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Melanie learned to ride Sloane that night, to take full control as she set the pace for their lovemaking. And when he could hold it no more and shot his seed deep inside her she rode faster, bucking wildly, and then she screamed her orgasm out loud as her vagina walls convulsed around him.
She collapsed on top of him and he let her lie there, panting, struggling to catch her breath. Gradually her breathing slowed and when he began to stroke her back she settled more comfortably on his chest with a groan of satisfaction.
“Was it good for you?” he asked, his hand never ceasing from its caress. “Not sore?”
“It was perfect,” she said on a sigh. “I can’t believe I never tried that before.”
He chuckled, pleased that she was contented, and slid over to his side so she could nestle into him and drift off to sleep. And as Melanie slept, Sloane stroked her arm and stared, unseeing, up at the ceiling. He may have put some of her fears to rest but he had some fears of his own…
…chief of which was what the hell would Zena be coming with next?
CHAPTER TWELVE
Oh, great. Just what she needed. She was already in a bad mood after seeing Sloane’s ex the evening before and now she’d gotten up, ready to face the work day, only to realize that her friend had arrived. Yes, the same unwelcome guest who showed up every single month without fail.
But this month she’d thought things would be different. She was a married woman now, one who’d been actively trying to get pregnant. Melanie did a quick rewind in her mind. She’d been married to Sloane a month now and they’d made love at least a dozen times. Where the heck was her baby? After so many tries, shouldn’t she be good and pregnant by now?
Apparently, her body hadn’t gotten the memo. It was chugging along as per usual, totally forgetting the plan to pause along the way so she could start a family. Darn!
Now she would have to make extra effort in the coming months. Not that Sloane would mind, but it wasn’t like she had lots of time to play with. She was already thirty-four and she wanted to have her baby before she hit the ripe and troublesome age of thirty-five.
Still fuming twenty minutes later she slammed out of the house and into her car and made her way to the office. And as if her day hadn’t started off badly enough, it decided to get worse. Ken Ferguson and his team were waiting for her.
She glared at her financial controller. “You could at least have waited till I settled down before camping out in my office.”
Ken shook his head. “This is serious, Melanie. It can’t wait.”
“Okay,” she said with a sigh. She knew she wouldn’t like what was coming. “Give me ten minutes.” She glanced over at the two men and the woman who had accompanied Ken. “Meet me in conference room C. I’ll be there shortly.”
She watched them gather up their papers and laptop computers and as they exited her office she drew in a long and steadying breath. She needed these few minutes alone to focus.
As CEO she’d taken her father’s multimillion dollar company to a billion-dollar enterprise and although there’d been some obstacles along the way she’d overcome them all eventually. Lady Luck had been on her side all these years but now it looked like the lovely lady was planning on throwing her overboard. Her latest acquisition had been a disaster, she realized, but how bad was it, really? She tightened her lips. From the look on the faces of the finance team things must be really bad.
And to think she’d bought the new company specifically for the purpose of revitalizing her existing one. The fact was, Parker Broadcasting had not achieved growth forecast in the past two years and needed an infusion of new technology, new ideas. And then her COO told her about Rapid Films. New technology to the rescue. Or so she’d thought. Instead, she’d added another woe to her already long list.
She picked up the phone. “Tamara, can you arrange for coffee for conference room C, please?” With what she was about to face, Melanie had a feeling she’d need that plus a shot of gin.
With a grimace she grabbed her laptop and headed for conference room C.
***
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Not the most polite greeting but Sloane didn’t give a damn. Zena had bullied both his receptionist and his personal assistant into letting her through to his private office and, not wanting her to create a scene – which, if she was like the Zena he used to know, she would very likely do – he’d allowed it.
But now she was here, behind the closed door of his office, and there was no longer any reason to feign courtesy. “And what kind of stunt was that you pulled on Sunday, showing up at Patrick’s house without warning? You knew I was there, didn’t you?”
“Of course, darling,” Zena said in her best film star voice. “I called Marc and he told me I’d find you at Patrick’s.”
Son of a…Sloane clenched his fist. He would have to exchange a few choice words with Marc. But that was for later. Right now he had a witch in his office, one who was certainly up to no good. It was time to get rid of her.
“Just state your business and then go.” Still standing by his desk, he folded his arms across his chest and scowled at her.
“My business, dear Sloane,” she said, her voice suspiciously sweet, “is not so much with you as with your wife.”
Sloane’s jaw almost dropped. He caught himself just in time. “My wife? You don’t even know her.”
“Oh, but I do.” Zena came farther into the office, her movements as seductive as a cat, as she came to stand just a few feet away from Sloane. “Everybody knows Melanie Parker of Parker Broadcasting, heiress to a billion-dollar empire.”
Sloane looked at her askance. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, my dear sweet Sloane, that I have you by the you know what.” She was even closer now, so close that Sloane could see a fleck of gold in her eyes. “You hurt me. You walked out on me when I needed you most, and I never forgot that.”
“I walked out on you?” Sloane stared back at her, incredulous. “You were the one who defiled our relationship by cheating.” The woman was obviously deranged, living in a totally warped reality.
“You could have forgiven me,” she said, her voice rising with her anger. “I was searching, trying to find myself. That was all it was. He meant nothing to me, but you did.”
“Yeah, right.” He regarded her with disgust. “Not even a fool without a brain would believe that.”
“Well, it’s true.” Her nostrils flared and her chest rose and fell with her agitated breathing. “I had to talk to you, to explain, but you refused all my calls. You even had me thrown out of your office building. Well, after that, I was left with no other option but to hate you. It was either that or go mad.”
Sloane stared at her in disbelief. “You left and went to Europe, Zena. You started a new life, a damn successful one at that. Are you telling me that you’ve held on to your hatred of me all these years?”
“Yes,” she spat, “and all these years I’ve wanted to find a way to get my revenge. Touching you would be too easy. Now you have someone in your life who you loved enough to marry. She’s my target.”
At her words a flash of panic went through him but, just as fast, it turned to anger. Fingers itching to reach out and grab her, he clenched his hands at his sides. “You are literally mad,” he said through gritted teeth. “You’ve been bearing a grudge for ten years for something you did, not me. I asked you to marry me, you fool.”
“Yes, and then you dumped me.”
“For good reason.”
“For something we could have worked out.”
Sloane raised his eyebrows at that and then he shook his head. He’d been one hundred percent right. The woman was off her rocker. How could she have stayed silent all these years, living a grand life as a movie star in Europe, and then, as soon as he got married…
And then it dawned on him. That was what had triggered this. She must have seen the announcement of the engagement and then the photos of the wedding. The paparazzi were everywhere. The tabloids had had a field day with both stories. He wasn’t surprised at all that she’d found out.
The media attention on him must have brought the old grudge to the fore and so she’d come back to torture him. And he wasn’t going to believe that cock-and-bull story about shooting a scene in Montreal. Too much of a coincidence. No, she’d orchestrated the whole thing so that she could come back and create havoc in his life.
“If you so much as harm one hair on-”
“Too late, honey,” Zena smirked. “The deed is already done.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Sloane’s hands shot out. He grasped Zena by the upper arms and dragged her to within inches of his face. He wasn’t in the habit of manhandling women but this was not the time for self control. “What have you done to Melanie?”
