Hotel Key

Chapter 25

RickyJo sat down at her desk, laughing as she released the top button on her pants and breathed a giant sigh of relief. She'd only gotten away with wearing her regular clothes this long because most of her work pants were loose on her in the first place. Her jeans stopped fitting her shortly after the beginning of the semester. And she was well past the point where she could even attempt to suck in the hard swell of her stomach. She sighed, deciding that she was just going to have to break down and buy some maternity clothes. On the one occasion that she browsed through the maternity store in the mall with a giant hot pretzel in her hand, she was disgusted by not only the matronly look and general hideousness of the clothing inside, but by the cheap scratchy feel of the fabrics that the items were made of. The ever stretching skin of her stomach was uncomfortable enough without wrapping it up in synthetic fabric and weird nylon looking girdles. Just thinking about it made her cringe. And she pulled up her shirt, grabbing the tube of cocoa butter from her desk drawer and applying a liberal amount to her swollen itchy belly. She rubbed it in, wiping the excess off onto the thigh of her pants before she grabbed for her buzzing phone and checked to see who was messaging her.

The text was from Daryl. He was messaging to tell her he was staying late at the shop to work on Shane's car with him. From his usual state of drunkenness when he came home from this particular activity, RickyJo guessed there was usually more drinking than car fixing going on. But she didn't mind. She was glad Daryl made a friend. And Shane was a better influence than Merle. All Shane did was drink. He didn't do any hard drugs. And he didn't drink as much as Merle. And if they did drink too much, Shane would either make Daryl take a cab back to the apartment building with him or call one of his cop buddies to give them a ride. RickyJo didn't have to worry about Daryl if he was out with Shane. And since she had some research papers stacked up on her desk to grade, she decided she might go ahead and work late herself.

RickyJo messaged back, telling Daryl she was staying late at work to grade some papers and that she would pick them up takeout on her way home. She laughed when another message buzzed in. This time it was from Shane's phone, asking her if she would pick up dinner for him too. She buzzed back, saying she would and that he owed her coffee and a get out of any speeding ticket free card. Just as she set it down, her phone buzzed again. She snatched it up, hoping it wasn't another video of some silly idiot shit Shane and Daryl were doing. Instead, she saw it was her pregnancy tracking app notifying her that her baby was now the size of either a pomegranate or a ball of mozzarella cheese. Comparing a baby to what seemed like the most random food items ever amused her to no end. And she found herself laughing harder than before because imagining a ball of mozzarella cheese inside her was totally making her hungry.

Grabbing the pile of research papers, RickyJo flipped through them. They were from her higher level students. And even though the class focused on agricultural biology, she let them choose any topic they wanted for the papers as long as it was related in some way to biology. Pulling one out at random, she scanned the cover page. The subject of the paper was the effects of long term stress on the immune system. It was an interesting topic. One she didn't know much about. RickyJo flipped the paper open and began reading, pulling the top of her dreaded red felt tip pen so she could mark any grammatical mistakes or improperly quoted data. She got about halfway through the first page when she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

RickyJo glanced up. She startled, letting out a little yip as her body reacted to the sudden unannounced presence of a man in the doorway of her tiny office. When she recovered from her initial shock, she flipped her middle finger up at Merle.

"It's called knocking you asshole!," she cursed. RickyJo expected laughter from him. She was hard to sneak up on. And usually when he managed to startle her, Merle got a real kick out of it. But his face was drawn and serious. And he looked disheveled, like he hadn't slept well in a while. Her first thought was that something might be wrong with her Nana or one of the girls. But it seemed like Jessica would have called if that was the case. Maybe something happened to Jessica?

"What's wrong?," she asked. Merle advanced on her, his eyes fixed on her with the intensity of a poisonous viper. He leaned down, pointing his finger into her face.

"Ya know damn well what's wrong," he hissed. "Yer a goddamn lying little two timin' fuckin' tramp!"

"What?!," RickyJo said, fanning the air in front of her face. Not only was Merle making absolutely no sense. He reeked of whiskey. And he was being rude. Even ruder than usual. RickyJo stood up, putting herself toe to toe with him. Then she shoved him. Hard.

"Get the fuckin' hell outta here Merle! I'm not in the mood fer yer bullshit!" Slamming her hands into his chest was like slamming them into a brick wall. Not only did he not back up a step. He didn't move an inch. But she slapped her hands against his chest again anyway. Just because he pissed her off.

Merle grabbed her, digging his fingers into her arms so hard she was sure he was leaving bruises in the shape of his fingers. She winced in pain as she tried to pull away. He relaxed his hold slightly, but he didn't let go. He was still gripping her hard enough to make it uncomfortable. Merle leaned in so close the tip of his nose was touching hers. And she turned her head, trying to get away from the rank whiskey smell of his breath. He was breathing hard, the color rising in his face. His eyes moved down over her body, lingering on the hard lump between her hips.

"That's my goddamn baby in there," he hissed.

RickyJo's eyes widened. Her mouth dropped open. How could he know that? There's no way he could know that. RickyJo quickly regained control over her facial expressions. But she knew it was already too late. Merle saw the look of shock and fear in her eyes. She just confirmed what he probably only suspected when he barged into her office.

"That's not true," she argued, twisting her shoulders as she tried to free herself from his pinching grip. "Merle," she whimpered, "...yer hurtin' me."

Just as quickly as he grabbed her, Merle released his grip on her arms, looking down at his hands like he wasn't sure how they got on her in the first place. She stumbled back, her thighs bumping into the edge of her desk. She steadied herself with her hands and sat on the desktop, lifting her hands to rub the feeling back into her arms. She cast a nervous glance in Merle's direction before she grabbed her phone off the desk behind her and flipped it open, tapping furiously at Daryl's name on the contact list. Merle snatched it from her hands, snapping it closed and throwing it at the wall. The phone shattered on impact and RickyJo put her hands up to protect herself from the broken pieces of plastic that flew back in their direction.

"This conversation is between me and you," he said, pressing forward into her personal space. RickyJo cringed back, bringing her arms up to protect her face. Normally, she would have her knee buried so far into Merle's balls that he would never have to worry about fathering another child for the rest of his life. But she was afraid to fight him. Afraid that if he fought back, he might hurt her baby. One of her arms moved down, circling protectively around her belly. Merle took in her protective stance and the frightened look in her eyes.

"I'm not gonna fuckin' hit ya RickyJo. But ya better start tellin' me the truth. Right fuckin' now."

Merle watched RickyJo as she slowly lowered her arm. She didn't say anything. He guessed she was probably trying to figure out how he knew what was going on. And she only had one person to blame for that. Her cousin.

Jessica yapped her mouth a lot. She started jabbering at Merle the moment he woke up in the morning. And he was lucky if it stopped by the time he was ready to go to sleep. Merle usually just tuned her out. It was easy to do since he was at least halfway to drunk pretty much all the time now. And Jessica was able to keep up a steady stream of conversation with little input from him. But when she started yapping about RickyJo's pregnancy, her words cut through his whiskey induced fog. She used some stupid internet pregnancy calculator. He wasn't sure what Jess was looking up. Maybe to see when they would be able to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl or some other bullcrap. But the internet provided another date. The date that the baby was conceived. Jessica was laughing about it and saying that RickyJo was a big liar. Apparently, RickyJo told Jess that Daryl got her pregnant the weekend he proposed to her. But the internet said she got pregnant the moment she got back from her camping trip. And that got Merle thinking. Because Daryl didn't fuck her when she got back from camping. He did.

"Tell me the truth!," he roared. "NOW!"

Merle saw it the moment the switch flipped inside her head. He wasn't sure if it was grabbing her, calling her a tramp, or trashing her phone that flipped her rage switch. But he knew the moment RickyJo narrowed her eyes at him and knitted her eyebrows together, making a little crease appear between them, that he was in deep shit. She brought her knee up between his legs. Merle was ready for her bullshit and shifted his hips, blocking her. She connected with his thigh instead of his balls, but it still hurt. Then she hauled off and slapped him hard across the face. Twice.

"Get the fuck away from me Merle!," she screamed. "Ya want the truth? Yer not fit ta be a father. Yer nothin' but a drunk ass piece of shit!" She slammed her hands against his chest. But this time he stumbled back a step when she hit him. "If you ever put yer hands on me like that again I'll blast yer fuckin' head off! Stay away from me! And stay away from my baby!"

Merle stumbled back another step, her words hitting him harder than the flat of her palms. He assumed RickyJo was lying about the baby because she didn't want Daryl to know they slept together. They were off living their perfect little married white picket fence fantasy life. And Merle assumed that she wanted Daryl to believe the baby was his so that he wouldn't get upset and leave her. Merle never stopped to think that her motivation might be protecting her child. From him. Was he really that fucking horrible of a person? Merle kept going, stepping backwards out the door of her small office and heading down the hall. He felt like he was being stabbed repeatedly in the center of his chest.

RickyJo collapsed into her chair. She took a moment to regain her senses. The tears were running down over her face before she even realized she was crying. A hard gasping sob bubbled out of her. RickyJo nearly choked on it as she buried her face in her hands and started crying harder than she could remember crying in years. She jerked her head up when she heard a sharp rap on her open office door. When she saw that Merle was back, she leaped up from her seat. When he entered her office and shut the door behind him, she started backing up, trying to put as much space as possible between them.

"I'm sorry," he rasped. He scrubbed his face with his hands, muttering a few more choice words under his breath. "I'm so fuckin' sorry."

"Yer always sorry," she retorted, shaking her head at him. Her voice was soft and sad, without a trace of the raging anger that she was spitting at him a moment before. Merle closed the distance between them, moving slowly this time to try and keep from frightening her again. Her hands were shaking when she lifted them to wipe the tears from her face. When he got close enough to reach her, he hit his knees on the floor in front of her. Then he grabbed her hands and did what he should have done months ago. He begged.

"Please. Please don't do this ta me…" He buried his face in her hands, kissing her open palms and rubbing her fingertips over the stubble on his cheeks. "Ya can't keep my baby from me. Ya can't! Ya gotta give me another chance. Please. I'll do anythin' fer you. I'll never drink another fuckin' drop. I swear! Have fuckin' mercy on me. Please!"

Merle released her hands. He reached forward, laying one his large calloused palms flat against the swell of her stomach. His other arm gently grasped her hip, pulling her closer to him. He rested his forehead against her stomach first. Then he turned his head, pressing his ear and the side of his face against her. It wasn't until she twined her fingers into his hair that he pushed her shirt up and started to cover her stomach in kisses, murmuring more of the same pleading promises he just spoke a moment before. RickyJo felt little bubbles of movement inside her as the baby reacted to the sudden flurry of activity.

"Merle, please don't do this," she whispered. "...I was just angry before. We're family. Ya know I'd never make it so ya can't see yer own nephew…"

RickyJo lifted her hand, clamping it down over her mouth. They were waiting until the baby was born to find out the gender. Daryl didn't even know it was a boy. RickyJo wasn't supposed to know either. She only knew because she snuck a peek at her medical charts while the nurse stepped out the room to test her pee. The extra genetic testing she requested a few months before revealed not only that the baby was healthy, but the gender as well.

"It's a boy?," Merle asked, his face lit with excitement. "A son?" He scrambled to his feet, wrapping his arms around RickyJo and holding her against his chest. She collapsed against his chest for just a moment, clutching his shirt. But then she gently wriggled out of his embrace. RickyJo took a deep breath, letting it out slowly through her nose. She took his hands in hers.

"Merle. Listen ta me. We're both married. What happened between us was a mistake. I'm not tryin' ta hurt you. Or take anythin' away from ya. But ya gotta understand, we can't raise this baby together. You've gotta let this go. Please. It'll ruin all our lives if ya don't."

"Okay," he said. He pulled hand from hers, lifting it to cup her face. His thumb stroked gently back and forth across the round of her cheek. "Tell me ya don't love me and I'll go."

"What?," RickyJo asked. Her full lips parted slightly as she stared at him in disbelief.

"Tell me ya don't love me," he repeated. "Tell me and I'll leave. I'll let this all go. Like it never happened."

RickyJo sucked in a ragged breath. She tilted her head back to try and stop the tears. But they were already falling down over her cheeks. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest.

"I… I…," she stammered. "...I don't love you." She managed to spit the words out just before she burst into tears. It felt like someone reached into her chest and squeezed the life out of her. Merle pulled her close, rubbing her back and letting her sob into his chest.

"Babygirl," he drawled, "...yer the worst liar I ever saw."

RickyJo wasn't sure exactly what happened. Her emotions felt like a raging tornado inside her. One moment, Merle was rubbing her back while she cried down the front of his shirt. The next, his mouth was on hers. He kissed her like he was dying of thirst for a taste of her. And before she could stop herself, her hands were around his neck and she was kissing him back just as hard. He pulled at her shirt, sending buttons flying as he yanked the front of it open. She tilted her head back, baring the long line of her neck as he trailed hot kisses down into her cleavage. He sucked and pinched at her nipples through the white lace of her bra. One of his hands trailed down over the swell of her stomach. Her pants were already unbuttoned. And he used that to his advantage, slipping his hand inside her panties. He found her clit, rubbing one thick finger back and forth across it before he dipped in further and stroked roughly at the root of her clit. Her entire body was rigid and her fingers were digging into his shoulders. Her breaths were coming in short little panting gasps.

"Come fer me," he encouraged as he flicked his finger across her bud one more time, forcing her orgasm out of her. She came hard, moaning loud enough that Merle covered her mouth with his to muffle the noise. Before she could regain her senses enough to stop their little tryst from going any further, Merle raked her pants and underwear down off over her hips, letting them pool up on the floor at her feet. He unzipped his own pants, letting his erection spring free as he sat down on her office chair. Grabbing RickyJo by the hips, he pulled her down onto his lap so that her back was against his chest. His dick was buried between the firm cheeks of her ass and she arched her back, pushing against it. He guided her hips, lifting them slightly and then pulling her back down in one hard motion, impaling her on his dick. She gasped and grabbed the edge of the desk like it hurt. But she was also rocking her hips back into him, looking for more.

He grabbed her thighs, spreading them apart. Then he found her clit with his fingers again, working it in rough little circles with his dick buried inside her. His other hand rested against the small of her back. And he slid it down over the curve of her ass, turning his hand so that he could rim her ass with his fingers. She gasped a little, surprised not only to be touched in such a forbidden place but also surprised that she liked it. Her gaps turned into a moan and he pushed the tip of his finger inside her. She was well slicked from her prior orgasm. But it was still a tight fit for his thick finger in her virgin opening. Sliding his finger back out, he added a second one, shoving them both inside and forcing her tight little rosebud open. His other fingers were still working her clit, but he eased up on the pressure, teasing her with light little strokes until she began to whimper and rock her hips into his hand.

"Ya wanna come again," he teased, "Yer gonna have ta work fer it." He ghosted his fingers across her clit again. "Take me fer a ride. Lemme see whatcha got."

To make his point, he thrust his hips up into her, bouncing her up and down on his dick. When she landed he withdrew both his hands, resting them on her hips. She was so slick with need, his balls and the base of his dick were covered in her juices. She tilted her hips, adjusting her grip on the desk. And then she started to move. Her thrusts were erratic and jerky at first. The position was obviously not one she was familiar with. But after a moment, she found her rhythm. She was lifting up, slamming her hips back down onto his lap. But when she began to pump her hips back and forth, grinding on him, he put his hands back to work. Taking her ass first, he shoved his fingers back inside her, letting her take them deeper with each thrust. His other hand slid around the front of her, rubbing her clit. She came with a loud flurry of curses, her insides spasming so hard that even her ass was convulsing around his fingers. Her insides milked his dick, forcing one hard release after another from him until he was sure his balls had been emptied completely. Not only was being inside her everything he remembered from the first time, it was even better with her on top of him where he could reach every part of her body.

RickyJo collapsed against him for a moment, letting her heart rate return to normal. Then she awkwardly lifted her body off him, letting his still semi hard dick slide out of her and flop against his stomach with a splat. She immediately reached for her clothes, pulling her underwear and pants back up, then trying to put her damaged shit back together. Merle tucked his dick back into his pants. And once RickyJo was done fiddling with her shirt, he stood up and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her deeply, determined to treat her better than he had after the last time they had sex.

"I love you," he whispered into her ear. She didn't return his declaration. But she did wrap her arms around him and hug him tightly, which he thought was promising. It was better than getting a bottle of tequila launched at his head. That was for certain. When she pulled back, she looked up at him with her big green eyes.

"What now?," she asked.

"Yer gonna have ta decide that," he said, brushing the backs of his knuckles over her cheek. She already knew where he stood. He would burn down this entire city and everyone in it to be with her. "...'cause I know what I'm gonna do now." RickyJo's brows knitted together. And she lifted her hand, toying with the ring on her finger.

"Don't do anything crazy," she warned. After another concerned glance, she asked, "What are ya gonna do?"

Merle smiled. He leaned in and pressed another kiss to her lips. He could already feel his dick stirring in his pants again. That's what she did to him.

"About this same time next week," he said. "...I'm gonna come back here. I'm gonna pick ya up and take ya to dinner. And then I'm gonna take ya to one of those fancy ass hotels ya like and fuck you."

Merle watched her reaction to his proposal. RickyJo didn't say yes. But she didn't immediately say no either. Which he felt was hopeful. Merle felt the urge to get back down on his knees again. And beg her to leave with him right now. But he knew he needed to give her some time. If he pushed her for too much now, she would call the whole thing off. So instead, he pulled her close and gave her one more lingering kiss. Then he rubbed his hand over her stomach.

"See you and my boy next week," he promised. Then he did the hardest thing he had to do the entire night. He turned and walked away from her. And he kept going until he was on his bike and driving back out of the city, feeling like his heart was ready to rip in half the entire ride.