Page 144 of The Secrets That Kill

I don’t mention I saw the gun. I didn’t think twice about that. Plenty of people have guns.

“You can leave. I need to find another way tofinish this job, anyway.” He takes off the new watch and puts it into the lockbox.

I swallow hard, wincing like a sledgehammer just pummeled me in the chest. “Wait. Why?”

“There are complications. I didn’t think this through enough.”

“Like what?”

“Getting to Henderson will take more time. I need to think about a new strategy.” He paces in front of the desk, fisting his hair. “It’s been a long ass night, and it was meant to be your last one here. So just…go.”

“No.”

He slowly turns, his jaw tight. “You don’t want to go?”

“Are we over?”

“Ivy.”

I ignore the sliver of exasperation in his tone and slide the dress straps off my shoulders. The dress falls to the floor, a pile of chiffon and silk at my feet. The card’s still crumpled in my hand and I let it fall into the material as I step out of it. “Are we?”

“No. We’re fucking not done, Pollyanna.”

I wait for him to give me orders, but instead he takes me in his arms and kisses me. It’s an all-consuming flame of passion and need. There’s hurt and fear and power in the air between us. I want to climb inside of him. I want to get into every cell, warm him, claim him. And I want to get so filthy with him that neither of us will ever be washed clean. We’ll be resurrected from the dirt and mud of hunger and desire and carnal wants.

Mercer guides me down onto his bed, kisses his way down the length of my body, pausing to suck and bite and graze my flesh with his teeth. He teases my nipples, his lips scorching a path over my skin. He tastes my thighs, my knees, my ankles, sliding his tongue over me in a way that screams possession.

He leans back, reaching for one shoe. He pulls it off and tosses it across the room without paying a bit of attention when it shatters a glass. His eyes never leave my face as he takes off the other shoe and hurls it behind him.

He dips his head low, his tongue massaging the top of my sheer panties. I’m wet, throbbing, aching with desperate need for him. I sob out his name and he rises so that his lips meet mine. With one hand in my panties, he begins his delicious torture with a slow finger fuck that has my clit on fire.

His lips trail kisses in a line down my throat, gently drawing a path with his tongue, retracing his steps with his lips, then again with his teeth. There’s so much emotion in his actions and movements that I’m mindless. I reach for him, but my hands are grasping feathers, flailing and useless under the onslaught of him.

His thumb is persistent, pressing and flicking my clit until the orgasm ripples through me, making me buck and fly with euphoric pleasure.

Mercer peels off my panties then stands up, staring down at me with eyes that hold so much emotion,I’mdrowning in it all. He strips off his shirt and pants, his cock so hard, so big and thick and corded with veins pumping blood straight to the head.

“You are fucking beautiful, Ivy.”

I can’t speak. There’s too much knotted in my throat, too much clenching my heart. He climbs back onto the mattress, straddling me.

Finally, I find my voice. “Mercer, I want to?—”

“No. I need to be in you. Just me in you. That’s all. That’s everything.” He pushes into my pussy. I gasp as he fills me, stretching my walls to welcome whatever he gives me. I love that shock of stretch, the tender soreness the next day. It means he’s been there. He’s claimed me.

He thrusts into me, long, hard, and deep. This is no structured, controlled lovemaking, either. This is freewheeling, intense, exhilarating. His lips find mine again, urging them into a deep kiss. He takes my hands, linking us both, then raising them above my head and pinning them to the bed as he thrusts into me.

I wrap my legs around him, letting the sea of pleasure take over. He stares into my eyes. It’s intense, bareboned, and beyond intimate.

Another orgasm starts to rise up in my core, making my insides sizzle with the impending inferno. The wild pleasure that sparks in my clit spreads down deep into me, a resounding throb similar to when he takes my ass. I shake and shudder, convulsing as I writhe against him. With each new wave of ecstasy, the entire world moves.

“Ivy.” One word. My name.

It penetrates the erotic haze as he jerks and spasms. A guttural roar accompanies him as he comes deep and hard, filling me with all he has to give.

After he stills, he stays inside me, buried deep, and releases my hands. He tilts his face toward mine, leaving tiny kisses along my jaw, my throat, and back to my mouth. I run my hands through his hair, then along the smooth cheek that’ll have stubble in the morning.

A sweet, sweeping warmth radiates within me.

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