Chapter Sixteen
On the way to their mystery destination Jason was tight-lipped about his secret, but Melissa had one more thing to clear up in order to be satisfied with her work, if she could call it that.
"Jason, there's still one thing I don't understand. What about the money your family is upset that you've been giving away? How does that tie in with anything that you've told me about your past and your difficulty with relationships?"
"Do you really want to know?"
"Of course I do. I'm a psychotherapist after all, I genuinely would like to help."
"Well, the truth is that it has nothing to do with all of that. It's not a problem, but as I promised to tell you the truth about everything I might as well come clean with this as well. It's like this, our father, Jason Demovic Senior, he was--"
"Were here Mr. Demovic." The driver's voice interrupted Jason's disclosure.
"I'll tell you all of that in good time. We're where we need to be. Come on, you can get out of the car."
Before Melissa could protest Jason was out on the street and she had no choice but to follow suit. Looking around she was dumbfounded to realize that the destination Jason had planned for them was a small art gallery in the West Village. It was one she hadn't heard of before but everything about it appealed to her. There was nothing pretentious, just excellent art of all kinds and with an obvious focus on Latin American artists.
"I don't understand Jason, what are we doing here?"
"Just keep going." He said and indicated a room off to the back. When she stepped inside she was amazed. It was a mini exhibition of works from some of her favorite artists, but most importantly from Fernanda Salazar.
"Oh my God." She said. "I had no idea she was exhibiting new work anywhere in Manhattan." She turned to Jason and beamed at him. "This is so sweet of you." She went to kiss him but he smiled and turned her around, directing her attention to one dark corner of the room.
She peered a little closer and then gasped at what she saw.
"Jason, no… is that?"
"It sure is."
"But you can't… I didn't… where did you get them?"
It was a series of framed sketches with obvious influence from Fernanda Salazar. They were her sketches.
"You have to take those down. You stole those from me."
"Like you never stole anything from me."
It was true. She had stolen his personal property including an expensive telephone. All he had done was taken a few loose sheets from her sketch pad.
"Do you like the frames?" He said.
"Like them? They’re beautiful. They're worth more than the pictures."
"Oh I don't know about that. I know a little about art and I can tell you we've had some pretty good offers on those sketches already."
"Offers? What are you talking about?"
"I'm not just a technology geek Melissa, I have an eye for art as well. This place is a little hobby of mine."
"And you're using it to sell your girlfriend's--"
He jerked her in close.
"Girlfriend?" He said. "I don't think I've had one of those before." He pushed the door closed and turned the lock. "Is that what you are? My 'girlfriend'?"
Melissa could feel his desire growing together with her own lust for him, but as much as she wanted to be taken by storm and left senseless yet again, it would have to wait.
"I want explanations Jason, what's going on here?" She tried to push him away but he didn't move. His body was taut with hunger for her.
"Explanations can wait. I want you right now and you know I always get what I want." He growled the words into her ear and her nipples went hard.
"Since when have I ever given you what you wanted, whenever you wanted? You obviously don't even know what having a girlfriend means."
His hand explored lower down, caressing her abdomen and then searching between her thighs.
"I know that men have sex with their girlfriends. Don't tell me I got that part wrong."
"Tell me what's going on here or you can take that thing," she patted the rock hard member inside his pants, "and put it somewhere else."
He groaned with frustration.
"God damn it. Okay, but if I answer all your questions, then do I get what I want?"
What 'you' want? Melissa thought. Just you wait until I get you naked again.
"Maybe." She said. "No guarantees."
The control she exerted over his desires only made things worse for him.
"Okay. Jesus Christ, I want you so much right now. Whatever! Just tell me what you need to know."
"What are my sketches doing here?"
"I saw them at your house and I knew they were good, so I brought them to Fernanda--"
"Oh my God. No. Please tell me she hasn't seen those, I have much better things I could show her!"
"Keep those things for me." He growled.
"I mean pictures."
"Yes. Pictures." He growled even more.
"I mean art, not… not--"
"Erotic pictures?"
"No. Not of me anyway."
"Too bad. Either way, Fernanda said I needed to get this art out there. I said I didn't have permission yet and I wasn't sure about the artist. She said just hang them. If the public is interested I could tell the artist and let her decide. So that's what I did. We've had offers of up to ten thousand dollars apiece for your scratch work."
Melissa gasped.
"They're just doodles."
"Yeah, ten thousand dollar doodles."
He sunk his head to her neck and began devouring.
"Not yet." She pulled back. He groaned and she felt the heat of his burgeoning desire on her thigh. As wet as she was for him, she needed more answers.
"Why are we still here? Why are you with me? I stole from you, lied to you, blackmailed you, gave your personal diary to that worm David; you should hate me right."
He pulled back from her, in deadly earnest now.
"Don't ever say that. You made a promise to me and you kept it. Even though your career was on the line, you kept that promise to heal me. You knew you could do it and you broke every rule in the book to make that happen. A promise is a promise. My mother and father taught me that; my mother by keeping them, my father by breaking them. I won't ever break a promise, especially not to a child or to a mother. You made a promise to your little sister to take care of her and you've done everything in your power to do so. Now you don't have to worry about her anymore."
Melissa went to protest but he silenced her with a finger to her lips.
"When I met you Melissa…" his voice came out hoarse with emotion, her eyes searched his, their lips came close together, "I knew I'd found the one but I had to be sure. When you stayed with me even after you'd lost your career I knew it even more." He squeezed her tightly. "And I've wanted to jump your bones every minute of every day since I first laid eyes on you in that prim little business suit of yours."
Melissa gulped--tears, love and lust all mixing together into a wild cocktail of emotion. She took his head into her hands and locked his eyes to hers.
"Take me." She hissed, trembling with desire. "I'm yours Jason Demovic, all yours. Jump these bones."
"With great pleasure Dr. Price."
His mouth fell to hers and they locked together in passionate embrace, the languid eyes of Fernanda Salazar's tropical beauties smiling down on their love.
The End
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