Authors: Michele Reed
She cringed slightly while he nibbled on her neck, the feeling of his lips tickling her a bit. Instantly she came to know that Kerry was an exceptionally impressive lover, although in their slightly drunken state they were both a bit sloppily acting. The bed shook as he reached around her waist to her lower back, pulling up her pelvic area slightly to assure a greater arousal on her part. Mercedes felt an orgasm coming on; she bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out. She shuttered and he pressed his lips against hers which muffled her cries of sensual desire. They swayed along with the creaking bed until he at last released a stuttering groan and collapsed on top of her.
When the lovemaking at last subsided, the two of them remained wrapped in a bundle of sweat-soaked sheets, hardly able to catch their breaths from the new and exciting encounter. His head landed next to hers on the pillow and she could feel his heavy breathing against her neck. “My God,” he spluttered, sliding one arm under her head and another he wrapped around her waist to pull her close again. “You really are all woman, aren’t you?”
Evidently he was not done with her. One arm, the one not rested under her head, slid down her stomach until his hand reached her womb and he once again worked to get her to a heightened pleasure. Not only was he a sensual lover, but a generous one it seemed. Mercedes felt her body tense up as she grabbed onto the sheet and reared her head back slightly, her eyes closed. He seemed to get a thrill out of his ability to make her moan, so he worked to ensure her pleasure before his. She felt his heavy breath around her breasts as he kissed her and continued rubbing her until she screamed his name.
They heard a banging coming from the apartment next door followed by someone shouting, “Shut up! It’s late!”
Mercedes and Kerry looked at one another and began to laugh hysterically, hardly able to contain themselves after all of the wine they had consumed. Slowly they drifted off to sleep next to one another, Kerry’s arms wrapped tightly around her and their clothes scattered around the room.
***
Mercedes stirred slightly, awakening to the sound of her alarm clock early in the morning. She turned her head slightly and spotted Kerry fast asleep with his head inches away from her own.
Stupid
, she told herself. In that moment she felt as though this was the single most foolish decision she had ever made. She started to sit up, but as she rose up Kerry awakened and reached out to her- attempting to pull at her arm to get to lie back down beside him. “Morning,” his voice purred, clearly very pleased with where he was waking up that morning; she was not so pleased, in fact, she was furious with herself. She felt slightly used assuming he did this sort of thing all the time with his female employees. But she could not be so certain. She felt disgusted with herself, it was just as bad as if she had slept with Edgar from the bar.
“You should go,” she said instantly, her voice incredibly cold as she covered herself with the sheets.
He sat up and rubbed his eyes, that same ridiculous grin still present on his face.
Why is this guy always smiling?
she wondered angrily. Kerry seemed to think that she was joking. He suddenly hugged her from behind and attempted to rest his head on her bare shoulder. She shrugged him off. “Is everything all right?” he asked and he stroked her arm.
“No, it really isn’t.” her voice practically snarled. She yanked her arm away so he would stop touching her.
“Mercedes?” his voice beckoned and he tried to embrace her again. He sounded hurt, but she felt sure that this was some sort of act to entice her back into bed some other time.
“Don’t touch me,” she warned and stood up, pulling the sheets along with her so as to keep herself covered.
“Did… did I do something?” he asked, now embarrassingly trying to cover himself up with her pillows. He sat up in her bed, a pillow in his lap as he stared at her with a look of absolute confusion.
Mercedes started towards her bathroom. “No, I did. Just get dressed and go.” She closed the bathroom door behind her; she wanted to scream out in frustration. She sat down on top of her toilet and waited and listened for him to leave, her bedsheets still wrapped around her. Her heart was racing rapidly. She could hardly believe what had taken place. The night had been wonderful, sure, but good sex was hardly a reason to get oneself into trouble. Her mind was going a million miles an hour trying to figure out how she could have possible have been so incredibly foolish.
She could hear Kerry slowly moving about her bedroom from the other side of the closed door. “I wish you would tell me what I did,” she heard him say.
Mercedes bit her lip. She felt a pain in her chest. How could she had been so foolish? This was worse than if she had slept with Edgar. “Just go!” she called out, trying to hide the anger she was feeling.
She heard him stumbling about a bit longer; eventually, she heard the sound of her bedroom door opening. “I’m sorry,” she heard him say, but she did not respond. Eventually she heard the apartment door close. She sighed heavily, relieved he was gone.
Now I have to get ready to go to work,
she thought,
go to work for him.
Mercedes slapped herself atop her head and pulled her own hair. “Stupid! Stupid!” she stood up off the toilet and stomped her feet; she looked herself in the mirror. “You’re so stupid!”
A few more minutes of self-criticism went by before she finally found the energy within herself to shower. She felt like she was having to scrub Kerry off of her. She allowed the water to wash over her as she contemplated what had taken place. There was nothing about this that could possibly end well. He would probably fire her, or he would expect more from her. It made the past few days at the construction site seem like an absolute waste. She was certain that she would be back at the garage trying to piece together the shattered remains of her life by that afternoon.
She got dressed and headed out, pausing briefly in her kitchen to grab a banana and make some toast for her breakfast. Honestly, she was surprised she could keep her head together enough to make toast. Waiting outside was Yury; he instantly noticed that something was off about her. “Everything oaky, Miss Mercado?” he questioned as he opened the door for her. She kept quiet, not really sure what to say to Yury.
Much to her dismay, Kerry was waiting for her at the construction site. She rolled her eyes as Yury helped her out of the car. “I’ll see you later, Yury,” she grumbled while walking up towards the site entrance. There was no way in that she could avoid having to walk by Kerry, so she tried to ignore his presence as she headed in through the open part of the fencing, but he would not be ignored.
“Can we talk?” Kerry asked the moment she started to pass by him into the work zone; he reached out and grabbed her by her arm which she immediately yanked away.
“Is it about the project?” she asked angrily. She wanted to avoid the inevitable conversation at all costs.
“You know it’s not,” he said.
“Then no,” she said. “I need to get to work. We have a long day ahead of us.” To her surprise, he let her pass by without saying much more. He looked incredibly disappointed and confused by her behavior, but she could not bring herself to talk to him just yet.
The morning proceeding rather normally. Kerry was out of sight and out of mind, so she was able to some-what concentrate on her duties as foreman although it was hard to concentrate after a night like she had had. A part of her hoped that if she brushed the evening under the rug, Kerry would forget about it and move on. There was no need to talk about it, no need to bring it up, and there certainly was no need for her to talk to him ever again about anything other than the work project. “You all right, boss?” one of the workers asked about an hour into the work day; she cringed, realizing that her frustrations were evident on her face. She had always been bad about hiding her emotions. Her ex, Ernie, had always said that about her.
“I’m fine,” she said assuredly, but the man looked at her like she was lying. As punishment for questioning her, she quickly put him to work on a mind-numbingly dull task. He would regret asking about her feelings; Mercedes wanted to maintain the illusion that she was an emotionless drone who always kept her head on straight. When lunch hour came, Mercedes felt a sense of relief knowing that she could lock herself away in her on-site office. She hurried across the worksite towards the trailers.
Mercedes immediately closed the door behind her, breathing in the air conditioning for the first time that day. The cool air brought an extreme sense of relief that she had been looking forward to all morning. She had not packed herself a lunch, but she was not in the mood to travel off site so decided she would just hide out in her little office for a while. She entered into the office, only to discover that Kerry was waiting for her. “Are you serious?” she grumbled under her breath.
When he saw her he stood up, there was a serious and somber look about him. He had come there with a mission. He wanted desperately to talk to her, but he was trying hard not to show off that desperation. “Mercedes,” he spoke softly.
“I hope this is about the project,” she hissed in an attempt to remind him that she was not interested in talking about their brief affair, but he was not going to be backing down - that much was clear.
His smile was gone; this was not something she was used to. The man was always smiling like a lunatic. The frown that was currently making up his face was unbecoming on him. “We are going to talk about last night. I’m not just going to brush it off like nothing happened,” he said sternly. Clearly he had made up his mind that a conversation needed to be had.
Mercedes closed the office door behind her; the last thing she wanted was for one of the workers to overhear them talking about their encounter. The workman’s initial thoughts about her had not been pleasant, but now they were all on good terms and had a certain understanding about her leadership. She spun around and looked at Kerry with a serious expression. “What is there to talk about, Mr. O’Brian?”
“So I’m Mr. O’Brian now?” he sounded rather appalled that she had called him as such. He scratched the back of his head, a sort of nervous twitch, and then he leaned back into her desk. He looked so incredibly confused by her behavior.
“Kerry,” she said his name sternly. “We got drunk and had sex. It was inappropriate. It won’t happen again.” She was still trying to figure out how it had happened in the first place - how she could have allowed herself to be so foolish and immature with the man who was writing her paycheck.
“Why not?” for a moment his frown inched up into his familiar smile, but she would not allow it to stay.
“It’s not funny,” she snapped at him. “You think I’m stupid? I know what this is. I don’t want this job
that
bad.”
“You think I just gave you this job so that you would sleep with me?” he questioned. He was clearly offended by the thought.
“Big CEO. You couldn’t possibly want me for anything beyond sex. And that is not something I want to get into with you,” she said.
“That’s the kind of person you think I am?” his voice raised. He did not look at all pleased. His eyebrows lowered; he stood upright, and he loomed towards her. “You really think that that is the kind of man I am? You honestly think I’m that kind of guy?”
“Well you did just sleep with someone you just met,” she said. “You don’t know me.”
“I know enough,” he said, his arms crossed. “Mercedes, I don’t want to just pretend it didn’t happen. I can’t promise you anything, but I would want to see what this is. Don’t you?”
“You’re bullshitting me,” she snapped. “You’re so full of it. I bet you do this with all your women employees.”
“I’m not like that!” his strong tone was slowly becoming an angry shout. His anger was evident, but there was a certain amount of hurt in his voice that she could not deny. “You’re so paranoid! What’s wrong with you?”
Mercedes felt her throat tightening. There was a part of her that wanted to be open and honest with him. She felt nervous and at a loss for words. A few tears fell down her cheeks. “I can’t do it. I just can’t do it.” Just trying to make words to explain herself was suddenly a challenge.
“Do what?” he lowered his voice, stepping only slightly closer to her. Now his arms hung down at his side. He allowed his shoulder to slump so as not to seem so angry. He wanted to know what was keeping her from opening up.
“I can’t-” she hesitated.
“Can’t what?” he asked softly, desperately seeking understanding.
“I can’t lose anyone again, Kerry. I don’t want to find out
what this is
because if it is something I don’t want to lose it,” Mercedes explained. Kerry reached out to her, attempting to comfort her, but she pulled back violently. “I’m just some woman you hired off the streets.”
“You mean your mother… and your father… your garage…” Kerry seemed to be piecing everything together. “You’ve lost a lot, Mercedes. You have seen a lot of loss, but that is no reason to push people away. Mercedes, I’m not going to stand here and promise you the world. I won’t do it.” He reached out and touched her arm, slowly working his hand around towards her back. “I won’t do it - I won’t just make a bunch of empty promises, but I do care about you, Mercedes. I really do. I don’t want to lose you so soon.” He pulled her into him, and she did not resist. “I want to try. To see if we stand a chance. I’d rather try and it not work out than not try at all, you know?”
“You’ll get bored with me,” Mercedes said.
“Bored?” he laughed and squeezed her tight in his arms, “Mercedes, you are the furthest thing from boring. How could I get bored with you?”
She smiled. “Okay,” she forced herself to say.
He lunged into her upon her weak approval, pressing his lips against hers tightly. Mercedes instantaneously felt her body shiver at his now familiar touch. He ran his hands up and down her back. Kerry grabbed her by her rear and lifted her up a few inches off the ground, pushing her towards her desk. He sat her up on the desk and proceeded to undo her jeans. “God, you’re beautiful.” He told her and kissed her chest for a moment when his hands stumbled. He held her face in his hands for a moment so he could get a good look at her before kissing her again.
Mercedes slipped her fingers into the rim of his pants, pulling his waist closer to her. She leaned back slightly as he worked diligently to bring her pants down to her ankles. Her thighs felt cold against the metal desk that had been sitting in the air condition all morning. The excitement on his face told her that she was in for another pleasant round of lovemaking with Kerry. She realized she was incredibly excited herself as her mind went back to their previous encounter. He carefully pushed her onto her back and slid her hips towards him so that her legs hung off the side of the desk. He pulled down her underwear and then allowed a moment for his sober eyes to take in the sight before kneeling down to enthrall her with his breathy touch. Suddenly the trailer shook slightly, someone had entered into the trailer.