"Your husband managed to raise quite a bit of money actually," Daniel announced grandly from where he stood by the counter. He was dressed in a bespoke suit as usual though without a tie and his collar was open just a little.
Melissa could smell his cologne when she neared him. It was subtle, and stirred something inside her the moment she sensed it.
She wondered if Blake had the same reaction?
Turning her eyes upon Daniel, Melissa's jaw set with the most subtle accusation he couldn't pretend not to notice. She knew what Daniel had really meant to say was; 'I have a lot of money and I bought your husband, and now I'm here to gloat about it while I flaunt my sexuality.'
He smirked at her knowingly.
"Were you even at the auction?" She asked smoothly. The only person in the room who didn't know what was really going on here, was Blake.
The least she could do was show her husband how Daniel never actually showed up to do his own dirty work.
"Naturally not," Daniel's eyes sparkled with suppressed mirth. "But I hear there were a certain amount of very thirsty women in the room and I dare say Blake has already had his fair share of scandal, don't you think?" He fenced with equal skill.
"Always looking out for me, hey?" Blake threw him a winning grin, his dimples at their fullest.
"Ever the guardian Angel," Melissa supplied with a genuine expression of warmth toward her husband that she purposely did not share with Daniel.
"It's good business," the businessman responded passively and didn't even blush.
There was no way Blake wasn't picking up on the awkwardness between his wife and boss. His laugh at Melissa's comment and Daniel's response was forced, but only Melissa would notice that. "At least We managed to help raise some coin for charity," he shrugged good naturally.
Melissa held back on reminding her kind hearted husband that his nudes were still circulating online, having not only been photographed by Daniel, but also leaked by the same. Daniel being be able to buy Blake at an auction and use his own scheme as an excuse was such a Daniel Hennessy thing to do.
Melissa looked to her husband who must have felt like a gazelle between a lioness and whatever equal force of predator Daniel was.
Another lioness perhaps?
"So what does your night with Blake Wright entail?" She asked seemingly disinterested but knowing that Daniel would understand this was an interrogation contingency for their previous night's agreement.
He watched her while Blake's back was turned; busily cutting up carrots and cheese and deli meats for a charcuterie board. Daniel shrugged in his sophisticated manner once Blake turned to regard them both again, a new drink for each of them and a bowl of salted crackers. "I don't suppose it matters really, I was paying for it either way."
"Same as last time, wasn't it?" Blake asked casually, "a football game with dinner in the corporate box?"
"Well it's the off season, so I'm sure we can come up with something a little more creative," Daniel suggested sounding about as hopeful as he ever did without actually sounding enthusiastic. "It's all for the PR anyway, have to keep front of mind even if we aren't playing."
Melissa knew him well enough to recognise his ingenuous nonchalance.
"Not too creative, surely?" She scowled at him now as Blake had turned back to the fridge again putting the unused ingredients away. They'd been so caught up in their little duel they hadn't noticed the platter of food he'd slid between them on the bench.
Melissa fought the urge not to peg a pickled onion right into Daniels eye.
"If it is for PR I imagine there will be camera's? Will you hire an actor to play the part of the auction winner?"
"More than likely," Daniel was smirking at her.
She shot him a covert look of accusation and he quickly raised his hands in mockery of a silent surrender.
When Blake turned back around with his own beer, finally ready to fully join them, Daniel was smoothly back in the same position as before, even though Melissa was still scowling at him.
"You're the prize I suppose," Daniel announced to Blake, smiling at him while Melissa started cataloguing all of the sharp objects in her kitchen.
She lifted her own beer to her mouth and decided an empty beer bottle would suffice.
"Perhaps you've something in mind?" Daniel continued, unaware of the mutinous thoughts she was constructing. "How would you introduce the real you to a fan?"
Daniel raised his own beer to his lips and Melissa wondered if this was in anticipation of needing to hide a grin. He clearly felt that his idea was a good one.
Melissa had more faith in her husband than that, however.
Blake laughed. "You wouldn't be into it," he responded before tasting his own beer because, well... Blake liked beer. "I don't mind waiting until the new season."
Daniel held a strained smile while Melissa smirked at him.
'Not so eager to spend some one on one time with you,' she hoped Daniel read the words in her smug eyes.
She took another sip. Halfway.
"Nonsense," the businessman countered, taking a hasty swig to keep up with her. "Most fans would be content to watch football with you, but we already know I get more than my fair share, so name it."
Blake quirked a querying eyebrow at Melissa and she smiled mischievously at him and nodded, taking another sip.
"Anything," Daniel continued to smile, after matching her with his beer, and Melissa wondered if he knew what he was getting himself into.
She had to hand it to Daniel. Despite being chauffeured everywhere around the city probably not even holding a driving license; he didn't even blink when Blake suggested a V8 Hot Lap.
Blake loved Bathurst racing. At the end of every year even while they lived in America he would take time out to watch the Bathurst 1000.
Melissa never understood the appeal but she loved him so she let him have his vice.
Daniel on the other hand, hated racing. He excused himself politely and returned before Melissa could finish her beer to announce that with a single phone call; everything had been organised for the following day.
Polite, excited, and clearly unable to think of a reason why he should refuse; Blake accepted.
Unable to think of an anything she'd rather do less than watching Blake and Daniel enjoy one another's company; Melissa tried not to punch Daniel in his smug grin and didn't try to invite herself along.
"I suppose you were the winner, so I'll pick you up in the morning?" Blake offered, so at least they wouldn't be making doe-eyes at each other in the back of Daniel's town car all the way to Bathurst, which was three hours away.
Never underestimate Daniel Hennessy.
"Nonsense, my helicopter will be on the roof at six o'clock on the morning, come to my apartment at half-past six for preflight checks."
Melissa's beer suddenly taste much more bitter.
Melissa and Daniel put their empty bottle's on the marble bench at the same time. Melissa decidedly keeping a firm grip on hers.
"I must be going," Daniel announced smoothly and Melissa maintained the purposeful stare that Blake was clearly oblivious to.
Daniel's neck must have felt every sharp edge of the glass bottle she knew he knew she was was clearly threatening him with.
The businessman shook Blake's hand quickly, not daring to move within her reach as he tipped a head in farewell and promptly left with no more than a, "see you in the morning."
Blake and Melissa stood in the kitchen for a while and Blake collected Daniel's empty before peeling her fingers off of her own.
So maybe her husband hadn't missed everything.
"One day you're going to see that for a rich guy, he's actually alright," Blake commented making it sound like they were continuing a conversation they'd been having for a long while.
"Rich guys aren't nice," she said to him pertly. "The more you meet the more readily you'll realise that."
"Your father is rich and he's a great guy," he pointed out.
"My mother is rich, my father is a football coach for a high school team and happens to be married to her." The Wickham High School team as a matter of fact.
When he sorted out an entirely new team for next year.
"You love your mother," he pointed out as a matter of fact.
"Of course I do. Money is a weapon though, and rich people wield it against people who don't have as much as they do," she pointed out. "My mother, whom I do love, used it to buy us this apartment to make us move back here. You decide whether that's a good example of weaponised wealth."
He nodded as he listened. Of course she knew he knew this.
"If you think that's not then you haven't been paying attention." Sure she'd just referred to their apartment, but what she was really talking about was the auction and the V8 racing and the helicopter. Just so Blake could draw the comparison, Melissa added; "Daniel Hennessy is no different."
He smiled at her almost sadly. "I know you think he's just after one thing, but all
I can see is how badly he's trying to win you over," he said.
Nonsense. He was just playing more of his mind games with her.
She didn't go as far as to point out that Blake was utterly wrong about Daniel. That this was the bastards greatest game. That he and she had been locked in the struggle against dark compulsions since they'd first met and that Blake was simply the next goal for him.
Telling him all of this wouldn't be in the spirit of the game, however.
Yes. All she wanted to do was love Blake and keep him safe, but she knew Daniel. She could play his game and be a friendly adversary. Or she could declare war and become an enemy.
The time just wasn't right for her to turn on Daniel. She couldn't even be sure he'd ever be foolish enough to present her with such an opportunity.
Meanwhile, she couldn't let Blake become a casualty of war and the only way to avoid that was to play the game.
"You're probably right," was what she said to her husband in the end. "But that doesn't mean he's trying to win me over without motive."
In the spirit of the game.
In the spirit of her agreement with Daniel.
Blake had to make his own decision. She could only play to the agreed rules.
They retired to the living room shortly after to find that Jack was huddled up in the corner of the lounge watching reruns of Big Bang Theory.
Melissa remembered with regret that he was suffering right now and felt suddenly ashamed for keeping Blake to herself all day.
There were always casualties in Daniel's game and she realised with a pang that Jack was now counted among that number.
She saw Blake look at their now legal third family member curiously. She hadn't even made time to explain to him what was going on between Tyler and Jack and felt suddenly very selfish.
Of course this came back to bite her in the arse right now when - completely ignorant to what had happened the previous night - and before Melissa could stop him - Blake asked, "no Tyler?"
"He has his date tonight," Jack told him, with a shrug.
'Oh fuck.' Melissa had completely forgotten.
Realising that she had taken the preoccupation with ones own self to a whole new level, Melissa felt awful.
"Have you spoken today?" She tried to recover, tentatively settling herself down on the couch close enough so that she could rest a comforting hand on his knee.
He shrugged again.
So, no.
'Fuck.' Her mind snapped at her. Jack had clearly been wallowing all day and she'd remained between the sheets with Blake in affectionate bliss.
She really did feel awful.
She looked at Blake trying to fill him in telepathically but whatever message he thought she was trying to send, it wasn't the one he heard.
"Let's go out," he said cheerfully.
Melissa looked at him reproachfully and he seemed confused.
"Nah, that's ok," Jack mumbled.
"Why not?" Blake asked him, but gave her a meaningful look requesting back up. He was no less sure of himself than he had been a moment ago.
So his confusion was about her not being on his page, and not that Jack didn't want to go out?
Well if he wanted to take the lead, she could work with that. She turned her gaze back to Jack now and tried to look supportive of Blake's suggestion.
Even if she thought it was a long shot.
"I don't feel like it," Jack said and scrunched up the cuff of his overlong sleeved shirt in his hands.
Flickers of memory flashed behind her mind of when Jack had first come home from the hospital after being attacked.
The Jack before them now was too familiar.
This is what Blake had recognised while she was busy berating herself.
This was what Blake was trying to shake off and he'd been right in identifying the necessity.
"You know..." Melissa said carefully, looking at the young man and nudging him with her shoulder gently. "Between the three of us I reckon we could draw quite a bit of male attention."
"Blake can't do that," Jack mumbled. "He's not out, publicly."
"There are rumours," Melissa shrugged.
There were, but they weren't that he was gay. More and more people seemed to see Blake as a sexual symbol on the football field. Women and Men alike.
Blake was comfortable on his skin, even if he didn't have to stand up and announce to the world that he found all genders sexually appealing. People just seemed to get that about him.
There was the odd gossip column, but he'd been a positive figure in the media since the charity fight and most reputable news sources were behind him, most of the time.
"I can't ask you to risk that for me," Jack objected and shook his head.
"The lighting is always bad in night clubs, I probably won't even be recognised," Blake pointed out.
Melissa felt it was unlikely, but she nodded in support.
"Plus,"'she delivered the deal-clincher, "they'll all be as drunk as us."
Alcohol wasn't a solution, but he was eighteen and it was fun.
Jack looked at her sideways and she knew they'd already won him over.
Just to be safe though Blake added one final piece of persuasion.
"Two hot footballers and all of this," Blake said cockily gesturing to Melissa and emphasising her better assets.
She smirked appreciative of his appreciation. Despite forgetting Jack and his woes; clearly it had been a day well spent.
Jack smirked now but didn't laugh. Melissa could tell he was trying his best not to be into it, but he agreed finally.
"I know a place..." Blake suggested and Jack looked at him gratefully.
"That settles it," Melissa said slapping his thigh empathetically and climbed up off the lounge, "I'll be ready in five," she smiled and started from the living room.
"That means you have time for a quick shower after you pump some weights to get your abs looking great for the dance floor," Blake's joked and Melissa turned to give him a pretend scowl but kept walking.
Only an hour and a half later, once both Blake and Jack had pumped weights to get their abs looking party ready and Melissa had spent most of that time showering; they rode the elevator down to the concierge and Melissa stepped out looking smoking hot.
The same woman who watched her come home at three o'clock that morning was working at the concierge again.
She was watching her now with that same not so passive expression about her. Like she wanted to say something but hadn't built up the guts.
That expression intensified when Blake stepped off the elevator behind Melissa and she felt the sudden need to possessively grab his arm and steer him hastily away towards the front door of the building.
"Does that woman never leave," she muttered, leaning into Blake and whispering it.
Was she obsessed with Blake too? Was Daniel not the only person Melissa needed to watch out for.
"She's new, isn't she?" Jack craned around to look at her.
Melissa looked at him taken aback, "hasn't she been working here forever?"
"No," Jack shook his head nonchalantly, "she's really new," he sounded certain, "a week. Maybe two,"
That couldn't be right. Melissa had seen this woman watching her enter Daniel's building several times over the last month,"
"Who are we talking about?" Blake asked checking his Uber app for confirmation their car had arrived.
"The concierge," Melissa explained trying not to make it obvious that she was talking about the girl.
As she also tried not to make it obvious she was looking at the woman, Melissa caught her staring at them again.
She wouldn't dare tell Blake she'd seen Melissa come home from Daniel's at three o'clock on the morning.
Would she?
"They all look the same to me. I never notice them," He answered without looking back, "I'm always in a hurry,"
It was such a boy answer. The correct answer though.
Maybe he was right though. The owner of Watson Tower obviously had a type, Melissa thought they'd had the same concierge for three years, but maybe they were just all skinny noses blondes with mediocre boobs.
Their Uber was already waiting for them and she climbed in between Blake and Jack, glad to get away from the staring concierge.
Soon they were heading through the dark city with the lights turning on around them.
Melissa sat happily on the back seat between her boys; gorging herself on the cheese burger and fries the Uber had just collected for them on his way to pick them up.
It occurred to her as she enjoyed every bite that this was the first food she'd eaten since before going to Daniel's the night before and while she wasn't normally into drive thru food, she as famished.
She and Daniel had never gotten around that that meal he'd promised her last night.
She pushed all thoughts of Daniel from her mind as they moved swiftly through the city until they came to a nightclub she'd never even known existed.
Jack grabbed her leg. "I didn't realise this was where you meant," he seemed to panic, looking out of the car window at the popular venue.
It looked the same as any other night club Melissa had ever been to. It was dark with neon lights, it didn't even have a name over the door which meant it was supposed to appear so alternative that the only reason anyone knew it was here was because someone who'd been here before had taken them too.
There was a long line out the front that didn't look like much fun and two passive looking bouncers, fending off the attentions of the people at the front of the line who were desperate to get in. Melissa knew people like these line sitters. They would probably stand in that line all night just so they could tell people they had on Monday at work.
She looked at Jack's anxious face. Apparently he had been here before and not just in the line.
Blake looked around curiously, "this was one of my favourite haunts when I was your age,"
Melissa looked at him conspiratorially. "If we can get in," she answered dubiously.
"We'll be fine," he placed a hand in her other leg. "It's great for hookups, you don't even need to leave the club so it doesn't even need to be a whole one night stand,"
Only with a wife like her could he get away with saying something like that. She didn't feel the slightest need to scowl at him. In fact she was already cataloguing some hot guys she was watching, waiting in the line outside.
"Yeah I know," Jack answered and Melissa couldn't help but feel she'd missed something until Jack added, "Josh told me that when he brought me here,"
Had he? Was that his hesitance? Memories of Josh? Well that was no reason not to get out of the Uber.
"This is the only place I ever took Tyler," he added as if that explained everything.
She was such a bitch. She hadn't even considered that. Blake and Melissa both looked at him with comprehension.
"This is the only night club he's ever been to," he added, "so unless his date chose the venue tonight..."
Ah. Right.
"We don't avoid our friends," she told him with a gentle squeeze of the hand on her knee.
He looked at her; frightened.
"If we run into Tyler, we can say hi and leave him to his date," she said to him carefully.
"I suppose we could go somewhere else..." Blake suggested dubiously and Jack looked relieved until Melissa cut in over him.
"No," she said firmly, "quickly now, our Uber probably has another tender,"
The Uber nodded his head, smiling but anxious and Jack climbed out first with Melissa right behind him.
There were many perks to be married to a professional athlete and while they might start in the bedroom they certainly didn't end there. One double take at Blake and the bouncer let them right by the long line of people waiting.
Some of them groaned, but to most of them this was business as usual.
Plus Blake slipped them each a couple hundred dollar notes.
Weaponised wealth at work.
"So much for not being recognised," Jack commented as they pushed through the door but were plunged into darkness flickering with strobe lights.
The music shook the floor beneath their feet and the crowd inside was so thick Melissa reached out to both of them grasping their shirts to remain connected as they wove their way toward the bar.
Another perk of an athlete for a husband, he looked intimidating enough that most people moved out of his way meaning they reached the bar with minimal fuss.
Melissa couldn't even hear what Blake ordered but he held up three fingers and tapped the bar twice with his other hand. It must have been a familiar gesture as the barmen returned with a little wooden serving rack with a half dozen test-tubes full of glowing liquid of assorted colours.
Dr Wright told herself that there could be nothing in those test-tubes that her body would appreciate, but tonight was about fun.
And Melissa was in charge.
She selected two for herself, based on colour alone, while Blake handed two to Jack and then lifted the other two to his mouth grinning.
Two at once, huh?
"Bottoms up!" He must have roared to be heard over the music even as barely as she could hear him and tipped his head back to drain the two shots at once.
Melissa saw Jack do the same and though she felt she'd regret it tomorrow; she followed suit.
Blake ordered two more which they also shot and than a round of something more sedate that would keep their new buzz going.
They evacuated from the bar at this point and made their way together across the dance floor.
Blake was fucking sexy when he danced. Not only did every move accentuate his muscly legs, arms and arse but whenever he lifted those strong arms of his, his shirt would lift to reveal those spectacular abs him and Jack had put a bit of extra effort into before coming out.
They were drawing plenty of attention and this was how Blake and Melissa worked. She surveyed their watchers until she singled out some ones she found more interesting. Blake was the bait and she was the hunter and she prowled the inner circle of watchers carefully.
That girl was too clingy. She could tell because whenever she looked at her the girl would give her a dirty look; husband envy.
This guy kept looking around her. She sighed. He was so hot, but clearly not threesome material while she was involved.
She lingered about him for a moment though and pulled Jack towards her to dance closer to the guy. Nope. Blake was completely eclipsing Jack.
She took Jacks hand and they moved away from guy before Jack would eye him too much.
The night go hotter and hotter before she found someone for her and Blake. Blake was dancing with his shirt buttoned open entirely now and displaying all he had to work with from his hips up.
The younger and slightly leaner guy that danced behind him was probably gay but had clearly recognised that Blake and Melissa were a package deal.
He too had his shirt completely unbuttoned and both she and Blake liked what they saw. Blake was playing coy as he liked to do and was kissing her neck while she stood on her tiptoes in front of him. She could see Blake reach behind him to their new friend though and was running his fingers down the guys and, reaching into his jeans.
Nearby she could see that Jack had, with a little prompting, found himself a playmate if his own and while their dancing was a little less affectionate, she was confident that he could keep it real.
Melissa reached along Blake's arm to the guy behind him and clasped the hip of his jeans pulling him around so that he and Blake now faced one another.
Blake gave her an anxious look. He knew she had chosen this guy as a gift to him, but pulling them directly together usually also meant that she was about to make herself scarce.
"Gotta make room," she shouted into his ear knowing he could barely hear her over the music.
She really did need to use the bathroom but her statement was a bit of a double entendre. He nodded at her though she could see he was anxious about her disappearing in the crowded club.
She kissed him quickly and then stepped back to watch their playmate worshipping his nipples right here on the dance floor.
She did a quick check, everyone around them was drunk off their faces and there wasn't a single camera phone out.
Only then did she skip away towards the bathroom.
The line for the girls bathroom was always ridiculous. No one ever installed enough cubicles for the ladies toilet while men never had to line up.
Did no one understand that men could share a urinal but women cannot sure a toilet bowl.
Hell. Men could piss in the sink if they were that desperate.
She was one of many woman in the line trying to keep her drinks in as the line very slowly moved and after a while she became restless and pulled out her phone.
New Text Message
[You had better play nicely tomorrow]
She hit send on the message and watched her screen as the little dots counted and recounted telling her that she was getting a response.
John
[are you pregnant yet?]
The bastard.
Reply
[it doesn't happen that fast, I won't know for weeks if it stuck]
John
[we may have to step up our efforts]
Well they couldn't do that. Christmas was approaching soon and Blake had no further travel plans.
Reply
[and how do you suggest we do that?]
The little dots counted and recounted again.
John
[sex.]
"Asshole," she muttered slipping her phone back into her back pocket.
Or at least she thought she had but felt it think upon the floor as she'd drunkenly missed.
She clumsily bent to pick it up but bumped heads with another girl who was also reaching for it at the same time.
"Ouch," they both complained in unison and Melissa looked up to see the woman she was standing next to was none other than the blonde concierge from Watson Tower.
She snatched her phone from woman's hand as she stood up scowling, "are you fucking stalking me!?" She growled.