Page 108 of On Merit Alone
She cut her eyes. “I haven’t told you what I think, Ira. You have no idea what I think of you right now.”
My gut plummeted to the floor. “Let me explain.”
Reaching for the door, she said, “I actually didn’t ask you to, so?—”
“Merit,” I stopped her, holding her hand. She pulled it away again, cradling it like I hurt her. “Whatever you’re thinking right now, it’s wrong. It’s far, far from the truth. The baby is not?—”
“You’re right, Ira. I was wrong. Because I was thinking about when you said, and I quote,‘I will never invite you over here with another girl in tow.’Or was that just a line?” Her eyes burned up at me now, waiting for me to answer. Looking down into them, I could tell she was pissed.
“You’re an hour early, and?—”
“You said eleven. It’s Eleven fifteen. You said to let myself in. I did that.” I reached for her again but the cut of her eyes stopped me. That and the sharpness of her voice. “Ira, I don’t want you to touch me right now. Do it again and I’m pressing my panic button.”
Yeah,pissed.
I backed off. “Okay, sorry. You just caught me off guard. We stayed up late last night with the baby, so we woke up later than I expected, and everything got behind and?—”
“Unbelievable. I’m leaving,” Merit huffed, trying to go for the door again.
I didn’t touch her, but I was not letting her leave. So pressing my hands flat against the door on either side of her head I threw away all delicateness and just blurted, “Merit, the baby’s not mine.”
She looked at me through the corner of her eye, then crossed her arms as she settled back against the wood. “Okay.”
“I’m only not wearing a shirt because Mads peed on me,” I continued.
“The woman?” She blinked.
“The baby,” I guffawed.
“… Okay,” she said again, slower. “And the reason you were talking about me?”
I winced a little. “We were talking about my um, my contract actually.”
If it were possible for her to look even more pissed, even morehurt, she managed it after the mention ofthat. Suddenly, she was stiff, her face less stone and more pinched, her voice coming out in a croak as she spoke again. “Well, as nice as this has been, I have to go?—”
“The baby is my nephew and that’s my sister, Merit!” I rushed out frantically.
One moment passed, then another, and then her face changed. It got no less pinched, but her eyes at least looked a little more like my Merit’s. Looking up at me, she stepped forward, her voice going down. “She thinks I’m a bitch, doesn’t she?”
“What? No she doesn’t,” I said, blinking at the whiplash of her emotions.
“She does, she was warning you against me,” she said, her voice wilting. Looking up at me, she bounced her eyes between mine confused. “What?”
“Well, I’m in time out here. I’m just waiting to be released,” I said, holding up my hands to demonstrate.
Confused, she looked from my face to my hands and then rolled her eyes. “You can touch me now, but I don’t know why you want to. I was a bi?—”
Moving like I was a soldier on command, I depressed into her body. Wrapping a gentle hand around the back of her neck and an arm around her waist, I pulled her into me as my face found its way to the crook of her neck and I breathed her in.
I let out a ragged breath. “Shit, Merit.”
“What?” she asked confused, her arms going around me in an exact mirror. Her hand pushed up from my neck to run through the back of my hair and down again. I shivered. “What’s wrong?”
“What’swrong?” I growled, pushing her back into the door. “You just scared the shit out of me, Six. Next time, do me a favor and listen. Don’t scare me like that again.”
“Scare you?”
“Yes, scare me,” I said, pulling back enough to look down ather. Tipping her chin with a knuckle I brought my head down to touch hers. It felt like medicine, her touch. “I don’t take hurting you lightly, Merit. I’m not trying to do it again.”
