I felt it leave him as it left me and I began stroking him, running the tips of my fingers through his hair, tracing the defined lines of the muscles of his back, the rest of me unmoving.
Merry’s arms gave me a powerful squeeze before he shifted to kiss my neck and then lifted his head.
He looked into my eyes.
I looked into his.
I kept stroking.
Merry took one arm from around me, wrapped his hand around my neck, and moved his thumb along my throat, up, sweeping it over my jaw, up, across my cheek, then over my lips where he left it gliding, back and forth, back and forth. A gentler kind of claiming, even though there was nothing left of me to be claimed.
If he wanted me, I belonged to Garrett Merrick.
All of me.
We stayed this way a long time. No words.
But they weren’t needed. For once in my life, I hoped, I prayed, I dreamed that I was getting it right and this was what it seemed to be.
Without warning, but doing it gently, he slid out and rolled off, shifting me as he did so I was on my side.
He disengaged just as slowly, my legs automatically closing as they lost purchase on his hips.
He was at the side of the bed, through all this never losing eye contact with me. He lost it only when his gaze swept the length of me.
When it came back, he said quietly, “Don’t move.”
I nodded.
He got out of bed and walked to one of the three doors in the room.
The light went on inside it as he disappeared and I saw it was a bathroom.
He’d told me not to move, but with him gone, I realized I was in Garrett Merrick’s bedroom, so I took that opportunity to quickly look around.
From what I’d seen of the rest of his pad, I wasn’t surprised to see not much here either. Two nightstands. Two lamps on them. A tall, six-drawer dresser. A lamp on that. The bed.
On the nightstand that was right in front of me, there was change, crumpled receipts, a used pack of gum, a lighter, and not much else.
Looking over my shoulder to the other one and the dresser, there seemed to be more detritus of this type, an alarm clock, and not much else.
Except there were three trophies on his dresser, but not like they were on display. Like they’d been put there, pushed aside, or shifted when more room was needed. On the top of one was a man standing, rifle to his shoulder, eye to the sight. The top of another trophy that was not quite as tall (but still tall) had another man, same pose, but holding a handgun. The last one that was slightly shorter had a man on his stomach, his rifle aimed.
But that was it.
Just like the rest of his place. Functional and a lot of nothing else.
The one surprise was the furniture. Although there were no prints on the walls, no personality, the furniture in this room was really nice. Fabulous wood that was in a medium stain, not dark, not light. In the drawers on the dresser and nightstands, but in a far more spectacular way with the high headboard, the wood was set in a chevron design that was gorgeous, manly, but it was something I would not object to having for me.
The light went out in the bathroom and I lost interest in Merry’s furniture when I saw Merry making his way back to me.
Yes, the hair on his stomach that pointed to what was not right then a buried treasure (but not long ago it had been a treasure buried in me) was awe-inspiring.
The treasure it was pointed to was just awesome.
Garrett Merrick had a beautiful cock, even now as it was, semi-hard after making love to me.
The length was perhaps just above average.
It was the girth that meant everything.
I lost sight of it, sadly, when the room went dark.
I felt the bed move, the bedclothes being whipped around. That stopped when I found my ankle in Merry’s grip, and even in the dark, he made short work of unbuckling my sandal and sliding it off. He moved to the other one. That accomplished, the bed shifted again, then I found the covers over me about a half a second before I found myself wound up in Merry.
“Pains me to say this,” he started after he’d settled us how he wanted us (and, to make it clear, how I wanted it to be, maybe for eternity). “But I ain’t twenty anymore. You starin’ at my dick like that, sweetheart, after what we just had, you’re gonna have to give me some time.” He paused before he finished, “Least twenty, thirty minutes.”
I laughed softly as I pushed closer to Garrett Merrick in his bed, his naked body tied up in me.
He must have liked that because his arms tightened around me.
Suddenly, it all hit me with a power that made me wonder why it didn’t blow me to smithereens.
Garrett Merrick had spent more than two hundred dollars on a dinner with me. He’d told me he wanted to kiss me, knowing what me kissing him back would mean. He’d made love to me, made love to me, me.
Me.
Me.
Me.
Eye contact throughout. Saying my name when he came inside me.
And now we were in his bed, naked, and he was holding me and teasing me.
“That wasn’t fucking, was it?” I blurted.
It seemed his body further solidified against mine for a moment before he relaxed and slid his hand up into my hair.
He knew I’d never had that.
He now knew he was the first who ever gave that to me.
“No, Cher,” he said gently. “That was nowhere near fucking.”
Yes, straight up, burn it in my brain…
I could not fuck this up.
I couldn’t.
He was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Not getting a goodness so good it was unreal after being stupid and getting knocked up by a junkie, the way I got Ethan.
A goodness I got because I earned it simply by being me.
Understanding that, as it seemed I was prone to do with Merry, I kept blurting.
“I want you to get to know my kid better. Tomorrow. He’s got a sleepover with Teddy, but I’m droppin’ him at the game. They’re meeting there. Teddy’s parents go to the game because their older boy plays. He’s goin’ home with them after. But before, we can take him to dinner.”
Merry didn’t say anything.
Shit, that was too soon.
“Or we can wait,” I said quickly.
“I take you and Ethan for pizza, once we drop him off, do I get you at your place?”
Not too soon.
I closed my eyes slowly before I answered, “Yeah.”
“You’re on.”
I snuggled deeper.
Merry kept his hand in my hair as he wrapped his other arm so tight around my waist, I felt his fingers skim the skin on my belly.
His warmth, his strength, my orgasm, his fantastic mattress, I wanted to stay awake and feel all that, but I couldn’t stop myself from feeling drowsy.
And drowsy, sated, held close by Merry, my mouth kept running.
“Thanks for not fuckin’ me.”
I felt his body move with a chuckle that wasn’t audible.
“Thanks for lettin’ me not fuck you,” he replied.
“Anytime,” I mumbled, starting to drift.
“Cherie?” he called.
“Yeah, Merry.”
Cherie. Merry.
Fuck, it was goofy as all get-out.
But it was also like we were meant to be.
“This is good. Proof. Truth. Remember this, honey. We hold on to this, what we just had, what we got right now, the night we shared, we don’t fuck that up, we can stick it, you and me.”
My throat closed.
My eyes started burning.
But I powered through it being me.
“Stop bein’ gooey.”
That got me more of his lean body moving in my arms, telling me he was laughing.
He got control of that, tipped his head so his lips were against my hair, and ordered, “Go to sleep, brown eyes.”
“See you in the mo
rning, gorgeous.”
“Believe it, baby.”
I believed.
Finally, I believed.
And for the first time in my life, held tight to Merry, it didn’t scare the shit out of me.
Chapter Twelve
The Pleasure Is All Mine
Cher
I felt it shafting, tit to clit.
My eyes drifted open.
I saw shadows. I felt a nice mattress under me.
Heat behind me.
A hard cock pressed to my ass.
“Merry,” I breathed as his thumb and finger at my nipple rolled again.
“This, baby,” he growled, his voice gruff with sleep and the promise of an impending orgasm, “is gonna be fucking.”
My hips twitched.
He shifted his and slid his hard cock through my sleek.
Shit yes.
“Baby,” I whimpered, hardly awake, already there.
“Nightstand, Cher, fast.”
I reached out to the nightstand carefully so as not to lose him as he glided his cock back and forth, his fingers still working my nipple, his other hand shoving under me, going over my belly, down, and in.
I gasped at his touch. Yanking open a drawer, groping blindly, feeling foil, I snatched up a condom and pressed back into Merry.
His hand left my breast.
I aimed the condom at it.
He took it.
I rocked my hips, rubbing him against me.
I felt the rumble in his chest against my back that became audible as I heard foil crinkling.
I lost his cock as he angled his hips away from me.
But I didn’t lose his finger at my clit.
I ground into it.
I got his cock back, gliding, aiming, his lower body shifted down.
“Give me your mouth,” he ordered.
I twisted my neck.
He took my mouth as his cock slammed into me.
With the force of the goodness of him filling me, I cried out, the sound swallowed by Merry as he rode me, I rode him, his finger manipulating my clit, his hand going back to my breast, curling around, thumb rubbing at my nipple.
He plundered my mouth, fucking me hard, working me, until it got too much and I pushed my head into the pillow.
He got my message and stopped kissing me, but his lips didn’t leave mine, breathing, brushing, my harsh pants mingling with his rough breaths.
Then his grunts abraded my lips.
I liked that.
“Baby,” I breathed.
“Yeah,” he growled.
“Harder,” I begged.
“Yeah,” he grunted, powering faster, harder, riding me ruthlessly.
Brilliance.
“Merry,” I gasped.
“Fuck yeah, baby,” he groaned.
I came, rearing in his arms, my lips parted, my breath suspended in my lungs as it exploded in my tits, my clit, and my pussy convulsing, clenching and releasing against his driving cock.
His finger at my clit moved away as he shoved his whole hand in, his fingers separating around his still-thrusting dick, his leg hitching up, taking mine with it, the power of his drives mind-boggling. At the same time, his other hand left my breast and moved up, wrapping around my throat, then up more, around my jaw, holding my head twisted to him so I had his eyes in the dark, our lips whispering against the other’s as he kept fucking me.
“That’s it, Merry,” I panted, still coming, but my climax was moving from me. “That’s it, baby. Fuck me hard. I wanna feel you all day.” I lifted my head and pressed my lips to his. “Want you with me all day, baby. Fuck me that way.”
His hand tightened around my jaw as he grunted, “Beauty,” then lost control, slamming into me again and again and again, his mouth leaving mine, his hand at my jaw shoving up, his face buried in my throat as he groaned.
Finally, he sunk into me, stayed planted, and I felt his uneven breaths coasting along my skin.
The pads of his fingers gave my jaw a gentle squeeze when he lifted his head, pulled mine down, and kept his other hand cupped to our connection as he took my mouth in a deep, wet kiss.
He ended it, dropped his forehead to mine, his eyes open, mine looking through the early morning dark into his, and he muttered, “Mornin’.”
I lay there, Merry buried inside me, my clit, my tits, fuck, my entire body still tingling from him fucking me, and I stared at him.
Mornin’?
I burst out laughing.
While doing it, he released my jaw and I relaxed my head only for Merry to move his lips to my ear.
“For the record, I love makin’ you laugh too.”
Better than an orgasm.
Christ.
Merry.
I stopped laughing.
He kissed my neck below my ear and slid out of me.
I was in no way over suffering the loss of him when he shifted over me, arm at my waist yanking me with him like I was a human-size doll, and I found myself on my feet with Merry beside his bed. Naked.
He let my waist go, grabbed my hand, and I was being dragged across the room.
I opened my mouth.
“Shower,” Merry said before I could start speaking.
I shut my mouth and hit Merry’s bathroom, naked with a naked Merry, doing it grinning.
* * * * *
Forty-five minutes later, in my dress and shoes from the night before, hair wet, I walked up to my house.
Normally, I wouldn’t care what this said about me.
Right then, seeing as Merry had my hand in his and was walking right beside me, I really didn’t care.
We stopped on the stoop, and when I got my keys out of my clutch, Merry took them from me.
He shifted me out of the way of the storm door as he opened it, then he let us in.
The storm whispered then banged.
Merry closed the front door.
Then he took me in his arms and he kissed me.
I was hanging on tight, slightly breathless, when he lifted his mouth from mine.
“Be here to pick you and Ethan up at five thirty,” he said.
“Okay, gorgeous,” I replied.
He smiled at me.
I memorized that smile in a way I was certain never to forget it, not if I lived an eternity.
Then he gave me a squeeze, let me go, and moved to the door.
At the door, he looked back to me.
“Later, sweetheart.”
“Later, Merry.”
He lifted his chin and disappeared when he closed the door behind him.
I stood where he left me, in my dress and shoes of the night before, hair wet.
“I’m not gonna fuck this up,” I told the door.
Right then, right there, after last night and that morning, I was as intent on that as I was on giving my son a decent life.
Absolutely.
I shrugged off my wrap and tossed it to the bucket chair. I pulled my phone out of my clutch and my clutch joined the wrap.
Finally, I bent my head to my phone, pulling up Merry’s text string.
Best night I ever had. Thank you, baby.
I stared at it, thumb hovering over the send button.
“I’m not gonna fuck this up,” I told my phone and my thumb hit the screen.
I let out the huge breath I didn’t know I was holding, walked to the door, opened it, locked the storm, closed the door, locked it, then moved back to my bedroom.
I had my dress and shoes off, new undies and jeans on, when my phone I’d tossed on the bed sounded.
I snatched it up.
I’m glad, brown eyes.
I grinned and my thumb moved.
Best morning too, BTW.
I tossed the phone back to my bed and went to my dresser to choose a tee.
I was tugging it on when my phone sounded again.
I went back to it.
That’s my good girl.
I didn’t grin at that.
I shivered.
After I experienced that hint of beauty, my thumb moved again.
Stop turning me on and go fight crime.
I hit send.
I was making coffee when my phone sounded again.
Worth the wait.
I stared at Merry’s text, my eyes feeling funny—not dry and burning, something else—before I lifted my phone and tapped it against my forehead like I could tap the words of his text into my brain.
I brought it down and my thumb flew.
Later, gorgeous.
Not long after, I got back, Absolutely.
I poured my coffee and after, turned my back to the counter and rested against it.
I stared at my awesome kitchen that was full of personality.
And I took that moment to revel in another of the boons life sent my way—boons that were coming far more frequently these days—this being the fact that I was facing the first day in a very long time, riding a quiet high of anticipation for what was to come next.
The day before had been fucked up by me being worried about what Merry would think about Ethan sending that text and not me.
This day, there was nothing to fuck it up.
Nothing.
It was all good and the forecast was strong it would only get better.
I’d never had that either, so I knew to appreciate it.
And that I did.
* * * * *
I heard the knock on the door, and right on its heels, “Mom! It’s Merry! Can I get it?”
I was sitting on the side of my bed, zipping up my boot. I turned my head toward the clock on my nightstand.
Shit, it was five twenty-five.
Merry was early.
“I’ll get it!” I yelled, hurrying with the zip.
“But it’s just Merry!” Ethan yelled back. “I saw him from the window!”
Ethan wasn’t allowed to open the door unless it was to his gramma.
“Right!” I returned, shoving up from the bed. “Get it.”
I was halfway down our short hall when I heard Ethan’s excited, “Hey, Merry!”
“Hey, man.” I heard Merry say back.
I hit the living room to see them breaking their handshake.
Ethan whirled to me.
“Look, Mom! Merry’s here!” he told me, something he’d already told me.
Suffice it to say, when I’d told my kid we were going out to dinner with Merry that night, he’d been in fits of glee.
In fact, he was so excited, he’d even told me he wanted to cancel plans with Teddy so we could all go to the game together and then get ice cream after.
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