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“Was I too rough with you?” Gib queried into Nica’s shoulder much, much later.
Her smile was that of a woman completely pampered and well-tended. “Yes you were and thank you,” she purred to the feel of Gib’s warm, big body shaking with soft laughter behind her.
“Nica?”
“Mmm...” she snuggled closer to him.
“I um...I had condoms. I should’ve...gone to get them but after that first time I...” he let the explanation drift into silence. What good was it now anyway? What good was it to tell her that once he had her in his arms, a condom was the last thing on his mind.
Nica seemed to sense what he couldn’t say. “Gib...you don’t have to worry about a baby I...take the pill for...” she let the uneasy confession suffice. Such a precaution wasn’t necessary for the usual reason. For years, it had been a tried and true method to soothe certain side effects associated with her period. “As for anything else, my last test was two years ago, but I haven’t had a sex life in over eight.”
Gib felt her tense in his arms and his heart broke for her. As a result, he let go of the offense he’d taken to her assumption that he might ‘worry’ over her being pregnant with his child.
“What I was trying to say, very badly, is that I’m tested every year.” He brushed a kiss across her shoulder and silently considered her earlier confession. “Eight years...I find that unbelievable,” he said.
“It’s the truth, Gib.”
“I know that, sugar,” he heard the urgency in her voice and despised himself for putting her on the defensive. “I think I should’ve said I find that incredible. I’m guessing you can’t walk a block without some guy giving you a line.”
She laughed quietly into her pillow. “That doesn’t happen as often as you think. But um, I guess a lot more than I wish it would.”
“Annoying?”
“It can be.”
“So why give me a chance?”
She smiled, sending him a look across her shoulder. “Fishing for compliments, Sheriff?”
“You’ve already complimented me and very well,” he said and took her mouth in a throaty kiss that made her moan before he stopped. “But I’m pretty sure you don’t attract a host of jerks,” he continued. “There had to be some decent ones in the bunch. What made me so special?”
“Probably the uniform.”
They enjoyed another kiss, that one coupled with a lusty three finger caress that took Nica to the verge of climax before Gib eased off.
“Tell me why?” he demanded softly upon depriving her of his fingers.
“I wish I could,” she insisted when his beckoning gaze narrowed. “I swear I’m not being facetious, but I honestly don’t know why. I mean, there are the...shallow reasons-your looks, your body,” a delicious shiver took hold when his arm flexed at her waist to draw her back even tighter against him.
“Then there’s your personality,” she battled past lurking arousal to continue. “You weren’t as obvious about wanting to get me into bed.”
Gib winced. “I was obvious enough.”
Her eyes searched his, and then she fixed on his mouth and sighed. “Maybe I just wanted what I wanted. What I wanted was you-to hell with what that makes me.”
“It doesn’t make you anything other than a woman who stunned me stupid the first time I saw her. I’m glad she wanted me enough to cast aside what she thought was proper,” his last words silenced to nothing as his mouth claimed hers once more.
***
“Hey? Wanna ride?”
Bear cracked open an eye and saw that she and Pope were alone in the limo. The group had toyed with the idea of staying over in Richmond. Jamus and Sama had suggested it after they all left the Holland Corp party. In the end, the younger couples decided to head back with Rutger and LuCarolyn who wanted to relieve the sitter watching Reina.
Jamus and Sama had decided to stay over in Richmond which Bear thought was a good idea. The tension between Mercuri and Tee was becoming more and more noticeable.
“Do you think I’d get flack for being a lightweight if I let you carry me back inside?” Bear asked.
Pope relaxed back on the limo seat. “Hard to say. Prin walked in on her own, but took her shoes off to do it. Lu made it back inside without missing a step in those neckbreakers she had on.”
“Course she did,” Bear said with an eye roll. Her playful annoyance made a slow transition to concern. “I guess Tee didn’t give Mercuri a chance to offer her a ride from the car to the house, huh?”
“‘Fraid not,” Pope sighed. “I don’t think they danced together once during the party. What do you think’s goin’ on with them?” Though he’d already sussed out his own answers, he kept his features unreadable when she responded.
“Things don’t look good,” was all Bear said.
Before silence could settle in snug between them, Pope left the car. Going around to Bear’s side, he offered his hand. “How about we lean on each other?” he offered his arm when she slid out.
Bear accepted, holding her husband close. “That always sounds good,” she said.
––––––––
“Nightcap, anybody?” Slayte was asking as Pope and Bear entered the living room.
“I’d love one,” Prin sighed woefully. “But since I’d be denied, the answer is no.”
“Good girl,” Slayte graced his wife with a sly wink.
“Where’s Lu and Rutger?” Bear asked.
“They went up already to let the sitter go,” Prin said,
“Probably the easiest money she’ll ever make,” Pope observed. “Rain’s a little angel and I’m not just saying that ‘cause she’s my niece.”
“No one here’s gonna argue with you, man,” Slayte said.
“Not at all,” Prin agreed and patted her slightly rounded tummy. “I hope this one will be half as good as that sweet girl upstairs,” she added.
Tee, who had been tinkering with odds and ends atop the Baby Grand in the far corner, suddenly turned and made a quick exit from the large room. It was clear her mood wasn’t pleasant if one took the pronounced sound of her spike-heeled boots against the hardwoods as proof.
Silence carried for a short time after Tee’s exit. Then, Mercuri was following his wife’s departure. There was no doubt that his mood was as frigid as Tee’s.
The lingering silence in the living room lasted until the boom of a door slam upstairs thundered through the house.
“Mommy and Daddy are very angry,” Slayte said.
~~~
The vicious sound of the door slamming didn’t seem to startle Tee. She coolly continued to undress and ready herself for bed.
“Guess you’re still upset with me,” Mercuri observed.
“I’m not upset,” Tee’s reply was mild, though she shoved her boots into their protective plastic bags with more than the necessary force.
“So you’re not talking to me, not looking at me because...why? You just haven’t seen me crossing your path the last couple of days?”
Tee finished with her boots and then disappeared into the walk-in closet to finish undressing.
Mercuri walked the room for a short time, debating on whether to give in to arguing with his wife or leave the room. He opted for arguing with his wife.
Tee had stepped out of the stylish salt and pepper culottes suit she’d worn to the party. She was shaking out nonexistent wrinkles from the wool outfit, preparing to fold and repack it, when Mercuri yanked it free and tossed it to a far corner. He blocked her way when she would have bolted from the closet.
“I don’t want to do this again, Mercuri.”
“We’ll keep on doing this until we solve it.”
“We have solved it. You’ve made yourself clear. I get it.”
“Then maybe you can explain it to me.”
Instead, Tee retreated into the closet. She grabbed her suit and proceeded to fold it. “You don’t think I’m capable of giving you a child, Mercuri.” Her tone was one of phony politeness. “Enough said- all there is to it,” she sang.
Again, Mercuri yanked the suit from her hands. He closed in on more of her space. “I don’t know if I could survive losing you. Doesn’t that mean anything to you, Sprite?”
“Mercuri...of course it does,” the lost tone of his words, ate away at the walls she had erected over the last few days. “But why are you so set on thinking that’ll happen? Do you think I’m that weak?”
His bright eyes took on a stormy cast. “You know I don’t think that, but can’t you admit my concerns are valid?”
“Alright, yes,” she slapped her hands to her sides. “Yes, they are. Doesn’t make it hurt any less to know your concerns are multiplied because my size screams incapable.” Defeated, she sat in the deep burgundy armchair just inside the walk-in.
Mercuri’s darkly handsome face looked stricken by her words. “Incapable?” The inquiry was a whisper. “Honey, you’re a wonder to me-proof that strength of body has nothing over strength of mind. Weren’t you the one who kicked Van Deer’s ass and left sloppy seconds for me to clean up?” His heart flipped when she laughed.
“Tee,” he knelt before her, “I don’t doubt you could do anything you set your mind to. I think you could give birth to a basketball team if you wanted,” he squeezed her hands when she laughed again. “Babe, don’t you get it? This is about me not being strong enough-not you.”
“It doesn’t bother you to live in fear that way?” she asked.
“Sure it does,” bewildered laughter trailed the words. “But I could do that easy, as long as I know you’re okay.”
“But don’t you see, Mercuri? I’m not okay. Don’t you see this is tearing me up inside?”
A muscle performed a slow flex in his cheek. “I can’t do anything about the way I feel, Tee.”
“Do you want to?”
“Yes, but-”
“Then I think you can.”
Bewilderment took charge of his expression then. “Baby, how? I-”
“Believe in me-believe in us,” she said.
“Honey, I do,” he vowed. “I always have, I-”
“Prove it.”
“How? I’ll do-”
“Support me-trust me.”
Bewilderment vanished as a wicked gleam intensified the animalistic beauty of his eyes. “I trust you above everyone-everything,” he said.
“Even your fear?”
He bowed his head. “Tee, I want to. I have no idea where to start.”
Scooting to the edge of the wide square chair, Tee cupped his face and searched his bright eyes with her dark ones. “You can start by not flying off the deep end in a few seconds.”
His brow wrinkled. “Tee-”
“I’m pregnant.”
Instead of kneeling, Mercuri sat on the closet floor. Open mouthed and speechless, he stared up at her.
Tee approved the reaction as it gave her the chance to explain. She eased off the chair and kneeled beside him. “I took a pregnancy test a few weeks before the trip. I had a doctor’s appointment the day we flew out here-she confirmed it. I was going to wait ‘til Christmas Eve and surprise you, but it...it didn’t work out that way. Oh Mercuri, I’m sorry I-I wasn’t going behind your back. I never planned on getting pregnant-I was still on the pill and-” a sob clogged her throat but she swallowed past it. “When it happened I just-just thought it was meant to be. I um, I didn’t know you’d be so against it and now there’s a baby coming and I-I want it more than anything but you-I’m so afraid you’ll hate me and the baby because-”
He grabbed her then, big hands engulfing her upper arms before he jerked her close and into a crushing, devotion-laced kiss.
“Little idiot,” he muttered, “I could never hate you. Never-no matter what. Do you understand that?” He gave her the faintest of shakes. “Do you believe that?”
Tee nodded quickly. Her eyes were wide and shined with unshed tears.
“As for hating our child, that’s just insane.”
“But you said-”
“I said I was afraid. Fear’s got nothing on how happy you’re making me right now.” His eyes made repeated trips from her face to her stomach and back again. “Forgive me for scaring you,” he said.
Tee bit her lip before speaking. “I’ve been an idiot, huh?”
Mercuri spaced apart his thumb and index finger. “Just a little bit.”
“Mercuri?”
He was studying her waistline again. “Yeah?”
“You’re...really happy?”
“I really am. Yes.”
“Even though you’re afraid?”
“Yeah,” he nearly laughed out the word. “Crazy, huh?”
“Kind of. Yes.” She smiled, totally understanding. “What are we going to do?”
“Sprite,” he pulled her into a hug. “Looks like we’re gonna have a baby.”
***
The yard was the size of a football field-the house the size of a small palace. How the hell much did sheriffs make? He wondered. Though he supposed, being the nephew of a furniture mogul like Jamus Holland paved the way for a million perks.
Perks like the one undoubtedly in the bastard’s bed right now. How long had it been going on? Why was she connected to Mercuri and his crew? She was working for Slayte’s wife, but why? Was it all part of some special job? Was she letting that black son of a bitch fuck her because of it?
Benjamin Haahs shook his head quickly, frantically as though desperate to rid it of tormenting thoughts. He had a tendency to get carried away by paranoia. He couldn’t afford that now, not with Mercuri and the others so close. No doubt, they wanted blood for what happened to the other girl who also worked for Slayte’s wife. Was she the reason Nica was working there? Were they friends?
Again, he shook his head. It was business. He’d been on the job-she could understand that. There was no choice when it was for the job. You did what you were told. You did who you were told.
His eyes trekked back up to the house. An upper rear window was the only one aglow. It was a mild glow and not one many would have noticed. Was she there because she wanted to be?
His fist clenched at the thought. He’d seen her lover-big, black, built. Haahs had been in town a couple of days already-keeping to the shadows and observing. He guessed it wouldn’t take much for her to wholeheartedly agree to bed a guy like that for the sake of a mission, but that made no sense. There was nothing like that in the works these days. Which meant she was there because she wanted to be.
The bitch! He raged. She’d left him. No sign of her in nearly a decade-leading him to think she was dead. She’d pay for that. They loved each other. How could she make him suffer like that?
She never loved you. She did what she had to do for the job-
No! Haahs slammed a fist to the side of his head. No! They were real. Despite the circumstances, they were real.
Real for you, another voice cringed.
Eyes more enraged then, he glared at the upper window. “Have your fun, Sheriff,” he seethed. “I certainly intend to have mine.”