Need You Now (Love in Unknown) - By Taylor M. Lunsford Page 0,37

you back then and my choice hasn't changed no matter how stubborn you are."

Her jaw dropped a little. She stared at him in silence for a few moments. He held his breath, hoping that she'd let her guard down, that she'd let him in for real this time, instead of because she wanted to have sex. Slowly she stood, teetering a little. "I'm going to bed. Nothing is making sense right now and I just... I need to go to bed. You can see yourself out."

He probably should have left after he heard her bedroom door close, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Caine made himself comfortable on the soft, girly sofa, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared up at the ceiling. He might look back at this night and call himself a total idiot for talking about feelings when all she’d wanted was sex. He'd lay a bet on it. But he and Mel had been through too much for him to throw it all away by letting history repeat itself with a round of drunken sex and morning regrets. He meant every word he'd said to her. He’d chosen her and he hadn't changed his mind.

He’d just drifted off to sleep when he heard footsteps in her bedroom, followed by the distinctive sound of puking echoing from the bathroom. Right on schedule. He remembered Mel's first serious encounter with alcohol. They'd only been dating a few weeks and he'd taken her to a party at one of the fraternity houses. Being an Ivy League party, there'd been cheap wine to go with the cheap beer.

Mel only had maybe two plastic cups full, but she’d started puking on the way back to her dorm. Rather than leaving her to the tender mercies of a resident advisor, he'd taken her back to her dorm room and held her hair as she spent a few hours draped over the toilet of her postage-stamp bathroom. When she finally wore herself out and emptied every ounce of fluid from her stomach, he’d made her drink a little water and take an aspirin. Then, he held her in his arms until she finally fell asleep. Looking back, that might have been the night he’d lost the battle to keep her out of his heart.

He found Mel hanging over the toilet, her body wracked with spasms as it fought against the wine. She let out a ragged groan and pulled back far enough to rest her forehead against the cool porcelain. "Never, never again."

“You’re never going on a date with the stuffy lawyer again? I like the sound of that," he said lightly, taking a seat next to her.

She glared at him under her arm. "I thought I told you to leave."

He smiled. “I was there the first three times you and wine tried to be buddies. I wasn't going to leave you alone when I knew you'd get sick."

“Why did I think it would be a good idea to drink wine? I know it's been over nine years, but I shouldn't have forgotten." She moaned, sounding miserable.

“I vote we blame it on your boring, non-book-reading date." She started to laugh, but it quickly turned into another round of puking. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he used his other hand to hold her ponytail away from her face.

After she subsided a little, he grabbed a washcloth from the edge of the bathtub and rewet it in the sink. Caine draped the cloth over the nape of her neck, hoping to cool her overheated skin. When she spoke again, her voice was rough and scratchy. "Why are you being so nice to me? I've been such a bitch to you since I got back. Especially tonight."

“You haven't been a bitch, sunshine. You've acted like...an ex-girlfriend." He pressed his lips to her temple. Even ragged from a nasty hangover, she was still one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen. "And I'm being so nice because the 'ex' part was never my idea."

A lot of things had happened between them, in the past and tonight. But when it came down to it, nothing mattered more than being here right now to make sure she knew she wasn't alone.

Chapter 8

After her really, really stupid late night encounter with Caine, Mel did what she did best. She buried herself in her work and refused to see anything else. A few weeks had passed since the attacks on the clinic and her car,