Melissa is a widow; she is just 22 years old with a two year old son. Her lover , who she had not married, dies of a heart attack. His ex-wife turns up with her fiancé, and throws Melissa out, penniless. The fiancé, Trsitan Lord, is a ruthless advocate, a millionaire as he fights the cases for the Mafia mob. He does not care for anyone's feelings. When he meets Melissa, he feels a desire to dominate her, a strange attraction towards her. Although she cannot understand the way she feels towards him, Melissa does not respond to his overtures. This makes him angry. Melissa's mother dies, her father is paralyzed. He has no one except Melissa. Desperate, with a child and her helpless father to look after,, she takes up a job as a dancer at a topless bar run by the Mob. Tristan sees her there and tries to seduce her in his brutal manner. He grabbed her am, pinning her to the wall, his eyes gleaming like hot coals as he growled, 'You slut...so you can parade your naked body before the men in that room,' He jerked her to him, forcing her to feel his hard erectness that was pressing against her soft belly. "But you play the innocent with me, eh?' She pushed against him, futilely, aware that she was getting turned on strangely enough by this large man's cruel words and his punishing hold on her. His presence, his male musky aroma filled her head. "Take your hands off me,' she hissed, but for answer, he lowered his head and brought his hard mouth on her soft moist lips, displaying a hunger that seemed to burn both of them as he ravaged her mouth, his body holding her trapped...
Chapter 1 Melissa - The Beginning
I sat in the front pew, clutching my two-year-old son who was perched on my lap. I sat staring numbly at the casket containing the body of the man who had been my lover, my best friend and the father of my young son.
Jack Stevenson
The simple service had ended. The small church with its well-worn wooden pews was half deserted. The voice of the pastor, the murmur of the other members of the congregation seemed to fade into the background, a droning sound I was dimly aware of. My eyes were fixed on the casket, a simple wooden one, in which the body of my beloved partner of the past three years, Jack Stevenson, lay. He lay motionless, a serene expression on his face. The way he used to look when he was sleeping beside me.
Only, now he was too far away from me in spirit. Too far away to open his blue eyes and gaze at me in his gentle manner, the love shining in his eyes as he gathered me in his arms.
I shuddered, trying not to sob.
I felt so utterly alone.
***
We had never gotten married.
We had never felt the need for it. He had almost been forty years of age when I met him and I had just turned nineteen. I know, it made my parents question my decision too, just as I am sure you must be doing.
But we had been so happy, so lost in each other; there had been no need for a certificate or a ceremony to make it legal and prove a point to the world. The difference in our ages was something I never thought of, I simply loved Jack with all my heart, he of the gentle blue eyes, the caring nature...the father of my son.
We had not been churchgoers- my upbringing was totally different and Jack was not a person who believed in such things either.
The pastor had been apologetic and a little annoyed with me, when I had gone along with Joe Seaton, my late partner's best friend, to meet the pastor for a funeral service. Joe had wanted it for Jack Jr. and I had gone along, too numb to protest.
The old pastor, Father Clark had not been too happy to see me; after all, we were not formally man and wife in the eyes of the Church. But in some part of my mind, I had also wanted my Jack to have a respectful burial. And even the overwhelming displeasure emanating from Father Williams had not put me off.
As I sat there now, forlorn and alone on the hard wooden seat in the unfamiliar church, I was aware that the handful of people who had turned up at the church this morning had only arrived to get a look at me or to pass snide remarks.
I shivered and my son, Jack Jr. looked up at me, his big blue eyes fearful.
I could feel the malevolent gazes of the people around me as I sat huddled into myself, most of them had come for another reason.
Of course, to watch the fun when his ex-wife, Andrea Miller-Smythe turned up as she planned to do,
***
Before
Jack and I had always kept a safe distance away from the majority of the townspeople. Particularly those women who had been close friends with Andrea Miller Smythe, Jack's ex-wife. I had only a couple of friends here in the town. It was with some difficulty that I had realized that within the small tightly knit community of Carrow Hill, I would never be accepted. They would always see me as an outsider.
In their eyes, I would always be the one who had hitched onto Jack. The Whore.
This was regardless of the fact that I had come into Jack's life a year and a half after his wife had walked out on him. She had married his former business associate with who she had been carrying on an affair.
But I was the one who was reviled by the townspeople.
There's the Shameless Sl*t ; that was how one of them had described me, announcing it loudly when I had walked into the local baker's. I remember I had been beaming, on my way to get us some bread. The loud insult, meant to be heard by me and everyone in the tiny shop had left me shocked.
It had hurt me deeply, coming as I did from a commune where everyone was supportive and caring. All my childhood had been spent in the midst of caring, loving people. This sort of mindless hostility bordering on hatred frightened me. Seeing my distress, Jack had comforted me. After that horrible day, he had made it a point to accompany me if we ever visited the town and would never leave my side.
NOW
My son sat perched on my lap, the spitting image of Jack. Little Jack Jr. was sucking his thumb. He did that when he sensed that I was upset. And that had happened frequently in the past few days after my beloved partner Jack had suddenly passed away in his sleep,
I lowered my face to little Jack's head of brown hair,
Jack Stevenson had become my lover from the time I had wandered inadvertently into the small town of Carrow Hill in my little old Mini.
***
I had been a student and I had chosen to leave the commune where my parents had been living. That had been the only world I had known; a world of love shared laughter and happiness. Where no one held grudges, where I had first discovered what it meant to love a man and share my body with him, unconditionally. So when I had turned eighteen, my parents had supported me in my decision to leave, to see the world.
The fact that I had no job in hand, had not stopped me. My father was an artist and Mom was a sculptor. They lived quite happily on the little money they made by selling their art in the local market. They had encouraged me to go ahead, giving me some cash to spend. I had managed to travel to Mid-Western America, taking up small jobs along the way, driving the old Mini my Dad had gifted me. It had been a great adventure but I soon began to tire of it. When I got lost and my car broke down one evening in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, a road with dense undergrowth bordering it on both sides,, I had been on the verge of calling Dad and asking him to help me get back home.
Fate had dictated otherwise. I had met Jack. And that had changed the course of my life.
Chapter 1 Melissa - The Beginning
02/12/2021
Chapter 2 Jack Stevenson
02/12/2021
Chapter 3 The House that Jack Built
02/12/2021
Chapter 4 Encountering Jack
02/12/2021
Chapter 5 Surrendering
02/12/2021
Chapter 6 Staring at a Bleak Future
04/12/2021
Chapter 7 The Calm before the Storm.
05/12/2021
Chapter 8 Tristan Lord
06/12/2021
Chapter 9 The Funeral
06/12/2021
Chapter 10 Earlier; The previous day
08/12/2021
Chapter 11 Tristan
09/12/2021
Chapter 12 Andrea-Plan Unfolding
10/12/2021
Chapter 13 Melissa- A Time to Act
10/12/2021
Chapter 14 Preparing to Encounter the Devil
11/12/2021
Chapter 15 Encounter
12/12/2021
Chapter 16 Fireworks
12/12/2021
Chapter 17 The War has begun.
13/12/2021
Chapter 18 Arrival of Lord
14/12/2021
Chapter 19 Defeat tastes bitter
16/12/2021
Chapter 20 Andrea: Victim
17/12/2021
Chapter 21 Blow after Blow
17/12/2021
Chapter 22 Raring to go!
18/12/2021
Chapter 23 Tryst with the Devil
19/12/2021
Chapter 24 Tristan; Collecting the pieces
21/12/2021
Chapter 25 More pain ahead.
22/12/2021
Chapter 26 A new life
23/12/2021
Chapter 27 Entering the Den
24/12/2021
Chapter 28 No Going Back
24/12/2021
Chapter 29 Getting ready to Dance
25/12/2021
Chapter 30 Dancing
26/12/2021
Chapter 31 Aftermath
27/12/2021
Chapter 32 Melissa
27/12/2021
Chapter 33 Reality Bytes
29/12/2021
Chapter 34 Melissa- The Job
30/12/2021
Chapter 35 Melissa: Hope Ignites
31/12/2021
Chapter 36 The Dream Shatters
01/01/2022
Chapter 37 More Pain Ahead
04/01/2022
Chapter 38 Andrea- Her Plot
04/01/2022
Chapter 39 Andrea- Ace up her sleeve
05/01/2022
Chapter 40 Destitute
06/01/2022
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