Chapter 45
"Finn was just keeping me company while you were gone." Mercedes explained quickly not liking the look on Sam's face. His temper was flaring and she didn't want to risk him passing out again.
Finn stood up and clamped Sam on the shoulder, grinning from ear to ear. "I wouldn't miss your birthday bro."
Sam roughly shook him away. "I'm not your dude or your bro, so stop calling me that."
"Sure thing dude." Finn brushed aside Sam, stepping closer to Mercedes. "Cede gotta say, loving the costume change, smoking hot." Finn beamed appreciatively, eying her up and down exaggerating his movements for effect. "Why are you hiding in the corner girl?" He grabbed for her hand but Mercedes resisted, shooting Finn warning looks to back off. Finn ignored her and kept up his act. "You need to get out that chair and dance with me. You did accept my dance off challenge."
"I don't really think now is the time..." Mercedes said through clenched teeth.
"Dance off?" Sam asked interrupting her. "I thought you said you don't dance." He looked from Finn's face to her own, silently demanding further explanation.
"I said WE don't dance." Mercedes shifted in her chair uncomfortably. "I'm actually quite good at it."
She remembered their conversation earlier in the evening when he showed her the letter he found, bringing up painful memories of the time when she tried her hardest to hate him. A last dance was the one thing she had to hold on to then, the small hope that they would find a way back together, but it never happened, not until everything crashed.
Finn jumped right in with a smile and far too much enthusiasm. "Yep Cede, claims to have more moves than me. I'm thinking it's all talk, just like that guacamole you promised me. I have yet to taste one scoop."
"You know I left it at home Finn." He was getting on her nerves now, taking things too far. The vein in the center of Sam's forehead reappeared and she could see the tension building in his body. He was going to go off on Finn soon if Mercedes didn't find a way to diffuse things.
"You cooked for him?" Sam asked, his mouth agape.
"Guacamole is not cooking, it's more mixing really…" Mercedes tried to come up with any excuse to back out of the conversation. She could only imagine how all of this must have sounded to Sam. It was like she and Finn had a secret language going on, which wasn't the case at all, she was barely friendly with the guy.
"And chopping," Finn chimed in. "I know you must've gotten a workout chopping those veggies." He squeezed her bicep, and Mercedes could see Sam's jaw tick at the contact. "That's why I'm so disappointed I didn't get any."
"Finn I think we should talk about all this later," said Mercedes standing up, and moving out of Finn's reach. She stepped closer to Sam, hoping Finn would catch a clue and leave.
No such luck as Finn continued to run his mouth. "You better not renege on that rain check. Guac and a movie at your place right?"
"Sam doesn't want to hear about our silly plans," Mercedes chuckled nervously.
"You made a date with this guy?" Sam asked leaning down to look at her.
Mercedes stared straight ahead at Finn, not daring to meet Sam's eyes. What could she say? In a way she had made a date, and really she had no reason to be guilty about it, Finn was just a friend. Her first instinct was to snap back at him and say just that, but she wanted to keep the peace. His birthday party was not the place for this discussion.
"We made a plan bro. We're gonna kick back, have some fun. You should try it some time, you look like you could use some fun in your life. You're the sorriest looking birthday boy I've ever seen."
"It's been a rough night." Sam said slightly dejected. Mercedes rubbed his arm gently, unable to help herself from giving him comfort when he seemed so forlorn.
"Have some caviar. Shake it off." Finn scoffed, fanning his hand. "Your wife is hot, your kid is cute, no worries right?"
Mercedes glared at Finn, shooting daggers, bullets, stakes, anything sharp with her mind. He was going to pay for doing this, after she expressly told him she didn't want to mess with Sam's head.
"Finn leave him alone. It's his party he can be sad if he wants to."
The boy couldn't buy a hint. He just kept going and going with that mouth and all those dumb smiles.
"I think you should ditch this sad sack of bones and come hang with me."
Mercedes stepped back, bumping into Sam's chest. Sam didn't draw her in or push her away. He simply stood unmovable and unreadable when she glanced up at his face.
"Finn, I'm here with Sam," Mercedes said with more than a bit of irritation and exasperation in her voice. "Like on a date, so all my dances are reserved for him."
It was then she felt Sam's arms surround her pulling her back against his chest. He had been testing her, Mercedes quickly realized, trying to decipher her true connection to Finn. Normally she might have been upset by his lack of trust, but she knew he didn't quite know her yet, and since she hadn't been immediately forthcoming with him about a number of things, it was understandable that he would be reluctant to trust her completely.
"Lucky break dude, I thought sure she would've dumped your butt after that stunt you pulled bringing Quinn here tonight. Not many women would let that slide."
"Keep your commentary on my life to yourself." Sam said sharply. Mercedes could feel every muscle in his body tighten. "You don't know a damn thing about me."
"I know you're a fool if you don't hold onto this beautiful woman." Finn gestured toward her with a flourish of his hand. "She's not going to wait around for you forever. The next guy might slide in while you're busy with some other girl."
"Stupid prick," Sam mumbled under his breath after Finn finally left. He ran his hands through his hair, making it stand even more on end, but somehow it still looked good. "Was that a threat? Is he interested in you Mercedes?"
Here comes the macho crap. Sam barely had an interest in her himself, but if another man sniffed in her direction, he got all possessive. So typical.
"No. I told you he just broke up with his girlfriend," she replied wearily. "You aren't really upset about Finn are you?"
Sam sat in the chair that Finn had previously occupied and opened his bottle of water, taking a huge gulp. "I don't like the guy."
"You don't know him." Mercedes joined him at the table. "Maybe if you were civil and gave him a chance you'd see he's not a bad guy."
"I don't want to talk about this anymore. You're "friendly" with him," said Sam making quotes in the air with his fingers. "I saw that photo. Whatever I don't care."
"I know you don't care, since you have your own "friendly" photo," said Mercedes mimicking his gesture with her own set of air quotes.
Sam shot her a look, angry at first, but he caught himself and relaxed. "I thought we were letting this go for the night."
"Right. We are."
"Okay then," he said taking her hand and holding it across the table. "We have a date to finish."
"Don't you mean a date to start?" she asked coyly. "Nothing remotely date-like has happened yet."
Sam reached under the table and grabbed her chair, pulling her around next to him. "Not true, we had dinner."
"You had dinner," Mercedes said playing with his fingers.
Sam moved closer, inches from her face. "You could've stuck your fork in at any time."
Mercedes looked away, not wanting to get caught up in his full lips. "I know better than to get between a man and his food."
"There were kisses," he said catching her chin, and turning her head toward him, forcing her to run smack into those green eyes, half lidded with so much she couldn't read.
"Never happened." She smiled giving into the pull. He was hot. He was her husband. Why shouldn't she look at him? "Didn't meet the ten second requirement."
"What's that?"
Her eyes dropped to his lips as he quickly moistened them with his tongue. "For a kiss to count it must last for ten seconds and the ones we had were three seconds max."
"Wow you take this rule stuff really seriously. I see I'm going to have to stay on my toes with you."
"It would be best you did. I've been told I'm a lot to handle."
"I know how to handle a woman like you."
Their eyes locked as he flashed a knowing smile. Mercedes couldn't help but wonder if he was feeling the same déjà vu that she was. They had done this dance before.
"Is that right?" She shifted closer, putting both hands on his thigh. "Maybe you used to, but you've forgotten a lot."
"Some things are pure instinct baby."
"Oh god with the baby stuff again." She teased wanting to playfully push him away, to relieve the tension, but she was glued to the spot by his eyes and the feel of his hands creeping up her back. "You can't use lines on me Sam, I know you too well."
"I don't do lines baby," he said nuzzling his nose against hers.
"Sam stop," she giggled shaking her head.
Sam wasn't laughing, drawing his fingers through her hair, watching her face with a slight smile. "You look so pretty when you laugh. You should do it more often."
Mercedes instantly warmed under the scrutiny, remembering her lack of makeup and how young she must look to him. "I laugh. You haven't been around much to see."
"I'm hoping after tonight that'll change."
On the edge of the chair, practically ready to climb in his lap, if he kept looking at her the way he was, intense and seductive, she wasn't sure she would be able to control the urge to be closer to him.
"Oh yeah you're supposed to dazzle me so much that I'll want to give our marriage another chance," she said rolling her eyes.
No way could Sam pull this off. He was too preoccupied with Quinn for one, too full of crap to be sincere next, and last he simply didn't have it in him to put in the effort, not for her, not when his heart was clearly elsewhere.
"That's the plan," he replied.
"The night's half done. When are you going to start?"
Strong hands sliding up her back lifting her from her seat and onto his lap, nestling her against him, her arms instinctively circling his neck, pulling him down nose to nose, before she could catch her breath or shut her eyes his lips were on hers. Gentle at first, a full caress with his mouth, soft and smooth, and then she sighed opening her lips just a little, subtly inviting him closer and he accepted, dipping his tongue between her lips to kiss her deeper.
She wanted more as she pulled on his hair and moaned in succession against his lips. Something familiar for the first time since he came back, a taste of what she'd lost, a glimpse of the man she loved. Sam wouldn't give her air, tangling his hands in her hair holding her tighter, so close she could feel the heat of his body and the beat of his heart. He bit her bottom lip, tugging it gently between his teeth, then soothed it raining kisses across it, before nipping at it again. Sam silently took her in, eyes roaming her face slowly, then with a lick of his lips his assault of her mouth resumed.
"Ten," he said sounding out of breath as he pulled back from her lips.
With eyes still closed, she clung to the lapels of his jacket, dizzy and tingling, her lips still stinging with the remnants of their kiss. "Why are you counting?" she asked, still feeling dazed.
"That kiss qualifies for the 10 second rule and this date has officially begun."
Sam ran his finger down her chin, Mercedes' eyes fluttered open at the sensation. He smiled, slow spreading, eyes slanting into half-moons, and dimples erupting on his face. Mercedes' heart did a little flip, as she ran her fingers through the back of his hair, completely forgetting they were in the middle of a room and not alone. She leaned against him, sighing to herself, still reeling from being kissed so thoroughly. Never had there been a better kiss that she could recall, because he gave it freely, without his memory but knowing she was his wife, without argument or anything to prove. It felt like he kissed her just because he wanted to, maybe because he needed to, and that made all the difference.
Nothing would top this moment, she was sure of it, until he leaned in and kissed her again.