by Amy Knupp
Maybe he could get through this night. Maybe, eventually, he could let himself sleep.
The sky was almost entirely dark now and the heavy clouds covered the moon. When he looked down at her, black-and-ivory lace commanded his attention. He could make out the tops of her breasts spilling out of her soaked bra.
He slid back into the pool, slipped his arms around Mercedes to keep her close and allowed himself to let the woman awaken something inside him besides pain.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MERCEDES WOUND HER ARMS around Scott’s neck, as she’d been longing to do ever since she’d found him in his car. He braced his feet on the underwater ledge, knees bent, creating room for her between his legs.
She’d been struggling for the right things to say for the past hour. She reached out with her eyes instead, attempting to convey her concern for him, her empathy for the tragedy he’d been through, without words.
They were so close their breaths mingled. Scott’s gaze lowered to her lips and the energy between them heated in a single heartbeat. She inhaled shakily, shallowly, drawn to him. Fighting it. It wasn’t the right time… .
He moved the final inch, pressing his lips to hers, tightening his arms and kissing her with so much urgency and pent-up need she didn’t care if it was the right time. Didn’t care if she breathed. As long as he didn’t stop.
They had to stop.
“Scott,” she managed to get out. “No.”
It took him several seconds to break the contact, and she had just as hard a time allowing the cool air to come between them. He didn’t loosen his grip on her at all.
“This isn’t right. Not now,” she whispered. “Not after what you’ve been through—”
“Shh, Mercedes.” His voice was a low, sexy growl that made her shiver. He trailed his knuckles gently along her jaw from her ear to her chin. “Please. I don’t want to think anymore.”
She managed to look into his eyes for a good second and a half before giving him what he needed, what she wanted. Closing the space between them, she gave in to the need that pulsed through her. Tried to kiss his pain away.
Scott held her with both arms, pulling her body flush against his, letting her feel the physical effect she had on him. His tongue demanded entry into her mouth. She matched his desire wholeheartedly, answering the moan that came from deep in his throat with needy sounds of her own.
As he kissed her, he slid his hands to her rear, on top of her underwear. She ached to have him slide them beneath the material, to touch her everywhere. One hand trailed along the back of her thighs to where they met. Dipped between her legs. He gently lifted her legs, one at a time, and hooked them over his so she straddled him. The shift not only made it easier for her to hold on, it fit their bodies together intimately. With nothing but cotton and lace between them.
His fingers inched under her panties and kneaded her bare skin as he continued to devour her mouth. He slid his fingers lower to the most intimate part of her, teased her opening. She angled into his hand, aching for him, and gasped when his finger entered her. Throwing her head back, she arched toward him.
He kissed her neck, running his tongue along the length of it. Continuing to tease her with his finger, he withdrew till she nearly begged, reentering her, sending fire to every one of her nerve endings. Her climax came quickly, and her control broke, shattering to pieces around him. She tried to catch her breath, curling into his arms. He drew her chin up so he could kiss her again.
Before she could regain any semblance of mental functioning, Scott broke the contact of their lips, angling his head to the side. “Do you hear that?” he whispered into her ear.
“What?” She kissed the side of his neck. “What’s wrong?”
“That,” he said, pulling slightly away from her.
It took her several seconds to register what he was talking about, but when she did, she snapped out of her lust-induced trance instantly. “My phone. Gram.”
How long had she been out here? What was she thinking, completely forgetting about her grandma?
Scratch that question. She hadn’t been thinking at all. Hot shame burned her cheeks and her conscience.
She untangled her body from his and popped out of the pool, jogging around it toward the table. The ringtone stopped just before she uncovered her phone. As soon as she did, the display confirmed what she’d been afraid of.
“I need to go inside,” she said, guilt washing through her and making it impossible to think.
She was in nothing but her underwear and bra. Soaked. And Gram needed her.
God.
Scott was at her side before she could figure out what to do.
“Towels,” he said. “You need to dry off.”
Towels. Duh. “We have some in here.” She entered the porch, rushed over to the utility cabinet in the corner and grabbed two thick towels. She handed him one and as soon as she had the water out of her face, she reached for one of the terry-cloth robes on the top shelf.
“I can’t believe I forgot about her,” she said in a low voice as she toweled herself off. Dropping the towel, she pulled the robe around her and knotted the belt. “I have to—”
“Go,” he said, pressing a quick kiss to the side of her head. “I’ll find my keys and let myself out.”
She nodded, leaning over to wring her hair out, wondering what Gram needed. She’d left her with her dinner in her bedroom, the TV tuned to her Monday-night shows. She was no doubt long finished eating, but she wouldn’t track Mercedes down with the phone for that.
One last squeeze of her hair and she hurried inside, leaving Scott to fend for himself.
“Gram?” she called out as soon as she opened the door.
“Sadie?” Gram’s voice was unsteady, as if she was upset. Mercedes hurried to her room.
“I’m sorry, Gram. I was swimming…” She hadn’t told Gram that Scott was here, first because Scott hadn’t been in the right mind-set to meet her—and Gram definitely would want to be introduced to him. Now she still couldn’t do it. Couldn’t fess up to him being the reason she’d lost all track of time and forgotten to check on Gram.
Her grandma squeezed her eyes shut and her lip trembled. When she opened her eyes, she didn’t look at Mercedes. “I’m so sorry, Sadie,” she said, distressed. “I…” She shook her head.
Mercedes frantically tried to figure out what was wrong. She lowered herself to the bed, holding Gram’s hand. “What is it, Gram?”
Her grandma shook her head, again closing her eyes. “I hollered for you several times. I didn’t know you were outside. I couldn’t hold it…”
Understanding hit Mercedes. Gram had needed her to help with her bedpan. They’d put off adult diapers because Gram could use the bathroom or a bedpan…as long as she had help. She’d let her down big-time.
“It’s okay,” Mercedes said, hugging her, her heart breaking. “Everything’s going to be okay. I’m so, so sorry, Gram.”
“No, I’m sorry. Such a bother—” Gram broke off and shook her head.
“We’ll get it cleaned up and then I’ll whoop you in a game of Scrabble, okay?” She brushed a tear out of the corner of her eye.
Gram was humiliated and it was completely Mercedes’s fault. Her grandma had needed her and she’d been all over Scott in the pool, oblivious to her responsibilities.
Mercedes kissed her grandma’s forehead, barely able to breathe. Gram was paying the price for her selfishness.
* * *
BEING NICE WASN’T Scott’s thing.
So when the idea struck him, when he was two people away from the front of the bagel line, he shot it down. There was no reason to pick up a bagel and take it to Mercedes. Didn’t matter how much out of her way she’d gone for him the other night, or how distressed she’d been when she ran inside to her grandmother. He didn’t need to take her breakfast.
He hadn’t seen her since she’d rushed off and, truth be told, he wanted to see her. He needed to convince himself she wa
s as amazing as the woman who had taunted him in his dreams since he’d sneaked out of her backyard.
And yet, he didn’t want to give her the wrong idea and make her think there was something between them more than there was.
Another person ahead of him got her order, paid and left, moving Scott one spot closer.
Oh, hell, he was being an idiot. Buy the damn bagels, deliver them and forget about it. It was breakfast, not an engagement ring.
“Can I help you?” the teenager with two braids in her hair and a small hoop in one side of her nose asked from behind the counter.
Scott realized he didn’t have the first notion of what kind of bagel Mercedes Stone preferred. Or if she even liked bagels. “I’ll take one of each flavor.”
“All eighteen of them?” the girl said, eyebrows raised.
“How about six. You pick.” She could share with her grandmother and sister, but even the three of them probably wouldn’t know what to do with a dozen and a half.
“Cream cheese?” the girl asked.
So much for a simple nice gesture. Selfish and antisocial were easier by far.
“Add a couple tubs. Your favorites.”
The girl shrugged and filled a paper bag for him. He ordered a breakfast sandwich for himself, plus a large coffee, paid for everything and left. He got in his car and headed toward Mercedes’s house before he thought too damn hard about it.
* * *
MERCEDES WAS GOING TO seriously harm her sister.
The nonchalant “it’s for you” Charlie had hollered up the stairs after the doorbell rang had done nothing to prepare her for the sight of Scott standing in her living room just inside the front door. In broad daylight.
She watched from the top of the stairway, unseen, as Charlie chatted with him. Even after working for the past twenty-four hours straight—according to Gemma—he looked good enough to make Mercedes’s stomach do some Olympic-worthy flips. And that was without smiling. Flashes of the other night hit her and the stairway grew suddenly warm.
She shut down that line of thinking immediately, still upset with herself. Normally, she didn’t hide things from Gram, but she still felt so guilty for forgetting her that she hadn’t said anything except that she’d been swimming. Keeping the truth from Gram only compounded the guilt—okay, not the whole truth. She didn’t want her grandma to have a heart attack. But she should have admitted Scott had been there. If she’d explained how upset he was about what had happened at work, Gram would have understood.
Why on earth was he here now? Scott wasn’t exactly the drop-by-and-chat type. Trying to pull off nonchalance, Mercedes headed downstairs.
“Hey,” she said, as if it was no big deal to see him. As if she hadn’t been nearly naked with him in the pool, with him touching parts of her very few had touched. Her face reddened at the memory.
“Hi,” Scott said. “Brought you ladies some breakfast.” He held up a bag from Bagel Zone.
When she glanced at her sister, Charlie shot her a knowing, irritated look that said, You’ve been holding out on me.
“Thank you,” Mercedes said to Scott, feeling oddly shy. She ignored her sister. “That’s…really nice of you. Are you staying for breakfast?”
“Grabbed myself a sandwich and ate it on the way here. Busy shift last night. I didn’t have much time to eat.”
Relieved, Mercedes took the bag from him and peeked inside, breathing in the aroma of fresh-baked bread. “Dibs on the everything bagel,” she said to Charlie, and handed her the bag. “See if Gram wants one. I haven’t gotten her breakfast yet.”
“You should introduce Scott to her. She loves meeting people.” She gave Mercedes a smug look as she took the food to the kitchen.
Bad idea. The sooner Scott left, the better.
“How was work?” Mercedes asked him once they were alone. She crossed her arms over her chest, trying for a middle ground between unfriendly and too happy to see him.
“Tolerable.” He stepped closer to her and dropped his voice. Averted his eyes. “I, uh, just wanted to tell you thanks for listening to me Monday night.”
“I wish I could’ve helped you more.”
“You helped a lot.” He met her gaze, then her hair seemed to snare his attention. He reached out and captured a lock, ran a section of it between his index and middle finger, from her shoulder to the ends.
The gesture was somewhat intimate. Distracting. She fought to ignore it.
“When is the little boy’s funeral?”
“It was yesterday. While I was working. I’m still trying to figure out if that was a coincidence or not.”
“I’m sure it was.” The urge to touch him was overwhelming. She kept her arms tightly clenched. “Thank you for cleaning up the porch and the backyard.”
He’d folded the towels and left them on one of the chairs on the porch, and had done the same with her wet clothes. Once she’d gotten Gram taken care of for the night, she’d rushed out in a panic, intending to hide the evidence only to find he’d already handled everything.
“No problem.”
There was something in the way he watched her so intently, almost hungrily, that made it hard to think straight.
“Glad you made it out in one piece. I realized later I forgot about the padlock on the gate,” she said.
He shrugged. “I climbed the fence. No big deal.”
“Sorry I kind of freaked out on you when the phone rang.”
“Hey, you owed me a freak-out.”
“Guess we’re even.”
A tense silence fell over them and she wondered why he still made no move to leave.
“So, are you going to introduce me to your grandma?”
“You really want to meet her?”
“I like talking to older people. Particularly when they’re fully conscious and not having a medical emergency,” he said.
She led him down the hall reluctantly, though she wasn’t sure the reason for her hesitation. Charlie was right. Their grandma liked to meet people they brought to the house. It made her feel more involved. Less “stuck inside.”
“Gram?” she said as they approached the bedroom. “You up for a visitor?”
“Of course I am.”
Charlie was standing next to Gram’s bed, two plates with toasted bagels and cream cheese in her hands. Mercedes grabbed the bed tray she’d propped up against the wall and set it across Gram’s lap.
“I was getting there,” Charlie said, setting down the plate with the sesame bagel.
“Gram, this is Scott Pataki. He’s Gemma’s half brother I told you about. My grandma, Ruby Herman.”
“Very nice to meet you.” Gram extended a bony, shaky arm to him and Scott stepped forward to take it.
“It’s an honor to meet you. You’re the Ruby Herman the women’s shelter is named for?”
“Yes, sir.” Gram nodded proudly.
“Mercedes talks about you a lot, but she never told me you had ties to the shelter. And she never mentioned you were a heartbreaker.”
Mercedes’s eyes widened. Scott was flirting? With her eighty-four-year-old grandma? That, more than just about anything, put her in serious danger of falling for him.
“Mercedes didn’t mention you were a charmer, either.” Gram smiled, eating up the attention and the flattery. She really didn’t get to see people besides her granddaughters often enough, let alone a hot twenty-something man. “She did tell me you’re a paramedic.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Guess I better be nice to you, then. I might need a ride someday.”
“I always drive faster for you pretty ladies.”
Her grandma’s laughter was musical. Scott seemed genuine, proving his earlier claim that he had a soft spot for the elderly. He looked relaxed, too. More comfortable than he usually was. Who’d have guessed the unfriendly, self-absorbed man Gemma had first introduced Mercedes to had such a heartwarming side to him?
While Mercedes appreciated that he was brightening Gr
am’s day, she absolutely didn’t need further reason to care about him. The other night had been a lot of physical attraction. That was problematic enough. Real feelings…
She hurried out of the room, mumbling that Gram needed her morning tea.
“I could’ve gotten the tea,” Charlie said, following her to the kitchen. “Then you could stay and talk to your boyfriend.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend. Why didn’t you stay in there with them?”
“Breakfast delivery?” Charlie raised her brows in doubt. “I’ve had boyfriends who didn’t go that far out of their way for me.”
“Maybe you’ve just had the wrong boyfriends.” Mercedes stuck a mug of water in the microwave and heated it, then dropped a tea bag of Earl Grey, Gram’s morning favorite, over the edge.
“You might have a point. I’ll be on the patio,” Charlie said curtly, and strode out the door.
Mercedes stirred in a spoonful of sugar the way Gram preferred, braced herself against Mr. Paramedic’s charms and went back into the bedroom.
When she walked in, Gram and Scott barely noticed. He’d made himself comfortable in the chair by the head of the bed. They were deep into a debate about the travel book they’d both read, apparently on opposite sides of the argument—whatever it was—going back and forth good-naturedly.
“I’ll give you that,” Scott said. “You may have a point.”
Gram raised her chin a notch and smirked.
“I better get going,” he said after checking his watch. “Before you beat me on another point.” He stood and faced Gram.
She smiled at him, her eyes lit up like Mercedes hadn’t seen them in some time.
“It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Herman. I’ll bring the sequel by when I’m done with it.”
“Then we can argue some more,” Gram said.
“I’ll look forward to it,” Scott said.
Mercedes would cling to the hope that he’d forget. She’d already affected Gram once because of her being too distracted by Scott. She had no intention of letting it happen again.