Merrick pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Pobrecita, eso es porque tu er es una chica rica maleriada.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. My parents never spoiled me, but I’ll never take running water and indoor plumbing for granted ever again.”
He wanted to tell Alex that she was spoiled. He’d lost count of the number of times when he was denied a bath and food because he wouldn’t do something his foster parents had ordered him to do. The physical and emotional abuse he’d encountered as a child gave him the strength he needed to survive the rigorous training to become a marine who remained in a constant state of readiness for all types of combat situations.
“I didn’t know what you wanted to eat, so I decided to wait until you got here to go to the supermarket.”
Pulling back, Alex smiled at Merrick. “Let’s go, because I’m starved.”
“Didn’t you eat on the plane?”
“No. I had a couple of cups of coffee, but that’s all.”
Reaching for her hand, Merrick held it firmly as he bent and picked up her single piece of luggage. “I’ll fix something for you before we leave.”
Alex pulled back. “I can pick up something at a fast-food restaurant.”
“Not today, beautiful. We’ll save the calories and fat-laden preservatives and additives for another day.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “Don’t tell me you’re monitoring your figure,” she teased.
“What I’m monitoring is my heart and arteries.” Merrick knew he was going to have to take a physical even for a desk position, and he didn’t want anything to compromise his passing.
Alex walked up the porch steps and followed Merrick into the house where she’d spent a wonderful four days. Nothing had changed as she felt an invisible warmth envelop her with a sense of homecoming.
Merrick closed the door to keep the cool mountain air out of the house, and when she turned to face him she saw it. Her eyes widened. “What’s that?”
Merrick saw the direction of her stunned gaze. A high-powered rifle was propped up against a wall next to the front door. “It’s a rifle.”
“I know it’s a rifle, Merrick. But why is it there?”
“It’s for bears.”
“What about bears?” she asked.
“It’s spring and the bears are out with their new cubs looking for food.”
“Are you going to shoot them?”
“No, Ali. It’s more to scare them.”
“What if you don’t scare them?”
Merrick captured Alex’s anxious gaze with his. “Then there’ll be one less bear around these parts.”
Alex wrapped her arms around her body in a protective gesture. She knew there was something dangerous about Merrick, and seeing the rifle had just confirmed her suspicions. “Let’s hope you won’t have to kill one.”
His expression softened as he smiled. “I’ve lived here for two years and I’ve never had to shoot another living creature. And that includes the deer who feed on the brushes behind the house. Some of them are so used to humans that they don’t even run when they see you.”
“Promise me you won’t shoot Bambi or Smokey.”
Turning his head, Merrick successfully hid a smile. There was no doubt his girlfriend had a soft spot for animals. “I can’t promise that, Ali, especially if a four-hundred-pound bear is standing on my porch looking for food. I can always shoot to wound, but a wounded bear is more dangerous than one who isn’t. Stay out of this, darling, and please don’t ask me to do something that would put our lives at risk.”
The familiar mask had descended again and Alex felt the closeness between her and Merrick dissipate like a drop of water on a heated surface. It was one thing to be separated from Merrick by more than a thousand miles, and another completely when they stood less than a foot apart, yet there was a chasm because of a disagreement.
“Okay,” she conceded reluctantly. “I’ll stay out of it.”
It wasn’t until Merrick let out an audible sigh that he realized he’d been holding his breath. He didn’t want to fight with Alex. All he wanted to do was love her. “I’ll take your bag upstairs, then I’ll feed you.”
Alex nodded as she shrugged out of her wool swing coat and placed it on a chair near the door. She was standing in the middle of Merrick’s living room because she’d missed him. She hadn’t come to West Virginia to fight with him over the area’s wildlife population but to spend every night, hour and minute with the man with whom she’d fallen in love, until she had to return to Mexico.
Crossing the living room, she made her way to the half bath off the kitchen to wash her hands. She met Merrick as he entered the kitchen. Sitting on a stool at the cooking island, Alex rested her elbows on the countertop and watched Merrick as he prepared an impromptu lunch.
Chapter 13
Merrick had been pushing a shopping cart up and down the wide supermarket aisles, stopping whenever Alex stopped to read the label on every product she placed in the cart.
He groaned for the third time within a matter of minutes. “Do you always spend this much time reading labels?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered, not bothering to look at him. “I have to know what I’m eating, Merrick.”
Shaking his head, he let out another groan. “Baby, please.”
Alex glanced up, meeting his tortured gaze. “Why don’t you wait for me in the truck?”
Does this mean you do everything your wife wants? Merrick recalled his query to Michael, and his friend’s reply, I know enough when to advance and when to retreat.
He and Alex weren’t husband and wife, but living together for a week, sharing meals and a bed was no different from what Michael had with Jolene. Merrick was aware that a successful relationship was based on compromise, and he also knew he had to find a middle ground with Alex or what they had, what he hoped to have with her would end in a supermarket because it was his practice to get in and out within half an hour. He didn’t read labels, interrogate the in-store butcher about cuts of meat, or the produce manager as to the delivery date of fruits and vegetables.
Abandoned at birth, a loner by nature and by choice, Merrick realized having a relationship with a woman, one whom he loved, was a new experience for him. What he had to do was to learn when to advance and when to retreat.
Forcing a smile, he winked at Alex. “That’s all right. I’ll wait.”
Alex placed the can in the half-filled cart. “I think I have everything.” She’d planned menus that included Caribbean-inspired dishes she’d learned from her mother.
“Are you sure?”
She smiled at Merrick. “Of course I’m sure. Haven’t we spent enough time here?”
“Too much,” Merrick mumbled under his breath. “Yes, dear,” he said loud enough for her to hear.
An elderly woman wheeling her cart in their direction patted Merrick’s arm. “What a nice young man you are. I’ve been married for more than forty years, and I’ve never been able to get my Danny to come grocery shopping with me.” Her brown eyes sparkled like copper pennies as she reached over and patted Alex’s hand. “He’s a keeper, honey.”
Alex returned her smile. “I know.”
Waiting until the woman was out of earshot, Merrick wound his arm around Alex’s waist inside her coat. “Are you going to keep me, querida?”
She affected an attractive moue. “I’ll think about it.”
Lowering his head, he brushed a light kiss over her parted lips. “Perhaps that’ll help you make up your mind.”
Staring up at Merrick through her lashes, Alex’s gold-brown eyes moved slowly over his face, cataloguing each of his well-defined features. “I think I’m going to need a little more convincing.”
Desire darkened his eyes and tightened the skin over his high cheekbones. It’d been more than a month since he’d been with Alex, and the time away from her just served to increase his need for her. He, Merrick Grayslake, who’d lived his life believing he didn’t need anyo
ne, needed Alexandra Cole. Unwittingly, she’d become a part of him, the part that made him whole.
“I believe I have the answer.” Leaning closer, he whispered, “Let’s go home.”
Alex lay in bed, listening to the sound of sleet pelting the windows. It was as if spring had forgotten the Alleghany Mountain region. Midday temperatures rose to the mid-forties but dropped below freezing with the setting sun. A popping sound of burning wood joined the rhythmic tapping. Merrick had started a fire in the fireplace before going into the bathroom to shower. He’d asked her to join him but she’d turned him down. It was their last night together and as the seconds ticked off she felt as if she were losing tiny pieces of herself each time they made love.
The tears welling up in her eyes overflowed, dotting the pillow under her head. How, she thought, was she going to make it through the next ten weeks without the man she loved? She’d made a mistake, a grievous error in returning to the States—in coming to see Merrick rather than her family—because it made leaving him that much more difficult. The side of the mattress dipped and she felt the warmth of the man who’d managed to occupy her every waking moment. Shifting on her side, she went into his strong, protective embrace.
“This is our last night together,” she whispered tearfully.
“Don’t say that, Ali,” Merrick countered softly. “It is not our last night together. Our last night won’t come for a very long time.”
She pounded his shoulder with her fist. “You know what I’m talking about.”
He caught her wrist. “No, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Your school term will be over in a few months, then we can be together—every day, every night.”
“We can’t do this again.”
“Do what, querida?”
“We can’t see each other until I finish my courses.” A fresh wave of tears ensued.
Tightening his hold on her body, Merrick eased Alex to lie atop his body, her legs sandwiched between his, the fingers of his right hand making soothing motions on her back.
He closed his eyes. “Is it your intent to rip my heart out?”
She buried her face between his neck and shoulder. “What are you talking about?”
“This is not about you, Ali. You’re not in this by yourself. I’ve shared and said things to you I’ve never told another person. It was as if I had to wait thirty-five years to feel what should be a natural human emotion—love. The love a baby feels for its mother or father, the love between a man and a woman and the love one feels for those with whom one shares a family bond.
“You’ve taught me to laugh, that it’s all right to tease, be teased, and for that I will love you forever. Being with you has taught me that where I’ve come from is not as important as where I’m going. And wherever I go I want you with me.”
Alex’s right hand trailed down Merrick’s shoulder; it moved still lower along his rib cage, her fingers feathering over the curve of his buttocks and muscled thigh. All of her senses were intensified as she inhaled the clean masculine scent of his body, her fingertips grazing the crisp mat of chest hair and the firm flesh covering muscle and sinew. Merrick Grayslake reminded her of the statues of tall, powerful Mexican gods.
Reaching between their bodies, she cradled his flaccid sex; it swelled against her palm, increasing in girth until her fingers did not meet. The heat, hardness and the strong throbbing against her palm ignited a fire that swept through Alex like a lighted fuse. Her body vibrated liquid fire, the tremors between her thighs and groin buffeted by gusts of desire that rendered her close to fainting.
“Love me,” she chanted over and over until it became a litany.
Merrick had told Alexandra that he loved her, but it never seemed to be enough. He had to show her. Reaching for the condom on the table on his side of the bed, he slipped it on. Slowly, methodically, he became a cartographer, charting every inch of her body as he began at the top of her head and moved slowly down as if sampling a sweet, frothy confection. He ignored the soft moans coming from Alex’s throat, the rise and fall of her firm round breasts over her narrow rib cage, the contracting muscles in her flat, firm belly and the trembling of her legs as she writhed on the sheets.
Merrick was relentless as he alternated laving the folds at the apex of her thighs with plunging his tongue into the most secret recess of her body. It was as if he wanted to devour her whole, put her inside himself wherein she would be with him even when separated by thousands of miles.
When his own passion rose to fiery proportions, he eased himself inside her, making them one. He felt her heat as it rippled under his hands, inhaled the rising scent of their lovemaking that had become an erotic aphrodisiac. His desire for Alex, his love for her, surpassed every longing, craving and aspiration he’d ever known.
Alex cried for the second time within minutes, this time as waves of ecstasy washed over her. She closed her eyes, gasping in the sweet agony tearing her asunder. It eased slightly before she was hurled higher, climaxing, her orgasms overlapping one another until she lay, struggling to catch her breath.
Merrick felt the strong contractions squeezing his blood-engorged flesh, the sensations sending him over the edge. Cupping her hips, he quickened his thrusts until the dam broke and he spilled his passion into the sheath when it was Alex’s body he craved.
The pleasure she’d offered him was pure and explosive, satisfying and sweet. A deep feeling of peace entered him as he savored the remnants of the lingering sensation that rendered him as weak as a newborn.
“Te amo,” he whispered in her ear.
Alex smiled, enjoying the weight of his body pressing hers down to the firm mattress. “Yo, también, mi amor.”
They loved each other, but what were they going to do about it? She would complete her studies and return to the States as an architectural historian. She planned to secure a position with a historic preservation, trust or museum, then what?
Would she or Merrick be content to see each other whenever she was free or would she want more? And she refused to think of marriage and children as the more.
He’d admitted he didn’t want to marry or father children, but she did—though not now. Not when she wanted a career. Alex willed her mind blank. She couldn’t afford to think of a future with Merrick Grayslake when marriage and children weren’t her priority.
Without warning, he reversed their positions. They lay together until their breathing deepened and they fell asleep, his body still joined with hers.
The sky had brightened with the dawn of a new day, it appearing a hoary gray, when Merrick and Alex resumed their dance of desire, leaving both hungrier for each other than at their first coupling.
Both knew it was a mistake, but love wasn’t touted to be rational or judicious. And when Merrick saw Alex off at the airport before she boarded a private jet scheduled to land in Mexico City, he knew when he saw her again the meadow surrounding his house would be filled with wildflowers.
He would honor Alex’s request and wait for her return.
There was one thing life had taught him and that was patience. It had served him well when he’d become a marine sniper, and it had saved his life as a covert operative.
Merrick knew there was something special the moment he laid eyes on the petite woman, unaware that she would be the one to change him and his destiny.
Chapter 14
Alex tightened her grip on the cell phone, the pressure leaving an imprint on her palm as she stared out the oval window of the ColeDiz jet as it circled the Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in preparation for a landing. It was after two in the morning.
Her father had called her forty-eight hours before to inform her that the family was gathering in West Palm Beach to celebrate Timothy Cole-Thomas’s retirement as CEO of ColeDiz International, Ltd. She’d vacillated whether to call Merrick to let him know she would be in the States for the weekend but changed her mind; there wasn’t enough time and seeing him would reopen the wound that had
healed from their last encounter.
She’d returned to the universidad assailed with feelings that left her in an agonizing maelstrom of acute loss. She’d spent a restless two days trying to figure out why she’d fallen in love with a stranger, why Merrick Grayslake and not some of the other men she’d dated. And her love for him wasn’t some silly schoolgirl crush or virginal infatuation. She would turn thirty in November, which meant she was a grown woman, an independent woman in control of her life and destiny.
Merrick admitted that he’d told her things about himself he’d never told anyone, yet when she replayed their conversations she realized he actually had told her very little about himself. She knew he’d been orphaned at birth, had been in the Marine Corps and had been recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency. What he hadn’t disclosed was how he supported himself, nor had he explained the many scars marring his body.
Alex was mature enough to admit that she’d been drawn to the enigmatic man because he radiated a danger that turned her on. He was akin to a graphic comic superhero prowling the nighttime streets and alleys looking to rescue the weak and right the wrongs perpetrated by those who opposed justice. She’d dubbed him Sir Grayslake, and he’d become her knight in shining armor.
She would spend two nights in Florida before returning to Mexico. Then she would begin counting down the weeks until she was reunited with the man she loved.
Alex was surprised to see her brother Gabriel waiting for her once she cleared Customs. What shocked her was his uncanny resemblance to their father. Gabriel had become a professional musician like David Cole, and like the elder Cole, Gabriel had solidified his place in history as a Grammy Award winner. Gabriel had surpassed his father when he earned an Oscar for a movie sound track.
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