Page 112 of Built for Mercy

Even as my mind was screaming at me to protect myself, my body betrayed me, leaning into him and craving the dangerous comfort only he could provide.

He silenced my protests with an urgency I felt deep inside me. I was caught in the eye of his storm, his tongue an anchor in thechaos of our argument. His hands roamed over my body with a fervor that threatened to pull me under its tide. Our clothes shed like leaves in autumn until we were both naked.

I wanted him always, and right now I needed to feel like we were going to be okay, even though I knew that I was going to lose him.

He walked me backward to the bed until the backs of my thighs hit the mattress. He pushed me down, crawling over me and pulling me to the head of the bed. Suddenly my hand was pinned under his, the cool metal click of a handcuff snapping around my wrist, securing me to one of the bed posts. I glared up at him, the heat of my anger increasing further with the fire he’d ignited in my veins.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he whispered. “I need to do this, and I can’t have you following me.”

“Don’t you fucking do this,” I gasped, another sob catching in my throat. I could barely see through my tears, and I was so tired of crying over men. “You walk out that fucking door, Maverick, and I swear to God, you can consider yourself on a sex ban for a month!”

He just grinned, the diabolical bastard. “So you think I’ll live?”

I stilled under him, narrowing my eyes. “No, eres un maldito idiota!”

He hummed, and my free hand clenched at my side. “I love it when you speak Spanish to me.”

“Do not ignore me. You better not fucking go through with this.”

He slowly re-dressed while I continued cursing at him.

“Let me go! If you think leaving your wife cuffed to this bed without finishing what you started is going to fly, you’ve lost your goddamn mind! I’ll fucking kill you myself if they don’t!” My voice broke, half threat, half plea.

“I love you,” was all he said as I thrashed, trying to tug on my arm to see if the bed post would loosen. My cries filled the room as he backed away.

“Don’t be stupid, Maverick! Don’t you dare do this. Don’t leave me here like this.” The slam of the door echoed like a gavel, sentencing me to solitude and fury. I could die here.

“MAVERICK! Come back here! Let me go!” I writhed against the bedpost, my wrist raw from the metal digging into my skin. My screams were met with silence; a futile attempt to stop the inevitable, to keep him safe. The man I loved had walked out, and suddenly that love tasted real bitter on my tongue.

The adrenaline slowly ebbed away, leaving me with an oppressive stillness.

Fuck him.

I pictured all the ways I could make him pay for this torment. He’d always prided himself on being ruthless, claimed cruelty wasn’t in his nature. But this… this was sadistic. Cuffed to our bed, my skin still thrumming from his touch—it was a mockery of our twisted love.

Minutes crawled by, each second a pointed jab as I lay naked. My mind raced as I forced my breathing to calm. I schemed, calculated, contemplated, until clarity pierced through the red haze.

Callie.

She’d get me out of this.

“Hey Siri,” I called out, my voice steadier than I felt as I debated dislocating my thumb to free myself, but I really couldn’t afford for my dominant hand to be injured. “Text Callie.”

“Okay. What would you like to say?” Siri’s robotic tone was a lifeline in the suffocating void as I looked around for my phone, realizing I’d left it across the room on the dresser.

“Emergency. SOS. Need you at Maverick’s place now. Penthouse floor code 1030. Hurry.” Each word may as well have been a bullet entering Maverick’s body with how long it felt like time was ticking by.

“Your message says, ‘Emergency. SOS. Need you at Maverick’s place now. Door code 1030. Hurry.’ Ready to send it?”

“Yes, fucking send it!” The command burst from me. My nerves were frayed thin, and what little sanity I had left was whittling me down to nothing.

“Done,” Siri confirmed, and from across the room, my phone made the soft chime of a message sent. Each passing moment stretched thin, fraught with anticipation and the gnawing fear for Maverick’s safety. I was going to throttle him for every second of this agony when I got free.

Come on, Cal. Don’t let me down. Not now.

A tinkling ringtone punctured the silence, paired with an incessant buzzing. I hoped it was Callie calling, acknowledging she received my message.

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