Unyielding (Tortured Love Book 1) (15 page)

And a man needed
some
secrets. Everyone did.

Right. Just keep telling yourself that.

Merrick forced his concentration back to the immediate issues, but he couldn’t think of one more thing to be done for damage control. This wouldn’t make the press unless the bodies were found, but Merrick wasn’t worried about that.

The others had been found eventually, but the cases were dead. No ties to him or the men he’d hired existed, and this would end up the same way even if the bodies were found. No one would ever trace this back to him, despite his relationship to their niece. Merrick knew people who would make sure that Todd and Dean took the rap for this, if it came to down to the necessity of pinning it on someone.

Merrick was done for the night. He closed his laptop and went in search of Lynda. He knocked on her door but there was no answer, so he slowly opened it. She wasn’t at her desk. He peered into the bathroom but it was empty.

As soon as he walked into her bedroom, he caught her scent. He turned on a small lamp and smiled. She was sound asleep, dressed in a tank top and shorts, curled up on top of her comforter with her laptop next to her.

He closed the laptop, went back into the hallway, opened the door to his suite, and pulled back his covers. Then he returned to her bedroom, lifted her off the bed, and carried her into his room. She barely stirred. He laid her on the bed and crawled in next to her.

Merrick wrapped his arms around his wife and drifted off to sleep, hoping she’d been forced to relive the last of the horrible memories in her past. He believed she deserved some happiness in her life from this point forward, and he was determined to help her achieve that.

Chapter Twenty-One

Lynda spent a lot of time on her designs during the next two days, while Merrick was in his office, buried in a project that he was being very secretive about. That was fine with her. She needed time to process everything, and to decide whether she wanted to stay married to him.

It wasn’t that the idea of hiring killers made her think he was going to hell, or would be punished for such behavior. Her moral conscience wasn’t that high. It was rather that his confession made her wonder what else he was hiding in his past, and what it might mean for her, or for them as a couple.

Now that the reason he’d married her no longer existed, would the pre-nup matter? Even if her father and Dean were found and extradited, that didn’t mean Merrick would recover the company’s assets. If the money was gone, it was gone. Even he couldn’t work that kind of magic.

Granted, he might want to stay married to her for other reasons, but she wasn’t sure fabulous sex was enough to keep her in this.
Liar.
Lynda had been battling this contradiction in her emotions for two days. It wasn’t easy to admit she was falling in love with Merrick. She wasn’t even sure
why
she felt this way.

For at least the tenth time that morning, Lynda mentally ticked off the reasons. His looks, his dick, his strength, those hard muscles, and those intense eyes.
Okay.
Those were all great reasons, but they were only superficial ones. What was it about the
person inside
that she liked so much?

He had stood up for her. More than once now. He hadn’t been pissed off after finding out she’d lied to him about the fictitious teen boy story. He hadn’t thrown the story about Rey back in her face. He wasn’t cruel to her. In fact, he’d gone out of his way this past week to be especially gracious. On the surface, he seemed to be trying to make the best of this marriage. And he certainly didn’t dislike her. Quite the opposite.

And now for all the reasons she
shouldn’t
like him. He wasn’t a warm person, or at least he wasn’t toward her. Well, to be fair,
some
of the time he was warm toward her. She didn’t know if he was warm toward others, so that cool, detached demeanor might be business as usual for him. He didn’t mistreat the staff or his security detail, but he wasn’t overly friendly with them, either.

She’d seen him smile, but not laugh. At least not at anything humorous, like a joke they had shared together. She couldn’t help wonder whether his distant personality was the reason he’d never married. Then again, he might have stayed single by choice. Some people simply did. It didn’t mean there was anything wrong with them. She’d never given a shit about marriage.

Despite there being reasons not to like Merrick, she enjoyed his company. It was nice to be with a man who stuck up for her. It was wonderful to see him show commitment toward things he believed in. His aura mesmerized her when he was in what she liked to call “full power mode”.

Lynda sighed as she glanced at the time. She would rather sit here and muse about her husband, but she had to get ready for this damn fundraiser.

She’d been offered a maid on her first day here, but had declined. She’d been dressing herself since she was a toddler, and would continue doing so without help. The dress Merrick had bought for her was perfect. She had to admit he certainly knew what looked great on her.

Lynda had taken a shower earlier. Her hair was done, as were her nails. She put on the cobalt blue underwear that matched the dress, then imagined him peeling it off her before they fucked again. Her pussy grew moist just thinking about it.

They hadn’t made love since the day her uncles had come over. Lynda wanted to forget that day, and wondered if she ever would. Were they really dead? She hadn’t asked Merrick any more questions about that night, and he hadn’t volunteered any information. Maybe it was better this way? Ignorance was bliss, right?

She had to admit that the dress looked stunning. Once she was dressed, including new shoes, she was so busy admiring the finished product that she didn’t see him come into the room at first. When she caught sight of him, reflected in her mirror, she smiled and turned to face him. “Damn, you look good in a tux.”

He really did. It was white tie tonight, so he’d gone all out. She couldn’t stop staring at him, and wished now they didn’t have to go. She was so hot for him again it was ridiculous.

His gaze roamed over her, that sexy grin widening, until she could hardly breathe. “Lynda, I’m speechless. You look incredible in that color.”

“Thank you.”

He gazed into her eyes with lust and love, and her heart pounded. How could she have even contemplated not wanting to stay in this marriage? Was she out of her freaking mind? No one had ever looked at her like that. No one. And she liked it. Hell, she loved it. She loved his power and his strength, and she loved the fact that he wasn’t afraid to do what he wanted, damn the consequences.

If that made her bad, then so be it. But one thing was clear as she admired her handsome husband. She did
not
want to walk away from this marriage. She did not want to walk away from Merrick. She wanted to stay. She wanted to make this relationship work.

“I wish we didn’t have to go.” His words mirrored her thoughts. Lynda smiled and started to walk toward him, but he held up a hand. “Hold on. I have one more thing to give you to wear tonight. Turn around and face the mirror.”

She did as he asked, then watched him pull a flat velvet box out of his jacket pocket. He placed it on her dresser, opened it, then retrieved what had been inside and palmed it. When he moved behind her, he held up a pair of exquisite earrings that matched the color of the dress.

“Are those real sapphires?”

“Yes. Would you like me to put them in for you?”

Oh, what a question!
She giggled. “I do love it when you put things in for me, Merrick.”

He smiled, then expertly put an earring in each lobe. “And now the crowning touch.” He help up a matching necklace, but it didn’t sport only sapphires. It was laced with tiny diamonds that sparkled. She could only stare at him as he draped it around her neck and then fastened the clasp. “There we go.
Now
you’re ready.”

“Merrick, I don’t know what to say.”

He kissed her neck, and she moaned softly. “Say you like the jewelry.”

“I love it. Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” He held out his arm. “Shall we do this?”

****

Lynda recognized quite a few people at the fundraiser, but quickly realized she only knew them because their names and faces were constantly in the press. She also quickly realized why Merrick steered her from group to group, and never let anyone monopolize her for very long. Every single person there only wanted to know one thing. Why had none of them known she and Merrick were dating seriously enough to consider marriage?

Lynda hadn’t paid attention to the gossip on the Internet for over a week. Doing so stifled her creativity, and the rest of the time Merrick had kept her busy in bed. It was a huge disappointment to realize that most of these people hadn’t moved beyond that damn question.

More than one person rudely sized up her abdominal area as they complimented her on the dress, but Lynda wasn’t fooled by their words. They were trying to determine whether she was hiding a baby bump.

After the third one, she started saying it out loud when their eyes drifted south. “I’m not pregnant. Don’t believe everything you read online.”

Merrick nearly choked on his drink the first time she did, and by the fourth one, he laughed out loud. Her heart soared at the sound because it was the first time they’d connected on that level. She’d been waiting for this.

He eventually led her into a quiet corner so they could talk for a moment, and the first thing she did was apologize for losing her composure.

“Are you kidding?” he asked. “I thought it was fucking brilliant. It’s about time someone called these people on their rude behavior.”

“Thank you. I thought you’d be upset, but I just couldn’t take it any longer.”

He kissed her, but it was too brief. She was hungry for more. “I don’t blame you one bit. It was very rude of them. Now you understand what I’ve been dealing with all these years.” He gave her a meaningful look. “And I finally understand why you walked away from it.”

Lynda was stunned into silence. That was the first time he’d acknowledged such a thing. “Then why do you keep doing it?”

He shrugged slightly. “It’s part of the game. I like making money. I like turning companies into gold. This goes along with it, but I’m way past giving a shit what most of these people think of me. I show up at their fundraisers, I give to their charities, then I leave. And they think I’m a saint because I’m here at all, even when I say exactly what’s on my mind.”

“Will they hate me for what I said?”

He gave her a quick grin. “No, but they will gossip about it. Still, at least one rumor is finally quashed. By morning, the entire city will know definitively that we did not marry because I knocked you up.”

She studied his profile as he gazed out over the room. This was as good a time to ask as any. “Why is it you never married before?”

He jerked suddenly, as if someone had pushed him. Lynda’s glass nearly slipped from her fingers as her palms grew damp. He blinked a few times, and she counted three horrible seconds before he finally glanced down at her. “Long story.”

Bullshit
. Her husband had just lied to her, and she knew it. Worse, she could see in his eyes that he
knew
she saw right through the answer.

But what did it mean? Had he been married before and there was no fucking record of it? Why wasn’t there? Or, was there another reason the question had rattled him so much? And what could that reason possibly be?

Unfortunately, Lynda had no further time to muse over the possible scenarios, because a large group of people with fake smiles was coming toward them. Time to play the game again, even if the only thing she really wanted to do was have a long talk with her husband.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Merrick summoned up every last ounce of concentration as he made small talk with the board members of the charity for which this fundraiser had been given. He introduced Lynda to each of them, although his mind barely registered the words he spoke. His thoughts were on Lynda’s question.

It was a legit one, and she couldn’t possibly have known it would produce such an emotional reaction. But there was no doubt in his mind she’d noticed, and this time she might not let it go. More than once now she’d seen the pain on his face because he hadn’t been able to rein it in quickly enough. She was too intelligent not to put the pieces together, which meant one thing. He had to tell her.

It was the right thing to do for more than one reason. One, she’d trusted him with the two most painful and scarring experiences of her life. And two, he couldn’t go forward with this marriage, or allow himself to fall in love with her, while keeping her in the dark about his first wife. She’d find out one day, and then he could lose her. She had to hear this from him first.

The damn fundraiser dragged on, and through it all he clung to Lynda like glue, forcing himself to smile and laugh with her. She was either a fabulous actress or had pushed his reaction out of her mind. Because to watch her now, everything was perfect. She spoke and looked like she hadn’t a care in the world.

As the evening wore on, Merrick realized two things. She was easily the most beautiful woman in this room, even if he was biased, and he was in love with her. The time for pretending it hadn’t happened was already gone. It
had
happened, and now he had to deal with it.

When he felt they could leave without invoking even more gossip, or insulting the hosts, he texted Tyler, his driver. His phone buzzed with an incoming text from Tyler almost immediately.

Multi-car accident on Park and 79
th
. Traffic at a stand-still through most of Midtown. Do you want to wait a while?

“Fuck.”

“Is something wrong?”

Merrick showed Lynda the text. “What do you think?”

She gave him a desperate look. “I think if I have to stay at this shindig one more second I might scream. I don’t like sitting in traffic, but at least we won’t be
here
.”

Merrick wanted to kiss her, hard. He texted back that they were leaving anyway. Once they were in the car, he rolled up the window that separated them from Tyler, intending to have that talk. They had nothing else to do for a while, and this might be easier in the car where she couldn’t get away from him.

But when Lynda shocked the hell out of him by crawling into his lap and shoving her tongue into his mouth, he forgot all about the talk and kissed her back, hard and rough. Who was he to turn down his wife for initiating sex?

She rubbed her boobs against his shirt while she loosened his bow tie. Then she kissed him again, moaning softly in the back of her throat. His cock was rock hard and throbbing now. He needed to fuck her. There wasn’t enough blood in his brain to talk.

Merrick pulled away from the kiss so he could bite her nipples through the dress. That earned him her hand shoved between his legs, where she tortured him by trying to stroke his dick through the damn pants. They needed to be naked and quickly.

He unzipped the dress, then pushed down the top over her tits. He’d debated whether to buy her a strapless one, and was glad now he had. She had on a bra, but he made short work of that and then her nipples were in his mouth, one after the other, until she cried out loudly.

“Lynda, baby … I’m going to fuck you so damn hard.”

“Oh, Merrick. I want you. I
need
you.” She ripped at his shirt now, tearing a couple of buttons as she dragged it out of the cummerbund, but he didn’t give a shit. He had plenty of shirts. Hell, he had plenty of everything, but only one wife. Only one
Lynda
.

He swung her around so he was lying on top of her, and then pulled off the dress and her panties. She helped him remove the rest of his clothes, his socks, and his shoes. Then he grasped her ankles and spread her legs wide. “Leave your heels on, baby. They’re so fucking sexy.”

Merrick licked her pussy and shoved two fingers into her wetness, groaning as the walls of her vagina contracted around his digits. “Are you close, Lynda?”

“Yes. I’m already there. Fuck me.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. Merrick sank his cock into her pussy and fucked her like he might never do it again. He was merciless, pounding into her as hard and fast as he could. When he took a break, the love in her eyes as she gazed up at him took his breath away.

“Lynda…” He kissed her, kneading her breasts and then running his fingers through her hair, tugging on it, wanting to possess her very soul. He sat up and moved her on top of him again, then helped her guide her soaking wet pussy over his dick once more.

Merrick grabbed her hips and moved her up and down until she cried out in pleasure. Her orgasm was so powerful it brought his on, and there was no way to stop it now. He yelled loudly as he pumped his seed into her, and there was no doubt in his mind that Tyler knew exactly what was going on in the back of the car, window or not.

When they finished, he held her in his lap for what felt like hours. The car inched forward, and then suddenly they were moving again. Merrick glanced out the windows at the buildings on Park Avenue. They would be home soon.

“We need to get dressed.”

She moaned in protest, and he kissed her again. “Come on, beautiful. Just until we get inside.”

“Then we can get naked again?”

“I promise.”

****

Merrick woke, listened to Lynda breathing softly in her sleep next to him, and debated whether to wake her up so they could talk. They’d fucked again before falling asleep, but he was wide awake now.

In the morning. He would definitely tell her in the morning. For now, he crawled out of bed and donned sweats and a t-shirt. There was work waiting in his office. Work he didn’t want Lynda to see.

Alan had come through, and Merrick was now in possession of Rey Santos’s laptop, and an external hard drive. It would have been easy for Merrick to hire someone to go through both devices, but he wanted to have a look at this first himself. He owed it to Lynda.

Rey had backed up everything on the external hard drive for the past ten years. Merrick had already finished with the laptop, and there was nothing about Lynda on it. There was, however, quite a nice collection of recent videos of Rey having sex with different women. Women who looked too young to be legal.

Once Merrick had found that, he’d contacted Pete Stephenson. Merrick and Pete had met in high school, when both had been caught trying to hack into the school’s computer system. Pete now worked for the FBI, tracking down cyber pedophiles. Pete didn’t ask how Merrick had obtained the laptop or the hard drive, which was one of the reasons he and Merrick were such good friends.

It didn’t take Merrick long to find what he’d been looking for on the hard drive. Dating back to when Rey had begun filming himself having sex with Lynda, Merrick found dozens of videos. He couldn’t watch them all the way through. It made him sick to realize the trust his wife had given this fucking scumbag.

The sex was dirty and one-sided. She didn’t even look like she was having all that much fun. Her moans were half-assed, and the look in her eyes was hollow. It was so different from the woman he made love to that she might as well be a different person.

Merrick moved them all into a separate folder, made a copy, and emailed it to himself and to Pete, using an encrypted email address the agent had given him. Then he started cataloguing the other videos. The ones where he’d bet his left nut the girls were underage. Those he also emailed to Pete, using the same secure address.

His work here was done. This was in the hands of the FBI now. What this fucker had put Lynda through was avenged. Rey Santos would be spending some time behind bars for kiddie porn.

Merrick then sent one last email. This one was to an associate of his who ran a very exclusive, and very expensive home health care agency. He wanted to make sure that Rey’s mother was taken care of in her last days, and wouldn’t even miss her pig of a son being at her side. After all, why should his mother suffer for what her son had done?

He sat back and stretched, then glanced at the clock on his desk. It was almost dawn. Lynda would be waking up soon, and he wanted to be next to her when she did. After breakfast, they’d have their talk. Then everything would be out in the open and they could move forward. No more secrets. No more issues from their pasts sneaking up to cause drama and heartache.