Page 10

HOLT

I lift my head, searching for Merit on the other side of the store. When she catches my eye and smiles, I turn into nothing but a big ol’ pussy. If I weren’t surrounded by people right now, I’d collapse on the floor and crawl to her on my hands and knees.

I’ve seen a lot of tits in my life.

Some I didn’t even wanna see.

You’d be surprised what women will do to try and get the attention of a professional football player.

But Merit? She has the most perfect chest I’ve ever seen. And I haven’t even really seen it yet. I’ve only laid eyes on the parts not covered by her modest bra.

But what I have seen? That much is tattooed to my memory for all eternity.

Plump and full and meant for me.

And don’t even get me started on her kiss.

If I even think about it, I’ll get a full-blown erection. And that would not be good, considering I’m currently surrounded by several kids and their parents, taking pictures and passing out shiny pennies.

I don’t mind. It’s nice to see Merit’s store so busy. I want her to be successful.

An unusual feeling of pride swirls in my stomach.

I’m proud of her. I don’t really think I could say that about any of the other women I’ve dated—even counting the supermodel, the actress, and the politician’s daughter.

It’s an hour before the rush at the store dies down. As soon as the last customers walk out the door, I collapse in one of the chairs.

Kyra immediately starts laughing. “Why do you look so tired? Aren’t you some sort of bionic, super-human athlete?”

I fling an arm over my eyes. “It’s mental exhaustion. That one boy spent twenty minutes trying to explain his Pokémon cards to me.” I sit up, shaking my head. “I swear it’s more complicated than our playbook for the Super Bowl.”

Merit’s sultry giggle tickles my ears. “So, you’re not used to playing with that kind of stuff?”

“Absolutely not. Just give me Felicia Stinkbottoms, and I can happily entertain myself for hours.”

The look on Merit’s face is absolutely priceless. Her jaw drops open, and she turns white as a ghost. Those hazel eyes widen. Her whisper is low and filled with accusation. “What?”

She obviously thinks I’m talking about a sex doll.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Mer.” I playfully wink at her. “Felicia Stinkbottoms is what Laura named her baby doll. Anna liked the name so much she bought a doll just like it. Now, we have Felicia One and Felicia Two.”

Relief courses over her body like a waterfall. “Well, what am I supposed to think with a name like that?”

I think about that. Hard. “Well, if I were to buy a sex doll, I definitely wouldn’t buy one with the word Stinkbottoms in the name. I’m a clean bottom kind of guy.”

Merit immediately bursts out laughing and snorts.

She grabs a couple of display shoes from Kyra and starts putting them back on the shelf underneath the large TV. Once again, it’s playing an old movie. One I don’t know. “What movie is this?”

“ An American in Paris . It’s absolutely wonderful.” She stops and stares at the screen for a minute before heaving a content sigh. “Kyra, I’m going to put these others in the back.”

I eagerly watch her as she walks away. The swing of her hips has my mouth watering. But what’s even more fascinating is the way she discreetly looks over her shoulder to see if I’m following her. She doesn’t realize I see her doing it. But I do and immediately stand to follow.

In the back, I help her put things away. “So, you haven’t told me why you play the old movies. It’s obvious that you love them. Is that why you play them? So, you have something to watch if the store is slow?”

“Well, I do love them. Old movies are my favorite, but I don’t really have a lot of downtime when I’m working.”

I stretch my arms above my head, playing with my hat. I bite back a smile when her eyes dart to the waistband of my shorts, eagerly devouring the small section of skin showing above my boxer briefs.

Blushing, she wiggles her head back and forth. “Where was I? Oh, right. I play the movies for the kids. Most of them will never watch the classics. A world without An Affair to Remember ? I would die. And you’d be surprised at the kids who’ve never even seen The Wizard of Oz .”

“So, you’ve always liked old movies?”

She nods, keeping something from me.

“What is it, Mer? What aren’t you telling me?”

She smiles sheepishly. “Nothing.”

I fold my arms across my chest and lift my eyebrows.

She slaps my bicep and immediately rolls her eyes. “Fine.” She leans closer, readying herself.

I love that she gets so serious when she’s about to tell a story.

“Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to be gone with friends for the entire weekend. I had some friends who said bye to their parents on Friday morning, on the way to school, and didn’t see them again until Sunday night. My family wasn’t like that. My grandparents lived with us at the farm.” She cocks her head. “Or I guess we lived with them. It was their house first.” She shrugs, “Anyway, I could go out with my friends on Friday night, but I always had to stay home on Saturday night. They were afraid I’d stay up too late and then fall asleep in church on Sunday. So, on Saturday nights, my family and I always watched a movie. And it was always an old movie, a classic. In the summertime, Dad would set everything up outside with a projector, and the movie would play on the side of the barn. My Granny would always make fresh popcorn with real butter. It was awesome.”

She looks so innocent. It literally takes my breath away. Reaching forward, my fingertips graze her cheek, and I tuck a strand of her redwood hair behind her ear. “That does sound awesome.”

A thick silence engulfs us. It’s wonderfully unbearable. Charged with emotion and fire and desire.

And need.

She takes a step back, giving herself room to breathe.

“Why’d you step away?” I ask, honestly wanting to know.

She swallows, trying to force the words from her mouth. “Because you’re suffocating me—without even touching me.” The passion in her voice is tangible.

And hot as fuck.

I shuffle forward, taking back the distance she gained. “And that’s a bad thing?”

“I don’t know. Is it?”

My fingers snake up her arm, and I tug her body against mine. Hard. She sighs in reflex, like she’s been waiting for me to do that all day long.

Fuck, I know I have.

Her body fits perfectly against mine. It’s like we were cast together in the same mold, and some unfortunate twist of fate broke us apart long ago. But we’re together again. Matched. Aligned.

I grab the back of her neck and lower my mouth to hers. Her lips instantly part, wanting more. And I immediately give it to her.

And then I’m forced to immediately take it back.

“Merit! Can you bring a new paper roll up front for the credit card machine? It’s about out.”

A frustrated growl rumbles from the depths of my stomach. Merit blushes and turns her head to the side so her scream doesn’t deafen me. “Yep. Be right up.”

We stare at each other. Her pupils are dilated in passion, her cheeks are flushed, and her lips glisten with moisture.

Moisture from my tongue.

“I guess our friends have a master plan to keep us from kissing?” I ask.

She smiles. “Maybe that should tell us something. You think?”

“Yeah, we need new friends,” I say with a wink.

Laughing, she grabs what Kyra needs and heads back out into the main store, stubbing her toe on the doorframe in the process. She curses underneath her breath and hobbles around. And of course, I follow her, making sure her toe’s not broken.

Leaning across the front counter, I watch as Kyra fiddles with the credit card machine and Merit looks over some receipts. “I really appreciate you locking up the store again tonight, Kyra. Your eagerness to work some overtime is really helping my dating life,” I joke.

“Hey, I’m just glad the words dating life are back in this one’s vocabulary,” she says, poking Merit in the ribs.

Merit makes a face. “Hardy-har.” She glances over at Kyra. “In all seriousness, I do appreciate it. It’s not fair for me to keep asking you. I started showing Emily the shut-down procedures. It’ll take me a few more times to get her trained, though. I just hope she can remember everything.”

Kyra shrugs. “What you really need is another part-time worker. I’ve told you time and time again, that one more person would make all the difference. It would help you have a real life again.” Kyra points straight at me, not feeling the need for discretion. “And from what I can see, it looks like you have a really good life starting, if you catch my drift.”

I can’t help but laugh. “Gee, Kyra. Are you sure NASA can crack that code?”

Merit thins her lips. “Kyra, you know why I can’t hire another person.”

Now, I’m curious.

“Why can’t you hire another person?” I ask. I wonder if it’s a money thing.

“It’s a money thing,” she says with a shrug, jiving with my own thought.

“But the store seems to be doing really good. It’s busy, right?”

She nods furiously. “Oh yes, it’s doing great. I’m definitely blessed. It’s just… I have a business loan that I’m eager to pay off.”

Kyra pops the gum in her mouth. “Yeah, to her douchebag ex-husband.”

What? “You owe money to Edward?”

Merit throws eye daggers at Kyra, slicing her in two. “Well, technically, I owe my ex-father-in-law. But, yeah.”

“How in the world did that happen?”

“When I decided to open the store, my in-laws offered to loan me the money instead of me going to a bank. It seemed like the safest thing at the time. Charles and Scarlet loved me.” She cocks her head to the side. “Or so I thought. Anyway, I told you this place needed a ton of work to it. And there was a one-year lease payment due upfront. And inventory and computer systems and employee salaries. It didn’t take long for everything to add up.”

I shake my head. “And you didn’t have to pay them off when you got divorced? That doesn’t make sense. Usually, people wanna sever all ties if they can. I mean, it’d be different if you had kids, but…” I furrow my brow. “Mer, you don’t have any hidden children, right?”

She smiles, biting back a laugh. “No. I don’t have any hidden children.”

Even though I wasn’t really serious, it’s still nice to know she’s not hiding a tiny lawyer toddler from me. “So, yeah, that’s just weird then. Edward didn’t want you to get a loan from the bank and pay his parents back as part of the divorce settlement?”

She bites her lip. “It was an interest-free loan. Plus, there were… extenuating circumstances. Edward and his parents were a little more lenient in some ways. Especially considering I signed an ironclad prenup before we got married.”

“Extenuating circumstances? What the hell does that mean?”

Kyra slides the credit card machine back in its rightful place next to the register. “It means he put his dick in another woman.”

“Kyra!” Merit’s mortified scream echoes across the room.

Neither Kyra nor myself have time to react before the front door swings open and the little bell chimes announcing the presence of a customer. Merit darts around the counter. She leaves a mumble of words in her wake, “You can handle this customer. I have something to do in the back. Excuse me.”

We watch as she scuttles out of view, her shoulders slumped like a little kid who just lost his dog.

Kyra tells the customer she’ll be with them shortly and turns back to me. “I guess I’m not one for discretion, huh?”

Disbelief circles my brain like a wet, soggy fog. “He did that to her?”

Kyra chews on her lip, nodding. “I shouldn’t have said anything. The whole situation just pisses me off.”

I pat her hand. “I’ll go check on her.”

I find Merit sitting at the small table in the back, tearing at the crust of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She wasn’t kidding when she said she typically brings her lunch to work. “Don’t you get tired of eating sandwiches?”

She pins me in place with her kaleidoscope eyes. “I thought we just established that I’m saving money to pay off a loan.”

I hold up my hands in defense. “You’re right.”

I sit down next to her. Leaning back in the chair, I toss my ballcap on the table and drag my hands through my hair. Despite her best intentions to ignore me, she can’t help it. She watches my every move underneath the camouflage of her thick, black eyelashes. She nervously scratches her bronzed shoulder, drawing my attention to the strap of the black sports bra peeking out from the wide neckline of her oversized store T-shirt.

She’s breathtaking.

Beautiful and strong and smart.

Curious and funny and alluring.

The thought that someone would leave her, cheat on her? It makes me so damn angry. If she were mine, I’d never stray, I’d never leave. More importantly, I would never do anything to make her leave me . That’s for damn sure.

And my goal in life is to make her mine. Forever.

I’m not exactly sure when I made that decision. I guess it was the second she popped her little head up from behind the register talking about zipping her panties in her shorts.

“That really happened? He cheated on you?”

Merit folds her hands in her lap, taking comfort in the motion. I wonder if she always had this habit—folding and clasping her hands. Did she do the same thing as a child? Somehow, I don’t think she did. After a few seconds, she lifts her head, steeling herself and forfeiting her meek demeanor. “Yes.”

Black rage constricts my heart. “Just once?”

“Well, it started about a year and a half before we separated, but it was always with the same woman. His secretary.” She lets out a small, cynical chuckle and tears another piece of crust from her mutilated bread. “They’re actually still together. At least he’s a monogamous cheater.”

“I’ll tell you what he is…a son of a bitch.”

I reach across, searching for her hand. She quickly moves it back to her lap.

Hell, no. That’s not happening.

I push against the leg of her chair with my foot, scooting her back from the table. I twist to the side and grab the seat of her chair, pulling her across the floor. My actions are so quick, she doesn’t have time to react. She just widens her eyes and holds on for the ride. Spreading my legs, I settle her chair right in front of me, so close, her sigh feathers hot air across my face. I wrap my hands around hers.

“No more. There’s no more of that.”

She swallows. “No more of what?”

“You know what. Pulling away from me . I thought we’d gotten past that. But I guess we need to have the actual conversation, huh?”

She opens her mouth to answer but quickly shuts it. There’s a gleam in her eye and a small smirk to one corner of her mouth.

I can see it. Plain as day.

She wants me to fight for her.

I guess he never fought for her.

Well, that makes one difference between Edward and me.

I’ll never stop fighting for her.

“When I reach for your hand, I wanna hold it. Got it?” My mind wanders, thinking of all the things I want—I need —to do. “I wanna trace my fingers down the small of your back. Down that sweet, sexy curve that leads the way to your ass. I wanna hold your body against mine. Whether we’re by ourselves or in the middle of a crowded store, it doesn’t matter. You said you weren’t used to public displays of affection, but that doesn’t matter. Everything I do is for me. And for you. No one else. So don’t pull away from me.” I lean forward and whisper against the shell of her ear. “I know you like my touch. Don’t deny it, Mer.”

Her body shudders.

She turns her head. Her soft lips graze against the stubble of my jaw. “Why would I deny it? Didn’t you say that I don’t lie to you?” She gently nips at me with her teeth. “And the truth is…I dream of your touch, of your hands. Every single night.” She turns my right hand over and caresses the fresh callus running the length of my thumb. With football practice starting back, my body is following suit with the normal gamut of blisters, bumps, and bruises. I guess you could say I’m more of a hands-on coach than most in my position. I watch with bated breath as she brings my thumb to her soft, pink lips and rubs it back and forth. “Want me to kiss it better, sir ?”

Holy fucking hell.

My dick just hardened into steel. True, part of me realizes that she may be dabbling in the art of seduction to distract from the fact that I’m pissed as hell that her ex-husband cheated on her and that she’s still indebted to his pissant father, but…in this moment, I don’t think I really care.

Because in this moment? I wanna fuck her mouth with my tongue.

And it’s not just the all-consuming desire driving me to kiss her. It’s the fact that—even though she may be intentionally misdirecting me—she’s showing me a small glimpse of her true self, the real Merit.

And I’m loving every minute of discovering the real Merit, of pulling her out of her shell.

Because the real Merit is a damn pistol.

Dragging my thumb across her jawline, I bend forward, ready to devour her.

“Merit! Can you come out front, please!” Kyra’s voice shatters our intimacy.

Merit blinks, her eyes dazed and fogged. My hand is still cradling her face when she shoots up from her chair, grumbling underneath her breath. “I’m gonna shove a shoehorn up her meddling, little ass.”