Kyle propped his head on his hand as he walked his fingers up Melanie’s belly toward her breasts. She watched his fingers with an amused expression that warmed his heart. Another week had passed, July had given way to August, and her summer class was ending soon.
And with every passing day, his need to make her his mate increased. However, it still wasn’t the incessant compulsion he heard his siblings discuss. He didn’t know what would happen if he reached maturity and their bond still wasn’t complete, but it was a problem he’d face if it arose.
Until then, he was happy to let this continue the way it was. And he was enjoying every second of it.
Melanie ran her fingers down Kyle’s chest and frowned when she noticed a faint, white mark on his chest, almost directly over his heart. She’d seen him naked a lot over the past couple of weeks, and she’d greedily explored his body during those times, but she’d never noticed the mark before.
“What’s this?” she asked.
Kyle glanced at where her fingers rested on his chest. He’d sustained the injury, which was only a faint scar now, when he fell in an abandoned bear trap as a kid. If it weren’t for his brother-in-law, Stefan, he would have died.
“A childhood accident,” he replied.
To distract her from asking more, he kissed her as a knock sounded on the apartment door.
“I’ve got it!” Lucy yelled from the living room. “Don’t let anything interrupt your fun!”
Kyle snorted as he broke off the kiss. “She’s subtle.”
“About as subtle as a hammer to the head,” Melanie agreed.
The door creaked open as he kissed her again. The distant murmur of voices drifted through the door, but he didn’t pay any attention to them until a knock sounded on it.
“Melanie, can you please come out here?” Lucy asked.
Melanie didn’t like the sound of her friend’s voice, and Lucy wouldn’t interrupt them unless it were something important.
“Be right there!” she called.
Kyle leaned back to let her up, and she scooted down to the end of the bed. She grabbed her discarded sweatpants and tugged them on before pulling on a T-shirt and a hoodie.
Behind her, Kyle’s clothes rustled as he tugged on his jeans. She didn’t look back as she hurried over to the door and opened it. Lucy’s pale face greeted her; she hovered nervously on the other side.
“Is everything okay?” Melanie asked.
Lucy’s eyes darted away, and Melanie followed her gaze to the tall, thin man standing by their front door. Her heart battered her ribs as the blood drained from her face and her stomach plunged into her toes. More gray streaked his hair and tinged his temples since she last saw him. His smile didn’t reach the eyes so similar in hue to hers.
She managed to get enough control over herself to leave the room and close the door behind her. Kyle was dressing, but she hoped he would decide to stay in there.
“Melanie,” the man greeted.
“Da-Dad,” she stammered and glanced at Lucy, who stared helplessly back at her. “What are you doing here?”
“Now, is that any way to greet your father?”
Before she had a chance to reply, the door opened behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder at Kyle. Most girls would be mortified to have a man come out of their room in front of their father, but she wasn’t embarrassed.
No, she felt terrified.
Her father rarely came to see her, and he never visited without giving notice. The fact he’d shown up here without any warning was not good. Not only that, but he might say something to scare Kyle away.
“And who is this?” her father asked.
Melanie stared helplessly at Kyle before looking at Lucy again. Her friend looked like she was staring at a walking, talking viper with a lisp.
“Dad, this is Kyle,” Melanie said in a voice she barely recognized as hers. “Kyle, this my father.”
Her father, ever the oddity he was, smiled. Many dads probably wouldn’t be so happy to meet the man screwing their daughter, but not her dad. No, her dad was a consummate charmer.
He probably thought he might be able to recruit Kyle to their side. Ever the opportunist, he would see Kyle as a strong, healthy young man he could use for his nefarious pursuits.
Melanie shuddered at the possibility and gripped her elbows as she hugged herself. She would never let that happen.
“Hello, Kyle.” Her father crossed the room to him and extended his hand. “I’m Arthur Hall.”
Kyle wasn’t entirely sure how to take the man who was a good two inches taller and twenty pounds lighter than him. The man seemed friendly enough, but Melanie’s distress was nearly palpable, and she looked anything but happy to see her dad. Because of that, his guard remained up around the man.
“Hello, sir,” he said as he shook Arthur’s hand.
“Please, call me Arthur. Sir was my father, and it makes me feel old.”
“Okay then, Arthur.”
Melanie resisted the impulse to rip Kyle’s hand away from her father’s as she gazed between them. Please, don’t fall for his crap.
She’d seen her dad ensnare many in his web before; he’d swallowed them all whole. She would not let that happen to Kyle. When they released each other, she sighed in relief.
“What are you doing here, Dad?” she asked again.
“I came to visit my daughter; is there something wrong with that?”
There were many things wrong with that, but she didn’t say so. She didn’t know what to say or do with Kyle standing there. She did not want him to know anything about her past or the craziness of her life and dad.
Again, she looked to Lucy. The sad resignation in her friend’s eyes frightened Melanie.
He’s here to take us back. The realization hit her like a bullet between the eyes, and she took a startled step back.
That was why he was here. He planned to force them back, but she wouldn’t let it happen.
She didn’t know why, after all these years, he’d decided they couldn’t stay anymore, but she would not leave. She and Lucy were finally happy, or as happy as they could be given their screwed-up formative years, but they were making a life here, and she wouldn’t return to the dungeon of her childhood.
“Now isn’t a good time,” she said.
Kyle probably considered her a coldhearted bitch or believed something was really wrong with her family, and he’d be right. But she couldn’t embrace her father, and she couldn’t pretend to be excited to see him when she wanted to shove him back out the door.
When Arthur looked at him again, Kyle knew the man was waiting for him to excuse himself. However, he sensed Melanie’s apprehension, and unless she asked him to leave, he wasn’t going.
“I’m sure you can make some time,” her father said. “It has been so long since we’ve talked.”
He managed to make her question if he was upset about her callous reaction to his arrival. It was better if she got this over with now.
She clasped Kyle’s hand and squeezed it. “I have to speak with my father alone.”
“Are you sure you want me to go?” Kyle asked.
No! Melanie screamed inside her head, but she kept it suppressed. She had to do this.
“Yes. I’ll call you in a little bit, okay?”
He glanced at her father, who looked at them with open curiosity. Something about the man did not sit right with him at all.
“Call me if you need anything,” he told her.
“I will.”
Kyle clasped her cheeks in his palms and tenderly kissed her forehead. He reluctantly released her and turned to her father. “It was nice to meet you, Arthur.”
It wasn’t. He hated Melanie’s reaction to this man, but he couldn’t be outright rude to him until she confirmed she didn’t want him around. And she was not doing that by asking him to leave.
Arthur’s smile was warm, and Kyle was sure many found it contagious, but something about it was wrong, and his reaction to discovering him here didn’t feel right either. The man wasn’t at all astounded by his presence in Melanie’s apartment.
That realization caused the hair on Kyle’s nape to rise, but he had no idea what it meant. Maybe Arthur was good at hiding his shock over discovering a man in his daughter’s apartment.
He knew it wasn’t because it happened often. Melanie didn’t often talk about her past, but he knew it had been a while since she saw her father. They’d also already had the past relationship discussion.
And Kyle had no doubt she’d told him the truth about her previous relationships, just as he’d told her the truth about his past. She wasn’t exactly thrilled with his history, but he intended to prove to her that’s not who he was. She was it for him, and as time passed, she would learn that.
She’d been with three other men, so unless her father had somehow managed to walk in on them here too, he shouldn’t be this nonchalant over finding Kyle here. Hell, even if he had walked in on them all, Arthur still shouldn’t be this indifferent to finding Kyle here.
“It was nice to meet you too, Kyle,” Arthur said. “I hope we can have dinner while I’m in town.”
“I’d like that,” Kyle lied.
He kissed Melanie again before looking at Lucy. Her skin was abnormally pale, and the usually vibrant girl stared at him with an almost pleading look in her brown eyes.
He would leave, but he wouldn’t go far. He couldn’t fight against Melanie spending time with her father, but he could stay close in case she or Lucy needed anything.
“Call me if you need anything too,” he told Lucy.
Lucy managed a small smile. “We’ll see you soon.”
Kyle strode over to the door, pulled on his sneakers, and left the apartment. He jogged down the stairs and out the front door. Once there, he slipped into the shadows of a nearby building to watch the front door.