by Dena Christy
“So, there isn’t a threat to Mercy’s home?” For a second Alex hoped that there was.
As soon as the thought occurred to him, he felt bad for thinking it. If Mercy was safe to go home, and that was what she wanted to do, he shouldn’t wish that there was something to prevent her from doing it. He wanted her to be at his place because she wanted to be with him, not because she was afraid to go home.
“Not that I’ve been able to find. Nathan is dead, so unless his ghost is haunting Mercy’s neighborhood, it’s her neighbor’s active imagination that is causing the problem. That and her dog. She doesn’t seem to get that sometimes dogs bark at nothing and that she doesn’t need to call us every time her little angel refuses to shut up.” Luke finished his pie and shook his head when Alex lifted the coffeepot to ask if he wanted any more. “No more for me. I got a couple more hours until the end of my shift.”
Luke finished his coffee and stood up. He put a ten-dollar bill on the counter and slid it toward Alex.
“Logan said it was on the house.”
“Consider it a tip then. Say hi to Mercy for me.”
Luke nodded at Honor as she came around to the back of the bar and turned and walked out the door.
“What was the meeting about?” There was a slight look of concern in Honor’s eyes, and Alex figured that she’d come to the same conclusion that he had when Luke had come to see Logan. And since Nathan’s death affected her too, he felt it was only right to fill her in on the situation.
“Nathan is dead.”
“What? When?” Her face drained of color and her voice came out in a whisper of disbelief. Alex knew that the when question was the most important one to her, since she could not have spent all her time with Rafe, and knew her man well enough to know that he would do whatever it took to protect her.
“Before the snowstorm.” Alex could see the wheels turning in her head and knew that he needed to put her out of her misery. “Luke says it was an accident. That he fell while he was in the woods in Eden Creek and hit his head on a rock. So either the blow to the head killed him or exposure did.”
He didn’t add that there was no way that Rafe had killed him, but then he didn’t need to when relief came over her face.
“Thank God that’s all over with. Rafe will be relieved to hear it, and maybe he'll relax a little too.” She smiled at Alex. “I’m sure Mercy will be relieved too. Although I hope she doesn’t take this as an opportunity to go back to her home. You two are good together, and it would be a shame if your current living arrangement didn’t continue.”
She turned and picked up her latest order from the pass-through and went to deliver it to her table.
Alex wasn’t sure what Mercy’s plan would be once she heard the news, but he agreed with Honor in her hope that Mercy didn’t take it as an opportunity to go back home. He liked their living arrangement just fine.
12
Mercy paced around the living room while she waited for Alex to come home. He’d sent her a text earlier that he had news for her and asked that she wait up for him.
There was little chance that she’d be able to go to sleep with not knowing what this was all about. She couldn’t think of what it could be and her curiosity was making the time until he came home drag by.
His truck pulled into the driveway and she went over to the sofa. There was no point in pouncing on him as soon as he walked in the door. He would tell her once he was settled and jumping on him before he came in the door would not help.
She heard him walk in the house and hugged her arms to herself. What could he want to tell her? Had he decided that he didn’t want her here anymore? Had something changed his mind about them being here together?
He walked out of the vestibule and into the living room. “Oh good, you’re still up.”
“You asked me to be.” As if she would have disregarded what he’d asked in favor of going to bed.
“I know, but I also know how much the baby makes you tired sometimes. So I appreciate you waiting up for me.” He came over to the sofa and sat next to her. He took her hand in his and lifted it to his lips. He pressed a kiss on the back and something shifted inside her. He wouldn’t be acting like this if what he had to say involved booting her out of his house. “Luke came into the bar tonight.”
Luke? Her mind went straight to Nathan, and she clutched at Alex’s hand.
“Did they find him? Is he going to be sent back to the council?” Was the nightmare with Nathan finally over?
“Yes, and no. They found him but he won’t be going back to the council.” He stroked his hand over hers as if he was trying to soften what he was about to say. “He’s dead.”
Mercy sat there stunned for a second. “Say it again?”
“He’s dead. They found his body in the woods in Eden Creek.”
It took a moment for the news to settle in. The only emotion that was going through her was relief. Nathan had hurt her, had tormented her and Honor, and now he was no longer a threat. She wasn’t sure if relief was an appropriate emotion when hearing that someone was dead, but she could only feel what she could feel.
But there was a small voice of fear in the back of her head that wanted to override the relief. What exactly had happened to him? She looked at Alex. Sometimes he wasn’t with her, and she wondered if he’d taken the ultimate step in protecting her.
“How did he die exactly?” There was no judgment in her voice because if he had killed Nathan, he’d only done it to protect her and their baby. But she wanted to be prepared for the trouble that would come if he had.
“It was an accident. He hit his head on a rock and either that killed him or the cold did.” He frowned at her for a minute. “You didn’t think I had something to do with it, did you?”
She shrugged her shoulders for a second. “Well, I wasn’t convinced that you’d gone out and murdered him, but I wanted to be prepared in case you had. I’m sorry if my thinking you might have has offended you.”
He raised her hand and kissed it again. “I’m not offended. Frankly, if I had found him alive, I don’t know what I would have done. All I know is that I will do whatever it takes to protect you and our baby. Whether that would turn me into a killer, I don’t know. I’ve never been in a situation where I had to make a choice like that. And don’t feel bad about assuming I had something to do with it. Until I found out it was an accident, I thought perhaps Rafe had helped him on his way to his demise.”
“Yeah, I could see how that would be a safe assumption to make.” Mercy remembered the look on Rafe’s face the night Nathan had stalked her and Honor in the woods. He had been prepared to kill him then to protect Honor and the only reason he hadn’t was that Logan had stopped him before he could finish beating Nathan to death. “Well, at least if it was an accident there is no chance that the council will come down hard on any of us over why their prize prisoner is dead.”
“And it’s probably a good thing that he wasn’t taken in alive. The council let him slip through their grasp once, there is no telling if it would happen again.”
She leaned against him and he let go of her hand to put his arm around her shoulders. She rested her head against his shoulder and they sat quietly for a few moments.
“You know what’s funny? There was a part of me that didn’t quite believe that he would ever be found. I’ve had nightmares about him since that night he killed Barrett. I feel safe here, but when I leave I always feel like I’m looking over my shoulder, waiting for him to come back.” She pursed her lips for a second while she thought of a way to phrase what she was going to say without sounding like she was doing a happy dance now that Nathan was dead. “I’m not happy that he’s dead, but I am glad that he won’t come back and finish whatever he wanted to do when he broke into my house.
“It’s natural to be relieved that you can go back to living your life free of fear.” His voice was quiet beside her and she looked up at him. There was a hesitation in his eyes, as if he wanted to ask her
something, but wasn’t sure of her answer.
“What is it?”
“It’s safe for you to go home now. I want to know what it means for us now that he’s gone.” He reached up and stroked his hand over her face. “The threat he posed was the reason you were staying here. In the beginning, I wanted to protect you and keeping you here was the way to do that. But you and I both know that we aren’t in the same place we were when you first came here.”
Mercy’s heart hammered inside her and she swallowed. Was he working up the courage to tell her to leave? Now that there was no reason for her to be here since she didn’t need protecting anymore, did that mean that he wanted her gone?
“What are you trying to say? Do you want me to leave and go back to my house?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew that it was the last thing she wanted. She and Alex were building something between them, something that went beyond having a child together. The thought of calling it love sent fear skittering through her so she turned her mind away from that notion, but there was something more than friendship growing between them.
“It’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is, even though it’s safe for you to go home, I want you to stay here. I’m not saying it has to be forever if we don’t want it to be, but I’m not ready for you to go back home yet. And I hope that you feel the same way.”
Mercy’s heart rate slowed, and the anxiety that had risen up inside her subsided. He wanted her to stay. He wasn’t promising forever, but then she wasn’t ready for that yet. But she didn’t want to go back home yet.
“I want to stay. I want to be in your house.” She leaned in a little and pressed a soft kiss on his mouth. She pulled back and saw relief come into his blue eyes. “And I want to be in your bed. I want you, Alex.”
“Thank God.” He pulled her toward him and lowered his mouth to hers. His arms came around her and he held her tight as he devoured her lips with his. The desire for him that simmered under the surface whenever he was around flared to life. There was a hungry urgency in his kiss that triggered a matching response inside her.
How could he think that she would want to leave this, would want to leave him?
She tore her mouth away from his and she could see that telltale amber ring around his iris that told her that his desire for her was fierce and needed to be sated. It took very little time for them to discard their clothes, and he moved her so that she was on his lap, straddling him.
He dipped his fingers between her legs, and she threw her head back and moaned as he stroked his fingers over her moist flesh. She was more than ready for him, and her pleasure built inside her as he touched her in exactly the way she liked. But she wanted him inside her when she found her release, so she moved his hand away and raised herself up a little. He shifted his hips forward on the sofa so that it would be easier for her to take him inside her.
She grasped his cock and positioned herself so that he was at her entrance. She sank down on him as he flexed his hips up, and they moaned in unison.
“God, you feel so good.” He held on to her as they moved together. They built a world of pleasure around them and the only people who existed in it was them.
She clutched at his shoulders as she climbed higher and higher. He slipped his hand between them, toying with her clit as he thrust upward and it sent her over the edge.
She called out his name, and he growled his encouragement as she exploded in orgasm. His movements grew more frantic, and she knew her release was triggering his own. Each pulse of ecstasy that went through her was matched by his, and they held on to each other until the storm of their passion had passed.
Her face was resting in the crook of his neck and she could feel herself drifting back to reality. A huge yawn escaped her, and she heard him chuckle.
“I think maybe it’s time we moved this to the bedroom.”
She nodded sleepily against his neck, and his arms tightened around her as he stood up. She hung on to him with her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist as he walked to his bedroom.
He stopped by the bed and she let her legs drift down to the floor. He kissed her softly and let her go so he could pull back the covers.
She climbed in bed, and he got in beside her, turning her so that he could spoon against her back with his arm draped over her waist.
Her last thought before she fell asleep was that this was where she was meant to be.
Alex was at home, trying to keep out of Mercy’s way while she got some work done. She was set up at the kitchen table with her laptop, and he thought they would have to remedy that. She needed some kind of office if she was going to be living here, but he wondered if it was too soon to broach the topic with her. He’d been careful when he’d spoken to her about remaining here now that Nathan was dead. He’d never felt closer to her than when she’d told him she wanted to stay, and it had been on the tip of his tongue to ask her to be his mate.
But something held him back. She wanted him, that much he was more than aware of. But did she love him? He knew in his mind that he loved her, but he had to remember her history. He had to be careful about declaring himself until he was sure that it wouldn’t send her running in the other direction. He knew her well enough to know that when she got scared of her feelings she ran. The first night they’d slept together had proven that.
That still didn’t solve the problem of her needing a space to work. The spare room was earmarked for the baby, but he did have a much smaller room that he wasn’t using. It had turned into a dumping ground for stuff he didn’t know what else to do with. Maybe he could clean that room out and set it up as a little office for her. It didn’t have to be fancy, he could make it seem like he wanted to do something with the space and an office was something they both could use.
And it would give him something to do to keep himself from declaring his undying love for her and chasing her away.
He went into the kitchen and her fingers were moving rapidly on her laptop keys and he didn’t think she’d noticed him.
She looked up and smiled. “Thanks for the interruption. I sometimes need to be reminded to take a break.”
She closed the laptop and stood up. She stretched and the way she cupped her hands on her lower back told him that working at the kitchen table was less than an ideal setup.
“Working at the kitchen table can’t be comfortable for you.”
“It is what it is. I don’t have the same set up here as I do at home.”
“What if we could make a nicer set up for you? I have a small room that I don’t use for much more than store junk. I could clean it out and we could set up a little office. It won’t be anything fancy, but it would be better than working at the kitchen table.”
She hesitated for a second, and he wondered if he’d done what he hadn’t wanted to do. Which was imply that this arrangement between them was more permanent than what she wanted it to be.
He was about to rush into a speech about it only being a temporary place for her to work when she smiled at him.
“I think that would be great if you don’t mind giving up the space.”
Relief went through him. “I don’t mind at all. There’s nothing but junk in there that I need to get rid of anyway.”
“Do you need any help with it?”
“No, you continue on with your work. I’ll work on sorting through the stuff while I wait for my shift to start.” He went over to her and kissed her.
She put her arms around his waist and hugged him for a moment before she stepped back. “Thank you.”
He smiled down at her before he turned on his heel and went to the back of the house to the room in question. He opened the door, and with a quick assessing glance realized that it wasn’t as bad as he imagined. Most of the stuff in here was in boxes and he realized that if he hadn’t missed what was in them for the entire time they’d been in the room, then he could easily get rid of them.
He did a quick inventory of what was inside. Mo
st of it was things like books, old dishes that he’d put in here when he’d replaced them with the new set he’d gotten. There were other odds and ends and most of it could be donated to the thrift store in town. The rest was stuff that was of no use to him or anyone else, and that would go to the dump.
He set about to work on sorting the things out, stacking the boxes he would donate on one side and the things he was throwing away on the other. He was working away when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He stopped what he was doing and pulled it out. A smile spread across his face when he saw it was his mother.
“Hey, mom. Are you tired of the heat and ready to come home?”
His mother laughed on the other end. “Even if I was, which I’m not, I’d need a crowbar to tear your father away from the golf course.”
Although he missed his parents sometimes, he was glad that they were enjoying their retirement in a sunnier climate. “We had a big snowstorm here a little while ago, so you’re lucky you got away when you did.”
“And how are you doing?”
His mother didn’t call him all the time since she figured that he was busy with his work, but she called once in a while just to catch up with him. He hadn’t talked to her since Mercy had come back in his life and told him she was pregnant. He hesitated in telling his mother something this big over the phone, but he figured it would be better if she was prepared for it than if she met a pregnant Mercy when his parents got back in the spring.