When he didn’t speak, I continued. “It’s my opinion that her value to the Nobles far exceeds any misdirection that an unknown enemy might be trying to create.”
Ezra cocked his head. “So, you think the goal is misdirection?”
I shrugged. “As the former heir to the Claws, she’s in a strategic position to help us greatly. Maybe someone doesn’t want that to happen. Which is all the more reason we shouldn’t throw away a resource before discovering its full potential.”
“An interesting take, Gideon,” Ezra said, his expression thoughtful. I could tell from his tone that he wasn’t convinced, but he gave me a pat on the shoulder and walked off—in the opposite direction from where I’d been headed, thankfully.
I stood there for a moment, letting the conversation settle in my head. The fact that he’d insisted on sending Mercy on a date with a known predator hadn’t sat right with me in the first place. It almost seemed like he hadn’t wanted her to succeed. And now that she had, he was finding other excuses to question her place here… I didn’t like it at all.
I might not have any clue how to protect Mercy from her unnervingly capable stalker, but I could certainly keep an eye on Ezra’s reactions to her. There was something brewing in his devious mind, and it meant nothing good.
Right now, though, the only person I wanted my eyes on was Mercy herself. The interruption had rattled me, but as I strode down the hall toward the new guest bedroom Mercy had taken over, my heart fell back into a steady—if slightly accelerated—rhythm. Anticipation and anxiety twined together in my chest.
I stood in front of the bedroom door for several seconds before the fear that someone—like Ezra—would catch me there chased off the fear that she’d laugh in my face. It wasn’t as if I could imagine the Mercy I knew doing that anyway. I knocked, keeping the sound quiet enough that it wouldn’t travel down the hall.
For a moment, there was no response. I was on the verge of convincing myself that she was already asleep and I should walk away when there was a click, and the door opened.
Mercy looked alert enough that I didn’t think I’d woken her up, but her dark brown hair was rumpled from lying down and she’d washed off the heavy makeup Anthea had painted all over her face. She’d changed from the satin gown into a thin tank top and pajama shorts.
She’d looked gorgeous all done up in her dress, but in one glance, I knew I preferred her like this: practical and straightforward and still pretty as hell.
“Hey,” she said, peering out at me. “Did something else happen? Did you find something in the footage?”
Of course she’d think that’s why I was here. Somehow faced with the reality of her, I lost my grip on my tongue. “I—no. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. You’re obviously headed to bed.” My gaze fixed on the front of her tank top, and I noticed the faint splatter of an oil stain before I yanked my eyes away from what was also the swell of her breasts. “You should buy new clothes.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Mercy said dryly. “Is that what you came over to tell me?”
I’d obviously messed up here. Was there any chance of retrieving my foot from my mouth? “No, not that either.”
She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “So, what exactly did you want to talk about, then?”
I opened my mouth and closed it again, managing to think through my next words before I said them out loud. “Can I come inside?”
The implication of inviting myself into her bedroom at night wasn’t lost on me, and it probably wasn’t on her either. She gave me a more evaluating look. “Sure. The hall isn’t a great place for a conversation anyway.”
She stepped back, and I followed her into the room. The door thumped shut behind me, and I was abruptly struck by the gravity of what I was hoping to do here.
I’d slept with women before, sure, but it’d only been for the physical release. It’d never mattered even a fraction as much as the mere expression on Mercy’s face meant to me now.
She needed to know that our kiss hadn’t been a mistake, that I hadn’t meant to reject her just now.
I caught myself worrying at my lip ring with the tip of my tongue and shook myself. Mercy sank down on the edge of the bed. It was a basic double in an utterly basic room, like the other few guest rooms in the mansion: just a bed, a side table, and a chair in the corner. A couple of Mercy’s origami figures were posed on the table. She’d only switched rooms a few nights ago, but she’d already made this one her own.
Mercy was watching me. Right. Because I was supposed to be explaining why the hell I was here. I inhaled slowly and decided that talking wasn’t getting me very far. Maybe I was better off just showing her.
Ignoring the nerves jumping in my stomach, I bent down, slid my fingers along her cheek, and kissed her the way I’d been imagining since her lips had first touched mine hours ago.
A perfect little gasp slipped from her mouth, and then she was kissing me back, and every other thought swept from my mind. I felt like I was standing in the middle of a storm, and I wanted—no, needed more.
Before I could make good on that urge, Mercy eased back and stared up at me. Her cheeks were flushed in a way that brought out her natural beauty even more, and exhilaration flooded me at the thought that I’d made her look that happy.
“Gideon,” she said, “I thought—”
I sat down on the bed next to her, tracing my hand along her cheek and down the side of her neck, reveling in the silky smoothness of her skin and in the flutter of her eyelids at the caress. Her pulse beat against my fingertips at the base of her throat.
“I gave you the wrong idea back in my office,” I said. “I—I’m not used to feeling this way about someone. I want you. A lot. And you don’t have to worry about affecting my friendship with Wylder. He and I already talked about it. It isn’t a problem.”
She blinked. “You and Wylder discussed the fact that—”