Perception (5 page)

The
following morning…

Wednesday

Mercedes
awoke to the sun shining through the open curtains of her bedroom. Unable to
get her eyes to adjust to the luminous rays drifting across her bed, she rolled
over, burying her head beneath the pillow as memories from the night before
assaulted her.

What
had she done?

As she
inhaled deeply, the scent of fabric softener wafting into her nose, she
realized that no matter how hard she wished, last night hadn’t been a dream.
What she’d done… or rather what Xander had done to her had been real.

Too real.

And if
realizing what had happened wasn’t bad enough, Mercedes had to accept the fact
that she had loved every second of it.

Holy crap
she was in so much trouble.

Never in
her wildest imagination would she have dreamed up what had happened last night
at Devotion, and sure as the sun was up and blinding with its intensity,
Mercedes knew it had happened.

“Are you
finally awake?”

Mercedes
flew to an upright position, her pillow flying to the floor as she yanked her
comforter up over her naked breasts. With what she knew had to look like abject
horror on her face, she stared at the man standing in her bedroom. “What the
hell are you doing here?”

Xander
laughed, crossing to the windows and staring out as he pushed the curtains open
even more, allowing the sunlight to all but consume the entire room.

Clutching
the blanket tightly, Mercedes gave a second’s thought to what she looked like.
She was definitely naked, and she knew her hair was a stringy mess all over her
head, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it at the moment.

“Just
checking on you,” Xander finally answered, turning to face her.

She could
do nothing but stare at him.

Ok, so it
wasn’t completely absurd to find Xander in her condo. After all, he did own a
condo in the same building, – the penthouse – directly above hers, so he was
nearby.

That
explained his presence.

Since
they both worked out of their homes, it wasn’t even odd that he was home that
early in the morning either.

That
explained his timing.

But it
did not explain why he was standing in her bedroom, at the end of her bed, mind
you, staring at her as though he was anticipating a replay of last night.

Not
gonna happen.

“I
should’ve never given you a key,” she said with exasperation.

Sliding
his big hands into the pockets of his perfectly tailored black slacks that
would provide her a mouthwatering view of his nicely sculpted backside should
he turn around, Xander didn’t appear at all intimidated by her.

 Another
sexy, seductive laugh escaped him.

“Quit
that,” she told him, clutching her comforter tight to her chest with one hand
and running the other through her unruly hair.

“Quit
what?” he asked, grinning that half smirk that had melted the panties off of
much weaker women.

“Quit
staring at me,” she told him. “And get out of my bedroom. I need to…”

Shit, she
didn’t even know what she needed to do.

“Take a
shower,” Xander kindly filled in for her. “I’ve got breakfast ordered. It’ll be
here shortly.”

With
that, Xander turned and walked out of the room, leaving Mercedes to stare after
him, admiring his finely sculpted…

Good
grief, woman. Haven’t you learned your lesson already?

How was
it possible that the man could make her four thousand square foot condo feel so
damn small?

A solid
hour later, fully dressed in her heels and one of her most feminine power
suits, with its short skirt and form fitting blazer, Mercedes joined Xander in
her kitchen. She would’ve remained in the comfort of her bathroom a little
longer, but she had run out of things to do after she dried her hair, and she
didn’t want Xander to think she was stalling.

Even if
she was.

She found
him relaxing comfortably at the breakfast table, sipping coffee and reading
something on his iPad, a plate of fresh assorted bagels sitting in the center.
Without saying a word, she went straight for the coffee pot, hoping like hell a
little caffeine would erase the images from last night from her brain. The
shower certainly hadn’t helped.

“How’re
you feeling?” Xander asked, not looking up from what he was reading.

“Fine,”
she grumbled as she rummaged through the refrigerator, searching for the
creamer and the cream cheese.

She was
far from fine after the events of last night, but by the way he was acting so
nonchalantly, she got the impression she was the only one of them who was still
thinking about it.

“Why are
you here?” she asked him as she poured a little too much creamer into her
coffee. Seriously? Why were her hands shaking?

“Meeting
with Shane,” he answered easily.

Shit.

Glancing
over at the clock, Mercedes noticed it was fast approaching nine o’clock. She
hadn’t slept that late in… hell, in as long as she could remember. Her days
generally started before dawn on a good day.

“Is he
coming here? Or to your place?” she asked, trying to sound casual as she shoved
the creamer back into the fridge.

Most of
the time, they held their business meetings at Xander’s. His condo had double
the amount of space that hers did, and he had three offices, his, his
assistant’s, and an empty one, along with a conference room that he used for
God knows what. Unlike her setup, his offices were separate from his actual
living quarters. As for Mercedes, she merely worked out of her condo’s
secondary master bedroom that she’d had converted into an office.

“I told
him to come here,” Xander answered as she approached, placing his iPad on the
table and sliding the bagels toward her. “You’re looking a little pale,” he
added, tipping his head slightly to the side as he studied her with another of
his infamous smirks.

“I wonder
why,” she blurted, immediately regretting her lack of filter.

She
blamed him.

“I hear
orgasms will do that to you.”

Mercedes
glared at him from across the table, letting him know with her eyes that she
wasn’t going to take his shit this morning. She was not getting into this with
him. What happened last night shouldn’t have happened. It was a demonstration
that had gotten way out of hand.

So what
if he’d given her one of the best orgasms of her entire life. With his fingers.

It wasn’t
like she was going to tell him as much.

Refusing
to dignify his statement with a verbal response, Mercedes reached for a bagel
and opted to move the conversation back to neutral ground. “What’s Shane coming
over to talk about?”

Xander
grinned, an all-out, panty-melting smile that had Mercedes fighting to keep
from looking away from him. Rather than say something entirely inappropriate,
which Xander was known to do from time to time, he morphed into the business
professional that she knew him to be, his smile fading away entirely.

“We need
to talk about the two properties we’re planning to bid on,” Xander explained.

“By ‘we’,
you mean you and Shane are bidding against each other? On both properties?”

Xander
kept his eyes on her. “Honestly, I could give a shit less about the land, he
can have it if he wants it that bad. I want the Milton building.”

Mercedes
knew about both properties, the one hundred plus acres off of the toll road up
in Frisco and an old office building off of Milton right there in downtown that
had just come on the market. Both of them were zoned for either commercial or
residential, which was the factor that always put Shane and Xander at odds with
one another.

Admittedly,
Mercedes had significantly more knowledge regarding the Milton building. After
all, Xander had been interested in it since she first brought it to his
attention, so she had looked into a few specifics and taken him on a tour
earlier in the week.

“I think
that’s smart,” she told him. “The Milton building will be your best option of
the two. He’ll want to turn it into condos anyway, and there’re an
overabundance of them in that area. He’s better off with the land. Much more
opportunity for residential development up that way.”

That
wasn’t going to make Shane a happy camper, but then again, going up against
Xander in a bidding war wasn’t exactly one of Shane’s favorite things to do
either.

Mercedes
had known both men for quite some time. She knew how their minds worked because
she’d worked with them both on practically a daily basis for the last decade.

She sold
commercial real estate, and they dealt in commercial and residential property
development, respectively. And many of the property transactions they dealt
with were handled by her. Although she had a handful of other high profile
clients, Xander was definitely her bread and butter. He knew it too.

Before
they could go into further detail, her home phone rang. Grabbing the handset
that was on the breakfast bar, Mercedes greeted the doorman, letting him know
it was fine to send Shane up.

Rising
from her chair, Mercedes contemplated getting more coffee before heading to her
office. She definitely needed caffeine and a much more structured atmosphere or
she would likely do something foolish such as allow Xander, or worse, Shane,
know exactly what she was thinking. And the absolute last person who needed to
find out what happened last night was Shane Gibson. If he found out, she would
never live it down.

 “Let’s
do this in my office,” she told Xander when she turned back to look at him, her
face flaming when she realized how that sounded.

Shit. She
was going to have to get a serious grip.

And soon.

The
devilish gleam in his eyes said he’d caught on as well.

~*~*~*~

Doing his
best to hide his amusement, Xander pushed back from the kitchen table and
followed Mercedes through her condo. He didn’t, however, try to hide the fact
that he was staring at her ass as she moved gracefully through the house.

The woman
was fucking gorgeous, and she had an ass that made a man’s mouth water. Heart
shaped and the perfect size to fill his hands nicely.

He’d been
hoping she would come out of her bedroom after her shower wearing one of those
form fitting, yoga outfits that she favored when she was home. Casual wear, she
called them. Much to his dismay, Mercedes had clearly armed herself for battle
wearing a short skirt and a blazer with those damn red heels that gave him an
instant hard on.

Still, it
didn’t matter what she wore. She was hot as hell. Shit, he was pretty sure she
could wear a potato sack, and his dick would still stand up and take notice.

Mercedes
cleared her throat, and Xander forced his eyes to move upward. He wanted to
laugh because he’d been clearly busted while admiring her perfect ass. Rather
than pretend he hadn’t been eyeballing her, he tossed her one of the heated
looks he’d perfected over the years.

“Sit
down,” she said with a choked laugh.

He was
fairly certain that Mercedes was on to him. How could she not be though? After
last night?

If she
seriously thought that what happened between them at Devotion was just a
demonstration, the woman was clearly missing a few marbles. And he knew that
wasn’t the case because Mercedes was one of the most perceptive, intelligent
women he’d ever met.

He waited
for her to take a seat behind her desk before he lowered himself to the chair
across from her.

“Mornin’,”
Shane greeted as he made his way into the oversized room.

Xander
glanced back over his shoulder, offering Shane a tilt of his chin in response.
The man was decked out in one of those three thousand dollar suits he’d
recently begun sporting. Although his own watch probably cost more than Shane’s
entire closet, Xander had to admit, he was impressed with his friend’s recent
transformation.

Shane
Gibson was one of Xander’s closest friends. They’d known each other for
approximately fifteen years after they’d met during their junior year in
college, were both turning thirty-six this year, and although Xander’d started
growing his business back in his early twenties, Shane had just recently
started getting serious.  Now that Shane was starting to rake in the
money, he was definitely beginning to look the part, which Xander found amusing
considering all the shit Shane had given him through the years.

He wiped
the smile off of his face when he looked up to see Shane glaring at him.

Based on
the stern expression on Shane’s too handsome face, it was clear that this was
going to be a tense meeting and truthfully, Xander would’ve preferred to spend
his time finding a way to get Mercedes naked again.

Twenty
minutes later, Xander found himself fisting his hands in his lap as he sat
patiently waiting for Shane to calm down.

Tense had
been an understatement. Shane had lost his cool the moment Xander hadn’t given
in to his demands. It would’ve been comical if Xander were in the right frame
of mind.

Keeping
his composure, he remained as relaxed as he could while Shane paced the floor
behind him. Mercedes was sitting at her desk, watching both of them intently
which was the only reason Xander didn’t lose his shit.

She’d
been the main reason his focus was off all morning, and the last thing he could
afford was to let Shane win this round. Clasping his hands together in his lap,
Xander crossed one ankle over the opposite knee and glanced over at Shane, who
was moving up beside him.

“Come on,
man. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Shane grumbled, his face contorted
with anger and frustration. He turned and stomped back the way he’d come before
Xander could say anything.