I hold up my purse. “I have the keys to my cars that are in that garage.”
“And when the electricity comes back on, you can get them,” he says.
Jude gives my shoulder a squeeze. “Come on, let’s go to the shelter and we can figure things out from there. The most important thing right now is to get us all to somewhere safe.”
I can’t stop looking at Jude with adoration. That and complete gratitude.
Jude
One phone call to Dad and he came to the high school gym and got us all. Then I took Mercy and the kids to my bedroom where we all are cuddled up after showers and everyone is wearing my T-shirts as the kids are snuggled in between us.
Mercy can’t stop looking at me with such adoration in her blue eyes and I can’t stop thinking about how I’m going to tell her how I cost her, her job with my fast-acting mouth.
Her hair is damp as I run my hand through it and gaze back at her as the kids fall asleep. “You okay?” I whisper.
She nods. “Because of you, we are.”
“Don’t go putting me up on a pedestal, Mercy,” I say with a light chuckle.
“I’m not. I’m putting you where you belong. You’re our hero, Jude. Our real life hero.” She takes my hand off her head and pulls it to her mouth and kisses my palm.
I frown at her. “Oh, baby, no.”
She smiles. “Sorry. I know we have these kiddos. Not the place or the time.” Then she mouths, ‘But damn it, you’re so sexy to me right now.’
I wonder if she’d feel the same way if she knew she was jobless now because of me.
I’m not about to tell her that right now, though. Instead I smile at her and run my fingertip over her top lip, outlining it then the bottom one and am beginning to make myself very uncomfortable so I stop.
Mercy looks down at the two, now sleeping, kids and whispers, “Why don’t you and I sneak out of this bed and go into the next room where you have that little living room thingy?”
Oh yeah, I’m liking having her here!
I give her a nod and watch her stealthily move out of the bed and I follow her actions and now I can see how she so easily left me in the hotel that morning. She’s a pro at it!
I wait for her to come around the bed then pick her up and carry her to the other room. The way she’s looking into my eyes is giving me chills. She softly strokes the back of my head and I can tell she’s going to really get into it tonight.
* * *
Who knew all I really needed to do was rescue her from something to get her to fall head over heels for me?
Sitting on the leather sofa, I keep her on my lap and she moves right on in. Her mouth is soft on mine. Her hands move over my face as she gently holds it in place while she delivers a mind blowing kiss with exceptional tongue action.
I move my hand under her T-shirt and lift it over her head, making her mouth leave mine. I’m met with a molten gaze from her as her pink lips are barely parted. “Jude, I love you.”
I can’t seem to move with her words. I know she means them but I never wanted them to come out of her just because I saved her from something. “Mercy, you don’t.” My words are stopped as her mouth crashes onto mine.
She pulls at my T-shirt and takes it off, our mouths parting again. This time, our breathing is beginning to get rough with desire and need. She looks at me again with such depth to her eyes I’ve never seen before. “I do love you, Jude.”
She tosses my shirt to join hers on the dark, hardwood floor then gets off my lap and hooks her hands into the elastic waist of my pajama bottoms. She never stops looking into my eyes as she pushes them down, letting my erection free.
Her soft hands move up and down the length of it, making me moan with the sensation. It grows a bit more, swells a bit, making it have more girth and when her sweet lips touch the tip as her eyes are still on mine I nearly die.
“You don’t have to do this, Mercy. I get it. You’re grateful,” I say. It’s not that I want her to stop because I don’t. I just don’t want her to feel like she owes it to me for what I did.
“I am,” she says, making her lips graze the top of my cock and sending sparks all through me. “But I’m not doing this for any other reason than I want you to feel how much I love you, Jude.”
Running my hand over her cheek, I can see it there. So clear. It wasn’t there before and now it is. “I love you, Mercy Noland. I think I always have. Even before I knew you, I think I had this place in my heart that was waiting for you to come into my life and fill it.”
Then I get up and drop my pajama bottoms and pick her up off the floor and lie her back on the sofa. Moving my body over hers, I run my hand up her side and feel the goosebumps pop up all over her warm flesh.
Her arms open for me as she can’t seem to stop looking at me. I move into them and as her legs spread open for me, I move into her, igniting a low groan from her.
“You feel like home, baby,” I whisper as I kiss her ear.
“You feel like, forever,” she whispers back to me.
I can’t believe this is happening. I wanted her like this since day one and now I have her. Just the way I wanted her. But my heart aches for some reason.
As I make slow strokes, she arches up to me and kisses my neck as her hands move over my back. Her body is warm and inviting. Everything about her is inviting me in. Telling me it’s all going to be alright from here on out.
I want to believe it so badly. I want her to be mine like I’ve never wanted anything in my life. Her insides start to quiver and she moans as she gives into me. “Jude, I am yours.”
Her words have me feeling voracious and I start to make harder thrusts, loving the way the hot air comes out of her mouth with each one as her breath is knocked back out of her lungs with the force.
“Yes!” she moans as her legs come around me so she can hold her body even closer to mine. “Show me, Jude. Show me what it means to be yours!”
* * *
Slamming into her, I find the urge to take her completely is overwhelming me. Over and over I claim her. My mouth runs over her neck then my teeth are biting her sweet tender flesh as she cries out in ecstasy, “Yes!”
Her tunnel squeezes me as it convulses with the ongoing orgasm. Her entire body is shaking and sending me deeper into the abyss. Pulling out of her, I turn her over and stand up to take her from behind.
Gripping her by the waist, I say, “Put your hands on the back of the couch and hold on tight.”
She does as I say with a nod of her head then I push my very excited cock back into her pulsing chasm. Her back is so pristine I can’t stand it. So I run one hand along it, leaving a trail of marks in its path.
The sound she makes is guttural and her insides go crazy as she hisses, “Yes.”
I rake my nails along the side of her ass as I slam my swollen cock into her. A light slap I give her. The groan she makes ends with her saying, “Harder.”
I give her another one and her juices really start flowing, making me slip in very easily. She likes it rough, that’s easy to see. I pull out of her again and pick her up then toss her onto her back.
Holding her hands over her head, I thrust back into her and she bites her lip as she squirms underneath me. Her eyes are big as I move into her with a roughness that seems to turn her on.
“You are mine,” I tell her.
“I am yours,” she says. “To do with what you want.”
As I slam into her and look into her eyes, I see something there I’m not liking. Complete abandonment. She really does seem to be giving herself to me.
I really thought I wanted that but now, seeing it on her face and feeling it in her body as she works her hips to grind up to meet my hard thrusts, I feel like an asshole. The last thing I want to do is make her weak.
Mercy
Slowing his deep thrusts, Jude looks at me. His expression goes from fierce to soft and he lets my wrists go, pulling my arms to go around him. Softly, he kisses my lips as he transitions fro
m the rough way he was handling me to being extremely gentle with me.
One of his hands moves up my body and he cradles the back of my head with his hand. Then he pulls his mouth away from mine and trails kisses along my neck until his lips touch my ear. “You are my princess.”
Running my foot up the back of his leg as my hand runs up his back, I whisper, “I’m whatever you want me to be.”
He groans and grinds into me, making me feel better than I’ve ever felt before. Then his soft lips trail along my neck, coming back to meet mine and his kiss takes me further into the dream world I feel I’m in right now.
I’ve given it all up. No more fighting about keeping him out of my life. No more hiding the kids, my fears, anything. I’m done pretending that I can be everything to the kids. I’m done pretending that I don’t need or want this man.
I do need him. I want him more than I’ve ever wanted anything. And I’m done pretending I’m strong!
I’m as weak as a kitten. If he wants me then he can have me. I am his.
His body goes tense then his warm love pours into me and my body quivers with another orgasm, induced by his body. I can see a future with this man. I can see forever in him now.
* * *
“I love you, Mercy,” he whispers, hoarsely.
It feels so good to let these words free, finally, “I love you too, Jude.”
Little kisses move over my face and then he’s looking at me with tenderness in his green-brown eyes. His lips are bigger, swollen from our kisses. I lean up and take the bottom one gently between my teeth and tug at it playfully.
He laughs a little then kisses me again as our bodies pulse slowly together. Our love feels complete now. No more acting like what we have isn’t deep and real. I can be free with my love for him and feel confident he’ll always be here for me and the kids.
Lifting his head, he ends his kiss and looks at me then says, “Since I have you in this position.” I find his hands moving down my arms, then his hands clamp down on mine, holding them to the sofa. “And you can’t hit me. I have something to tell you. Something you need to know before the morning comes and you freak out about work.”
Taking in a deep breath, it runs through my head what exactly I am supposed to do about that. I can’t possibly go in. And the kids are kind of traumatized by everything so taking them to daycare is a terrible idea. I really need to take the rest of the week off to handle everything I’m going to need to handle. Maybe even next week too.
“Oh work, I really don’t know how I can do it all,” I say as I look away from him.
“So, it wouldn’t devastate you if you didn’t have to worry about that?” he asks with a little grin on his handsome face.
“Of course, it wouldn’t devastate me. But I will have to figure out how to do the important things I have to do there. And still find time to talk to the insurance company and stay with the kids. They’re pretty freaked out.”
His laugh stops me from saying any more. Then his lips touch the tip of my nose and he says, “Great. Well, you don’t have to worry about work. How about that?”
I laugh as I notice he hasn’t let my hands go so I say, “If only that were true, Jude. Now let me go, I kind of need to go tinkle.”
“It is true and I don’t want to let you go just yet. You see, I have something to tell you and I think the first thing you’ll do is start throwing your arms around.”
A sudden nervous feeling comes over me, taking away most of the euphoria the great sex had me feeling. “What do you have to tell me?”
“I got a call from Lester, your boss. He wanted to know why I was pulling out of the deal.”
“Oh, crap.” I shake my head. “I can fix that. You can still do it. It’ll be cool to work together. I jumped the gun with you being at the daycare and stuff. I overreacted. I can fix it all.”
“No, you can’t,” he says and his hands tighten on mine. “You see, I kind of told your boss everything and he fired you.”
“No, he didn’t,” I say with a laugh. “He didn’t call me or anything.”
“In situations like that, you aren’t told until you get to work. Then the boss shows up, usually with security to let you know you need to gather your personal things and hit the road,” he ends with a little kiss that doesn’t do much to stop the aching in my stomach.
“My God! Just because I have some kids I’m raising, he fired me?”
“I think he said it was because you’d been lying to them for two years. I tried to fix things, but he and his wife were very adamant, you are out of there. Don’t worry, though. I’ve got you, baby,” he says.
* * *
That should be making me feel better but it’s not. “Jude, I can’t let you do that.” My mind starts racing and I feel like crying. “I can’t face them. I can’t! I have two hundred dollars in the bank and there’s going to be some type of deductible for the insurance to fix our home and I’m out of a job!”
How did things go from great to completely shitty in a matter of seconds?
His hands loosen and he gets up, pulling me up with him. “Come on, let’s take a shower and I’ll make you forget about this. It’s great, really. Now you and I can make our own thing. Whatever you want, baby. Anything.”
As we walk, hand in hand, to his huge bathroom I realize that we didn’t use a condom. My heart plunges into my lower regions. “Jude how can you be two completely opposite things. On one hand, you’re a Godsend. Then on the other, you seem to have been sent to me by the Devil himself.”
So now what am I supposed to do?
Baiting the Trap Part 7
Mercy
With our home halfway blown away, I’ve decided the kids and I can move into the old house my parents and I used to live in. It’s only a small, two-bedroom but it will do while the home that was once my sister's and brother-in-law’s is repaired.
I swallowed my pride and let Jude pay the five-hundred-dollar home insurance deductible so the reconstruction could begin right away. I also swallowed my pride enough to take him up on the offer of staying at his place until I could get all of the utilities turned back on at the old house.
But now it’s Monday and I just received the call that told me the electric was on at the house now so I have to break it to Jude that we’ll need to be going. He’s playing with the kids in their massive swimming pool and all three of them are having a ball I see as I open the sliding glass doors to go out to them.
“Watch me, Aunt Mercy!” Carter yells as he climbs up on Jude’s wide shoulders and jumps off. “Yahoo!”
I laugh as I don’t recall the last time I saw that kid having so much fun. And I know I’m about to have three very sad faces looking at me when I break the news.
With the tornado and the helplessness, I felt with the destruction of our home, I had a lapse in my usually good judgment and leaned far too much on Jude. It’s not that he’s an unsafe man to place my trust in because he is. It’s because I need to stay self-sufficient.
If I learned nothing else by my family passing, I learned not to depend on anyone for everything. I need to meet with my bosses and let them know I’m not going to be fired without a fight. I didn’t do anything wrong. My personal life isn’t a thing that needs to be open to everyone.
* * *
So, I made a phone call while I was upstairs getting our things together and let my bosses know I needed to meet with them later this afternoon. I told Lester that Jude had told me everything and I deserved a chance to explain things to them.
He agreed and at four they’ll be in my office and I’m getting my life back on track from what I’m now calling, Freaky Friday. The day my world turned very close to upside down and now I have to make it right again. I’ve dealt with far worse so this isn’t anything new to me.
“Where’s your bikini, hot momma?” Jude asks me as he looks me up and down. “I thought you were borrowing one from Rose.”
As I get to the edge of the pool, I see how Mia is hangi
ng onto him and running her little hand back and forth in the clear water. He looks so natural holding her as Carter swims all around him with his little arm floaties on. They look like a perfect little family and I’m about to make them all mad at me.
But I have to.
Taking a deep breath, I ready myself for the onslaught of protests, then say, “The electricity is back on at my old house. So it’s time to get over there and start cleaning it and stocking it with food. Later this afternoon I’m going to have a sitter come and watch the kids while I have a meeting with my bosses. So, I need to get going. So, it’s time to get out of the pool and get real life going.”
“Aw, man!” Carter says as he starts to swim toward the deep end of the pool. “No! I don’t want to get out yet!”
Jude pulls his aviator style sunglasses down and peers at me over them, looking like a sexy model. “I’ll send some of the staff over to clean up the other house and have our cook stock the kitchen for you. Plus, I’ll have them move all of your clothes and personal things from the other house to that one. I’ll watch the kids while you have your meeting. Okay?”
I fall back into a lounge chair and look up at the sky and ask whoever is listening up there if this man is an angel or a demon because he’s helpful to the point that is sure to spoil me.
A little voice speaks back to me inside my head, ‘Let him help you.’
Then I find I’m saying out loud, “But I need to be self-sufficient.”
Jude’s voice brings my attention back to him as he says, “There’s plenty of time for that, Mercy. I’m not trying to steal your independence. Things are tough right now. Let me help you.”
“Yeah, let him help you, Aunt Mercy!” Carter shouts at me as he climbs up on the side of the pool and jumps back in.
* * *
I nod, I know when I’ve been beaten. But I still need to be taken so I can pick up one of my cars so I make another attempt to get them out of the pool. “I need to go get one of my cars.”
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