Mercer shakes his head. “But I amaround you. I can see you. Hear you. Talk to you. I love that.”
My insides go all fluttery, like a cascade of moths flying around a streetlamp. “You’re sweet, Mercer.”
“Thank you. I know other things you could let me do.”
The fluttering twists and tightens into a spiral of nerves and heat, an almost forgotten heat that travels down low, to the area that’s been a no-man’s land for a long time. “What?”
Mercer’s voice is like silk, and sliding down into something deep and warm. “Perhaps Allison and her parents might watch Zack some night, and we could have a date? Just us?”
“Just us?” The heat is spreading.
“I see you as so much more than ‘just a mom.’ I don’t want you to think I’m ‘after something,’ either. My kind have been known to use others for their own pleasure.”
Using for pleasure?
Red flag.
However, with Mercer, that dude could wrap me in a red flag, and I’d know he was just carrying me to safety in it.
“Have you ever done that?” I ask, voice cautious, trying not to sound wary or excited. Just curious. Neutrally, naturally curious.
“No. I’d like any pleasure to be mutual. If mutually desired.” His fingers trace up and down my arm and land softly on the tattoo of Zack’s infant handprint. “Dinner? A movie? Swimming in the lake in the moonlight?”
I swallow. “All of those sound good.”
“How about dinner and a moonlight swim? Maybe a romantic picnic on the beach, with the sunset for dinner and the moonlight for dessert?”
My head bobs eagerly. A date. A real date, with a genuinely nice person—who is also a freaking stud muffin who loves my child. I discreetly bite the inside of my cheek, and it hurts.
Yep, I’m awake.
Zack’s sudden squeal of delight reminds me that he’s just a few yards away. “Wh-when would you like to do that?”
“Friday night?”
“As in three nights from now?”
“Uh-huh. I’ll take care of everything. You just show up with a swimsuit and a sundress.”
I think back to a gauzy white sundress I bought the summer before I got pregnant. Eli loved me in it. Called me his Grecian goddess. Insisted I wear sandals that strapped up to my knee when I wore it to a July 4th beach party.
I still own it. It would cling to my poofy, rounded belly now, and the spaghetti straps and lightly lined cups would do nothing to support my breasts. I’d look pudgy. Saggy. Natural.
Eli would tell me to go in and change.
“I have just the dress,” I say, forcing myself to sound happy and relaxed while, inside, I’m nervous. What if Mercer sees me in that dress and changes his mind?
Good. Then I’ll know. Zack can still take swimming lessons, and Mercer and I can just be friends.
“Well, let’s go in and ask Allison and her parents if that’s okay,” I say cheerfully. “We could—I mean, I could offer to babysit for them some time in exchange.”
“Sounds like a wonderful idea. We’ll ask them,” Mercer slips an arm around my waist, and one tentacle drapes around my hips, too. Both squeeze me to his size with a warm possessiveness that’s unfamiliar. The closest thing I’ve experienced was when Eli got a little tipsy at a party and acted jealous.
Mercer knows I’m not dating anyone else. Heck, until him, I planned to live like a nun for the rest of my days. Mercer just wants me close.
Wants me.
I slide my arm around him, too, caressing his broad back, and daring to let my hand wander down to the place where his tentacles meet his body. As we move, one slips underneath, and my fingers stroke the underside, feeling a maze of suckers, some larger than others, all of which open and close softly at my touch, kissing my palm and fingertips.
