Captive Heart (Club Risqué Book 6)

Chapter 31

Melody wanted more. She wasn”t entirely sure what it was she wanted more of, just that she wanted it.

Micah had opened doors and secrets which she had never dreamt existed, and now she was desperate to experience them all. She knew there was more beyond the little taste he had given her. She just didn”t know what it was or how to ask for it.

She felt like a tightly budded, rather wilted flower, anxious to be cultivated. Parched and thirsting, desperate to be nurtured. Greedily absorbing those first life-giving drops of water and now waiting for some elusive ray of sunlight so that she could unfurl and reach her full potential, so that she could blossom and bloom into bursting, sated completion.

Now that she”d had that first taste, she was hungry for another. She wanted to know everything that might possibly exist between a man and a woman, where tenderness and consideration sustained their deeds and behaviour, rather than any of the things she had previously experienced. And she wanted Micah to show her.

She looked at him in a new light.

In the beginning, there had been relief that spawned gratitude and a certain amount of curiosity, since he was different to any other men she had met. Not that she had a huge amount of experience.

Daddy had been old and gentle but fundamentally selfish when it came to intimacy.

V had been a brute, and those he had shared her with had been all of the same ilk. Vicious, sadistic beasts who revelled in her pain and powerlessness. Monsters whose deviance and depravity had magnified and intensified when they had been given the means and opportunity to live out their basest, most perverted fantasies without fear of judgement, condemnation, or reprisal.

She had suffered at their hands, but Micah had shown her that there was something else—something she wanted to explore for herself. Something…beautiful.

Melody looked at Micah now with speculation and some other emotion she wasn”t familiar with. But every time she was near him, her senses lit up and sharpened. Her mouth went dry, and there was an almost awkward awareness she simply couldn”t shake, no matter what. It made her skin sizzle and her breath hitch. It made her heart beat faster in anticipation… Of what, she didn”t know.

But she damn well wanted to find out!

Unfortunately, she didn”t think Micah felt the same things she did.

Since the revelation he had provided, he had been friendly and courteous, and as considerate as always. But there was a distance, too, which she didn”t know how to overcome.

Tonight was a club night, which inevitably meant a late night, but that was fine. There was plenty of opportunity to sleep in in the morning, so she never felt tired.

Besides, being able to sleep in the warmth of a comfortable bed meant she was better rested than she could remember since she first went to live with Daddy as a teenager, almost a decade ago.

Melody found she enjoyed the vibrancy and energy of club nights, even though she wasn”t involved. There were interesting people who wandered in and out of the behind-the-scenes area where she hung out. They were friendly and accepting, and many made a point of coming to talk to her.

Dr Xavier and Detective Storer, of course, always came to check on her or update her on any progress. Not that there’s been much, so far, with what little she’d been able to tell them, but it had only been a couple of weeks.

She’d come to realise both men were members of the club, more used to being referred to as Master in the context of this place.

Then there was Trinity, the assistant manager, and the other women she had introduced Melody to. Charlotte, Luanna, and Laurel. They always came with confident, rather intimidating men in tow. Nobody had told her so, but Melody suspected these were the men who owned the business.

She tried to keep out of their way when she saw them, becoming a ghost, in case they started to object to her presence within the club. She still didn”t know what she would do if they required her to move on. While she might have recovered, for the most part, she didn”t have a job or any place to live. No means to support herself and no idea how to go about it.

Micah had her running errands around the club, and for that she was grateful. She was doing more and more now that she was stronger. It made her feel like she had a purpose, that she made a contribution rather than just leeching off of these nice people.

Still, the girls always sought her out, bringing her little gifts—fragrant body lotion, pretty underwear, a brush and stuff to tie her hair back with, even chocolate. Little extras and luxuries which gave her an odd little twinge in her chest, not unlike the one she felt when she looked at Micah.

She felt a camaraderie and acceptance amongst these five women. Like they accepted her as a person, not just some itinerant victim with whom they sated their desire to do good deeds because she needed help. It made her feel as if she was a part of something bigger.

She only hoped that wasn”t a mistaken perception on her part because it would hurt her to loose these new bonds she was creating. Friends were something Melody had never been able to claim at any point in her life before now, not even when she”d been growing up in foster care.

Families were too suspicious of kids in the system, saw them as a bad influence and encouraged their children to steer clear. And in the group home, it was always more about competition than camaraderie, everybody looking after number one.

What she had found at Club Risqué was wonderful on so many different levels. The people, the friendships, the things she had discovered, she didn”t ever want to lose.

This evening was no exception. Melody was curled up at the side of one of the comfy couches in Trinity”s office. Officially, the assistant manager was working, but she was on her break right now, and Charlotte, Laurel, and Luanna had piled into her room for some girl time and pulled Melody along with them.

Although they talked about her a lot, their other friend, Desi never joined them, but Melody had quickly picked up on the fact that the other woman was having a difficult pregnancy and required a lot of bed rest. And Charlotte had just had a baby, so she didn”t play so much these days, either, though she did pop in quite often to meet up with the other girls.

But perhaps it was Trinity they visited. She supposed it must be difficult to keep up with each other when they all had such differing time commitments. Trinity, especially, since she worked long nights, slept in the daytime, and spent three or four nights a week living away, so she could be with her fiancé, Christian.

They were an eclectic mix. Trinity was tiny and pixie like, with dyed bright red hair, but her dainty appearance belied a strong character. Luanna was as tall and curvy as Trinity was petite and exuded an unmistakeable aura of calm maturity and serene elegance.

Though buxom, but not as tall, Laurel was completely the opposite in character, being a bubbly live-wire. Her chatter filled any silences.

But Charlotte was, perhaps, the one with whom Melody felt the most kinship. It wasn”t just that she, too, was tall and thin with hair that reached her waist, albeit it brown, not grey, like hers. There was something about the travel writer—an empathy and understanding—which Melody somehow felt came more from personal experience than simple compassion, although she didn”t like to ask.

They were all piled into the sitting area of Trinity”s office, which suddenly seemed considerably smaller than usual with all of them packed in there. Luanna was sitting with Melody on the couch, while Charlotte took the tub seat, and Laurel had casually plonked herself on the coffee table in the centre, leaving Trinity to wheel her office chair across to join them, once she”d handed out hot drinks all around.

”So how are things going with Micah then, Melody?” asked Laurel. She wasn”t the type to hold back if there was something she wanted to know.

Melody held her breath for a couple of beats, her face blooming. How could Laurel possibly know about her preoccupation with Micah?

It took her a couple more guilty seconds before she realised the other girl didn”t know any such thing, she was just speaking generally. Unfortunately, Melody”s silence and pink cheeks gave her away, and four heads turned to look at her with speculation.

”Umm…he”s very…ah… nice, and um, pleasant,” she stammered lamely, knowing she”d just made the whole thing worse.

Trinity raised an eyebrow, and Melody was aware of a suddenly sharpened, almost possessive, contemplation from both her and Charlotte, which she couldn”t quite fathom since both women were in serious relationships with other men.

Laurel just snorted in a decidedly unladylike manner. ”Aha!” she exclaimed. ”So, you”ve got the hots for professor beefcake, eh?” She winked exaggeratedly. ”Can”t say I blame you. He”s a whole yummy slab of muscled hunkiness!”

Melody didn”t know where to look as her cheeks blazed even hotter. ”I didn”t mean…”

”Pfft!” Laurel cut her off. ”Girl, you”re not going to fool anyone with that act. Now spill! What”s the deal with you and the good doctor?”

”Why do you call him doctor?” Melody asked instead. It wasn”t quite a diversionary tactic, since she truly didn”t understand the connotation.

”Because he”s a psychologist. Now quit stalling.” Laurel giggled, refusing to be distracted.

Melody looked at her and blinked. ”He is? I thought he was the club manager?” She frowned, genuinely confused.

”Oh, he is,” Trinity confirmed with a smile. ”But he”s also a qualified psychologist who used to have his own practice.”

”Huh! Well, I guess that explains a lot,” she conceded.

”He still does psyche evaluations on the members, to ensure we don”t have any predators or dangerously unbalanced participants.”

”So has he probed any other parts of you beyond your brain?” Laurel asked irreverently, rubbing her hands together in glee.

Could she confide in these women? Why the heck not? That”s what friendship was all about, wasn”t it? And when all was said and done, maybe they could offer her some insights, because she sure as hell wasn”t getting very far on her own.

”Um, I don”t think he wants to,” she admitted shyly. ”I offered to be his slave, but he refused and said he would only be my master in name only until I was able to stand on my own two feet.”

Trinity pursed her lips and nodded sagely. ”Yes, I imagine that scenario wouldn”t have appealed to him.”

All eyes were on the spiky haired pixie now, as if they realised there were secrets she might shed light on, but it was Melody who replied.

”Because of the ex-girlfriend who died?” she queried.

Trinity swung to face her with a start. ”He told you about Sara?” she asked in surprise.

Melody shrugged, mentally tucking away the name. ”Only that she wanted a Master/slave relationship and he didn”t, so she left him for someone else instead of trying to find a compromise… And that she died.”

”It”s not something he likes to discuss. Especially not at this time of the year.” Trinity confided to the group at large, before turning her attention back to Melody. ”The fact that he mentioned her to you is pretty significant.”

”Why not at this time of the year?” Laurel asked, curiosity getting the better of her as usual.

”Laurel!” Charlotte and Luanna both cautioned her at the same time, but Trinity answered anyway. Maybe to shut them all up and close the subject down.

”Because it”s approaching the anniversary of her death. It will be three years later this month.”