"Mercy, look at me baby." She had her arm strewn across her face, teeth clenched. "No." She ground out resolutely. No matter how many times they'd done this she'd be extremely embarrassed. Sam kissed his teeth and grabbed the offending limb, pulling it away from her face.

He'd always loved looking at her. Almond shaped dark brown eyes that seemed black. A small flat nose that sat above her thick perpetually smiling lips. All of which sat on her sweet round face surrounded by large wild curls.

"Sam..." She whispered while he kissed each feature. He hummed to let her know that he was listening, just barely.

"No more teasing. We've only got an hour." Her midnight eyes gleamed. "Fuck me."

He cursed under his breath before sitting back on his heels, her legs on either side of his waist. Sam ran a hand down her face, to her neck, to her hip, stopping midway to pinch her nipple, coaxing a small sigh out of her.

"Is that what you want?" He slipped his hand right between her thighs, gliding two of his fingers through her wet folds. Sam slid them into her, watching her body wrack with pleasure. Quickly he pumped them in and out of her, using his thumb to press down on her sweet quivering clit. He raised his other hand up to her breast to capture the dark peak between his fingers again.

Mercedes moaned, pushing herself down onto his fingers as best she could.

"Mm, stop messing with me Sam. I need you." Their gazes clashed and Mercedes saw in his eyes when he'd decided to stop playing around. He pulled his digits out of her rather roughly and aligned his cock with the entrance of her throbbing sex. He bent down to kiss her before thrusting home.

"I'm going to fucking wreck you baby." He promised hoarsely into her ear before biting into the skin of her collarbone.

"Big talk." She panted, he always did that. The promises. She loved them, they made her shake with wanting. Nervous as she had been (as she probably always would be) taking him like this, letting him have her, just felt...right.

"Oh baby, it isn't just talk." He laughed as he bucked particularly hard, nearly knocking the wind out of her. Again and again he fucked into her, whispering fervently about how wet she was, how tight and hot she was. How good she looked taking his cock. How much he loved her. And she would in turn respond with how hard he was, how she belonged to him, how she loved him just as much.

"I'm gonna cum." He groaned pumping faster and faster.

"No, no, not yet Sam please." She pleaded, desperate to claim her release. Sam only laughed, swearing he would take care of her.

Sam came first, filling the condom between them. However before Mercedes could recede from the edge she'd been on, he began massaging her clit, quickly and roughly, until she was yelling her climax.

Sam waited a moment to let her ride out her orgasm before withdrawing from Mercedes. Lazily he flopped down next to her, burying his face into her hair. Mercedes stared at the ceiling, silent, but breathing heavily.

"So good. You are so fucking good." He grinned and waited for Mercedes to respond with some sort of joke, like she always did.

Only she didn't.

Concerned, Sam raised his head from her hair and looked at her face.

"Mercy, sweets, what's up?" Mercedes eyes stayed trained on the ceiling, bouncing from spot to spot, as if she was trying to figure out what to say. She swallowed thickly and turned to face Sam, whose handsome face was twisted in worry.

"I'm going to NYU," she whimpered, eyes shining with unshed tears "I'm so sorry Sam. I know we said-" she stopped when Sam rolled of the bed to put on his shorts.

"What the fuck are you talking about Mercy? What the hell do you mean you're going to NYU? Like New York City?" His face was screwed up in anger and confusion. All of a sudden Mercedes felt 12 instead of 18, shame and guilt making it hard for her to breathe.

"Yes Sam. New York City." She couldn't look at him. She didn't have to, to know he was rooting his hands through his hair, face turning red.

"What about Stanford? Huh? What about our plans, what about you and me?!" He started to yell, but she took it, it could've been worse. After all she had betrayed him, he could've been crying.

"I gave up Berkley for you! Berkley! You told me you wanted to be together so I stayed in fucking Ohio. Are you even listening? LOOK AT ME." The command was so different from the last time he'd said it, before it was love, reverence. Now? Now it was anger and frustration and...resentment.

Mercedes met his eyes and let the tears fall. He was glaring at her, the mouth that had been kissing and praising her, twisted into a sneer.

"And you chose now to tell me? That? You thought pussy would soften the blow?" Mercedes flinched at the acid in his words "How could you do this to me?" In truth Mercedes didn't know. She just knew that NYU had been her only shot. Marketing was a hard industry and NYU was a major advantage. "I don't know." She replied.

Sam cursed again, got dressed and stormed to the door.

"You fucked me over Mercedes. I just hope you can live with yourself." With that Sam walked out of the door and out of her life.

-o-o-

It had taken Mercedes a total of ten minutes to decide that she was going to have coffee with Sam.

'After all,' she'd mused 'I did vow professionalism, and there is nothing wrong with a coffee date, no, a coffee meeting with a client. I'll just have to do my best to keep it from turning inappropriate. No matter how inappropriate being around Sam makes me.'

It had taken Mercedes one elevator ride to regret making such a decision. Her secretary, a "opinionated" Latina woman named Santana, had wiggled her dark brown eyebrows suggestively before handing Mercedes the phone number at 1:15.

"Shut up." Mercedes bit when she met Santana's suggestive eyes. "I didn't say anything, Mercedes." Santana's chuckled and went back to her work, humming carelessly. Mercedes turned away to make the call in private when Santana called out.

"But if I had said anything, it would've been that he was pretty good looking for a man +whose lips double as a flotation device." She teased.

"Thank you for that completely unnecessary comment San."

"Anytime!"

Mercedes thought back and shook her head. Santana was crazy. "Obviously she's just as crazy as I am for agreeing to this." She tapped her foot quickly, wringing her hands as she muttered aloud. "Why was he so damned happy to see me? The last time I saw him he told me I ruined his life." Mercedes gasped deeply and slammed her fist into her open palm.

"It's a trap!"

"If you say so Admiral Ackbar." Sam whispered into her ear. She barely muffled her scream but couldn't fully rein back her reaction and elbowed Sam in his abdomen. She cringed at his groan and turned to assess the damaged she'd caused.

"Oh God, Sam I am so sorry. I mean, you shouldn't have snuck up on me, but still." He held up his hand to stop her despite being bent at the waist.

"I'm fine. Don't even worry about it, I've had worse." Before he could stand upright again, a pained look flittered across Mercedes's face.

Yes he had suffered worse, courtesy of Mercedes herself. She couldn't stand it anymore, she had to ask.

"How are you doing this?"

Visibly confused, Sam looked at his ex-flame for a moment before patting himself on the stomach with a closed fist.

"Core exercises I guess? You aren't as strong as you think, the groan was mostly just for show."

Mercedes would have laughed if it didn't feel like there was a lead ball in her stomach. "No, Sam. How are you being so calm about seeing me again, I fucked you over remember? Those were your exact words. If you did to me what I did to you I would've walked out of that conference room as soon as I recognized you." Sam's confusion melted into a serious sort of understanding.

"Let's talk about that at the café hmm? Somewhere with privacy." He nodded his head toward the large glass doors outside of which a sleek black car waited. Mercedes breathed in deep and followed his lead.