vacuuming the carpet as thoroughly as she could.
Melody threw open the closet doors and a scream erupted from her throat before she could stop herself.
Before she even had a chance to take a breath to let Christian know it was a false alarm he came bursting into the room, a broom held threateningly in front of him.
“What is it, Mel? What happened? Did you see someone?”
“Not someone,” she said, barely holding back a bubble of laughter. “Something.” She finished, pointing into the corner of the closet, right at the dust bunny that she’d mistaken for a mouse. “Sorry for the scream. I thought it was a mouse.”
Melody shrugged, embarrassed by her reaction.
“Don’t worry, I can vanquish anyone or anything that scares you, including dust bunnies,” Christian said, his mouth ticking up on one side into a lop-sided grin. He brushed out the ball of dust and cobwebs for her before looking so proud of himself that Melody couldn’t help but burst into laughter again.
But with each hitching laugh that broke free, it grew sharper and sharper, and before she could do a damned thing about it her laughter had turned into tears.
Christian’s expression grew concerned as he held her close and she sobbed against him. She had fought so hard to keep the memories away. To keep the fear and the terror and the taste of remembered pain far back into the dark corners of her mind where they couldn’t reach her.
But now they were all flooding back, every single one, and she couldn’t do a damn thing about it except hold Christian even closer as the storm raged inside her.
Shock still held her frozen after everything that had happened, and the only thing that could thaw her was Christian. Melody didn’t care about anything else.
She just needed him. Now.