by A. R. Breck
If I was a better man, I would back down and let her get him out of her system, and vice versa. I mean, honestly, he's the type of guy to hit it once or twice—if they're lucky—before he tosses them in the trash like a McDonald’s wrapper.
I could back down for a month and then step in, let my presence be known and swoop in once she's had her heart thoroughly bashed in by his meat cleaver of a soul.
But no, I'm not a better man.
I saw her first.
9
Mercy
I wake up to pounding.
Pounding, pounding inside my head.
My skin is even pounding.
Cracking open my eyes feels like separating skin held together by glue. The light that shines in through my blinds is so bright I wish the moon would step in and do me a solid, giving me a few extra hours of the dark.
I'm not that lucky, though.
I hear a light snore off to my side, and I roll over in bed and peek over the side, seeing Aric passed out on his stomach and sprawled out on my floor.
Shit.
I try to remember what happened last night. After sitting on the couch with Aric, everything became fuzzy. But as seconds pass, the fog starts to clear, and I cringe as every memory comes back.
Embarrassment and shame and heat cover my body like a disgraceful sin and I cover my face with regret. A slide show of images run through my brain of what happened last night.
What the hell was I thinking?
The moment that Aeron laid his eyes on me, I turned to heat. The moment he laid his hands on me, I turned to fire. My body fit to his like a puzzle that's found its missing piece. We moved with a fluidity that someone would have after knowing someone for decades. It felt real; natural. I'm not sure if it was us or the drugs, but I do know one thing.
I haven't felt that alive in a long, long time.
When Aric came and pulled me away from Aeron, it's like I was snapped out of my alternate reality and brought back to real life. I was dancing with a drug addict that probably thought I was less important than the pills in his pocket.
What's worse is the look in Aric's eyes.
Disappointment. Sadness.
My feelings for Aric are real. I feel something, I'm just not sure how deep it goes. And I'm not sure how much deeper I want to dive into it, considering our living situation.
My life is a constant roller coaster of ups and downs these last few months.
When I hear movement from below, I snap out of my thoughts and close my eyes, pretending to be asleep.
I know, I'm a real winner.
"Mercy." I feel his weight sink down on the edge of the bed and his hand brushing my hair behind my shoulder. "Mercy, wake up."
I crack open my eyes and groan, my heart pitter pattering at the sleepy morning look on his face. Carpet indentations line his cheeks and make him look like a wet dream, and I'm not even sure why.
"Hi." I rasp.
"Hey. How you feeling?" He frowns down at me, still not over what happened last night, obviously.
"Terrible." He removes his hand from playing with my hair and emotion builds in me at warp speed. "Aric, I'm so sorry about last night." I choke out, voice filled with glass.
He shakes his head, ridding himself of thought of me dancing with his brother, I'm sure. "Yeah." He looks off to the door. It looks like he wants to run from this conversation. Or maybe just run from me.
"I'm serious, it was a mistake." I sit up and lean into his line of sight. "I took something I shouldn't have."
"Why? Why would you take drugs? Mostly after you know what kind of person my brother is? How I feel about it?" He asks with a crack in his voice.
"I-I don't know. I don't know." I look down at my lap, so disappointed in myself.
What a mess.
"Did he force you?" He voice grows an angry lilt.
"No! No, he didn't, at all. I don't know, I don't know any of these people and I didn't want to make it seem like I'm some loser. They all had multiple pills at one time, and I figured one wouldn't hurt me. Shows how much I know." I scoff, shaking my head.
"That was really fucking stupid of you, Mercy."
I look up from my lap and look in his face. Is he really pissed about the drugs? Or he is pissed how he found me with his brother? "I won't make that mistake again; I promise."
"No, you won't. I won't let you." He cups his hands around my face and pulls me up to him, landing a possessive kiss on my lips that takes me by surprise. My heart pounds in my ears, drowning out my gasps and his grunts of approval.
The tingling starts between my thighs, but the moment he starts to lean me back on the bed, doors start to shut from down the hall. He moves off me quickly, the heat in his eyes fading to a cool blue.
"We're not finished, but I got to, ah-" He points to the door and I wave him off.
"I know, I'll see you later." I stifle a moan when I see him readjust his impressive length underneath his sweats. If that's what it looked like underneath those gray sweats, I'm almost worried what he looks like completely bare.
As if he knows what I'm thinking, he gives me a lazy smirk and readjusts one more time before cracking open my bedroom door and slipping out, closing it behind him.
I flop back on my fluffed pillow and bite my lip.
Okay, so, Aric forgives me. That's good. We'll be okay, and I won't even pay attention to Aeron anymore. I'll ignore him. I mean, I'm sure he'll be back in jail within a few weeks anyway.
No, everything will be just fine between Aric and me. He's the one that makes my heart race. He's the good brother with the good soul and would never hurt a fly.
I keep repeating these words to myself as I lay in bed, but I just can't get another thought out of my mind.
If Aric is the right one, why can't I stop thinking about the wrong one?
~
A week later, I slide open the back door and walk out to the pool with my sunglasses, a towel, and my Kindle. Dave is working, Aric went to go and do something with Luke, and I haven't seen or heard anything of Aeron for the last few days. I'm taking this as my time to sneak out here and finally—finally—try out the pool.
After the fiasco last weekend, things have mostly gone back to normal. That's mostly because Aeron has been sporadic with his attendance around the house. He mostly sleeps in during the day and when he wakes up, he leaves right away. When he comes home, it's well past dinner time and holes up in his room for the evening.
Aric is pissed because he knows he's just back in his own ways, but Dave doesn't seem too bothered. Either Aeron is really good at hiding it from him, or Dave is really oblivious. Either way, I haven’t said anything about Aeron, and I haven’t heard about him either.
That hasn't stopped my thoughts from repeating that night over and over in my head like a broken radio. It's incessant, and annoying.
And I'm also extremely turned on this past week and Aric hasn't done anything since my bedroom. Even that, some heavy kissing, isn't near enough to extinguish this raging fire going on in my body.
Touching myself in the darkness of my room at night isn't doing anything to squelch this need, either.
I'm hoping that with everyone out of the house, I can do some laps in the pool and then lay out in the sun for a couple hours before I'm bothered by anyone.
I set my Kindle and towel down on one of the reclining pool loungers and dive right in. The hot, humid day leaves being outside almost impossible unless you're in the water. The temperature is perfect in here, though. A bit cooler today, which is perfect for the hot day.
When I surface, I brush my hair back from my face and start doing laps, determined to exhaust this heat out of my system one way or another. Exercise is one of my last options.
I could always jump Aric's bones, but on the off chance he rejects me, I'll never be able to live in the same house with him. Plus, I'm not sure if I'm ready to go there with him. I did tell him I didn’t know what I wanted. But now that I'm a ball of tension, I'd ta
ke just about anyone to scratch this itch.
After about thirty minutes of laps, my legs and arms ache from the rigorous exercise. I doggy paddle over to the stairs and hobble out, ready to lay in the sun as long as I can tolerate it, and then go inside and shower before everyone gets home.
When a shadow falls over me, I let out a yelp.
"Holy shit, you scared me." I nearly leap out of my skin at the sight in front of me.
There stands Aeron, shirtless and the pair of shorts he's wearing hang dangerously low on his hips. The tattoos covering his entire body go beneath his pants and it makes my horribly filthy mind as of late wonder how much of his body is really tattooed.
Shit, I hope he doesn’t stay out here long. It's too risky for him to be out here otherwise.
"You really know what you're doing out there." His eyes rake up and down my body as he nods his head towards the pool.
"Uh, I was in swimming for a few years." My eyes zero in on his mouth as he runs his tongue across his bottom lip.
He steps closer to me. "It shows." His eyes travel down my body once again, and I can't help but look down at my own body as well. I don't have the most athletic body in the world, but my swimming past did give me a bit of a lean swimmer’s body.
When he steps closer to me, warning signs start going off in my brain. "What're you doing?" I breathe. "Stop." I try again when he takes another step.
"I haven't seen much of you this past week. Not since last weekend." His lazy gaze towards me brings back all the memories like it happened just hours ago. There's a phantom sensation of his hands on my hips, gripping my sides, grazing my ass. I can't get over it.
The memories hold me hostage.
"T-that was a mistake."
"I beg to differ. What happened between us? Not a mistake. I bet you haven't been able to get me off your mind. I bet the thought of your body pressed up against mine has made you a writhing mess this past week. Unless, that is, little brother has been helping you out?"
I scowl at him and he barks out a laugh.
"Yeah, that's what I thought. Nothing will take away what I gave you. Nothing, except for me."
"You don't know anything." I sneer at him, furious that he's got me figured out. Spot fucking on.
"I know I can hear you through the walls each night as you touch yourself. Sticking your hands beneath your underwear as you try to rub me out of your memories. You try, baby, but you fail. I'm ingrained in you.”
I look up in his eyes and I know he can see that it's the truth. I'm a shitty liar, so I know it would be useless to tell him off. But I still need to try. I feel like I'd be betraying Aric if I didn't.
When I open my mouth, I see the moment he can tell what's about to come out of my mouth. He gets a challenging look on his face and before I know it, he's charging at me and I let out a scream moments before we submerge underneath the water. He keeps his arm circled around my waist and pulls me up with him. I cough out a wet breath and try to fight away from him when we break the surface, but he keeps me locked tightly in his grip.
"Ass. Hole." I gasp.
He doesn't say a word as he hauls me up to the edge of the pool, pushing me almost forcefully up against the wall. "Don't say it." He growls.
"Don't say what?" I ask, confused.
He gets right in my face, his teeth mashing together in an angry snarl. "Don't go and spit lies right in my face about how you didn't feel. You’d be doing a disservice to yourself if you tried to pretend it was all a fucking lie. Not only that, but you’d be pissing me right the fuck off. Let me just say this, every time you try to fucking lie to me, your ass is getting dunked. Swimsuit or not."
"I-" I begin, but he cuts me off again.
"Shut up, Mercy." He leans in and captures my lips, cutting off my oxygen and severing my heart right out of my chest. My heart stops. Actually, I think time itself stops. If we were to kiss forever, I don't think a second of time would pass. We could sit here forever and kiss, and no one would ever find us.
Not wrapped in his little corner of the pool with time stopped and my heart stopped and his body overtaking mine like he owns every inch of it.
I don't even have time to reject his kiss, my body refuses to even think about doing so. It knew what it was supposed to do, and my lips clung to Aeron's the moment his connected with mine.
He pins me up against the pool wall for so long, our entire bodies turn into one big prune. It doesn't bother me, though, not with his rock hard, tattooed body plastered up against mine.
I don't think about the consequences, or Aric, or Dave, or anyone. The only thing I'm thinking about is that this inferno between my legs is reaching an all-time high, and I need someone to put out the fire.
I need Aeron to put out the fire.
When he reaches his hand forward and presses his thumb up against my clit over my swimsuit bottoms, I almost weep in relief.
"Fuck." I cry out against his shoulder.
He swipes his fingers along the edge of the swimsuit before sliding in and slipping two fingers right inside of me.
"I knew it wasn't just me." He murmurs.
I can't respond. I can't refute. I can't deny. I can't even agree.
The only thing I can do is claw on his shoulders and cry against his tattooed collar bone as my climax fires off like the finale during the Fourth of July. Tears leak out of my eyes as my legs shake underneath the water.
When I start to come down, realization hits me straight in the head on what I just did.
I push Aeron away and try to regain my balance underneath the water.
"What have I done?" I whisper to myself.
I try to turn around and hop out of the pool, but once again Aeron blocks my escape. "You can run from me all you want. You can even try to hide from me if you want to really want to have some fun. But know this, I will find you every single time. You think my brother can satisfy this ache inside of you? He won’t, and you know it. But I will. You know that, too." His hands trace my curves like they're his. Like we've already signed the contract where my body is his and he can do what he wants.
Aric hasn't even touched me like this. We haven't gone into any kind of territory besides kissing.
Aeron doesn't ask for permission. He doesn't take things slow. The moment he wants something, he decides to go for it without so much as stating his intent. The world is his fucking oyster, apparently.
My body obviously wants Aeron, but my mind leads me to Aric. The battle going on inside of me makes things so confusing. Because at the end of the day, Aeron is bad news and I don't need any more bad news in my life.
"I have to go."
"You go ahead, baby. You run as fast as you can." He laughs at me as he kicks off the ledge and floats on his back to the center of the pool. His hard on is accentuated with his wet shorts and I have to swallow down the need pooling in my mouth.
With his perfect body shimmering wet in the sun, I let him laugh as me as I flee to my room.
10
Mercy
Later that evening, I wake up in bed to the sound of my phone ringing.
"Hello?" I ask without even looking at the caller ID.
"Mercy? Hey, you. What’s up?" Guilt washes over me at the sound of Aric's voice. Memories of earlier flood my mind and I hate what I did with Aeron earlier. I hate what I'm doing to Aric.
"Hey." I burrow under my covers and hope the fluffy sheets will suffocate me. Then I'll never have to confront either of these brothers again.
"Were you sleeping?" He laughs at me.
"Uh, yeah. I was, actually." My head starts pounding and I press my fingers into my eyelids.
"Are you feeling okay?" Concern laces his voice, and I melt at his protectiveness.
"My head hurts, actually. Probably too much sun earlier."
"Ahh. You went in the pool finally?"
"Mhmm."
"You should have told me. I would have gone with you and we could have had some fun." He says in a lower tone. Guilt c
lobbers me in the chest. I did have some fun in the pool earlier, only I was with the other brother.
When I don't say anything, he clears his throat and continues, "Look, I was just letting you know this thing with Luke is taking longer than I thought. I'm helping him change the engine on one of his dad's older cars and was going to see if you wanted me to come get you. I'm assuming because you have a headache the answer will be no?"
I couldn't even imagine confronting Aric right now. I think my face would scream 'your brother just gave me the best orgasm ever' and then I'd never be welcome in this house again.
"I'm going to have to skip it. My head is killing me."
"No worries. I'll come home when I'm finished. Maybe, if you're feeling better, we can do something when I get home?" The hope in his voice makes my chest ache. What the hell was I thinking? Being with the bad boy when I had the perfect one standing right in front of me?
I’m such a dip shit.
"Oh, okay, sure."
"I'll check in with you later. Bye, Mercy." His voice husks at the end, and I say a quick bye and hang up the phone, feeling way too terrible a human to be talking to Aric right now.
Aric is so good. And I'm turning out to be such a terrible person. Maybe I do deserve Aeron. We can sit in the corner of a back alley and be terrible people together.
I throw my phone on the ground and roll over, ready to burrow in here for the rest of eternity when I get a knock on my door.
When it creaks open, I'm about to cuss out Aeron when Dave's voice rings out, "Mercy, are you in here?"
I fling up in bed. "Yes? Yeah, what's going on?"
He peeks around the door and frowns at me. "Are you feeling okay? I haven't heard a peep from you in a few hours."
"I have a headache." I try to fix my messy hair, undoubtedly a disaster from laying down with it wet.
"Well, dinner is ready. Do you want to eat something? Might make you feel better."
Dinner with Dave? Why not. I can eat quick and go right back to bed. "Sure, I'll be right down."
He nods with a smile and walks out, shutting my door behind him.
I shuffle out of bed and trade out my sleep shorts and a tank for a loose summer dress, throw my hair in a bun and head downstairs.