Poison

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Melanie was oddly quiet when Talon got dressed and came out of the bathroom. He had thought she would have wanted to continue where they left off, and he had hoped she would, but he really wasn't surprised that she had backed off. He just hoped that it wasn't a onetime thing. He decided not to mention it in case it made her uncomfortable and headed over to his pile of blankets on the floor to sleep.

He glanced over at Melanie who was sitting on the futon, looking out the window. She looked upset about something, and Talon hoped he hadn't done something wrong. She glanced over at him and then looked away quickly, and Talon was sure he'd screwed up somehow. He tried to think about everything that had happened, but he couldn't think of anything he did that she could blame him for.

"I'm sorry," she said before he had a chance to say the same thing.

"For what?" he asked.

"I went a little too far, didn't I?"

"Well, no," Talon said. "I mean, it was unexpected and I didn't really know how to react. And I was a little worried that I might have pushed you into doing that. But I really can't complain."

"Oh. I was worried that it was too much or that you weren't really into me or something."

"Melanie, of course I'm into you. I know you don't want to talk about it, and you know what I'm going to say so I won't bother, but that's it. I…" He wanted to tell her he loved her, but he thought it might be a bit much. "I just want to be sure that it's really what you want before we go anywhere with this."

"It is."

"Hopefully it's still what you want tomorrow," Talon said, as he lay down. While his first instinct was to go to her and give in to her wants, he didn't want her to have any regrets. Somehow, he would have to make sure she was ready.

"Fine," Melanie grumbled. She had hoped Talon would have jumped at the chance to get physical with her, but even though she didn't get what she wanted, part of her was glad. She had been nervous about the whole thing and was a little glad to put it off a little longer, but she couldn't help but be a little disappointed.

Talon had fallen asleep quickly, but it didn't feel like very long until something woke him. It was still dark out, but Talon could see just fine and he saw Melanie still in bed, and everything was quiet. Then he heard her cry softly, almost a whimper.

"Melanie?" he whispered as he stood up and walked over to her. She didn't respond and when he made it to her side, he saw that her eyes were closed. "Melanie?"

She cried out again, and Talon was sure she was having a nightmare. He shook her gently, trying to wake her up, but he was unsuccessful. Calling her name, he shook her harder and finally, her eyes flew open.

Before she could think about it, her arm flew up, striking Talon in the chest. Because he hadn't expected that, he fell backwards. Melanie jumped up as soon as Talon hit the floor, and he scooted away from her, fearing she had completely changed her mind about him. He found himself relieved when instead of attacking him, she put her arms around him and held him.

"I'm so sorry Talon," she said quickly. "I didn't… I thought that… I don't know. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he said as he cautiously put a hand on her back, hoping she'd be okay with the contact. "Guess it's my fault for waking you up during a nightmare. Did you want to talk about it?"

For several moments, she remained silent, as she didn't know what to tell him. Part of her wanted to talk to him and tell him all about her worst fears, but she also simply didn't want to think about it anymore. She just wanted to stay in his arms where she felt safe.