Melinas Men

Chapter Fifteen.

Chapter Fifteen.

The next few days were a blur. I hated to admit it but I was heartbroken by Jack. I spent my days avoiding everyone I could, especially the two men. And I was doing a good job of it. When I was home I stayed in my room, the reading room and with the dogs. I could tell my family was starting to worry about me but were also leaving me alone. I stayed away from the pub at night knowing Jack would expect me there, even if he was trying to look for me, I didn’t know. Georgia hadn’t said much and I also kept my distance from her.

I hadn’t felt like this in a long time and the last time I felt this I thought it was remorse, but now I knew it was heartbreak.

I decided to get as far away as I could, I walked to the forest along the property line and along the rocks to the place that Jack once took me, I know it was stupid going to a place he knew, but I don’t think he was even looking for me. And this place was beautiful and I wanted to see it at sunset again without any distractions. I climbed the rocks until I got to the spot, it was clear and the grass was green and the sky a deep blue almost ready to set. I sat down in the clearing and just soaked it in. I brought my earphones with me and just waited for the sunset.

I must have dozed off because I woke up laying on the grass and it was nightfall. I looked around panicking, I don’t know this place well enough to get out safely, id probably fall and break my neck. I sat for a while trying to figure out what to do. I couldn’t stay out here that’s for sure, I couldn’t call anyone to come get me. Knowing my family they’d send out a huge search party like I had been missing for days, and I wouldn’t hear the end of it. I would have to try and make my way down, even if it was on my butt.

“You can doing it, Melly,” I heard a voice whisper by my ear.

“What the?” my head whipped to where the voice was coming from. I knew that deep rasping voice.

I could feel their breath on my ear but it couldn’t be, it sent tingles down my spine.

I got up as quick as I could and ran towards the property.

I made it halfway down the hill before I lost my footing and fell backwards and skidded the rest of the way down.

I heard my wrist crunch as I tried to save myself in the fall, “f**k!”

“Melina?” This time I knew that voice, and I wasn’t going to fight it this time. I was in pain and freaked out of my mind.

“Jack! I’m over here,” I called back to him.

I heard rustling through the trees until Jack’s figure was in front of me, he lifted me up onto my feet and instantly I wrapped my arms around him tightly and tried not to cry. So many different emotions came up from hearing the name Melly. No one had called me Melly in five years.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay? What are you doing out here?” Jack pulled me away from him, looking down into my eyes.

“I’m fine, I hurt my wrist,” I told him, holding it close to my chest.

Jack put his arm around me and walked me out of the forest, “what are you doing out here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” I looked at him. Very convenient being out in the woods and finding me.

“Georgia said she saw you walk out here hours ago, and when she never saw you come back she came and told me,” he stated, very quick and believable.

So he didn’t care, he was just following Georgia’s orders.

“So are you going to tell me why?” He looked down at me.

I couldn’t help but feel a flutter when his eyes bore right through mine.

“I went out to that spot to watch the sunset and must have fallen asleep,” I looked down at my feet, embarrassed.

And then surprisingly Jack kissed the top of my head, “you scared me.”

“What do you care?” I said grumpily, not expecting an answer.

Jack stopped and twisted me by my shoulders so I was looking at him. We were at the property line now so I could see him better with the lights coming through from the house.

“You think I don’t care about you?” Jack asked.

I looked down, with no answer.

Jack lifted my chin up with his fingers, “I suggested my stupid f*****g idea because I do care about you Melina. So much that I don’t want you to lose everything over me, but I can’t live without you either.”

“Isn’t that my choice to make?” I asked.

“Look, I’ll kiss you here right now, no matter who’s watching. I’ll march straight to your parents and tell them right now, but you need to be sure.”

I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face, and Jack noticed it too as his face mirrored mine, “maybe not the parents thing just yet.”

He put his hand on my jaw and leant down and kissed me, I welcomed it, feeling rebellious as hell. But also in love once again, so quickly.

“Now that that’s settled, let’s get you back home,” he put his arm back around me and we walked towards the house silently, but not awkwardly. And I completely forgot what happened up on the hill.

I woke up that morning with Jack in my bed, his chest against my back and his arms around me tightly. After strapping my wrist last night we realised it was way too late for anyone to be up to see him come into my room. And since everyone had been leaving me alone, there wasn’t a chance of anyone barging in. A knock on the door maybe, but highly unlikely. It felt nice to actually sleep beside someone, other than my sister on the odd occasion she was scared or upset, more so when we were younger. He was strong against me, yet soft. I wanted this every night. But then that made me think even more about the serious stuff. He said he was willing to let everyone know if that’s what I wanted, but that also meant he would lose everything. Even more so than me. My family was my blood, they could forgive me. But Prince Eric and King Angus would drop him like a sack of potatoes for this betrayal. If my family accepted him then that could be all fine, but if they didn’t we were out on our asses with nothing.

It made me think of if there was an easier option, I thought back to Eric’s proposal and Jack’s plan. Hell no! But then that made me think of marriage, was there anyone else I’d want to marry over Jack? Or at all in that fact? That voice, there had only ever been one man. And he belonged to that voice.

I heard footsteps down the halls before I could think any more about it.

“Jack,” I whispered, shaking him lightly, “people are up.”

Jack stirred in his sleep and rolled away from me, I watched the muscles clench in his back as he tried to relax again. I shook him harder.

“Jack, I’m serious, you have to get up.”

“Fine,” he grumbled, rolling onto his back, “they won’t come in here.”

“They might,” I countered, sitting up in bed.

He looked over at me, his eyes barely open, “what happened to shouting it from the rooftops?”

I smiled and shook my head, “not like this.”

I looked down at us both barely clothed.

Jack leant up and pulled me down by the back of my neck, kissing me passionately, causing my to lose my train of thought.

He then got up and put his clothes on quickly, “I’ll see you later, precious.”

After becoming fully clothed he leant one knee on the bed and kissed me again, quickly. Before climbing out my window, god knows how he was going to make his way back to staff quarters from there.

I fell back into the bed, wondering how the hell I had turned into this mischievous person, but I liked it.

And just at that moment, like clockwork, there was a banging on my door.