Deceptions: A Collection (8 page)

Fatal in his case. It had been killing him slowly for years.

"Yeah. I get that."

He slid his hand inside her panties, shuddering as he reached the juncture of soft round thighs. Her curls were damp already as he slid his fingers through her folds, and when he found her entrance, she was slick with want. Her eyelashes fluttered closed as he teased the entrance to her pussy.

“No, Lizzie. No closing your eyes.” Decker dipped his head, bit her lower lip. "I said I want you to watch me. All of me. All of this."

"Okay." It was a dazed, weak whisper but she forced her lids back up, locked almost sightlessly on his face and the dazed need there brought blistering satisfaction to him.

He pushed one finger inside her, his muscles going tight with anticipation as she closed around him. "Now, tell me what you want—what we're doing. Do I stop? Or am I going to lay you down on that desk and fuck you?"

She gripped his arms and then, as disappointment threaded through him, she backed away.

But then, she settled her hips against the desk as she shrugged out of her bra and top. "Come here, Decker."

He made himself count to ten first.

And then he looked around, spied her bag lying near the futon where she'd first dumped it when they came in.

Grabbing the straps, he placed it on the desk and then turned her around until she faced away, the purse in front of her. "Selah gave you something when you started messing with that damn website. Where is it?"

"How..." Her breath hitched. "How did you know about that?"

Because she told me.
"Because she's my best friend, too. And I saw that grin she flashed you after she swiped your purse. What did she give you?”

"You already know."

He pressed his lips to her neck, the skin flushed hot with her blush. "Get them out. And I hope there's more than one."

While she fumbled with the purse, he caught her hips in his hands and pumped against her.

A weak moan escaped her, one hand falling away to grip the desk.

"Hurry up," he ordered, bending his head to rake his teeth down her shoulder.

A minute later, she dumped a box of condoms on the desk and he grabbed the purse, dropped it back on the floor. Selah, that nosy bitch, was going to get a giant hug from him at some point. Slowly turning Lizzie around, he studied her face for a long moment and then stepped back. "Take off your panties."

She went to push her skirt down and he stopped her. "Your panties." He reached out and fisted his hands in the loose, flowing material of her skirt. "I missed seeing you in these...I used to think about what you wore under them, and then I'd pretend you were naked. Naked for me and I could come up behind you, pull up your skirt and drive my dick inside you, maybe while you were in the storeroom..."

Her eyes widened. Oh, Lizzie...that's just one fantasy.

"Or I'd follow you in here and do just this,” he murmured, watching the way her pupils flared, listening as her breathing kicked up. “I’d pull that skirt up and have you, up against the door, or right here like this. I'm having my dream, sugar. Now take off your panties."

Her throat worked as she swallowed, and then she reached under her skirt. He watched her hands disappear and his cock gave a demanding jerk as she pulled off a pair of pale pink silk panties.

He held out a hand for them and she blushed, shoving them into his hand.

He shoved them into his pocket and moved in closer, cupping her still-covered hips in his hands. "Now you're naked for me, under that skirt, just like I dreamed you'd be. A hundred times. A thousand times..."

She moaned as he caught her lip and bit down. He soothed the hurt with his tongue and then he caught the material of the skirt, gathering it in his hands until it bunched around his wrists. Boosting her up on the desk, he settled her there. It was a physical exercise to get his fingers to uncurl from her ass. That ripe, lush curve, so soft and full...

But...condoms. He needed a condom and he thought he just might have a zipper imprint on his dick at this point.

He went to loosen his belt, but Lizzie stopped him, her hands resting on his wrists.

He shot her a look.

She toyed with the hem of his shirt. "I..." She caught her lower lip between her teeth, then let it slide out before she said, "Can you take this off? I want to see you, too."

His body was a tool to him. He was big and he was strong, facts he’d known for a good long while. He’d used his strength and size in high school to kick ass on the football field and in wrestling, hoping to use one or the other to break free from the shit he’d known growing up.

That strength had served him well in the times he needed it, although that strength was why he’d landed his ass in prison. Of course, that strength had also saved Lizzie, and that had made it bearable.

He’d fought and brawled his way into making people believe he wasn’t worth messing with and that had been the case most of his life, even before he’d gone to jail and it hadn’t changed. His body was a tool.

But for the first time, his body felt like it had some other worth. Well, other than protecting Lizzie—and that, in and of itself, was a worthwhile thing.

Watching her intently, he reached up and stripped his shirt away, letting it fall to the floor beside him. Pride flooded him as her eyes went soft, almost dazed with heated, female hunger. She reached out with both hands and rested her palms on his chest, lightly raking her nails across his skin. "Your tattoos. You're covered in them."

"You can run out of things to do in..." He didn't finish. One of those things they tried to avoid. He didn't talk about it because it hurt her, and now, as he saw the understanding in her eyes, he wished he could take it back.

"But you kept getting them." She swallowed and he could see her steeling herself to finish it. "After you...got out. Once they let you go."

She stroked her thumb over the tiger that covered most of his chest, a tiger crouched behind bars. He caught her hand, pressed it flat. "You can get to needing it—that bite of pain, letting it make you forget things."
Pretending to let the ink and needles take and hide your secrets…

She didn't ask what he meant. He suspected she thought she knew. But she didn't.

"Did it help?"

"No." He pressed her hand flat against his chest. "But the things I wanted to forget were the sort of things I'd never be able to forget...things I shouldn't forget. Things I need..."

He'd lived so much of his life without what he needed, but now...

She leaned in and pressed a kiss to the tiger and the feel of her mouth on his skin sent fire lancing through him. He caught her thighs and shoved them apart, moving in to press against her.

She gasped, her back arching and then she bit her lip to hold back a sob as he slid his hand between them, circled her clitoris. It was a tight, hard little knot.

"I'm going to lick you here," he said, keeping his voice calm through sheer will alone. "I'm going to spread your thighs and lick and suck on you until you're crazy with need. Until you're burning for me to fuck you."

She moaned as he sank to his knees, his hands sliding down the backs of her legs to catch her ankles. He draped her legs over his shoulders and leaned in, nuzzled folds that already gleamed.

He caught her clit between his teeth, tugged.

She gasped, her spine bowing up off the desk.

Using his tongue to open her, he caught his first real taste of her—the first taste...and he was an addict already.

"I'm going to eat your pussy until you beg me to stop," he muttered against her.

She was shaking as he pressed his mouth to her, and when he thrust his tongue inside, a garbled, muffled cry filled the air.

She was covering her mouth, using both hands to hold back the sounds she made as he used his mouth and tongue to fuck her over the edge.

"Please," Elizabeth begged, her voice hoarse.

She didn't know how much time had passed and she knew she'd come at least twice. She also knew she couldn't take much more—except she
needed
more...just...a different kind of more. Him.

"Please what?" Decker muttered, his words muffled. Then he dragged his tongue up between her folds again. It was like a whip of lightning had licked her, right there, and the shocking pleasure of it rippled through her entire body.

"Please...stop... No. I need..."

He lifted up, his long, muscled body bent over hers as he pressed his mouth to hers. She tried to turn her head away from his kiss, a kiss that tasted salty and different—her. He tasted like her, but he didn't let her turn away and the hunger of his kiss bled into her until she was clutching at him, her hands tangled in his wavy hair.

When he stabbed his tongue into her mouth, she caught it with her teeth and bit down, then began to suck.

A growl rolled out of him.

He gripped her hip in one hand as he broke the kiss, his chest rising and falling against hers. The light dusting of hair across his pectorals teased her nipples, a sensation that was diabolically delicious. "Please what, sugar?"

"I need you."

"I'm right here."

"In..." She gulped and then rushed the rest of it out. "I need you inside me."

"Inside you." A low grunt of appreciation escaped him. "Yeah. I like the sound of that."

He straightened and any embarrassment she might have felt faded as she stared at him, golden skin and brilliant tattoos rippling across tight muscles as he reached down and dealt with his belt, then his jeans.

He dragged the zipper down and she felt her heart stutter to a stop as he wrapped his hand around his cock and fisted it. Then, in front of her, he dragged his hand up, then down.

Memory danced, bright and jagged, in the back of her mind.

Watching him—

He stared at her, almost daring her to say anything.

But she didn't.

"Give me a rubber," he said, his voice lower, savagely harsh.

Her hands shook as she fumbled with the box and when she tucked one foil packet into his hand, she saw that his fingers were trembling.

I’ve dreamed about touching you a thousand times and now I am and my hands are shaking… And you think I don’t want you.

"You want me," she whispered, the dazed realization swamping her.

He just stared at her as he donned the rubber and then he bent over her, his mouth touching hers. "Lizzie. Want is
easy
compared to what I feel for you. But...yeah. I want you. I've wanted you for what seems like my entire life. And even if this doesn't mean the same thing to you...remember this." He kissed her, so soft, so tender, so sweet. "Nobody will ever want you, need you, like I do."

Her head spun.

Part of her wanted to grab him and tell him to wait—wait while she thought. While she figured this out.

Just...wait.

But as he tucked the head of his cock against her, she knew the time for
waiting
had come to an end. This was something she'd wanted for forever...wanted, but she'd made herself forget.

No more waiting.

His eyes held hers as he surged slowly forward.

The pressure grew and grew—he was thicker, larger than Noel and she was sore from the debacle a few nights earlier, but he was slow, and so patient—it was like he knew exactly when to pause, when to start moving in those slow, teasing thrusts that brought whimpers to her lips.

And then, with a snarl, he seated himself completely inside her and it was...perfect. So beautifully perfect. She gasped, her hips rocking against him while her body struggled to adjust. She sank her nails into his shoulders. His head rested on the desk above hers and she opened her eyes, hardly able to see anything except the flames on his throat.

He filled her, surrounded her.

And then, he started to move and the bliss that rolled through her was unlike anything she'd ever known.

"Lizzie..." There was a question and a sigh and a plea in his words.

"Please," she demanded, rocking her hips up to meet his.

He moved faster, harder and fire blazed through her. Too much—too much.

Need, everything she’d shoved down inside and tried to forget, tore its way to the surface.

He fisted a hand in her hair and jerked her head back, his mouth coming down on hers, stealing her breath away with a kiss that threatened to destroy her. Heart. Mind. Body. Soul.

With his other hand, he caught her hip and canted her upward—

She cried out, the noise caught by his mouth and he swelled inside her—she felt it, the head of his cock stroking deep, deep, deep—

The climax tore into her, greedy claws that left her breathless, left her reeling…and then helpless.

His phone buzzed.

Ten minutes had passed and Decker still wasn’t sure if his muscles were anything more than noodles.

The phone buzzed.

Fuck the phone
, he thought blearily, his head still resting between Lizzie’s breasts. He loved her tits, round and big and full enough for even his big hands.

He reached up, cupped the left one in his right hand—the tattoo, hidden in plain sight on his palm—seemed to mock him.
You own me
…

What would she say if he told her?

Sighing, he lifted his head.

Her lashes were low, shielding her eyes but as their gazes met, a faint, nervous smile curled her lips.

Cupping her face, he stroked his thumb over her lower lip.

And the damn phone buzzed…
again
.

Swearing, he stood up and fought with the tangle his jeans had become around his hips. When he saw Selah’s name, he was ready to throw the phone.

The first message was I hope you all remembered that box.

The second message was Are you two coming out?

The third message was I’m putting up the closed sign. Too many funny looks happening in here. Tell Liz to yell at me later.

He thought about putting the phone away and then just turned it over with a sigh.

As Lizzie read the messages, he dealt with the condom, turning to look at her when he was done. She’d sat up, a look of mortification on her face.

“People…” She stopped, pressed her lips together. She lowered the phone back to the desk. “People heard us.”

Decker caged her in with his arms when she would have clambered off the desk.

Head cocked, he said gruffly, “Listen.”

Distantly, through the door and the walls, they could both hear music. The loud, throbbing alternative beat that Selah preferred and tried to blast whenever she was running the shop solo. The clientele was amused by it, because it was a running war between manager and assistant manager—who would win control of the music that day.

“She probably turned it on as soon as she figured out what was going on, you know her. She’s really good at distracting people, although…” He brushed a kiss against her damp mouth. “Don’t be surprised if you find out she was giving away free stuff with the coffee.”

Groaning, she wiggled and pressed against him. “I can’t believe I…”

She stopped.

Cupping her chin in his hand, he guided her face to his. “Can’t believe what? Had sex here? Or with me?”

As the silence drew out between them, a hundred different answers danced on her tongue.

The
honest
answer was
both
.

But staring into Decker’s eyes, she saw something she hadn’t seen there in…well, ever. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him vulnerable. Reluctant, nervous, scared, determined, arrogant, angry…and now, hot, hungry and ferocious.

But had she ever glimpsed that vulnerability in his eyes.

No.

She didn’t think she had.

Hesitantly, she reached up and rested a hand on his chest. “Well, my brain is still spinning over…this.”

He cocked a brow at her lame explanation. Then he closed his fingers around her wrist. “It’s okay, sugar,” he murmured. He pressed a kiss to her palm and then backed away. “If you want to forget you let me fuck you on that desk, you go ahead.”

He turned away.

She leaped off and caught his arm as he went to fasten his belt.

He tensed, but didn’t turn.

So she went around him.

“I said my brain was spinning,” she said. She wished, and not for the first time, she had his confidence. His strength. Even a tenth of it. But she didn’t.

But she had to find the guts to say this.

“And it is.” Instead of looking up into his eyes, she focused on his hands. The tail of the Chinese dragon curled up around his right wrist before ending over the back of his hand and she reached out, trailing the tips of her fingers over the scales, almost delicately done. “But I can tell you, I’m not ever going to look at my desk without thinking about…this. I can’t believe we did that.”

She covered his other hand with hers and tugged his hands from his belt buckle, moving in closer. She pressed a kiss to his chest, to the flicking tail of the tiger, along the lean, powerful body there. “And yeah…I’m kinda embarrassed thinking that somebody out there heard. But that doesn’t mean I regret it, or want to forget.”

Decker caught her upper arms in his hands.

A hard knock landed on the door. Elizabeth jumped, but Decker didn’t so much as look away from her face.

“Yo!” Selah shouted through the door. “I’m gone. You can say thank you by closing up when you’re done…if you ever finish.”

“Get the fuck out of here, Selah!” Decker shouted.

“Touchy, touchy, Decker!” Her laughter carried through the door.

The air in Elizabeth’s lungs seemed to squeeze out of her as Decker moved his hands to her waist. He caught the skirt and started to tug, the pointed look on his face clear.

He was waiting for her to tell him to stop.

No.

Oh, no…

She held still as he dragged the skirt down, but as he stepped back to stare at her, self-consciousness flooded her. She’d seen the women he’d dated. He didn’t go for a
type
, unless it was the sexy and confident—that was all he needed.

But confidence was something she lacked and under that hot, molten stare, she felt herself wilt.

Nervously, she shifted, half-thinking to cover herself.

As though he’d read her mind, Decker caught her wrists. “No. I want to see you. Just like this.”

She shook her head. “I need to lose weight…I…”

“Shut up.” He caught her behind the neck, pulled her in for a hard, deep kiss, while the other hand went to her ass and tugged her against him. “You’re beautiful. You don’t need to change a damn thing.”

He spun her around and she caught her breath as he gripped her hips and pumped himself against her butt. “I love everything about you, Lizzie. Your every smile, your every curve...” His hands came up to plump her breasts together. He tweaked her nipples and she felt that all the way down to her toes. “Your tits and your ass. The way you smile. You don’t need to change anything.”

A hungry whimper escaped her as he rocked against her again and he swore, nudging her forward. “I want you again,” he said, his voice a growl in her ear. “I’m going to take you like this. Here. Now. Unless you say no.”

She shivered and then shoved her butt back against him in response.

Decker bent her over her desk, unable to look into her eyes just then.

She stripped him naked, left him raw, and he’d almost said it. Just then. He’d almost said it.

He practically tore the rubber in his haste to get it on and she pushed up onto her elbows, staring over her shoulder at him, her breaths coming in hitchy little pants.

He moved in, closing his hand around his cock, arrowing it at the wet heart of her. She was swollen, tighter around him. She went to spread her legs and he used his knees to stop her. “Like this,” he murmured.
Slow
, he told himself.
Go…slow…

Feeling her gaze, he looked up.

“Lizzie, I…”

He had to snap his jaw shut, lock the words down.

No. Not like this. Not until…no. Just…

He stretched out his hand, pressed it between her shoulder blades and pressed her down, down, until she was flat against the desk. Then he pressed his hand to the back of her neck, keeping his hold light, but steady. That look in her eyes, hungry and open…somehow it ripped out all the secrets he’d kept hidden so long.

Unable to give up
that
part of himself, he gave her everything else, pumping into her with deep, slow strokes that had her twisting back on his dick, while she pleaded and moaned, her hands scrambling against the surface of the desk.

She wanted him.

She moaned his name as she came.

It was more than he thought he’d ever have…and now he realized it wasn’t anywhere close to enough.

It was a bittersweet knowledge to carry and he swallowed down the pain it brought as he climaxed with vicious intensity. There he was, buried inside the woman he loved, and he hovered on the brink of both heaven and hell.

He took her home.

And then he took her again.

Elizabeth might have lost track of how many times they came together, except…well, up until that night, she’d realized she’d only
thought
she understood what a climax was.

She’d used her hands, the showerhead, the occasional vibrator and found pleasure.

She’d
thought
she had good sex with Noel.

The two awkward encounters before that were too embarrassing to think about.

But she had
thought
she understood what a climax was.

Now, thanks to six mind-blowing orgasms from Decker, she realized just how wrong she was.

She fell asleep in his arms, her mind half-focused on those thoughts she’d refused to let herself linger on for so long.

That day she’d gone to the ramshackle house where he’d lived with his dad—not for much longer, though. He’d won a scholarship and was heading to Alabama soon.

He’d leave and he’d never know…

The back door wasn’t closed, but then it never was. It hadn’t closed well for a long time, Decker had told her and then, in a rare fit of openness, he’d told her why.

His dad had been drunk on the porch. Decker had gone outside to help him in and the bastard had hit him—or tried to. They’d ended up tumbling into the door frame, knocking the door uneven and it hadn’t shut right ever since.

That had been when Decker was fourteen.

“When I’d started to get bigger,” he’d told her. “It wasn’t much longer before he finally started to leave me alone. Once I could kick his ass, I wasn’t worth the effort to him.”

She hated his father.

Hers was a cold man, more concerned on appearances and propriety but he wasn’t violent. He’d never hit her before. She didn’t have scars on her. Decker did.

Easing inside, she darted a look around. Austin Calhoun wasn’t likely to be here. He’d managed to land a job—whether or not he could hold it was a different story. But Decker was here. He didn’t go in to his shift at the YMCA until three.

She heard a noise, soft, low…

Her face flamed. Instinct whispered,  Get out…

But she couldn’t.

Gripping her purse, she eased down the hall, and there, she froze. Stared. Horrified.

She should have backed away. Immediately. But she couldn’t.

Decker stood over the brunette, his hands holding her thighs wide. She lay on the rickety table and it squeaked with every thrust. Mesmerized, she stared, watched as his cock disappeared. He was thick. And the girl moaned, reaching down to stroke herself.

Elizabeth’s gasp lodged in her throat.

Decker’s head flew up. Through his bangs, his eyes locked on her and he froze.

“Lizzie…”

“What the—” The girl on the table tensed.

Decker shoved away, fumbling with his jeans.

Elizabeth turned and ran.

He shouted her name.

She ignored him.

She couldn’t get away fast enough. And to think she’d come to tell him that she loved him.

I love him…

The thought was there, in her mind, even as Elizabeth stretched her way into wakefulness.

That truth she’d hidden away for so long.

“What were you doing with Hamilton, Lizzie?”  Dark blue eyes staring at her from behind a thick plate of glass.  “Why were you with him? I warned you about him.”

Guilt lodged in her belly liked a stone and nausea churned, a brewing storm that was determined to break free.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. She had to tell him.

Every time he’d tried to talk about that that night, she’d shied away. It was one of the things they never talked about. Oh,
he
would try. But she never would, pulled back every time he tried. Because she was afraid, and because the guilt still haunted her.

She’d ruined his life, had cost him a scholarship, the chance to play ball, to find something better. And she’d done it for stupid, petty reasons.

Sliding a hand out, she reached for him. One more touch, she thought. One more, before she told him…and probably lost even him.