Until mercy happily ever.., p.12
Until Mercy: Happily Ever Alpha World, page 12
“Mercy!” I holler into the room.
“Kellan?” She comes around the corner, sleep in her eyes as she rubs it out.
My heart rate settles and I keep myself from rushing to her and taking her right there. She didn’t leave.
Learn to forgive and learn to trust.
“Mercy!” Shayla and Lana cry out in unison, and her face lights up.
“You guys! Oh my God. I missed you!” They move around me and meet her for a hug. We stand back and watch them have their moment.
“I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I left you the way I did.” Mercy gives apologies, and the girls reassure her they understood and forgive her.
“She’s so happy. She needed this,” Trey says, crossing his arms, and I notice we’re standing the same way—arms crossed and our eyes transfixed on our women.
“Yeah, we all did. Between Shayla and Lana worrying, and us not knowing where Mercy was, they’ve been a mess,” Kingston adds.
“They seem really close. I’m glad she had you guys around her the whole time.”
“We’re glad we had her too,” Shayla replies after hearing us, and we look to them again.
That fucking smile on her beautiful face is like watching some miracle find it’s moment. I feel that all the way down to my toes, through every muscle, bone, and vessel of my body. If I could keep that permanently there at this exact moment, I would.
She will never hear Link’s name again, I declare then. I’ll never tell her what will happen or what I plan to do with him. As far as she is concerned, he is no more than a figment of her past.
I have her back, right here in the flesh, my Mercy, and I’m back where she had me the first time I met her. On my knees, willing to do anything and everything to keep her in the very spot she is—my soul. We share a knowing look, and she gives me this subtle, thankful smile. I don’t even need her words to tell me just how much this moment means to her. She was worried she would have to talk about her past, scared that it would turn into a reunion full of tears, but her friends do everything opposite of that. For the next three hours, they sit on the couch of our suite and talk about everyday things, and it’s a breath of fresh air.
Her secrets are no more, and there is a quiet still across the room. The space that always lingered between Mercy and me is gone. There is nothing to keep her from me—no force, no man, and no space. Our connection is unperturbed, and for the first time, Mercy isn’t my cry for deliverance. She’s my solidified, forgiving mercy.
Chapter Fifteen
Mercy
I don’t blame Kellan for leaving me alone today. This is a lot to take in, and his heartbreak caused by me leaving is justified. All of this is overwhelming, and I’m not saying I’m desensitized by everything that happened, but I’ve been running from this for a long time now. I’ve spent years learning how to hide, how to deal with everything, and he never did. I knew why I left and who I was running from, but he was in the dark thinking I left giving up on him and not loving him anymore.
After he left, I fell asleep from the highs and lows of the past few days and the emotions swarming around me. I’ve been locked in this hotel room for the past two days, making love, opening old wounds, fighting, and repeating the cycle. My friends showing up and planning a night out is just what he and I need. None of them have mentioned me leaving, and I’m fine with it, because right now I want to act like Link isn’t a real person, me and Kellan aren’t barely speaking because I broke his heart, and that I’m just a woman out with her friends.
Kellan, Kingston, and Trey went to see Nico and Sophie, and me and the girls are getting ready. I moved to their room, and it isn’t much of a scenery change, but it’s not the room we’ve been spending every second of the past forty-eight hours.
“He’s a dream boat. He reminds me a lot of Trey.” Shayla makes conversation as she does my makeup. Usually, I’m an all-natural type of girl, but tonight calls for me to pretend to be someone else. I don’t want to think of anything but me and my friends and the possibility of a normal life.
“Yeah, seriously. Before they left, the way he looked at you was...erotic,” Lana adds, and we laugh as I screech her name and lightly slap at her leg. I bite my lip, thinking of that exact look. Maybe it’s the fact that we haven’t said barely a sentence or two since he walked out, but I miss him. Sure, he isn’t gone physically, but we aren’t exactly sure what comes next.
What if he doesn’t forgive me? What if they get so deep into Link’s past and he decides this is too much and our love isn’t worth the trouble and danger Link will rain down on us?
“Yeah, it’s intense,” I whisper.
“You’re thinking too much. None of that. Tomorrow, we can deal with all the hard stuff.” Shayla leans and kisses the top of my head, comforting like a mother would, and in that moment, I miss my parents. A brief moment of seeing them the day I drove away and gave up the life I had for the life I would one day dread comes back to me, and I swallow it down.
Tomorrow, we can deal with the hard stuff.
“Now, I hear this place is an open mic slash night club, and I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get drunk and do a terribly botched rendition of ‘Friends in Low Places.’” Just like Lana always does, she breaks the heavy.
“I’m not singing. I did not get that gene. I sound like a cat being drowned underwater,” Shayla states, and we all laugh again.
“Same. Kingston always says I have a beautiful voice, but he’s just trying to keep me on a pedestal,” Lana adds.
“Amen,” I agree. “I think it’s adorable.”
“I think he just wants me to keep popping out babies, so...”.Shrugging, her gorgeous eyes sparkle as she makes the joke that is obviously a slight truth she loves.
“You two are a mess and it’s disgustingly cute,” I tell her.
“Tell me about it.” Shayla scoffs.
I smirk and peer up at her as she applies my mascara. “Shut up, shithead. He’s your brother; you know how he is.”
Lana finishes up her hair, and her look is nearly flawless.
“Judging by that look, you like how he is, and you’re the one asking for another baby just as much as he is,” I tease.
“Ugh! Mercy Daniels, we missed you, baby.”
I ditto that. I missed them beyond compare, and when this is all over, I hope I get this all back like before.
Shayla and Lana look incredible. Flawless. Lana wears her long bob in wavy curls and a strapless, fitted, black pant suit with scrappy heels, and Shayla wears a red sundress that she somehow makes looks like it was meant to bring Trey to his knees. I went with a loose-fitting, champagne, satin midi dress. It has a scoop neck that gives me enough cleavage it could hold a pen. It’s unlike me, and it’s why I nearly laugh when I see myself in the mirror. My long, dark hair is curled in loose waves, and my makeup is dramatic. A smoky eye with eyeliner that makes my already vibrant blue eyes pop more. My tan skin is covered in glitter per Shayla’s idea, and I thought it would look ridiculous, but honestly… I look sexy. I’m not much for vanity, but I really feel beautiful.
I haven’t dressed up like this in years, and I hope when Kellan sees me, it will cause him to speak to me. I hope it will be the icebreaker that will get us talking again and put us back on the path to me mending what I broke—him and me. I put on the perfume he loves most, the perfume I only wore when we were naked and wrapped up in one another. Flashbacks of all those moments come barreling in, and a heat pools in my stomach. I want him. So bad. I want to say sorry again and again and be the one to get down on my knees and beg him to forgive me.
“All right, move it, ladies! We’ve got alcohol to drink, songs to sing, and hot guys to take home!” Lana shouts, bringing us our bags.
“I could use it. Good luck getting me on stage.” I take my bag and we make our way out of the room. Stepping into the hall, I hear it, the voice I’ve been dying to hear.
“Fuck, baby.”
Looking up into the eyes of the man my heart beats for, I find those beautiful grays looking at me. His jaw is clenching and his hands twitch as he undresses me and does things to me in his mind that I wish he could make reality.
“Kellan?” I feel that look everywhere in me. It causes bumps to rise on my skin, and my stomach is in all kinds of butterfly knots.
Shayla and Lana get the same reaction from Kingston and Trey, and while they move around me and pair up, Kellan stays watching me, both of us aching to touch but too paralyzed in this look to go anywhere. He looks handsome, dressed in dark jeans and a long-sleeved, fitted Henley top that hugs his glorious muscles.
“Let’s go! I need a drink! Mama is on vacation and I need it!” Lana shouts, and it gets us into motion. Kellan doesn’t say anything else, and I finally will myself to move. The energy grows as I move around him, not touching him, but that heat and desire is magnifying.
He stays still then finally moves when Kingston hollers at him to get in the elevator. The ride down is filled with small talk between the other four, but Kellan stands on the other side and I feel him watching me. I don’t have to see him, but I feel those eyes.
“I’ll drive tonight. I don’t plan on drinking,” Trey offers.
“Sounds like a plan. Did you pick up the rental car?” Shayla questions.
“Sure did, three rows, so no hanky in my back seats.”
We get to the giant, three-row, sleek black SUV, and Kingston mocks Trey. “I know you didn’t just talk to us like we’re kids.”
“You’re basically a kid we have to keep in line.” Trey busts his chops and everyone else laughs, but not me and Kellan. No, we can’t stop that heated stare.
“We’ll let you guys take the back seat, give you some privacy.” Lana pulls us from the stare-off.
“It’s okay. We ca—”
“No, we’ll take it,” Kellan cuts me off.
I feel that demand in all the right places. This is going to be a slow burn.
Climbing in first, I take a seat next to the window in the very back row. I look out the window and try to settle my heart rate. When he takes a seat next to me and his leg brushes against mine, I turn to him. We don’t say anything, our bodies side by side like we’ve been glued. We get on the road and he makes a move. Putting his arm around my shoulders, he loses his hand in my hair, his other hand cupping the side of my face.
Leaning in, his lips touch my ear and I close my eyes, tilting my head so I can feel that hot breath against me.
“What the hell were you thinking, wearing this dress?”
I practically scream in my head for him to nibble on my ear or neck or chin. Anything. I’ve been waiting for this moment all day.
“You don’t like it?” I question, smiling.
He growls, and my smile grows. “You’re fucking killing me with this scrap of fabric you call a dress. Men are going to look.”
“And?”
“Don’t you remember how jealous I can be? What it turns me into? Outside and inside of the bedroom?”
I could orgasm right here. My body ignites, knowing full well what it does to him. It makes him jealous and obsessive in all the right ways.
“Kellan.” I try to warn him from doing this to us, when we won’t be able to do exactly what we need to do when this conversation hits its peak.
“You want that. You want me to get jealous so I can fuck the knowledge of you being all mine right into this beautiful body. This body is everything that belongs to me.” He growls again, nipping at my chin. “You did this, because we weren’t talking.”
“Yes. I was hoping it would knock you on your ass and make you realize you can’t leave me because you still want to be with me.” I admit my true reason behind being in these clothes with this makeup on.
“Oh, Mercy.” He laughs sinisterly. “I may be dealing with the last time you broke my heart, but make no mistake. We aren’t done, and we won’t ever be. Now, tonight, you get to wait and wait and wait for me to take you home to show you that. Call it payback for trying to get my attention by making me jealous.” With that, he cuts all physical touch, moving to the other end of the row.
I breathe heavily, riled up and bothered. I want him, but he’s the leader in this game I started, and now all I want to do is turn this car around and regain the control. But I won’t lie. This is already the start to the best make-up we will ever have. The first and the last—I hope.
Link is long out of my mind for now, and I want to revel in it.
“Okay, that was terrible, but so much fun.” Lana comes barreling back to our table after her promised rendition of a Garth Brooks’s classic.
She has an off-key voice, but Kingston really does hear something else. “I remember when I sang that song to you the night you and I first got together,” he says, taking her into his arms so she sits in his lap.
“Me too, you had me wrapped around your finger.” She presses her lips to his, and they share a soft kiss, looking like two teenagers in love. I only hope to be that carefree one day. Lana’s never told me exactly what happened to her in the past, but I know she had something traumatic that nearly kept her and Kingston from becoming what they are now—husband and wife with a beautiful family and the craziest, most wild and loving marriage I have ever seen.
I see a lot of me in her.
“Okay, who’s next?” Shayla claps.
“Um, I think maybe we will let some other people go. Give the mic a rest,”aTrey says, leaning back in his chair, his thumb drawing circles on Shayla’s neck.
“Oh boo! Come on! No one else here is even attempting to get up there. Someone has to go.”
Kellan sits next to me, his hands to himself as he continues the torture of not giving me the attention I want. “I’ll go,” he speaks after nearly an hour of silence tonight. He has sipped on one beer and watched us all dance and have fun. His eyes never leave me, but his words stay hidden.
“Wait, you’re going to sing in front of all these people? Are you feeling okay?” I ask, touching his arm.
“Sure am. Hopefully I don’t embarrass you too bad, sweet cheeks.” He winks and my body goes hot. I have never heard him sing other than us joking around in the car. Can he really sing?
“Oh, this is going to be good. Holy cow, girl.” Shayla winks, leaning into me, and I shake my head.
“I can’t believe he’s letting you guys see him like this.” I know what he’s doing the second he picks up the acoustic guitar and takes a seat on the stool behind the mic.
“This song is for a woman I know. She drives me wild and brings me to my knees. If you know the words, sing along with me. I know that would make her crazy.”
The crowd cheers and I blush, his eyes finding mine. Shaking my head at him, I bite my lip. Everyone quiets down, and the first few notes play softly into the mic. When he starts singing “Simply the Best” by Tina Turner, a slowed version he’s managed to make sound dreamy and breathtaking. It does just that, steals my breath. His voice is gravelly and deep, on key, and mesmerizing.
“You’re boy can sing. May have to sign him.” Kingston looks over to me, but I don’t take my eyes off the man stealing my heart all over again on stage. This is him taking my apology and forgiving me for what pain I caused in his heart.
Mid-song, when he plays the guitar, strumming the same rhythm over and over again, he pierces my soul with a look. “I love you, Mercy, and I won’t let you go.” He lets everyone in the audience into our love bubble. “This is the part I need you all to sing with me. I need your help to take my girl home with me.”
Covering my mouth in a speechless blunder, I shake my head, and he gives me that megawatt smile.
The crowd joins him in singing the words about the time I walked away and how it made him lose control. He describes us perfectly, telling me in the words he couldn’t say earlier. I walked away with his heart and his soul, but I’m back and he isn’t going to let me leave again. And even if it ends me as I stare down the barrel of Link’s gun, I will never regret this. If I only have a short amount of time to be with the real love of my life until my past finds me, then I will live that life to the fullest. I’ll soak it up and give each second all that I am and all that I have.
He forgives me. He gave me mercy and decided not to spend one more minute regretting and fearing the past but believing as I do now—that the future is where we have time to make it right. No matter where Link is, no matter his power, he cannot break apart the bond Kellan and I have. We will always find our way to one another. That is a proven fact. I sit here staring up at the dream I had each night, but it isn’t a dream anymore. It’s reality.
When the song ends, I stand on shaky legs, my palms aching to touch my talisman. My everything. He has the same urgency as he takes determined strides to get to me.
We collide then, all the passion, forgiveness, and years lost crumbling around us and we clash.
Our lips touch, fighting for retribution. I don’t care who is watching us; the entire place is now invested in us since his song on stage.
“I want you. In our bed, under me for hours. I’m sorry, my love,” he whispers against my mouth, our faces inches apart. Our hot breaths stoke desire between us. And if he doesn’t get us home in seconds, I will turn to ash at his feet. I need his touch more than I need my next heartbeat.
“We already called you two an Uber. It’s outside. Get out of here, you animals!” Trey hollers, and Kellan and I laugh, a blush dusting my cheeks.
“Let’s go.” He takes my hand and leads the way. I look back at my girls, and they cheer as I wink, those cheers turning into catcalls.
“Have a good night,” Kellan says to the Uber driver, and the second he meets me on the sidewalk outside of the hotel, he is reserved with me, not ravishing me like I expected. We walk through the lobby, him a few steps in front of me, his hand in mine leading me to the elevator.
“Kellan?” I practically whimper when he doesn’t slow down. I can’t keep up in these heels, and he seems angry now, his demeanor changing from what it was at the bar and in the Uber.
