Perception (Club Destiny #6)(68)
Author: Nicole Edwards

Mug.

Not cup.

He’d transferred her coffee from a cup to a mug, and he was sending her on her way.

“Be careful. Call me later.”

Mercedes stopped. She stared up at Xander. “You’re sending me on my way, just like that?”

“Just like what?” he laughed. “You’ve got a job to do, M. I wouldn’t dream of getting in the way of that.”

Yes, she did have a job to do. But for some reason, she’d expected him to be… demanding or something. Insisting that she stay and do something. Hell, she didn’t know.

He stepped close, placing his hands on her hips as he pulled her against him. “Trust me, if I could keep you tied to my bed, you’d be there right now. And I’d be buried so deep inside of you, you’d never be able to let me go.”

Mercedes’s sucked in air. When he talked to her like that… It did strange things to her.

“Well,” she said on a breath. “I better go.”

“Yes, you better.” Xander pressed his lips to hers. He didn’t linger, didn’t tease. Just quick and sweet. “By the way, it’s Thursday,” he told her as though she didn’t already know what day it was.

“And?”

“And I’m going to X-hale tonight.”

He looked disappointed, but Mercedes knew he enjoyed going to the cigar bar. It was one of the highlights of his month and had been for years. So much so that he’d acquired, redesigned and renamed one of his own a few years back – What had previously been known as Smoke became a much more refined establishment appropriately named X-hale. According to Shane, the name had been Xander’s ego hard at work.

“Ok.” At the moment, Mercedes didn’t have any plans for the night, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. If she did, she feared he might just change his plans for her. And that was the last thing she wanted. “I’ll call you later to find out what time you’ll be home.”

Xander nodded, but he didn’t say anything.

It was Mercedes’s turn to assure him, even though every second that passed made her that much later. “I’ll be here tonight. Just like I promised.”

Xander’s eyes softened, and she realized that was exactly what he’d been worried about.

Breaking the eye contact, she held up her coffee mug in salute. “Thanks for this. I’ve gotta go, but I promise, I’ll call you later.”

“I’m holding you to that.”

Of course he was.

Several minutes later, Mercedes was walking through the parking garage. On the way down from Xander’s condo, she had called her client, informing her that she was a few minutes behind. She didn’t make a habit of running late for anything and she still wasn’t sure how she’d managed to be so careless that morning.

Because you slept like the dead after Xander rocked your world.

Ok, so there was that.

Once inside her Lexus SUV, Mercedes placed her coffee in the cup holder, staring down at it for a moment. Xander had prepared that for her. Just like…

No way. Do not go there.

It was a simple task, one anyone would’ve done. She was not going to read any more into it. Just because they’d had phenomenal, top-of-the-head-exploding sex last night did not mean they were a couple.

This was still a deal. One that would only last a few more days.

Mercedes’s phone rang. Thank God.

Hitting the button on the steering wheel to activate the Bluetooth, she greeted the caller. The number that came up on the navigation screen was unfamiliar.

“Mercedes?”

“This is she,” she told the female caller.

“This is Samantha McCoy.”

“Hello, Samantha,” she answered in return, trying to hide the confusion in her voice.

Oh, God.

If Sam were calling to discuss her desire to learn about submissives, she just might run her car into a wall.

“Please call me Sam. I just wanted to call to see if you had plans tonight.”

Tonight? Right. The boys – including Logan – would all be at the cigar bar. “I, uh –”

Sam interrupted. “Some of us are going to go out to a… you know… a toy shop.” Sam paused, and Mercedes smiled. The woman was nervous.

She didn’t encourage Sam to continue because she had no idea what the woman was requesting.

“We wanted to see if you wanted to go with us.”

Wow. That was a surprise.

“An invitation to a sex shop?” Mercedes said with a laugh. “I have to admit, I don’t get those types of invitations much. At least not from a woman.”

Sam laughed, some of her anxiety seeming to fade away. “Yeah, well, me either. But, we figured since the boys get their night out, we’d do something that would… benefit them too.”