Chapter Seventeen
Andrew didn’t get as much work done over the weekend as he planned. Or any at all. He spent the rest of Saturday sleeping. Which meant that night he was up at odd hours. He became familiar with the Cinemax movies of the month and had confirmation that cable porn hadn’t changed in ten years.
Now he was back in the R&T offices, he hoped he could focus. A knock on the door drew his attention.
Mercy stood in the doorway. “I wanted to make sure you got what you needed from my staff last week.”
“And then some.” He could be all business. “I’ll be out of here by the end of the week. Probably working from Kandace’s. until I leave after Christmas.” If I can make things right with Lucas. “As always, you rocked it. It works great.”
She gave him a small smile and turned to leave. “Glad to hear it.”
“Hang on. How was the honeymoon?” Okay, so he couldn’t leave things tense between them.
She looked back at him. “Amazing.” Her smile turned genuine. She only glowed like that when she talked about Ian. She was lucky she had someone she loved so much, who felt the same about her. Susan deserved the same. Where the fuck did that come from?
“I’m glad,” he said.
“How was my sister?”
And there it was. Out in the open. A way to remind everyone he was the asshole who needed to keep his distance. He adopted his favorite leer. “Fantastic.”
“That’s not the way she tells it. She said you couldn’t get it up.”
He doubted Susan said anything anywhere near that callous, whether or not she told Mercy the truth. “You know how girls like to talk. It’s always the guy’s fault if she doesn’t get off. I wasn’t there for her. I wanted to blow my wad and move on.” He managed to say it all without flinching.
Mercy closed the door and took a seat across from him. “If you’re going to play the pig card, stick to pervy. You’ve never been selfish.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Why was it so important to him to keep up this façade?
“I know what happened. Susan told me. I want to know why you’re spinning it so hard, to make yourself sound like the asshole. If it’s about ego, you need to feed your bullshit to someone else.”
“Why does it matter to you what did or didn’t happen?”
“Really?” She looked at him, brow furrowed. “Because she’s my sister.”
“And I’m one of your closest friends. Why was it okay for you to slum it with me, but not for her?” Was that why he did this? Mercy’s request bothered him? No. He was talking circles around the issue. Pushing for the sake of argument.
“So this is an object lesson of some sort? You haven’t convinced me I was wrong to make the request.”
He leaned in, to rest his forearms on the desk. “But you don’t believe anything happened.”
“Susan tells me nothing did.”
“What if the roles were reversed, and she told you it was the best sex she ever had—or that it was so bad she never wanted it again—but I was the one insisting nothing happened? Then how would this conversation go down?”
Mercy looked away. “I’d believe you.”
“Why?”
“Susan’s not much of the sleeping around type.”
“She stuck her tongue down my throat and begged me to take her virginity.” His voice rose, and he swallowed to bring his frustration under control. “Your sister isn’t clueless.” But suddenly, he understood Susan’s argument on Friday night so much better. Mercy had gone out into the world, to live, but she was another voice keeping Susan from doing the same. And so was he. Fuck. Did that make him a hypocrite or a good guy? He didn’t know anymore.
“Why did you want me to think you slept with her?” Mercy asked.
That was the billion-dollar question. “I was exhausted. Strung out. Not like that,” he added when she raised her brows. “I figured you could put some distance between us.” And that was what it came down to. He didn’t know how many more times he could tell Susan no. The desire to turn her down wasn’t there. But he’d do it for Mercy. Would I really?
“How’s that working out for you?” Mercy’s expression was sympathetic rather than judgmental.