He scrambled to his feet. He was tall, but upon closer inspection looked like he was no older than his late teens.
Melanie advanced on him. “Give me back my damn purse.”
He whipped out a small knife. “Don’t be stupid, lady. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”
Melanie took another step toward him. “My son cuts his food with bigger knives than that. One of us is going to get hurt, but I can guarantee you it’s not going to be me. Now, one last time before I kick your ass. Give me back my purse.”
Charles barked Melanie’s location to his driver and cursed his decision to request a limo for the day. He normally found them cumbersome in the heavy New York traffic, but they did allow for a certain amount a privacy that a town car didn’t.
A privacy he’d decided the day would require at two o’clock that morning, when he’d changed his mind about pursuing Melanie. He had written off the possibility of anything happening between them while she was there based on two assumptions that weren’t necessarily true. First, although Sarah wouldn’t share why Melanie was in the city, that didn’t mean it was a bad thing. Maybe she was there for a potential job or to have an old tattoo removed or any number of reasons she didn’t want everyone back on the ranch to know about. So staying away from her because she was in a fragile state was unnecessary unless he found out differently. Second, he assumed that she would want a relationship with him that wouldn’t be possible because of her child. Not every woman did. She might be looking for exactly what he was—a quick fling to demystify their attraction.
The driver stopped at a red light and Charles slammed an open hand against the stationary part of the divider. “Run it. We need to get to her.”
“Who, sir?”
“Melanie. Someone mugged her. It sounds like she’s going after him. Run every fucking light. Just get there.”
“Yes, sir. Maybe you should call the police.”
The police.
Of course. He wasn’t a man who panicked, but the image of Melanie confronting her assailant alone ripped away his usual calm. He was supposed to watch over her while she was in the city. He’d already failed to keep her safe.
He should have told her how to hold her purse. He should have warned her to be careful. She didn’t know what to do or not to do in a city like New York. Fuck, he should have hired a car for her for the week. He could have cleared his schedule for the day and made sure she made it to wherever she was going.
He hadn’t wanted to get involved. But he was fucking involved now.
Something in her voice when she’d decided to go after the man who’d robbed her had sliced through years of emotional scarring and ripped open an old wound. She doesn’t know how quickly a life can be lost. How one moment of stupidity can provide a lifetime of regret.
He rang the local emergency number.
“911, what is your emergency?”
“There is a woman being mugged on East 23rd and Madison.”
“Can you see her? Are you near her?”
He wanted to scream, I wouldn’t need you if I were fucking there. But he didn’t. He wasn’t there and although he was racing to her, he’d take any advantage he could get. Anything that would save Melanie.
“No, I was on the phone with her when it happened.”
“What was the last thing she said to you?”
Cutting through what he considered nonsense, Charles snapped, “Do you have an officer on the street near her? Is there a car in the vicinity? If so, get them to her.”
“Sir, I’ll need more information to be able to help her. What is she wearing?”
“I don’t know,” he answered angrily. “Probably jeans and cowboy boots. She has long brown hair.”
“I have an officer on that street. He hasn’t seen anything unusual. I’m calling one of the cars we have in the area. If you have her number, call it. She may be fine. People are mugged every day, sir. It’s an awful thing, but it happens. If you have access to another phone, I’ll stay on while you try to reach her.”
“Give me your phone,” Charles ordered his driver. He scrolled through the phone for Melanie’s number and called it. It rang, but she didn’t answer. His heart beat painfully in his chest and he spoke to the emergency operator in a tight voice. “She’s not answering her phone.”
“I have a car on that street, sir. Keep trying her.”
After what seemed like an unsurvivable amount of time, Charles spotted Melanie on the side of the road. She was standing in the middle of a circle of people. “That’s her. Pull over,” he ground out, and began to open the back door before the limo stopped.
“Sir,” the operator said, “is she all right?”
Charles didn’t answer. He burst out of the back of the limo and sprinted across the street. In all of his life he couldn’t remember being as ready to kill someone as he was in that moment. If the man who had mugged her were still there, he wouldn’t be standing for long.
The crowd parted and Charles came to a sliding stop as he neared what looked like a scene from an action movie. Melanie had her boot firmly planted on the back of a man who had his hands tied behind his back with a belt.
She saw Charles and held up her purse triumphantly. “He mugged the wrong woman.”
Charles shook his head in disbelief as his fear was replaced with anger. “Are you insane? You could have been killed.” He took Melanie by the arm and searched her face for any sign that she’d been hurt. “Nothing in your purse is worth your life.”
The man on the ground struggled to stand, but Melanie shoved him back down. “By this guy? Shoot, he’s never seen a day of hard work in his life. I’ve wrestled newborn calves with more muscle than he has.”
With no words that could express how he felt in that moment, Charles gave in and pulled Melanie to him. He claimed her mouth, holding her tightly to him as he unleashed his emotions through a feverish kiss. She opened her mouth wider to him, welcoming him inside even though he’d given her no opportunity to deny him.
Emotions he’d long repressed surfaced even as the pleasure of finally tasting her shook him. Their tongues met and he groaned aloud. Their connection was as hot as he’d imagined it would be and, as her hands gripped his shoulders for support, he didn’t care where they were or who witnessed their kiss. He hadn’t lost her. He hadn’t failed to keep someone safe a second time.
Only the sound of applause brought him back to reality. He tore his mouth from hers and looked around. People were snapping pictures with their phones and cheering.
A police officer pushed his way through the crowd. By the time he reached them, he’d heard the story of what had happened several times as excited onlookers gushed about what they had seen.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” the officer asked.
Melanie stared at the cop wordlessly and swayed. She looked from him to Charles and back but still said nothing.
“Can you get this crazy bitch away from me?” the assailant, who was struggling to stand with his hands tied behind him, asked.
The officer hauled the man to his feet and turned him to inspect the knot around his hands. “I spent some time in the rodeo down in Abilene. Looks like I missed one hell of a takedown here.”
Melanie nodded. “Don’t mess with a Texan who’s having a bad day.”
The officer tipped his police hat to her as if it were a Stetson. “I’ve been in New York for a long time, but not long enough to forget that.” He held the man by one arm and said, “You’ll need to come down to the station and file a report.”
Melanie studied the young man’s face and said, “No. Everyone deserves a chance to turn their life around. Maybe this is his wake-up call. Can you drive him to someone who might be able to help him see that?”
“He needs to be off the streets,” Charles snarled.
“He’s only a boy,” Melanie defended hotly.
“A boy who will go right back to mugging people the moment we release him.” He turned to the officer and said,
“If he’s not eighteen, then I would think you have every right to deliver him home to whoever his guardians are.”
The police officer agreed.
Melanie looked earnestly at her assailant again and implored, “People make mistakes every day. Don’t repeat this one. You’re better than this.”
The young man spit in her direction in disgust.
Charles pulled her away from him, planting himself between them. “You little shit. You don’t deserve her sympathy. You deserve—”
Melanie stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Don’t, Charles. We don’t know what he’s been through.”
The police officer removed the belt and returned it to Melanie. He looked around the crowd as if he wanted to say more, but held his words back. In the world where everything was being recorded, it was a wise decision. “Come on,” he said to the young man and put him in the backseat of the police car. “Where is home?”
The boy said something scathing that Charles didn’t hear and, honestly, didn’t care to. “Let’s go,” Charles said after the police left. He put his hand on Melanie’s lower back to guide her, but she didn’t budge.
She touched her slightly swollen lips with one hand and shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Charles leaned down and growled into her ear. “I am this close,” he measured an inch in the air with his other hand, “to throwing you over my shoulder and carrying you to my car . . . or you can walk there with me and not make today more of a YouTube spectacle. Your choice.”
She looked around and blushed when she realized that people were still filming their exchange with their phones. She nodded and started walking with him. “Okay, but I want to go back to my hotel.”
He didn’t say anything.
He didn’t have to.
They both knew that wasn’t going to happen.
Chapter Five
Sitting a good six inches from her in the back of his limo and staring straight ahead, Charles didn’t look like a man who had just given her the most passionate kiss of her lifetime. She definitely did not imagine that. She may have been confused about many other things, but that kiss made his feelings pretty clear.
So why did she feel like she’d been called to the principal’s office for throwing a stone through a window?
Is he upset that the kiss was photographed? That’s not my fault. I didn’t ask to be mugged. And I damn well didn’t ask him to come rushing to my rescue or kiss me.
He must have given the driver instructions at the door of the limo before he’d joined her, because everyone seemed to know where they were going except her. All she knew for sure was her hotel was the other way. As the awkward silence between them stretched painfully through several traffic lights, Melanie became impatient. She folded her arms across her chest and stormed, “If you’re angry with me about something, just say it. But I won’t sit here while you give me the silent treatment. If you have nothing to say, pull the car over and let me out. I’ve had a bad enough day without this.”
He swung around to face her, and his expression robbed her of further speech. There was a confusing mix of anger and passion in his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was ragged. “You could have been killed today.”
The depth of his response to that possibility rocked her. She relived the scenario from his perspective and instantly regretted how she’d handled it. Oh my God, I told the man I was being robbed and then hung up on him. Here I am thinking he was overcome with lust for me, when really I just worried him into a grateful-but-I-would-like-to-shake-you-for-putting-me-through-this kiss.
Of all the ways she’d dreamed she could make him feel, scared for her life was not one of them. She closed her eyes for a moment, gathered her strength, opened them, and said, “I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry. I was angry and I reacted. I shouldn’t have hung up on you.”
His jaw tightened. “You shouldn’t have chased that man.”
“Not man. Boy. I bet he’s not even eighteen, Charles.”
Charles made a disgusted sound in his chest. “He had a knife. You should have pressed charges.”
Melanie met his angry gaze but could not agree, not even if she thought that doing so would improve his mood. “Don’t you want to know what brought him to the dark place he’s in?”
“I don’t care. I don’t need his backstory to know that he’s a criminal who needs to be taken off the streets.” When Melanie didn’t waver, he continued, “You have a lot to learn about surviving in a city. Watch the news tonight. The streets are full of crime. Do you want me to pretend I care about each offender? I won’t. And your concern is better saved for their victims.”
An image of the young man spitting at her on the sidewalk was still vivid in Melanie’s mind. She thought about the people who had watched her chase the boy and how they had taken pictures instead of coming to her aid, not exhibiting much compassion for victim or assailant. “First, I don’t want to learn whatever lesson you think I need. Maybe it would be overwhelming to try to care about everyone in need in the city, but I didn’t meet everyone. I met one angry kid. And you may not care if he has anyone to go home to, but I do. If you can’t understand that, then you’re not the man I thought you were.”
An angry red flush spread up his cheeks. “You have no idea what kind of man I am.”
Shaking her head, Melanie said, “Ask your driver to stop. I want to get out.”
“No,” Charles said firmly.
Still sitting with her arms crossed in front of her, Melanie said, “I wasn’t asking.”
A new light entered his eyes. Charles turned fully toward her and ran a thumb down her jaw, taking her chin in his hand to turn her face toward him. “I want you, Melanie.”
Melanie swallowed hard. Desire burst through her at his declaration, but that didn’t make it a wise choice. “I’m not going to sleep with you.”
A small smile of challenge curled his lips. “No?”
She met his eyes bravely. “No. I didn’t come to New York for this.”
He slid a possessive hand behind her neck and buried it in her hair, pulling her closer to him. “From the first moment I saw you, this is all I’ve been able to think about.” He bent and again claimed her mouth with his.
She wanted to resist him. She told herself that she’d learned her lesson with men. He wanted her now, but what would she mean to him tomorrow? Probably nothing. I’m a convenient fuck. Here today, forgotten tomorrow.
No different than Todd.
Unfortunately, even as her mind argued for sanity, her body hummed and surrendered to him. This wasn’t just any man—this was the one she’d spent months imagining doing exactly this with and who being with was far exceeding her fantasies. She was writhing against him, eager. His mouth left hers and went to her neck. He kissed it hungrily. Expertly one of his hands undid the front of her blouse and he pushed the material aside. Melanie didn’t have time to regret her practical cotton bra. He unclipped it from behind and closed his mouth on one of her exposed breasts.
Her hands gripped his shoulders as he lifted her and sat her in his lap. She closed her eyes and lost herself in the hot pleasure that shot through her each time his tongue lapped her nipple. She shuddered when his teeth playfully nipped her.
Nothing in her prior sexual experiences had prepared her for how Charles made her feel. This wasn’t the sweet tentative sex of high school. It wasn’t the quick, unsatisfying sex she’d experienced with Todd. She didn’t ask herself if this was right or wrong. There wasn’t room for thought between the waves of desire that rocked through her.
His hungry kisses brought her to tingling life until there were only two parts of her, the scorched trail of where his mouth had been and the quivering aching areas that craved his attention. He took her other breast into his mouth, and Melanie cried out his name and buried her hands in the back of his hair. He made large circles with his hot tongue, warming and building anticipation for when he’d reach her eager nipple. When he final
ly closed his teeth around it, chasing the tip of his tongue back and forth over it with quick, forceful strokes, Melanie fisted her hands and cried out again.
She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think past holding him there desperately, willing to do anything to prolong the sensations washing over her. Charles knew how to please a woman, and his every caress pushed Melanie toward a flame that threatened to consume her.
He impatiently unsnapped the front of her jeans and slid a hand down her lower back, beneath the elastic of her panties to cup her ass. His touch was more about ownership than exploration. He rubbed his hand over both of her cheeks and between, building a warm friction that had Melanie rubbing herself against the pulsing mound of his still-contained erection.
His other hand slid down her stomach, beneath the front of her panties, and sought her wet slit. Melanie shifted her position to allow him better access. Without hesitation, he slid his middle finger between her wet folds and circled her clit. Melanie threw back her head with a moan, moving herself against his hand, begging him wordlessly to continue. He ran his finger over her clit once, then again, experimenting with his rhythm until she was gasping for breath. Then he lifted his head and demanded, “Open your eyes, Melanie. Look at me.”
She did because she was incapable of not obeying him in that moment. He took her nub between his thumb and finger and began an expert gentle rub that had her biting her bottom lip. Behind her, his hand continued to knead her, gripping her more forcefully as his own breathing became more and more ragged.
She brought her mouth down on his and gripped both sides of his head as she welcomed his tongue with hers again. His thrusts were deep and relentless and she offered him more.
He slid a finger deeper inside her and she gasped into his mouth. His other hand held her slightly off him so he could thrust his finger in and out of her powerfully.