Don’t Lie to Me

by Amber Bardan

  I jerked her thighs wide. The sight of her hard, eager little clit tore the last of my control. I fell to my knees, grabbed her hips and hauled her against my face. I ate her up. Her taste hit me like a punch to the middle—adrenaline had every inch of me hard. I licked every bit of wetness she made for me.

  She moaned, hips arching, abdominals contracting beneath my hands. Every hard and soft part of her yielded to me. She was like that—butter soft, and iron tough.

  Perhaps the strongest and most vulnerable person I’d ever known. There was much, much about her I liked, but that’s what made me lose my mind. Watching her give, when giving was so hard. Having her open was a gift I’d never relinquish.

  I sucked her little clit into my mouth, and shoved two fingers into her tight, wet pussy.

  Her nails scraped my skull, and I sucked cruelly until those bracing muscles seized—ready to contract around my fingers—then stopped and bit her thigh.

  She hollered, loudly, never one to tone herself down.

  I pulled out and rubbed her soaked entrance with my thumb without entering. My cock swelled with blood at the sight.

  She curled up, yanking at my hair.

  I groaned at the way she pleaded. “Please, Avner.” Almost like a good girl.

  For that, I took one of my pussy-drenched fingers to her ass, and my tongue gently to her clit—for saying please. Her asshole gripped me tight. How’d I ever fit my cock in there? My heart almost stopped with the memory. Pleasure made my balls heavy. She trembled against me. I had to hold her greedy hips down. She loved it in her ass. She loved it wherever I took her. And I’d taken her everywhere. I couldn’t do enough, do more, to fill her the way she filled me. To stake enough claim.

  So I tried harder, and harder, and harder, until she figured it out.

  She seized up again, and I moved my tongue and licked her vagina, not letting her come.

  She screamed and I shoved my tongue in her, and pushed hard in her ass.

  “Damn you,” she screamed.

  Hadn’t she learned what would happen when she pushed me like that?

  I stopped and removed my hands and mouth from her, then fixed my gaze on hers. She was beet red. All over her chest, up her neck and her face. Hair clung to her sweat-drenched forehead.

  “Now you’re in trouble.”

  She gulped, but her chin rose—stubborn girl.

  I tore my cock free of my pants and rose above her. Then her eyes flashed, triumphant. They shouldn’t, because I had no mercy for her yet. She opened her thighs wide. I rubbed my cock on her pussy.

  Her moans filled me and lust had my veins about to bust my skin.

  I spread her swollen lips with one hand to watch the head of my cock, and pressed just the tip into her. It only took two firm strokes of my hand before light exploded behind my eyes, and a groan tore from me. I shoved her belly down as I seized, because she would not move for this. She wouldn’t take a fraction of me I didn’t give. I rode out the bliss without giving her a taste of it.

  “No.” She struggled as I knew she would.

  I regained my breath and looked at her cunt dribbling with me. A rumbling chuckle rocked through me.

  “You’re such a bastard.”

  I glanced at her face, her eyes spitting daggers.

  “I haven’t yet begun to be.” No, tonight, I’d stake my claim so deep, she’d never forget it. I fingered her again, wet now from more than just herself, and already my cock swelled with lust. She cried out. Did she think we were done? Not even close. This was only starting. Soon, she’d be dripping in me, covered in me.

  She’d never get me off or out of her.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Emma

  I inhaled the scent of linen, sweat and sex around us. Exhaustion tugged at my every muscle, but also peace. How did he know to do those things? How to break me down so completely so he could fill me up with something else. Something better.

  His thumb knocked over my knuckle once, then again. I glanced at our hands held between us.

  “There’s something I’ve been waiting to give to you.” He smiled, and released me to lean over and take something from his drawer.

  He rolled back over to me with a small box.

  My blood seemed to stop right where it flowed.

  Holy shit, was he about to propose?

  Because, god help me, I wouldn’t say no.

  My hand flew to my throat. But I couldn’t say yes without him knowing what a future with me might mean.

  I took the box and opened it.

  A silver and gold coin nestled inside.

  The thinnest whisper of a gold chain slid through a hole that’d been drilled in it.

  A coin like this had been in my hand when I’d woken up after staying here sick. I’d left in on the bedside table.

  “What’s this?” I scooped up the coin and turned it over. “Wait...” I saw him plucking the coin from behind my ear. “Did you do a magic trick with this?”

  “I did.” He took the box and set it aside.

  I examined the coin, then him. “I’m not sure what this means?”

  “My adoptive father won me over with a trick using this coin the day I met him.” He took the chain. “He said I could keep it, but I held it in my fist for three full days, sure they’d take it back.”

  My stomach fluttered. Oh, god, he’d just admitted he was adopted. I’d figured as much, but never thought he’d actually tell me.

  “Then I spent many, many more days after wondering what they’d have me do to earn it.” He took a breath and I held mine. “Emma, I don’t remember much from before them, and what I’ve learned I’ll never repeat, but I remember everything that came after and what I remember most is that time.” He met my gaze, and I fell in love with him five hundred times harder. “The waiting for what I had to be taken away. The ulterior motives to surface. The other shoe to drop—but it never did.” He took the coin completely out of my hand. “I’ve kept this with me for twenty-eight years, because it reminds me that family isn’t necessarily something we’re born into, and that other things, like love, are so much simpler than life has led us to believe.”

  I stared at him, utterly lost for a single word.

  He undid the clasp and moved toward me. I leaned up and let him put it on me. The coin settled on my naked chest, still warm from being held. “I’m giving it to you because I want you to know it’s not the family you come from that has to define you, but the one you choose to keep.” He smoothed my hair back over my shoulder, then his touch settled at the top of my arm. “And when it comes to me, no matter what it looks like, it’s so much simpler than you’ve been taught to believe.”

  My mouth opened, but I couldn’t do anything except for try not to cry.

  “I love you, Emma, and that’s all there is to it.”

  “Avner...” I wrapped my arms around him, and held on to him so tight. “I love you too.”

  His cheek brushed against mine, then he drew back enough to kiss me, soft and so gentle from the man who’d just taken me so rough.

  I drowned in the feeling, almost losing all sense of myself. His fingers slid behind my ear. There was so much inside me, I didn’t know what to do with it, how I could contain it or how to let it out.

  I never knew it was possible to be so happy.

  “The waiting for what I had to be taken away.”

  His words rushed through me but the shoe did drop for me.

  I had to tell him everything.

  I eased back, and pressed a hand to his chest, as much to keep him back as it was to keep myself away. “There’s so much I should’ve explained to you before. I never told you why my research is so important to me.”

  He shuffled closer and watched me.

 
“You know I lost my mother, but what I didn’t tell you was that I lost her to one of the conditions I’m hoping my research will cure.”

  He put his hand over the one I had on his chest. “You don’t need to explain why your work is important. I’m sorry that I ever made you feel that you did. Risk, or no risk, I’ll do whatever I can to help you, regardless of who you’re working for.”

  His heart throbbed under my palm. Fuck, this was hard to say. It’d almost be better if he hadn’t told me that. If he hadn’t been so supportive.

  I braced myself. He wouldn’t take it well when I told him it was hereditary. That although I’d been managing my condition well, one day in the future I might wind up sick like my mother.

  “Thank you. That means so much to me, but—”

  An alarm exploded through the room.

  He released me and lunged for his phone, tapping the screen. “I’m sorry, I must go.”

  “Right now?” I sat up. “Please, can you stay?”

  He took me by the back of the neck. “I can’t, but I promise we will continue this conversation.”

  I stared at him. There was an urgency in his eyes that made me put everything else aside. He wouldn’t rush off if it wasn’t important, and I’d already accepted that I couldn’t know everything that he did.

  “Okay.” I breathed out. “We’ll talk later.”

  He kissed my cheek. “Try to sleep, my love. I don’t know how long I’ll be.”

  I settled back on the pillows. “If you say so, boss man.”

  He smirked and put on his clothes.

  My love. Well, that was something I’d never been called. I wrapped that feeling around me, and let it lull me to sleep.

  And cherished it while I could.

  Emma

  “There’s my most vigilant patient.” Dr. Watson smiled as I took the seat next to his desk. “I had your files and last results transferred from Sydney. You kept up your good habits while you were gone.”

  “Trust me, Doctor, my habits aren’t all good.” I grinned. “That’s why I’m vigilant.”

  He laughed, but shook his head. “I had Betty schedule a double appointment because we have a few things to get through today.”

  A double. I’d had to force myself not to call and reschedule. There was so much to do at work, and I hadn’t wanted to leave Avner’s place so early when we hadn’t had a chance to talk since he’d snuck back into bed in the morning.

  I glanced at my file on the desk. “Everything all good?”

  “Your health check was perfect as usual.” He moved the file aside. “But it’s been five years, so it’s time to replace your IUD.”

  “Already?” Five years sure went fast.

  “We’ll do that last.” He reached for the blood pressure monitor cuff, and tore open the Velcro.

  “You know...” I pulled up my sleeve. My stomach fluttered. “I’m thinking, maybe I could just go on the pill?”

  He paused and put down the cuff. “Well, you could, but I think we should talk about why you’d want to do that?”

  Damned, Dr. Watson, he’d always been thorough without being a pain in my ass. Today his questions were prickly.

  “I’m with someone, and I dunno—” Heat moved into my cheeks. “Maybe, I feel like I want to have more standard precautions. Not be the twenty-three-year-old with an IUD who gets tested every three months.”

  “That’s all perfectly fine if it’s only because you’re in a monogamous relationship.” He sighed and tapped two fingers on the desk. “But if you are even contemplating getting pregnant—”

  “I’m not.” My eyes shot wide.

  “Well if you were, we’d have to seriously discuss that. There’s a lot to consider.”

  “I know, and I’m not, and I wasn’t.” I rubbed my burning cheek. Those weren’t my intentions. The joy that’d lit me up since last night waned. “Don’t worry, just replace the IUD.”

  “We can talk about this.” Dr. Watson’s brow creased all the way to his graying temples.

  “No, forget I said anything.” I swallowed thickly. There was a lot to consider. All the things being with Avner made me want to forget. “You’re right. Just replace it.”

  “If that’s what you want.” He picked up the cuff and wrapped it around the top of my arm, then put the oxygen clip on my fingertip.

  I stared across the room at the Quit Smoking poster.

  The machine beeped.

  “How have you been feeling lately?”

  My stomach and abdomen tightened. I’d been seeing Dr. Watson since I was seventeen. I’d heard him use a few different voices.

  The one he used now was the same one he’d used when he’d asked me how I managed to crack yet another rib playing netball.

  His stethoscope pressed to my chest.

  “Have you been short of breath?” Concern thickened his voice.

  I stared harder at the wall, listening to the sound of my pulse in my ears. “Maybe, a little.”

  “I think we need to make a few more appointments.”

  I looked at him, for a moment entirely numb. “I’m twenty-three.”

  “I know,” he whispered, and wound up the cord of the blood pressure machine. “We’re just doing some extra tests.”

  “Mum was forty-one.” I blinked.

  “We don’t know anything yet.” He patted my hand. “Just make sure you don’t skip any of your meds, we’ll get these tests done and go from there.”

  My insides hollowed. There was meant to be so much more time.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Emma

  The phone beeped. I set down the pen I held and lifted the receiver. “Hello?”

  “I have a Mr. Malfacini on the line?”

  He’d called me at work? That’d teach me for not answering my cell phone. Maybe I’d avoided him a bit. Yes, I’d been working hard. So had he, from what he’d said in messages the past few days I’d stayed at my own place.

  I decided to be armed with full test results before saying anything to him, even telling Rohan my hospital visits were for research. It could all be fine.

  Hopefully, it would all be fine.

  I breathed out, and glanced at my colleague Brandon working across the lab. “Thanks, put him through, Stacey.”

  “Emma.” His low tone seized me through the line. I remembered every single time I’d heard that sound. When he’d called to me from across a room and I couldn’t deny his summons. When he’d murmured desperately against my sweat-drenched skin. When he’d said my name, deeply, in whispered fervency, as though I was his sin and his salvation.

  “Avner.” My voice went husky.

  “I couldn’t get through on your cell.”

  Of course not. “I’ve had it turned off while I’m working.”

  I shut my eyes. What could I say? How I hadn’t been able to bring myself to speak to him? Pain sliced through me. When there was nothing I wanted more than to confide in him.

  “Come and eat with me.”

  Goose bumps shot down my arms. Eat with him. Not have dinner. I had little faith it was food we’d be eating.

  I studied my watch. Already 6 p.m. “You know, I have so much work to do. Maybe tomorrow.”

  The sound of his exhalation washed into our call.

  My entire being ached to see him. But I couldn’t.

  “Are you avoiding me?”

  We hadn’t seen each other in four days. They felt like four weeks. “Just working hard.”

  “Emma—”

  Ah, my name again. Tingles ran through me.

  “—come over here.”

  I just had to finish what I was doing. We were so close. So close to having something I could show him to break the impact
when I told him. Maybe then it wouldn’t be so terrible if it turned out I was actually dying.

  “I’ll see how I go. Bye, Avner.” I paused. “I love you.”

  I hung up before he could object, then turned around.

  Brandon stood at the bench packing up.

  “Where are you going?” I started toward him. “We’re making too much progress to call it a night.”

  “Your dedication is admirable, but as important as this work is, I have kids I’d like to see.”

  “Wouldn’t they want their father to be a hero?” I clutched one side of my waist.

  He glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “Their father can be a hero tomorrow.”

  “Please, Brandon. Just one more simulation.” I walked up behind him. “The last one was so promising, I know if I just tweak—”

  “Emma, the lab isn’t going anywhere.” He turned around and patted my arm. “Go home. Get some rest. And for god’s sake—eat something.”

  He left the lab.

  I glared at his back. Well maybe he could eat, and sleep, and be at peace while there was work to do. Not me though.

  I had far too much to lose.

  * * *

  The lab phone chimed. I rubbed my neck, and looked at the desk. Not even Avner would be calling now at almost midnight. Stacey, the late-shift receptionist, finished at seven. I scooted back from the computer. Might be Brandon calling the direct extension. I’d emailed him half an hour ago letting him know what I’d figured out on my own. My pulse skipped. I rushed to the phone. My gut told me I’d nailed it. The next step was testing.

  So freaking close.

  “Brandon?”

  “Emma Neeson?”

  Not Brandon.

  “Yeah?”

  “This is Mason from the security room.”

  “Hi, Mason.”

  “There’s a gentleman at the front gate who insists he won’t leave until he sees you.”

  My breath froze. A face flashed in my mind. The man from the mall. “Is Rohan there?”

  “Your private security is with him.”