“You don’t know—”
“So, maybe I’m hearing you wrong, but you’re saying that you do want me, but you’ve just been rejecting me all these years because my brother said to stay away from me and because you’re afraid I don’t see you as a whole man?”
“It’s complicated, Lauren.”
“Because you made it complicated, Mercer.”
“No—you don’t get it.”
“What I don’t get is how you could have me throwing myself at you for years and you just ignored me. You made me feel stupid and crazy and worthless for years! You’ve been rejecting me and treating me like shit for so long, because you wanted me? You’ve got to be joking.”
“I don’t—”
“Say you don’t want me and I’m going to crack you over the skull with this lamp. Say it.” She stood up and practically vibrated with rage. “I’m through being rejected by you.”
I stayed quiet, unsure of what I’d done and how I’d thought that it was a good idea.
“Are you telling me this because I told you I made a date with Adam?”
“No.” Maybe. “I just… I wasn’t trying to start a fire, Lauren.”
“Well, you did. You have no idea. I could slap the shit out of you right now. You were so busy making all of these executive decisions for me all these years that you never stopped to think about what I actually wanted. Or how I felt for you.”
I gripped the arms of the chair I was in and felt a drop of sweat roll down my back. “It didn’t matter.”
She was standing over me, glaring. “Why are you telling me this? I’m assuming you just want to keep on rejecting me, due to some dead-and-gone threat from my brother and some idiotic idea that I couldn’t possibly see you or want you as a man because I once nursed you back to health.”
“I… I don’t fucking know. You’ve just been upset and I—”
“So, you do just want to keep right on turning me away?”
“It’s not—” I was saved from having to answer by her phone ringing across the room.
Lauren glared at me for a few seconds more before crossing to her phone and answering it. “Hello?”
I rubbed my neck and tried to figure out what the fuck was wrong with me. Had I been so jealous and scared of her running off with someone else that I’d just blurted all of that shit out? I’d tried to explain away my behavior, but it was stupid. And not helpful, apparently.
“I can be there in half an hour.” Lauren turned her back to me. “I’ll be alone. Thanks.”
After she hung up, I stood up and slipped one of my guns into my pants. “JD?”
She nodded. “He’s going to meet me at a warehouse on Machen Street.”
I ran through escape routes in my head. I knew Machen Street from running around when I was younger. I’d be able to get Lauren out if I had to. “I’m going this time.”
“He said alone.”
“He won’t see me.”
“You going to pull some SEAL shit?”
“I’m not a SEAL anymore.”
Lauren closed the distance between us and rested her hands on my chest. The contact burned and I wanted to pull away, but I was cornered. “You’re still a SEAL. You’re skilled and deadly. I’m more than a little bit angry at you right now, but I’m still not going to let you talk down about yourself. You lost part of your leg, not all of your training. I trust you with my life.”
I stilled and looked down into her eyes. She’d never said those words to me and something about them stopped me dead in my tracks.
“Yeah—my life. I don’t know why you don’t get it, but there it is. I trust you with my life, Mercer. I don’t think you’re half of anything. I think you’re all man and you’re fully capable of saving me if I need you to. I also think that when we get back to this room tonight, you have a lot of explaining to do and maybe some groveling.”
“Lauren—”
“Mercer.”
“Just be careful.”
She stretched up and gently brushed her lips over my cheek. “You, too.”
Chapter 16
Lauren
I should’ve been nervous. Mercer acted like the JD character was deadly or something. Instead, all I felt was a weird mix of anger and excitement. Both feelings were directed at Mercer. I wasn’t sure what the fuck he was thinking, but I wanted to slap his ears and then feel him kiss me senseless. The idea that he’d been avoiding getting close to me and rejecting me for years because my brother thought that he wasn’t good enough for me was ridiculous. He was his own man. I’ve always been my own woman. No matter how much I loved Luke, he didn’t make rules like that for me.
His other excuse made more sense. The way he always got pissy when I tried to take care of him… He really did think I saw him as some charity case or something. He was crazy. That was all there was to it. If he thought I just wanted him out of pity, he’d clearly bumped his head somewhere along the way.
I strolled into the warehouse, deep in thought about Mercer, and nearly stumbled upon a man. Coming up short, I laughed awkwardly and stepped back. “Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”
Shorter than me, he scowled and rubbed his nose. “Watch where you’re going, bitch.”
“You watch where you’re going. I wasn’t the only one walking here. And watch your mouth, too.” I scowled back at him and stepped around him.
“Talk to me like that again and I’ll fuck you up.”
I looked back at him and made a face. I could definitely take him. He was small and looked like he was on drugs. I was sober and pissed off at the world. I had anger on my side. “Fuck off.”
“Lady, you’re a pretty little wasp, flying too far south. Do you have a death wish?” The voice came from the back of the warehouse. As the owner of it stepped forward, I instantly knew he was JD. He had an air of boss to him.
“No death wish, but I don’t think flying too far south means that shorty over here gets to treat a woman like that.” I looked back at my new least favorite person and shook my head. “You hear me? Treat women with respect.”
“Fuck. You’re a problem. Come on, before you get your little ass killed.” Holding up his hand to my short friend, the boss waved him off. “Go home.”
I turned to see shorty with a knife in his hand and rushed to the side of the boss. He was suddenly my new favorite person. Tall, wide, and almost as tough-looking as Mercer, I was glad for him.
“JD?”
He nodded and put his hand on my back to lead me further into the warehouse. “You have a few screws loose or what?”
“I’m just having a really shitty couple of days and I don’t like being called a bitch by a man who wouldn’t be allowed to ride most amusement-park rides.”
JD laughed and opened a door for me to walk through. Once inside, I turned and got a better look at him. Dark skin that looked as soft as crushed velvet, odd green eyes, and a smile that stretched on and on, he was a hell of a specimen. “So, little wasp, what can I do for you?”
“Lauren. Lauren Dulaney. We have a friend in common.” I sat down on the rickety chair he pointed out and watched as he sat across from me. “Mercer Dunn.”
He made a sound at the back of his throat and shook his head. “Wow. I heard he was going through a little bit of trouble.”
“Yeah. You could say that. I have to ask a few questions about the last woman he sent your way.” When he frowned, I smiled extra hard. “If that’s okay.”
“Put your teeth away, blondie. I’ll help Mercer out if I can.”
“Jessica. He gave her money and sent her to you over a decade ago. She needed a new identity to get away from someone. Do you remember her?”
“If you’d asked me in another fifty years, I would still remember her. She was hot as hell and knew it. And she picked a stupid fucking name. She wanted to be Sunshine Shadows.”
I snorted. “No.”
“Yeah. But that’s what I said. That’s a stupid name and it would be a dead giveaway
to anyone that it was fake. No one would be cruel enough to name their kid that.” He shook his head. “She threw a fit. She came in here bold as hell, too.”
“So, what name did you end up giving her?”
“That’s the thing. I never got to finish. I was working on finishing it up and getting shit printed out when this guy pulled up in this nice-ass car. She gets antsy and when he says come, she says how hard, if you know what I mean. She got in his car and they left. She didn’t get the papers and I didn’t get paid.”
My heart stopped. “What did the man look like?”
“Like a rich-ass white dude.”
“Any more detail than that?”
He laughed. “Look. If you want to know more about the girl, I could tell you. If someone asked me about you in ten years, I could tell them. Some white dude with an affluenza problem and a nasty attitude? Can’t recall anything.”
“Shit.”
“What’s so important about him?”
“I think he might’ve been the man who killed her.”
“He was a fucker, but I don’t know about anything else.” He paused. “He was dressed in a nice suit. One of my regulars tried to snatch his cufflinks and the guy flipped out. Threatened to have us all locked away.”
My spine went cold. “What did you say?”
“What?”
“He threatened to have you all locked away?” The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. “He said that?”
JD nodded. “I remember that shit because it freaked everyone out. I had to move spots after that shit. That white man scared everybody away.”
“Anything else?”
JD smiled. “Nothing about that.”
I caught the charm he’d slipped into his smile and rolled my eyes. “Put your teeth away. I’m wasted on a man who doesn’t give two shits about me.”
Laughing, JD stood up and shook my hand. “Well, blondie, if you get sick of wasting your time on Mercer, come see me again. Only this time, I’ll meet you somewhere nicer. You and your attitude can’t come around here again.”
“I’ll keep you in mind. Mercer said you were dangerous but he didn’t say you were gorgeous.”
“Dangerous? Me? I’m a pussycat, Blondie.” He walked me to the front of the warehouse and smiled down at me. “I’ll watch you walk to your car. Tell Mercer I said I hope he enjoyed hearing me hit on his woman.”
I blinked in confusion. “What do you mean?”
He nodded up and waved when Mercer dropped down from the roof of the building and walked towards us with a scowl on his face. “I let you see me.”
JD shook Mercer’s hand and then lightly tugged at a strand of my hair. “Get your girl out of here before I steal her. Did you hear? She thinks I’m gorgeous.”
“Fuck off.” Mercer took my elbow and tugged me away from JD. “Thanks, though.”
“Anytime, brother.”
Mercer pulled me to the car and lightly shoved me into the passenger seat before walking around to the driver’s side and getting in. He ignored the look I gave him and peeled out of the parking spot.
“What the hell, Mercer?”
He kept right on ignoring me, speeding through the city like he wasn’t a wanted fugitive. His face was pulled tight, anger clear on it. His hair was extra wild, too, like even it was mad.
“He called you brother. Was he a SEAL, too?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow. Talk about going in a different direction.” When he didn’t respond, I just kept talking, more to myself than anything. “Did you hear what he said? The man threatened to lock them away. It had to be her other man. And he has to be in some sort of position of power. I did some digging about cops and the sheriff at that time. I haven’t gotten to really look at the list yet, but I’m going to figure this out, Mercer.
“He said the guy took her away before she could get away with her new ID, too. That just proves it. He killed her. I just need to figure out which rich man in Ambrose it was and then find a way to show it.”
Mercer pulled into the parking lot of the motel and slammed the car in park. “Come on. Inside.”
I got out slower than him and was staring at him like he’d lost his mind, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me inside. I watched him slam the door shut and lock it before turning to face me with a wild expression in his eyes.
“What?”
“You almost got stabbed.”
“No, I didn’t. It was fine.”
“You almost got stabbed and then you flirted with JD, after I told you he was dangerous.”
“I didn’t flirt with him.”
“He’s gorgeous—really?”
“He is. Is that a problem?”
“Yes!”
“Why?”
He grabbed my shoulders and actually shook me. It wasn’t hard, but it was enough to make me laugh from the sensation. “This is what I’m talking about. You’re all mixed up. You smart-mouth a thug, flirt with a man I told you was dangerous, you laugh when I shake you! What’s wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with you?” I smacked his stomach with the back of my hand. “You’re the one shaking me!”
“Because you’re driving me fucking insane.” He jerked me into his chest and stared down at me with a look that I suddenly realized was very heated. “I’ve tried my hardest.”
I opened my mouth to question him, but he closed the distance between us and pressed his lips against mine, shutting me up. His hands moved up my neck to cup my head as he deepened the kiss and I was lost. After years of wanting, it was finally happening and all I could think was that I had never imagined the way he kissed. He pressed his lips into mine and pulled back just slightly, kissed my lower lip, pulled back, traced his tongue over the seam. It was a game of give and take. His hands in my hair were tight and intense, fighting for control, but his mouth was in charge.
I pressed my chest again his, desperate to feel him in all of the ways that I’d longed to for so long. I stroked my hands down his back and then under his shirt, feeling his skin and the lines that marred it.
“Lauren…”
I knew it was a warning. He didn’t want me touching the scars that covered him, but I’d be damned if he was going to hide from me. I paused my hands, but traced a line with my finger, following it down his back and around his side. “I took care of this line. I know it. I’m not afraid of it, Merce.”
His body was stiff as I traced yet another one. He froze with his lips hovering over mine, his hands sinking to my neck, the mass of them able to wrap completely around it. His thumbs stroked over the front of my throat, pausing to dip into the hollow at the base of it.
“I have no interest in taking part of you. I want all of you.” I stepped back enough to work his shirt up his body and breathed out a sigh of relief when he helped me get it over his head.
The lights blared in the room, bright enough that I could see every piece of puckered skin going across Mercer’s body. Scars decorated his skin like spots on a cheetah. He was covered and it was something he seemed to be worried about, but I loved them. He didn’t know it, but I did. His marks, they were a part of him.
I let out a shaky breath and rested my hands on his bare chest. It was the closest I’d been to him and I was afraid to move too much, in case it was a dream that all vanished.
Chapter 17
Mercer
My skin burned where Lauren’s hands rested. She stared at my chest with so much reverence on her face that I felt embarrassed. I trailed my hands down her back and stopped at the bottom of her sweater. I wanted it off. I wanted her as bare as me. I hooked my hands under the hem and slowly dragged it up her body. She held her arms up and let me pull it off of her. Underneath, she wore a black, lace bra that cupped her breasts like magic. I could see her nipples pebbled underneath and my mouth watered. I wanted to taste every part of her.
She reached behind her and unhooked the bra, letting it slide down her arms and then to the floor, baring herself to
me. Her eyes trailed over my body, so unconcerned with herself. It was like she couldn’t see past me to worry about anything else. Her hands came back to my chest and worked over the peaks and valleys of my muscles and scars.
I sucked in a breath when her hands moved lower on my stomach, her fingertips brushing over the top of my jeans. “Careful.”
She leaned into me and smiled. “You’re always telling me to be careful. Haven’t you learned by now that I don’t like to play it carefully, Merce?”
I cupped her ass and pulled her flush against my rock-hard erection. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve done this? How long it’s been since I wanted to do this? Careful, or it’s going to be over before it begins.”
Something dark flashed in her eyes. “It hasn’t been that long since the stripper.”
I gritted my teeth and squeezed her ass harder. “Nothing happened.”
“Liar.”
I spun her around and pushed against her shoulders until she was bent over the bed, ass in the air. I jerked her leggings down, panties with them, and stared down at her bare ass, my hand itching to spank her. All of the frustration I always felt with her bubbled to the surface and all I wanted to do was turn her ass red with my handprints. “Don’t call me a liar.”
She was breathing heavy, fighting against my hand in the center of her back. “Or what? You’ll spank me? Is that what you’re into, Mercer?”
Her taunting tone snapped something in me. I’d never spanked a woman before and I’d never had a desire to do it, but my dick was so hard I felt like it would pierce through my pants and all I wanted to do was slap her across the ass.
The first hit shocked a squeal out of her. I watched as her ass blossomed red and her back arched. Everything in me seemed to still and center on that moment.
Lauren tossed her hair over her shoulder and glared at me. “You’re not the boss of me.”
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