Safe Word Read Online Free PDF Page A

scaring her, and she’d hugged him.  Then he’d kissed her.
    “Wait.  That was you?” Melody demanded, putting two and two together.
    “It was.”
    “I...had no idea it was you,” Melody confessed.  “I assumed it was Chris Lowe because we’d kind of been flirting a bit in English class.  I remember being really confused when I saw him in class after that and he acted like nothing had happened.  I got mad at him in that melodramatic way only teenagers can and that was the end of our flirting!”
    “Sorry for ruining the thing you had with Chris Lowe.”
    “Ha, no worries,” Melody replied, still looking at him.  “That was really you?” she asked again.
    “It was.”
    “I want to see for myself.”
    Brazenly, Melody took a step forward and stood up on her toes.  With liquid courage pumping through her veins, she stood up on her toes and pressed her lips to Zane’s, recreating the brief moment in time they had shared all those years earlier.
    “So?” Zane asked when the kiss ended.  “Do you believe me now?”
    “I...I’m not sure,” Melody told him, flustered by how good it had felt to be up close and personal with Zane.  In her most throaty, sultry, seductive voice, she purred, “I think maybe I need to do it again to be sure.”
    She tried to kiss him again but he took a step back, dodging Melody’s attempt.
    Dazed, Melody blinked and then looked up at Zane in confusion.  He looked pale, like he’d seen a ghost.  Actually, no, that wasn’t it at all.  The expression on his face, Melody realized, was that of a man whose heart had been ripped out and stomped on.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked, taken aback.
    “You’re drunk,” he told her, clearing his throat and averting his eyes.
    “So?”
    “So we shouldn’t.”
    “We shouldn’t kiss because I’m drunk?” Melody asked, completely baffled. 
    If he was trying to be chivalrous and avoid taking advantage of an inebriated woman, he was overdoing it.  He was way overdoing it.  In fact, at this point the wasted, sloppy young guy who had painfully hit on her back at the wedding reception had more game than Zane.  What the hell?
    “No, we shouldn’t kiss because it’s a bad idea,” Zane said, offering no further explanation.
    Utterly confused and more than a little embarrassed to have her advances rejected, Melody cleared her throat awkwardly.  “You don’t have to walk me home,” she told him, offering him an out.  “Have a good night, and thanks for the drinks.”
    “Wait.”
    “What?”
    Her question seemed to catch him off guard, as though he hadn’t had an actual reason to call out to her, but simply hadn’t wanted to see her go.  He stood there silently for a moment, his brow furrowed as though he was thinking.  Then, finally, he asked, “What’s our prize?”
    “Huh?”
    “Our prize,” he said again.  “The one we got for losing at trivia?  The bartender gave you an envelope as we were leaving...”
    “Oh, right.”  More than anything, Melody just wanted to get away from Zane, go curl up in bed and try to sleep off his rejection.  She felt so dumb for trying to kiss him when he clearly didn’t want her to.  How humiliating! 
    The night had started out so promising, but had ended on a very sour note indeed.  Melody searched her purse for the envelope but came up empty handed.  “I don’t know what I did with it,” she admitted apologetically.
    “Is that it?” Zane asked, pointing to Melody’s chest.
    She looked down and saw the envelope sticking out of the top of her button up shirt.  Apparently she had thought it was a good idea to cram it into her bra.  Ah yes, the good old tit purse...very classy!  But at this point, Melody realized, it didn’t really matter.  Zane had already rejected her.
    “Here you go,” she told him, pulling the envelope free and handing it to him.  “Goodnight.”
    “Wait!”
    Growing irritated, Melody turned back around and looked at Zane.