Perfect Harmony by Sarah P. Lodge

by the time
they’re thirty.”
    “Firstly, I’m not thirty.  Secondly, when you have all I
have, marriage is something that holds more gravitas than for most.  Someone
like me must have a wife who it makes practical sense to marry.  Someone from
the same stock and heiress to another’s empire.  And she must bear a son for me
to pass my empire on to.”
    “How romantic.”
    “Romance is irrelevant,” I say.  “Marriage is a matter of
business and pragmatism.  For me, at least.”
    Her face drops and her gaze returns to the floor.  “So
that’s why you’re going to marry Mercedes Bell.”
    To hear Melody mention that bitches’s name... a feeling of
deep anger and irritation rushes through me.
    “No.  That’s why I was going to, or at least was
planning on it.”
    Melody looks up at me and her eyes are huge under the
blinding white light of the overhead chandelier.
    “What happened?”
    “She gave me an ultimatum.  If I didn’t propose then she was
going to leave me and shack up with some other poor bastard.  I don’t take
kindly to being threatened.”
    “But I thought our whole revenge scenario, it was for your
benefit too - to make her jealous.”
    “It was, at first.  Now I never want to see her again.”
    Melody’s lips tremble.  “What changed?”
    I cup her cheek with my hand and raise her head toward me. 
Our eyes meet and the rest of the world fades to black.
    “I met you.”  I scan the length of her body, taking in her
shoes and her dress and her hair and her makeup.  “The real you.”
    Her lips part and she stands speechless in front of me.  She
is trying to find her voice, but I can see every effort is failing her.
    “I haven’t eaten,” she says suddenly.
    “I’m sorry?”
    “Food.  I haven’t had any all day.  Or drunk anything, now I
think about.”
    “How about a glass of champagne?”
    “Oh no no.  On an empty stomach?  It would go straight to my
head.  I’m a terrible light weight - one drink and I’d say yes to anything.”
    I brush my palm down the back of her neck and feel her
tremble beneath my touch.  “How very interesting.”
    She licks her lips and I stroll towards the bar.
    On the way, I find it impossible to not turn and look back
at her.  She’s paralysed on the dance floor, so stunningly beautiful in her
dress, watching me with wide eyed wonder.
    Other men lurk by her side and ogle her as they have all
evening.  But she has no idea - I’m the only thing she sees.
    I’ve never felt like this about a woman before.  I thought I
had, but this is different - the need to possess one specific woman has never
consumed me so much.  It’s new and exciting and real.
    And I can have this one.  She is innocent and naive and my
employee, but none of that matters any more.
    I’m her boss so I can do what I like.  It’s my business and
I’m the one who says who can fuck who.
    And right now, I’m saying I can fuck her.  And I’m going to.
    My mind’s eye is filled with images of Melody on the
luxurious four-poster bed in my penthouse, or one of the twelve bedrooms in my
Tuscan villa.  She’s naked, her legs spread, one finger pointing towards me and
then curling towards her, beckoning me with her deep blue eyes to enter her, a
haze full of longing and need and desire to touch every inch of her soft skin
as she takes all of me deep inside.
    A jolt of exhilaration and adrenaline courses through my
body.
    And I know what I must do.
    Tonight, Melody will be mine.

CHAPTER THREE
    ––––––––

Melody
    ––––––––
    T he gawking eyes of tuxedo clad gentlemen burns into my
skin.  I can feel them all over my body as the men shuffle around the dance
floor and make small talk with their annoyed women, their designer dresses
hanging off their perfect stick thin bodies like a model in a catalogue.
    The women hate me.  I know they do - they see their men
eyeing me up and jealously flares across their faces.
    But I don’t