Last night he’d given her a collar to wear during their scene, a narrow strip of soft white leather with a ring for a leash. For practice, he’d said. It had made her feel, if possible, even more naked. But stronger, better defined. She liked it.
She’d had her first appointment with Dr. Wallace the day before. Jake had driven her, for moral support. She liked that too, as well as the fact that Dr. Wallace knew too much about her to let her get away with anything. The good doctor had offered to refer her elsewhere for that very reason, but Tess had declined.
“Tess, you want a chair?” Marielle offered.
“No,” she said quickly. “I’ll stand.”
Jake had been very appreciative indeed about the grooming.
She leaned against the vanity and started making up Allison’s face, which was eerily like making up her own face. They were cousins, but resembled each other more than Tess resembled her sister. Both of them took after their fathers, the same bone structure and dramatic coloring, lips that could too easily look thin, eyebrows that could too easily look angry. But plucked and moisturized and made up, they cleaned up nicely, Tess thought.
Lindy rose to answer a soft knock at the door, cracking it open to speak to the visitor, and Tess recognized the deep murmur of his voice as Ally’s cell bleeped again. Tess reached for the tote and yanked out the phone, inadvertently catching sight of the new text as she passed it to her cousin.
“Holy— Allison! Shame on you! And on Seth!”
“Give me that!”
The bride snatched the phone away, looking not at all guilty, and started replying to the text almost immediately.
“Stop sexting right now, you cyber-slut!”
A gentle throat clearing drew their attention to the door, where Jake stood with a bottle of champagne and a tray of glasses.
“I heard that.” He lifted one eyebrow at Tess then smiled at the room in general. “Champagne, ladies?”
Her eyes had locked onto him and now she couldn’t look away. He was unspeakably handsome in his dark gray suit, and Tess was sick with lust at the thought of later, when he would leave the suit on and she’d take everything off and be in trouble for calling Allison a cyber-slut on her wedding day. They might not have time for it that very night, of course. But the anticipation was what mattered anyway.
Jake scanned her up and down, looking like he didn’t mind the wine-red velvet halter dress she wore, even if he did prefer her in nothing but a collar and a smile.
“Will you open this, please?” Lindy handed Jake back the champagne bottle and, as he obliged, Tess forced her attention back to Allison and the selection of eye shadow. She could feel him there though, a tangible comforting presence.
Lindy filled the champagne flutes carefully, and Jake brought one for Allison and one for Tess. He lingered long enough to slip a hand behind her neck, brush a kiss against her temple, let his fingers sweep across her bare back on his way out. Such small things. She was flushing, her fingers trembling around the delicate crystal stem as he walked out of the room.
“A toast!” proposed Marielle. They drank to Allison and Seth, to the occasion, to one another. To love, at Lindy’s suggestion, and Tess didn’t miss the coy look she and Allison shot one another before looking her way.
“Lind, weren’t you going to find us a leaf-picker?” She pointed at the fall color still garnishing the bride’s hem and a suddenly contrite Lindy ran out the door in search of a small girl. Marielle, knowing nothing of the subtext, continued blithely fiddling with Allison’s hair while describing an elaborate computer game strategy that made no sense to Tess but distracted Allison quite well.
Except that even as she studied her face in the mirror and chattered to Marielle about hit points and critical strikes, Allison reached over to clasp Tess’ hand and give it a firm squeeze.
She returned it with a happy sigh. “You look beautiful, Ally,” she whispered as she stroked on the final swipe of shadow and handed over the mascara, turning to look at her cousin’s reflection.
Allison met Tess’ gaze in the mirror, her smile serene but her gray eyes sparkling. “And when it’s your turn, so will you.”
* * * * *
The pile of leaves in the side yard was already hip high by the time Tess’ car swung into the driveway and crunched to a gravelly halt. She climbed out before he could abandon the rake, and Jake was treated to the sight of her long legs stretching, the claret-colored dress riding up a length of luxuriously smooth thigh to show a hint of lace at her stocking top as she exited the low-slung car. He frowned when her wool coat fell into place, hiding everything to the knee. But he knew he’d get to see all that and more later on. He could wait. He’d waited for years, after all.
“You changed already!” she called, reaching back into the car for a gym bag and her purse. “I tried to leave right after you did, but people kept stopping me to talk. I just need fifteen minutes then we can head out, okay?”
“No rush. Benny’s isn’t going anywhere.”
No major event in Cranston would be complete without a debriefing afterward at the local watering hole. But nobody in their right mind would go to Benny’s in a suit or a velvet dress, even ironically.
Seth’s brother Drew and his girlfriend Eva had gone to Stuart Moore’s house with Lindy and Richard to change after the reception. Tess had originally planned to go with them, but instead opted for the slightly longer drive to Jake’s, even with the implications of arriving at Benny’s with him afterward. And leaving with him at the end of the night. Separate cars wouldn’t have fooled anybody at this point, anyway, even the out-of-town friends and relatives. Anyone who hadn’t heard the gossip before the wedding would have left the reception in no doubt as to how close Jake and Tess were. The dancing had made it crystal clear. Jake had been less than absolutely subtle.
“You’ve been hard at work.” She scanned the yard, which was miraculously clear of leaves given that he’d only beaten her home by half an hour or so. Jake gave it about five minutes before the lawn was littered with them again, but at least he’d gathered a substantial sampling in the pile he’d raked while waiting for Tess to arrive. It was perfect.
“I figured since they were nice and dry, and I had a little time to kill.” He took Tess’ bags and deposited them on the deck, then grabbed her by the waist to swing her around, to make her laugh.
“I’ll fall off my shoes,” she complained, but giggled anyway as he coasted them to a dizzy halt. “You’ll have to carry me into the house.”
“Nah. I’ll hold you up until you regain your equilibrium. We’ll wait it out.” She was flushed and breathless and almost painfully pretty, with her hair in a sleek, bouncy wave and her face still made up more than usual. He couldn’t help but kiss her, every time he realized he finally had no reason not to. She was his for the kissing. Tess seemed to know it too.
Soft lips, a hint of spicy perfume and the melting-sugar sensation of her tongue giving way to his as he deepened the kiss. All of it, all of her, was close to too much. Close to unbelievable. Except it was Tess, like always. The realest thing he knew. She tasted like forever. He couldn’t drag her off to his cave, but he could have a lot of fun coming up with alternatives over the course of a lifetime.
“Mmm. That autumn smell. I love that smell.” She leaned back to look up into the sky, which was beginning to shed the last colors of sunset. “And the sounds. The crunchy leaves. I could so jump in that leaf pile right now.”
“Okay.” He’d do just about anything she wanted, anyway, but in this case he’d raked up the leaves for that very purpose. Tess always wanted to jump in the leaves.
“After I change,” she said, starting to pull away.
Jake caught her hands and held on. “No, right now. While there’s still light to see.”
“In this?” She spread her hands wide, letting her coat fall open, indicating her bridesmaid dress, the heels, the sheer silk stockings.
“Yep. One thing though.” He turned
her by the shoulders and slipped off her coat, pulling his own jacket off in solidarity and tossing them both over the deck rail. “If we’re gonna do it, we have to do it right.”
“You’re insane.”
The temperature was dropping and their breath had started to fog. But Tess wasn’t complaining, or even hugging herself against the cold. She was grinning, eyes gleaming, and she held his gaze as she kicked off her shoes and lost the extra three inches.
“Probably,” he admitted. “But at least I know there are no snakes or anything under there. And the leaves are dry. Extra crunch. It’s gonna be good, I promise.”
She took in the pile and hauled her skirt up on one side, bunching it in her hand. With the other she reached for him, not even looking, knowing he’d take it. His hand was already there, meeting hers.
They grinned at each other then eyed the leaves. Golden and red and brown, all the colors of flame and earth.
Tess nodded. “Let’s do this.”
They ran full tilt for the leaf pile. And then, together, they jumped.
About Delphine Dryden
After earning two graduate degrees, practicing law awhile and then working for the public school system for over ten years, Delphine finally got a clue. She tossed all that aside and started doing what she should have been doing all along, writing novels! In hindsight she could see the decision was a no-brainer. Because which sounds like more fun? Being a lawyer/special educator/reading specialist/educational diagnostician…or writing spicy romances?
When not writing or doing “mommy stuff”, Delphine reads voraciously, watches home improvement shows, noodles around with html and css coding, and plays computer games with her darling (and very romantic) husband. She is fortunate enough to have two absurdly precocious children and two rotten but endearing rescued mutts.
Delphine and her family are all Texas natives, and reside in unapologetic suburban bliss near Houston.
Delphine welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
Tell Us What You Think
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Also by Delphine Dryden
1-800-DOM-help: Roses and Chains
Love with a Chance of Zombies
Snow Job
The Lamplighter’s Love
Toy Box
Truth & Lies: Naked Truth
Truth & Lies 1: How to Tell a Lie
Truth & Lies 2: Art of the Lie
Truth & Lies 3: Tangled Truth
When in Rio
Xmas Spark
Print books by Delphine Dryden
Snow Job
Steam Heat
When in Rio
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Tell Me No Lies
ISBN 9781419943454
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Tell Me No Lies Copyright © 2012 Delphine Dryden
Edited by Kelli Collins
Cover design by Syneca
Photos: Javier Carrera/Fotolia.com
Electronic book publication November 2012
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