The following morning…
Wednesday
Mercedes awoke to the sun shining through the open curtains of her bedroom. Unable to get her eyes to adjust to the luminous rays drifting across her bed, she rolled over, burying her head beneath the pillow as memories from the night before assaulted her.
What had she done?
As she inhaled deeply, the scent of fabric softener wafting into her nose, she realized that no matter how hard she wished, last night hadn’t been a dream. What she’d done… or rather what Xander had done to her had been real.
Too real.
And if realizing what had happened wasn’t bad enough, Mercedes had to accept the fact that she had loved every second of it.
Holy crap she was in so much trouble.
Never in her wildest imagination would she have dreamed up what had happened last night at Devotion, and sure as the sun was up and blinding with its intensity, Mercedes knew it had happened.
“Are you finally awake?”
Mercedes flew to an upright position, her pillow flying to the floor as she yanked her comforter up over her naked breasts. With what she knew had to look like abject horror on her face, she stared at the man standing in her bedroom. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Xander laughed, crossing to the windows and staring out as he pushed the curtains open even more, allowing the sunlight to all but consume the entire room.
Clutching the blanket tightly, Mercedes gave a second’s thought to what she looked like. She was definitely naked, and she knew her hair was a stringy mess all over her head, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it at the moment.
“Just checking on you,” Xander finally answered, turning to face her.
She could do nothing but stare at him.
Ok, so it wasn’t completely absurd to find Xander in her condo. After all, he did own a condo in the same building, – the penthouse – directly above hers, so he was nearby.
That explained his presence.
Since they both worked out of their homes, it wasn’t even odd that he was home that early in the morning either.
That explained his timing.
But it did not explain why he was standing in her bedroom, at the end of her bed, mind you, staring at her as though he was anticipating a replay of last night.
Not gonna happen.
“I should’ve never given you a key,” she said with exasperation.
Sliding his big hands into the pockets of his perfectly tailored black slacks that would provide her a mouthwatering view of his nicely sculpted backside should he turn around, Xander didn’t appear at all intimidated by her.
Another sexy, seductive laugh escaped him.
“Quit that,” she told him, clutching her comforter tight to her chest with one hand and running the other through her unruly hair.
“Quit what?” he asked, grinning that half smirk that had melted the panties off of much weaker women.
“Quit staring at me,” she told him. “And get out of my bedroom. I need to…”
Shit, she didn’t even know what she needed to do.
“Take a shower,” Xander kindly filled in for her. “I’ve got breakfast ordered. It’ll be here shortly.”
With that, Xander turned and walked out of the room, leaving Mercedes to stare after him, admiring his finely sculpted…
Good grief, woman. Haven’t you learned your lesson already?
How was it possible that the man could make her four thousand square foot condo feel so damn small?
A solid hour later, fully dressed in her heels and one of her most feminine power suits, with its short skirt and form fitting blazer, Mercedes joined Xander in her kitchen. She would’ve remained in the comfort of her bathroom a little longer, but she had run out of things to do after she dried her hair, and she didn’t want Xander to think she was stalling.
Even if she was.
She found him relaxing comfortably at the breakfast table, sipping coffee and reading something on his iPad, a plate of fresh assorted bagels sitting in the center. Without saying a word, she went straight for the coffee pot, hoping like hell a little caffeine would erase the images from last night from her brain. The shower certainly hadn’t helped.
“How’re you feeling?” Xander asked, not looking up from what he was reading.
“Fine,” she grumbled as she rummaged through the refrigerator, searching for the creamer and the cream cheese.
She was far from fine after the events of last night, but by the way he was acting so nonchalantly, she got the impression she was the only one of them who was still thinking about it.
“Why are you here?” she asked him as she poured a little too much creamer into her coffee. Seriously? Why were her hands shaking?
“Meeting with Shane,” he answered easily.
Shit.
Glancing over at the clock, Mercedes noticed it was fast approaching nine o’clock. She hadn’t slept that late in… hell, in as long as she could remember. Her days generally started before dawn on a good day.
“Is he coming here? Or to your place?” she asked, trying to sound casual as she shoved the creamer back into the fridge.
Most of the time, they held their business meetings at Xander’s. His condo had double the amount of space that hers did, and he had three offices, his, his assistant’s, and an empty one, along with a conference room that he used for God knows what. Unlike her setup, his offices were separate from his actual living quarters. As for Mercedes, she merely worked out of her condo’s secondary master bedroom that she’d had converted into an office.
“I told him to come here,” Xander answered as she approached, placing his iPad on the table and sliding the bagels toward her. “You’re looking a little pale,” he added, tipping his head slightly to the side as he studied her with another of his infamous smirks.
“I wonder why,” she blurted, immediately regretting her lack of filter.
She blamed him.
“I hear orgasms will do that to you.”
Mercedes glared at him from across the table, letting him know with her eyes that she wasn’t going to take his shit this morning. She was not getting into this with him. What happened last night shouldn’t have happened. It was a demonstration that had gotten way out of hand.
So what if he’d given her one of the best orgasms of her entire life. With his fingers.
It wasn’t like she was going to tell him as much.
Refusing to dignify his statement with a verbal response, Mercedes reached for a bagel and opted to move the conversation back to neutral ground. “What’s Shane coming over to talk about?”
Xander grinned, an all-out, panty-melting smile that had Mercedes fighting to keep from looking away from him. Rather than say something entirely inappropriate, which Xander was known to do from time to time, he morphed into the business professional that she knew him to be, his smile fading away entirely.
“We need to talk about the two properties we’re planning to bid on,” Xander explained.
“By ‘we’, you mean you and Shane are bidding against each other? On both properties?”
Xander kept his eyes on her. “Honestly, I could give a shit less about the land, he can have it if he wants it that bad. I want the Milton building.”
Mercedes knew about both properties, the one hundred plus acres off of the toll road up in Frisco and an old office building off of Milton right there in downtown that had just come on the market. Both of them were zoned for either commercial or residential, which was the factor that always put Shane and Xander at odds with one another.
Admittedly, Mercedes had significantly more knowledge regarding the Milton building. After all, Xander had been interested in it since she first brought it to his attention, so she had looked into a few specifics and taken him on a tour earlier in the week.
“I think that’s smart,” she told him. “The Milton building will be your best option of the two. He’ll want to turn it into condos anyway, and there’re an overabundance of them in that area. He’s better off with the land. Much more opportunity for residential development up that way.”
That wasn’t going to make Shane a happy camper, but then again, going up against Xander in a bidding war wasn’t exactly one of Shane’s favorite things to do either.
Mercedes had known both men for quite some time. She knew how their minds worked because she’d worked with them both on practically a daily basis for the last decade.
She sold commercial real estate, and they dealt in commercial and residential property development, respectively. And many of the property transactions they dealt with were handled by her. Although she had a handful of other high profile clients, Xander was definitely her bread and butter. He knew it too.
Before they could go into further detail, her home phone rang. Grabbing the handset that was on the breakfast bar, Mercedes greeted the doorman, letting him know it was fine to send Shane up.
Rising from her chair, Mercedes contemplated getting more coffee before heading to her office. She definitely needed caffeine and a much more structured atmosphere or she would likely do something foolish such as allow Xander, or worse, Shane, know exactly what she was thinking. And the absolute last person who needed to find out what happened last night was Shane Gibson. If he found out, she would never live it down.
“Let’s do this in my office,” she told Xander when she turned back to look at him, her face flaming when she realized how that sounded.
Shit. She was going to have to get a serious grip.
And soon.
The devilish gleam in his eyes said he’d caught on as well.
~*~*~*~
Doing his best to hide his amusement, Xander pushed back from the kitchen table and followed Mercedes through her condo. He didn’t, however, try to hide the fact that he was staring at her ass as she moved gracefully through the house.
The woman was fucking gorgeous, and she had an ass that made a man’s mouth water. Heart shaped and the perfect size to fill his hands nicely.
He’d been hoping she would come out of her bedroom after her shower wearing one of those form fitting, yoga outfits that she favored when she was home. Casual wear, she called them. Much to his dismay, Mercedes had clearly armed herself for battle wearing a short skirt and a blazer with those damn red heels that gave him an instant hard on.
Still, it didn’t matter what she wore. She was hot as hell. Shit, he was pretty sure she could wear a potato sack, and his dick would still stand up and take notice.
Mercedes cleared her throat, and Xander forced his eyes to move upward. He wanted to laugh because he’d been clearly busted while admiring her perfect ass. Rather than pretend he hadn’t been eyeballing her, he tossed her one of the heated looks he’d perfected over the years.
“Sit down,” she said with a choked laugh.
He was fairly certain that Mercedes was on to him. How could she not be though? After last night?
If she seriously thought that what happened between them at Devotion was just a demonstration, the woman was clearly missing a few marbles. And he knew that wasn’t the case because Mercedes was one of the most perceptive, intelligent women he’d ever met.
He waited for her to take a seat behind her desk before he lowered himself to the chair across from her.
“Mornin’,” Shane greeted as he made his way into the oversized room.
Xander glanced back over his shoulder, offering Shane a tilt of his chin in response. The man was decked out in one of those three thousand dollar suits he’d recently begun sporting. Although his own watch probably cost more than Shane’s entire closet, Xander had to admit, he was impressed with his friend’s recent transformation.
Shane Gibson was one of Xander’s closest friends. They’d known each other for approximately fifteen years after they’d met during their junior year in college, were both turning thirty-six this year, and although Xander’d started growing his business back in his early twenties, Shane had just recently started getting serious. Now that Shane was starting to rake in the money, he was definitely beginning to look the part, which Xander found amusing considering all the shit Shane had given him through the years.
He wiped the smile off of his face when he looked up to see Shane glaring at him.
Based on the stern expression on Shane’s too handsome face, it was clear that this was going to be a tense meeting and truthfully, Xander would’ve preferred to spend his time finding a way to get Mercedes naked again.
Twenty minutes later, Xander found himself fisting his hands in his lap as he sat patiently waiting for Shane to calm down.
Tense had been an understatement. Shane had lost his cool the moment Xander hadn’t given in to his demands. It would’ve been comical if Xander were in the right frame of mind.
Keeping his composure, he remained as relaxed as he could while Shane paced the floor behind him. Mercedes was sitting at her desk, watching both of them intently which was the only reason Xander didn’t lose his shit.
She’d been the main reason his focus was off all morning, and the last thing he could afford was to let Shane win this round. Clasping his hands together in his lap, Xander crossed one ankle over the opposite knee and glanced over at Shane, who was moving up beside him.
“Come on, man. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Shane grumbled, his face contorted with anger and frustration. He turned and stomped back the way he’d come before Xander could say anything.
Uncharacteristically restless, Xander leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he glanced up at Mercedes to see that she was smiling. He wondered if she was entertained by his unease. Probably.
Any other day, he might’ve taken offense to her obvious amusement at his expense. But today… Today he just couldn’t find it in him to get pissed off.
No, today he was apparently going to spend every waking moment thinking about her naked.
The woman had blown his damn mind last night.
Having known her for years, Xander had to give himself a significant amount of credit for keeping his hands to himself all this time. Lord knows he’d been tempted ever since he first saw her in that rat trap of an office she had been working out of back when Shane introduced them.
Rather than try and seduce her, which he knew would’ve been futile because Mercedes had a firm set of beliefs and his intentions didn’t fit them, he’d allowed their relationship to mold into a rather intimate friendship.
Xander didn’t have many friends, but those he did have, he kept close. Both Mercedes and Shane were in that category. But, unlike any normal friendship, when it came to Mercedes, Xander had suffered some unbearable physical aches through the years, fighting tooth and nail to pretend the woman didn’t turn him the fuck on.
Oh, how she did.
But after last night, seeing her in a different light, he wasn’t quite sure he could continue on with the charade. Or rather, he wasn’t sure he wanted to.
Even if it were obvious that she wasn’t happy about the outcome from their scene, no matter how hard he tried, Xander could not stop thinking about the way she’d come apart in his arms. It’d been incredibly difficult to make it through the night knowing she was tucked in her bed while he was just one floor above tossing and turning from an aching hard on that couldn’t be sated.
When Shane approached again, Xander glanced over his shoulder, remembering where he was and what he was supposed to be doing.
“Seriously, X. Tell me you’re joking.”
“Do I look like I’m joking?” Xander stated firmly, keeping his expression blank as he forced his attention back to the task at hand.
It wasn’t a secret that Xander enjoyed the shit out of getting Shane riled up, but this morning he just wasn’t feeling it. It was usually the highlight of their interactions, which these days seemed to be more and more frequent as Shane’s business continued to grow.
Boone Development, LLC, was a light year ahead of Gibson Enterprises, but that divide was shrinking as Shane built a name for himself. And despite the fact that they often found themselves in direct conflict with one another, Xander was genuinely happy for the man.
“I’m making an offer on the Milton building, and you fucking know it,” Shane said as he stalked across the room once again. “Why can’t you ever make this easy for me?”
“Life’s not easy,” he told him, knowing his blasé attitude would only piss Shane off more. It didn’t change how he felt about the whole deal.
They were currently discussing an undeveloped opportunity zoned for either commercial or residential that had just come up. Shane was interested in buying the property, and Xander didn’t blame the guy. Shane was a housing developer, and this particular area was growing by leaps and bounds.
The problem was, there was more residential space than necessary in the area, but he couldn’t seem to convince Shane of that. As for Xander, he mainly dealt in commercial property development, and in this particular building, he already knew of a company interested in relocating. Either way, their offers would be quite competitive, but when it came down to it, Xander would walk away with the property. He always did.
“Fuck you, Boone.”
That statement, and the fierce expression on Shane’s face made Xander laugh. He pushed up from his chair – after all, his size was his best intimidating factor – buttoning his jacket as he did. Turning away from Mercedes, Xander thrust his hands into his pockets and addressed Shane directly.
Through the years, Xander and Shane had managed to meet somewhere in the middle on many deals much like this one. By middle, Xander meant more so in his favor. When there was a business opportunity that Xander wanted, he would certainly do what needed to be done to ensure he didn’t lose. Pissing off one of his closest friends in the process was usually the end result.
“I’ll back off of the land if you want it,” Xander informed him. “But I’m not letting go of the Milton building. As far as I’m concerned, this conversation was done before it ever even started. So, if you don’t mind, I’d prefer to move on to something else.”
Business was business, and on that point, he and Shane always butted heads. They probably always would. They frequently found themselves in direct competition, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Despite their business relationship, Xander knew that, by the end of the day, Shane would’ve forgiven him. Somewhat. They were also friends.
“Are you handling this for him?” Shane directed his question at Mercedes, clearly annoyed with Xander’s lack of cooperation.
“If he asks me to,” she said.
“What if I ask you to handle it for me?” Shane questioned, thrusting his hands in his pockets and mimicking Xander’s stance.
Xander tried not to laugh.
“I can only work for one of you, so you’ll have to decide which one that is. You know I won’t get in the middle of this. I don’t get paid to be a referee.”
“I’m not letting this go,” Xander told Shane firmly, ignoring Mercedes’s comment. “You can bid on the land, and I’ll back off, but I’m gonna take this building.”
“Fuck,” Shane hissed, sliding his hand through his spiky blond hair. “Why do I even bother?” Shane huffed on a frustrated sigh. Although it was phrased like one, Xander knew it wasn’t a question.
Glancing over at Mercedes, Xander nodded his head. It was his approval for her to move forward with the offer. She tipped her chin in agreement and leaned forward, her fingers flying over the keys on her keyboard.
“You two don’t waste any time, do you?” Shane asked, sounding much calmer than before.
That’s the way things worked between them. Shane would get pissed; Xander would tell him how it was going to be and then Shane would move on with his life. The guy didn’t have much stress because of it. Or maybe he didn’t have much stress because he worked a lot of it out at the club. After all, the blond-haired, blue-eyed pretty boy was one of the most sought after Doms at Kink.
“When you’re done with that, move forward with my offer on the land.”
Mercedes glanced up at Shane and smiled. “Already working on it.”
She knew them both so well.
“Y’all going to the club tonight?” Shane’s sudden change of subject released the tension in the air.
Looking over at Mercedes, Xander said, “no” at the same time she said “yes.”
He pinned her with a glare.
Shane then directed his statement to Mercedes, seemingly ignorant to the underlying tension that was lingering between them. “Want me to pick you up on my way there?”
“Yeah, that’ll be great.”
“You sure you don’t want to go?” Shane asked Xander, forcing him to look away from Mercedes.
“I’m sure. I’ve got another commitment. I’m sure you’ll have a good time without me.”
“We certainly will, won’t we, doll?” Shane said to Mercedes with that damned pretty boy smile.
She didn’t answer, but Xander didn’t need her to.
Shane didn’t waste any more time, nodding his head at Xander. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Later,” Xander called after him as Shane darted out of the office.
Xander listened to his friend’s footsteps down the hall, then across the Travertine entry way and then finally when Shane opened and closed the front door behind him.
As soon as he knew they were alone, he turned his attention back on Mercedes. “There is no way in hell you’re going to the club tonight.”