Her response was immediate. “Good. I mean…” she looked down, biting her lip. “I know I shouldn’t feel like that. I shouldn’t…shouldn’t…”
“Yes, you should,” Merrick said fiercely. “After what he did to you? He fucking deserved everything I did to him and more.” He looked at her seriously. “I hope you understand why I had to do it. Why I had to kill him.”
She nodded. “I know. You’re not…you didn’t do anything I haven’t fantasized about myself. But I think if I’d done it myself it would have…have haunted me forever. So thank you, Merrick. Thank you for making sure he’ll never bother me again.”
“Never,” he promised. “I swear it.”
Elise shivered. “If you hadn’t come just in time…”
“But I did.” Merrick kissed her cheek. “Don’t think about it, baby. Don’t let your mind go there.”
“All right. I’ll try not to.” She took a deep breath. “I think he was planning this attack for awhile. James had been sending him pictures, feeding his obsession…”
“Wait a minute, what? That fucking fiancé of yours was in on this?” Merrick felt his eyes starting to grow hot again. “That’s fucked up. When I think that I had him right in front of me…”
“I know it’s awful,” Elise said hastily. “But please, Merrick, no more killing. Okay?”
He took a deep breath and, with a vast effort, sent the protective rage away. “All right. But he’d better not bother you again.”
“I’m sure he won’t,” Elise said and laughed a little jaggedly. “Not after…after he sees what you did to Charles. What…” she cleared her throat. “What did you do to him?”
“You don’t want to know,” Merrick said evenly. “Leave the blood work to me, baby. That way you can sleep with a clean conscience—all right?”
“All right, I guess.” Elise snuggled against him. “I’m just so glad and thankful you’re back. I don’t care about anything or anybody else.” She took a deep breath. “In fact, I don’t care if I never see this place again.”
“That’s probably a good thing, considering the mess I left in your domicile,” Merrick murmured. “And I’m pretty sure once your planet’s authorities find out I’m the one who did it, I won’t be welcome here anymore.”
“That’s okay,” she said softly. “I was thinking of moving up to the Mother Ship anyway. You know—for support.”
Merrick felt a weight he hadn’t known was there lift off his chest. “Good. Then we can be together for always.” He looked at her seriously. “And listen, Elise, I want you to know something—we can be together without doing anything to bring this back. Without…stirring up bad memories.”
She shook her head. “What exactly are you saying?”
He frowned, trying to think of a way to put it. “Just that I love you and I want to be with you, even if we have a, uh, unconventional relationship.”
“Unconventional how?”
Ah, hell…” He sighed. “Even if we never have sex. I don’t need that as long as I have you—okay?”
“That’s so sweet of you.” Elise gave him a tremulous smile. “I don’t really want to think of anything to do with that—with sex right now. But maybe later…”
“A long, long time later,” Merrick amended. “I’m not going to do anything to hurt you, baby—ever. I swear it. I just want you to know that I understand it could take you years to get over all this, and I’m good with waiting.”
“Oh, Merrick.” Elise pressed her face to his neck again and then he felt her shoulders shaking.
“Elise?” he asked, immediately worried. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. No. I…I don’t know. I’m sorry,” she whispered between sobs. “I don’t…don’t know why I’m crying.”
“That’s all right, baby,” Merrick murmured soothingly as he carried her up into the ship. “You don’t have to know. Just let it out.”
Cradled safe in his arms, Elise did.
Chapter Forty-four
“So you never got to tell me—what ever happened with you and Xairn?” Liv asked Lauren, leaning forward to take another slice of watermelon-broccoli-cheese quiche. Kat had dubbed the unusual looking concoction “disgusting in the extreme” even though she had been the one to make it for Olivia in the first place.