Authors: Michelle Love
Billionaire’s Quarry: A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Boxed Set) (21 page)
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 from 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?
To be continued…
Description
New Beginnings. Passion. New Revelations.
Mercy is determined to make a stable home for Carter and Mia. She decides with the destruction of the house they were living in she’ll take the children to the house she shared with her parents before the accident.
Jude gets her to let him go with her and finds the once old but quiet neighborhood has turned rough and dangerous. He gets her to allow him to take over for a while and he moves them into a mansion in a swanky part of Dallas.
With a new joint business venture going full speed and things going so well, Jude has a little get together with his younger brothers as Mercy takes the kids shopping. His plan of making Mercy his is unveiled and Mercy hears every word.
Will Mercy be able to accept that Jude hunted her down? Will Jude figure out how to make her stay with him? Or will this be the end of them, forever?
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 hanging 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.”
“You can use my Jag,” comes Jude’s quick response.
“I’m afraid to drive that expensive car, Jude,” I whine. “What if I do something to it?”
“Then insurance will cover it,” he says with a laugh. “Go find Rose and get on a bikini and get your hot little fanny back out here so we can play with the kids together, Mercy. Scat!”
“Yeah,” Mia says with a giggle. “Scat!”
Getting up to go back inside, I find myself a mixture of happy and sad. I’m happy and appreciative I have someone in my life to help me now. But sad that I’m losing the strength I felt I had built up after my family left us.
The massive rooms of the estate are overwhelming. I haven’t ventured away from the path through some media room off the patio and through another room that seems to be a library, then there is a large staircase that leads up to the wing where Jude’s suites and those of his siblings are located.
Near the end of the hallway is Rose’s rooms. I knock and wait for her to answer. When she opens the door, I find her wiping her eyes which are red-rimmed. “Oh, hi, Mercy.”
“Hi, Rose. Your brother told me to ask you for a bathing suit. He’s adamant I join him for a swim,” I say then ask, “You want to talk about why you’re crying first, though?”
She shakes her head and goes to grab a suit out of one of her drawers. “Just man trouble. If you can call him a man.”
“What happened?” I ask as I follow her into her room.
“He’s been using me,” she says with a sniffle. “Donald has been using me all along! He has a wife back in England! I’ve been supporting that deadbeat and his wife all this time!”
“You have to get him the hell out of here before your brothers find this out. They’ll kill him!” I say as she starts to wail.
“I know,” she cries then grabs me and we hug as she lets it all out. “I thought he loved me!”
Poor girl, I think to myself. She’s so pretty and nice when she wants to be.
“Come on, I’ll help you line up a plane ticket for his rotten ass and we’ll get him out of your life forever,” I tell her as I pull back and look at her. “I’ll help you. This can be our little secret. You can tell your family that you decided to end it because he wouldn’t get a job. That way they won’t question your judgment and give you a bunch of grief about this.”
She sniffles and looks at me through the tears. “Thank you. You don’t know how bad they can be. This isn’t the first time a man has used me for my money and I know the whole family will treat me like an idiot if they find out I’ve been fooled again.”
“Your secret is safe with me. Now come on, let’s get the ass out of Texas,” I say then we get to work, making the arrangements to get him on the first flight out of Dallas.
Rose looks at me with a smile on her face. “You’re acting a heck of a lot like a sister, Mercy. I like that.”
I smile and nod but a lump forms in my throat as the thought of my real sister moves through my head. Will I ever get past missing them all?