Melinas Men

Chapter Eleven.

Chapter Eleven.

For the first time in a long time I thought about s*x. I dreamt about s*x. With Jack. I had never had s*x but I had come close once. And this wasn’t the olden days, I still knew what it was and what it looked like. And thinking about it with Jack was amazing. But I definitely wasn’t ready for that, I still wasn’t ready to indefinitely shame my family. I knew that if this was just a phase, and I had s*x with Jack and then went back to reality and married a prince or an aristocrat then they would have no idea that I was tainted. The only way they’d knew is if the whole world knew. But even thinking about it made me cringe, after our date, I didn’t think this was a phase. Maybe Jack did, but I didn’t. And I had so much to lose, but so much to gain.

“We’re going out today,” my dad told me as we spent the morning in the reading room having breakfast together while we read the papers.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He laughed, “don’t worry you don’t have to come.”

“I wasn’t worried about that, you know you have to force me to do anything, I won’t go easily,” I smirked, glancing up at him for a moment.

“Oh I know,” he mused. My dad was my favourite. I loved both my parents dearly of course, but my mum was so high strung, and dad was the opposite, balancing her out.

“It’s just business stuff, nothing exciting but both your mother and I are going,” he told me.

“Sounds super fun,” I rolled my eyes.

“Very much so.” He stopped talking to me. My dad was very peculiar like that, he dropped in and out of conversations all the time, you never knew if he was still talking to you or not.

And after a couple of minutes he spoke again, “Prince Eric will be back in a few day.”

“Yes, I know,” I said in an unamused tone.

Dad looked over at me above his glasses, “you’re not interested?”

“He seems very plain,” I said, trying to not think of the time he was in my bedroom.

“Plain could be good,” dad said, “he’s probably the best suited for you so far.”

“Second best,” I corrected him.

He fell silent for a while.

“You can’t dwell on that forever Melina, there’s nothing we can do about it. You need to move on.”

I then realised for once, that Sebastian wasn’t who I meant, it was Jack. Maybe dad was right, I was finally moving on.

“Easier said than done, isn’t it?”

“I know dear, but it’s life,” he went back to his reading.

And that was that.

He didn’t speak to me again, and I was stuck in my thoughts. I could still remember Sebastian, of course, I had one image that always stayed in the back of my mind. It was the time he proposed to me. Down on one knee, looking up at me with a bright but nervous smile, his light chocolate skin and dark eyes were radiating from the reflection of the sun. His buzz cut he once had had grown out a bit. He was ruggedly handsome. But it wasn’t as vivid as it had always been, it was slowly fading and Jack took the spotlight in my mind. It made me feel guilty, but I knew Seb, he wouldn’t want me to wallow for the rest of my life. He’d want me to take the risk to be happy, even if it was a huge risk. That was Seb, carefree. It made me feel better to think about his nature. Seb. I hadn’t called him Seb in a long time, not even in my head.

I finally snapped out of my thoughts to realise I was left alone in the reading room.

I stayed a while longer, trying to read, but the words all mushed together as my mind was somewhere else. My parents were out for the day. And it was apparent that Carmichael wasn’t using Jack for his intended purpose so we were both free for the day!

We sat on the bench at the servants verandah having a few beers with some cheese and crackers, just enjoying each other’s company in the daylight while we had the time.

“No, I’ve never been out of the country!” I squealed in laughter as Jack pressed the issue.

“What do you mean? Isn’t that what royal families did?” He looked at me with wide eyes and an open mouth, trying not to laugh.

“My parents never take us,” I told him.

“That’s just cruel, although I do wish maybe they’d go away for a week,” he shrugged.

I slapped his arm, “Michael did get to go to Barcelona and a few other places, he told them it was for ‘school’,” I used quotation marks because none of us except my parents believed it was for school.

“And it wasn’t for school?” Jack looked at me with a crease brow.

“He claims it was but obviously not,” we both laughed.

Jack looked at me seriously for a moment, making me try to stop laughing. He pushed some hair out of my face.

“I love when you’re happy,” he told me.

“What do you mean, I’m always happy,” I smiled at him.

He shook his head, “no, I watch you, you never smile unless you’re here with me.”

“Because you make me happy,” I regretted how corny I was as soon as I said it.

Jack leant back and looked forward, taking a sip of his beer, “I’m going to take you to Europe one day.”

“Is that right?” I looked at him, enjoying the fact he was thinking about the future.

He looked back over to me, “yep.”

“Okay,” I laughed and we both looked forward out to the horizon, sipping our beers.

“Eric kissed me,” I blurted out of no where.

“I was wondering when that was going to come up,” Jack said.

I looked over to him and he was still looking ahead, acting like it was nothing, but I could see the veins in his neck pulsating.

“You knew?” I asked, “why didn’t you say anything?”

“I was waiting until you did,” he finally looked over at me.

His expression was hard until he saw my face and it softened a little, not completely.

“You knew his plan?” I asked, feeling frustrated by this.

He shrugged, “I knew he was going to your bedroom to say goodbye to you, not that he’d kiss you. And I couldn’t really tell him no, she’s mine.”

“So you didn’t know he literally forced himself on me while I was passed out half naked?” I asked, glaring at him.

His eyes widened in surprise, “that happened? I just thought he embellished and you pecked him out of politeness.”

“I’m not that polite, I woke up to him sitting on my bed while I was asleep in my underwear, then he pretty much pounced on me. For a lack of a better word.”

Jack’s face was red now, I don’t think he’d taken a breath in a while.

He finished the rest of his beer and put it down, pulling me towards him and wrapped his arms around me.

“I’m sorry he did that, I’ll f*****g kill him,” he rocked me back and forth, my face on his chest.

“It’s really okay, I just felt like I had to tell you,” I said into his chest.

He laughed, his chin vibrating on top of my head, “you feel guilty about not telling me even though you did nothing wrong.”

I shrugged.

“You’re so beautiful.”

I looked up at him and gave him a quick kiss, “no, you are.”

“You’re meant to say I’m handsome, Melina.”

“And you’re handsome,” I kissed him again.

“And sweet,” another kiss.

“And sexy,” another one.

“And so good to me,” one last one for good measure.

The last one he held onto my face, making my quick peck into something more. I moved my hand to his face and snaked my tongue out to dance with his. After a couple of moments his lips parted from mine and our foreheads met. We stayed like that for a moment.

“I have no idea why you want to be with me,” he began, speaking softly to me, “I know I don’t deserve you. But I need you.”

I moved my forehead from his and peered up at him, he looked so stoic and serious, this was serious. Already, we were serious. I don’t know how so quickly, but I could see he felt what I felt.

“You deserve everything you want. And I am yours, I know that much.”