by Ravenna Tate
“Oh, fuck! Baby, you are so goddamn tight in there!”
She didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. All she could do was let it happen. He thrust slowly at first, but it wouldn’t have mattered if he’d pounded into her. She wanted it rough and hard. Her pussy continued contracting in intense spasms that spread out to her entire body. She felt nothing but the most exquisite pleasure as he increased his speed.
“Jesus Christ, Lynda. This is fucking mind-blowing. Please tell me you’re enjoying this.”
“Oh God, yes!”
He grasped her left breast with one hand and hung onto her hip with the other, pushing harder now, his own groans as loud as hers. When he pulled out, she was disappointed, but not for long. She heard him take off the condom, and then he shoved his cock roughly into her pussy.
Lynda yelled in pleasure as he fucked her deep and rough. This was what she craved from this man. She lost count of the individual orgasms. They simply coalesced into an endless array of wave after wave of contractions. Her arms brushed against the leather chair, which was damp now from her sweat.
Her pussy was sore and her legs shook from balancing like this, but Lynda didn’t want him to stop. It was so raw, but also the most erotic sex she’d ever had. She’d give this man anything he wanted for the rest of her life.
When he came, he stayed inside for long, luscious moments, thrusting slowly to squeeze out every drop. He switched off the vibrator and moved her so he could sit in the chair, and then he shocked the hell out of her by cradling her in his arms.
Their bodies were damp and both were still breathing heavily. Lynda closed her eyes and snuggled closer, drinking in everything about Merrick. His warmth, that hard body, and the musky scent of him.
She wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that because she kept drifting off to sleep. When they finally stood, she had to pee, and started to leave the room.
“Are you coming back here afterward?”
She turned and stared at him, certain she’d misunderstood. “Do you want me to?”
“Yes.”
Lynda nodded, too surprised to do anything else. She watched him walk into his bathroom and didn’t leave the room until she heard the tub emptying. She hurried to her room, took care of her needs, and then grabbed another robe to put on before returning to Merrick’s room.
He chuckled softly when he saw her in a robe again. “I’ll hide all your damn clothes and make you walk around here naked for a week straight, if that’s what it takes to convince you.”
She shrugged off the robe and tossed it onto a chair. “Be patient with me. This is new.”
“It shouldn’t be. Didn’t you have staff growing up?”
“Yes, but I didn’t walk around naked in front of them.”
He pulled back the covers on his bed and crawled under them, then patted the mattress. “Sleep with me.”
She didn’t need to be asked twice. Lynda climbed under the covers next to him, and he wrapped his arms around her. It felt so damn nice to be here, instead of sleeping alone. What had changed his mind?
So much had happened in the past day and a half that her head was spinning. She felt as if weeks had passed since she’d walked down the aisle on her father’s arm, as opposed to less than forty-eight hours.
Her family’s company had belonged to her for less than a day, and now it belonged to this man breathing softly next to her. This man who was her legal husband. This man who made love to her like no one ever had.
Lynda corrected her thoughts. Merrick had fucked her, not made love to her. There was no love involved here. Only one man had ever made love to her, and that was Rey. But now, looking back, Lynda had to question whether love was ever part of that relationship at all. He’d lied about everything else, so he’d probably lied about that, too.
Merrick’s breathing changed, leading her to realize he was already asleep. She should be, too, considering what they’d just done together. Everything ached, but was a sweet pain that brought delicious memories with it. As soon as the thoughts took shape, her body responded and Lynda’s mind finally quieted.
She didn’t want to think about Rey, or anyone else from her past. She only wanted to move forward from here, and sleep in her husband’s arms.
****
Merrick was up before the sun rose, as usual, but declined to work out after the events of last night. He watched Lynda sleeping next to him, resisting the urge to fuck her again. If he did, he’d never make it into the office today, and unfortunately he had to go.
He leaned over and kissed her hair, then took a quick shower so he didn’t linger in there and change his mind about staying in bed with his wife all day. She still wasn’t awake when he was dressed and ready to leave.
He was about to ask Chloe to let her know he was at the office, when he remembered how she’d come in search of him last night. He didn’t want her waking up and not knowing where he was again.
She’d gone out of her way to find him, and then had forgiven him for leaving her waiting in his bathroom like that. The least he could do was not repeat the behavior, so he left her a note, thanking her for last night, and assuring her he’d be home in time for dinner. Then he instructed Chloe to check on her and make sure she had everything she needed during the day, and that she knew how to reach him if necessary.
He was so absorbed in work all morning that it was noon before he was able to check his email and voice mail. Reporters had been calling all morning. Merrick deleted all the messages. That’s what he paid a PR staff to do.
He also found dozens of emails from acquaintances, asking why none of them had known he was getting married. Merrick put them in a folder to answer later. He didn’t have time right now.
Lynda hadn’t called, but he wasn’t disturbed by that. He hadn’t expected her to. His staff would take care of her. All morning his mind had played back memories from last night, and Merrick had to push them away each time, only because he had work that couldn’t wait. But now, as he ate his lunch at his desk, he allowed them to fill his consciousness.
His wife was the most incredible lover he’d ever had. No doubt about it. And he had the feeling he’d only scratched the surface of her passion and adventurous spirit. Merrick’s cock twitched as he recalled fucking her from behind, her ass nice and pink from the spanking he delivered beforehand.
He would love to repeat that, only this time he’d use a paddle on her and make those perfect round cheeks puffy and red. He wanted tears from his beautiful wife while he paddled her. He wanted to push her as far as she could go, and then some.
The only thing he hadn’t yet asked her to do was give him a blowjob. After what she’d told him about the teens at the party, he wanted to first make sure she’d be okay with it. He didn’t want to ask her to do something that might cause her further trauma. She’d been with the man she said had betrayed her for a long time, so it’s possible she had given him blowjobs, but until Merrick found out for certain, he’d have to live without them.
Merrick was both surprised and delighted that Lynda had accepted his lovemaking so quickly, and that she enjoyed it so much. He’d envisioned this marriage as a cold, distant, and uncomfortable period during which they might learn to tolerate each other’s presence in time. He couldn’t have asked for anything better from this situation, and he hoped she was pleased with how it had turned out as well.
His thoughts turned toward what he’d learned the prior afternoon, and just as he was about to call Alan and ask if he’d made any progress, an email from him came through. Merrick opened it immediately.
No luck on the teenage party issue yet, but I have complete info on the boyfriend of seven years. Call when you can. Would rather not put this in writing.
Fuck. That didn’t sound good at all, but at least it confirmed his suspicion that there was more to the story than she’d told him. Merrick’s appetite was gone now so he pushed aside the sandwich and called Alan.
Chapter Thirteen
Lyn
da’s phone had been ringing all morning with calls from reporters. She had no clue how they’d found her number, but Merrick had instructed her not to answer any of the questions, or to take the calls at all. He had a PR staff working on issuing statements.
Other than the annoyance of those phone calls, she had to admit it was very comfortable in Merrick’s apartment. Correction— it’s your apartment now, too. All she had to do was push the button on the intercom and someone answered, and then they brought her whatever she wanted. Her day had started out fantastic when she found the note from Merrick. That was so unexpected, she still hadn’t stopped smiling.
Once she silenced her phone, she accomplished a ton of work. Every hour or so she’d check the phone to make sure Merrick hadn’t called. When she mentioned the calls to Chloe, she was told not to worry about missing a call from Merrick. If he needed to reach her, he’d call one of the staff. After learning that, Lynda put her phone across the room where she couldn’t see it and worked through lunch, which Chloe brought to her.
It was two in the afternoon when she finally stopped work and decided to answer emails from her friends. Everyone wanted to know how the wedding had gone, even the ones whom André the tyrant had not allowed to be in it. Lynda was mollified in being able to tell them how Merrick had told off André for what he’d done, and was grateful each of her friends had understood and weren’t upset with her.
As for answering the question of why she’d married Merrick, Lynda had a carefully worded answer that someone from his PR team had emailed her early this morning. Lynda hated having to feed any of her friends a line, but at the same time she understood that telling them anything other than what Merrick was saying to his own friends and business associates would have far reaching implications if it reached the wrong person. Business was business, after all, and the two had to present a unified front.
Besides, she could hardly tell any of her friends the real truth. It was too humiliating and twisted. The irony of that wasn’t lost on her. She’d entered into what felt like an unholy alliance, all for the sake of a company she’d never wanted to own in the first place, and then had to lie to her closest friends about the reason she’d married a man she barely knew. At the same time, she was telling those lies to side with her new husband, who was likely lying to his friends, too.
Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this picture?
Lynda sighed. Life was full of complications. Some of them were simply easier to deal with than others.
Right. And the sex isn’t bad either.
She refused to feel guilty over that. It was about time she was able to enjoy sex again. Or have any at all, for that matter, without horrible memories surfacing to ruin it for her. She really should tell Merrick the entire truth. He likely knew therapists who could help her. But whenever she pictured having to relive what her uncles had done to her, she broke out in a cold sweat. It was easier to let that stay buried.
As for Rey, she couldn’t tell him that for obvious reasons. Not only had she lied about both incidents, but what Rey had done might still be out there. Now that she was in the public eye, would the videos surface? Had he truly destroyed them all? And if he hadn’t, what would Merrick say if Rey decided to do something with them now?
Lynda’s good mood evaporated as the reality of that situation settled over her. She tried to distract herself by clicking around online for the latest news, and quickly wished she hadn’t. She wanted to punch something when she realized her marriage was the subject of every leading headline.
Holy shit. It was like a bad train wreck. She should look away, but she didn’t. She read every story. Granted, the legit news sources weren’t making stuff up as much as they were merely speculating based on what little they knew so far, but the rag mags had definitely formed their own versions of the truth.
Lynda read theories about herself from the truly bizarre, to the one that stated her father had paid Merrick a seven figure sum to marry his daughter because of secrets in her past he couldn’t let get out. That one was closer to the truth than they realized, although her father didn’t know what Rey had done.
She knew she should ignore the stories. It wasn’t the first time someone in her family had been dragged through the press, after all. Her father routinely was, but he let it roll off his back. She might never get used to doing that.
Merrick would read this stuff, too. She wondered how he handled it. The same stories she read about herself had plenty to say about her husband, too. He had married her because of her trust fun, because she was pregnant, or because she had blackmailed him into it.
There was even one that claimed they had proof she and Merrick had been secretly seeing each other since she was a minor, and he had married her so that “proof” would never be revealed. The fact that one made no sense at all was likely the reason most people would believe it.
Lynda finally closed her browser and walked out onto the balcony. She needed fresh air and the perspective looking out over the city could give her. So many people out there, all doing their own thing and simply trying to survive. That’s exactly what she was doing. Couldn’t the reporters understand that? She had married Merrick to protect her family’s business. Even if her father and uncles didn’t deserve such loyalty from her, they were the only family she had.
Merrick had married her for no other reason than to get his hands on a company that would make him a shitload of money one day. And that was that. They were merely two people who had known each other for two days now, legally joined, trying to make the best of it.
Why should total strangers give a shit about that? Why was it big news to the whole fucking world? The entire media storm surrounding her marriage was so damn silly. That’s why she’d shied away from the press most of her life. The spectacle of it made her crazy.
Lynda went back inside and decided to get in a workout and another quick shower before Merrick got home. Although, her workout would be a light one because her body was very sore from last night. But it was a sweet pain because it brought with it delicious memories that aroused her like nothing else. At least she and Merrick were compatible in bed. If she had nothing else to count on in this marriage, she had that.
****
Merrick listened as Alan told him about a man named Rey Santos, and the man’s obsession with filming himself having sex with women. Rey was thirty years old, worked in some shipping company Merrick had never heard of, at a desk job that likely gave him lots of free time to spend on the Internet. He had graduated from Columbia the same year Lynda had, with a degree in American Studies.
Six months ago, he’d moved back in with his mother who needed full time care at home, but Rey wasn’t caring for her. Home health nurses and aides were doing that, and Medicare was paying for most of it. The rest of the money was coming out of her savings.
Alan said Rey had sold his condo and two of his three cars to pay off partial loans he’d racked up over the past couple of years, before moving back in with his mother. He was still heavily in debt, and as far as Alan could tell, it wasn’t from drugs or gambling. He simply spent more than he earned, and kept on spending it. Merrick suspected the loser was waiting for his mother to die so he could have her house.
This was the man Lynda had been with for seven years? Had he only been with her for the money? Did she even realize that?
More disturbing were the videos Alan had found on amateur porn sites, featuring Rey and multiple different women. None of them were Lynda, thank God. Merrick was now convinced the real reason Lynda had been so traumatized over Rey was because she’d found out he had filmed them.
He had betrayed her all right, and that was the way in which he’d done so. He’d filmed them having sex, and she must have found out. Or had she willingly let him do it and not known what he planned to do with the videos? If that was the case, she must have found something online, or discovered his plan another way.
Alan said all the uploads had been done during the past two years, bu
t that didn’t mean the asshole might not have a few saved from when he’d been with Lynda. Now that Merrick and his new bride were in every print and online paper across the country, Rey, who needed money, might come sniffing around to propose a little blackmail.
Alan gave Merrick Rey’s birthdate, his social, bank account numbers, and every known address for the past ten years. One of those was the apartment he’d shared with Lynda for five years, close to the university campus.
Merrick sat back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair. What the fuck should he do? While he could understand Lynda not wanting to tell him about this, what he failed to understand was how she couldn’t see the importance of him knowing. Surely she had already figured out those videos, if Rey had them saved, might now surface. And if they did, it wouldn’t only be her reputation on the line.
“What do you want to do about this asswipe?” asked Alan.
Merrick’s first instinct was to take him out, like he’d had done to William Shaumberg and those two henchmen of his who had killed Theresa. But he didn’t want Rey’s mother in the crossfire. Having a two-bit loser like Rey Santos wacked was one thing. No one would give a shit. But if his bedridden mother, who was dying of congestive heart failure and kidney failure got killed, too, the world would go insane at the indecency of it.
“I need his computer, and any other storage device or gadget where those videos might be saved.”
“Consider it done. You want to go through them yourself, or should I have one of my people do it?”
“No. I need to do this. And, Alan, don’t hurt his mother.”
“You got it, Merrick.”
Once the call was finished, Merrick walked to the windows and looked out over the city. What was it she’d said about Rey? “Let’s just say I found out our sex life was no longer private, and leave it at that.” Yeah. That was it. Not exactly a lie, but not the whole truth, either.
He had no choice but to confront her. He had to know the rest of the story. This was too important. Rey didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to read the stories in the papers today and realize he was sitting on a potential gold mine. Because Merrick didn’t believe for one second the man no longer had videos of him and Lynda doing the nasty.
