Branded: You Own Me & The Virgin's Night Out (4 page)

Decker.

She’d made friends since then, but a friend wasn’t the same. It didn’t ease that ache of loneliness. It didn’t chase away the chill in the night. Although now, the chill was far, far worse.

But maybe Noel would get it. Maybe he’d understand. Maybe—

A gentle hand touched her cheek and she looked up. Decker had eased in closer, until his face all but filled her vision. “Are you so determined to keep him that you’ll make yourself miserable until he realizes you’re still patiently waiting?”

“Well.” She licked her lips.
Come on. Play
. But they still continued to chat. “I was thinking about…” she forced the rest of it out in a rush, looking away from him.

But neither that, nor her lowered voice kept him from hearing what she said.

“Excuse me?”

His voice was a dark, harsh rasp.

The sound of it sent a shiver down her spine. “I…uh…” She shrugged lamely, unable to find the right words.

The band started up and she could have cheered in relief. But that didn’t last long.

Decker clearly wasn’t done talking.

He caught her hand, pulled her from the booth. She could have pulled away—he would have let her and it would have saved her this embarrassing discussion, but he’d just nag her until she told him. And she would. Sooner or later. Besides, he’d probably tell her it was a stupid idea. Selah was a good friend, but she was always trying to make her feel better about herself. Decker would tell it to her straight.

So when he pushed her beer into her hand and led her through the crush out to the wooden deck, she followed. But he didn’t stop once they were outside. He kept walking and walking until they found a relatively quiet, and almost private, area.

Once they were there, he let go of her hand and lifted his beer to his lips, all but drained the pilsner. Then he put it down, braced his hands on the railing. “Okay. Explain this to me again. You’re going to let that asshole
date
…because he wants an
open relationship
…and you’re going to
what
?”

“Well.” Jerking one shoulder in a shrug, she took a sip from her beer, wishing for courage, or maybe just a little more eloquence. Nothing happened. And he was still watching her. It was quieter here, but the light was still strong and she could see the dark, intense blue of his eyes, the tight set of his jaw. Flames from one of his tattoos licked up over his neck and just then, the flames seemed to pulse. “Look, it’s probably a stupid idea, but Selah thought maybe I should do it—sign up for that
Wanna Play
site, since that’s where all this probably started. If he can do it, maybe I should, too. Tell him, see what he says. I don’t know.”

She took another drink, then another. “It’s a stupid idea. Even if

I
did
sign up for it, it would be a waste of time. Who in the world would waste time with me?”

“I would…only I don’t see it as a waste.”

“Very funny,” she muttered.

He reached up and took her beer away and then she found herself being crowded back against the railing behind her. “You’re

serious about doing this?” he asked when she scowled up at him.

It took her a moment to answer, because it was…unsettling. Yes,

that was it. It was unsettling to have Decker’s long, heavy body so

close to hers. He was hot—the heat of his body seemed to pulse against her skin in waves. Under the short sleeves of his T-shirt, his tattoos were a beautiful, vivid stain against his skin and she found herself studying one of them—the Chinese dragon that was coiled around and around his right arm, from wrist all the way up, disappearing under the sleeve.

“I don’t know,” she said, forcing the words out past her tight throat. “Like I said, Selah thinks I should, but I don’t know. I don’t want to date. I just want Noel to get over this stupid idea and…”

“And what?” Decker asked, his voice blunt.

Dragging her eyes up, she met his. “What do you mean?”

“You want him to let this idea go so you two can go back to the way you were? But you can’t do that. And part of you is going to wonder now. He’s complained that he’s not satisfied and that’s going to make you doubt yourself. Lizzie…” His voice went soft. “You deserve better.”

“Why me? Why do
I
deserve better? He’s the one who isn’t happy.” Curling her hands into fists, she shook her head. “If I’m not making
him
happy, doesn’t that mean
I’m
the one who is messing it up?”

“Stop.” He covered her mouth with his hand, shaking his head. “He’s the one who is always pushing change on you. If he was worth even the price of one of those shirts he likes to brag about, he’d realize you’re perfect the way you are.”

“I’m not perfect,” she mumbled.

“You are you. If he can’t appreciate you for you, then that’s his problem.” Decker shrugged, unconcerned with anything else. “Now. Again. Let’s talk about this website. Are you going to sign up for it?”

She rolled her eyes. “It would be a waste of my time, wouldn’t it? I mean, if I thought it would make him change his mind, then sure, but let’s say I do sign up. What’s going to happen?”

“You’ll have too many men who don’t have a clue about the real

you wanting to spend time with you,” Decker said, and his brows drew down tight in a scowl.

“Whatever.”

“You will.” He reached up, brushed her curls back from her brow. “I think you should do it. Go ahead…see what happens. And if he doesn’t realize how stupid he’s being, maybe it’s for the best. You’ll figure out that he isn’t right for you—that he can’t make you happy, and you’ll move on. Maybe something good can come from this.”

“How?”

“Maybe you’ll end up meeting somebody who treats you the way you deserve to be treated. Not the way that bastard has you thinking you should be treated.” He dipped his head and pressed a kiss to her brow.

He’d done that, easily, a hundred times.

More.

Was it just her or did it seem like his lips lingered? Or maybe she was just lonely…and wishing that was what had happened.

Uploading images
…

“I’m going to be sick,” Elizabeth whispered, dropping her face into her hands. She was really doing this. Memories of the way Noel had reacted had given her the courage to go this far, but now? “I’m going to throw up.”

“No, you’re not. Here. Take a drink.”

Elizabeth eyed the green bottle Selah had pushed her way, then, with a sigh, she accepted it. As she took a small sip of the ginger beer Selah drank like it was liquid candy, she refused to look at the monitor.

“Okay. Pictures are uploaded…what do you want to say in your profile?”

Putting the bottle down, Elizabeth leaped to her feet and started to pace. It had been two weeks since she’d sat down with Noel and laid things out.
Yes, we can try this. But if you’ll be pursuing this open relationship idea, I’m going to as well.

She hadn’t planned on doing it, not really.

But then he’d smiled at her. A sweet, understanding sort of smile…while his eyes
laughed
at her. It had taken her a while to understand why she felt all hot and tight in her gut. She didn’t let herself get mad. She fought
against
getting mad. When she got mad, other people got hurt, because she sucked at solving her own problems. So she’d stopped letting her temper interfere, and had started using her brain.

But this…oh, yeah. It had taken a few days for that slow burn to break through, but once it had, Elizabeth had realized she was
pissed
. Hell
no
was she going to let somebody else solve this for her—Selah had already given her the answer.

Now, though, days after the fact, when her fury had cooled and all she had was her misery—and her discomfort at seeing the pictures Selah had taken of her, she wasn’t so sure about any of this anymore.

“What if nothing happens?” she blurted out, turning to look at

Selah across the room. She was still wearing one of the outfits

Selah had talked her into wearing—one that had seemed kind of weird,

in Elizabeth’s opinion, but Selah was the one with the artistic talent so what did Elizabeth know? The oversized battered denim workshirt was one that Decker had left at her place and she used it to sleep in. For the pictures, she’d worn
just
the shirt, but she’d pulled on a pair of shorts under it once Selah was done, so at least she didn’t feel completely naked.

Selah waved a hand at her. “Relax. Hey…why don’t you order us some pizza? I’m starving.”

“Pizza. I’m about to come out of my skin and you want…”

The knock on the door interrupted her grumble and she shot a look down at herself. She was braless. Wonderful. Buttoning up two more buttons, she padded over to the door and looked through the peephole before opening it.

“Deck.” An immediate smile broke out over her face and then she stared at what he held for a long moment, before she just rolled her eyes and turned away. “The two of you seemed to forget I’m trying to cut
back
on the carbs I eat.”

“Cheat days! You’re supposed to have them, I remember. One a week,” Selah said. She shot Decker a grin. “Pizza, amigo. You must be psychic. I was just telling her, pizza would taste so good right now.”

“Hey, Selah.” He nodded at her as he carried the pizza in, depositing two pizza boxes and a double order of wings on the table. “Am I crashing something important?”

“Would you care if you were?” Selah continued to pound away at the keyboard.

Elizabeth fetched plates from the kitchen. If she didn’t, he’d just eat from the box. As she turned, she caught him staring at her, an odd look in his eyes. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah.” He reached out as she moved in to give him a plate. Flicking the collar of the shirt, he said, “That looks sort of familiar.”

Heat rushed up to stain her cheeks red. “Well, finders keepers.” To cover up her embarrassment, she stuck her tongue out at him. “It’s comfortable.”

He took the plate from her and she turned away, suddenly feeling

a little too warm.

Looking toward Selah, panic suddenly grabbed her—
shit
! The monitor was huge. She’d invested in a decent computer system since she did the website for the coffee shop on her own. Plus she liked a decent screen for gaming and the pictures she took—all of that meant one thing. It was too damn easy for her to see just
what
Selah was doing. That meant
Decker
could see.

“Selah. Can you do that later?” she asked, keeping her voice casual.

“Hell, no. This is too much fun. The assbag has no idea what a mistake he has made.” Devious amusement filled Selah’s voice and she started to mutter to herself in Spanish as she continued to pound at the keys.

“Selah, let’s eat first and…”

But it was too late. Decker had cut around her, plate in one hand, a slice of pizza in the other. “So what are you doing?”

• • •

Decker had noticed. Almost right away. If he hadn’t been knocked almost speechless from the sight of Lizzie in one of his old workshirts, the images that Selah was manipulating on the screen definitely would have done it.

Of course, he’d been warned ahead of time.

Selah, nosy woman that she was, had texted him more than two hours ago.

I’m at Lizzie’s. You should come. Bring pizza
.

He’d told her he had stuff to do.

He tried to avoid being around Lizzie when Selah was there, because Selah was
anything
but subtle lately. She’d suspected how he felt for a long time, but lately that suspicion had become something more and her hints were the size of elephants. Hints that Lizzie was oblivious to.

But then she’d sent him another message.

You want to be here for this. Unless you don’t want to know her screen name for that website. Maybe you don’t care that she’s going to look beautiful and men will be drooling all over the pictures I’m taking of her
.

He’d been pacing outside the pizza parlor pretty much since they’d opened, waiting until he could put the order in.

Selah shot him a laughing look as he moved in closer, while behind him, Lizzie muttered under her breath.

The pizza he’d just swallowed had the consistency and texture of lead, it seemed, lodging in his throat until it was almost impossible to force it down.

“Hey, Deck…ah…”

He slid her a look over his shoulder. “You’re going through with it, huh?”

Her face was red. She looked down and fiddled with the top button on the shirt and damn it, why did she have to do that, because now he wanted to see her fingers loosening that button, then another, and another…

Abruptly, she jerked her head up and everything inside him went hot and ready at the look in her eyes. “Yes, I’m doing it.” She jerked up her chin. “So what? Noel looked at me and practically
laughed
. All but gave me a pat on the head. You going to do the same thing?”

Instead of answering, he looked back at the computer. His dick was twisted into a miserably uncomfortable position and it was a good thing he’d had some warning. He’d worn a T-shirt with a flannel hanging out over it, and hopefully nobody looked below the level of his belt because his cock was currently throbbing in time with his heart, and his hard-on wasn’t going away. Maybe not any time this millennium.

“This doesn’t inspire a pat on the head,” he finally said, voice a little rougher than normal, but for the most part, he thought he was holding it together pretty well.

She was naked under that shirt.

In the pictures at least. He could see the frayed edges of the

shorts she had on now, but in the pictures, he didn’t think she was

even wearing panties.

In one of them, it fell off her shoulder, hanging so low, only the swell of one ripe, round breast kept it from falling off completely. There was a slideshow of the images and the next one that came up had him biting back a groan. She’d swapped out the button-down for a tank top. A white one. She had a lacy white bra under it, but neither of those did anything to hide the shadows of large, plump nipples. His mouth was watering. Son of a bitch.

She was two feet away, one of their best friends was in the room. And all he wanted to do was turn around, go to his knees and pull that shirt open—
his
shirt—so he could see just how large and pretty those nipples really were.

Another image rolled across the screen.

Glass shattered.

Looking down, he stared at the plate he’d dropped but he wasn’t seeing the plate. He was seeing long pale limbs, the sheet that had been strategically twisted and twined around her lush curves so that it fell in swathes against her tits and her hips, but leaving everything else bare.

His mind was working overtime to fill in the blanks.

“You’ve got butterfingers today, Deck,”

Selah said, her voice sly.

He shot her a dark look. “Yeah. Looks that way.”

He turned just as Lizzie tried to go around him to get the glass.

“I’ll get it,” he said, his voice gruff.

“I can help.”

“You’re not wearing any shoes.” He shot a look down at her feet, and fuck him, he couldn’t help but let his gaze linger on the neckline of the shirt—
his
shirt—and he knew another thing she wasn’t wearing. A bra. She still hadn’t put on a bra.

He nudged her back, putting his slice of pizza onto the plate she’d been holding and then he crouched down. Maybe he could cut open his hand. If he lost enough blood, it would do something to

deaden the hard-on, he thought. Adequate blood supply was needed to

maintain erections, right?

Of course, the likelihood of losing a pint or so from a broken plate was slim. And spilling that much just so she wouldn’t notice

seemed a bit extreme…

She wouldn’t notice anyway
, he thought sourly as he plucked up pieces of glass and dumped them in the palm of his hand.

She’ll put herself up on a kink website for any damn body
—

Any damn body.

Tension grabbed him.

“So how does this website work?” he asked slowly.

“People will post to her profile. If she’s interested, she can check out their profiles and they can chat. It’s up to her if she sets up a meet,” Selah said cheerfully. “Of course, I’ve already told her that the first few times she meets
anybody
one of us have to be told.”

“I’m a big girl,” Elizabeth said from the kitchen. “I can take care of myself, you know.”

“Of course. That’s why you understand the need of being careful with people you’ve only met online, right?” From the corner of his eye, Decker could see the way Selah winked at him. “It’s a decent set-up. If anybody hassles her, she just has to block him and if she contacts the administrators with proof that a user contacted her without her permission outside the site, the user is banned for life. You need a credit card to register—it’s only five piddly bucks a year—but that makes sure the users are legit
and
if they don’t behave, they are done. The ban is likely to be more effective here than elsewhere.”

“How do they keep the crazies off?” From the corner of his eye, he saw Lizzie approaching and he used his body to block her when she tried to sweep the area. “My mess. I clean it up.”

“My
house
.” She made a face at him but shoved the broom and dustpan into his hand.

While he swept up, Selah answered his earlier question. “Naturally they can’t check people’s medical history, but they state straight up that all users must go through a criminal background check.”

He felt every muscle tighten. So much for that idea—

“But they also make it clear they don’t limit people simply for having a record.” It wasn’t his imagination that Selah’s smile widened and took on a smug turn. “They refuse anybody with any sort of sexual assault or domestic violence, but everything else, they consider on a case by case basis. There’s a form for those who do have a record so if they still want to get on the site, they can apply.”

She rattled off a few more things—stats and shit that made no sense to him and why would he care? But then she paused and looked at him. “I emailed you a little while ago about something—don’t you go ignoring it now.”

• • •

Decker had written this probably a hundred times, or explained it. He would probably do it again, the next time he had to talk to somebody about a job, or the next time somebody complained about a felon living next door and the supe found a reason to kick him out.

Not too many people liked the idea of a convicted killer working for them, or living close by, although he’d learned there were those who’d give him a chance. Rowland had been cool with it, and his current landlord seemed fine to live and let live. But Decker was under no illusions that anything in his life was permanent—except Lizzie—so yeah, he’d have to tell this story again.