Free Have Mercy: A Loveswept Contemporary Erotic Romance by Shelley Ann Clark Page A

hem of her T-shirt and pulled the damp fabric slowly up her body,revealing the pale white skin of her belly inch by inch. When Tom inhaled sharply behind her, she bit back a smile.
Good
.
    She folded her T-shirt and set it down on the table, then reached for her brush. Wearing just her black lace bra and her jeans, she teased her hair at the crown, fluffing it into a fine blonde halo. As she coiled the mass of it onto the top of her head, Emme felt the weight of Tom’s gaze like a fingertip against the vulnerable, exposed skin on the back of her neck. She closed her eyes and shivered. God, she wanted him to touch her, but this was its own delicious agony.
    When Emme opened her eyes again, she checked for Tom in the mirror. He hadn’t moved except to bring the cigarette to his lips, slowly and deliberately. He inhaled, eyes locked on hers. When he shifted, she noticed two things: his erection, pressing obviously against the front of his jeans, and that his hand shook as he lowered the cigarette from his mouth.
    She unzipped her muddy jeans and pushed them to the floor.
    Emme turned to admire her own ass in her black boy shorts—something she never would have done without an audience, something she did now for the pure pleasure she got from the groan Tom made when she did it. Her heart thudded against her sternum the way it did during a song, when all the parts and pieces and instruments worked together with the energy of the audience; only this time, she was all the instruments, all the lines of music, and Tom was her audience of one. When she tried to name the feelings soaring through her, two opposing thoughts came to mind:
powerful
and
vulnerable
.
    Emme pulled her black garter belt and black silk stockings out of her bag. She hooked the belt around her waist, watching Tom watch her in the mirror all the while. His face had darkened, and his hand hovered in the air in front of his fly, as if he wasn’t quite sure where to put it. She gave him just the tiniest nod of permission as she bent over to slide one stocking onto her foot.
    Tom ran his hand over the front of his cock as she rolled the silk slowly up her leg, the trail of fabric against her skin its own brand of erotic torture. Her fingers brushed against the bare skin at the top of her thigh as she hooked the lace of her stocking to the garter. She sighed at the sensation at the same time Tom sighed behind her, his eyes falling closed.
    “Look at me.”
    His eyes snapped open and met hers in the mirror again.
    “Good.” Emme gave him a hint of a smile as she unrolled the second stocking up her leg.
    It was too dark for Emme to see Tom’s eyes, but she knew they were blue, surprisingly light with his dark hair. He’d finished the cigarette and crushed it out on the dirty floor. His eyelids hadgrown heavy, his lips parted, mouth open and lewd. The sight sent images chasing through her head, a flipbook of pictures of what he might look like right before he came, how his face might glaze with pleasure if she sank to her knees and took him into her mouth. The thought pulsed through her as she watched him watching her.
    Stockings attached, she leaned over the table to get closer to the mirror for her makeup. She knew as she did it that the action pushed her ass up, displayed it for him.
He could take me right here. I’m already bent over the table and ready. But he won’t
.
    Unless I tell him to
.
    Oh, that thought was delicious. So delicious that she had to give a little wiggle to feel the slide of the lace against her clit as she heard him make a noise that sounded startlingly close to a whimper.
    With lust-trembling hands, she applied her foundation, taking more time to blend it in than she really needed. Next came eyeliner. She had to take a few deep breaths before she could draw her signature cat’s-eye without worrying that she’d stab herself in the process. By the time she pulled out her lipstick and traced it around her slightly parted lips, she and