Page 10 of His Favorite Melody

“I was just thinking this has got to be the weirdest walk of shame.” I want to yell at him and pound on his chest and demand he tell me where he was all night. But I don’t have the right. Just yesterday I told him he needed to take some time off.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Mel? Where do you think I went after I left you?”

I shrug and do my best to appear nonchalant. “I have no idea.”

“The police station.”

I suck in a breath and nearly choke on my own saliva. “Did you get arrested? Why didn’t you call me? I would have come with bail money.”

He stares at me, those sultry brown eyes of his locked on my face. Then he laughs.

Like the kind of deep belly laugh that makes you feel like you’ve done sit-ups the next day. I poke him in his side. “What is so funny?”

He wipes at his eyes. “You, beautiful. You’re funny. And talented and gorgeous and so incredibly sexy and you have one hell of an imagination on you.”

I feel like I might have emotional whiplash. Is that a thing? Because the unending question of what Hayes and I are to each other is still left in the air.

“Okay, I take it you weren’t arrested,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.

“No, I wasn’t arrested. But that creep from the concert last night was. He has a history of sexual assault and stalking and he’d been one of your most frequent visitor to your DM’s. Once the cops figured out that he was messaging you from more than one account.”

“Wow. I guess I shouldn’t be that upset you’ve been hiding those things from me.” I roll my eyes. “I was being ridiculous last night, whining about not getting enough attention from admirers.”

“Had I known that’s what you’d end up thinking—that you’re undesirable—I never would have started deleting them. I didn’t mean to make you doubt yourself.”

“So you were at the police station all night, for me? Working for me?”

He nods. “Come here.” He wraps an arm around me, pulling me into an embrace. “You have no idea how much I hated leaving you last night. Especially last night.”

My heart is thundering, and maybe I don’t want to know the real answer, but I can’t NOT know. “Guess our moment passed, huh?”

He leans back. “What?”

Okay, I didn’t actually ask before so now I’ve got to pull up my big girl panties and rip off the band aid. Yeah, that’s a mixed up metaphor but whatever. “Last night. I don’t want to assume it meant anything more than what it was.”

I don’t even realize I’m crying until he swipes a thumb across my cheek. “Hey, sweetheart, what is it?”

“You left and said you were coming back. Then you didn’t and Zeke was here and I guess my mind went to all the negative places.”

“You thought I didn’t want you?”

I shrug, giving him a watery smile.

“Nothing could be further from the truth.” He leans over and kisses my cheeks, effectively kissing away my tears. “The entire time I’ve known you, I’ve fought my attraction to you. I told myself that as long as I was close to you, that it would be enough. Last night proved to me, nothing will ever be enough with you. I’m sorry that I hid all those things from you and made you doubt yourself. But I want to be the one to write love notes to you. I want to be the one that gives you flowers, and I want to be the one that’s in your bed. Not just one night. All of the nights. Melody, you’re it for me.”

“I want all of your nights too. I always have.”

He stands and grabs my hand, pulling me to him. “Can we pick up where we left off last night?”

I nod enthusiastically.

He stops once we get to my bedroom. “I should probably shower first.”

“No. I don’t want to wait any longer. I want us to be together, Hayes. I want to belong to you.”

We kiss, standing at the foot of the bed. How he manages to soak my panties with a single swipe of his tongue is a mystery.

He pulls back. “Before we continue, you need to know something,” he says.