Perception (Club Destiny #6)(14)
Author: Nicole Edwards

Chapter Four

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?