Chapter 14 Mercer
MERCER
Summer was perched on the stone wall that threaded its way along the coastline, alone for the first time all night.
Well, if you didn’t count Felix lounging on her lap. Lucky bastard.
I’d been wanting to talk to her, but she was always around people. I didn’t want to intrude. Didn’t know how I was supposed to join her circle without feeling woefully out of place. Or draw sidelong glances from people wondering why a beta would be showing interest in an omega.
But now, with only the mayor to contend with, I strode up the dunes.
I was so used to seeing her in her simple white tee and linen apron at the patisserie, my throat went dry as I approached her.
She had left some of hair down instead of pulling it all up in her usual ponytail.
Long and swooping over her shoulders. Her little blue-and-white dress was very appropriate for the Fourth of July.
Me wondering why it looked like her tits were barely held back by the bow between them was much less appropriate.
Her entire demeanor lifted when she saw me. A flash of a smile before her eyes narrowed.
“Mercer.”
Ah, there she was. My sparring partner.
“Summer,” I grunted. God, I was shit at this. “Felix,” I greeted the mayor, too, because I had no fucking idea what I was doing.
He regarded me coolly. Chances of being alone with Summer rapidly dwindled. But then she scratched him affectionately behind his ears. “Go find Olive before the fireworks start,” she encouraged him and he loped away.
And then we were two.
“Wanna get out of here?”
I froze. Everything I didn’t even let myself hope for, and I froze .
“What about the fireworks?” I choked out.
What the fuck are you doing? You don’t give a shit about the fireworks.
Summer leaped to her feet and waved her hand like it was no big deal. “I feel like going for a walk.” She threw me a look over her shoulder. “You coming?”
Raw nerves and a mouthful of sawdust. “Yeah,” I dragged out.
We didn’t take the main path back to town. Summer detoured almost immediately, toward where the boathouses stood, weathered and bleached from years of braving the tide. It was quiet, almost eerie as the sound of the crowd faded away in the sinking dark.
“Did you have a good night?” she asked.
“Yeah. You?”
“I ate a lot. So yes.” She added one of her mischievous smiles, eyes sparkling.
Was she trying to tell me she was too full?
“Do you need to go home and lie down in your nest?” I asked cautiously.
Summer tittered. “I don’t think so.”
I shut up and kept following her.
The path was a suggestion, formed from years of footsteps on sand, gravel, and broken shells. Summer stumbled on an uneven bend, and I reached out automatically to catch her.
“Watch it.” My warning slipped out, my hands bracing her waist.
Summer wiggled that plump ass of hers against me. “God, Mercer, if you want to touch me so badly, just do it,” she teased.
“That wasn’t— I was just—”
I was sweating a fucking torrent as I released her.
“Aww, that’s a shame.”
She obliterated my hesitance. That goddamn bottom lip, the dress, her lively scent.
There was only the two of us, hidden in the sliver of moonlight.
My control shredded. I had her pinned against the clapboard wall of the nearest boathouse in seconds.
One hand braced beside her head, the other falling to her waist.
“Do you like testing me, Summer?” I breathed.
Her pink tongue wet her lips. “What do you think?”
With a low growl, I descended on her. I wasn’t gentle. Ravaging her with my kiss, rough stubble scraping on soft skin. She gave it back just as hard, fisting the collar of my shirt until it dug into my neck. Teeth against teeth before our tongues met.
The first pop of fireworks erupted in the background, showering us in flickering, multicolored light. They reflected in her glazed stare. Lips swollen and panting.
“Is this what you brought me here for?”
I needed to hear her say it.
“Yes,” she confessed. “I kept looking through the crowd trying to find you tonight.”
Fuck . I was kissing her again. Hungry, urgent. Boxing her in even further until I was smothering her high, uncontrolled moans against my lips.
Her breath quickened as I traced a meandering line up her thigh. She squirmed, trying to get me to go higher. I found her panties, already damp along the seam. My palm slid back and found only bare ass. Fucking hell. I dragged her thong down her smooth legs.
“This is mine,” I said, pocketing it.
Mock indignation flashed in her pretty dark eyes. “Stealing from me, now?”
“If you’re worried about me taking your panties, you should stop wearing them,” I reasoned.
Summer rolled her eyes. “That only benefits you .”
I roughly hiked up her skirt in my fist. “Wear nothing…and I can play with you whenever I want,” I offered instead.
A large firework illuminated her pink cheeks, flushed with excitement. “That sounds terrible,” Summer said breathlessly.
“I’ve never believed you less,” I scoffed.
My fingers glided easily through her slick heat. Jesus, she was already so wet. I teased her dripping entrance before swirling her arousal over her clit.
“Oh god,” Summer whimpered. Her legs were already beginning to give out but she wasn’t going anywhere, caught and caged against the wall. My kisses were eager and greedy. Push and pull, like combat.
I slid two fingers in deep and swore. Her pussy was already squeezing me, desperate to come.
Summer cried out as I hooked one knee over my arm, exposing her even more.
We watched my fingers disappear inside her spread legs.
The air was thick. Swimming with her omega perfume, inescapable heat, and obscene wet sounds.
“Such a needy little pussy,” I muttered. Her dress was twisted off-center, her brown nipples barely contained. “Just like the rest of you.” I freed one hard, pointed peak and closed my mouth over it.
“Shit.” Her nails dug into my shoulder. “I’m gonna—”
Summer was fucking perfect when she came. She instantly made an addict of me. I needed to keep chasing the high of the sounds she made, the look on her face, the feel of her. One orgasm was nowhere near enough.
“Oh my god, Mercer .”
I was on my knees and under her skirt. My hands roved along her bare skin, coaxing her thighs back open. I let my breath fan over her swollen clit and watched her pussy clench.
“You don’t want me to?” I asked innocently, my lips grazing the crease of her inner thigh. She jerked immediately. Sensitive. Noted.
Summer fisted my hair, irritated. “Stop teasing me.”
I indulged myself first with long licks all over. A soft whimper escaped her. She was the sweetest fucking thing I’d ever tasted. I circled her clit next before sucking on it gently. Her legs turned to jelly, her weight sinking onto my face. Oh fuck. I was a goner now.
I wanted to do this a lot. Every day. Whenever she would let me.
I was determined to live between her thighs until she tore out my hair.
She started to grind against me, chasing more.
I pushed my middle and ring fingers deep.
A little hooking motion with a flickering tongue and her breathing changed. Rapid, high, and desperate.
“Ah. There . Fuck. Don’t you dare stop.”
Summer and her cute little threats. Like there was a chance I wasn’t getting this orgasm out of her. A few more rough pumps and I felt it. Tasted it. Her high cry and the electric pull of nerve endings in my scalp.
She was leaning back against the wall breathing hard when I emerged from beneath her dress, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
I nearly choked when Summer grasped me through my pants. Goddamnit. I was so painfully hard.
Then she sank down in front of me.
“Wait, you don’t have to, not here.” Fuck, she was going to scrape up her knees.
“I know I don’t have to. I want to.” Her eyes lit up like she’d won a prize as she freed my cock.
“Don’t you think I deserve this?” she asked innocently, right before she licked up the bead of wetness her stroking fist had drawn to the tip.
Any possible retort I had short-circuited.
Her tongue began swirling around my pulsing head, and my hand slammed against the boathouse.
“Fuck,” I groaned raggedly.
I slumped with relief when she popped off.
“Were you close?” Her knowing little giggle was pure evil.
A shudder ran through me as she slicked her saliva all over me and began working me in her fist. Just as the momentum of pleasure began to take hold, she changed tack, kissing and licking along the sensitive ridge instead.
It was a game for her. Watching me. Learning me. Dragging me right up to the brink repeatedly. Whenever her mouth left my cock, I couldn’t decide whether I was grateful or frustrated. Both. Neither. The rushing river of sound in my ears grew louder and louder.
“Should I just finish myself off?” I growled.
“And take all the credit for my hard work? I don’t think so.”
I wrapped the silk of her hair around my fingers, forcing her eyes up at me. Summer’s tongue wet her lips. Wanting more.
My hand dropped to the base of my shaft. “You want my cum? Show me how much.”
Her lips had already formed an O, her tongue out. Eager and ready as I guided her head toward my cock.
“That’s it.” I was barely breathing. “How much can that pretty mouth take?”
I put a small amount of pressure on the back of her head. Her moan wrapped around my cock and sent shockwaves up my spine. A little more pressure. Her lips stretched wide and her throat relaxed.
“All the way down. Just like that.”
Summer stared directly into my fucking soul as I held her there. She didn’t flinch or gag as I fucked her willing mouth. I swore her scent was getting sweeter, lusher. The insane pressure rising up my shaft reached a boiling point.
“I’m coming,” I hissed, grasping her jaw. “Tongue out. I want to see you take it.”
Summer sat back. Eyes up, waiting for me.
She couldn’t be real. This was a fucking dream.
I coated her lips and tongue with my release until it dripped down her chin. My thumb carefully collected the excess and pushed it back into her mouth, and she fucking let me. Swallowed every drop.
The crash of reality was deafening. Jesus, no one was allowed to see what I’d done to her. Streaked make-up, slick down her thighs, and her tits hanging out.
“I hope you know how we’re supposed to get home without anyone seeing us,” I said frankly as I helped her up. I knelt to brush away the gravel pebbled in her knees.
A bubble of laughter burst out of her. “Pass me my bag, please.” I was so relieved when she fished out tissues, wiping away the worst of her smudged mascara, and privately disappointed when she put away her boobs.
“Most people stay after the fireworks or they’ll head home via Main Street. We can take the backstreets.”
Summer was in no condition to walk back so I thought the best thing to do was to toss her over my shoulder. She shrieked as I started heading back into town.
“You can’t be serious about carrying me like this the whole way,” Summer huffed.
“Fucking watch me.” I delivered a resounding slap on her ass for good measure. She let out a surprised moan because she was absolutely one hundred percent perfection.
“You are a caveman,” she muttered under her breath.
But everything caught up with her by the time we got home. Summer was half asleep as I carried her to her nest. “This was fun,” she said with a tired but satisfied smile, kissing me and disappearing behind the door.
I was…disappointed. A cold weight plummeted down my throat into my gut. It surprised me. Peeled back the truth. I wanted to be invited in.
It brought back feelings I thought I’d buried long ago.
Lucien had pretty much always been an alpha at heart and soon after he turned eighteen his body caught up.
I kept waiting for it. Pretending I wasn’t when I was.
Any day now . Eighteen through to twenty-three passed on by. Jae awakened. I didn’t.
I resented them for being alphas, even though it was completely out of their control. I was careful to never let it show. My fucking issues, not theirs. The guilt was even worse when they never treated me any differently. It was more grace than I deserved after what my dad had done.
I was over it now. Mostly. Throwing myself into my business helped. Carving out my own identity not tied to them silenced the feelings of not being enough. But the soul-rooted fulfilment I expected remained elusive. The need to keep expanding, to keep moving to the next location never went away.
I didn’t even know who I was trying to prove my worth to. But taking my foot off the pedal was not an option.
I undressed in my room. Stared down at the shirt I’d worn tonight, crumpled in my fist. I slowly brought it up to my nose and breathed deeply.
Summer . And a hint of myself if I really searched for it.
But there was no sense of her beyond that initial sugar rush.
Just surface-level bullshit. A reminder that I’d never be able to read her scent like an alpha could.
Frustrated, I threw it into my laundry hamper.
No wonder it was rare to see betas in packs.
This was all moot anyway. I had a commercial lease in Hartford beginning in a few months, and I would have to shift my focus there. If Summer actually wanted more than just tonight with me, then I’d take whatever I could get.
Despite how exhausted I was, it took me a long time to fall asleep.