Until Merri: Happily Ever Alpha World Read online

  Kiss her, his inner voice drawled. What’s the matter with you? Kiss her, goddammit.

  His eyes caught her wetting her lips. He started to lower his head. Nirvana was within reach. Their lips almost touched until the doorbell rang and startled them into jumping with surprise.

  “What the hell?” he grumbled. “Are you expecting someone?”

  “Oh, uh,” she stammered as her face turned red. “About that.”

  The bell rang again. Whoever it was had an impatient streak.

  She scurried off to answer the door, turning at the last second to look at him. The mischief in her expression did the usual to his dick.

  Opening the door, he did a double take when his mother came through it and greeted Merri with warmth.

  “Merri. Don’t you look wonderful? Good to see you, hon.”

  “Grace, come in.”

  His mouth cranked open as his kinda maybe sorta girlfriend kissed his mother hello.

  “Mom?”

  “Oh, Tom. Good. You’re here.” She checked her watch. “I don’t have a lot of time. I’m on my way to church for the potluck dinner committee meeting. Merri said you wanted to talk to me?”

  His eyes shot to Merri. She was standing next to but behind his mom. Her expression suggested she was enjoying his shock. When she mimicked a cat licking its paws and ears, he had no choice but to laugh and go with the flow.

  Life with this woman was never going to be dull.

  “I have to check on the lasagna. Why don’t you two go into the den? Tom lit the wood stove.”

  “Lovely,” his mom chirped in her good-natured way. “I enjoy a good fire. Takes the chill out of a Tennessee evening.”

  Knowing her way around, his mom headed off in the direction of the den as Merri scurried to the kitchen. Her smirky look of triumph also triggered a reaction from his dick. He swung close behind her as she went to check on the oven and boldly grabbed her ass.

  “Know what else would take the chill out of a Tennessee evening?” he growled when she yelped with surprise. “Putting you over my knee and teaching you a lesson.”

  She whirled around and deftly turned the tables, pushing him against the counter and stepping into his personal space.

  “Pfft. Why? Because I called your mom? It was your idea, remember? And as for the spanking threat, don’t make promises you aren’t prepared to keep.”

  She pushed off his body and shooed him into the den. He smiled at his mom. She was standing in front of the wood stove as if this was Anchorage and it was twenty below zero.

  As he walked toward her, all he could think about was what Merri just said. What did she mean? Was spanking something she had experience with? Suddenly, the desire to kill Bill Shumpler invaded his senses. Goddammit! Nobody got to enjoy the sweet cheeks of his sweet cheeks except him.

  She dashed around the kitchen. Her lasagna was bubbling nicely, and the green salad she’d made earlier was ready to go. All she had to do was manage the garlic bread, and dinner would be complete.

  “No time like the present,” she muttered. Straightening her shoulders, she went to join Tom and his mother. If he was serious about them dating, for real, they had to be up front with their families.

  Grace Franklin was yelping when Merri made it into the den. Tom was standing over her while she sat on the sofa. His expression was anxious, but when he looked up at her as she walked toward him, all Merri saw was joy. He held out his hand, and she quickly reached to take it.

  “You two are dating?” Grace shrieked. She jumped to her feet and hugged Tom. “That’s fantastic and about time, too.”

  Merri was flustered when Grace hugged her too.

  “I was just saying to your dad that everyone thinks you two are meant for each other. This is fantastic. And you’re coming to the banquet?” she asked with hopeful eyes and happiness in her voice. “This is better than Disney with a free pass!”

  It felt strange to be standing there holding Tom’s hand as they came out as a couple to his mom especially since they hadn’t even kissed yet. A peck hello and a couple of near misses didn’t count.

  The intense perusal of Grace Franklin as she studied Merri made her squirm. She was more than a bit taken aback when Tom’s mother sternly admonished them. “Don’t mess this up.”

  “We know what we’re doing, Mom. Don’t worry. Merri and I understand what’s at stake.” He pulled their entwined fingers up and kissed her knuckles.

  The stupidest, most embarrassing giggle shot out of her mouth. She wanted to die of embarrassment.

  “Thank you for not showing up at the Roosevelt without warning us in advance.”

  She jolted and stammered her two cents, “We just decided. I mean, we talked about it, and Tom thought we should give it a shot and …”

  “Is he behaving, my dear? It’s okay. You can tell me.”

  “Ma, come on,” Tom grumbled. “I’m thirty-six, not five.”

  Another giggle, this one laced with an amused snort, made Merri cover her mouth.

  “Merri’s a nice girl, son. Mind your manners, or Daddy will step in.”

  “Oh my god. Mom. Listen to yourself and then think about it. You know Merri. Does she strike you as someone who’d put up with any shit?”

  Grace gave her son a serious dose of eye shade. “I hope that’s your way of saying there’s no hanky-panky going on.”

  “Okay. That’s it. Thanks for coming by, Mom. Say good-bye, and I’ll walk you to the door.”

  Merri found herself crushed in a fierce, motherly embrace. Grace whispered, “Nicely done, Merri. Now you take good care of my boy, ya hear?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” she murmured. “Leave it to me.”

  Tom stood aside and watched. He rolled his eyes before escorting Grace from the den.

  Things were turning out splendidly, only she never got the chance to ask about the dress code for the banquet. In the end, she figured there wasn’t much to worry about. Grace would follow up with a phone call tomorrow, and she’d ask then.

  Without putting her nose on the window like an excited puppy, she cautiously checked out the goodbye taking place in the driveway. Grace had Tom in a mom hug. He was smiling, and that was all Merri cared about.

  The aroma of the lasagna wafted on the air. She glanced at the wall clock. Time to put the garlic bread in the oven.

  When Tom came back, he assumed a casual pose. Leaning against the doorjamb, he grinned and tsk’ed. She grinned right back.

  “So is this what I should expect, sweet cheeks? You calling my mother?”

  “Admit it.” She chortled. “You’d have my folks on the horn in two seconds if this shoe was on my foot.”

  “Yeah, well,” he said with a cocky smirk, “you have a point. I talked to your dad a few weeks ago about business. He’s going to use Enigma for his work. Brad’s all but salivating about loading him up with listening devices even though that’s not what he’s asking for. If you were acting up, I’d probably narc on you to your dad in a hot second. He’s a cool dude.”

  Her system lit up like, well, she didn’t know what. Maybe the Empire State Building on New Year’s Eve. Her dad genuinely liked Tom and thought the ex-wife thing was a raw deal even though he only said so to her once. At the time Agie was busy taking Laurel’s side, so the whole thing was uncomfortable. Same goes for the fact that their parents knew each other. Small-town life was like that.

  “This is weird,” she said with exaggerated meaning. “Everyone in our lives already knows each other and will have an opinion about us as a couple. I mean, shit, even Cyndi and Brad have met more than a few times, and she doesn’t even live here anymore.”

  “It’s unusual, I’ll give you that.” He paused, and then asked, “Are you having second thoughts?”

  “No. No.” She shook her head. “I’m just not sure what to do. It’s like nothing’s changed, but everything has changed.”

  It was natural that he’d come and hug her. She wrapped her arms around his middle and en
joyed being close to him without pretending she wasn’t affected.

  The masculine rumble in his voice felt reassuring. “I’m just so glad we can be honest. Let’s take our time with everything else.”

  She leaned back to look at his face. He feathered some of her hair off her forehead.

  “The problem,” he told her with a nod, “is that we spend so much time together already. No one is more surprised than I am to admit having some powerful romantic ideas where you are concerned. I want everything to be special, but how can I make that happen when we haven’t had our first date? Didn’t expect the wait to be such a pisser.”

  “So, what then? We carry on as we normally would and wait for the banquet?”

  He chuckled and hugged her, and because Merri was plastered against him from mid-chest down, she felt every wonderful shimmy and shake of his body.

  “They say anticipation is the best aphrodisiac,” he told her with a grin and wicked delight shining in his eyes.

  This plan had appeal, making her contemplate the pros and cons. The only real drawback was waiting for the kissing. You’d think a decade of fantasies would be enough to hold her over, but dammit, the tingling lips were unbelievably distracting.

  He eventually released her and suggested she hurry dinner along. She found his manner somewhat short and was about to quiz him about the change until her eyes drifted south and she was confronted with a very prominent, very obvious bulge in his jeans.

  She chomped on her lip so hard, she said, “Oh.” Her eyes sought his. He was looking directly at her and hadn’t missed a thing.

  “Any questions, sweet cheeks?”

  Shaking her head, she pushed her hair out of the way and got dinner on the table in a jiffy.

  He could barely move by the time they finished eating. Merri was a fantastic cook due to the strong influences of her mom and grandmother. The lasagna was better than anything from a fancy Italian restaurant advertising dishes straight from the old country. He had two enormous helpings, destroyed most of the garlic bread, and satisfied her demand he eat something healthy with a minuscule pile of salad barely the size of his palm.

  They talked about everything. He fucking loved how quick and clever she was. And even better, she wasn’t afraid to admit what she didn’t know. He had a low tolerance for know-it-alls.

  “What’s on the agenda for tomorrow? Brad and I are working on something together that’s gonna keep me occupied until late, late afternoon. You wanna meet up for dinner? Not a date.” He sniggered with a wink. “Just a regular night of hanging out.”

  “Can’t,” she answered. “I’m taking the afternoon shift at the diner. One of the other girls has a doctor’s appointment. I’ll tell the hostess to reserve you the VIP booth if you guys wanna eat the special.”

  VIP booth! Hostess! Bah! Good one. The diner where she worked had fantastic food, but it certainly wasn’t anything other than what it claimed to be—a no frills mom and pop comfort food eatery.

  “Brad’ll beg off. At the present time, he’s got exotic flowers on the brain.”

  She laughed and made a face. “Excuse me, say what? Exotic flowers? What are you talking about? Oh, wait,” Merri drawled. Her tone was incredibly funny. “Does this have anything to do with porn ’cause if it does, I don’t wanna know.”

  “Why does everyone automatically assume he’s being a dick?”

  “Well, let’s examine that question.” She chortled. “Might the answer be that it’s because we’ve all seen his dick?”

  “Ah, yes. Well, that’s kinda what I’m getting at. Who sent that dick pic out into the world for every female in a hundred-mile radius to view?”

  She gasped. “Wait! This exotic flower, is it that Kat Von D look-alike? What’s her name? Daisy? Dragonfly? Daffodil?”

  “Dahlia,” he drily smirked. “Dahlia Snow.”

  “Jesus. She’s got nutcracking skills. It’s in her vibe. Does Bradley know what he’s doing?”

  “I fucking hope so.”

  Merri made a joke that was funny and also gave him the willies.

  “She strikes me as a no fucks to be given, eat your young kind of female.”

  “I think it’s an act. You know, the tough girl thing. Women don’t exactly have an easy go of it in the tech and science world. She has to deal with nerds and not just any nerds. Deeply misogynistic nerds with dim views of women involved in science, engineering, or really any field involving technology. We used to see that shit all the time in the Army. The women were just as capable and sometimes a lot fiercer than their male counterparts, but the system was set up to shit on them. Dahlia’s okay. But she isn’t here to take on Brad’s special brand of fuck and forget, so he’s finding her disinterest a bit daunting.”

  “Hmph. Should I feel sorry for him? He tries so hard to be an asshole that it’s easy to default where he’s concerned. I feel bad. You wanna have them come over for dinner?” She got excited and grabbed his arm. “We could play Cards Against Humanity and eat fondue.”

  This woman was priceless. Cards Against Humanity. Fondue. Why not Parcheesi and pot stickers? He found the wordplay amusing.

  “Darlin’, I can’t imagine any scenario where Brad hangs out in the suburbs or where Dahlia, with her tattoos and steampunk wardrobe, is eager to get down with a card game and some melted cheese.”

  “You don’t know that,” she scoffed. “You just said Dahlia’s rough edges were probably an act. For all you know, she knits sweaters for the senior center and has an Etsy shop full of homemade baby outfits. And as for Brad in the suburbs, he needs an attitude adjustment. Maybe not scratching his balls in public and wiping his feet at the door would do him some good.”

  “Why, Millicent,” he drawled, “sounds to me as though you have Brad’s number.”

  She made the cutest face. “When an alley cat has enough, maybe he wants to be domesticated. Preferable by a lioness.”

  “I love how you put stuff.”

  “Everyone deserves to find what makes them happy. Even tough girls and undercover FBI agents.”

  He threw his head back and barked with laughter. “Are we going to be that couple who tries to fix up all their friends? And ixnay on the FBIway, kay?”

  A parade of emotions he could honestly say he’d never felt before marched through Tom’s mind. Without realizing it, he’d been sitting in the non-believers section when it came to matters of the heart. It was astonishing, at his age, to suddenly experience romantic feelings and thoughts. He used to believe that kind of shit was a bit old fashioned considering today’s world.

  Until Merri.

  Well, fuck. Color him an old-fashioned son of a bitch then.

  “Call or text tomorrow afternoon and let me know if you’ll be swinging by the diner.” She said the words, pushed hair behind an ear, and laughed. “If I know where my phone is, I’ll even unmute it.”

  “I’m gonna get you an Apple watch. Harder to leave lying around and will make it a shit ton easier to stay in touch.”

  “That’s okay.” She made a dramatic shudder. “I’m good. Don’t need all that nonsense.”

  He grumbled. “It’s not nonsense if it means I know where you are and that everything is okay.”

  My god, he thought. I sound like a possessive boyfriend.

  One of Merri’s perfectly arched eyebrows raised a fraction. He half expected her to sock him in the gut for the sexist comment.

  She didn’t.

  Instead, he watched in amazement as a smile slowly stretched across her face.

  “Wow,” she murmured.

  “What?”

  It was a testament to the underlying strength of their close relationship that she boldly met his gaze and didn’t try to water down how she felt.

  “Don’t tell this to anyone because it would ruin my ninja reputation, but I think I like your growling alpha crap. If anyone else demanded to know where I was and felt I needed looking after, they’d be on their knees massaging their balls after a good swift k
ick.”

  “You have such a charming way with words,” he playfully drawled.

  “And you, Tom Franklin, are rocking my world. In a good way.”

  He took her hand and pulled her through the house to her front door. When he grabbed his keys from the bowl on the table, a sappy thought sprang in his mind. Their keys looked good together. Seeing her enameled Disney keychain next to his Harley Davidson keychain bottle opener combo had a husband and wife vibe although why two keychains got him thinking about happily ever after was a mystery.

  “Thanks for dinner.”

  Merri grinned. “I filled the house with delicious aromas just for you.”

  “Which is why I’m going to let the fact you ambushed me with my mother go.”

  She giggled. He liked it when she giggled. “She rang the doorbell. That means it wasn’t an ambush.”

  Kissing her forehead, he squeezed her arm and opened the storm door. Stepping onto the front porch, he winked at her, and said, “In case you were wondering, it’s official.”

  “Official?”

  “Yep,” he proudly declared. “We made it through the initial twenty-four hours of coupledom. We’re golden.”

  “What the hell does that even mean?” She was laughing along and had a beautiful smile lighting up her face.

  “It means shout this shit from the rooftops. Tell everyone. You and me?” He crossed his fingers and held them up.

  He left her with that and took the sound of Merri’s happy snort of laughter as he fired up the Harley and drove away.

  Chapter Four

  “No, no, no,” Merri grumbled. “Gah!” She was frustrated, exasperated, angry, and pissed off—take your pick.

  Slumping in the driver’s seat of her piece of shit car, she rolled her head side to side on the headrest. Tension made her neck crick and crack with each movement.

  She sat up, took a deep breath, and opened negotiations in the hope that some clever bargaining with an inanimate object was going to do the trick.

  “If you start and make an effort not to stall out before we leave this parking lot, then the next time I’m in AutoZone, I will buy real Armor All and not the cheap knockoff. Oh, and I’ll say nice things about you for a whole week.”