“Ohhhh that’s a good idea. Aroma, bath therapy.”
“With your orgasm for dessert?”
“And yours?”
He shrugged, moving to kneel before her. “I don’t mind letting you try.” He did mind her not succeeding though. For her sake.
She looked at his cock and bit her lower lip. “I can bite you maybe,” she made a snapping noise with her teeth and it actually got him hard. She quirked a brow at his cock then looked up at him. “I got your number baby. And before you know it, I’m going to call it out and boom. It’s on.”
He smiled and pulled her to her knees, stroking her hair while she kissed his chest. “I can’t wait.”
“You are looking at a master in the making. I will command your body with one little look,” she said with a sultry boldness.
His heart sped up at those words. Deep down, he longed for that. “I’m rooting for you, angel.”
He pulled her to her feet and they got dressed. Peeking out of the room, they hurried upstairs like two kids in a race, trying not to wake Bo on the couch. When they got to the bathroom, they helped undress each other then he pulled her body to his, sliding his hand along her pussy. “I need to bring you,” he whispered, dipping his finger in her. The hunger to do something he could, hit him like crazy.
“How about I bathe. And make you.”
His cock hardened and she smiled under his mouth. “My body always has a good reaction to that idea.”
“We’ll need to make a note,” she whispered.
“Already noted.”
She pulled away and got the bath ready, holding her one forearm over her breasts as she went, almost like an old habit. One he needed to help her break.
“You make me want it more when you hide them.”
She glanced up and rolled her eyes at seeing where he stared. “Sorry.” The sweet word came with her lowered arm but Sade realized she now hid in a hunch.
He climbed into the tub and held his hand for her. She took it and he had her sit on his stomach. “Let me just look at you.”
She took in a deep breath and looked up, allowing him. But it was hard for her. He reached and stroked her precious mounds, finding them absolutely perfect. “I love your tits,” he said, eying her face for her reaction.
She lowered her head and stared in the water while holding his wrists, her grip tense. “Thank you.” But it was hard, he could tell. She was making herself. “Is that how you do it?”
She looked at him. “Do what?”
“Re-learn things. You say the right thing even when you don’t feel it?”
She bit her lip. “That obvious?”
“Very.” He lowered his hands to her waist then and held it. “We were going to share?”
He waited to see how she still felt about that. “Yep,” she waved her hands in the water, averting her gaze still.
“I want to know,” he whispered.
“What would you like to know?” she asked lightly.
“How you learned to be so brave.”
She gave a small smile. “My dad taught me. He was relentless, but it paid off, I learned how to fly again.”
“You know how to fly, angel?” She eyed him, blushing and Sade stroked over the nipple she hated. “Tell me, Mercy.”
She brought her forearm over it and her smile left. Sade felt the weight of the nightmare she held at bay and his need to destroy it hummed through him. The need to know it, name it, own it, crush it.
Maybe if he went first…
“My worst memory,” he began, stroking her thighs. “Was when I just turned four.” He stroked her cheek and she held onto his hand as the scared little girl peeked out of her eyes again. “My mother… she was so beautiful,” he continued.
“Is that her in the picture?” He nodded and brought her hand to his lips, kissing her fingers. “She was, very much so.”
“She would have adored you, Mercy,” Sade said, sure of that. “One of the things my mother tried really hard to do was protect what I saw. She was really big about protecting my eyes when it came to her job. She was a drug mule and a paid prostitute by my old man.” Sade took a deep breath and Mercy suddenly laid on his chest, holding him. He stroked her head, hoping that sharing this hell would somehow unlock something good for them. Didn’t have to be heaven, just an outer garden would do.
“On my birthday she uh. She complained to my father about how the men were touching her in front of me and could he please talk to them. He didn’t like her tone, knocked her around as usual. Called her ungrateful and other names. Then…” Sade paused a moment. “Then he said he’d show her a bad example. Two men came a little later and my father made me watch while… they raped my mother. But she screamed and fought and cursed the entire time. I tried to close my eyes and he’d shake my head and yell for me to look. “Look what happens when your mother talks back to me. Look what she brings!
“Then one of the men screamed in pain. My mother had bit him.”
Mercy bolted up, staring at him with wide eyes, mouth open.
“And she had him good, she was so angry, she wouldn’t’ let go of his dick no matter how much they beat her. I screamed as loud as I could when my dad picked up a lamp and hit her with it. She fell on the floor and didn’t move. I wanted to cover my eyes but I needed to see my mom, I had to watch out for her, so I couldn’t stop looking. And my father went out and came back in with something in his hands.” Sade’s voice shook and he wiped his mouth, fighting to keep control. “You want to bite?” The words broke on a gasp. “I’ll teach you to bite. And he… he started pulling her teeth out… with fucking pliers!” Mercy latched back onto him, sobbing and hugging him. Sade held her hard to his body, rocking with her, unable to stop the words now. “She screamed. She screamed and screamed until her voice was gone. So I screamed for her. It was my birthday and I was four, I had my Superman cape on still. And I used my biggest voice and I screamed, I screamed with all my powers for her.
“And he finally left. She crawled to me and there was… so much blood all over her fucking mouth but she covered it with her hand, to hide it. She hid the sight from me, protecting my eyes. “Shhhh, shhhh, she fucking said,” he strained, “Mommy’s okay, mommy’s ok. But she was screaming the words, she wasn’t fucking okay,” he gasped. “She held me and rocked me while screaming mommy’s ok.”
Mercy sobbed uncontrollably, strangling his neck and Sade held her back just as tight.
“I’m sorry,” she cried, her voice hoarse and bitter. “I’m so sorry, you were just a baby! You were just a baby!” she cried. “And your mother was so good! She was so good!”
He gasped and kissed her neck, pressing his face into her warmth into that piece of heaven he’d somehow ended up with. Just having her with him in that moment ripped him open and his own bitter sob wrenched out of him as he continued to rock her.
After a little while Mercy pushed off of him suddenly. “I’m going to tell you what happened!” she gasped.
Sade shook his head, “you don’t have to angel.”
She nodded roughly. “I am,” she demanded in an angry sob. “I’m not going to let it push me around anymore, I want to tell you and I want you here for me,” she grit, holding his hands to her chest. “You said I can confess to you and I need to confess,” she strained bitterly, tears pouring.
Sade pulled her to his shoulder, holding her head, stroking it. “Okay angel. Let it out. Let it go, I’m right here, you’re safe.”
A sob tore from her and she pulled away, looking at him. It was like his own confession brought her to the edge and she wasn’t going to back down now. But she had to hurry and jump or she’d never try again. But fuck he was suddenly not sure he could handle her pain. His own was one thing, hers was another.
Chapter Twenty Four
Mercy wiped her eyes with the heels of her hands and sniffled. “I never confessed this yet,” she whispered. “I tried. I knew I should for so long and I kept thinking I could just…” she shook
her head and her face crimped, making Sade lean forward and kiss her, hold her.
“Shhhhh, angel, I’m here. Right here.”
She nodded. “Okay. So… I was nine years old. I’m going to say this fast,” she wailed. “I can’t go slow, okay?”
“Yes baby, run through it, I’m right here.”
“So I was nine.” The words gushed loud with the force of her trauma, making Sade nearly panic. “I was at a bad, bad, place. A place with other kids, a lot of them,” she whispered, as though not wanting to speak the evil too loud. Sade let her hold his hands and she gripped them so tight, they shook. “There were bad men there. They took me to a room,” she whispered, her eyes wide, staring before her.
“Look at me Mercy,” Sade whispered. “Don’t go back there. Stay with me. Tell me.”
Her eyes were huge and filled with terror, Sade was ready to fucking stop her. “There was a dog,” she whispered. “They made me… do things with it.” Her brows furrowed and silent sobs found their way out as her eyes filled with tears. “They made it do things to me,” she whispered hoarsely. “The dog was so scary,” she gasped. “I tried not to cry I tried, and they kept hitting the dog and it bit me!” She flew up out of the water with the screamed words, her eyes clenched shut. Sade stood with her and grabbed hold of her. “It bit me!” she screamed, shaking.
“Mercy!” Sade yelled, shaking her.
She snapped wide terrified eyes to him, sobbing uncontrollably now. “It bit me!” she shrieked, pointing her trembling finger to her chest. “It bit me!”
Sade’s fury took him and he spun and slammed his fist into the mirror next to the tub, over and over, shattering it to pieces like his fucking heart. He turned and grabbed Mercy into his arms. “I’m sorry angel. I’m so sorry. Look at me,” he put her before him. “Look at me baby,” he gasped, shaking her a little so she’d open her eyes.
When she gazed at him, his own tears fell. “We’re pretty fucked up, angel. So fucking broken, and shattered.” He pulled her tight to him again. “I need you. Broken or not, shattered or not, my heart… is yours.”
He held her while she cried it out. Worried about glass in the tub, he helped her out and resumed holding her close, shhhhing her. When she seemed done, he wiped his eyes on his shoulder and set her before him. “Hey. You want to hear something funny?” He swiped her tears with his thumbs, and stroked her head. “When I was four, I had this jar that I saved money in. Do you want to know what I was saving for?”
She looked at him and gave a pitiful nod.
“A stairway to heaven. For my mom. Like the song?” He tried to smile but couldn’t’ manage it. “She loved it and I wanted to buy it for her.” A suffocating pain hit Sade and he grabbed Mercy to hang on to. “I fucking miss her!” he cried with the deep ache.
“I miss my dad! I miss him so bad too.”
Sade nearly gushed the truth to her. He’s alive baby! He’s fucking alive! He wanted so much to make something right in her life. But what if he fucking died again? He clenched his eyes tight and held it in.
Mercy suddenly pushed out of his embrace and paced. A bone deep fatigue hit Sade and he slowly made his way to the floor and laid on the cool tile.
“Oh my God,” she gasped, still pacing. “I feel better!” She eyed him in amazement. “Do you? Do you feel a weight lifted? I feel it, I feel… fucking lighter!”
“So good angel,” he mumbled.
“I have an idea,” she hurried and held her hand down to him.
He regarded it. “Requires getting up?”
“Yes,” she said, serious. “Any time I had an epic break down with my dad, he’d always do this.”
Sade couldn’t help but smile. “We both had fucking epic shit storms just now.” She nodded with a little smile and he reached for her hand and let her pull him to sitting. He made his way up and moaned. “Do we do this naked?” He was ready to streak in a church for her at this point because he did feel better he realized.
“No,” she giggled, and sniffled. “Oh! Do we have music?”
“Music? I have my phone,” he said. “But I wouldn’t want to turn it on. To be safe.”
She chewed her lip.
“I have an old record player downstairs with a collection of albums.”
Her eyes widened with a smile then got serious. “What about Bo?”
Sade thought about it. “He can go in my bedroom?”
She was all smiles again and nodded. “Yes, let’s do this!”
She turned for her clothes and Sade eyed her. “And what are we doing?”
“You’ll see! Something to fill!”
Sade got dressed and grinned at her. “Something to fill, huh? Guessing not your pussy.”
She grinned and stumbled into her jeans then hugged him while he was pulling up his. “We’re like this now,” she said, holding up two crossed fingers in his face.
He leaned and bit them then kissed her when she yanked them out of reach. “Two twisted up people? Yes, we are.”
She laughed. “No, we’re tight.”
“You’re tight. And I didn’t eat your pussy like I fucking wanted.”
She bit her lip with a smile. “I promise to still make you do that. But this first.”
“Okay, this first, then that.”
“Deal.”
They went downstairs and Sade carried Bo into the bed, despite his protests that he could walk. Sade really didn’t want to take the time to walk him. He was too eager to see what his sweet Mercy had in mind. She was about to perform more magic for him. And he’d come to learn that when Mercy performed magic, it wasn’t tricks. It was the real thing.
Mercy sat on the floor digging through the records and albums, mumbling the names while Sade made them coffee. “I don’t know half of these,” she called. A few seconds later, he heard her gasp, “Ohhhhh my God!” He looked over as she ran to him with an album. “Do you know who this is?”
He looked at it. “The Who. I actually do know that band.”
Her eyes were wide. “Do you know what else?”
He laughed and shook his head, “Nope.” He put his palms on the counter watching her flip it over and read.
“Here it is!” She turned it and pointed. “Reign Over Me!”
“I like that song.”
“You do?”
“Okay, tell me what’s so fascinating about it.”
“When my daddy took me home with him, he said I had to take at least one artistic lesson. And so of course I took ballet!”
He smiled at that. “Of course.”
“And when I was graduating the dance academy, they had this big froo-froo event where you had to perform, and I performed to this song!”
Sade’s heart raced at that. “And now you want to perform it for me?”
Her mouth dropped with her narrowed gaze. “God no!”
“What!?” he said offended. “And why not? I’ve always wanted a girlfriend who danced ballet for me.”
She bit her lower lip and eyed him with a gorgeous fucking smile. “You said girlfriend,” she whispered.
He reached and grabbed the front of her t-shirt and pulled her to him. “You like that?”
“Very much,” she said, smiling more up at him.
“I used to dance too,” he said.
Her eyes widened. “You did? What kind?”
He shrugged. “Kinda like… dirty dancing.”
Heat flashed in her eyes with her raised brows. “I’ll make a deal with you,” she said.
“Mmm, my fucking cock is eager to hear it.”
She gasped happily and put her hand on it. “It likes to dance?”
“It likes the idea of you dancing.”
“I think we’re onto something Mr. Ashcroft.”
He laughed at that. “Mr. Ashcroft?”
“Sounds so hot, doesn’t it?” She pushed off of him and started twirling her hips and arms above her head in a seductive motion that really got him hard. She eyed him over her shoulder now.
“Would Mr. Ashcroft like to see me perform… naked?”
“Fuck yes,” he whispered.
“Maybe I could…” she stroked her hands over her ass, “make you…touch yourself while I did?”
Anything with the word make seemed to result in a hard on for his body. He nodded eagerly with a heated, “Yes,” while devouring the twirl of her tight ass.
She suddenly spun and clapped like a little girl. “I’ll need room,” she whispered before running off to move furniture.
Sade could never get enough of her night and day, hot and cold, sexy and innocent, and how perfect she managed both. He hurried to help, wishing Bo was upstairs now. He could fucking tie his door shut, forcing him to have to knock to get out. He wanted to see her dance naked so bad. Near naked would be just as good since she was still shy. T-shirt and panties would do it for him, he loved the fuck out of her cute, tight ass.
When everything was cleared out of the way, Sade found a bungee cord in the kitchen and attached it to the bedroom door knob.
“What are you doing!” she whispered, laughter in her voice.
“Making it so you don’t have to worry about company.”
“Or so that you don’t have to worry?”
“Yeah, that too,” he angled a look at her with a grin at hearing how she liked that.
“I like that you’re possessive,” she announced in quiet secrecy.
He turned and pulled her against him, grabbing her ass. “You have no idea. Will you dance in your panties for me? You get to keep your shirt on,” he added nicely.
She grinned. “How merciful.”
“I learned from the master.” His hands were on the front of her pants.
“I haven’t danced in years,” she whispered shrilly.
“No backing out,” he ordered.
She worked her hips and he helped get her pants off. He went sit on the couch and put an arm over the top, staring at how fucking adorable she looked in her red t-shirt and white brief panties.
She made her way to the record player and began stretching, giving him various angles of her tight ass. Then she put her back to him, spread her legs apart and bent over, palms to the floor. “Ffffuuuuck, yes,” he said, staring at the perfect outline of her pussy lips in the white cotton. It screamed for his tongue and finger. He allowed himself to imagine his cock in her that way, holding her hips and sliding slowly in and out. The fantasy had him so fucking hot. Then she looked around her leg with a smile and set off those fireworks in his heart.