Chapter 2
Chapter Two
A dramatic entrance had seemed like the best approach. But, wow, it sure had been hard to pull off.
Four hours later, Melody paced the confines of the guest room that she’d been given at the Mage Mansion. Yes, that was how she thought of the place. Mage Mansion. Not home, because it wasn’t home to her. The whole place felt intimidating. Scary.
Everything about the room she’d been given was fancy—and cold. Paintings on the wall that held no soul. A million pillows artfully arranged on a big, white bed. A settee. White, wood furniture. Kinda looked like it had all come straight from some decorating website.
A completely alien environment.
But a place that was supposed to be part of her world.
“Where were you?”
“Why didn’t you call?”
“Why didn’t you text?”
“You vanished!”
“How could you be so heartless? You abandoned your family! You abandoned everyone who loved you!”
She’d expected all of the questions. And even the anger. The accusations. After all, there had to be confusion and rage from her family.
As for the questions, she’d had answers ready. She’d spent plenty of time rehearsing her responses.
I had to get away. Please understand, I needed time on my own. I regret that I caused any concern…
Such utter bullshit. She didn’t think they’d bought her words. And that was fair, because the words had not been the truth.
Not. At. All.
Everything she’d said that night had been a lie. From the minute that she’d walked into the house, it had been one giant lie after another.
Her arms wrapped around her body. She rocked forward. “You can do this,” she whispered. More like, you have to do this. Because there wasn’t any choice. The game had started, and she had to finish it, no matter the cost.
She hadn’t expected Sebastian Mage to look so…fragile. In the photos she’d seen online, he’d been robust. Almost larger than life. In that den, though, he’d been too thin. His body shaking. Too pale. She’d wanted to run to him. To wrap her arms around him and say—
A door opened. One to the left. It squeaked and sent her heart racing into a panic as it swung open and a big, shadowy form filled the doorway. A doorway that connected to the guest room next door, not to the hallway.
She hadn’t thought anyone was in that room. But now the big, dark shadow was moving toward her, and Melody didn’t believe that screaming would do any good. Too many people in the home were out for her blood. Her hands fell as she automatically took a step back.
“Where the fuck were you?”
Victor. Victor Alexander was in her room.
He shut the door behind him. Click. He glared at her.
Seemed even bigger. If Sebastian Mage had been smaller than she anticipated, then Victor—he was a whole lot more than she’d expected.
Taller. Stronger. More…savage. His eyes glinted and held an icy darkness that seemed to pierce straight to her soul.
Victor wore dress pants. Gleaming shoes. A white dress shirt. No coat. No tie. The top buttons on his shirt had been yanked open while his sleeves rolled up to reveal powerful forearms.
Hatterson had brought her coat into the room. Her coat and her bag. Automatically, she inched toward that coat. It had been tossed onto the foot of the bed. She’d done the tossing. Her fingers grabbed for the coat, and her hand slipped into the front pocket.
“Where the fuck were you?” Again, same question. Lethal intensity.
Her breath shuddered out. She turned toward him, and at the same time, Melody tucked her hands behind her back. “I don’t remember inviting you into my room.”
“I don’t need a fucking invitation.”
She cleared her throat. “You say ‘fuck’ a lot.”
He blinked.
“And I’m pretty sure you do need an invitation.” Melody kept her chin up. “You can’t just burst into a woman’s bedroom without asking. That’s not done.”
He stalked toward her. Stalked. The only way to describe his movements. His hands were clenched at his sides in powerful fists. Tension held his body in a fierce grip. A muscle flexed along what was a very strong and square jaw as he closed in on her.
She didn’t retreat. Mostly because the bed was behind her. But fear bloomed in her heart. She didn’t know this man. Couldn’t predict what he might do next. Her research had indicated he would be a dangerous adversary.
How dangerous? What will you do to me, Victor Alexander? Or, better question…What have you already done?
He stopped right in front of her.
Her head tipped back. The better to stare up at him. Into the darkness of his eyes. He was a brutally handsome man. Emphasis on the brutal part. All hard edges and angles. No softness at all. Thick, almost jet-black hair. Strong nose. Sharp cheekbones. And that hard, clenched jaw…
“You think I’m going to buy that you just had to get away?”
She wet her lips.
His gaze locked on her mouth.
“A lot was happening,” she murmured. “You’d gotten control over the company…”
He growled.
“I-I needed to find my place. I had to go—”
“Find your place? Your place? You had a place! That makes no fucking sense.” He reached for her. Caught himself. His hands lingered in the air. She’d been wrong before, when she thought that he’d cut his hand on the broken wine glass. That had just been dark, red wine on his skin. Not blood.
She could not breathe because Victor stared at her as if he’d very much like to commit murder.
Is it going to be this easy? Will he just admit the truth?
This easy…or this crazy. Because she was alone in the opulent room with him.
And he was so much bigger than she was. Could he kill her before she could even cry out for help?
“You had to go…away from me?” Victor bit out.
She didn’t move. “Why are you in my room right now?” Do not show fear. Do not.
“Oh, I don’t know, Melody, maybe because I’ve spent the last year of my life tearing the world apart looking for you? Could that possibly be it?”
Her heart raced even faster. She was surprised that he couldn’t hear its frantic beat. The hard pounding certainly echoed in her own ears. “You looked for me?” He’d just stunned her.
“A slew of private investigators couldn’t find you.”
Probably because they’d been looking in the wrong places.
“No trace. That’s what they turned up. Nothing. False leads and bullshit. You drove away, and you weren’t found.”
Her lips pressed together.
He growled. An animalistic sound. His gaze slowly rose to pin her eyes. “You left me.”
“Uh, newsflash.” She needed to be aggressive.
Sharp. Melody had never been a pushover, or at least, she didn’t think she had been.
“I left everyone. I hardly see why my dad’s business partner or protégé or whatever you want to call yourself—I hardly see why you’d get your silk boxers twisted up over me taking some time to go out and have myself some fun. ”
The last year had not been fun. The last year had been a nonstop nightmare. But she had a role to play, and she was going to play that role to perfection.
Melody Mage had been a bored socialite. Always flitting from one bit of drama to the next.
She’d loved the high life. She’d been self-absorbed.
She’d partied with rock stars. She’d dated artists.
She’d caused havoc and mayhem, and her own father had long since sworn she’d never get her hands on the family business.
Or at least, those had been the stories flashed online so frequently.
In other words, Melody Mage had been…someone I don’t know.
Someone I don’t understand. A woman with her face.
Her body. But someone she only knew through online research.
Research she’d started after bits and pieces of the past had begun to flit through her mind.
For a while, there’d been nothing in her mind when she tried to focus on the past. Nothing but darkness and fear and screams.
Then she’d begun to have flashes of…more.
“You hardly see…” Victor blinked. Stared at her as if she had two heads. “You thought I wouldn’t look for you?”
From what she’d seen, no one had looked. Was she supposed to just buy his story about the PIs? “There were no major news reports about me vanishing. Clearly, you knew I wanted time for myself.”
“I got the fucking text, Melody.”
Her heart slammed into her ribs. “There’s that word again. You are naughty, aren’t you? Guess you just have a very dirty mouth.”
“Don’t look for me.”
Her body jerked.
“That’s all you told me. One text. In a year. Then your phone was turned off a day later. It never turned back on. Not in a whole year.”
Goosebumps rose on her body. It was so cold in that room.
Cold in the house. Cold outside the house.
She could hear the roaring of the wind. Heaving and twisting.
With the news of the heavy snowfall, she’d almost canceled her plans.
Almost turned tail and run away at the last moment.
But…then she’d seen Victor arrive at the house.
Yes, I was watching outside. I saw you arrive, Victor. I shivered in the cold, and I hid and I watched you and Dario and Olivia. She knew the players in this game.
“Where is your phone, Melody?”
Excellent question. She had no idea. “I…threw it away.”
His left hand reached out. This time, he touched her.
His fingers slid beneath her chin, tipping her head up even more, and she didn’t expect the charge of absolute heat to flood through her body at his touch.
But it did. So much heat. A sensual electricity flooded her veins, and she was suddenly, completely terrified.
Because he stared at her as if…as if…
“You threw it away?” Victor breathed. “The same way you threw me away?”
This wasn’t what she’d anticipated, not at all. His rage was a palpable force in the bedroom. Rage and something more. So much more.
“I was ready to kill for you,” he told her.