Melody's Six

CHAPTER10

Still buried deep inside her,his heart pounding, Dean thought he could hold Mel like this for hours. Forever.

Except they were on an assignment and they’d been through enough personal revelations for one day. Long ago, he’d sworn off the concept of long-term relationships. He wasn’t interested in being that vulnerable again. He sure as hell didn’t need more proof that he was so easy to walk away from.

Mel made him want to rethink everything. With her, what he’d considered impossible suddenly seemed ideal. She wasn’t a stranger. He trusted her with his life. He wasn’t the most sentimental type, but after watching her come apart under him, he couldn’t imagine going back to just working together. He wouldn’t bail on the Athena Project, but he sure didn’t want to settle for something as loosely defined as partners with benefits.

“Holy cow, Dean.” She sounded as satisfied as he felt, her voice as warm and rich as melted butter. “Pretty sure my legs will be jelly for hours.”

“Better brace yourself for an encore.” Grinning, he kissed her quickly, then slid out of bed to dispose of the condom. Her happy sigh followed him.

But when he returned, she wasn’t in the bed. Mel, her sexy body wrapped toga-style in the bedsheet, sat at the table. “Come eat.” She patted the other chair. “We should refuel if you’re serious about that encore.”

He was serious all right. He grabbed sweatpants from his suitcase and joined her at the table. The sandwiches were cold, but that didn’t diminish the flavor at all. Besides, Mel was what he truly craved.

Under the table, he touched his knee to hers, savoring the contact.

Her phone chimed and she glanced around, searching for the device.

“Ignore it,” he said. After the fiasco this morning, they should be entitled to have the rest of the day off. It wouldn’t work that way, but a man could hope. “We have better things to do.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know we can’t. It could be Beck.”

That got him moving. Beck might be calling in a warning that the authorities were rolling in to gather up Atwell and any cronies he’d brought along from Afghanistan. He found her phone and tossed it to her. “Not Beck. Lacy.”

Mel groaned.

“Bad news?” he queried.

“Probably.” She turned the phone so he could see it. “Spalding called an emergency meeting. Six o’clock tonight at the lodge.”

“Unless there’s an issue with blood, dismemberment or fire we are not going.”

She reached over and patted his thigh. “We’re going. It’s our job.”

He grumbled, but she was right. He went to the mini-fridge for another bottle of water for each of them when his phone buzzed with an incoming phone call. Hers followed half a second later.

They looked at each other. “Beck,” they said in unison.

He couldn’t stop the smile. At least falling into bed with her hadn’t undermined the ease of their original connection.

“Hi, Beck,” Mel answered. “We’re both here and you’re on speaker.” She held the phone between them.

“Great. First off, thanks for the update. You’re both okay, right?”

“We are,” Mel answered.

“Good. I’ve seen the bare bones of the initial report from the sheriff’s office.”

“Let me guess,” Dean leaned closer, one hand braced on the back of Mel’s chair. “They don’t have a lead.”

“No, but they will follow through,” Beck assured him. “Have you looked at the drone video yet?”

“We haven’t,” Mel replied. “It’s taken me a while to calm down enough to think straight again.”

Dean’s thoughts scrambled at the sultry heat in her big brown eyes.

“Understandable,” Beck sympathized. “I’ve been through everything that was uploaded to the cloud account a few times. I’d like to have your take on it though. Do you have time to log in now or are you needed elsewhere?”

He’d rather take Mel back to bed, but that was more about wants than needs. The important issue was resolving the situation, for her safety and his peace of mind.

“Absolutely,” Mel replied. “Give me just a second.”

Dean brought her laptop over to the table. “Did the drone catch anything helpful about the shooter?” he asked as Mel opened the device and got connected.

“Not exactly,” Beck admitted. “We can confirm the general location where the shots came from. The sheriff will get to that site soon enough and go over it with a fine-tooth comb.”

Beck remained as cool and composed as ever. Being unflappable was one more reason why she was the perfect leader for the Athena Project. “Despite your discovery of a war lord in Colorado, the studio is our client and I want to keep them happy. Ease up,” she added, as if fully aware Dean was about to protest. “I’m not letting Atwell off the hook, but first things first. When the studio learned what happened at the park, they called me for a report and explanation.”

He was more than a little grateful that he didn’t have to deal directly with clients. “How did they hear about this already?”

“Someone in the scouting group called the studio in a serious tizzy about Spalding’s near murder.” Beck sighed. “Something about working on a cursed project. I had no idea filmmakers could be so superstitious.”

“I doubt it would help anything even if we could tell them Spalding might not have been the target.”

Mel glared at Dean. “Not like we have a pile of proof that I was the target.”