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“Oh honey,” Mel soothed, reaching to touch me again, this time leaving her hand planted on my knee. “Are you… kinda… in a dry spell yourself?”
“Melanie!” David scolded. “Could you not…”
“It’s just a question!” she defended. “She doesn’t have to answer. You don’t have to answer,” she repeated to me. “I just know sometimes inspiration inanyarea can get hard when there hasn’t been any…release,” she half-whispered, with a little squeeze of her hand. “Everybody goes through dry spells, even married – hell,especially –married couples. So it’s important to try different things, keep it fresh, have new experiences, you know?”
She’d been easing closer to me as she spoke, to the point that she was almost right beside me now. Instead of having to reach to touch me, our arms were practically brushing against each other.
“Mel… babe, you’re doing too much,” David said, in this warning sort of tone that still, somehow, seemed rather amused.
“You think so? I don’t think so,” she said, turning to me with a smile. Her gaze dropped from mine to scan my body, forjust shortof what would’ve been uncomfortably long. An uneasy feeling started in the pit of my stomach, just before she moved from cupping my knee to grabbing my hand. “Ithink that maybe we could help Dacia with her inspiration problem.” She met my confused, questioning gaze with another smile. “David is rather… gifted,” she smirked. “And very,verygenerous. I promise, you’d leave here with something to write about.”
“Mel…”
“Just – come to our room for some drinks,” she suggested, andthatwas the thing that made me pull my hand away. Not that I was exactly comfortable withanyof this suddenly-confusing exchange, but all I heard now was that they were trying to get me intoxicated in their room.
I no longer felt safe.
“Babe, there you are—I’ve been looking all over this place for you.”
The soothing effect of Isaiah’s voice was nearly instantaneous, and the sight of his face?
I could cry with relief.
“You making some new friends?” he asked,clearlyamused as he looked back and forth between Melanie and David.
David took the opportunity to introduce himself and Melanie, while I just watched.
“So I seeinspirationisn’t the problem,” Mel teasingly whispered to me, nudging me with her shoulder. “Whatever that man is planning to do to you, looking likethat… write that shit down. Instant bestseller,” she declared, then stood, looping her arm through her husband’s. “Babe, let’s order our food, and leave these two lovebirds alone.”
Lovebirds?
“Woman, Iknowyou’re not trying to rushmeoff, like you weren’t just trying to scis—”
“Shut up andwalk,” Mel laughed, and they went on, just over to the pool area bar.
Isaiah just watched.
“Hey,” I said, popping up from where I’d been sitting to get beside him. “They were trying to get me to go to their room and drink. I don’t feel right about it. Like they…”
“Wanted to fuck you?” Isaiah filled in with a grin, presenting a possibility that… hadnotbeen the first thing on my mind. “Why do you look so surprised?”
I pulled my eyebrows down, shaking my head. “I… I don’t… that’s just not what I thought. I thought… they wanted to kidnap me.”
“Well, yes,” Zay agreed. “Just not for nefarious reasons.”
“Still. I’ll pass.”
He smirked. “You sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” I snapped, returning to my seat, and putting my sunglasses back on.
Now that I knew I wasn’tactuallyin danger, I hoped Zay would move on, back to wherever he’d been lurking before. Instead, he joined me on the wide chaise, taking up more than his share of space.
“Thatinspirationthing Mel said to you. What was that about?”
“You heard that?”
He shot me a look, then nodded. “Uh, yeah, half the pool did. Mel is very drunk, and very loud.”
