Page 63 of On Merit Alone

Chapter Thirty-Four

Ira

I groaned for about the hundredth time that hour, and a pillow hit me square in the face.

“Jesus Christ, man, will you shut up?” McKivvey asked. “You’ve been moaning and groaning since you got here. It’s annoying.”

“I can’t help it,” I said, ripping the pillow away and throwing it back across Stephens’ penthouse living room in the middle of the city. “She won’t fucking talk to me and it’s all I can think about.”

“Shouldn’t have fucked up so bad then,” Stephens grumbled. I glared and he scrunched his shoulders up. “What? I like Merit and if you weren’t going to treat her right, I could have.”

“I’m going to need you to shut the fuck up, Stephens, if you want to keep your tongue,” I said before I reached for my phone on his weird looking steel coffee table again. A second later it was being snatched from my hands. I reached out to Rogers, who was the one who stole it. “Hey, I need that!”

“You don’t. She’s not calling right now, man. Just relax,” he said. He gave me a stink eye until I finally settled back into my seat and then sighed. “Now what’s going on? I thought you said she forgave you.”

“ Forgiving ,” I corrected. “She’s coming around to it, but she still won’t really talk to me.”

“What the hell did you do to the poor girl?” he asked.

I pursed my lips as I averted my eyes, not at all proud about the way I had made her cry.

Seeing those tears had sucker punched me in a way I was not ready for.

Seeing her not being able to look at me stole my breath.

I hadn’t wanted to leave her side that night.

I was such a fucking idiot for forgetting a game she’d been talking about for weeks, but I’d been sucked up in all the stuff with myself and I just mixed up the dates.

There was no excuse. I just wanted my Merit back. She hadn’t told me to fuck off yet, which was a good sign, but she wasn’t kissing me like she had the day I took her to the eye doctor either. She wasn’t telling me she trusted me anymore. Fuck .

I groaned again.

“Oh my God! Can we please get him out of here? His whipped ass is going to drive me crazy if we stay here and listen to his bitching!” McKivvey said.

“We can’t leave him here,” Stephens protested. “Cause when I leave, I’m coming back with some ass.”

“Wow. Way to be supportive, Stephens,” I grumbled. “Remember the last time you were hung up about some girl? You slept over at my place for an entire weekend like it was some kind of fifth grade sleepover party or something.”

He sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. All I’m saying is, Merit doesn’t just seem like some girl you’re hung up over.

She seems like the real deal for you. And if she is, you shouldn’t be hanging around with us waiting for something to happen.

You should go find her and talk about this… .and give us some fucking peace.”

I crossed my arms. “I don’t want to bulldoze her. I’m already stalking her every day to apologize. If I’m too pushy, she’ll run away.”

There was a Ding! noise, followed by a sharp buzz that cut through the air.

It took me an extra second to realize it came from my phone, which was currently in my friend's hands.

I rose half out of my seat, about ready to pounce on Rogers at the possibility that it might be Merit.

He saw and held up a staying hand as he checked the message.

His eyes lit, a small smirk curling his lips, but that’s all the reaction he gave as he leaned the phone first toward Stephens and then McKivvey. They both did their own version of a smartass laugh.

“What?” I asked, dying to know if that was her.

Rogers shrugged. “Looks like you don’t have to wait much longer. You’ve been summoned.”

Tossing my phone back to me, I snatched it up and raced my eyes over the screen. My entire body heated as blood rushed through my veins.

I rose. “We’re leaving.”

The three of them laughed, but I ignored them as I headed straight for my keys and wallet on Stephens’ kitchen island.

Because on the screen was a message sent from Merit’s phone.

A photo of her smiling big and bright as she stood at the bar of some dimly lit club.

She had a drink in her hand and makeup I’d never seen painted on her face.

She was beautiful, and she was talking to some guy.

The message that came along with the photo said:

Tag, you’re it. She’s tipsy and she can’t stop talking about you. You’re welcome.

I sent back one word.

Me

Address?

I spotted her right away. I’d barely handed the bouncer guy my ID before I was snatching it back and ignoring his awestruck face at the four NBA players casually shouldering into this mundane bar.

Like a moth to a flame, I saw her right away.

Surrounded by a sea of her teammates was the beautiful essence of all my recent dreams. The lights were blue and fluorescent all around the club and bounced off of whatever shimmery makeup she was wearing on her face.

She was glittering like a diamond, painted in sparkles with skin glowing that deep rich brown.

And her body.

Damn her body.

She wore a short little mini skirt that fluttered around her upper thighs in loose tendrils, showing more and less skin in different places along her lower body.

On top she wore something that was almost strapless.

It fit her snuggly, almost molding to the outline of her breasts the way it curved over the tops of them and scrunched in the middle.

The only thing holding that little scrap of fabric up being the too-thin straps that were tied behind her neck in a little shoestring bow.

A literal bow was the only thing separating her from showing this entire club what was mine.

I rubbed a hand down my face and groaned. She looked so fucking good. And she might have looked even better as she turned around and sauntered away from me after basically beckoning me by the way she swung her ass from side to side.

Instead of going to her, I just pushed my friends toward an empty enough standing table to congregate at as I followed Merit's plump lips wrapping around a drink someone handed her.

I think my friends were talking to me. Someone asked me what I wanted to drink and I grunted “beer” without taking my eyes off the girl across the room. The only thing that finally got my attention, was the sudden complaining from Stephens as he pushed away from our group with an exasperated sigh.

“You can stand here and be weird if you want, but I’m going to go speak,” he said.

And he did. Pushing through the crowd and going right up to her as if they were old friends.

I watched as his name “Mike” fell straight from her lips as she grinned a huge smile up at him.

I stiffened as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

He at least had the decency to look my way when he wrapped loose arms back around her, making sure his hands didn’t make contact with any part of her body.

Good. He was smart, and most definitely wanted to keep those hands, seeing that I would have to have broken them if he touched Merit with them. He couldn't help the fact that a second later she latched onto his wrist and was dragging him along with her group as they marched to the bar.

I didn’t realize that I stepped toward them until I felt a big hand clasp over my shoulder. When I looked over at Rogers, he was smirking. “Be cool, man. Stephens is not going to ‘steal your girl’ even if he could. You’re already staring like a maniac, don’t start acting like one too.”

“Yeah, like you did when she was talking to that guy at the game!” Troy supplied with a cackle. “I still cannot fucking believe that shit.”

Rogers chuckled and I settled back into my spot with a huff as I now apparently had to watch Merit taking another shot, this time with Stephens as they clinked glasses at the bar.

He said something, and she laughed. He flagged down the bartender before leaning a shoulder down and saying something into her ear that had her swinging her gaze over to me.

He pointed to me and I felt myself perk up hopefully, but then she shook her head.

They hugged again and Stephens was making his way back to our group .

When he got back, distributing the drinks he’d gotten for the table before settling into a spot, we all looked at him expectantly as he sipped his beer, oblivious.

“Well?” I asked, finally not able to take it anymore.

He scoffed. “I’m not doing your dirty work for you. I genuinely like Merit. She said she would meet my niece one day. I did mention you though, and she sent you this.”

I took in the drink he slid across the table and scrunched my nose. I could smell it from here. “Where’s my beer?”

“Your girl took it and she gave you her drink. She said she wanted you to try it,” he said. “And she wanted to try yours.”

I frowned and scanned up to find her again, murmuring absently to no one in particular, “She won’t like it.”

Just like I knew I wouldn’t like the weird pink and yellow thing that sat in front of me, I knew Merit wouldn’t like the deep woody taste of my preferred beer.

She was like a hummingbird, the biggest sweet tooth I’d ever seen—she would hate the bitter taste of my drink.

I watched with fascination as she drank from it anyway, huffing a laugh as she curled her nose and flickered her eyes up to me accusingly.

When she saw that I was looking at her, she stuck her tongue out in a mocking fake gag.

I lifted a shoulder and tipped her offered glass her way.

She smiled and my chest spasmed. The lift of her mouth lifted my heart even from across the room.

She was talking to me—with only her eyes, yeah, but I knew what she was saying.

She was teasing and smiling and playing around with me.

That was a stark contrast to her crying. That was enough to lighten up my heart.

“Would you get a room?” McKivvey asked with his own fake gag.